New Horror one-shot from Garth Ennis and John McCrea? SOLD! I feel like there's a kind of "bugs-in-the-mouth" Horror trope or maybe even sub genre out there, and it grosses me right the f*ck out. As it should be!
Ah! So now Megatron is in the tank form. Mike and I predicted (and hoped) it was way too early to turn him into Galvatron, so this explains everything. Proceed with blowing our minds yet again, Mr. Kirkman. You are oh so good at it!
Our year-end dose of Horror masquerading as Sword and Sandal pulp. Love The Savage Sword of Conan for so many reason - the black & white being chief among them - and it's become an institution in my life. Not every book I like does.
The cover says it all.
I feel like this book went bi-monthly at some point. I'm not sure, I just want more. Loving this because, I have ZERO idea where it's going. Can't ask for anything more than that.
Listen:
Last post, I wrote about Larry Fessenden and Glenn McQuaid's podcast Tales From Beyond the Pale. That wasn't the only Horror podcast I listened to on my recent trip to Dayton. We also dove into the first three episodes of Scott Derrickson, C. Robert Cargill and Ethan Hawke's Midnight Radio.
This one is spectacular, folks. Hawke plays a late night talk show host on a show about the strange and unexplainable in our world. Think Art Bell and Coast to Coast. Except darker.
There's a "topic of the week" approach inherent in the episode titles - The Phantom Cosmonauts; Night Tripping; Operation Wandering Soul - but all of this is slowly laying the groundwork for a fascinating over-arching plot. What that is yet, I can't quite guess. I see it coming in with some ideas and events that serve as through-lines to the episodes, but we're not there yet. Regardless, K and I are both chomping at the bit for the next episode, which I believe drops Thursday.
Playlist:
Van Halen - 1984
The Police - Outlandos D'Amour
Television - Marquee Moon
Soundgarden - SOMMS
Shellac - To All Trains
Opeth - Still Life
NΩX - T.S./Testimonium XII - Somniatoris Damnati (single)
Deafheaven - At Work In The Fields Of The Bomb EP
Steve Moore - Jimmy and Stiggs OST
Steve Moore - Christmas Bloody Christmas OST
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - From Her to Eternity
Young Widows - Settle Down City
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Henry's Dream
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - The Good Son
Jacszek - KWIATY
Burial - Untrue
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• Eight of Swords
• Nine of Wands
• Three of Swords
Only perseverance will pull me through. It's been a rough year, and hopefully some of that ends after I have surgery next week and they get this goddamn kidney stone out of me.
I was actually pretty disappointed to realize I don't really care for the new and supposedly final Ministry album. I kind of wish they'd gone out with HOPIUMFORTHEMASSES, which is a masterpiece, in my opinion. Still, Ministry rules and this song has been stuck in my head for days now.
Listen:
I didn't know about Larry Fessenden and Glenn McQuaid's Tales from Beyond the Pale podcast until recently while watching the special features on one of my Fessenden or McQuaid Blu-rays.
While driving back from Dayton yesterday, K and I listened to the first two episodes, directed by McQuaid and Fessenden respectively, and were pretty blown away. Essentially a variation on the serialized radio Horror that would make any EC comics fan feel warm and fuzzy, this was a really great surprise to find out about. We hit the final episode right at dusk as we were taking side roads back from Kentucky, and it was perfect.
Read:
I finished Stephen King and Peter Straub's The Talisman about a week or so ago. I can't say I was more fond of it this time than last time I read it. This book just goes on and on. So much so, I felt I needed a breather before jumping into my first time through Black House. So I picked up two books I've been meaning to read for years - Jarett Kabek's Motor Spirit: The Long Hunt for the Zodiac and its companion book, How to Find the Zodiac. I blew through the first book in a fews days and am starting the second now.
Playlist:
Butthole Surfers - Locust Abortion Technician
Ministry - HOPIUMFORTHEMASSES
Ministry - Hate to Go
Butthole Surfers - piouhgd
Young Widows - Settle Down City
Chat Pile - Who Love the Sun
Chat Pile - Cool World
Ramones - Road to Ruin
Hussalonia - Home Taping is Killing Me
Passenger Peru - Eponymous
Midnight Radio Podcast - Episodes 1: Phantom Cosmonauts
Midnight Radio Podcast - Episodes 2: Night Tripping
Midnight Radio Podcast - Episodes 3: Operation Wandering Souls Pt. 1
Tales from Beyond the Pale Podcast - Episode 1: Reappraisal (Glenn McQuaid)
Tales from Beyond the Pale Podcast - Episode 2: In the Wind (Larry Fessenden)
Card:
Ace of Disks:
Upcoming breakthrough on Earthly concerns. Hopefully that's my kidney stones, which I'm waiting to have surgery scheduled for the removal. Good fucking riddance!
I've been meaning to get around to this KEXP live performance from The Sword for a few weeks now. Placing it here so I finally remember.
