Butthole Surfers Week Day 4

From 1987's Locust Abortion Technician. This album has always struck me as kind of the halfway point between the total madness of the earliest Surfers' albums and what would come later. Not to say there's anything 'sane' about LAT; on the contrary, I just feel like the production was ticked up a notch on this one. Case in point: "Human Cannonball," where the kick drum actually shakes your walls (when you listen as loud as I do), the bass guitar could almost be from a Buzzcocks or Magazine record, and Gibby's voice isn't just clear, he's got a whole host of new FX to fuck with.

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NCBD:

Thankfully, this week, I only have 2 books in my Pull, one of which is Amazing Fantasy in Chicago. I say luckily, because I'll be picking up four weeks of comics from Rick's after work today. My wallet is already weeping. Here are today's titles:

I dug Duke issue one, despite the fact that I don't really care at all about Conrad S. Hauser. This is our window into the GIJOE aspect of Robert Kirkman's Energon Universe, though, and I'm excited to get this going. (I really can't wait to read last week's Cobra Commander #1- saw what I think is a spoiler image and it's NUTS!)

The Penultimate issue of Garth Ennis and Jacen Burrows' The Ribbon Queen. I probably won't be picking up my books from AF until March (unless I ask Mike to ship them, a service they do offer). Can't wait to read this one start to finish.

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Watch:

This looks goddamn terrifying:

 

I watched this trailer once and, within moments, knew I would now be praying this one hits my local Regal on February 23rd. There's not a lot of films that can actually scare an adult in 2024 - the real world is already scary enough - but this? This looks like it will do the trick. Something about dolls. Maybe it's a residual trauma from seeing the Poltergeist clown as a kid, or maybe it's the Uncanny Valley thing. Certainly all the Thomas Ligotti didn't help.

This is a debut feature from Writer/Director Robert Morgan (he shares the writing credit for Stopmotion with Robin King). Morgan previously directed "D is for Deloused," one of the films in ABCs of Death 2. You can read an old interview with him about that short HERE. 

I'm really looking forward to this one. 

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Playlist:

Frankie and the Witch Fingers - Data Doom

Stephen Sanchez - Angel Face

The Bronx - (II)

R0BBER - La Cosa Nostra EP

Butthole Surfers - Locust Abortion Technician

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Butthole Surfers Week Day 3:

 

I had to pause Butthole Surfers Week for traveling back home to Tennessee, but now that I'm here, let's get right back to the madness. Did you know the original name these guys had was The Inalienable Right to Eat Fred Astaire's Asshole? You probably did, however, it makes me happy just to type that here.

 

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Watch:

I had the chance to re-watch two movies last week that share a love of color and intention. 

This was a bit of a distracted viewing; I stumbled across Mandy playing on Shudder.TV and let it roll while I edited last week's episode of The Horror Vision Presents: Murderboard - A True Detective Night Country Discussion, pausing from my duties to soak up key moments. At this point, Panos Cosmatos' sophomore feature is so much a part of me that I've become holographically entwined with it. That is to say, I can watch a little and it contains the entire film.

Ryan Gosling's only Writer/Director feature to date, every time I watch Lost River, my love of the film and its characters deepens. Missi and I did an Elements of Horror on this one, listen to it HERE.

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Playlist:

Ready for the World - Oh Sheila (12" single)

Robbie Dupree - Steal Away (single)

Nabihah Iqbal - Dreamer

Boards of Canada - Tomorrow's Harvest

Boards of Canada - Geogaddi

Boards of Canada - In a Beautiful Place Out in the Country EP

Frankie and the Witch Fingers - Data Doom

The Bronx - (II)

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

• Five of Pentacles

• Queen of Cups

• Eight of Pentacles

 

God I love this band.

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Watch:

The trailer for Indianna Bell & Josiah Allen's first feature You'll Never Find Me popped up in my youtube feed thanks to Shudder. While I've only watched the first 16 seconds of this, I instantly knew it was on my watchlist for March. 

Hell, this one drops on Shudder March 22 - days before my birthday - and I'm excited enough to know this will most likely be my birthday viewing, which is always something special. 

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Playlist:

The Damned - Evil Spirits

The Neighborhood - I Love You

Butthole Surfers - - Butthole Surfers + PCPep

Mannequin Pussy - Patience

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Mark Says Alright

Guess what? In honor of the recent announcement that Matador Records is re-releasing Butthole Surfers' catalog on remastered vinyl, it's Butthole Surfer's Week!!!

Taken from their 1986 album Rembrandt Pussyhorse, "Mark Says Alright" is the first song I remember hearing from Butthole Surfers' back catalog. A few years earlier while still in High School, 1993's Independent Worm Saloon briefly put the Surfer's on Empty-V's radar with the single/video release of "Who Was in My Room Last Night," which was cool despite in no way preparing me for the absolute madness of their early albums. I remember hearing this track on a cassette Mr. Brown brought around to our practice spot above my Parents' garage, a strange little gem that factored into many mind-altered evenings after we finished working on the set list and early demo for Wink Lombardi and the Constellations.

