From the soundtrack to the new Darren Aronofsky film, Caught Stealing, which I was interested in seeing until I was subjected to the trailer before every movie I've seen at the theatre for the last month and a half. Still, great song. Always cool to get some new music from Idles!
Watch:
Stephen Kostansky's remake of Roger Corman's Deathstalker finally received a trailer and it. Looks. AWESOME!
In theatres October 10th, I am crossing my fingers I'll get to see this on the big screen!
Tracked a copy of Ryan Gosling and Zach Shields' 2009 Dead Man's Bones last night. Super excited. This is one of those weird, one-off records from the 00s that I adore but often forget about. With all the bands currently pulling their music from Streaming, I've been thinking a lot about musical sustainability. I've always preferred physical media, but have come to rely on streaming a lot over the past decade. I think a healthy mix of the two is the best way to navigate the world in 2025; however, the idea that some music could disappear from my life scares me terribly. This is one of those albums I need to make sure I always have access to, even if I don't access it a lot.
NCBD:
Huge pull this week. Damn! Let's get into it:
We're inching closer to the Quintesson War, and for those who don't see Void Rivals as a monthly Transformers book, you're wrong.
On the fence with this one-shot from Image. Here's the solicitation from League of Comic Geeks:
"A nightmarish terror once again haunts the shadowy woods of a small town community. Three young friends have to confront their own childhood fears, undead creatures that stalk the living, an enigmatic tree that seemingly collects souls, and an ancient forest entity that seeks to reclaim these lands as its own. It's Tom Sawyer meets Pan's Labyrinth meets It in this coming-of-age tale of redemption and courage in the face of pure evil."
Sounds fantastic, but it's already a tall week in the duckets column. We'll see.
I love Zander Cannon's Sleep so much that it's become one of my most anticipated reads every month.
Jeff Lemire's Minor Arcana continues to be one of the books I most look forward to each month. Not Horror, but more of a 'supernatural drama,' if you will. The idea of a real psychic taking over her fake psychic mother's psychic shop in a small, podunk town really resonates. Maybe it's the dabs of Seaside Horror that I pick up in this one, but it just feels so mysterious. Love it so much.
It's awesome to see this final iteration of Greg Rucka and Michael Lark's Lazarus come out on the nose every month. I've been buying these but not reading them, as I still have not begun my reread of the previous two series. That's coming soon, though!
JG Jones and Phil Bram's delightfully twisted Dust Bowl horror, Dust to Dust, returns. I'll admit that I'm going to require a re-read to move forward, but I look forward to revisiting this one. A very nuanced tale of Americana Horror that would make a great "double feature" with Scott Snyder and Scott Tuft's Severed.
While picking up issue 1 was something of a lark, so far, I'm enjoying this. Even though the importance of these "Death of" books is all self-invented and transient. Still, it's been a while since I read anything with the Surfer, so this five-issue mini-series is a nice dalliance with a character I've always admired from afar.
The final issue of this Black Metal piss-take. I've really enjoyed Dark Regards.
Watch:
Monday night I hit the local theatre for a re-release of 2013's The Conjuring. This is a flick I really liked when it came out, but that all the spin-offs and sequels had convinced me was no longer worth my time. My disdain for the handling of the property crept backward, and when I saw it would be on the big screen again, like I saw it the first time, I figured, let's give it a day in court, shall we?
Glad I did. James Wan's original The Conjuring 100% holds up as one of the best haunted house flicks of the modern era. Yes, the spin-offs and franchising has dragged the overall name down, but this first film... It's almost breathtaking at times with the sequences of sustained fear peppered throughout.
Here's short IG video I did to sum up how I felt directly after leaving the theatre Monday night.
The Body - All the Waters of the Earth Turn to Blood
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• Three of Cups
• VI: The Lovers
• XVII: The Star
Love brings abundance and a positive turning point. Oh boy. This may be directly related to something in Black Gloves and Broken Hearts. I can't say anymore at this point, but I may have to spend part of my writing time this afternoon addressing this.
I was taken aback when I saw Scott Ian's post recognizing that Persistence of Time came out 35 years ago yesterday. I mean, I remember buying that cassette like it was yesterday. Persistence was my first Anthrax album, and I bought it the year it came out, 1990. Since then, it has always remained my favorite of the band's records.
