Computer Blue

 

From possibly the greatest album of the 1980s. This will probably be taken down by the estate, even though I'm not trying to do anything here other than spread love for one absolutely amazing song. Listen to the keys below the surface. Also, just listen to the way this song does a complete transformation halfway through. I would be hard-pressed to think of a song that sounds more progressively 80s, and by that I mean it doesn't sound dated. Or nostalgic, exactly, but still futuristic, in the way that 80s Psyber Punk still feels futuristic, even though we've moved beyond or outright incorporated so much of its textures into the fabric of our everyday world.  

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NCBD:

HOLY SHIT! How are these covers just getting better and better? I believe this is the penultimate issue of the series, and I will most definitely be sad to see it go. I'll now follow Daniel Warren Johnson anywhere he chooses to go.

Issue #1 of Red Room has been banging around in my head for the last month, and I'm psyched to jump back into it with the second issue!

I didn't realize That Texas Blood was returning so quickly! Very cool; I loved the first arc and can't wait to jump into the second. A suitable replacement for Southern Bastards (for the moment).

The finale! I'll probably be re-reading this series start to finish now that it's done.

If that cover doesn't evoke Clive Barker, I don't know what does.

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Playlist:

Atrium Carceri - Kapnobatai

White Zombie - Astro-Creep 2000 

White Zombie - La Sexorcisto 

Not a lot of music today, as I was fully enraptured with the 22nd installment of Bret Easton Ellis's The Shards. This is not only the best thing he's written - hard for me to say that considering how much I love Lunar Park - but his readings have become wickedly engaging. The interplay between Abby Malory and young Bret blew me away.

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Card:

So, I canceled the meet-up with my old friend and postponed the posting of my nosleep serial. Lots of reasons to go ahead with both, and as this card suggests maybe I should have. The meet-up was a little outside my control, the nosleep postponement was all me second-guessing myself. Bad idea? Maybe, but I genuinely think there is something bigger the post can be than what it is. Better. I'll give it a week. Then it's on.

 

Babe, I'm Just a Spiraling Fool

 

This song will never get old. One of the first Zeppelin songs I heard, back in high school when I discovered them, and still a favorite.

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Watch:

I finally saw Kurtis David Harder's 2019 film Spiral yesterday on Shudder:

 

Really dug this one. Great flow; this film really makes you feel a mounting expectation for evil, and then delivers with a totally nihilistic ending.

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Playlist:

Pixies - Trompe le Monde

The Kills - Midnight Boom

The Black Keys - Magic Potion

Prince and the Revolution - Purple Rain

The Fixx - Reach the Beach 

Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin I 

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Card:

Continuing a return to my original Thoth Deck: 

With my Reddit Nosleep series starting today and a meet-up with an old friend wherein I may pitch a collaborative project just because I love working with the person and haven't in a looong time, I'm definitely starting some journeys.

Halloween The Kills Vs. Candyman and the Midnight Boom

How about some music from The Kills to kick off our week? Kinda fits with one of the trailers below, so why not. Also, I was inspired to dig out Midnight Boom for the first time in quite a while yesterday and it's probably not going away any time soon. The Kills been absent from my listening habits of late, time to change that. I love this album.

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Watch:

I was finally able to sit down and watch Damian McCarthy's feature film debut Caveat the other day on Shudder. WOW. If Censor is almost guaranteed to end up in my top ten of 2021, I'd say the same for this one. I absolutely loved the suspense Caveat creates and sustains with limited location and budget. I can't wait to see what McCarthy does next, especially since this will no doubt net him a bigger budget:

Also, a couple of HUGE Horror Movie trailers dropped since my last post. First up, Halloween Kills, which, as I've stated here previously, I have some reservations about, but will definitely be plopping my arse into a theatre seat opening weekend, regardless:  

 

Next, a movie I have no idea what to expect from but am pretty excited for nonetheless.

