You Woke Up the Dead, So Put 'Em to Bed

Gettin' late, party's over, zombies have to be reburied. My thanks to Pinhead (at right) for the most excellent alter egos, to UU for more magnificent images, to Richard Lobinske for chipping in some excellent art with his posts, and to you for reading this.

The more alert among you might notice that this website has now joined the last existing Daria Webring, which apparently started out as the Other Daria Webring. It kinda fun to explore the ring and see where it leads; not very big at the moment but there's room to grow. Webrings were big about a decade ago. They're still around, good to see 'em. Maybe more webmasters will join in for the fun of it.

Hope your Halloween was a good one. Tomorrow is a new day and a new month (and this blog will run over 124,000 hits). Cheers.

Party Till You Wake the Dead!

I guess the above would be the Fashion Club equivalent of a Halloween party, with everyone wearing hideously unfashionable clothing. Hope you party is going well. No trick-or-treaters here yet. Oh, wait, five just came by. More coming.


Brief mention of Daria in a humorous way appears in this article about upcoming events in Philadelphia. Just search for the word. I got a laugh out of it.


Also found a recording of the song "Daria," by Cake. Kind of alternative/odd, not a fast-beat song. Interesting, but I like anything by Splendora better.


About ten trick-or-treaters in all, not very many. Still got a while to go, though. More later. Sorry: moar l8r! And keep Halloween in your thoughts, like Andrea does!

Tricks and Treats!

Trick or treat time is here (and time for Daria to add a snarky comment). Hard to imagine Daria, even as a kid, going trick-or-treating. Look at her feet: no boots. Poor kid. You can't kick without good boots. Wonder what she said to greeters when she rang the doorbell.

Quinn at left is dressed for Halloween like Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, who might be unfamiliar to some of you. She was the syndicated hostess for many a late-night fright movie on TV when I was younger. She was (and still is) awesome. Love her accent!

And Dawn is back as her traditional Dawn-o-lantern self, with Walkman attached. Thanks to Pinhead for both images. You rule, dude!

Pinhead has a new Daria image at PPMB: "Just One Kiss?"

Did you ever wonder what Beavis and Butt-head do for Halloween? Watch "Bungholio: Lord of the Harvest" on MTV, for free, right now! (You will have to wait through two other episodes, but that's cool.) If you can't wait, go here and see the whole thing straight out. A rude classic.

Enjoy your candy!

Hamlet's not the only thing that has a skull in it

Halloween has been quiet so far here. It finished raining and there's nothing to do but wait for kids to come by this evening, if it's not too cool out. May as well post here to pass the time.

The Facebook Daria page is moving along quickly. Mostly just short bits posted by fans, but fun to read, like popcorn is fun to eat. Not a lot else going on elsewhere. SFMB is pretty dead except for political chat. FF.net has some updates, most of them PPMB stories. DariaWiki has had a lot of work done on it lately by Richard Lobinske, Disco316, Doggieboy, Brother Grimace, JPAGC, Vlademir1, and a host of others. Thank you all!

The bad news is that the loss of GeoCities sites dealt the fandom a real blow. We should watch the news for similar announcements of the closure of web-hosting services, particularly the free ones, and save all we can.

On a happier topic, let's see what we have in the way of new fanfiction online.

FF.net

• Is It the Future Yet? by Richard Lobinske (COMPLETE!): "Are we sure we want to do this?" "Subject ourselves to another four or five more years of school? Why not? We're gluttons for punishment."
• Take Me on the Floor, by MandeeMistress (Part 5): Daria stretched herself out on the Lane couch. She wasn't sure where the two siblings were; or if they were even home. She lay back and allowed her eyes to shut for a while.
  

PPMB

• Chelsea, by Disco316 (COMPLETE!): “Aw right! It’sh time for the main coursh! Daria, if thish doeshn’t turn you into a carpet cleaner, nuffing will!”
• John Lane 43: We're on a Mission, Richard Lobinske (Part 4): "Today has been fantastic. I started off with a pedicure to absolutely die for, then a high-precision, organically herbal exfoliation cream treatment, a micromoisturizing facial, eyebrow waxing and then the best manicure of my life." "What did they do? Put you on the express train?"
• Legion of Lawndale Heroes Mini: Play a Game, by Psychotol (COMPLETE!): “WHAT IS YOUR MAJOR MALFUNCTION NUMBNUTS? DIDN’T YOUR MOMMY AND DADDY SHOW YOU ENOUGH AFFECTION WHEN YOU WERE A CHILD?” [Guess the crossovers!]
  
