the NachtKabarett
All Writing & Content © Nick Kushner Unless Noted Otherwise
Click thumbnails above for hidden, sister and promo mini-sites from each Marilyn Manson era. |
ComaWhite.com was launched shortly after the release of Mechanical Animals which was the first of the many Marilyn Manson hidden/sister sites. Its existence was revealed in one of five hidden messages in the album booklet which can be made visible using the blue CD case to separate the overlayed blue and yellow texts throughout. ComaWhite.com is revealed appropriately enough under the blue text of 'A PILL TO MAKE YOU NUMB' above the lyrics and 'photo of Coma White.
The site itself consisted of the above medical chart known as the Glasgow Coma Scale depicting the various stages and severity levels of human (un)consciousness, which can also be seen behind the Mechanical Animals CD within CD the case. Apropos to Mechanical Animals and the many numerological correspondences alluded to during the era, the coma scale is a 15 point scale; the recurring number throughout the era's videos, artwork and lyrics. By clicking on various cells of chart certain images are revealed. Anyone who is familiar with the site should know that the original ComaWhite.com is far too labyrinthine to archive in its entirety but the original cell names and links are intact as the images that are visible from the main chart image.
The most interesting aspect of the site is that by following the links which make up various song lyrics hidden images are also revealed. For example following the links "Even-Machines-Can-See-That-We-Are-Dead" to "ARE YOU?" reveals a hidden mini-vignette which links to the Official Marilyn Manson bulletin board. Again, as the site is far too complex to archive totally I've displayed the hidden images clicking below.
The sister site of MarilynManson.com launched in the Summer of 2000. The site went through five transformations/additions all to illustrate Manson's own transformation and to illustrate the five pillars and themes most prevalent throughout Holy Wood; Christianity/Martyrdom and mankind's morbid fascination with it, Alchemy, Death Valley, JFK as the second Christ in the eyes of America and the Occult.
A complete and in-depth analysis and breakdown of TheLambOfGod.com can be read The Lamb Of God.com section on The NACHTKABARETT via the menu to the left. But as it is one of the Marilyn Manson hidden websites a link to its original configuration is also included here.
S e e a l s o o n T h e N A C H T K A B A R E T T :
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THELAMBOFGOD.COM | "Behold the Lamb Of God which taketh away the sins of the world." A complete and in-depth analysis and breakdown of TheLambOfGod.com, the sister site of MarilynManson.com launched in the Summer of 2000. The Head Of Adam Kadmon, The Lamb Of God, Death Valley, Kern's Gate, the "Jornada Del Muerto", the Third Pentacle of Mercury and much more...
Preview of The Love Song, the first of the four previews of Holy Wood released in the summer of 2000. The image is a cover of Manson's novel HOLY WOOD. As stated elsewhere within The NACHTKABARETT, the original title of the album was intended to be In The Shadow Of The Valley Of Death, the release of which was going to coincide with the release of Holy Wood the novel. The Love Song is one of the most prominent tracks on Holy Wood which deals with America lust of violence, guns and death, the subject matter of which is the theme of Holy Wood the novel, as illustrated with the Gun Crucifix which would later be used throughout the whole Guns, God and Government tour.
Preview of Cruci-Fiction In Space, the second song preview of Holy Wood. The image accompanying it is quite obviously a diagram portraying the stages of human evolution, or rather a work of comparative anatomy, possibly by Adolph H. Schultz, 1926. In keeping in the theme of The Love Song which illustrates America's gun lust, Cruci-Fiction In Space portrays this theme as humanity has evolved to the complex and sophisticated state which it has today, yet mankind's primary preoccupation is that of creating and devising new methods of murdering each other. "The Monkey, The Man, And Then The Gun".
The use of the image is also slightly more multifaceted in that one of the most prominent underlying themes in Holy Wood is that of evolution and transformation, not only in terms of mankind but more importantly personal evolution. Nothing changes the world and its predisposition towards violence but you can always change yourself, as Manson has often stated.
Preview of 'Burning Flag', Holy Wood's most scathing attack on American hypocrisy. The image featured is a photograph taken at a senatorial press conference on violence in entertainment, shortly a month after Columbine. The Senators shown are Joe Lieberman who has demonized Marilyn Manson as "The sickest group ever promoted by a mainstream record company" and Orrin Hatch who can very visibly be seen holding a copy of Antichrist Svperstar.