You can order the newly remastered Rembrandt Pussyhorse, along with 1985's Psychic... Powerless... Another Man's Sac and the live PCPPEP 12" directly from Matador HERE. There's even a bundle, which I won't be needing as I already have both Rembrandt and Psychic on vinyl. Can't wait for the re-release of Locust Abortion Technician, though! 

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Watch:

We finally have a trailer for Harmony Korine's new film AGGRO DR1FT, the one that is shot entirely in infrared.

I know I complain about trailers and try not to watch them. However, there's really no way the trailer for a Harmony Korine movie can tell you what it's about because with some of his films, you watch them and you still don't know what they're about. This one will be polarizing, but aside from Trash Humpers, I don't think I've ever not liked anything by him I've seen, so I'm in. 

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Playlist:

NIN - Year Zero

Arab Strap - As Days Get Dark

Pixies - Trompe le Monde

Fugazi - Red Medicine

The Butthole Surfers - Rembrandt Pussyhorse

Matt Cameron - Gory Scorch Cretins

The Knife - Silent Shout

Mannequin Pussy - I Got Heaven (pre-release singles)

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

• XVII: The Star

• Five of Pentacles

• Five of Wands

An explosive burst of creative energy will be a struggle to commit to. 

Gory Scorch Cretins

Many thanks to Mr. Brown, who clued me in on the existence of Matt Cameron's Gory Scorch Cretins, a solo album with Melvins as his backing band! Apparently, this came about after a Soundgarden tribute where Buzz and the boys did "Spoonman." All of this is news to me, and I've gotta say I was a little confused when I first saw the cover and title; was this a Melvins tribute? Nope. All original stuff, and they're all great. Furthermore, Cameron - long one of my favorite drummers - makes a fantastic singer! Every track on this is great; I chose this one because it reminds me a bit of Urge Overkill, and for some reason, when I played this for the first time yesterday, that really hit the spot as a final track on the album. 

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Watch:

After picking at it since September - primarily because the show disappeared from the platform I was watching it on and then reappeared on another  - I finally finished the second season of Bryan Fuller's Hannibal yesterday.

I watched the last six or so episodes in a fairly tight burst, and this one is really masterfully done. This isn't something most of the world doesn't already know; I'm ten years late to the game on this one, but man, it burns knowing there won't ever be a season four. 

One of the charms of the show is, of course, watching Hannibal in the kitchen, so I jumped at the chance to post the video above; special thanks to Moonshine Omega - their YouTube channel is an interesting collection of Food and Bevy-related videos from shows we love (there's a cool one of all drinks and food in Jessica Jones Season One!)

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Play:

Having just finished Torture Star/Puppet Combo's Night at the Gates of Hell, I am SUPER happy to get wind of a new game coming our way from them:

As usual, the 80s VHS/Video Nasties influence is a large part of the draw, however, I've really come to prefer Torture Star's games, so I am psyched to be getting another for Switch.

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Playlist:

Disappears - Pre Language

A Place to Bury Strangers - Exploding Head

Fear - Live for the Record

Run the Jewels - RTJ4

Baroness - Stone

Mastodon - Emperor of Sand

Matt Cameron - Gory Scorch Cretins

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

• Six of Swords

• XVIII: The Moon

• Six of Cups

The intellectual benefits of balancing the mental and moral components of a conflict lead to emotional revelation. 

No idea what the hell this means at the moment, but as with most of my pulls on this trip (yes, I'm still in L.A.), I'm really just recording all this as data archives for later analyzation. 

New Music From Arab Strap!!!

 

I'm writing this part of today's post on Tuesday the 23rd. I've been listening to Arab Strap for about the last two hours, so how weird is it that when I clicked over to youtube to find a song to post, I see that a new Arab Strap track dropped two hours ago, and a new album is out Februrary 9th! Holy smokes - Awesome! 

You can go HERE to Pre-order I'm totally fine with it 👍 Don't give a fuck anymore 👍 - yes, the emogis are part of the actual title! Check out this cover!!!

Love it! Man, it feels so good to have Malcolm and Aiden back. 

 

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NCBD:

The final of my "away pulls." Can't wait to get back home and pick the last few week's of comics up. 

So according to Image Comics' website, issue 16 is the Newburn series finale. That's a bummer, but at the same time, the storyline is twisting these characters' lives into such a knot, I'd mentioned recently that I couldn't possibly see how this book could last that much longer. Kudos to the creators for sticking to their guns and telling the story they set out to tell. 

We all knew he'd be back, but since Mags destroyed his backup, I'm pretty curious what version this resurrected one will take.