 

Finally, this isn't a movie, but I've been waiting for it for a while now:

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Playlist:

Perturbator - Lustful Sacraments

Pixies - Trompe le Monde

Pixies - Doolittle

Valkyrie - Fear

Pixies - Beneath the Eyrie

The Kills - Midnight Boom 

Low Cut Connie - Hi Honey

Zen Guerilla - Positronic Raygun

The Darts - I Like You But Not Like That

Deafheaven - 10 Years Gone

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Card:

 When things are too good to be true, we second guess them? This is (maybe) a direct commentary on my hemming and hawing about putting my first story on Nosleep. I know the story is good, however, I keep second-guessing how it will fit in with their guidelines. I'm posting the first installment Tuesday no matter what, so I guess we'll see. And with so definitive a statement, why worry?

Censor

 

Oh, 1990s music videos - so very easy to spot even if you don't know the song. I've had this one in my head for about a week, and it's nice to be kind of obsessed with the Pixies again! I read something recently that posited that, with Kim Deal's reduced input on Trompe le Monde, it's essentially pretty close to a solo Frank Black album, and thinking about that while spinning through it multiple times over the last few days, yeah. I can totally see that. Really matches up to that first Frank Black solo era (in my thinking, that's Frank Black - Eponymous up to and including Cult of Ray).

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Watch:

 

Censor dropped recently and I finally had a chance to watch it last night. Wow. I am so impressed with this flick, the feature-length debut by Writer/Director Prano Baily-Bond. Visually, this one has such a distinctive look, largely because of the lighting. Censor takes place in the 80s - during the Video Nasties era to be specific - but the film doesn't play up the 80s-ness that a lot of other films would. Instead, it lives and breathes in the textures of analog, and nowhere is that more apparent than in the set design and approach to the lighting. There are also ongoing tweaks to the aspect ratio, which sneaks up on you at strange moments and really adds to the otherworldly feel Baily-Bond executes in every single shot. At no time does this film rest on the laurels it establishes simply via subject matter. And Raised By Wolves's Niamh Algar kills it in the lead.

Also, goddamn Michael Smiley is fantastic in EVERYTHING.

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Playlist:

Steve Moore - VSW OST

Vaguess - Bodhi Collection

Pixies - Beneath the Eyrie

Pixies - Trompe le Monde

Various - Playlist to Joe Begos's Bliss

Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers - Moanin' 

Charles Mingus - Blues & Roots (Mono)

Diatribe - Odite sermonis EP

Sunken - Livslede

Bells Into Machine - Eponymous

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Card:

Well, The Moon card literally lept out of the deck at me when I went to do my pull, so I guess I'm misunderstanding or missing something. I have to say, I feel perpetually overwhelmed by Tarot lately. 

Ordinary Fascist

 

A little Bells Into Machines to start our Wednesday. If you're unfamiliar or haven't heard their 2018 Eponymous full-length, I cannot recommend it enough. I kind of forgot about this one after hearing it initially around the time of its release, almost like it made a lackluster impression on me. After digging it back out earlier in the week, I can't stop listening to it. 

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NCBD:

Seriously, I don't know how this many issues of ASM in such a short succession isn't getting on my nerves, but there's such a big picture going on at the moment, I just want to read a new one every damn week, and Marvel is pretty much accommodating me.

Finally! Home Sick Pilots returns with a new arc. Love this book; its weird mash-up of Horror tropes and Mech fiction is so unique and darn right amazing to take in at the eyes.

The climax of what is undoubtedly the best mini-series of 2021, and I absolutely MUST have this cover!

Not 100% certain I'm going to dig this book, but I'll give it a shot. We must be in the golden age of Comic Book Cover art, 'cause here's another great one.

I feel like TMNT must be bi-weekly at this point, because I just read 117 like a week ago.

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Playlist:

Bells Into Machines - Eponymous

Anthrax - I'm The Man EP

Perturbator - Lustful Sacraments

Vreid -  Wild North West

Tennis System - Technicolor Blind

Steve Moore - VFW OST

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Card:

 

Two separate but easily juxtaposed events that directly preceded my pull last night caused me to have a breakthrough. I now believe I know what the Devil/Wheel cycle I've been caught in for the last week or so was trying to tell me, and I drew IV: The Emperor with that query in mind - am I correct in this revelation?

I'd say this means yes. 

