General otherkin
info | Types
of otherkin | Living
as otherkin | Otherkin
community | Glamourbombing
g l a m o u r b o m b s
an all-inclusive (hah!) list
compiled by Eshari
Contributors/Credits: Ambianya Sindar-Wolfkitten, the Wild Muse, Hakim Bey,
Lelya, Eric, Illuviel, Feral, Eshari, Celebron, Adara, Willow, the SidheLady,
Ely, Thistle, Ki'taye, Pixie, Skiewing, paperishkitten, rhwimsickal, ladawn,
extatika, Amy, izzykite, Jeffrey Yamaguchi, blackberryfairy, Roasted Kiwi, and
others (as of 2/21/05 I'm going to credit new additions individually rather
than adding more to this general list).
Please send further suggestions to Eshari.
See this page for a list of suggestions of things
to write on those glamourbombs which involve words in some way.
Great suggestions in the glamourbombs
community on LiveJournal, easier than duplicating them here:
You
can SEE me?
Fishing
for Faeries
The
Glamourbomb Squad
Sergeant
Selkie of the Glamourbomb Squad (a different take on it)
Faery
treasure hunt
Faeries
don't kill faeries; SUVs kill faeries
Lost
faery travellers
Suitors
seeking their princess
Pixie
snipers
Faery
letters
Catching
Robin Goodfellow
Faerie
Forum Downtown
Riddle
ransom
Save
endangered pixies!
- The "classic" glamour bomb is some sort of filled package. You can use
plastic balls or eggs. Blow out real eggs and use the shells. Try origami
boxes. Use glass bottles or jars that have lids or corks. Fill these with
any or all of the following: glitter, paper confetti, potpourri (lavender,
thyme, mistletoe, heather, elderflowers, hawthorn flowers, marigold petals,
jasmine, orange blossoms - or try the faery
incense from RJ Stewart's Dreampower
site), bells, seed beads, feathers, sea glass, shells, small tumbled gemstones
(fluorite, quartz with rainbow veils, andalusite, staurolite), seeds, notes
or small scrolls with faery "catch-phrases" (see the texts
page). If you used a real eggshell, paste over the holes with tissue soaked
in a little white glue. Decorate the outside of the container to taste. Add
a tag that says "open me". Leave on strangers' doorsteps, at public phones,
supermarkets, restaurant tables, public computer terminals, and in other out-of-the-way,
hidden-in-plain-sight kinds of places.
- Glue strange and wonderful arrangements of pennies to the sidewalk.
- Sprinkle seeds in the shape of a pentagram, septagram, ring, or other symbol
in a vacant lot. Try bachelor's buttons, marigolds, or other such annuals,
or try the seed of a grass that is a different shade than the area in which
you are sprinkling.
- Photocopy flyers with art or messages and leave them under car windshield
wipers, in mailboxes, hang them up...
- Put up signs with faery phrases like "the gates are opening" (see the texts
list).
- Distribute seasonal decorations/greetings to anyone and everyone or all
over the place. For maximum effect, do it at least several months out of season,
and be sure to make use of holidays people normally don't care about (such
as Grandparents' Day), holidays from various religions (Hanukkah), or your
own birthday. Try pagan holidays too, especially Imbolc (Feb 2), the summer
solstice, Lughnasadh (Aug 1), and the autumn equinox (which haven't been blended
into other holidays, unlike Spring Equinox/Easter, Beltane/May Day, Samhain/Halloween
and Winter Solstice/ Christmas). For greater effect, engage in seasonal activities
out of season: go caroling on Halloween, trick-or-treating on Valentine's
Day, etc.
- Go into the center of your town/city during pre/post work/commuter rush
hour or during the lunch hour armed with a couple of big bottles of bubble
solution and blow rainbow bubbles over the self-absorbed worker drones.
- Photocopy pamphlets or flyers for your Discordian cabal and place them
under car windshield wipers or otherwise put them where people won't miss
them. If you haven't got a Discordian cabal, start one.
- Write messages on and beglitter paper money, such as a "fingerprint" of
glitter with the message "touched by a faerie".
- Sidewalk chalk art. Need we say more?
- Find yourself 7 poles or trees and weave an elven star with yarn. Hang
trinkets on it and pile offerings or such things at each pole.
- Donate books to the library with the note "donated by an elf" (or whatever
your kin may be).
- Go about a library or bookstore and put little bits of paper in books with
"THE MAGIC IS REAL" on one side and the other side stating "You have been
the target of a GlamourBomb. Pass it along to someone who needs a little magic
in their life."
- Tie good wishes on a tree in a public park with ribbons/scrolls.
- Wish bombs: get some of those plastic bubbles with rings or little things
that come from those 25 cent toy dispensers. Keep a few on you at all times.
When someone looks like they need a smile, pull one out, and say, "Here. this
is for you." Take the ring (or whatever) out of the bubble and hand it to
them. Then, blow into the bubble and close it up. "There. now the bubble has
a wish in it. and when you need it, make a wish and open it up and set it
free... then, blow into it and close it up and and pass it along."
- Dress the part. Use your imagination on this one. Wear green or rainbow
colours and faery dust.
- Enter a county fair with something fae, such as elderberry or dandelion
wine, or sculpture, photography, paintings, drawings, needlearts, "costume,"
etc. in appropriate themes and motifs.
- Scatter flower petals in/on places like subway stations, sidewalks, etc.
Cattail or cottonwood fluff is good too (just like in the movies!), especially
when there's no plants like this for miles.
- Exude glamour from your pores. Shoot it at people passing by.
- Music. Dance. Preferably in a public place. Dance in public fountains.
- Have exquisite sex and dedicate it as a ritual towards increasing the amount
of glamour in the world. Orgasm orgasm orgasm.