Watch:
I rewatched Michael Sarnoski's Pig this past Saturday night. What a fantastic film!
First, Cinematographer Pat Scola photographs the Pacific Northwest in a way that really sends me there. You can practically smell the trees and feel the misting rain. Even the neighborhoods come alive with an extra dimension - the brief scene where Cage's Robin revisits his old home really put me there, on the sidewalk along the side of the house, into the backyard.
Alexis Grapass and Philip Klein provide a score that is wondrous - it moves through the different scenes of the city and moods of the characters in a way that really enhances the performance without ever dictating emotion. And emotion is where Nick Cage comes in. There's something starkly beautiful about his sorrow and persistence. Robin is motivated by love and loss, and I feel that so acutely that my eyes harbor tears for most of the film.
Alex Wolf and Adam Arkin are no slouches, either. Both have an arc that moves me in a secondary way to Cage's story, so that it all comes together in one of those simple films that feels so robust, as though it can encompass every emotional state of the human experience.
Read:
With secondary hype from the Fantastic Four film I'll probably never see, I'd gotten back around to thinking about the mid-80s Walt Simonson run on the book. I didn't read it at the time, but I was very aware of it all throughout my burgeoning comic book-collecting years, which really hit hyperdrive in 1986, the same year Simonson took over "The World's Greatest Comics Magazine."
As I said on a recent Drinking with Comics, I was a total Marvel Zombie as a child, and I bought into the hype on the FF even if I didn't have the allowance to venture into reading it. So over the years, while I've grabbed an issue here or there, I've never had a concentrated plan of attack for going back and reading some of that stuff.
Until now.
I finally pinned down Simonson's first issue as Writer and Artist and started there, snagging a copy of #337 off eBay a few weeks ago. I wasn't sure how this would read to my eyes in 2025, but I needn't have worried; Into the Time Stream is a fantastic jumping-on point, as well as a great example of Simonson's art and writing complementing each other. The issue is heavy on the 80s Marvel time-travel talk, but honestly, it all sounds very modern. The terminology reminded me a lot of reading Grant Morrison circa 2000. And the thing is, Simonson's art matches that heady, scientific approach perfectly!
I feel like, when you stop to consider the image above, you see how adept Walter Simonson is as an artist of the abstract. This image really sells the "mumbo-jumbo" Reed Richards spouts in this issue, and helps us 'buy into' the weird, fringe science as a reality because, hey, we can see it right there. Similarly, I love this panel as well, where the FF and their Avengers counterparts enter the 'time bubble' from an unknown future that has jeopardized their present.
Even though I didn't read his run on FF until now, Walter Simonson's art was among the first I marveled at outside of 80's G.I. Joe comics because he did a big stint illustrating his wife Louise's run as writer on X-Factor, the first X-Book I picked up. I dug a few of those out this weekend as well. It's cool to really dip back in on his 80s work - both what I know and what I don't - and celebrate one of the artists that made me the comic fan I am.
Playlist:
Deftones - private music
Testament - Infanticide A.I. (pre-release single)
Testament - The New Order
Testament - Titans of Creation
Walter Rizatti - House By the Cemetery OST
Sam Cooke - One Night Stand! Live at the Harlem Square Club, 1963
From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• Page of Swords
• VIII: Strength
• Six of Swords
When attacked on Earthly grounds, the Strength of Science will be the best defense.
Okay, that's pretty vague from the outside looking in, but I'm picking up what these 70s Wizard cards are putting down. To fight a good fight, keep emotional responses from poisoning logic.
The first track off Testament's upcoming fourteenth studio album, Para Bellum, is out October 10th on Nuclear Blast Records. You can pre-order a copy HERE.
Fourteen albums? That just blows me away. I've dodged in and out of keeping tabs on these guys. Most of their records still sound fantastic to me, and if this first track is any indication, Para Bellum will be no different.
Watch:
Last night I saw Shinji Higuchi and Hideaki Anno's 2016 Shin Godzilla on the big screen for the second time in three days.