These Arms Are Snakes

 

In honor of the fact that These Arms Are Snakes has once again reunited for a show (Seatle, WA). Hopefully, there's new music coming, miss these guys.

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Watch:

Evil came back in a BIG way this past Sunday. I'll spare you my annoyance at having to sub to yet another streamer, this time Paramount +, because as it happened, I got two months for .99. Plus, honestly, this show is so freaking great, I would totally pay whatever the usual price is. Here's the trailer for season two:

While we were on Paramount, I remembered another show I'd been curious about, Strange Angel lived there. This one came out a few years ago, did two seasons and I'm not sure if it wrapped up or was canceled. I also wasn't sure I'd dig it, but Strange Angel is about Rocket Propulsion Engineer Jack Parsons, one of the men who designed the propulsion that put us on the moon. Parsons was also hand-picked by Aleister Crowley to run the California chapter of his occult organization.

 

From what I've seen so far I'm intrigued, even if the show appears to be "Hollywooding" up Crowley's organization as animal/virgin sacrifices, which of course they were not. The show is based on the book of the same name by George Pendle, which I didn't read, although starting around 2002 I read probably just about everything else I could find about Parsons, whose mix of military and the Occult absolutely fascinated me for a time. Still does, really, which is why I'm going to - for now at least - continue with the show.

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Playlist:

Entropy - Liminal

Deftones - Gore

Celtric Frost - To Mega Therion

Chris Isaak - Heart Shaped World

Numenorean - Adore

Lustmord - Heresy

These Arms Are Snakes - Easter 

Tape Waves - Bright

Cathedral Bells - Ether

Bells Into Machines - Eponymous

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Card:

 

Missi is going to laugh at me, but I still can't figure out what I'm not letting go of! I shuffled the HELL out of the deck for this draw, and as the saying, such is Ka.

Up All Night (Reading Comics)

 

I broke out El-P's 2007 I'll Sleep When You're Dead recently and found myself unable to get this particular song out of my head. I love where this man has gone with his craft, both as an artist and producer, since I found this album in a thrift store circa 2010 and was immediately hooked by the Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me sample that opens it.

 

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READ:

I've read quite a few comics recently that surprised the hell out of me. Here's a rundown:

I mentioned wanting to read this after hearing writer Al Ewing interviewed on Marvel's Pull List Podcast, so I found it on Kindle and dug in. What a pleasant surprise! This almost feels like Neil Gaiman's Sandman at times, the way the story weaves through different iterations and incarnations of classic Folklore characters and situations. There's a charming complexity in Loki: AOA, which is part heist film, part fantasy, and part straight-up classic Marvel Super-Hero. Also, I'm really loving the art by Lee Garbett, who if this is any indication, is a criminally underrated illustrator.

If you want to know more, there's a great review of the Last Days chapter of the Loki saga over on Slings and Arrows HERE.

Next up, Venom 200 did some things I never would have seen coming from a mile away:

I won't spoil anything here, I'd rather just post more of this awesome cover art, however, let me just say that I've always had a bit of an issue with Brock as a 'good guy' character based on his early, heinous crimes after acquiring the symbiote. In fact, after buying and getting rid of the first issue of the original Venom series (Lethal Protector? How lame) (but if I'd held onto it despite my ire, I could sell that issue for a pretty f*&king penny today) in short order, I did not read another Venom book until a friend turned me onto Rick Remender's run, which eschewed Brock for Flash Thompson. I still feel that was the pinnacle for the character as a hero, instead of a villain.

That said, Venom 200 alleviated most of my "Brock issues," and ultimately changed the course of the character (hopefully) for all time. Because of this, and because the aforementioned Mr. Ewing is taking over the book from departing rock star Donny Cates, I'll probably stick around for a while. 

Finally, I picked up Planet-Size X-Men purely as an investment. I have NO intention of reading any X-books despite this purchase, but I did read and kind of marvel at the direction the franchise has taken. But I am SO tired of these characters, regardless of this drastic new direction, so while I enjoyed reading this simply for big picture reasons, this is where I leave you, oh brotherhood of dreary mutants. 

