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Casper
"...his pride
Had cast him out from heaven, with all his host
Of rebel angels."
- Book 1, ll. 36-38
Hailing from the metropolis of Montréal, where he stalked the
night with fierce abandon, Casper Von Bittergoff felt a restless
stirring within his soul. With brooding eye and blackened lips he
came to settle upon our now uneasy shores, where he perfected the
art of being simultaneously charming and malevolent.
Having made himself notorious in every goth bar in Toronto, Casper
decided to further terrorize the locals by stepping behind the decks at
Savage Garden,
and then at
Anarchists Cocktail,
where he threw down a heady mix
of old and new goth, rivethead anthems, 80's stuff that doesn't suck,
and fun bouncy punk rock. Casper has been an
alt.gothic regular for years, known for
his quaint habit of Always Typing His Messages Like This.
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Pandora
"So much of death her thoughts
Had entertained as dyed her cheeks with pale"
- Book 10
Rachel aka Pandora to the net community. She was born in Coventry,
England (ooh, automatic goth point!), but fled to Canada shortly
after, as horrifying conditions forced the family to relocate.
Currently, Rachel is the content editor of
Dark Wave Nights,
a website for one of Montréal's premiere goth nights. She
has guest DJed under the guise of DJ Elektra for Dark Wave Nights
at Ezra, and co-DJed for Endzeit at Redemption. She was also one of
four DJs for the Apocrypha event on New Year's Eve 2000 at Redemption.
She has had delusions of grandeur for Montréal's scene ever
since she got back from WGT (Wave Gotik Treffen) this past June in
Leipzig, Germany.
Pandora has been a lurker on alt.gothic
for many years and is also a regular on
rec.music.industrial in
addition to multiple scene-relevant mailing lists.
When she is not being driven mad by her clients at a local travel
agency, she can be seen sipping iced coffees at local café.
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Siobhán
"Darkened so, yet shone
Above them all th'archangel,"
- Book 1, ll.599-600
Siobhán was one of the organizers of the highly successful
Convergence IV
in Toronto, which featured
Faith and the Muse
and provided net.goths with their very own castle to storm. Like the
leather-clad masochist that she is, she helped produce the
Hallowmas Festival
in October of 1999, where she provided a guided tour of haunted
places in Toronto. After both events she swore she would never get
involved in any gothic festival ever again. Apparently her penance
is not over, for in a fit of delirium she suggested the possibility
of doing another Convergence in Montréal, and the rest is
divine providence.
Despite her insistence that she's not a goth, but just a crusty old
punk who wears a lot of black, Siobhán has been an alt.gothic regular for years and is one of the
core members of the local scene. She maintains the
Canadian Gothic Events Web Site,
and marshals the troops for regular drinking sessions. It goes
without saying that Convergence VIII will benefit from the tactical
training Siobhán received during her fiery baptisms on C4
and Hallowmas. If the first two goth festivals didn't do her in,
she must be bulletproof.
homepage
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Uriel
"Thither came Uriel, gliding through the even
On a sunbeam." - Book 4
Uriel, the Angel of Salvation, on the twelfth day of June 1973,
took mortal form in the new born body of Olivier Raimbault
deMontigny-Papier. He spent an interesting childhood, eventually
attending Concordia University in the field of Philosophy. During
his period of scholastic servitude, he became a DJ at the local
radio station. It was also during this time that he discovered the
world of the Angels, through the Dictionary of Angels, and Milton's
Paradise Lost.
While his earlier musical interests included
Punk and various similarly angry sounds, they have since progressed
to the realm of those things gothic and beautiful. His current love
is anything sensuous and doleful, with an emphasis on obscurities
and long-forgotten classics. His main hobby is purchasing CD's, a
pastime that wreaks no end of havoc on his bank account. He has
managed to aquire an impressive collection of CD's, but will not
be sated until he has everything gothic ever released.
In his spare time, Olivier scours the internet almost constantly
for anything dark and dreary, reads copious quantities of romantic
poetry, plays at web page design, draws, and still manages to go
out four or five nights a week. He has about fifty pounds of pennies.
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The Seraphim
"His legions, angel forms, who lay entranced"
- Book 1, line. 301
Axel
Party Secretary
Transplanted from the other side of the pond to the wilds of Toronto,
Axel spends copious amount of time discoursing eruditely about world
politics, charming the locals with his accent and perfecting the art
of lounging in sleek black suits. As Party Secretary, he protects
innocent media types from the wrath of the SuperAdmiral and the
Alpha Male, and advises the C8 Committee on exactly how much money
they do not have available to spend.
An alt.gothic regular for years, Axel's
superpowers include knowing everything about anything, and being
universally liked. This combination makes his friends rather nervous.
None of them will be at all surprised when he tries to take over the
world.