Unlike many of my friends, I did not grow up with Godzilla. Certainly, I knew what the monster was. Who doesn't? The big G has occupied a fairly lofty space in the cultural lexicon for longer than I have been alive. I'm not sure that, without that layer of nostalgia, I'll ever be able to go back and embrace the Godzilla movies of the past (maybe, though), but between this and Minus One, hot damn am I a convery. This movie is STUNNING. Some of the best effects I have ever seen theatrically. They build a world and destroy it and, although I know I'm not watching half a dozen skyscrapers in Tokyo topple, I believe that's exactly what I'm seeing.
Read:
I'm halfway through Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray, and to complement it as research for Shadow Play Book Two, I've also procured a $10 Kindle copy of Richard Ellmann's celebrated biography of Wilde, Oscar Wilde:
This is often shown titled as Oscar Wilde: Pulitzer Prize Winner; however, I find that adding the book's accolade to the title is a bit churlish, to say the least.
I've pretty much accepted that despite the literal tower of books on my 'to-read' pile, the remainder of my 2025 reading will most likely be reserved specifically for research. Two exceptions are the Nathan Ballingrud and Laird Barron novellas due next month. Other than that, I'm all in on researching both Victorian and Elizabethan England, which have winnowed their way into my novel as main characters of the second act.
Playlist:
Windhand - Eternal Return
Sleep - Dopesmoker
White Zombie - La Sexorcisto: Devil Music, Vol. 1
Steve Moore - VFW OST
Blackbraid - Blackbraid III
Testament - Infanticide AI (single)
Mastodon - Leviathan
Testament - The Gathering
Portishead - Third
Faetooth - Remnants of the Vessel
Hall & Oats - Rock 'N' Soul, Part 1
Deftones - private music
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• XVII: The Star
• XX: Adjustment
• Eight of Swords
Struggling interrupts the path to enlightenment.
That's a pretty vague interpretation, but I'm picking up what I'm putting down. This is a work-oriented Pull, letting me know that the theoretical middle finger roadblocks I'm throwing in certain folks' direction are perhaps counterproductive. I would argue that corporate backstabbing and rigamarole are also counterproductive, but that's just it - stop pointing that out and try to work past it.
News of former Mastodon founding member Brent Hinds' death filtered in this morning and really kind of left me aghast. Hinds had recently left the band, and from a lot of the videos my algorithm tries to feed me but I avoid, he'd gone on something of a tear speaking out against his former bandmates. Whatever drama ensued, it's all over now, and a very talented artist is gone. Crazy how monumental shifts can follow one another so quickly, or perhaps one brings on the other.
The new album from Revocation lands in under a month and I'm pretty psyched. I've especially taken to this pre-release single "Cronenberged," the name of which almost immediately signified how I would feel for it. And with a title referencing the Godfather of Body Horror, Revocation and Director, Cinematographer and FX guru David Brodsky 100% delivered!
You can pre-order the new album, New Gods, New Masters, from Metal Blade Records HERE.
NCBD:
Another Wednesday, another NCBD pull list! Super excited about these, so let's get into it!
So excited for the next chapter in this cosmic game of thrones (not a reference to George R. Martin). Hickman brings his trademark complexity, but also, he once again manages to infuse it with a sense of excitement I've not seen anyone bring to the big two in quite some time.
G.I.Joe issue #9 was, I think, the best of the series thus far, so despite the instant exhaustion I feel looking at a cover displaying Cover Girl and Baroness as the stars of the issue, I have high hopes. I'd just really like to move on from them soon.
I feel a re-read coming on for Exquisite Corpses. Interesting to note that issue 3 had Pornsak Pichetshote and Valentine De Landro were credited as Writer/Artist, so I'd kind of assumed this might be a project that Tynion and Walsh had conceived, set up and handed off; however, that's not the case. League of Comic Geeks' entry for this issue shows the founders back on board for the next few solicitations.
The first issue of Catacombs of Torment was a blast, so I've been jonesing to read #2, due out today! There is nothing quite as satisfying as a fantastic Horror Anthology, especially when it's in comic book form (This is probably based on the fact that I saw Creepshow as a very young child, and it imprinted on me forevermore).
Watch:
After rewatching Osgood Perkins' The Monkey this past Sunday night, I was reminded just how much I'm looking forward to his next film, Keeper, due in theatres November 14th!
I'm continually amazed at not only how fast Mr. Perkins works, but how he's really matured as a filmmaker of late.
