It is no secret that I love the vampire genre. I received Honors at Wesleyan University for my thesis on vampire legends as a paradigm for aggressive human sexuality. And I would like the record to show that I will be speaking on exactly that topic this weekend at Vampire Con in Hollywood. I’ll be taking part in the panel programming Sunday afternoon, after the movie nights, and before Vampirella’s Ball (more on this in a moment.) I’m excited that Wendi Mirabella and Lotti Pharriss Knowles have put Vampire-Con together.

The panel I am on is called Hot-Blooded: Vampires & Sexuality and is at 1pm at the Henry Fonda Theater on Hollywood Blvd. It will be moderated by David J. Skal, Author of Hollywood Gothic and V Is For Vampire: The A-Z Guide Of Everything Undead. I’m especially excited that Pam Keesey, who I’m looking forward to catching up with will be on the panel. She is the editor of multiple anthologies of lesbian vampire tales, Women Who Run with the Werewolves: Tales of Blood, Lust, and Metamorphosis, and Vamps: An Illustrated History of the Femme Fatale. Pam Keesey has a very engaging personality, has published yours truly, and once gave me a tour of Forrest Ackerman’s memorabilia collection. Other panelists are Hal Bodner, author of Bite Club: A West Hollywood Vampire Tale, filmmaker Fred Olen Ray from The Lair, actress Celeste Yarnall, best known at a vamp convention for her role in The Velvet Vampire, but who has appeared in everything from Melrose Place to Star Trek, and best-selling author, comic book writer, and filmmaker Donald F. Glut who recently directed the Elizabeth Bathory-inspired movie Blood Scarab. And we’ll be talking about vampire sex.

That evening, at the same venue, from 8:30pm to 1am, there will be Vampirella’s Ball. The music will be provided by DJ Xian and DJ Gary Calamar, music supervisor of HBO’s True Blood and KCRW radio DJ. Vampire Con describes the appropriate attire saying, “Costumes are thoroughly encouraged – Vampires, Victorian, Edwardian, Steampunk, Bohemian, Tribal, Gypsy.”

Forrest Black and I will have a location studio set up to photograph people involved in the event, revelers who most exemplify the themes of the event, and our close personal friends (i.e. not everyone, but photographic subjects best for doing press coverage on Vampire Con.) If we know you from online, please come find us on the roof Sunday night (or at my panel during the day) and say hello and where we know you from. I’m looking forward to running into tons of cool people at this event. Our favorite photos from the evening will of course appear here on BlueBlood.net.

Corporate Goth is a familiar expression in East Coast cities where people tend to separate their playtime from their workdays. I was living and working mostly in Washington, DC and Baltimore when I founded Blue Blood in print. I did primarily contract design work and most of the companies I worked for were conservative federal contractors, management consultancies, and lobbyists. My hairstyle at the time consisted of only natural colors, albeit definitely not colors which would appear striped together in nature. On my own time, I believed that shirt was spelled L-I-N-G-E-R-I-E. Heck, one of my neighbors harangued me from across the street, telling me I belonged in a whorehouse for what I wore just to clean my car. (I called the cops on her.) But, when I was seated at a computer in someone else’s place of business, I might not have looked like the most standard employee (or contractor). My clothes might have tended towards a darker palette and my hair was not really a businessperson’s cut, but it was usually businesslike enough. (When I worked at EDS, my manager did complain to my agency about my sexy stockings.)

This might go without saying, but I’m going to state the obvious here: I read a lot of cyberpunk at the time. I loved William Gibson and John Shirley and Richard Kadrey and Norman Spinrad and Pat Cadigan and Walter Jon Williams and George Alec Effinger and of course Bruce Sterling’s Mirrorshades anthology was seminal. The list goes on, but one of the salient points of the emerging cyberpunk genre at the time was that it acknowledged both street culture and corporate culture. Cyberpunk was, in many ways, first and foremost a sociological study of how the human need for tribalism might manifest itself in a future with new technology.

So there were the heavily modded post-human gothic and punk tribes with writhing tattoos and tusks and animal muscle grafts and music implants in their ear drums. But there were also the sleek corporate melds of gangsterism and business core values. I don’t know how it was where you lived, but, where I was, both styles had a real appeal to counterculture people striving to achieve their personal goals and power, despite preferences for rebellion and individuality and flamboyance. This is where Corporate Goth comes from. The whole steampunk fashion thing sort of built on and evolved from some of this scene as some of the cyberpunk authors started writing steampunk and Neal Stephenson burst onto the scene. But the evolution of steampunk is another article.

In Los Angeles, many of the sleek black business stylings of corporate goth are just dressed for a certain sort of meeting. This is aesthetically pleasing to me, but it removes some of the tribal appeal.

