scarletminded
I found this documentary on IFC accidentally and recorded it based on the name alone. It didn't have any description other than the title, so my mind ran wild, thinking about a Titanic or pirate ship filled with goth or maybe it was a cartoon. It would have been awesome if goths rented out a pirate ship, hint...hint...Today I watched it. Being Gothic myself, I often wonder why goths even want to go on a cruise or since I live in Southern California, want to go to Disneyland during the hottest part of the year in a huge group (it's called Bat's Day if you don't know and it happens in August). I guess 150 of them wanted to, because they all got on a boat. In reality, a boat is much like Las Vegas casinos in the way that you don't have to even see daylight for a week if you want to. Or else come up to the sun deck in your 900 SPF, you will need it!I thought the documentary was very sympathetic to the goth community. It did show that most people, even the "norms" on the boat, did seem to understand that goths are like everyone else, but like darker clothes and a different aesthetic. Goths have jobs and kids just like everyone else. I thought it was really cool that 150 goths got together and had a fun time just like us Southern Cal folks do Bat's Day. I think by being around "normal" people (I put that in quotes since nothing is really normal), goths tend to show people they are respectful people and not the scary Satan worshipers "normal" people tend to judge goths as. Of course, the one goth guy (who said he wasn't goth) dressed up as the devil...probably didn't help out the case...yet people, normal and goth alike, tended to be drawn to him for photo ops...maybe it is the whole excessive nature of a cruise that makes the devil being there OK for all! Eat! Drink! Excess! I liked the soundtrack to the documentary. It had real Gothic music in it (as opposed to normal people picking what they think goth music is, usually to bad results) and little interviews with Andi Sex Gang, the girl from the band Rasputina and Voltaire, who seems to be anywhere there is a camera. I have to respect his self-promoting spirit. Then there were steel drum versions of Spellbound and In Between Days that maybe me laugh. And the eldergoth "sleepytime" versions of The Cure, etc. Very fun.A good cross section of goth was represented. People who were thin, people who were heavy. People with piercings and a lot of tattoos, people who didn't have any. Those who dressed to the 9's, goths who dressed casual. A goth family from England whose dad was into wearing armor and acting a bit SCA, a few corporate goths who held conservative jobs during the week and gothed out on weekends, a black guy who dressed up as a goth girl (the Dutch impressionist looking photo of him as a girl with the fruit was awesome!), the guy who said he was non-goth, yet did everything goth, the cute just married Gothic couple, the single Eldergoth with two teenage daughters...I thought the people they interviewed represented goth in a very real way without being pretentious or dramatic. Just a bunch of people who I'd be friends with, sipping rum drinks and hitting the hot tub, whilst talking about Dead Can Dance or whatever. It was nice they were all about my age too. It would be a different show if all the goths were 18. It's nice to see a lot of goths in their 30's and 40's still into it like I am. The Goth Cruise sounds like a good time, though I'd recommend a cruise to Scandinavia over Bermuda. Maybe a Scandinavian cruise during the part of the year it is endless night...that would be fantastic! I don't think boats even run during that time of year but it's a nice thought!The show did make a good point that goth, and people being different, is a lot more accepted in Europe than the US. I have lived in both place and people in Europe tend to be more accepting. By that I don't mean liberal vs. conservative, just more accepting that people are different than they are and that's OK to have a different opinion. In the US, there is a push to be happy and conform with the group, or appear happy all the time and if you don't, especially if you are a girl, then there is something wrong with you. At least guys can get away with wearing a lot of dark colors, but girls here are supposed to wear white, pink and pastels, etc. Of course the men could make a debate with me over us girls getting to wear high heeled boots, long black skirts, makeup, nylons, fingernail polish, more jewelry and have a variety of hairstyles men can't have in most workplaces. I did enjoy that the show wasn't just about a bunch of people who looked different scaring the mundanes, it went deeper into why they were that way, what came from their childhood, what they read and what they were exposed too, both good and bad, they made them interested in Gothic culture. I highly recommend this to both goths, who will laugh along with the goths on the cruise and feel bonded with them...and to non-goths who don't know much about the subculture who will get a good and non-biased view of what goth subculture is and all its many branches. Whoever made this should make more goth docs...I'd watch Gothic people picking their noses. It is a lot better than most of the reality shows and doc out there!