Another series ending soon. Tenement has been a fantastic ride, with the last two issues really pushing the storyline of the overall Bone Orchard Mythos forward. Can't wait to see what's next, but until then, I'm pretty sure these last few issues will be increasingly bizarre and horrific in the fashion only Lemire and Sorrentino can manage.

And yet another BOMBSHELL ending - the news that this title ends with the upcoming issue 150 hit comic news outlets recently. TMNT began again under the IDW banner back in 2012; I picked up the first issue and have enjoyed every single one since. The other end of that big news is that Jason Aaron is taking over the upcoming new title - still under IDW - but what I'm unclear about is if that book will begin a brand new continuity, or continue this one. I hope for the former but also pine a bit for the latter; it would be nice to drop a book from the pull and let this series just sit immortalized in time as the perfect gem it is.

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Watch:

Last night I finally got the chance to see Yorgos Lanthimos' new film, Poor Things. Even better, I got to see it with two good friends at the Los Feliz 3 Theatre. I've posted the trailer here previously, so here's a gorgeous poster:

The only other film by Mr. Lanthimos I've seen is Killing of a Sacred Deer, however, that is one of the best "What the absolute F*ck" viewings I've had in the last ten years, so it instantly endeared the creator to me, while also kind of made me a touch afraid of his work. There is something so all-consuming about Deer, that I've kept The Lobster and The Favorite at bay for years. 

That changes now.

I put a spoiler-free review up on Letterbxd HERE, but in a nutshell Poor Things is beautiful, odd, perverse, tender, vulgar and a touch transgressive, all coming together to make an utterly unique experience.

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Playlist:

Tar - Clincher

Tar - Holding Fast Hitting Long (Live)

The Bronx - V

The Bronx - (II)

The Bronx - (III)

Public Enemy - Fear of a Black Planet

Arab Strap - The Red Thread

Arab Strap - Philophobia

The Afghan Whigs - Gentlemen

Jay Reatard - Singles 06-07

Carpenter Brute - Leather Terror

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

• Six of Swords

• Eight of Cups

• XVII: The Star

RIP David Emge

 

A Dawn of the Dead-themed post today in honor of David "Flyboy" Emge's passing this past weekend.

 

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Watch:

Classic scene from the greatest Zombie film ever. 

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Playlist:

The Cure - Pornography

Your Black Star - Sound from the Ground

The National - High Violet

Danko Jones - We Sweat Blood

Feuerbahn - The Fire Dance EP

Joy Division - Substance 1977-1980

Zeal and Ardor - Eponymous

Frankie and the Witch Fingers - Data Doom

FACS - Still Life In Decay

Tar - Clincher 

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New Music From Chelsea Wolfe

More new Chelsea Wolfe, from the upcoming album She Reaches Out To She Reaches Out To She, out February 9; pre-order HERE. This close to the release date, I'm not even going to listen to this single. I pre-ordered the vinyl and am waiting to sit down and listen start to finish, ripped to the gilly tits on marijuana. Been a while since I've observed that ritual for a new album, would like to get back to it. This seems like a fantastic place to start. 

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Watch:

I'm not even sure how I stumbled upon this last night, but after seeing the trailer and not being able to find anything on IMDB, I realized there was a link to the full film:

I know nothing of El Maestro, however, the trailer for A24's The Grind is equally one of the most beautiful and disturbing things I've seen in a while, so no doubt I'm watching this as soon as I can.

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Playlist:

Your Black Star - Sound from the Ground

The Damned - Evil Spirits

Darkness Brings the Cold - Devil Swank, Vol. 1

††† - Good Night, God Bless, I Love You, Delete

The Trapezoid - Reverb Nation Playlist

Various Mixed by DJ IF: Darkness Exhalation Mix Vol. 2

The Neighborhood - I Love You

FACS - Still Life in Decay

Fine Young Cannibals - She Drives Me Crazy (Single)

The Pixies - Wave of Mutilation (UK Surf - Single)

Grand Duchy - Black Suit (Single)

AFI - This Time Imperfect (Single)

The Bronx - V

The Bronx - Dead Tracks

The Bronx - IV

Tar - Clincher

The Trapezoid - Reverb Nation Playlist

Darkness Brings the Cold - Devil Swank, Vol. 1

Nobuhiko Morino - Verses: The Album

The Soft Moon - Eponymous

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

• Queen of Swords 

• III: The Empress

• XV: The Devil

Just recording this here for posterity; will hopefully be able to double back later in the day for interpretation. 

New Album From Lustmord

 

The first teaser for the upcoming Much Unseen Is Also Here, the new album from Lustmord, available on March 15. Pre-order from Pelagic Records HERE.