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Playlist:

Slope - Street Heat

Turnstile - Nonstop Feeling

Nick Mason and Rick Fenn - White of the Eye OST

The Jon Spender Blues Explosion - Now I Got Worry

Lustmord - Heresy

Various - Twin Peaks (Music From the Limited Event Series)

John Carpenter - Lost Themes III: Alive After Death 

Pixies - Trump le Monde

 

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Card:

 Okay, I really have no idea what the hell I'm NOT seeing here, but the cycle remains. 

Slope

 

This is a 'Thank the Universe for my friends" post, because both of the two things I'm posting here, I NEVER would have found and/or given the time of day to without my friends. First up, Jacob, who sent me Slope's new album on Apple Music yesterday and totally picked up the later part of my day. This album rules! It starts almost like NIN's Broken, with a slowly building noise, then leaps into something that initially sounded a lot like nu-metal to me. I was just about to click off when the first change in the song hit, and I was roped back in - and from there, I could no stop. This record is fantastic - reminds me SO MUCH of Infectious Grooves' debut album, which I desperately wish I still had, 'cuz it's streaming on nothing. In the interim, Slope will help (or push me to buy the CD on ebay for $20 - I had the cassette).

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Watch:

MODOK - First: Patton Oswalt can do no wrong.

MODOK has long been a joke between myself and my good friend Joe.Baxter, the other half of on-again-off-again musical project Christian Fisting. In fact, if you could go to the Christian Fisting website (which is down) , you would see that MODOK even figured into our fake 'origin story' that we wrote for ourselves back in, oh, 2011 or so. Anyway, apparently Joe and I weren't the only people who found MODOK comical, and I glad of that after seeing this INSANE Marvel/HULU collaboration. Part Robot Chicken, part... I don't even know, I'm laughing my ass off as I watch this. And that's not very easy to do. 

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Playlist:

Lindsey Buckingham - Gift of Screws

Black Sabbath - Eponymous

Black Sabbath - Master of Reality

Jackie Wilson - Higher and Higher

Tom Waits - Rain Dogs 

Alabama Shakes - Sound and Color

Blur - Parklife

Windhand - Eternal Return

Slope - Street Heat

K's 70s Playlist 

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Card:

 

Clearly, I'm on repeat, going around and around, because I keep getting The Devil card from this deck. Until today. Unless this is just another way the deck is telling me what I'm apparently not hearing.

Tape Waves - Sundowning

 

Wow. I LOVE this band. I listened to Tape Waves' new record Bright about three times in a row last Friday night after Joe Bob's Last Drive-in, and I just can't get it out of my head since. Which is good, because I don't want it out of my head!

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NCBD:

What a short but totally SWEET week for NCBD:

Hell is primed to break loose in this issue. Heads is gunna roll...

Love this book. Many thanks to my Drinking with Comics cohost Mike Wellman for making sure I read this book!

This Horror Anthology series is one of the best things to come down the pipes in years, and it has really given me an appreciation for Michael Walsh. 

Finally! I don't love this series, but I like it a lot, and a big part of that is Ryan Stegman's art. There have been several iterations of Venom's spooky-ass visage, and this is my favorite. By far. I actually ordered a couple of variants for this one, too:

I will actually probably sell both of these on eBay, however, this Stephanie Hans one is pretty damn awesome. Those colors!

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Playlist:

Prince - Sign O' the Times

David Bowie - Reality

The Gutter Twins - Saturnalia 

Zeal and Ardor - Devil is Fine

Judas Priest - Hell Bent for Leather

Perturbator - Lustful Sacraments

Deafheaven - Infinite Granite

Empire of Love - Violet Cold

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Card:

 

What am I missing? Apparently I'm clinging to something, but I'm not really sure what the hell that is.

Trackademicks

A track I heard last week at my Horror Vision cohost Ray L's first Cineray of the pre-COVID era. This is a very '2000s' track for me, however, it's been cool to reintegrate some of that vibe over the last few years, kicking off with my rewatch of Veronica Mars, a show I first watched and fell in love with back during my first year or two after moving to California, when the 2000-ness of everything was at full height.