• Regifted, by Ajar (Part 21): Ryan introduced each person. “Well, this is Mack, Jodie's ex. That's Jane, a friend of Daria's. And she's Quinn, Daria's sister.” “I see,” said David, ignoring the greetings of the assembled. “So is it Mac like the Celtic surname prefix or Mack like the truck? Also, Daria means wealthy and Quinn means wise; you wouldn't happen to have a sister named Vivian, would you? Although, being teenagers I doubt you're early to bed or to rise. Hormones make people our age have a tendency for late nights. Of course, external factors like homework and television contribute as well. That's actually one of the arguments for reducing homework, that people learn better when they're well rested and homework discourages adequate sleep...”
• A Trick or Treat III, by legendeld (first story COMPLETE!): “Now after the cemetery séance is over, we have to get to the ghost tour of Lawndale loading area. Last thing for the night is the haunted house.”
  

More Halloween Stuff

Okay, I couldn't resist showing off a picture of Daria as Halloween from my story, "Bump in the Night."

Oh, and remember to give proper respect to Basement Cat tonight and if you see a black cat, hire on as staff. It's your destiny.

The Internet Anthology of Horror

Rather than parcel out a few fanfics here and there, here's a whole pile of holiday fanfiction for you: stories that take place on Halloween, or stories that are more than appropriate for Halloween. In no particular order, here you go. Enjoy.

• The Other
• The Journal of Daria Morgendorffer
• Daria's Halloween Extravaganza
• Death Takes a Holliday
• Halloween Hellraiser
• Halloween in Lawndale
• Halloween Spirit
• A Home at Summer's End
• Padded Room of Terror
• Mad Dog
• Sowing and Reaping
• Trick or Treat
• Trick of Trent
• Night of the Living Butt-head
• I Remember Halloween
• Bare Acquaintances
• Wouter Jaeger's Halloween Comic
• House of Horrors
• Realization
• The Leader of the Pack
• The Tricks, the Treat
• Bump in the Night
• Illusions
• Herself, an Elf
• Crossover
• Gone
• Attack of the 50-Foot Butt-head
• Encounters of the Vampire Kind
• Daria the Vampire Slayer
• Night of the Living Dead Townspeople
• Hell on the 13th
  

Happy Halloween!

Jake Gives Some Halloween Advice

Turn on your speakers, then click here. Thanks, Jake!

Special Public Service Announcement!

Jane has a question. How best to answer it?

Click the link and party hearty! Thanks, Martin!

Happy Halloween!

Halloween Herself

The centerpiece for today is, of course, Halloween herself. She's my favorite of the Holiday Island High teens. Darn shame she appears only once in the series. (I love "Depth Takes a Holiday.") Can't say she's a good kid, smart-mouthed and prone to mischief as she is, but she's appealing anyway. Got an attitude, able to earn her own money, great drummer, cool costume: it adds up.

How to bring her back, though? I gave it a shot on PPMB with "Romin' Holiday," but it was a quickie and needed more. Halloween the teen appeared briefly in "Everybody Loves Jane" (thanks to Kristen Bealer), Angelinhel's "A Day (un)Like Any Other," a nameless tale by Cypher, and... I think that's about it. (Oh! Anonymous in the Comments just reminded me of Smileyfax's "Her Web of Sin." That was terrific! Poor Trent, though. Oh, well. Thanks, Anonymous!)
Let's here and now make a call for more Halloween fanfic. Use your imagination. She could be a great supervillainess, say if she was able to drain the power from her home plane to augment her own minor magics. She could become a real teen by accident, design, or as punishment. She could fall for someone in Lawndale (Trent's already been used for that) and divide her time between Lawndale and her home plane.

It would be excellent to define her powers without being too specific. She can make cobwebs appear, but cannot create food, blow up a house, or get anywhere without calling a friend for a car ride. (Who was she calling, anyway, in "Depth Takes a Holiday"? Does she have mortal friends who like to run around with her throwing toilet paper into trees in expensive neighborhoods?)