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Watch:

The other night, I fell asleep in my hotel room watching B.D. Clark's 1981 SciFi WTF Galaxy of Terror. Here's a trailer:

I'm not really sure how I feel about this one. First, great cast. Where else can you see Eddie Albert, Sid Haig, Grace Zabriskie and Erin Moran (Joanie from Joanie Loves Chachi) in a third-rate Alien knockoff. No disrespect - I'm sure everyone involved in this production knew what they were making when they filmed this. Still, this was a good time, even if the ending featured some pretty bad writing in the style of "Make it a bunch of indecipherable and abstract gobbledegook and people will think it's just too smart for them to understand."

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Read:

While at The Comic Bug two weeks ago, I flipped briefly through their back issue bins and found this:

I know NOTHING about Machine Man, even though this was put out in that magical comic book year 1984. This would have been when I was first dipping my toes into comics, and I know the cover layout for this era of Marvel Comics so well that it creates an instant nostalgia bomb in my heart. In this particular case, I just could not pass up this beautiful Barry Windsor-Smith cover. This is the perfect example of what I keep referring to as "Hobby Store SciFi," even without knowing the contents.

Reading this last night, I was shocked by a few elements of the book. First, one of the heavies is Arno Stark - the Iron Man of, ahem, 2020! That's right, this 1984 look into the future shows a lot of technological ideas that we can, now four years beyond the storytellers' mark, confirm never came to pass.

• Flying cars? Nope

• Cyborgs and tech-gangs? Not unless you count those Grinders who get magnets implanted in their skin

• Mega corporations that control the world... oh, well, I guess that one is pretty accurate.

A second shocker was Jocasta, the robot lady person I would know briefly from an Avengers annual published a few years after this book. This made me curious to look up just how much Machine Man has to do with the Marvel we've come to know in the years since this series. From what I found, the continuity here is designated as Earth-8410, and is not to be confused with Earth-616 Jocasta, who Ultron built as his, er, bride?

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Playlist:

Marilyn Manson - We Are Chaos

Finom - Fantasize Your Ghost

The Dillinger Escape Plan - Miss Machine

The Trapezoid - Reverb Nation Playlist

Black Rainbows - Superskull

Frankie and the Witch Fingers - Data Doom

Algiers - Shook

Turnstile - GLOW ON

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

• Nine of Wands

• XVIII: The Moon

• IX: The Hermit

Nine of Wands relates to The Moon in Thoth, as the Sun and Moon factor into the Croweley/Harris visualization for the card as motivating elements of the "Strength" of the card. One Wand (arrows in Thoth) supported by eight; driving force. The Hermit here suggests I need to take a solitary day and put all my effort into something that's been occluded to me thus far. I happen to know exactly what that is.

The Bronx - Put That in Your Peace Pipe & Smoke It!!!

I haven't seen The Bronx live in a lot longer than I thought. Way back in 2004, Mr. Brown, my cousin Charles and I discovered these guys at Chicago's Fireside Bowl when they opened for Dillinger Escape Plan on their Miss Machine tour, the first with Greg Puciato stepping in on vocals after original singer Dimitri Minakakis left the band. This was a fantastic show for many reasons - it was one of (if not THE) final time I attended a show at the Fireside (RIP); The Bronx were a f&*king revelation live that made me an instant die-hard fan, and Mr. Puciato began a reign of beautiful terror that proved he was up to the task of fronting the otherworldly machine that is D.E.P.

Anyway, shortly before flying out to L.A. a few weeks ago (I'm still here!), my good friends M-n-K surprised me by grabbing tickets to Alex's Bar's 24th Anniversary show with The Bronx, Negative Blast and R0BBER. Much like Tarantino's New Beverly Theatre, I lived in L.A. for 16 years and never made it to Alex's Bar, despite countless invites. So once again, I remedy that on this trip (I went to the New Bev last weekend). 

Interestingly enough, this appears to be a year of full circles. Last month my good friend Dave and I locked down a trip to Brooklyn in June to see Dillinger play Calculating Infinity for it's 25th anniversary. The singer for the show is Dimitri, and I couldn't be more psyched. I haven't been to NYC since 2014 (I think) and Dimitri was the frontman of the band when I was introduced to them opening for Mr. Bungle in 1999 at Chicago's Metro.

Full Circle indeed.

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Moment:

Jotting down some ideas last night at Santa Monica Brew Works, sipping on their gorgeous Nitro Irish Stout.

A good night. Met up with my A Most Horrible Library cohost, Chris, and caught up. We planned some new episodes, and I just generally unwound from a crazy work week.

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Watch:

I've never really been a Troma fan, so it follows that I've never really cared about The Toxic Avenger. Macon Blair, however, gets all my love, so when I saw he was writing/directing this reboot, I knew I'd been giving it a chance. 

Since first seeing Blair in Jeremy Saulnier's Blue Ruin, I've been a fan of both men. Blair's 2017 directorial debut, I Do Not Feel At Home In This World Anymore, is a high point in Netflix's original feature films and has a cast that just blows me away. Then again, anyone who puts David Yow in their film is aces in my book, and a quick perusal of this new iteration of Toxie's IMDB page shows Mr. Yow is once again on hand. Hell yeah!