Xian (pronounced “zigh-ahn” despite my stupid left hand always trying to add a letter t) Vox is not your typical Los Angeles promoter and DJ. She is interested in varied philosophies and works tech industry day jobs. So it sort of makes sense that she would like a corporate goth theme. A much smaller percentage of Los Angeles denizens who like spooky nightclubs have ever worked a corporate job . . . at least a much smaller percentage than it cities where it is common to be at least as interested in books as in movies, at least as interested in the heart and mind as the body.

So, anyway, Xian did a Hex VIP event as a run-up to a larger ball and Blue Blood were media sponsors of the event. I did not ask Xian what her reasons or inspirations or motivations were, but one of the possible themes for the event was Corporate Goth. So here are the gothic photos Forrest Black and I shot at the event. If you might have otherwise wondered at quite what the theme was, now you know. Unless, of course, you didn’t read this and just went straight to the pics. I think everybody looks really great, so enjoy.

I think it’s unfortunate that one of the down sides of living in pretty much any interesting area or city is that, if you are there long enough, the notion that it just isn’t as cool and fun as it used to be is nearly inescapable. It’s really difficult not to fall into a bit of a rut when you see stores you used to enjoy close down, clubs you used to have a great time at are gone, friends that used to be the life of the party have settled down or just become such monumental losers that you don’t want to see them anyway. It’s hard not to feel like you should just uproot yourself and move to greener pastures sometimes. I know I’ve felt like that in a number of areas I’ve lived. Lately, a lot of my Los Angeles friends have been sharing their general ennui on this subject as well. So, I thought I might share one technique that I’ve found that can kind of help shake things up a little. Just pretend you are visiting. Give yourself a week to do all those things you’d only do if you were actually from out of town. Read the local weekly paper and actually go to everything that piques your interest. You’ll be surprised at just how much fun is actually going on right around you.

Just the other day I was feeling kinda bleh and decided I better just get off my butt and take a walk around my own neighborhood and I ended up having a really fun time. Stopped by the Frolic Room on Hollywood Blvd. and had a beer with their usual crazy assortment of odd characters. Wandered over to the notoriously crusty gay hangout that is the The Spotlight Lounge over on Cahuenga to check out Joanna Angel’s Porny Monster release party. Ran into a ton of people I know but wasn’t really expecting to see. James St James, Author of Disco Bloodbath/Party Monster: A Fabulous But True Tale of Murder in Clubland, was there too, so that was cool. Then I wandered down to Sunset and Vine(ish) to check out Cardinal Sin’s new Dark Pink club. Had a really pleasant time there, met some really cool people. Had a suprisingly interesting conversation about leisurely scenic walks in the World of Warcraft with a couple of nurses while getting to enjoy Wednesday and Darkfiend spinning some of my favorite music. Stumbled home in the wee hours.

Now, obviously, not everybody lives in my neighborhood, but the point is that there actually are more interesting things going on around you than you probably realize, and sometimes it really pays off to just stop by some bar you’ve never been inside, go see a band you’ve never heard of, take a fish printing seminar at the local museum. Amelia has a really cool collage on the theme of government’s inherant indifference to the plight of man that she did not long ago over at the Getty. There is a lot to do, so treat yourself to a kind of random sample from time to time. It’s totally worth it.

Since a bunch of folks really enjoyed the fun Hex Hollywood gallery we recently released, I thought it would be enjoyable to catch up with Xian and give everybody a bit of insight into the mind and motivations of the creative force behind these events. Xian is dedicated and involved in the Los Angeles underground scene as an active and energetic promoter, DJ, coder, community host, and much more. In addition to the Hex events, she is also involved in or responsible for an impressive array of cool clubs and projects, including Malediction Society, Disko Nekro, The Darkroom, Perversion, and even the monthly goth industrial deathrock skating excursion that is Wumpskate. And when there is some spare time, she even runs the LADead.com community website for the Los Angeles underground scene.

She took some time out to share her thoughts and perspective on Los Angeles club life with us.

1. Given just how many clubs and events you are involved with, we get the impression that you don’t sleep much. Tell us what an average week schedule is like for Xian?

Ugh, this could get complicated, so I’ll try to keep it simple:

Summed up, I am DJing 3-4 nights a week these days, meanwhile holding down a full time web development job (40-50 hours). Non club nights I clock in about 2-3 hours of web work, promotions, and graphics design, and during the day on weekends this jumps to about 4-5 hours. Unless there is a special event coming up, then it jumps up significantly. As far as sleep goes, I probably get anywhere from 4-5 hours of sleep on week nights and 7-8 hours of sleep on weekend nights.

A bit crazy I realize, but I got more tired of sleeping my life away than actually being tired (chronic fatigue). And there’s this pressing sense that I am running out of time to do the things I want to do and make something of myself.