Playlist:
The Knife - Silent Shout
The Knife - Shaking the Habitual
The Knife - Deep Cuts
Blackbraid - Blackbraid III
Drug Church - Prude
King Woman - Doubt EP
Steve Moore - The Mind's Eye OST
Steve Moore - Christmas Bloody Christmas OST
Revocation - New Gods, New Masters (pre-release singles)
Helmet - Aftertaste
Spotlights - Love & Decay
Kate Bush - Hounds of Love
Perturbator - The Uncanny Valley
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• XVI: The Tower
• XII: The Hanged Man
• 7 of Disks: Failure
It'd been a minute since I put hands on my Thoth deck, so that's what I pulled for today. Looks like to change a paradigm, I'm going to have to go through a sacrifice and fail once or twice. Not sure what this is alluding to; might be the new methodology I've been tweaking for working on Shadow Play Book 2. Might be work-related.
I love that Steve Moore has done an original score for every movie Joe Begos has made except his first. I love everyone of those scores, own them all on vinyl, and am happy to share the news that Terror Vision.
My god do I love the design on this one! You can pre-order the soundtrack HERE, and from what I'm seeing, Jimmy and Stiggs is still in wide release up until Thursday when the new stuff comes out. I'm going to try to drive into Nashville to see it again, and I have to implore the rest of you to make the effort as well. It's not a perfect film, but it's made for the big screen and supporting something so DIY in big box chains is VITAL to our way of life as fans.
Watch:
Pierre Tsigaridis's new film Traumatika is getting a lot of hype coming out of recent festival screenings, and I'm super curious. I really liked his previous film, Two Witches, which I watched on the Arrow Streaming service back when it first landed in 2022. I can't say I remember the film very well, but that's definitely not the movie's fault. It usually takes a viewing or two for things to stick.
Early reports and all the promotional material make Traumatika sound pretty daunting, but we'll see. I watched about a third of this trailer and it was enough to get me further on board, so I'm hoping come September 12th, this pops up on a big screen in my neck of the woods. The blurb on Letterboxd mentions two phrases that always suggest a promising formula for Horror: "Night Terrors" and "Demonic Possession."
Read:
I finished Stephen Graham Jones' latest novel The Buffalo Hunter Hunter over the weekend. This is the kind of novel that leaves a deafening vacuum when it ends, where you just look at the other books on your shelf or in your queue and can't quite bring yourself to replace it right away.
Luckily, while I've begun picking at my Sandman re-read again, my main focus for the next few months and possibly the remainder of the year will be on a list of titles I have determined I need to read to continue to work on the sequel to Shadow Play. Some of these are books I've known I'm going to have to read for a few years now, and some are new to the list. The point is, I'm finally working through this project the way I should have been all along.
First up: The Picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde. It's a shame I haven't already read this, anyway, so I'm finally making up for lost time. a handful of chapters in, I'm hooked, even if it did take me a few to adjust to the more flowery, 'purple' prose style. Once I readjusted, it fit like a glove.
I'm just reading the cheapie Kindle edition, so I thought I'd post one of the more interesting covers from previous editions here, published by Penguin Clothbound Classics in 2000. Yeah, not the best 'vintage' for a book with this much history, but honestly, after google image searching this one, I don't know that it ever received a cover I actually like.
Playlist:
Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - Nell' ora blu
Secret Chiefs 2 Traditionalists - La Mani Destre Recise Degli Ultimi Uomimi
White Zombie - Astro-Creep 2000
Zombi - Shape Shift
Ruin of Romantics - Self Control (single)
The Dillinger Escape Plan - Calculating Infinity
Fvnerals - Let the Earth be Silent
Brittany Bindrim - Ever So Slowly (single)
Revocation - The Outer Ones
The Body - No One Deserves Happiness
Fantômas - Delirium Cordia
In Slaughter Natives - Sacrosancts Bleed
Ministry - Houses of the Molee
Deafheaven - Ordinary Corrupt Human Love
ISIS - Panopticon
White Zombie - La Sexorcisto: Devil Music, Vol. 1
Steve Moore - Jimmy and Stiggs OST
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• Knight of Pentacles
• XVI: The Tower
• XI: Justice
I saw the Knight of Disks - which I often equate with saving money, and knew exactly what I had to do. I had literally been thinking about it just before the pull, so this was an easy one. Especially after adding in The Tower and Justice.
