Antibalas - NPR Tiny Desk Concert

 

During my recent jaunt to Chicago's Southside, Mr. Brown and I once again did a record swap, and one of the records he loaned me that I cannot stop playing is Antibalas' 2017 Where the Gods Are in Peace. Sounds like Fela Kuti reincarnated! So many parallels to my favorite Fela record, Opposite People/Sorrow, Tears and Blood (might actually be two albums, but I had them on a joint CD Sonny D burned for me ages ago). 

 

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Watch:

I did some homework last night for the next episode of The Horror Vision Presents: Elements of Horror. 1926's A Page of Madness

It's been a while since I watched a B & W silent film, so I figured the best course of action would be to isolate myself, turn off all the lights and get stoned. Check, check and check. Maybe too stoned, though. A large part of this played like I was back in High School at a friend's watching "Beyond the Mind's Eye" or something. You don't realize how much dialogue drives a film until you remove it. When I say there's no dialogue here, there aren't even subtitles. That's because the film does indeed share something with those stoner videos of the 90s. It's largely a succession of arresting images, so I just kind of sat back and let them wash over me. This was pleasurable; I can't say much about the 'story' other than it ends up, I think, having something of a twist. 

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NCBD:

This week's pull:

The inevitable "0" issue. I assume this rounds out the "Road Stories" arc that has taken us strolling through Erica's past. It also marks the start of another hiatus, which bums me out. Still, 

This is a new title for me, and I'm hoping to also grab issues 1-3 if they're still floating around the shop. Cruel Universe is the sister title to Epitaphs From the Abyss, which I professed my love for a few entries past. Both titles are part of Oni Press's revived EC Comics line, and I figured since I'm digging Epitaphs so much, I should give this a whirl as well. Plus, Oni Press is one of the oldest, most independent publishers I know of, so it's cool to support them here as well. 

Final issue! I've enjoyed this anthology quite a bit and will continue to be on the lookout for these B, W &B series. Or, for that matter, any Spider-Man mini-series I can get my hands on. I miss the ol' Webhead, but still not going to engage in the core books that come out like, every three days or whatever. 

Saga is heating up again! Didn't I just post something about how this book kinda lost something after the years-long hiatus? I might be eating my words real soon...

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Playlist:

Antibalas - Where the Gods Are in Peace

Spoon - They Want My Soul

John Carpenter - Lost Themes IV: Noir

John Carpenter - Lost Themes III: Life After Death

John Carpenter - Lost Themes II

John Carpenter - Lost Themes

16 - Dream Squasher

Melvins - Tarantula Heart

John Carpenter and Alan Howarth - Halloween III: Season of the Witch OST

Genghis Tron - Board Up the House

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Card:

Today's card for study is the 8 of Wands, Swiftness:

Yeah, I know I said I was going to stick with the sevens, but I need to go back and draw up a map of what I've already done for this 'tarot study' segment that I feel has become another daily pull. When I picked up my Thoth to flip to the next Seven, Valour came up again right away (and yes, I had already shuffled since yesterday's). When I put that aside, Swiftness came up. Seeing this, I figured, what the hell? 

This is a Hob card, and Hod immediately brings to mind Splendour, but in The Book of Thoth, Crowley reminds us that being of Hod, the Eights share the same difficulties as the Sevens. Quoting directly from page 182:

"The position is doubly unbalanced; off the middle pillar, and very low down on the Tree. It is taking a very great risk to descend so far into illusion, and, above all, to do it by frantic struggle. Netzach pertains to Venus; Netzach pertains to Earth; and the greatest catastrophe that can befall Venus is to lose her Heavenly origin. The four Sevens are not capable of bringing any comfort; each one represents the degeneration of the element. Its utmost weakness is exposed in every case."

I've begun to read these weaknesses in Splendour and Victory as the weakness of the material world. The Earth is beautiful, and we can build Earthly victories, but all of it is a distraction from returning upward into the non-physical realms. Tiphareth has always been, to me, the pinnacle of what we can achieve and still be a part of the world. Maybe it's just the news this morning, but I feel like, as a species, we've left that behind for victories of common treasures. Fame, money, power, etc.