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Playlist:

Damone - From The Attic

Damone - Out Here All Night

Mastodon - Leviathan

The Bronx - (I)

The Bronx - VI

Turnstile - GLOW ON

The Thirsty Crows - Hangman's Noose

Scratch Acid - The Greatest Gift

The Bronx - (II)

The National - Conversation 16 (Single)

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

• IX: The Hermit

• VIII: Strength

• Six of Pentacles

Rest and recharge, confirmation I'm spending my one day off this week in the correct capacity. 

Man, I LOVE every damn card in this deck. 

Chris Brokaw & Thalia Zedek - The Night Has No Eyes (Live)

 

I set out to post the Karl Hendricks cover that closes out Chris Brokaw's 2019 album Puritan - an album my good friend Seth literally just introduced me to on Friday, and that I was in love with an hour after hearing the opening track. This live version, although filmed a bit rough, blows me away. All the power of that album version, right there in a f*&king living room. Damn. 

As I went to type in the tags on this post, I noticed I'd posted about Brokaw before, back in 2014. Did not remember he was a contributing member of Wrekmeister Harmonies, but it doesn't surprise me in the least. Onward to a new musical rabbit hole!!!

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Watch:

When K and I recently rejoined Netflix, one of the oversights we corrected was rewatching and finishing Kevin Smith's Masters of the Universe: Revelations. Turns out we did so just in time, as there's a new chapter quickly approaching.

We both really dug Revelations and seeing as Hordak is coming to town in this new one, I'm fairly certain we'll dig this one as well. Hordak is my guy!!!

Now, Mr. Smith, please tell me we have a Slime Pit sequence in this one somewhere. 

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Playlist:

T. Rex - The Slider

P.J. Harvey - Rid of Me

Fugazi - Red Medicine

Fugazi - End Hits

Killing Joke - Eponymous

The Cramps - Psychedelic Jungle

The Ghastly Ones - A Haunting We Will Go

Perturbator - Bloodlust (single)

Perturbator - Lustful Sacraments

Perturbator - Terror 404

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New Dandy Warhols!!!

New Dandy Warhols, from the forthcoming album Rockmaker, out March 15th. Pre-order HERE.

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NCBD:

Jesus. My box is going to be full when I return to Clarksville and pick up my books from Rick's Comic City. Here's what is being added to it this week:

Ash! Evil Ash! 1990s and the far-future. This one has it all, true believers!

Still one of my favorite books to read each month. 

The Deviant is such a gnarly book. Really happy this is going longer than what I originally thought was a three-issue series. 

What's the Furthest Place From Here goes on hiatus after the next issue, so I'm a bit bummed. That said, I can't wait to see how the current arc ends and where that puts us in Boss and Rosenberg's world.

The High Evolutionary returns! I'm not sure how exactly this ties in with the "Fall of the House of X;" doesn't matter because, again, the High Evolutionary.

Cobra Commander. 'Nuff said. I find it interesting that the main characters of this short, lead-in series are apparently Destro, Zarana, CC himself and Mercer. Man, Kirkman's Energon Universe is really going out of its way to do something different with this long-running property. 

Man, could we get a High Evolutionary/Cobra Commander crossover at some point in the future? Probably not, but it's nice to dream.

Additionally for today, the final issue of Enfield Gang Massacre will be in my Chicago Pull at Amazing Fantasy, and I'll probably grab these other two from the Comic Bug while I'm in the South Bay next weekend:

I had incorrectly assumed issue five of Chris Condon and Jacob Phillips' The Enfield Gang Massacre was the final chapter. Nice to see I was wrong and we get one more. Can't wait to get this from Amazing Fantasy and finally read the series start to finish.

I'm still not putting ARAH on my pull list, but for the time being, I'm enjoying seeing where this series and these characters have been since I last checked in on them circa 1991.

I thought I'd give this new Hellblazer series a chance. 

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Watch:

 

In. Totally in.

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Playlist:

T. Rex - The Slider

Fugazi - Red Medicine

Fugazi - 13 Songs

Fever Ray - Radical Romantics

The Knife - Shaking the Habitual

Marilyn Manson - Antichrist Superstar

Danzig With Myself - Rockmaker (pre-release singles)

Mission of Burma - Signals, Calls and Marches

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

• Three of Swords 

• Four of Swords 

• Four of Pentacles

I continue to be fascinated by the frequency with which I draw Swords in this deck. I feel like these, coupled with the Four of Pentacles may point to my not using my intellect in regards to Earthly matters. Money? Possibly. 

New Music From Idles!!!

 

From the forthcoming record Tangk, out February 10th on Partisan Records. Pre-order HERE.