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READ:

I finished re-reading Phillip Pullman's The Subtle Knife this past Sunday, and I have to say, reading these first two books in the His Dark Materials series I originally read in the early 2000s has highlighted just what a faithful adaptation of the BBC ONE/HBO's series is. 

Whatever I imagined the characters to look like previously is gone, and the cast of the show has now fully inhabited the imaginary world I'm experiencing as I read. These are tomes, and I've been pretty slow in re-reading, however, only one book left before I can begin the newest entry in the saga, 2017's The Book of Dust, which my A Most Horrible Library cohost Chris Saunders gifted me a few months back.

Most interesting to me is how, whoever my favorite character may have been during my first read, it is now Lee Scoresby by a longshot, all because of actor Lin-Manual Miranda's portrayal of the aeronaut. Interesting, because during the first season, he was the one casting choice I felt did not fit the character. Now, as I read, I see Mr. Miranda, and it's very cool.

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Playlist:

Trackademicks - 7th Heaven EP

ACDC - Highway to Hell

Perturbator - Lustful Sacraments

Dance With the Dead - B-Sides: Vol. 1

The Gutter Twins - Saturnalia

 

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Card:

 

There is a common goal I share right now with my better half. It's a huge idea that will ultimately change our lives forever. More later.

Strength in Patton

 

Here's some live Mr. Bungle from The Night They Came Home to start off our week. Strength in Patton.

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Watch:

Hitting VOD on July 2nd, I'm really looking forward to this one. 

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Playlist:

Silent - Modern Hate

Turnstile - Mystery (single)

ZZ Top - Rhythmeen

The Joy Formidable - AAARTH

El-P - I'll Sleep When You're Dead

Tape Waves - Bright

Deafheaven - Infinite Granite (single)

Deafheaven - Ordinary Corrupt Human Love

Zeal and Ardor - Devil is Fine

Entropy - Liminal

Cinderella - Long Cold Winter

Wolf Alice - Blue Weekend

Run the Jewels - RTJ4

John Coltrane - A Love Supreme 

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Card:

A lot of different areas of my life have been up in the air of late, and this tells me I'm laying the groundwork for a new era of Stability.

New Deafheaven!!!

This hit yesterday, but I've been writing and scheduling these posts at least a day ahead to try and regain some sense of consistency. Wednesday was already a pretty good morning when Mr. Brown text me that Deafheaven dropped a new track and announced an album. As you can imagine, I FLEW to pre-order Infinite Granite HERE, then spent a good amount of time listening to "Great Mass of Color "over and over. So good. I guess all the black metal blow-hards can shut the fuck up, since the band has obviously now embraced integrating so many other elements. That's what the best of any genre does - refuses to be limited by the tropes of their chosen peers.

Infinite Granite lands August 20 on Sargent House.

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Watch:

Well, Marvel's Loki started last night, and after watching it, all I can say is... loved it. Not really sure where this is going, except I'm thinking we might be meeting a certain purple time traveler by the end of this series. Which would be pretty f*&kin' cool. 

One of the things that put me in the mood for this series was listening to the Marvel's Pull List podcast that dropped yesterday. I've become quite a fan of both this and the This Week in Marvel 'cast, and on this week's Pull List they interviewed Al Ewing, a writer whose name I've been seeing on the solicitations for a lot of Marvel books of the last few years, but who I haven't really read outside of an aborted attempt at Immortal Hulk (not the book's fault; I plan to get to this eventually, especially now that it's ending). Anyway, the interview kind of primed me for Loki because apparently, Al wrote a series called Loki: Agent of Asgard that I very vaguely remember seeing on the shelves back circa 2014, and he spoke at length about what an attachment he has to the character, and how he kind of ushered in a more 'fixed' take on the character. Really interesting stuff, so I just may read this series, too.

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Playlist:

Deafheaven - Great Mass of Color (pre-release single)

Deafheaven - Ordinary Corrupt Human Love

Entropy - Liminal

Principles of Geometry - Lazare (Tommy, you are SO right on this one) 

Blanck Mass - Animated Violence Mild

NIN - Ghosts I-IV

John Carpenter - Lost Themes III: Alive After Death

Run the Jewels - RTJ4

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Card:

After drawing The Devil two days in a row, my good friend Missi - who made the Raven Deck - suggested that perhaps I needed to "turn the volume down on the real world a bit."

