Bizarre Vampire Bazaar Memoire
By: Syn Holiday

When: October 21, 2000

Immediately upon pulling into the parking lot of Naga's (near the Queen Mary), I noticed the hearses in the parking lot. I knew this was going to be my kind of night. My wife Shannon and I arrived just before dark, just having ate at Wasabi's, a really good Japanese restaurant on the corner of Pine and Broadway. I had already finished a bottle of white zifandel and a few Sapporos at the restaurant, so my blood was pumped and ready to go.

Surprisingly, there were quite a few booths selling the whole line of Anton LaVey books, and one actually had a couple of LaVey CDs other than the two most LaVey admirers have ("The Satanic Mass" and "Satan Takes a Holiday").

We came across the Vampire Wine booth and immediately it brought to mind their commercials I had been seeing late night on the television. Few television commercials come close to being even somewhat entertaining, but that one really caught my eye.

We stopped by Madame M's booth and bought one of her books for our daughter Lxa (who will be 2 on December 8th). "Creepy Little Bedtime Stories" is the title---"A cast of sleepy tales for sleepy children of all ages and sizes. Sometimes spooky, a little kooky, but always full of surprises." She signed the book to Lxa, "Sweet dreams, dahling." Down across the way was the author's husband's booth, hand made coffin boxes and chests by Joe Masel, displaying for sale his beautiful handmade works. Also there was Krystal and Stephin, a lovely couple my wife and I first met at the Long Beach Renaissance Faire a while back. They were selling their wonderful handmade jewelry and, my favorite, their handmade devil horns in a variety and mix of colors. Krystal custom makes them to order, so check out their site. I'm planning on ordering a bunch of solid black ones for the Syndicate rituals.

Disinformation's Brian Butler caught up to me as I was leaving Madame M's booth. He had his cameraman with him so he asked for an interview, to which I obliged.

After lounging in the club section with a few drinks, we browsed a few more booths. Shannon really liked the jewelry at one of the booths, so I bought her something she really liked.

Finally, the Vamphear Circus was about to start. The show's host, Count Smokula (an accordion player with a Transylvanian accent), started out by singing a comical tune. The circus included freak show acts like the snake sorceress who was covered with tattoos over 80% of her body. We also witnessed a "bed of nails" performer who walked up and down a staircase of knife blades, as well as an escape artist who amazed us with an outstanding fire show. The "Miracle Man" did all sorts of strange things like sword swallowing and pulling stuff in & out of his nose and mouth. He was a bit sickening, but really funny and entertaining.

Shannon and I spent the rest of the night in the club dancing away to a mix of goth, industrial, and synth-pop. The bands were excellent too. Of course, the band I was most excited about, Penis Flytrap, was the last band of the night. I don't think they came on 'til after midnight, but they were well worth the wait. PFT ended the night marvelously.