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Watch:

True Detective Night Country episode one aired this past Sunday. I have high hopes for this season; Writer/Director Issa López is helming all six episodes, and I have the utmost faith in her. Tigers Are Not Afraid definitely employs the kind of dark, magical realism that could really help TD hit the high notes Season One and Season Three do. 

That said, I do not have a lot of faith in what I can only imagine is the HBO/True Detective Editorial Bullpen, so to speak. Season Three really floored me until the resolution, which absolutely robs that season's story of its magic. I'm hoping they don't do the same thing with this new season; however, after watching the first episode, I'm also hoping they don't overdo the extra-sensory stuff. We'll see. My Horror Vision cohost, Missi, and I are doing a weekly recap; I'll update this later today when it's posted. 

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Playlist:

David Bowie - Low

Various - Lost Highway OST

Frankie and the Witch Fingers - Data Doom

The Damned - Evil Spirits

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!

Arab Strap - The Week Never Starts Around Here (Disk 2)

Arab Strap - The Red Thread

Malcolm Middleton - A Brighter Beat

Gnarls Barkley - St. Elsewhere

Arab Strap - As Days Get Dark

David Bowie - Buddha of Suburbia

Marilyn Manson - We Are Chaos

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

• Page of Cups

• Six of Cups

• I: The Magician

Emotional Earthly concerns reach a culmination through Will. That's a pretty crappy, surface-level reading, but it's all I have time for this morning. Working on-site is kicking my arse!!!

David Bowie - Subterraneans

 

I love the way Bowie plays sax on this track. It literally soothes my soul, while also conjuring a mood similar to the one Cowboy Bebop does. 

Thus completeth David Bowie week, an annual event I like to do here to commemorate the life, work and passing of the Alien. He changed our world, I wish I could say we'd learned how to do that from him, but no, I don't think we did.

 

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Watch:

I first saw Michael Mann's Heat opening weekend in 1995. I was nineteen and really just getting into film. I thought I knew a lot, and maybe I did for someone my age. I certainly watched and thought and wrote about them enough. This was, of course before the mass proliferation of the internet, so I'm not sure what I read about Heat before seeing it, but I was excited. I'd learned to identify and love Michael Mann's style via Miami Vice, Manhunter, Crime Story and Thief. All the hype that preceded Heat's release focused on Pacino and Deniro being together in a film for the first time since The Godfather flicks. I saw it, and was pretty damn disappointed. I'd never watched the film again until last night, when several of us headed out to Quentin Tarantino's New Beverly Cinema in Los Angeles. 

This outing possessed a two-fold purpose: 1) I'd lived in L.A. for 16 years before moving and never made it to the New Bev. 2) Because of Professor John Trafton and Miles Fortune's This Movie Saved My Life podcast, I found myself wanting to give Heat another chance. I'm happy to report that, while I still very much wish Pacino had dialed it back on a lot of his line delivery, I now agree that Heat is a Neo Noir Masterpiece. 

 

There were two big narrative gaps I credited as my major problem with the film: Waingro's "Serial killer" subplot, which I previously felt went nowhere, and the fate of Pacino's Stepdaughter, played by Natalie Portman. In the latter case, it always irritated me that, as I had previously perceived it, the film did not resolve her fate. Seeing this last night, I now think it is entirely possible that I ran to the bathroom during the scene where the surgeon tells Pacino and his estranged wife Justine (played by Diane Venora) that their daughter is alive and will pull through. I also think I may have just missed it because that scene is really the epitaph to the couple's relationship, and there's a lot of nuance to the scene and performances that I just don't think I would have been experienced enough in life and love to fully grasp at the time. I'd always viewed Portman's suicide attempt as a needless dramatic plot point stuffed in at the eleventh hour for no reason other than to tighten the screws on Al's character. It actually provides an exhale on the subplot of his marriage.

The Waingro issue is a different animal altogether, and last night's viewing led me to the conclusion that Heat is edited unlike any film I had ever seen previously. The film hits the ground RUNNING, and is such a rapid-fire accumulation of edits and characters, that Mann has to establish characters quickly. He does so deftonly, and while I do feel that the serial prostitute killer angle on his character should have had at least one nod past the original - because it's revealed early on that the police are aware they have an active serial killer - but ultimately is serves to establish A LOT about Waingro's character in very little time.

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Playlist:

Marilyn Manson - We Are Chaos

Marilyn Manson - God's Gonna Cut You Down (single)

Massive Attack - Protection

PJ Harvey - Rid of Me

Marilyn Manson - AntiChrist Superstar

David Bowie - Hunky Dory

Run the Jewels - RTJ4

Robbie Dupree - Steal Away (single)

Doobie Brothers - What a Fool Believes (single)

The Bee Gees - Love You Inside Out (single)

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

• Four of Pentacles

• XIV: Temperance

• King of Swords

Logging this here and will try to circle back around for an interpretation at some point later tonight or tomorrow. L.A. is keeping me on my toes.

