I had no pre-existing idea of Ships in the Night when this popped up in my youtube feed, but upon hitting play, I was definitely hooked. It's definitely nothing new - we've been recycling the 80s for longer than that era's aesthetics lasted the first time, but it continues to provide something some of us seem to need. Making peace with the past, perhaps? Either way, I'll be checking out more of Alethea Leventhal's music on the Bandcamp right over HERE.
NCBD:
The final issue of Duke before we switch over to follow the story in next month's Destro mini-series. I'll never be able to score this cover, but I'd like to.
Just f*cking end already. Goddamn me for my completionist leanings.
Thank god you've returned, SIKTC. Help me wash the taste of Fall of X from my mouth.
Me thinks this issue of The Six Fingers is going to be a bit gnarly.
It's over. TMNT 150. Wow. I started reading this book in 2012 when they were three issues in and I haven't stopped. What a ride - still the best reboot of a preexisting property I've ever seen.
Again, this last little bit of the Krakoan era is just killing me.
Watch:
I've been in the mood for Folk Horror again lately - seems to be a recurring taste this time of year - so I consulted my Severin Films' All the Haunts Be Ours and pulled out one of the few films in it I had not watched yet, Brunello Rondi's Il Demonio from 1963:
I feel like the B&W photography in this film is second only to that in The Third Man. A revolting, frustrating tale of a woman persecuted and exploited by her community, this one will piss you off even as it leaves you swooning over the imagery on the screen.
Playlist:
Zeal & Ardor - Eponymous
Zeal & Ardor - Devil Is Fine
Zeal & Ardor - Stranger Fruit
Melvins - Tarantula Heart
Moon Wizard - Sirens
Moon Wizard - Ukiyo (single)
The Veils - ...And Out of the Void Came Love
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• Page of Swords
• Eight of Wands
• XVI: The Tower
Page or Princess of Swords is fitting: Just. Breathe. Things are a mess. Impetuousness. Overcome by the rapid communication suggested by the Eight of Wands. This leads to a paradigm shift.
New full-length GREIF is out August 23rd. No pre-order yet, but I'll be watching like the proverbial hawk.
Watch:
This past Sunday, K and I met my parents at the local theatre to see Guy Ritchie's newest film, The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare. Here's the standard trailer; it doesn't show too much:
Another super solid, big-budget action flick by Mr. Ritchie. This type of flick isn't usually my bag, however, I've maintained since the advent of the Pirates of the Caribbean films that there's room in my life for the occasional big-budget, studio action film if they sate certain personal affectations of mine. I couldn't specifically explain that other than to say, "I know it when I see it." Guy Ritchie almost always fits like a glove. I suspect that has A LOT to do with my love of his seminal film Snatch - one of my all-time favorite flicks, and I'm fine with that bias.
I'm not going to say where I unexpectedly heard this song married to Horrific imagery recently, but man was it effective! Danzig's first four albums stand apart from everything else he's done; as much as I like some of the records that came after Chuck Biscuits, Eerie Von and John Christ left the band and Rick Rubin stopped co-producing, there's just something so perfect about the heavy blues influence on those first four. Of those, Danzig II: Lucifuge will always be my favorite. I'll never forget the first time I saw a friend's older brother wearing a Lucifuge shirt - I didn't know what it was and it kind of scared me in that 80s/early 90s way of, "What the hell is this guy into?"
That's probably around the time the album came out in 1990 and I would have been sixteen. Before the internet, and not so far removed from all the weird fears being a small child during the Satanic Panic instilled in me for a short time. There was a certain... haunted feeling to that era. Everything from the tv news to paperback books to Inside Edition (remember that pile of sh*t?) told you there were secret societies of Satan Worshippers in every neighborhood, just waiting to sacrifice any unlucky folks they happened to target to their dark lord. I actually pine for that feeling now, but not in the way so many do by rejecting everything known in favor of their opinions, fears and fantasies, and empirical data doesn't mean anything to our society as a whole anymore.
Anyway, I cracked Lucifuge out and listened to it over the weekend and it doesn't disappoint.
Watch:
This trailer for the new film Pandemonium popped up in my youtube feed two days ago. I have no pre-existing knowledge of this one, or anyone involved in making it, but I'm definitely intrigued. Here's the trailer I half-watched:
Also, wanted to point out that, thanks to Warren Ellis's newsletter Orbital Operations, I've found the first watchable version of Andrej Żuławski's On the Silver Globe on youtube I've encountered.