2. What do you find most rewarding for keeping such a hectic schedule?

I could say something cliche like personal satisfaction, or that sense of vindication for overcoming odds and obstacles. Or that I like to keep busy so I don’t have much time to dwell, or that I like to give people with talents and wares a place to showcase them. And it would all true. But at the heart of it all I am chasing a dragon.

I firmly believe that our experiences in life are precious, particularly those key moments where one feels truly and completely alive. For myself, I have discovered that I am particularly fond of this moment in the nightclubs and events. It is the kind of experience that I can involve other people in, and enable them towards. And in my own personal philosophy, because this experience requires the presence and perception of other people.

As a DJ, it is that moment of establishing resonance with the dancers, and the story that unfolds. As a dancer, it is the experience of getting lost entirely in music, and being allowed to move how you really feel. And as a promoter, it is that feeling of having taken a concept and breathed life into it, paired with the audience that partakes of it. These are all addicting, cathartic, and simply without compare for me. Each moment is rewarding.

3. You have been doing all this work for a while now, what are some of your goals with it? What future would you like to see?

WORLD DOMINATION!!! Actually, I have no idea.

My sense of time is fairly awful, and so traditionally I have just kept moving forward and would stop and consider opportunities as they pop up. The HEX HOLLYWOOD events, on the otherhand, force me to think about the concept, plan, and execution months in advance. Which pretty much taps my mana until the round is over.

As far as the future is concerned, I would just really like to see the darker underground scenes and communities continue to evolve, grow, and thrive. We have become one of the oldest of the (post)modern subcultural legacies, and we’re perhaps one of the most internally diverse. People from all walks of life, for all sorts of reasons come to the clubs, read the literature, listen to the music, and participate in the scenes and communities. This is something I find endlessly fascinating.

4. What are the top aspects of of the sort of spooky goth-industrial darkwave punk rock nightlife scene that you would like to change?

It is my opinion that the clubs contribute heavily to the longevity of these scenes. We bring the people together, encourage the aesthetic, and showcase the music and goods. So the biggest problem that I see is that so few of the involved people are sincerely committed to the concept. DJs and promoters looking for fame, money, and popularity are a dime a dozen, and they inevitably are the main source of drama and jaded patrons. Jaded patrons who in turn are unreliable in situations where a dozen people could make or break a club,

So the obvious answer for me is that I would just like to see more people get involved out of a love of the scene, the experience, and the music. Sincerity and dedication is where quality begins…along with the obvious prerequisite business competency (see, not a total idealist). Here in Los Angeles alone there has already been four “eras” where our scene has thrived, that I am aware of, and we are on our way to a fifth. Elsewhere, I get the impression that a lot of people are still waiting on someone else to do something. Which is too bad. Apathy begets inaction, and inaction depreciates everyone’s life.

5. Given how notoriously political the Los Angeles club scene has a reputation for being, how do you manage to get along with everybody?

Heh, I don’t.

My biggest personal problem has always been that I have about as much tact as a sledgehammer, and no qualms about telling people what I think of them or what they are doing when set off. Normally I am quite aloof, so the contrast just makes it all the more jarring. So having worked with over half the DJs and promoters, and a good number of the fetish performers here in Los Angeles, I have been privy to a fair amount of arguments and falling outs.

More often than not it is a behaviour or circumstance that I get upset over, or them with me, but most are quickly resolved. I am just not one to condemn a person as an entire whole because of a little part, and I get the impression that this is a relief to people. Individuals who walk around pinning everyone’s faults and fuck-ups on them will obviously have issues with getting along with them. People change and grow and mature. So should your concept of them.

DJ Xian likes to throw big events for big dates. Halloween is coming up, so you know she’ll be throwing another Hex Hollywood bash. Along with the venerable Panpipes, Blue Blood sponsored the last Hex Hollywood bacchanalia on 06/06/06. In honor of the date, the theme was Angels, Devils, Saints, Sinners, Undead, Nuns, Priests, Gods, Monsters, Virtues, and Vices. Costumes turned out heavy on the angels and devils. A highlight of the evening was the performance by the crew from CORE, Constructs of Ritual Evolution. A low point of the evening was when we broke a lens. As it turned out, the gentleman, who tripped over the cord attached to our camera, was gallant enough to kick in a few bucks towards a new one and then Samy’s gave us a truly godlike deal on a replacement, so it ended up not being so bad after all. In this series of some of the hottest looks from the night, you’ll see where we change lenses and backdrops, so now you won’t have to wonder why. All in all, Xian’s “three levels of pleasure and pain” was a huge extravaganza, packed with people who really did it up, and had plenty of fun.

Hex Hollywood Pictures by Forrest Black and Amelia G

Hex Hollywood Site