- Stickers, stickers, stickers. (Try Unamerican;
or Sticker Junkie
if you want to have your own made.)
- Ran-dumb sculptures of "found" stuff in visible places.
- Megaphone. Car (better yet bicycle, skateboard, or feet). Yell things.
Shakespeare is always fun to quote.
- Bacchus parties.
- Beltane carols at the Army Recruitment Center.
- Publick magick.
- Write messages on the white rubber line that runs around tennis balls and
toss them back in the game.
- Wander the city with a Sharpie pen in your pocket, using every public restroom
you can, and writing messages on the walls (or in other such places).
- Try making Ukranian-style decorated eggs (books on this are not hard to
find), decorated in an appropriately fey fashion. Use them alone or as the
container in a Classic Bomb (see #1).
- Cut out small squares (or other shapes) of construction paper and decorate
with stickers, glitter, or as you see fit. Leave these in pay phone change
slots, inside shoes or clothing pockets at department stores, anywhere you
can think of where someone buying an object would come across it.
- Mail appropriately be-glamoured greeting cards (especially out of season),
postcards, or other such treasures to random names pulled out of the phone
book or found on a Yahoo
people search. To exchange such things with somewhat likeminded folks
and maybe get cool ideas, try PostcardX.
- Make interesting little scuptures with an air-hardening or plastic clay
(such as Fimo or Sculpey) and use them as paperweights for your messages of
glamour that might otherwise get swept off wherever they're put.
- Collect rocks from public places, decorate, and strategically replace them
where you found them.
- Carry around a packet of blank notecards or business cards, a few coloured
pens, some stickers and glitter. Make a glamourbomb on the spot whenever you
see someone who seems to need one, or whenever the mood strikes.
- Hang decorated notes on the doorknobs of all the rooms in a hotel or apartment
building.
- Get a blank, printable magnetic sheet. Make little magnets with designs,
quotes or poetry on them. Cut apart and place on cars, file cabinets, phone
booths, display cases in the grocery store, anything a magnet will stick to.
- Mail/leave around mix tapes or mix CDs, or record yourself speaking appropriate
quotes or poetry. Try mini-discs (especially the sort which are shaped like
a business card) and record just a song or two on them.
- Make some kind of frameable (i.e., two-dimensional) glamourbomb. Frame
it using a frame that isn't brand new. Hang this up someplace you oughtn't
to, but other people will assume at first glance that it is supposed to be
there (the lobby of your apartment building, in a motel room, a quiet part
of a library...).
- Make travel or shipping tags out of cardstock, which request travel to
beautiful places, or to the Faerie realm, etc. Put them on out of place objects
or strange buildings. Put tags on lonely trees which say "Please send me to
the forest", or on people's cars requesting to be taken to the beach, park,
etc.
- Get washable paint in any colour you like, a pie plate, and an old towel.
Find a deserted parking lot. Pour paint into pie plate, dip bare feet in,
and walk/run around the lot, leaving coloured prints. Use the towel to wipe
off afterwards. You can dust the prints with glitter if you want, or spell
out a message with them if the lot is big enough.
- Paint a magical message on an old sheet (or other large piece of cloth)
using sparkly paint and glitter. Drape over a lonely-looking car.
- Add faery-related bookmarks to the web browsers on public computers (libraries,
school computer labs)... or change the home page, if possible.
- Make two sets of teeny tiny (about the size of the palm of your hand) wings,
or buy them. One: white, possibly sparkly, feathery, or both. The other: red
or black, and possibly bat-style. Attach to these as appropriate one doll
dressed as an angel, one doll dressed as your stereotypical devil. Affix these
winged creatures one to each shoulder in some fashion: on the shoulder, above
the shoulder on the end of a stick, suspended from a hat, or any other way
you can get the desired effect: an angel on one shoulder and a devil on the
other. Be seen with them. Converse with them, if need be.
For super-happy extra fun, incorporate a cellphone earbud/microphone in the
design and make sure the volume's turned up loud enough for passerby to hear
(but keep the thing far enough away from your own ear to avoid hearing damage),
conceal the wire and the cellphone, and have an accomplice or two play the
part(s) needed to fill in the blanks. (As a bonus, this can allow those who
have the spare time to be in on the mission but for some reason can't do the
active or physically present on the scene parts of it to participate.) The
truly gadget-creative could perhaps adapt the same sorts of design I've seen
in assorted shoulder-puppets at renfaires, and have a shoulder-thing that
moved apparently on its own.
Let your imagination go wild on the possible topics of conversation. What
would your personal angel and devil tempt you or entreat you to do? Who would
win? Why? Let your id and superego out to play in public. Verbalize the arguments
you have with yourself about not doing this or that because it would freak
the mundanes. Use caution in the public contemplation of illegal activities
and/or the sexual attractiveness of assorted people, as some people have no
sense of humor, and sometimes they can get violent or annoyingly law-person-involved
with it all.
Abandon stereotypical roles. Who says the angel has to be the good guy and
the devil has to be the bad guy? Who says it has to be good and evil? Perhaps
you can set your shoulders up with Grayface and Eris, or other appropriate
and personally significant avatars of vocal opposites who like to play out
their battles in your head. Around election times with a two-party election,
one could reasonably employ images of one candidate on either shoulder. (AzureLunatic)
- Dress like you just stepped through the veil. Sit in a public place with
some stationery, quill or other fancy writing utensil, along with whatever
other props you wish to bring, and sit and write in the public's full view.
Write in elaborate script no human has seen before, poems about the goings-on
of the Otherworld, or fill the page with mysterious pictures and symbols.
Leave as if you remembered you were late for something. "Forget"
the writings behind you for those people who have been curious about your
doings to investigate when you're gone. (Tala El'Shiharan)
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