I've seen mention for a few years about this popping up for years, but whenever I go looking for it - an irregular occurrence for sure, but one I do periodically undertake, I find ones with awful pictures. Not this, which you can see HERE. I haven't sit down to watch this yet, but it's in the cards for the next few days.
Thanks to Heavenisanincubator for putting this one on my radar to begin with.
Read:
I am about a third of the way through Ivy Tholen's Tastes Like Candy 2: Sugarless and I am here to tell you, it's fantastic!
Full disclosure: We recently invited Ms. Tholen to be a guest on The Horror Vision to discuss her novels, and she not only accepted but also sent us digital advance reader copies. That's a moot point, though, because I'd been waiting for this one regardless. If you read the first, this is a great continuation. If you haven't read the first and you love Slasher Flicks, THIS is for you.
Playlist:
Black Sabbath - Master of Reality
Black Sabbath - Technical Ecstasy
Moon Wizard - Sires
The Veils - ...And Out of the Void Came Love
The Damned - Night of the Living Damned (Thank You, Mr. Brown!)
High on Fire - Cometh the Storm
Melvins - Tarantula Heart
Ike Reilly - Poison the Hit Parade
Mike Doughty - Live From Ken's House
Danzig - Danzig II: Lucifuge
Ministry - Hopiumforthemasses
Witchfinder - Hazy Rites
Man Man - On Oni Pond
Ozzy Osbourne - Blizzard of Oz
Led Zeppelin - In Through the Out Door
Jimmy Buffet - Good Luck
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• Ace of Cups
• X: Wheel of Fortune
• III: The Empress
A bird' s-eye view of this (all I have time for at the moment) is quite soothing to a massive stress bomb that has gone off in my life. Ace of Cups is the card that anchors this to a positive interpretation, something I really needed at the moment. Emotional Breakthrough, "Karma" and Fertility, in an abbreviated three-card reading.
Yesterday, I began my day with some TV on the Radio. Man, I miss these guys. Technically, I don't think they ever actually broke up; however, their most recent record, Seeds, came out a decade ago now, and their hiatus has lasted just about as long.
Mr. Brown recently pointed out that the new Chelsea Wolfe album I've been spinning so much was produced by TVOTR's Dave Sitek, so maybe that's why I've been thinking of them lately.
Interestingly enough, Sitek also produced Scarlett Johansson's 2008 album of Tom Waits' covers, Anywhere I Lay My Head. I remember having an advance copy of that back when it came out, but I don't remember a single thing about what the record actually sounds like.
Watch:
Kimo Stamboel's new film Dancing Village: The Curse Begins recently received a trailer. The only film I know by Stamboel is 2019's The Queen of Black Magic, but it's a f**king DOOZY to say the least.
I watched about half of this trailer and am totally in. There's something so visceral about Stamboel's work. Some of it's the setting—the way he uses the jungle—I can almost feel the humidity and discomfort, the dirt and insects. But there's also an almost Body Horror element to some of his kills. They really leave an impression.
The idea that this will be in selected theatres - I'd imagine I have almost no hope of seeing this in Clarksville, but then again, I've been surprised a lot lately by what's come through my town. So we'll see.
Playlist:
TVOTR - Nine Types of Light
TVOTR - Dead Science
TVOTR - Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes
Moon Wizard - Sirens
Deftones - Gore
Ministry - Hopiumforthemasses
Adam Kesher - Eponymous
Justin Hamline - The House With Dead Leaves
Blackbraid - Blackbraid II
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band - Lick My Decals Off, Baby
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• Three of Swords
• Six of Cups
• Queen of Pentacles
Turbulence, Pleasure and Fertility, which sounds like another way of saying from Chaos comes opportunity.
Another advance single from Barry Adamson's upcoming Cut to Black album dropped on Monday and it is fantastic! You can pre-order the new album HERE.
NCBD:
Light week, as I'm trimming a few titles from the Pull:
Ash Williams, you rogue! Only three issues left after this one (I think). Loving it!
At this point, this is easily my most anticipated book each month. The depth of character research and building that's going on here is awesome, and I'm actually excited to see more of the Cobra-La folks.