Watch:
My friend Dennis first showed me seminal backwoods slasher Just Before Dawn back in the early 00s. This was pre-Blu-Ray, and I never would have guessed at the time that I'd have next to no opportunities to watch it again.
Criminally out of print for some time, Bloody Disgusting gave us the good news this week that one of the Producers finally won back the rights in court and a restoration edition is in the works.
Playlist:
Boards of Canada - Inferno
Anthrax - Cursum Perficio
Gnaw Their Tongues - All the Dread Magnificence of Perversity
Shadowlands - 001
My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult - Eponymous
Blackbraid - III
Blut Aus Nord - Memoria Vetusta II Dialogue with the Stars
Getting back to this new album from The Ocean, Solaris, I was shocked to find the penultimate track is a collaboration with the legendary Tangerine Dream! This album really goes to some deep, far out places, and nowhere is that more apparent than on this track.
NCBD:
The AI insanity continues. I'm telling you - I LOVE this book, but there are so many disturbing similarities to the dildos that populate "Amerigun" and our own timeline here in this country that every issues scares the shit out of me just as much as it puts a smile on my face.
I had completely forgotten about Ordained, but here we are with the fourth and final (?) issue!
After taking a break from Fraction and Jimenez's Batman for the duration of the "Bad Seeds" crossover, I'm not 100% certain I am jumping back on board with this new issue. But we'll see. Now that this whole Kingpin... I mean, Vandal Savage storyline is over, hopefully we can get back to some of the awesome storylines Fraction planted in the first year of the book, before editorial no doubt rammed a crossover event down everyone's throat.
Fuck yeah! Hammerfist issue three is here and this cover says it all! HELL PARTY!!!
Still on the fence with M.A.S.K., but I'm hanging on for those Micronauts!
Watch:
After missing it at not one but two Beyondfests in the last twelve months, I finally saw Tom Stern's The Hole Truth and Nothing Butt documentary on the Butthole Surfers. Man, this one was every bit as wonderful as I had anticipated!
The mix of archival footage, present-day interviews and animation/puppetry made for a deeply original feeling; closest thing I've seen to this was that Shane McGowan doc a couple years ago.
It was cool to see a lot of the stories confirmed; the tales my friends and I knew from back before internet proliferation, when people passed on stories about bands like this via word-of-mouth. Also interesting to see the Surfers - who I never really knew much about outside their music - as people. Also, some genuinely tear-jerking moments. Fantastic film.
Playlist:
Nun Gun - Mondo Decay
Algiers - Eponymous
QOTSA - Perfecth
Metallica - Ride the Lightning
Godflesh - Decay
Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - Shapes of Midnight
My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult - Confessions of a Knife
Genital Shame - Wellness Plan
Ministry - Hate To Go: Take Out Or Delivery
Portishead - Third
Opeth - Blackwater Park
The Ocean - Solaris
Anthrax - Cursum Perficio
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Eldritch Lace Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• Queen of Cups
• 13: Death
• King of Cups
Subconscious change is required for mastery.
I'm feeling embers beneath my feet; a change is coming, in how I approach myself. It might be something I don't want to deal with, but chances are, I'm going to have to.
After "chasing Halloween" for thirty-one days, I am waaay behind on new music, and I wanted to start with the Nabihah Iqbal's latest single, which I'm hoping this heralds a new album is on the horizon.
31 Days of Halloween:
Another 31 Days of Halloween wrapped up and what a blast! I LOVE doing this every year, and making the effort to fit some never-before-seen stuff in - as well as some long overdue rewatches (Trigger Man, The Warriors, Dreamscape) - really livened things up this year.
1) George A. Romero's Dawn of the Dead
2) V/H/S/ playlist (Amateur Night; Safe Haven; Slumber Party Alien Abduction; Bone Storm; Dreamkill)
3) The Warriors
4) Big Trouble in Little China
5) Dreamscape
6) Infirmary*
7) Beware Boiúna*
8) Milk & Serial
9) Pumpkinhead
10) Deathgasm (The Last Drive-In Presentation)
11) Pumpkinhead II: Blood Wings*
12) Carrie (Mike Flanagan)*/ John Carpenter's The Thing
13) The Roost / Return of the Living Dead III*
14) Trigger Man
15) Evil Dead Burn
16) Pulse*/ Lord of Tears*
17) Impetigore*/ Sator
18) My Soul To Take*/ The Serpent and the Rainbow
19) Terrifier
20) Evil Dead 2013/ All Hallows Eve
21) Crystal Lake*/ Friday the 13th
22) All Hallow's Eve 2*/ A Nightmare on Elm Street
23) The Last Drive-In Halloween House Party: John Carpenter's Body Bags/ WNUF Halloween Special*
24) The Cycle*/ The Howling
25) Dark and the Wicked/ Pet Sematary/ November
26) Cobweb/ Simpsons Treehouse of Horror VII and VIII
27) The Ninth Heart*/ Flatliners/ Suspiria
28) City of the Dead/ Treehouse of Horror VIX
29) The Rocky Horror Picture Show/ The Convent/ Lords of Salem
30) Earth vs. The Spider (The Last Drive-In presentation)/ Basket Case* (The Last Drive-In Presentation)
31) X-Files: Humbug/ Halloween/ Night of the Demons/ Trick 'r Treat/ Night of the Living Dead
One of those first-time viewings was Frank Henenlotter's Basket Case, which I'd dismissed for years when I was younger and then just never got around to. Turns out I really dug it; I had no idea of the plot specifics, so the fact that it takes place amidst the misfits of late 70s/early 80s 42nd street was a nice surprise.