 Well Missi, I would say Your creation agrees with you. Here's me turning down the volume on the real world for a bit. 

Turbo Kids Zooma

 

I mentioned this one yesterday and then had to hear it. The whole record is just tough-as-nails bass playing by one of the masters. Hit play and prepare to bang your head.

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NCBD:

First - the pre-orders for Behemoth Comics's Turbo Kid Prequel series is up! Go HERE if you are interested. Look at these tasty f*&king covers! 

Next, here's this week's haul:

You see why I jones when a week goes by without an issue of Amazing Spider-man at this point, right? 67 just hit last week and here we are again! 

Loving this series, especially as we continue to climb the tiers of antagonists who Geiger will no doubt eventually have to square off against.

 

One more issue to round out a very dark but somehow also extremely pleasant surrealist take on death. 

Watching Peter Parker slowly become Venom is creepy and fun as hell. 

I just can't say enough good things about this book. 

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Playlist:

QOTSA - Rated R

Firewater - The Ponzi Scheme

Ghost - Infestissumam

Sampa the Great - The Return 

Dance With the Dead - B-Sides: Vol. 1

The Foundations - Baby, Now That I've Found You (single)

The Foundations - Build Me Up Buttercup (single)

Blur - Parklife

Iggy Pop - Lust for Life

Entropy - Liminal

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Card:

 Two days in a row, eh? Okay, I'm assuming someone is trying to tell me something I am not listening to. Time to take off the blinders and pay attention.

Gift of Screws

Heaps of praise to Mr. Brown for introducing me to Lindsey Buckingham's 2008 solo album Gift of Screws, an album I am fairly certain would never have wound up on my radar without the guidance from my friend. This is one for the ages - as Brown stated in a text recently, the whole thing really highlights his guitar playing, an aspect that often gets pushed to the background in Fleetwood Mac. Opener Great Day has some truly fantastic finger-picking, and most of the tracks - especially "Did You Miss Me" above - would have made stand out singles for the radio, if there was an outlet in the major markets for guys like Buckingham, who are more often than not relegated to the 'was in a classic rock band' category. Reminds me a bit of the first time I heard John Paul Jones' record Zooma. 

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Watch:

I haven't watched Richard Kelley's The Box since it was in theatres in 2009. After that viewing, I left scratching my head even harder than I did after my first viewing of his Southland Tales. Do I like either of those movies as much as I do Donnie Darko? Not at all - in fact, I don't even know if I can say I actually like either. Well, Southland grew on me, and despite the fact that it's a fractured mess, I like enough of it to say, "Yes." The Box though... after this second viewing I'm less convinced I like it than if I had just left things at the one viewing eleven years ago. That said, it's a conversation piece for sure, and pretty damned engaging, so this isn't a dis, just a renewal of the hesitancy I reserve for everything Kelley did after DD.

 

The actual viewing of this film leaves me a bit baffled and I think it's because in some way I do not possess the technical vocabulary to describe, Kelley filmed this to look like a tv show from the 50s and seeing it packaged with the expectations of a big-budget (well, not that big) Hollywood movie creates a kind of cognitive dissonance that makes it hard for me to reconcile. Also, there's an element of the film that involves people becoming transmitters for alien intelligence, and I think Kelley brilliantly worked this into the fabric of the film itself, into performances, camera angles, and dialogue, so that many scenes are just jarring enough to create a disconnect with the viewer. I don't know. I'm not getting rid of my DVD copy of The Box or anything, but it may be another eleven years before I watch it again.

 

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Playlist:

Perturbator - Lustful Sacraments

Run the Jewels - RTJ4

El P - I'll Sleep When You're Dead

QOTSA - Rated R

Lindsey Buckingham - Gift of Screws

Lard - Pure Chewing Satisfaction

Lustmord - Heresy 

Slayer - Show No Mercy

Small Black - Cheap Dreams

 

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Card:

 

New ideas can free you from yourself. This is something I'm always glad to be reminded of because another side of the Devil is obsession or narrowing of vision, which is essentially anathema of a writer. 