I dug out Pulp's Separations yesterday and just had an absolute blast with it. Forgot how much I love this album. Here's the "hit."
I still haven't been in the headspace to give Pulp's latest record, this year's More, a proper listen, but perhaps soon.
Watch:
Last night I drove an hour into Nashville to catch the new Joe Begos film Jimmy & Stiggs on the big screen. 100% worth it!
This movie is the fucking definition of balls-to-the-wall DIY. So loud, so neon, so METAL! Begos stars alongside Matt Mercer in a whiskey-drenched, cocaine-fueled fight to the death against aliens who invade his apartment and do some pretty heinous things to the two friends, the titular Jimmy (Begos) and Stiggs (Mercer). Fantastic on-screen chemistry. Like Christman, Bloody Christmas, some of the dialogue goes a bit off the rails for me (pun intended), but it doesn't matter. I'm in awe at the sheer force of will that is the Joe Begos filmmaking machine. See this in the theatre, and when you do, arrive early for the two fake trailers and stay late for the behind-the-scenes.
Playlist:
Mastodon - Emperor of Sand
Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Slow Riot for New Zero Kanada
Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven
Boredoms - Chocolate Synthesizer
Black Sabbath - Eponymous
lords. - bleeding out
Young Widows - Power Sucker
Cryo Chamber - Echoes of the Hollow Earth
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - No More Shall We Part
Pulp - Separations
The Veils - Total Depravity
White Zombie - La Sexorcisto: Devil Music, Vol. 1
BESET - Most Foul
HEALTH & NIN - Isn't Everyone (single)
NIN - As Alive As You Need Me To Be (single)
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE. Also, Grimm just launched a Kickstarter for his new The Art of the Fae Bound Deck Art Book. Check that out HERE.
• Kings of Wands
• VIII: Strength
• VI: The Lovers
Drive, Strength and Passion. Three things I find myself contemplating A LOT. I have them, but do I have enough of them? Is this an eternal question all creators ask themselves?
Ritual Howls announced a new record and dropped an awesome new track, so let's all rejoice! You can pre-order a super nifty neon green vinyl on their Bandcamp right HERE.
I realized I completely forgot about and never ordered the band's previous release, 2023's Virtue Falters, so I have to go back and take care of that at some point. But this is a very well-timed release; we're approaching Autumn, and just over the last two days, I've felt twitches of it. First, I pulled out the copy of The Damned's live Night of 1000 Vampires the other day, an album Mr. Brown gifted me and that I played continuously last autumn. Then yesterday I had a taste for Joy Division. So, having a new Howls' record for Halloween 2025 will be a welcome event.
NCBD:
Another easy week, but everything here is something I can't wait to read! Let's go:
The penultimate issue of Daniel Warren Johnson's run, which ends next month with Transformers issue 24! The cover says it all - I really dig what they've been doing with ol' Ultra Magnus, and in general, the Autobots are in such dire straits, I can't wait to see how this all plays out.
I LOVED issue one of the first Epitaphs from the Abyss spin-off mini series, Blood Type, and am looking forward to more.
Hands down the best regularly produced Batman book I've read since Morrison's run almost twenty years ago now. I know this ends in a few issues, but I'll enjoy Dark Patterns while I can. Dan Watters and Hayden Sherman are really operating at peak performance on this one.
Watch:
I found this trailer for Matt Stuertz's new feature, Human, via Bloody Disgusting, which had a headline comparing it to Greg Araki meets Evil Dead 2. I see the Araki for sure, not 100% certain I see the Raimi. Regardless, for what looks like a super small budget, I am intrigued and won't hold a Howie Mandel cameo against the film.