Just a thought. Anyone know of any other Halloween-the-teen stories around? She's too good to ignore all the rest of the year. Happy Halloween!

A Mischevious Night

Daria's Sick, Sad Life Planner memorializes this day's "War of the Worlds" special broadcast only 71 years ago by Orson Welles and company, which convinced many gullible people that Martians had invaded Grover's Mill, New Jersey. While most listeners were thankful that the "New Jersey problem" was finally being taken care of, they were later horrified and depressed to discover that New Jersey had not been destroyed by aliens.

By the way, did you ever notice the similarity between Grover's Mill and Grove Hills? Coincidence? I think not. Fanfiction, people! We need more fanfiction on this issue!

The younger and more evil sister of Halloween, per one source, is Devil's Night, whose night is also tonight. (Her good side is known as Mischief Night.) Definitely not a "holiday" to encourage. Anyone know of other "non-holidays" that would make good truants at Holiday Island High? Good fodder for future fanfics.

Tsar Bomba, the biggest H-bomb in all history, was detonated this day 48 years ago, which pretty much killed everyone's enthusiasm for having a real atomic war. Except maybe for Mr. DeMartino. Cool video, though. Any invading aliens will receive a little surprise there, won't they?

Pinhead is creating Daria images again. A reflective and somewhat unclothed Daria graces the web at PPMB.

Two new Iron Chefs by Greystar are online at PPMB and attracting attention. See Iron Chef: Lawndale High School Basement and Iron Chef: 2012.

Blogging woes: It seems I've created too many Labels for this blog and have to cut back to 2,000. I'm trimming the stupid ones (most of mine) and should have the problem back under control soon. You won't notice the difference.

Halloween Stuff: Included with this post are some cool costume suggestions from Daria and Beavis and Butt-head for those of you going trick-or-treating. See what works best for you.

Moar l8r!

A Day to Worship Our Masters

Isn't it appropriate that during Halloween Week, we have National Cat Day?
A day to recognize and further pamper our owners and make them feel like the superior beings that they are.
Pardon me, I need to go cut up the tuna to feed our cats for breakfast.

Teh Intterwebz Am Borned!!!11!!!1!

Yes, today the Internet celebrates its 40th birthday. The first computer message ever sent over a host-to-host connection was sent out this day over ARPANET, forty years ago at 10:30 PM. And now we have penguin porn 24/7. Just when you think things can't get any better..... (Thanks to UU for the image!)

For reasons unknown, today has been declared to be Hermit Day, which would suit Daria just fine. Stay home today and play on the Internet to celebrate.

Continuing yesterday's Halloween reading recommendations, try the fanfic collection at Sh33p's Fluff, which overlaps the collection at Outpost Daria a bit. Nice artwork!

Better yet, let's look at some Halloween fan art from the broader community. The following were collected from Outpost Daria.

• Caitlin Duffy (Daria as a ghost on Halloween)
• HelpfulSkittlesExplosion (Linda takes Sandi, Stacy, and Tiffany out for Halloween)
• Angelinhel (Young Quinn dresses as a fairy on Halloween)
• Liliane Grenier (The Holidays)
• Geoffrey Roberts (Daria and Jane trade places for Halloween)
• Katie Cook (Three student filmmakers set out into the woods to research the legend of the Lawndale Witch. They never returned. A year later, their footage was found...)

And a creepy bedtime story. Now for the fanfics.

PPMB

• Daria: Hunter (Suited for Crime), by Roland "Jim" Lowery (continued): "Okay, look, Upchuck," Jane said quickly, getting the man's attention before he truly got started. "We're here on business. We're looking for—" "Brittany and Kevin, the latest Bonnie and Clyde pairing to hit these mean streets," he said, not missing a beat. "Yes, I know." "And just how do you know that?" Daria asked.
• Sandi Griffin's "Dracula," by Roentgen (COMPLETE!): "Tell me that my brother is still snoozin'." "Yeah, but the transformation is still taking place. All it's going to take is one more bite and Trent is going to become a vampire douchebag for life."
• Unnamed story (Scenes No Daria Fanfic Should Have: Hump Day), by Roentgen (COMPLETE!): "Girls," Jake said, "I just want you to know your mother and I realize this isn't easy for you - especially for your, Daria, right?" "Lle tela?" asked Daria. (Daria/Lord of the Rings)
• Unnamed story (Three-peat! New Ideas Thread Wins Again!), by Szcz (COMPLETE!): "I destroy you now, Lane." "Try."
  