David Bowie - The Secret Life of Arabia (Remaster)

I guess I'm sticking with the Berlin Trilogy until the end.

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David Bowie - Move On

 

"Move On," the second track from 1979's Lodger, the final of the Bowie/Eno Berlin Trilogy. Easily my least favorite of the three records, Lodger has never 100% caught me, but there are moments that really resonate with the rest of the Trilogy, and I'd argue that track two, "Move On" is one of them. 

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Watch:

A couple of nights ago, I watched Jennifer Reeder's latest film, Perpetrator. Here's a trailer that I offer with the caveat you only watch the first minute:

Did you see the pull quote that said, "The meeting point between John Hughes and David Lynch?" Not too far off. I don't know that everything about this one 'worked' for me, however, I was distracted during the first forty minutes or so with some emergency yoga, and Perpetrator is SO insanely original, I'm definitely going to watch it again. 

Between this and Night's End - which I also loved - Jennifer Reeder is now a filmmaker on my "watch everything" list. 

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Read:

My Horror Vision Co-Host Anthony recently talked me into giving SIKTC's sister book, House of Slaughter, another shot. I read the first two arcs and wasn't super into it, despite really liking the concept. One character introduced that has stayed with me is Jace, and he is the focus of the third arc, Return of Butcher.

So far it's pretty good, but I'm still not sold. This got me thinking about why that is, and I think I've come up with a fairly easy answer. SIKTC is one hundred about the momentum of the story, which is ongoing as it follows Erika Slaughter. House of Slaughter is different; five-issue arcs that jump around to give us windows into the world Tynion has built; ostensibly a welcome idea, it just does not inspire the passion in me that SIKTC does. I've always taken more to books with ongoing continuity - my first comic love was, after all, Larry Hama's G.I.Joe:ARAH and I never really cared much for Special Missions. The exact same paradigms apply here - ongoing vs. individual stories that are a part of the overall tapestry but do not add momentum to it. 

Regardless, House of Slaughter is still a quality book, and in no way am I complaining about reading or purchasing it. I just don't feel the allegiance to this book that I do for its sister. 

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Playlist:

Marilyn Manson - We Are Chaos

Massive Attack - Protection

Cypress Hill - IV

David Bowie - Lodger

The Stooges - Eponymous

The Stooges - Funhouse

††† - Good Night, God Bless, I Love U, Delete.

Marilyn Manson - Mechanical Animals

The Damned - Machine Gun Etiquette

Killing Joke - Eponymous

Rein - God is a Woman

David Bowie - Black Star

The Cure - Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

• Eight of Swords

• XIX - The Sun

• Four of Swords

Okay, now I'm really paying attention. I was all set to move on from the Truce/Rest interpretation from yesterday because not only did I go to bed at 8:00 PM Wednesday night, but I stayed in last night as well, taking a nap after work that made me feel the best I have so far this trip. But here it is again.

It dawned on me that the Truce also might apply to a small situation at work, which I came in a skosh concerned about and have definitely applied the Truce aesthetic to. Things feel better there than they have in over a year, so there's that. Aside from those two instances, what do today's other two cards suggest?

Eight of Swords - Eight. Hod - Learning and Ritual in the real of the Intellect.

XIX The Sun - Interestingly, I noticed Grimm posted this card on social media recently, accompanied by the lyrics to Sabbath's "Nativity in Black," and I can't help wondering if there's something there. 

"Some people say my love cannot be true Please believe me my love, and I'll show you I will give you those things you thought unreal The sun, the moon, the stars all bear my seal!"

Maybe not, or, if so, that's a code my conscious mind probably won't crack. So while that simmers on the ol' brain stove, I'm looking toward the "Optimistic" interpretation and stepping back to apply all of this - wait for it - to my worldview. In multiple conversations since I arrived here and have had the chance to reconnect with folks I haven't seen or talked to in months, world events come up and I always begin with the "I'm a pessimist" clause. L.A. just brings it out of me. I walk the streets of West L.A. and just can't believe the filth. Yet, also, this time, I honestly think things may not be as bad as they were in October. Maybe. 

My pessimism probably isn't going to recede permanently, but maybe I can give it a rest at least for a little bit and try and, ahem, Think Positive Thoughts. The Sun, The Moon, The Stars. 

David Bowie - Blackout at the Monolith!!!

 

Yeah, I'm a little hung up on Heroes lately. Love this track; there's something about it that nods toward Scary Monsters (and Super Freaks), even with the inherent Enoisms present. What a truly strange record, Heroes. Comprised of a single that can reduce me to tears or move me to shake my fists at the heavens, three increasingly odd instrumentals that feel a bit like Blade Runner-meets-John Zorn on quaaludes, a lushly arranged funk track, and then all kinds of Eno weirdness strained through David's pop sensibilities, it all works amazingly well together for a sound that you can only really compare to, well, the rest of the Berlin Trilogy.