The absurd irony involved in this scenario is both that Manson has absolutely no involvement as inspiration for the murders at Columbine, and the sheer fact that Manson has never promoted violence to begin with. Whilst a plethora of rap and hip-hop stars make no qualms about graphically depicting rape and murder in their lyrics and simultaneously invoking the name of Christ at any given opportunity. It is precisely this type of hypocrisy that the song 'Burning Flag' is a scathing anthem against.
The fourth and last audio preview of Holy Wood, The Death Song. The use of the image to compliment the song is rather self explanatory given what the song is about and its relation to the constant theme of mankind's, but specifically America's, lust for death and violence in and as entertainment.
ThisAsValentinesDay.com was launched on February 14th, 2001 as Manson's gift to the MarilynManson.com official messageboard. The site was revealed on Valentine's Day in a post to the messageboard Manson made while on the European leg of the Guns, God & Government tour with the headline of "They'd Remember 'This As Valentine's Day'". The central image is the cover of Time magazine, dated February 14th, 1964. By clicking on Marina Oswald's broach, widow of the late Lee Harvey Oswald, the accused lone gunman in Kennedy's assassination, reveals Manson's true intended Valentine's Day gift, the text of Chapter 10 of Manson's (still unreleased novel) novel Holy Wood. A plain text transcription can be viewed by clicking below, for ease of reading:
By also clicking on 'February 14th, 1964', on the top right corner of the image, links the visitor to ComaWhite.com. Thus acting as another method of Manson thematically tying Holy Wood to the previous era of Mechanical Animals, respectively the third and second pieces of the conceptual Triptych of consecutive albums Manson began in 1996 with Antichrist Svperstar. A link to ThisAsValentinesDay.com was also subsequently placed on the mercury symbol on the Third Pentacle Of Mercury from TheLambOfGod.com.
Click above to view the original CELEBRITARIAN.COM which The NACHTKABARETT has archived and was first to do so as well as to identify the song which plays during the intro.
Celebritarian.com was very ambiguously viewed as a hidden Manson site when it was first discovered in mid 2000 but there were a number of parallels which would allude to it as being Manson's. For example, the pistol used in the opening movie sequence is identical to one of the pistols used on Manson's gun crucifix on the cover of Holy Wood the novel; there are a number of thematic references in the questionnaire including references to Kennedy whom Manson denotes as the patron saint, of sorts, of Celebritarianism; and although launched circa the release of Holy Wood the web counter's starting year is 1996, the same year as the release of Antichrist Svperstar, year one of the Triptych of Antichrist Svperstar, Mechanical Animals and Holy Wood (In The Shadow Of The Valley Of Death). During a live performance in Denver 2001, the highly controversial performance which was Manson's first return to Colorado since Columbine, his performance, which inspired by numerous death and bomb threats, promised to be his most violent while balancing his performance with readings from the Bible which told of "murder, death, sex and pestilence". It was during this Bible reading that Manson quoted from PSALM 137:9, which is the message received after submittal of the questionnaire from Celebritarian.com. This speech can also be heard during the credits of the Guns, God & Government tour DVD and on 'The Nobodies' CD single which contains live versions of both the title track and 'The Death Song' recorded in Denver.
The site was hinted at in the lyrics to Holy Wood in the song 'The Fall Of Adam' in which the term was used in the line "And Abraham Lincoln town cars arrive to dispose of our king and queen / They orchestrated dramatic new scenes....for celebritarain needs". What brought specific attention towards it was in the liner notes which reads "Celebritarian ™ used by permission". It was later revealed via a query on the US patent office online database that Manson himself coined and trademarked both the terms 'Celebritarian' and 'Celebritarianism'.
For more on conceptually what the significance of Celebritarianism is in relation to Holy Wood, read THELAMBOFGOD.COM, KENNEDY: KING KILL 33º, VALENTINE'S DAY articles and the whole CELEBRITARIAN CORPORATION section.
Within the opening movie, which The NACHTKABARETT is the first and sole archiver of, the faces of the dead stars that are seen were also shown on the large screen behind Manson during the live performance of The Death Song on the Ozzfest portion of the Guns, God & Government tour.