Playlist:
The Damned - Night of 1000 Vampires
Windhand - Eternal Return
John Carpenter and Alan Howarth - Prince of Darkness OST
Revocation - New Gods, New Masters (pre-release singles)
Blackbraid - Blackbraid III
Witchthroat Serpent - Trove of Oddities at the Devil's Driveway
Sleep - Dopesmoker
QOTSA - Rated R
Black Sabbath - Eponymous
Joy Division - Substance
Ritual Howls - Follow the Sun (single)
Ritual Howls - Virtue Falters
Ritual Howls - Into the Water
Ritual Howls - A Safe Haven From the Sun (single)
Cryo Chamber - Echoes of the Hollow Earth
Young Widows - Power Sucker
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• Ace of Cups
• V: The Hierophant
• Seven of Wands
Emotional breakthrough leads beyond accepted dogma/practices to a victory of Will.
First, let's take a moment to marvel at the artistic merit of these three particular cards. My god - I'm blown away every time I stop to examine Grimm's art in this deck. Not just the actual art, but the concepts and pulling together of so many similar attributes - stoner rock, Weedian folklore, Occult influences, 70s Sci-Fi and Fantasy. Breathtaking, I tell you.
Okay, so what the hell is this pull saying? I've finally knuckled down and have been writing very nearly every day, and it's paying off. The book I'm working on - Shadow Play Two - is extremely difficult to write. I have a timeline that dates back to Elizabeathan England and draws in a lot of minor historical figures. I'm having trouble shaping the second act of the book - which I'm back to thinking will take place in both Elizabeathan and Victorian England, and a lot of my work is slow going.
I discovered Bruit ≤ last week via the always wonderful KEXP YouTube channel, and just fell in love with them.
From the new album Age of Ephemerality, which you can order HERE.
Watch:
While Zach Cregger's Weapons was the huge release last week, another Horror film also hit my local theatre. Strange Harvest is one I had not heard of until my cohosts on The Horror Vision mentioned it, and now that I have my first Weapons screening out of the way (number two is coming soon enough), I very much want to check this one out, too:
I should add that I know nothing about this film, and as usual, while I'm posting this trailer here, I have not watched it. I love going in blind! This is from Stuart Ortiz, whose 2011 film Grave Encounters I've seen at some foggy point in the past, but remember next to nothing about.
Playlist:
Zombi - 2020
Blackbraid - Blackbraid III
Deafheaven - Lonely People With Power
Deadguy - Near-Death Travel Services
Revocation - New Gods, New Masters (pre-release singles)
Perturbator - Age of Aquarius (pre-release singles)
Ghost Bath - Moonlover
Ghost Bath - Rose Thorn Necklace
David Bowie - Outside
Arctic Monkeys - AM
Ministry - HOPIUMFORTHEMASSES
Crystal Castles - II
Blackbraid - Blackbraid II
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• IX: The Hermit
• Seven of Cups
• Six of Swords
Turn inward and experience an Earthly victory derived from Science.
Basically, meditation - which I had a wonderful experience with at a full moon sound bath this past Saturday - creates the opportunity to 'hack' some Earthbound area of concern and triumph over it in a lasting, emotionally satisfying way.
So while I have part of this locked solid in interpretation, I'm not entirely sure what the meditation is going to affect. I have to sit and think back over the ebbings of my mind during that session - there may be a clue contained within.
Blackbraid III, out everywhere today! Psyched for the arrival of my vinyl, which I pre-ordered directly from the band's online shop HERE.
Last weekend, while doing some work around the house, I put in my headphones and listened to Blackbraid I and II in succession. This is a band that deserves all the hype; in fact, Blackbraid deserves a lot more hype! There's an evolution going on across these three records that is breathtaking to behold, and you can see how their success funnelled directly into their Art. The cover artwork on III is a contender for cover of the year. Artist Adam Burke absolutely nailed this, and with Adrian Baker's layout, this is something I cannot wait to just sit and stare at while cranking the record. (You can read a bit more about the album and the art HERE)
I had hopes of seeing Blackbraid live, but alas, they're playing Chicago when I'm in LA this October, and they're playing LA when I'm back home in TN, so I'll have to catch them next time.
Watch:
Weapons. Holy shit. THIS might actually topple Eddington as my favorite film of the year. Zach Cregger has actually crafted yet another movie that belies all comparison. Weapons is unique. It is intricate and perfectly executed. The storytelling here is just on another level. The characters - of which there are quite a few - are very well-written and expertly developed. As my good friend and cohost on The Horror Vision said last night during our live, spoiler-free reaction on IG, "The characters are rich."
