the NachtKabarett

ATTENTION DOPPLEGANGERS:

We have now entered "The Golden Age of Grotesque."

My band and I are going to give you a peep of what it looks and sounds like. Check the news for more agit-prop and first thing tomorrow, you will get a taste of this site's transformation.

Arch Dandy,
Marilyn Manson

Suddenly, I was the most unlikely ambassador of America. It became quite clear that the critical role for an artist, particularly an American one, is to ensure that our soldiers are risking their lives to defend a country that is worth living in. But how can the irreconcilable extremes of Marilyn Manson fit into this time of political upheaval when I have rarely believed in the behavior of the government? How can I be a proud American, when America has done its best to destroy me?

SIMPLE---Isn’t this the very core of what the two words “Marilyn” and “Manson” have represented from the beginning? If the U.S. stands for democracy and freedom, then the most patriotic thing an artist can do is to fight for those liberties. My opinion is a sharpened stick, poking democracy to make sure that it's not dead.

“The inspiration (of the upcoming album) came from 1930’s Berlin, because it reminded me of America today in that we’ve reached such a point of decadence and extremism in art that people wonder where we’ll go from here.”

"The young are too senile / The young zeich heil".

“The unfortunate onset of rigid control and conformity that brought Berlin to its fiery end seemed to almost mirror today’s less violent, but equally ignorant censorship and fear of ‘dangerous’ art.”

'mOBSCENE' was pulled from the weirdest parts of my imagination. I suppose it had been what I was watching and reading – a lot of Busby Berkeley chorus lines of girls. I wanted a stampeding elephant sort of thing – so when I wanted to write with the band I told them, 'We need an elephant, we need Busby Berkely and we need Oscar Wilde' and then we went at it.

"I'm taking inspiration from Thirties Hollywood. That's why I was attracted to Dita - she looked like she'd stepped out of an Alberto Vargas pin-up. I seduced her by pretending I wanted her in my video. And we hit it off immediately. We're both like kids. We like to play dress- up and do things we're not supposed to when the parents are away."

“My inspiration for this record came from historic parallels to my own present position in popular culture. Most notably, I found myself fascinated with the overwhelming imaginative, sexually-depraved artistic chaos that just bled from some of history’s greatest minds as Berlin reached its creative extreme peak. ”

“So stand up dopplegangers, we are on a leave of Absinthe! Our lives are theatre, we are the art and the world will now become the beautifully grotesque stage it was always meant to be. Am I just an innocuous entertainer or am I the destructive force and the terrible reality you’ve suspected all along?

The simple answer is, I am Marilyn Manson.”

"All I can say about it is I'm glad that it makes it into the collection of images that represent me as best as it could. I think that it just scratches the surface of what Gottfried and I could do together. Also I think it was most appreciated and understood for it's biggest quality and it's biggest political impact.

Like I said, people can take it anyway they want. People took it as serious as it could be in Europe, particularly in France and Paris, and in Japan because they saw my commentary on America. They saw me as much as people see Mickey Mouse as an American symbol. You cover your mouth with blackface, which really represents a franchise, moneymaking, and slave creation of entertainment, that isn't even human."

ME: "What's the significance of the mouse ears? Was that ever intended to be the album cover?"

MM: "Well, all the artwork that we created was part of The Golden Age of Grotesque, but none of it was intended to be album artwork. What ended up being the album was allowed to be on it. We used a different approach- We didn't say we were going to design things for an album, we designed a bunch of things, and then we chose ones that we wanted. Many were denied and some were accepted, so we decided to show those that were denied elsewhere. What you're talking about is a big part of the show, because the show has a lot of statements about politics and religion, and about art, and how I fit into all of it. They will be a major part of the performance that I think everyone will be surprised by."

MTV: "The look of Floria Sigismondi's most noted video to date, though, "Beautiful People," although it owes a debt to Austrian painter Gottfried Helnwein, was pretty much the inspiration of the artiste, Marilyn Manson."

MARILYN MANSON: "I'm a big fan of prosthetics and other medical fetishes and I explained that to her so we all went wild with, you know, her ideas. And I think she did a great job. It did leave some bad cuts in my mouth, which unfortunately probably will never heal."

"Figura 3 shows that blood cannot be forced in the 'wrong' direction."

My whole life has been a process of making myself asymmetrical on purpose. In the end it may come to removing a limb or something, because I have a great fascination with prosthetics and a large collection of prosthetic legs.

The zeitgeist of Berlin’s “degenerate art” was infused into Marilyn Manson and the people within the Volksbuhne Theatre that night. The decadence and reckless honesty that fear inspires, made the outside world irrelevant.

For now, there's a peep show that a doctor once showed me.

A.D.
M.M.

"I think you can tell this album is honestly doing and saying what it wants. It operates with its own mind. I look at it like a kid: I gave birth to a child. It's a very bad child. That's what I like about it."

THE TRAUMA of BIRTH

Don't let anyone look at your baby until it coughs. You have generated
this great work, it cannot be called "degenerate."

OOhhh the baby's crying.

Trouble is on its way.
Love and I am,

MM AD

"Could someone please autograph the frontal lobe?".

THE STAINS OF YESTERDAY

As you see, we have begun the show and the progress of this website’s transformation will continue rapidly in the days to come. [...]

While it is terminal, I am spelled out in a halcyon font with an unwashed brain and a belief in my new layer of skin. I must advise, that despite the discomfort any creature endures when molting, never hesitate the agony of leaving behind the dead cells.

To stay in that rotten shell you have finally outgrown, you will surely die.

MARLENE DIETRICH

"The aged text that serves as an opening image to my journal, was put there to promote thought and discussion. I would like to make it clear that these words are not mine, nor did I intend for you to believe that they were. I used one of the memoirs of the great and talented, Marlene Dietrich as a bit of an amusement park sign that one might see at night. Will it turn on? Has it ever been on? Do I want it to? From the NACHTKABARETT,"

Marilyn Manson

"Some people don’t think that lily
Is smart enough to understand what I’m thinking
But I know if she could she would kill
Everybody that I hate, cos she loves me
Cos I took care of her since she was a little baby".

Manson Journal in Rolling Stone

Rolling Stone Magazine (June 10th, 2004) features an article entitled "Rocker Diaries -- Fred Durst and Marilyn Manson Sound Off On-line," by Gillian Telling. A photograph of Marilyn with the caption "Manson: Spreading virtual ringworm" is found at the top of the article, which lists web addresses for and quotes from the on-line journals of several musicians, including: Billy Corgan, Moby, Fred Durst, Ryan Adams, Andrew W.K., and Marilyn Manson -- whose journal entries Rolling Stone characterizes as "a very goth-y collection of musings on the world," teasing the readers with this choice sampling: "Our stigmata will stagnate and we will shake, shake hands like little boys -- if boys were just like puppies -- spreading our ringworms."