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50 Ft Queenie
Writers Programming
Web Content Editor
50 Ft Queenie is a picky literature snob who would much rather
write other people's bios than her own, because talking about
oneself is really rather tedious. An
alt.gothic poster since
September 1998, she is also a freelance writer with delusions
of grandeur, and one of the founders and moderators of the
Toronto
Dark Writers Group. Since November 1999, she has been a
regular contributor to
Starvox, the
infamous goth/industrial ezine.
Siobhan and Casper looked at her with puppy dog eyes one drunken
night, which is how she found herself involved in the glorious
madness that is Convergence. Caught between Siobhan's mohawk and
Casper's accent, she didn't really stand a chance.
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Nancy Kilpatrick
Writers Programming
A resident of Montréal, Nancy Kilpatrick is also an
award-winning author who has published 14
novels, 5 collections of stories, and has edited 7 anthologies.
Her most
recent works include: Bloodlover (4th in the "Power of the Blood
vampire series, Baskerville Books); Graven Images (dark fantasy
anthology co-edited with Thomas Roche, Ace Books); Cold Comfort
(collection of horror stories, Dark Tales Publishing). Look for her
non-fiction book on the gothic subculture, to be released fall 2003
by St. Martin's Press.
email
website
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Sonia
Fashion Show
Born in France, Sonia (aka Zonix) soon discovered her flair for
fashion. Three years in Berlin perfected her sense of unique style
combined with modern gothic comfort.
Her experience in sales at Montréal's "fetish Emporium",
Il Bolero, allowed her to finally pinpoint the uniqueness she was
aiming for and she opened her first alternative clothing store
Cyclops Underground in 1996. Cyclops was not quite gothic, not
quite fetish, but a new symbioses in between the two styles.
Her current outlet is
Diabolik,
which is known for it's diversity,
creativity and exploration of old looks mixed with new textures.
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Carine
Fashion Show
Like her emblem the Spider, she weaves her web in order to reach her
goals. Carine has been working as a hair stylist for almost nine years.
Through her career, she has participated in many fashion productions,
photo sessions, and other similar events not only as a hairdresser,
but also as a model.
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Sandra
Sunday Fashion Event
Having been interested in couture since she was a child,
Sandra (a.k.a. "cosmicstar" or "isobel_59") a Montreal native,
completed her diploma in fashion design in 1997. Feeling artistically
unsatisfied with her four years in the fashion industry, she decided
to embark on a new mission and founded corset design company
Ritual Designs.
In that time she has also taken on other ventures such as last
year's successful Sacrilege fetish fashion show at the
Foufounes Electriques in Montréal.
Sandra, with partner Karen Simpson (a.k.a. Scrletscorpio), have been
inciting a corsetry revolt. Passionate about clothing design, she
draws her inspirations from music, culture and people in general.
She also enjoys an eclectic range of music including punk, industrial
and electro 80’s, and feels that Nina Hagen is one of the most amazing
women ever. You will probably find Sandra lurking around Live journal
every now and then.
Also, should you happen to meet her cute fluffy kitty, don't be fooled.
He’s actually quite evil.
email
website
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Karen
Sunday Fashion Event
Karen (aka Scarlet or Scarletscorpio) is a fashion
designer by trade, as well as a graphic designer and
tattoo artist. Having always been involved in a
variety of artistic endeavors, fashion has been her
first love. After working in the industry for 3 years
and despising every minute of her corporate whoredom,
she took a sabbatical that led her to intensive
partying and a renewed friendship with fellow
classmate, Sandra, Ritual Designs was born in it's
present incarnation. An avid common interest in
corsets and all things freaky has developed into an
intensely creative and fulfilling experience. World
domination is next on the agenda.
Karen can often be seen swilling a Heineken, and never
refuses a shot Jagermeister (except for last week).
email
website
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Additional Thanks
The members of the Convergence VIII Montréal Committee
would also like to thank the following "unofficial" people;
Alain
For resources and photography. His pictures of Montréal
are what started this whole thing.
Jason
For his l33t programming skills. And for stepping in at every event
and calmly putting in as many hours of labour as we do.
lady usher
For coming to our rescue as deadlines ran screaming at us,
fists wailing.
Macross
For everything. You rock, yo.
Matthew
For taking charge of the volunteers and for doing all the
unglamourous grunt work that needed to be done to make the
event run smoothly.
Mr Sharkey
For photography. The only person out there who could make
Siobhán and Casper photogenic. (Mostly by turning
off the lights.) And for Milton.
Sheryl
For giving us the benefit of her advice and experience when we honestly
had no clue what we were doing.
TSM
For creating some truly gorgeous artwork.
suckass
For bad influence and feedback
alt.gothic
For every person who encouraged us in this insanity.
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