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Watch:

I am getting major Warren Ellis/Jason Howard Trees vibes from the thirty seconds of this trailer I watched. 

 

Also, despite my issues with Evil Dead Rise, I'm very much looking forward to seeing more Lilly Sullivan! 

Monolith is Directed by Matt Vesely and Written by Lucy Campbell. In looking through their discographies, I noticed Ms. Campbell is also a Writer and Co-Director of a 2021 Science Fiction miniseries titled The Big Nothing. Here's the summary:

 

"When the captain of an isolated mining station near Saturn is murdered, Detective Lennox is sent to investigate the three remaining crew members. Centered around a series of interrogations and flashback, Lennox discovers that everyone has a motive to kill. With otherworldly threats approaching and the killer amongst them, will everybody make it off the station?"

Intriguing, right? I went looking for this and found you can watch the entire five-episode series on an official YouTube channel HERE.

Very hopeful that Monolith will get a wide enough release to hit Clarksville!!!

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Playlist:

The Damned - Evil Spirits

Killing Joke - Eponymous

The Sound - From the Lion's Mouth

Run the Jewels - RTJ4

David Bowie - Earthling

David Bowie - Heroes

Marilyn Manson - We Are Chaos

David Bowie - Low

Negative Blast - Echo Planet

The Afghan Whigs - Do The Beast

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!

The Afghan Whigs - Gentlemen

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

• Page of Swords

• Ten of Swords

• Four of Swords

Okay, not only all Swords this morning but also, this is the second day in a row the Four of Swords has reared its head. 

Writing this about eight hours after penning the original post. I was too tired to really deep dive into this Pull last night, but after reading a bit about it, I'm reminded of the "Truce" interpretation. A.K.A. rest. I actually drew these cards last night, while on the verge of what felt, rather dramatically, like exhaustion. It's taking me longer than usual to acclimate to walking as much as I am. Shin Splints set in Tuesday, tore me up yesterday. After scheduling this post last night at about 6:30 PM, I ended up writing for an hour and a half, then turning it in, and I think the "rest" recommendations worked. 

• Page of Swords - Pay attention (intellect) to your body, dickhead!

• Ten of Swords - Get your kingdom in order (when I travel, I very much set up a "Kingdom."

• Four of Swords - Truce between Intellect and Body - REST!!

David Bowie - Where Are We Now?

 

Eight years gone. I picked this song as it was Bowie's first song back after the eight-year hiatus that followed 2005's Reality. I vividly remember seeing the video pop up somewhere online at work that morning, and when I watched it, I felt such an amazing melancholy. It was almost as if Bowie had channeled all the uncertainty that had begun to bubble up in our society, and looking back on it now, I'm fairly certain he already knew he was sick. That makes Where Are We Now? something of a prequel to Black Star's Lazarus, the song I'm pretty sure everyone associates the most with his passing just three short years after this one's release.

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NCBD:

I'm not at home to pick up my Pull at Rick's Comic City, however, here's what will be waiting for me:

Issue three of Syzmon Kurdranski's Blood Commandment. More people need to read this one. Beautiful and, although so far fairly straightforward, this book owns its tropes. This one's actually not on my Pull yet (I don't think), so I'll probably grab a copy at the Comic Bug next time I'm in the South Bay.

I loved the first issue of Andrew Krahnke's Bloodrik so very much, and have been dying to get my hands on this second issue. I might actually drop into the Bug and pick up a copy along with Blood Commandment.

Last week's first issue of The Fall of the House of X was pretty good, so here's to hoping its counterpart will also swing big and connect. I like that this is essentially a sequel to Hickman's "Dominion Future" arc from House and Powers and am curious to see how these two books work together to bring us into whatever the "Post Krakoa" era will be, even if I'm not necessarily planning to stick around for it.

Daniel Warren Johnson. 'Nuff said.

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Watch:

My good friend and Horror Vision co-conspirator John sent me this trailer last night. 

 

Despite my recently cultivated disgust with trailers, I watched this one. I figured Quentin Depieux's films are so f*#king out there, a teaser probably couldn't give anything away. 

I'm new to Dupieux's films. In fact, I've only seen Deerskin so far. However, I love that film in ways I can barely explain (although John, Missi, Anthony, and I try on THIS episode of The Horror Vision Presents: Elements of Horror) and am looking forward to burning through the rest of his filmography. 

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Playlist:

Marilyn Manson - We Are Chaos

NIN - With Teeth

Danzig - 777: I Luciferi

Ganser - Odd Talk

Finom - Ghost (single)

FACS - Still Life in Decay

Colter Wall - Sleeping On Blacktop

Moving Histories Podcast - Episode 1: Ridley Scott's Napoleon

The Damage Manual - Eponymous

Turnstile - Glow On

Rein - Reincarnated

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

• Seven of Swords

• Four of Swords

* XII - Hanged Man