2019: August 12th The Veils - Another Night on Earth

I've been on something of a kick with The Veils lately. This song... so good. Finn Andrews is, in my opinion, the heir to Nick Cave's throne. Not that Cave is going anywhere anytime soon, I hope. But there's an artistic comparison to be made, for sure.

**

Saturday night, K and I went to the theatre and saw Scary Stories to Tell In the Dark. It's not good.

I know, I know... what could go wrong? Well, for one, the framing device the filmmakers construct - a story about preteens that ride around on bikes and use walkie talkies to communicate during dangerous situations (sound familiar?; I can practically see the studio executives writing that in), situations that arise from the kids finding a mysterious book in a mysterious house and setting off strange events? It sucks. It's trite, completely unoriginal, and largely boring. Watching a movie that's this bad, I always go through about thirty to forty minutes of the, "Maybe it's just me..." phase, followed immediately by the, "Okay, if it's not me, what's wrong with it?" phase.

I really try. I do.

Finally, we get the "Well, how could they have done this better" phase. For this one, I think the better option would have been to invent a Cryptkeeper-like character or device and use that to introduce and/or narrate the 'Scary Stories' culled from the book. As it stands with this film, the framing device story involving the kids is about 90% of the screen time, and the Scary Stories are maybe 10%.

It is, however, visually and sonically really well made. And if you have younger children and want to get them on Horror, I'd definitely recommend this for them. And admittedly, the brief moments that bring the original stories from the books to life are pretty awesome, there just isn't nearly enough of them to make up for the rest.

**

Playlist from the last few days:

Waxwork Records - House of Waxwork Issue #1
Revolting Cocks Playlist
Drab Majesty - Careless
Beach House - Thank Your Lucky Stars
Beak> - L.A. Playback
Opeth - Still Life
Sunn O))) - Life Metal
High on Fire - The Art of Self Defense
The Veils - Nux Vomica
The Veils - Time Stays, We Go
The Veils - Total Depravity
Sleep - Dopesmoker
Ritual Howls - Rendered Armor
Deafheaven - Ordinary Corrupt Human Love

**

Today's spread:

Continuing the theme of larger ideas affecting everyday life. I'm really only feeling the barest beginnings of this, but it's there.