Fatal mystery shakes Vancouver's Goths

[jjenisis]

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20041014/GOTH14/TPFront/TopStories


Fatal mystery shakes Vancouver's Goths


By MARK HUME AND JANE ARMSTRONG
Thursday, October 14, 2004 - Page A1




VANCOUVER -- When the children of the dark gathered at Sanctuary on the weekend to writhe to postpunk music that is so hard and electronic it is called industrial, the topic of conversation was a missing couple.

"That's all anyone was talking about," said Winston Barta, a self-employed businessman who is known in Vancouver's Goth subculture as Wraith.

"People were really worried about them."

Mark Rempel and Rachel Adams were often at the weekly Sunday night affair known as Sanctuary, when Sonar, a hip nightclub in Vancouver's Gastown district, turns itself over to the Goths. Any hope they would be found safe vanished Tuesday when police ended a weeklong search by recovering their bodies near Lions Bay.

The cause of their deaths has not been released.

The disappearance of the pair, who had a volatile and sadomasochistic relationship, has both disturbed and turned the spotlight on Vancouver's small but thriving Goth community.

It is a subculture that embraces images of death and celebrates darkness -- but Mr. Barta, an MBA who wears a suit and takes companies public for a living, said it has been shaken by the mysterious deaths.

"The mood is shock and dismay. We're not going to react any differently than anyone else to a tragedy like this," Mr. Barta said yesterday.

He and others who are part of the Goth scene say the subculture is surprisingly normal behind its façade of crypt-inspired fashions and icons that include death heads.

So normal, in fact, that business people like Mr. Barta can be found mingling with edgy art students and rebellious youths at Sanctuary.

There, typically dressed in black, some wearing bondage and fetish fashions, their hair dyed black with purple or blond streaks and wearing white makeup, they dance to contemporary industrial music shaped by seminal bands such as Bauhaus, The Cure and Screams for Tina.

Although it may seem unsettling, it is all in good fun, and not nearly as dark or morbid as mainstream society might suspect.

"Yes, there are images of death, but this is not a subculture that worships death, or anything close to it," Mr. Barta said.

Questions about the Goth scene were raised this week after the disappearance of Mr. Rempel and Ms. Adams, who were reported missing when friends discovered Ms. Adams's apartment splattered with blood.

Friends came forward to say that the couple were sadomasochistic, a practice often associated with the Goth scene, but which members say is peripheral.

Mr. Rempel was described as suicidal, sending an e-mail to an ex-girlfriend that said, "I think I am going to die. I hope you understand." And he was interested in suspension, a practice in which people hang themselves from hooks by piercing the skin.

Mr. Rempel and Ms. Adams were also into body piercings, where needles are used "for transitory pain and pleasure," as one friend put it.

But Mr. Barta and others say the deaths are not a reflection of the Goth subculture.

"This is being talked about a lot in the Goth community," Mr. Barta said. "It's very troubling . . . there is a sense of sadness this will shed poor light again on a subculture that really has gotten a bad rap."

Mr. Barta, who is working on a book about the Goth subculture, tentatively titled The Dark Life, said a lot of his Goth friends are ordinary people.

"Yes, we have jobs and support our families, just like anybody else," he said. He added that the atmosphere at the Goth dances is friendly and relaxed.

"The people there are all feeling the same vibe, they are not caring so much about how they look as how the music makes them feel."

Mr. Barta said sadomasochism is not a dominant theme.

"There's a place on the fringes where one meets the other," he said, "where Goth crosses over with S & M and other fetishes. You see that on body fetish nights, which is held once a month. But mainstream Goth, if I can use that term, is different from that.

"A lot of people see the images of death and misunderstand. . . . The Goth subculture is not about a fascination with death. It's about understanding the dark side, understanding death, and celebrating that understanding."

Vancouver DJ and promoter Isaac Terpstra said the contemporary Goth scene spans at least three generations and different socioeconomic groups.

Mr. Terpstra, who does the music for Sanctuary, thinks Goth followers are better educated and more musically literate than adherents of hip-hop or punk, for example.

He said the group tends to include educated, rebellious sorts who love night life and dramatic costumes.

"They're a little more courageous and well informed than the next person," Mr. Terpstra said.

In her book, The Goth Bible, Montreal writer Nancy Kilpatrick noted that many Goths hide their interests from colleagues.

The Goth scene emerged from the punk movement of the late 1970s and early 80s, Pete Scathe, an author and founder of a Goth club in England, has written. Bands such as UK Decay, the Banshees and Bauhaus set the tone.

People not only identified with their music, but began to copy and expand on the way the musicians dressed.

[Bone]

I find it sad that more of this artical was about sensationalizing the couples association with the goth culture than about circumsatnces surrounding their deaths. As if being part of this culture is what killed them.... Geat just more bad publicity for the scene

To the plus side however not a "Horrible" artical on the goth culture. But I do hate the inbetween the lines... had to be a goth thing as the cause of death.

would be intresting to follow-up on this story though and see where it goes.

[Vachy]

agreeing with Bone.

But Mr. Barta and others say the deaths are not a reflection of the Goth subculture.

It's sad and it says a lot about today's ignorance that there is a murder and the article is about what the victims do on the weekend instead of the investigation. Play piercing and S&M do not result in floating dead in a bay.

[B_Ko]

In a nutshell:

+ (:whip: + + ) =

[LordHades]

I suppose that sums it up fairly well, Daitokuji-sama.

By the way, did you and C-ko ever hit it off? How about with that Magami girl? Though I suppose given her origin, you'd need to stay in the powered armor..

[B_Ko]

I suppose that sums it up fairly well, Daitokuji-sama.

By the way, did you and C-ko ever hit it off? How about with that Magami girl? Though I suppose given her origin, you'd need to stay in the powered armor..

This is why i changed the dash to an underscore...

[LordHades]

It does no good, the idiots of the world exist in far too great a multitude to ever escape.

I just like proving my own points.

[Hardcoregirl]

It's sad and it says a lot about today's ignorance that there is a murder and the article is about what the victims do on the weekend instead of the investigation. Play piercing and S&M do not result in floating dead in a bay.

Hrmm...I'm leaning toward thinking it was a dual suicide. They splashes of blood could have been from their play piercing, suspension, or perhaps they were also cutters....*shrug*

Let's see what the autopsy and forensic anthropologists say.

I'm always curious about when people decide to jump off bridges. I wonder if the water is cold enough to kill you up there yet? My natural instinct would be to swim....I wonder why people choose that route..

Remember the guy that jumped off the bridge here with his baby last year? Very sad.