Dating for Everyone

I’m beginning to think there must be a dating site for practically every known kind of person under the sun. Just came across one for Jewish singles, for example. Maybe I should start collecting dating sites as a hobby. There would certainly be a fair number to collect. It’s not that long since I wrote about the goth site, and then there was the one for interracial singles.

I guess Jewish dating has its own particular quirks, though by the look of most of the people advertised on the site you wouldn’t know they were Jewish without being told. None of the guys are wearing those long tassel things down the side of their hair, nor are they bearded. Can they really be Jews?

The Jewish personals site does give you an option to inform others of your denomination within the Jewish scene, from Orthodox to Hassidic, from Reconstructionist to Conservadox (Conservadox?). I guess that means there’s a certain seriousness about the whole thing; this ain’t no site for frivolity. I’d just like to see someone who looked Hassidic up amongst the profile pictures.

Anyway, the temptation to check out what a Conservadox is was too great. I found this informative paragraph on a blog:

Some of you might say, "Pearl, you sound as if you were Conservative all the way." To that, I'd say "No way." We always went to an Orthodox shul, the first one being a real shtiebel in a home, with a mikveh in the basement, a mechitzah separating the men from the women and even a cut-out in the flooring upstairs, so that when there was an overflow of women davening at that shtiebel on the High Holidays, the men took over the women's section, while the women davened upstairs, with the floor tile removed so that they could hear the davening below.

Get the picture?

Things Gothic

Some while ago we came across a copy of the DVD of The Phantom of the Opera. I finished up watching it on my own, as my wife wasn’t that impressed. I’ve never seen the stage show, so I don’t know how the movie compares, but it seemed rather overblown and full-in-your-face. Moreover the music verges from the operatic to the pop-operatic to the pseudo-Gilbert and Sullivan. But Lloyd Webber has never been known, I don’t think, for his consistency.
All this by way of introduction to two other things: one, the ‘other’ film of The Phantom of the Opera - and I don’t mean the Lon Chaney one from the silent era dark ages - and two, the fact that there’s a Goth scene dating site. What have they got in common? Well, the Phantom and gothic are ideas that go hand in hand.
Lon Chaney’s movie is regarded as a silent classic, in spite of being hacked around in the post-production process. But I’d never heard that there was a movie in which the star of the horror films, Freddy (aka Robert Englund) appears. Apparently the slasher elements of the Friday the 13th series are retained, and the story is set in London rather than Paris, but otherwise it stays reasonably close to the original. Or as close as it feels it needs given the constraints of having to have someone die a violent death every ten minutes. According to some reviewers (aka Robert Englund fans) this is Freddy’s best performance. I suppose, given that Englund seldom appears in anything but horror movies, this may not be much of an achievement. Still, his fans think he’s great, and there are raves over the film on IMDB.com by people who have actually seen it.
And finally, GothScene.com for Goth dating, which is billed as the #1 Alternative Dating Community on the Net.
I don’t know much about gothic singles, so perhaps I’m not the best person to judge, but restricting yourself to people who are gothic in their approach to life seems a little insular. Doesn’t the idea that opposites attract go further than this?
Maybe the Goth scene is so particular that only other Goths could really empathise. One girl says she likes blood, sex, weed and rain. Hmm. Whose blood, I have to ask myself?
One 24-year-old guy is going to buy a hearse as soon as possible (handy if the local funeral director is extra busy), while a 21-year-old guy says he always wears something black and loves Gothic women because they are the hottest. (I’ve noticed that leather is hot - and sticky.)
I thought the site was restricted to people between the ages of 18 and 40, but in fact you can be 99 and still register. That would be a treat for the average young Goth, I’d suspect.