Nice revisiting J.C. again. I dug the previous issue quite a bit; such old-school Vertigo flavor.
Just riding this out. My malaise with the current X-Books doesn't have anything to do with this title, but they're all suffering from this rapid decline. Only one issue left of this series after this.
Watch:
I only watched the first 20 seconds of this trailer for Byte, a film I had not previously heard of, but those 20 seconds sold me!
Low-budget werewolf movies don't always work, but I'm hoping this one will.
Chelsea Wolfe - She Reaches Out to She Reaches Out to She
The Jesus Lizard - Mouth Breather 45 single (Sunday You Need Love cover B-Side)
The Jesus Lizard - Puss 45 single (No B-Side)
The Jesus Lizard - Wheelchair Epidemic 45 single (Dancing Naked Ladies B-Side)
Gogol Bordello - Gypsy Punks: Underdog World Strike
Melvins/Lustmord - Pigs of the Roman Empire
Perturbator - Lustful Sacraments
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• XI: Justice
• Knight of Swords
• XV: The Devil
Justice or Lust in the Crowley/Harris deck again! Funny, because this card was in the #3 position two posts ago, and yesterday had VII The Chariot in the #2 position. Funny because I relate these cards, and they seem to be showing a process that is reversing itself. I'm just not quite sure what that process is. Also, maybe that feels like a bit of a reach, but my edict is to prevent myself from overthinking these when I do them, and that was definitely the first thing I 'saw' in the cards.
So what else do we have there then? Knight of Swords, or the Firey aspect of Air. This suggests force of Will tempered by Intellect so as to avoid conflict. The Devil has so many attributions, many of them quite fanciful. One I always keep in mind right off the bat is materialism over spiritualism.
So Primordial forces (which we will pragmatically interpret here as uncontrollable mental or physical attributes - anger, fear, perhaps even logic - that need to be tempered by tempered by Will and a sharp eye on motivations.
I'm not entirely sure this works for me - that's a lie, it does - but I want to keep it close and think about it. Might be telling me some things I don't want to hear at the moment concerning work.
I know it's summer now, as one of the rituals that eased in last year during my first full summer in Tennessee was Black Sabbath's Eponymous debut becoming my 'first thing in the morning' listen. This is no doubt because, for as long as I've loved this record, it will always remind me of two very particular summers—one when I was a Junior in High School and one when I was a year or two out of High School. I listen to this year-round, but since moving back to the middle of the country and the climate I grew up with Sabbath's debut has come back to an association of hanging outdoors in the green environment of the midwest's humid, sub-tropical environment.
Watch:
Holy cow! I completely missed that Larry Fessenden's Blackout hit VOD this past Friday! I remedied that right quick, let me tell you!
I really dug this one, but at this point, that's no surprise. I wouldn't say this is anywhere near my favorite film by Mr. Fessenden, but its ability to mix an almost regional approach with a fairly stacked cast reminded me of Harmony Korine's Gummo - although the subject matter and tone are nothing like that film. This environmentally conscious, small-town set film does some pretty interesting things with the concept of lycanthropy, in a tone that will feel familiar to those viewers who have been with Mr. Fessenden for a long time. Reminded me quite a bit of his 1991 film No Telling, a favorite of mine from the Director's oeuvre.
Playlist:
Black Sabbath - Eponymous
Black Sabbath - Paranoid
Barry Adamson - Cut to Black (pre-release singles)
Zen Guerilla - Positronic Raygun
Adam Egpy Mortimer - The Obelisk
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• II High Priestess
• VII The Chariot
• Page of Cups
Of particular interest to me this morning is the High Priestess in the starting position. This is the middle pillar of the sephirothic Tree of Life, and thus concerns concerns the descent of the Supernal into the lower, knowable realms and the ascent of the aspirant to higher plateaus. Taken with The Chariot - the origin of ideas - and the Page (Princess of Cups), which can indicate "Dreams become Reality," I would say this is a nice nod toward a path that might provide the possibility for my work to emerge into a higher (more successful) realm.
Still has the power to bring tears to my eyes, even after all this time, even after I've pretty much disengaged from everything Gonzalez has done since (except the Knife + Heart OST). Hearing this reminds me of the smoldering possibilities that still seemed to exist in 2011. Those are all but gone now, as we accept the shitty future the Corporations have made for us. Backed into a corner, hindsight isn't just nostalgic, it's paralyzing.
