Monday, April 28, 2025

Techno Westerns - Loverboy


I rewatched In A Violent Nature last night, strictly because Joe Bob and Darcy hosted it on the previous installment of The Last Drive-In. Not a fan of this flick, but I did come away with this song, so that's cool.

The album this track is featured on shares its name, and while I didn't love it, I found a pretty reliable evocation of a certain kind of Electro-Indie-Pop that was ubiquitous in Los Angeles in the late 2000s and early 2010s, and thus, hits a certain nostalgic trigger for me. I'm not talking smack; I would have probably liked this a lot more back then, but my tastes have definitely shifted, and as it stands after a couple of listens, I do dig this, just not enough to really get excited by it. Still, if you dig this track, check out their music for yourself. 




Watch:

Zach Cregger's follow-up to Barbarian received a trailer last week:


This is another example of a creator who must have a hand in controlling the marketing of his films because, like Barbarian, this gives nothing away. I'm not going to test that theory by watching any subsequent trailers New Line releases after this; Weapons hits theatres on August 8th, and I will be there on opening day. 




Read:

Over the weekend, I ripped through a re-read of Preston Fassel's brilliant Our Lady of the Inferno. Second time reading this book, and it's an all-time favorite for me. 


The depth of emotion here is incredible. This is a book that can scare you, gross you out, and touch your heart. The imagery is above and beyond as Fassel conjures 42nd Street, New York, in 1983, in a way I cannot even begin to describe. You hear it, you feel it, you smell it. The characters are so well-written and so developed that you feel like you know them - like you have known them your entire life. And the Horror is both breathtaking and heartbreaking in equal measure.

I was lucky enough to grab this one upon original publication by Fangoria, but while that edition is long out of print, there is a new edition available everywhere books are sold. 


I know I say this a lot, and I always mean it when I say it, but I cannot recommend this book enough. While I would definitely classify Our Lady of the Inferno as a "Horror" novel, it is also a literary Horror novel and one that is far too human to be limited by any genre tropes.  




Playlist:

Black Sabbath - Sabotage
Moon Wizard - Sirens
Sumerlands - Dreamkiller
The Raveonettes - PE'AHI II
Matt Cameron - Gory Scorch Cretins
Zeal & Ardor - GREIF
Fever Ray - Radical Romantics
Turnstile - GLOW ON
Primus - Pork Soda
The Atlas Moth - Coma Noir
Ghost - Skeletá 
Perturbator - Dangerous Days
Final Light - Eponymous
Techno Westerns - Lover Boy
Joseph Bishara - Malignant OST




Card:

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


• Ace of Cups
• Four of Wands
• Seven of Pentacles

Emotional breakthrough leads to a stable foundation from which to move forward to victory.

Black Gloves & Broken Hearts is finished and is in the hands of my trusted Beta Reader, so I'm really just waiting on the cover art and any cleanup based on early readers' reactions. After that, we'll be looking at setting a release date. Conversely, I've added a chapter to my latest ongoing Nosleep Serial and moved back to Shadow Play Book Two with the intention of stripping it, streamlining it, and finishing it. I toyed with the idea of turning this proposed trilogy into a duology. However, I think I will simply make books two and three shorter than originally expected. There's just too much sprawl, and I think it's that admitting and acknowledging that right there that is the "Emotional Breakthrough" mentioned in the reading. Roping this in can only lead to a stronger foundation and, thus, completion (Victory).

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