Go into this as blind as possible. I will say, another thing that now appears to go hand-in-hand with Cregger's brand is the mystery, so that even though I've seen the initial trailer for this film several times, and have been inundated with a more recent ad while watching The Bear on our HULU (our phone pays for the subscription, so there are ads), I still knew NOTHING about this film. That's a feat. While Blumhouse continues to beat everyone over the head with trailers that show (and ruin) the entire movie, Directors like Mr. Cregger and Oz Perkins have "spoiler-free" built into their brand.
I love this song. LOVE. I was initially introduced to it via Rob Zombie's The Devil's Rejects Soundtrack, and for most of the 00s, it appeared on my burned CD mix compilations. I spent some serious time zoned out on various substances, just feeling this song - so much to feel!
NCBD:
An easy week on the wallet for once:
Ericka Slaughter's origin continues. I'm digging these flashback issues; however, it perpetually thwarts my desire for the current timeline story to move forward!
I'm really enjoying Larry Hama's ARAH as a totally hyperbolic version of Joe. Funny that this book used to be so rooted in reality. As I've suggested here before, though, after 300+ issues, you'd have to take things into weird territory to keep it interesting. Yet, make no mistake. A lesser writer would have rendered this title obsolete with all the AI, cyborgs, genetic mutations and, well, Serpentors that fill its pages. Not Hama. Still solid after all these years.
Watch:
I'm not sure why, but until last Sunday, I had no interest in watching Season 2 of Netflix's TheSandman adaptation. My Drinking with Comics host Mike Shinabargar recently mentioned that the final episode was set to drop on 7/31 and that he'd like to cover the show. After a few hours of yard work in the particularly grueling heat, I came inside, collapsed onto the couch, and fired up the episode, Seasons of Mist.
I think two things are going on here. One, I think I'm way more attached to the stories adapted in the first season than this one, so it was harder for me to accept any changes (same with "24 Hours" from the first volume). Two, Tom Sturridge has really come to embody the character of Morpheus. The dour expression, the ever-changing, always confounding hair, the glassy stare. He just nails it in every scene this season. I've just hit the point where the season and the show move into their final arc in adapting The Kindly Ones, and this particular storyline in the comics is another I'm super attached to. So far, no complaints. I've heard this is around the point where the series begins to feel rushed, but so far, I'm not getting that. This could very well be because, when I began reading The Sandman near the end of its monthly run, I jumped in on The Kindly Ones, and at the time, the only collections available in trade were the first three volumes, Preludes and Noctures, Doll's House and Dream Country. The latter three were adapted as Season One of the show, so it stands to reason that, for someone who didn't read volumes 4-8 until later and thus, know them less intimately, adapting the four seasons I know makes this show fit my experience with The Sandman like a glove. Season Two effectively starts with Seasons of Mist (Volume 4), moves into A Game of You (Volume 5), and I think, bypasses virtually everything from Volumes 6-8.
Playlist:
Ozzy Osbourne - Bark at the Moon
Ozzy Osbourne - Blizzard of Ozz
Ozzy Osbourne - Diary of a Madman
Ian Lynch - All You Need is Death OST
Isaac Hayes - Hot Buttered Soul
M83 - Hurry Up, We're Dreaming
Hangman's Chair - Saddiction
Deafheaven - Sunbather
King Woman - Celestial Blues
Moon Wizard - Sirens
Black Pyramid - The Paths of Time Are Vast
Benjamin Booker - LOWER
Type O Negative - Life Is Killing Me
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• IX: The Hermit
• Five of Pentacles
• XXI: The World
Anticipate setbacks by taking a strategic withdrawal and considering the bigger picture. This is a 'work' reading, and it's as timely as it is on the money.
I wanted to bring 7 Days of Sabbath and two weeks of celebrating the life and music of Ozzy Osbourne to a close with one of my favorite Sabbath songs (there are so many favorites!). Jack the Stripper/Fairies Wear Boots is such a great track. I'll never forget listening to the lyrics as a young stoner and thinking, "How can I see Fairies with boots on dancing with a dwarf?"
Luckily, I never quite got there.
Tomorrow? Tomorrow our mourning ends. Let the celebration continue!
One of my all-time favorite Sabbath deep-cuts and among their best lyrics. Finding this blew me away in a week where I've been pretty blown away at what can be found on YouTube from the "Before Times."