What a lead-in to our next topic of discussion...
Watch:
Heed my warning: much as I expected, if you live in the US, Civil War might F**K you up.
Another five-star nightmare from Alex Garland. I'm telling you, I've read all his books and seen all his movies - he never fails. This latest is possibly the most nerve-racking, terrifying film I've seen in years. K has had considerable PTSD from the flick, and I get it. I was literally terrified for the characters (one in particular) for pretty much the entirety of the film. Also, super cool that Garland still uses Geoff Barrow and Ben Salisbury for every score, and on top of that, there are not one but TWO Suicide tracks in the film. I love how, in the past year, I've now heard Suicide in a major theatrical release and Throbbing Gristle's "Hamburger Lady" in two (Love Lies Bleeding and V/H/S/85; I guess the latter isn't a major theatrical release, but I saw it in a theatre, so it felt like one at the time).
Read:
I had an insanely relaxing weekend—well, other than the anxiety from Civil War—reading comics. First, when my Drinking with Comics cohost Mike Shinabargar and his wife came down to visit us last weekend, he brought my Chicago Comics Pull down. This meant I could finally read the entirety of Garth Ennis and Jacen Burrows' The Ribbon Queen from start to finish.
This is easily my favorite Garth Ennis comic since Preacher. There - I said it. Man, this was just... perfect. A story of revenge set amidst a backdrop of the Me-Too and BLM movements in 2020, the characters are fantastically conceived, established and developed, and the situations are tense and beautifully woven together with one of the most horrific 'monsters' I've seen in quite some time. Ennis is one of the few writers in comics who can so effortlessly blend the social dramas of our time with pure nightmare fuel.
After watching the above episode of Cartoonist Kayfabe, I felt compelled to dig in the box of old Punisher comics I pulled from my parents' house last year right before they moved and see if I did indeed own any Punisher War Zone. As I thought, I had issue one, but I also had 2-4, so I did a re-read Sunday.
I really love how the CK boys add a level of artistic context I would normally never possess for books like this, and I thoroughly enjoyed this one. I have A LOT of old Punisher comics - the ones that have always traveled with me wherever I move are the original 80s mini-series, about the first 17 or so of the original ongoing 80s series, and the first 8 issues of Punisher War Journal (also 80s). My actual Frank Castle collection is at least 3x that size, though, and includes a lot of issues I bought as they came out, but which I'm not so sure about. The Punisher was one of those characters whose popularity in the 80s mandated he be strip-mined well into the mid-90s and the books and character suffered for it. I think War Zone was about where I checked out, hence why I only have those first four issues, which sucks because I didn't finish out what I'm now remembering is a pretty damn good story about Frank infiltrating the Carbone crime family. That means I'll be checking some back issue bins at Rick's Comic City and online this week, looking to find the rest of that storyline (seems to be up through issue 11).
Playlist:
Dödsrit - Nocturnal Will
M83 - Hurry Up, We're Dreaming
!!! - Myth Takes
Dödsrit - Nocturnal Will
King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard - PetroDragonic Apocalypse
Ghost - Opus Eponymous
Anthrax - Persistence of Time
High on Fire - Cometh the Storm (pre-release singles)
Suicide - Eponymous
Jimmy Buffet - Living and Dying in 3/4 Time
Turnstile - Glow On
Idles - Tangk
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• Page (Princess ) of Cups
• Queen of Cups
• XI: Justice
I progression, I think, from my previous spread. Emotions are still high, but I'm keeping myself in check. I have a feeling this is a recurring cycle to the point that I could probably graph it, so I'm going to add a piece of metadata to this and my previous post, maybe even work back using the search function for keywords like "irritation" and "tolerate" so I can possibly get an even more accurate idea of how often and in what 'pattern' this occurs.
The XI, which is Lust in the Crowley/Harris deck, is a nod toward the primordial power of Anger, however, it can also occasionally indicate a possible Lunar influence. That should be easy enough to map. I used to keep a moon phase widget this site, however, those always break. Might look for another one and begin adding that data to this section of the page, as I would be interested how this might line up with lunar cycles.
