awww, how sweet! your drawings of the shell girls have such crisp purity and love in them. i love their half-smiles.
- pamela (guest) 7-11-2002 4:01 am

Thanks. Before this turns into a bad sitcom: I know several Pamelas. Are you one of them? If so, which? If not, would you like to introduce yourself?
- tom moody 7-11-2002 4:27 am

it would be really weird if you knew me; i doubt you do. i accidentally found your website on a yahoo search for "photos of spiderwebs", and your art captured me. i have a website too, but it's not as advanced, and has a lot of popups. if you have time, it's at www.angelfire.com/goth/flutterbyme. the password is 381487pc. or you could go to www.angelfire.com/goth/flutterbyme/381487pc.html, which is a little easier, and waste your time reading all about my overly dramatic life.
- pamela (guest) 7-18-2002 3:41 am

OK, mystery cleared up. Thanks for the link to your site. I enjoyed looking at the artwork, and the diary's great. Definitely dramatic, but good observations of jobs, club life, friends...

I appreciate your feedback on the Shell drawings. My friend Bill, who knows both musicians, is somewhat critical because he thinks the drawing of Donna is "pixel perfect" and Marianne's likeness just doesn't measure up. I agree that Donna is the better of the two but I still think the pair works. Here's another Dagley photo for a "reality check"--Donna is on the right in this one.

- tom moody 7-18-2002 10:21 am

Not to butt in, but if it's spiderwebs you're looking for…
- alex 7-18-2002 9:12 pm

i don't really get the term "pixel perfect". was your friend talking about the added text? see, i think it's hard to criticize portraits because you're visually expressing what you see the singers as. it's personal, so whatever you perceive is correct and you made them look really clean and happy. it's weird that they chose to put it on a cd cover because the drawings don't seem to be inspired by their music or made to appeal to their listening audience. i don't know, i haven't heard it... but if i picked up a cd with your drawings on it i would think they were some indie garage girlie band that would scream about their ex-boyfriends in one song and sing about pretty birds in the next and goth probably wouldn't come to mind. i don't think it makes a great cd cover, but the drawings are really good. so that's my insight...i hope i didn't say anything offensive because that wasn't my intention. alex, i found my spiderweb already, but thank you!
- pamela (guest) 7-21-2002 6:30 am

No offense taken. By "pixel perfect" Bill meant he thought every pixel in the (computer) drawing of Donna was right, ie, I "nailed" her likeness but also character. (Her persona in real life ain't actually too sweet, though. I'd say tough and funny.) I agree there's nothing goth about that cover design.

I liked the description on your site of making the light mask out of broken beer bottles. Too bad you don't have a picture--it sounds really abject. Also I looked at the Eastern Kentucky paranormal site you linked to, and I completely agree that the eeriest part of that photo is the little girl. Very strange.
- tom moody 7-21-2002 8:42 pm

hmm, pixel perfect. i like that! neither of them look goth in their actual photos.. i'm flattered you went to my website, but i'm sure no one ever wants to see my light mask. that was the worst project. and it reeked. well.. it's like 4 in the morning and i still need to take the garbage out.
- pamela (guest) 7-23-2002 11:59 am

What's interesting about Shell is there's a kind of spunky innocence to their looks and voices, but the music is full of horror-movie chord changes and harpsichord arpeggios, sprinkled with "industrial" sounds. The melodies are catchy but the words are black--as in cynical, but also as in "black magic." They're songs about bad relationships and stupid boys in lyrical modes that range from full-blown Swinburne romanticism to jaded Pop. It's the opposition/contradiction between the little-girl-cute and the world-weary-witchy that makes the music so interesting. As Marianne sings on her first solo CD: "It's gonna be a great Samhain!"

One of my favorite songs (speaking of taking out the garbage) is "Perfectly Good Sugar." The origin of it is, Donna took a home economics class where they taught the girls how to handle a baby by passing a bag of sugar back and forth without breaking it. Mix that with the Prom Birth, some obnoxious boys, and you've got:

It was perfectly good sugar
so why did you throw it out?
Our child in the garbage can
I'm sure she's just fine

Steve's keeping it in once again
I could cradle you
But I'm cradling Raven now
John's just too far away

Chorus:
Oh, oh, no, you don't know how much you hurt me
Oh, oh, no, you don't know how much you hurt me

I should send him a telegram
But would he write back?
He never has any stamps
I just have too many

He always says "Tomorrow."
Tomorrow becomes yesterday
It was perfectly good sugar
so why did you throw it out?

Chorus
Chorus

Numb me 'til your ready
I can't keep the cradle steady
Sweet and sour, now's the hour
Numb me 'til your ready

Chorus
Chorus
- tom moody 7-24-2002 5:45 am

it's weird that you have a favorite song pertaining to babies being thrown away. i had a dream just a few days ago which i actually wrote about in my diary a little bit that i was at a dinner party you threw. you lived in a small cabin and a long wood table occupied most of the room i was in, which may have been the only room in the house. the table was set with fine china and the napkins had rings and the table was lit with a elaborate crystal chandelir. a girl was playing piano but kept making mistakes. the other guests were talking and i got the gist that all the guests were- well, not starving artists, but mediocre in talent and skill. the dinner was never served, so i went outside to have a cigarette. i saw a young woman put a baby in a dumpster by the driveway and she ran into the woods when she saw me. that's all i can remember. i just wonder what it all means. unfortunately i don't have a credit card to buy cds online. i'll definitely keep a lookout for shell's cd though. you seem to be advertising it... i love how you describe their music. you're thorough and appreciative, and your personal taste isn't based on whether or not it's danceable or easy to sing along with. are you a musician? i like the contradiction you mentioned shell has. i'm partial to dramatically moody vocalists, especially female, too like the singer for tapping the vein and diamanda galas. i just love the transitions from innocence to evil.
- pamela (guest) 7-24-2002 12:50 pm

Not advertising, proselytizing! I realize those links both have economic bottom lines, but I only put them up for the info. The interview on the abaton page is especially good (hair curlers and all). The "small cabin" (apartment) and "no dinner" part of your dream was pretty accurate: I'm a terrible host. My artist friends are talented, though. Re: music: I've written reviews since high school but I've only recently started composing again. Electronic stuff--very cheesy.
- tom moody 7-25-2002 6:22 am

yeah, i don't really think the artists in my dream were friends of yours- they were probably friends of mine. my friends are artistic and creative but when it comes to expressing it and marketing it they don't know how. and i cut off social ties (symbolized in a dream as a haircut) with people in my life who were on their way to success recently. like, ross. (rc- don't tell his gender) ross's website. my ex-boyfriend's best friend... blah blah blah. this is a long story i won't get into. but isn't his art amazing. i hate the guy, love the artist. you know? i like cheesy electronic. cheesy in what way? happy/dreamy or... bad lyrics to the same old dance beat? now that's bad, i know you wouldn't do that. i should go to sleep.
- pamela (guest) 7-25-2002 10:08 am

so what gives, how do i do html? here's ross's website: www.greenoblivion.com. and what were you converted from? what genre of music to shell, if that's the case?
- pamela (guest) 7-25-2002 10:10 am

This thread is getting kind of long, so I'm moving over here. I promise to (attempt to) explain link procedures on digitalmediatree.
- tom moody 7-25-2002 11:13 am