Watch:
The thumbnail image for Shudder's newest Shudder Original, Monster Island, instantly caught my eye with what appeared to be a Creature of the Black Lagoon-like monster. Here's the trailer:
What a fantastic concept - a U.S. soldier and a Japanese soldier stranded on an island during WWII have to overcome their differences to survive being stalked by a monster. I tried to find the time to watch this over the weekend, but most of my free 'watch' time has been spent enamored with The Sandman Season Two, so I'll get to this one later this week.
Playlist:
Ozzy Osbourne - The Ultimate Sin
Witchthroat Serpent - Trove of Oddities at the Devil's Driveway
Escape Driver - No Fate
Ennio Morricone - The Thing OST
John Carpenter - Prince of Darkness OST
John Carpenter - Big Trouble in Little China OST
Deadguy - Near-Death Travel Services
Rein - Reincarnated
The Revolting Cocks - Attack Ships on Fire (single)
The Revolting Cocks - Beers, Steers + Queers
Perturbator - Lustful Sacraments
Perturbator - The Uncanny Valley
Black Sabbath - Sabotage
Black Sabbath - Vol. 4
Ren - Vincent's Tale (single)
Aerosmith - Rocks
Black Sabbath - Paranoid
Deafheaven - New Bermuda
Deftones - Koi No Yokan
Young Widows - Power Sucker
Young Widows - Settle Down City
King Woman - Doubt EP
Turnstile - GLOW ON
Blackbraid - Blackbraid I
Blackbraid - Blackbraid II
NIN - As Alive As You Need Me To Be (single)
NIN - Year Zero
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• XIX: The Sun
• Queen of Pentacles
• Six of Swords
Enlightenment and Emotional grounding make this a good time to make decisions.
What decision to make, though? This caught me a bit unaware, so I'll have the cards on my desk throughout the day, reminding me to keep the reading's lesson in mind.
HUGE props to blacksabfan for posting this. Head over to their YouTube page and check 'em out! Lots of great live and rare Sabbath videos (lots of Thin Lizzy, too!).
There are a number of Sabbath songs that started out with different lyrics than what Ozzy ended up recording. This is one I don't think I was aware of.
There was a record store in Orland Park, IL when I was in High School. Red Tower. Located in the outer circumference of the Orland Mall's parkway, this standalone building carried with it for its south suburban location, the kind of cultural cache places like The Alley and Reckless Records did in the city (I'm aware The Alley wasn't a record store, but it was the most record store-like clothing/accessory store I've ever seen). Anyway, I already knew We Sold Our Souls For Rock 'n' Roll, the post-Sabotage Greatest Hits collection you could literally buy at gas stations in the late 80s/early 90s. While that introduced me to the first phase of Sabbath's music, it didn't prepare me for the second phase, those quasi-cinematic, philosophical Science Fiction-tinged tracks like Into the Void, the closer from 1971's Master of Reality. This song introduced a thread that, while "Supernaut" tugged on it again for Vol. 4, wasn't fully realized (IMO) until 1975's Sabotage, my favorite of the group's records and criminally underrated (and underrepresented on WSOSFR'n'R - I mean, how did they only add "Am I Going Insane?"). It was in Red Tower that I first heard Into the Void, and it literally made me stop, go up and ask the guy behind the counter what was playing. The song sounds like the soundtrack to a comic book or Science Fiction film, from the lyrics to the larger-than-life riffs. Instant favorite and the first inclination that I needed to move beyond the gas station greatest hits with this band.
For the record, the alternate lyrics are not good. I mean, the actual lyrics to this track are amazing, and I'd be curious to read how the boys from Birmingham got to the finished product. It's still cool to hear this little slice of Sabbath history, though, and for some fantastic alternate lyrics to this song, there's always Soundgarden's cover from SOMMS.
As we're getting close to the end of our celebration of Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath (my daily, personal one has been with me since I was a teenager and will carry on until I too, reside After Forever), I wanted to throw in a little something extra for today's post. Melvins and Sleep's Al Cisneros covering Sabbath Bloody Sabbath!
Man, they made it slower! I guess if there was going to be one way to make this song heavier than when it was born, this would be the only way to approximate that.