As soon as it was over, I had the urge to dig into the old "Humbug" episode of The X-Files. I've talked about this in these pages previously, but I was never a huge X-Files guy; a few years ago Mr. Brown gave me a list of the best standalone episodes of the series, and K and worked through that list and very much enjoyed it. This was on that list, was in fact probably our favorite.
Watch:
I'm also really behind on trailers - although there haven't been a lot that moved a needle with me. I'd heard this title several times over the last couple weeks but not read or seen anything about it.
I only had to make thirty-six seconds into this trailer before I turned it off and added The River to my "looking forward to" list for early next year. Now, since it's a Blumhouse flick, there is a very real possibility that, during subsequent theatre trips over the intervening two and a half months until the film's release, I will see this trailer so many times that I will lose all interest. For now, though, I'm in.
Playlist:
The Butthole Surfers - Psychic... Powerless... Another Man's Sac
John Carpenter w/ Alan Howarth - Halloween III: The Season of the Witch OST
Carter Burwell - Blood Simple OST
Opeth - A Dirge for November (single)
Nun Gun - Mondo Decay
Secret Chiefs 3 Traditionalists - La Mani Destre Recise Degli Ultimi Uomimi
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Eldritch Lace Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• Queen of Cups
• Four of Cups
• Nine of Swords
Emotional intelligence. Something missed. And here's something - looking around online at different interpretations of the Nine of Swords, here's something I'd not seen the card associated with "3:00 AM Dread." Interestingly enough, I've had a touch of that lately. So the cards appear to be telling me the existential dread keeping me awake is because I'm not quite as smart as I think I am - I missed something.
From their 1993 album Consumed, a favorite from start to finish for more years than not, at this point. The opening samples from Flatliners always get me.
31 Days of Halloween:
1) George A. Romero's Dawn of the Dead
2) V/H/S/ playlist (Amateur Night; Safe Haven; Slumber Party Alien Abduction; Bone Storm; Dreamkill)
3) The Warriors
4) Big Trouble in Little China
5) Dreamscape
6) Infirmary*
7) Beware Boiúna*
8) Milk & Serial
9) Pumpkinhead
10) Deathgasm (The Last Drive-In Presentation)
11) Pumpkinhead II: Blood Wings*
12) Carrie (Mike Flanagan)*/ John Carpenter's The Thing
13) The Roost / Return of the Living Dead III*
14) Trigger Man
15) Evil Dead Burn
16) Pulse*/ Lord of Tears*
17) Impetigore*/ Sator
18) My Soul To Take*/ The Serpent and the Rainbow
19) Terrifier
20) Evil Dead 2013/ All Hallows Eve
21) Crystal Lake*/ Friday the 13th
22) All Hallow's Eve 2*/ A Nightmare on Elm Street
23) The Last Drive-In Halloween House Party: John Carpenter's Body Bags/ WNUF Halloween Special*
24) The Cycle*/ The Howling
25) Dark and the Wicked/ Pet Sematary/ November
26) Cobweb/ Simpsons Treehouse of Horror VII and VIII
27) The Ninth Heart*/ Flatliners/ Suspiria
28) City of the Dead/ Treehouse of Horror VIX
29) The Rocky Horror Picture Show/ The Convent/ Lords of Salem
Every time I watch Rob Zombie's Lords of Salem, I'm struck by how sad it is, how beautiful it is, and how absolutely, gloriously blasphemous it is. I like most of Zombie's films to one degree or another, but this film is beyond anything else he's ever done.
We also watched The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and it's funny that I never realized Patricia Quinn is in both films. That's another thing I've always dug about Zombie's films - how he casts his heroes.
Playlist:
John Carpenter w/ Alan Howarth - Halloween III: The Season of the Witch OST
Goblin - Phenomena OST
My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult - Confessions of a Knife
From Jonathan Grimm's Eldritch Lace Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• 21: The World
• 20: Judgement
• Five of Wands
Faced with stagnation, pivot into what comes next.
I read this twofold. First, that my annual Halloween celebration is nearly over and once it is, I'll pivot back into work mode on the book (been slow and feeling a little frustrating, as I've mentioned here recently). Also, I think I need to skip ahead of the scene I'm stuck on and work on the scene after in order to free myself of the block.