GeoCities Was Vaporized

As we've heard in the latest news releases, Yahoo! has shut down GeoCities, and thus a fair number of the older Daria fan sites have vanished, possibly for good. In the next few weeks I will be searching for dead links at left, and if Archive.org has them copied down I will post the (dead) links in the "Blast from the Past" section near the bottom of the column. Alas, I think we lost some good ones. If you know of some sites in particular that are no more, please name them (with link if possible) in the Comments section, to aid my searching.

To start off, I've just confirmed that the Daria Fan Fiction Website is no more. Can only imagine how many others bit the dust, too.

The Internet is such a terribly temporary place.

A Wedding and a Birthday (and Chocolate!)

A busy fandom day this day is, indeed. Rita Pietropinto Kitt, who voiced the snarky aunt Amy Barksdale on Daria, was married on this day nine years ago. She has an address for fan mail, so if you want to send her our regards, please do. (Amy Barksdale was married on September 8, 2001, of course.)

Just curious: Why were there never any alter egos of Amy Barksdale? Or Rita, for that matter, but mostly Amy? Anyone got any guesses? BTW I think her hair color is maroon or dark red, not auburn like Daria's. Just throwing that out there.

This is the 123rd birthday of the Statue of Liberty, and let us again say Thank You! to France for the gift that kept on giving. And great thanks to Pinhead for the revised and much enlarged image! (Click and see.) This is one of my favorite alter egos of all time.

According to some mythologies, today is National Chocolate Day, but there seem to be quite a few National Chocolate Days on the calendar. What the heck, celebrate anyway. Pig out.

Strange Thought for the Day: Did you ever notice how much some of the students and faculty at the medieval fair in "Fair Enough" look like they were popped right out of a Harry Potter pastiche? Think about it. Here's all this perfect fantasy fan art and no stories to go with it. (Almost.) Weird, man.

And now for the Halloween fanfiction. This date figures prominently in two different haunting fanfics: Mystik Slacker's "The Journal of Daria Morgendorffer," and Sam Lincoln's "The Space Between." Check 'em out. This is also an excellent time to read Richard Lobinske's "Bump in the Night." One particularly creepy story actually begins on this calendar day: "The Journal of Daria Morgendorffer," by Mystik Slacker.

Oh, heck, why not give away the store: go to this link and get the full Halloween experience from Outpost Daria. Best news of all: there's another stockpile of Halloween fanfic left to go! And more stories not included in either collection! (More tomorrow.)

PPMB

• Daria: Hunter, by Jim North (Parts 1 to 3): Underwear, shirt, jeans, glasses, socks, boots, shoulder holster, pack belt, jacket, gloves, Stetson. And, of course, her undersleeve specials. She performed a quick pat-down of her jacket and pants pockets to make sure she had her wallet and various bits of equipment on her, then stepped out the apartment's front door and into the only-just-bearable heat of yet another summer morning. Door locked, keys out, gravcar primed. Daria confidently backed the vehicle out into the skylane and set off to pick up Jane.
• Finn Morgendorffer 10: Finn the Brain, by HolyGrail2007 (COMPLETE!): Daria tried to crack a smile. She did enjoy it when her brother felt awkward. If Finn had cheated on this essay, Daria would have condemned him. If Mr. O’Neill took it easy on him, Daria wouldn’t have cared. But this was something else. You get to be a brain now, Finn, Daria thought. What do I get to be?

A few more thoughts:

Before anyone writes to me about all the Daria/Harry Potter crossovers out there, and there are a fair number of them now, I was more interested in seeing an original fantasy or modern fantasy take on everyone being a spellcaster or wizard of some kind. It's hard to do. I took the alchemical route with "The Other," but there are plenty of other ways to go with it, like astrology, magic use involving critter familiars, "psychic" magic, tarot magic, critter summoning, necromancy, and so on. The crossovers are great, I love many of them, but something different and original would be nice, too. My humble opinion only. See what can be done with this.

We close with a fifth "witch," Madame Blavatsky from Beavis and Butt-head. Click on her name in Labels to read more about her in an earlier post. Ciao.