The song played throughout the opening vignette is "I'm Leaving It Up To You" by Dale & Grace. Originally penned in 1957 this rendition was the number one song in America on November 22nd, 1963, the day Kennedy was assassinated. (Click to Download & Listen)
Website domain names designated for but never made manifest for
Holy Wood (In The Shadow Of The Valley Of Death).
www.presidentdead.com
www.thefightsong.com
www.intheshadow.com
Website domain names designated for but never made manifest for
The Golden Age Of Grotesque.
www.ghettometal.net
www.thirdnostril.com
www.themobscene.com
www.goldenageofgrotesque.com
www.goldenageofgrotesque.net
www.grotesqueburlesque.com
www.thegoldenageofgrotesque.net
www.para-noir.net
www.ka-boom-ka-boom.com
www.thegloominati.com
www.thegloominati.net
www.gloominati.com
www.gloominati.net
www.scabaret.net
www.thegoldenageofgrotesque.com
www.doll-daggabuzz-buzzziggety-zag.com
On September 09, 2004 a promotional mini-site for Lest We Forget surfaces, including tracklisting, club launch nights info and a "Peep Show" of Manson's videos, as well as hidden exclusive clips from the (s)AINT video. The overall design, in continuity with Lest We Forget's artwork aesthetics, also hides a handful of hidden litterary elements :
“There is no medicine like hope, no incentives so great, and no tonics so powerful as the expectation of something better tomorrow.”Orison Swett Marden
Left & center; details of the 'tracklisting' and 'club news' backgrounds watermarked with a quote by Orison Swett Marden (the date "1926" and a Washington D.C. stamp are also perceivable on the blank forms). Right; side menu detail, a segment from a William Butler Yeats poem is repeated in a small cursive font. |
As the moon sidles upWilliam Butler Yeats, Supernatural Songs (VI. He and She), 1935
Must she sidle up,
As trips the scared moon
Away must she trip:
“His light had struck me blind
Dared I stop”.
Why did you choose to utilize the Cross of Lorraine in the transformation of the Celebritarian site, and what significance have you found in this ancient symbol?
The Cross of Lorraine can be interpreted slightly different from what we have. Ours is more symmetrical and it was hinted at in the layout of the Holy Wood novel design originally. Between the gun cross and the obvious layout of the words going across the bottom to make the second bar. It seems to me, in many different ways, that it represents a lot of things that we identify with all of us as artists that are involved. I always have referred to it as the double cross and I think it has a funny sort of irony about it.
'Dramatic New Scenes For Celebritarian Needs', Marilyn Manson (for MansonUSA.com).
After being left "under construction" in early 2004, Manson's Celebritarian site is re-exhumed on October 5, 2005, under the shape of a grey Double Cross on a black background which leads back to MarilynManson.com by clicking on it. It would stay up there until December 2006, and though it completely disappeared afterwards, the domain name got back to activity in 2008 and automatically redirects to MarilynManson.com...
Registered alternate domain names for this site at the time:
www.celebritarian.net
www.celebritarian.comwww.celebritarianism.com
www.celebritarianism.netwww.celebritariancorp.com
www.celebritariancorp.netwww.thecelebritariancorporation.com
www.thecelebritariancorporation.netwww.celebritariancorporation.net
www.celebritariancorporation.comOn January 19 2006, MarilynManson.com is seized along with a handful of affiliated sites, by the Celebritarian Corporation, as stated on the message above : the first words ever directed by Marilyn Manson's new art movement, with a new logotype for it and the now familiar Double Cross. For more on the references behind this text, as well as the secret message also hidden in the picture, visit our MarilynManson.com - early 2006 transformations archive article.
Registered sites similarly seized by the Celebritarian Corporation at the time :
www.marilynmanson.com
www.marilynmanson.netwww.marilynmansonartworkonline.com
www.marilynmansonartworkonline.netwww.marilynmansonart.com
www.marilynmansonart.netwww.goldenageofgrotesque.com
www.posthumanentertainment.com
www.marilynmansonphantasmagoria.com
www.marilynmansonphantasmagoria.netwww.phantasmagoriamovie.com
www.phantasmagoriamovie.netwww.phantasmagoriafilm.com
www.phantasmagoriafilm.netwww.phantasmagoriafilms.net
www.phantasmagoriafilms.com
May 21, 2007: contained within the European Union release of the Heart-Shaped Glasses single was a link to an official Eat Me, Drink Me minisite which displayed the album's lyrics, a gallery of promotional pictures and a mosaic puzzle game, which when unlocking it would give access to exclusive content: a free Eat Me, Drink Me wallpaper and streaming previews of the tracks Heart-Shaped Glasses, If I Was Your Vampire and Evidence.
Though not incredibly exclusive in terms of imagery or content, this official minisite for The High End Of Low was launched on May 7, 2009 as a prelude to the album's release, and included the premiere of the image which would later adorn the back cover of the CD as a background, a link to a Facebook application with song teasers and lyrics, and later the 'Arma-Goddamn-Motherfuckin-Geddon' video on May 14. Click above to view and access the original archive of this one-off minisite.