Conjuring Lustful Sacraments

 

LOVING the new album from James Kent, AKA Perturbator. Apparently, there are those out there who find his new direction uncool, but I say you can't make the same album over and over forever. Here's a current favorite selection.

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Watch:

 

Well, after hating part two, I went into The Conjuring 3: The Devil Made Me Do It with probably as low of expectations as possible. Turns out, I dug it. Not as good as the first, and Hollywood Horror is almost always going to take a backseat to the indie stuff, but this one was good. The lighting and camera work especially stand out, and I really dig Vera Farmiga in everything, even if these movies are starting to treat her a bit like Jean Grey with her psychic ability.

You can hear more of my thoughts on The Conjuring 3, as well as that of my cohosts, on the newest episode of The Horror Vision.

Interesting side note, I wandered into the Comic Bug this afternoon and found out this had come out:

Two stories, both cool. The second a stand-alone and penned by Scott Snyder, the first the opening installment in a larger tale. The Warrens are not on hand, but I'm assuming they will be eventually. 

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Playlist:

Perturbator

Lindsey Buckingham - Gift of Screws EP

Harakiri for the Sky - Maere

Blur - Parklife

QOTSA - ... Like Clockwork

QOTSA - Villains

Goatsnake - Black Age Blues 

Various - Twin Peaks: Music from the Limited Event Series

Calexico - The Black Light 

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Card:

 Yes, this is exactly the right card at the moment. Solitary introspection that nearly drives me mad. 

New Zeal and Ardor!!!

FUCK YES! I'm a little late with this one, as I've been so preoccupied with the new Perturbator that I forgot Z&A dropped a new track and announced an album coming out sometime in early 2022. I think; I swear I saw a February date when I first went to this song, but I can't find that any longer, so maybe I'm wrong and we'll get the album sooner. That would be fantastic!

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INTERVIEW:

Super psyched that my cohost on A Most Horrible Library, Chris Saunders and I got to interview comics legend Glenn Fabry this past week. Check out the episode on Spotify, Apple Music, any other pod-platform, or just right here on youtube:

If you're unfamiliar with Glenn, he's best known as the man who did every single cover for Garth Ennis and Steve Dillion's Preacher, still my all-time favorite comic. To say this was an honor would be an understatement indeed.

While talking to Glenn, we found out he has a Big Cartel shop, and I had to throw up a link. Glenn doesn't make royalties on almost anything he did cover-wise, so he's not exactly sitting on top of the world like Mr. Ennis is (deservedly so, but still). I picked up a couple awesome prints from Glenn's shop, and wanted to spread the word. 

Glenn's Big Cartel is HERE, and his Creature From the Black Lagoon is NO JOKE.

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NCBD:

Seriously, I think there was like a week this month without a Spider-man book and I felt the void! What has become of me?

And I guess because we had a week off, two spidey books this week!

Wrapping up what has been a fantastic series that truly is unlike anything else I've ever read. The solicitation logline, "Breaking Bad meets The Sandman" isn't exactly right, but it gets you in the ballpark, and I'd never take issue with such an over-the-top comparison because it did its job - it convinced me to take a chance that I do not regret.

Somehow I missed issue three of Dead Dog's Bite, so I'll be holding off reading this until I can pick that up, too.

YES! Issue 45 was my favorite comic of the year so far, so I can't wait to see what else the 90s has in store for Marcus and crew.

Cool series, but another one that I hiccuped and missed a few issues of. I'll remedy that by next week though. So glad to be reading some Larry Hama again.

This book continues to impress me, despite its over-the-top, almost classic Image feel.

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Playlist:

Perturbator - Lustful Sacraments

David Bowie - Hunky Dory

Harakiri for the Sky - III: Trauma

Silent - Modern Hate

Siouxsie and the Banshees - Tinderbox 

Zeal and Ardor - Run (Single)

Zeal and Ardor - Stranger Fruit

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Card:

 

Super appropriate - Opportunites revolving past me in several areas, leaving me dizzy, uncertain and confused. Fighting to stand atop my decision and look at it all with a meticulous and discerning eye.