5 Days 'til Halloween

 

Over the weekend, Chelsea Wolfe released a cover of "In Heaven" from David Lynch's Eraserhead. After being a fan for years and charting her remarkable evolution as an artist never content to stay idle in any on particular sound, I didn't think it was possible for me to be surprised or 'like' Ms. Wolfe any more than I already do. This proved I was way wrong, and that's awesome. There's a level of excitement introduced back into my relationship with her music that makes it feel kind of new again.

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31 Days of Halloween:

I had a hard time deciding on a flick last night and ended up doing something I'd been meaning to for a few years now - going back and revisiting Mike Flanagan's 2011 feature film debut Absentia. Still holds up like it did when I watched it back when it first landed on Netflix, circa 2011 or 2012 - this was the flick that put Flanagan on my radar and the reason I went out and saw Oculus in the theatre. It's really been awesome seeing him grow into such an awesome director, and all the indications were here in this first flick. Limitations be damned, he really made something special with this one:

1) Tales of Halloween: Sweet Tooth/The Wolf Man (1941)

2) From Beyond/Monsterland: "Port Fourchon, Louisiana"/Tales of Halloween: "The Night Billy Raised Hell" & "Trick"

3) Mulholland Drive/Creepshow (1982): "The Crate"

4) Waxwork

5) Synchronic/Bad Hair

6) Dolls

7) Lovecraft Country Ep. 8/Tales of Halloween: "The Weak and the Wicked" & "The Grim Grinning Ghost"

8) 976-Evil

9) Repo! The Genetic Opera

10) Firestarter/George A. Romero's Bruiser

11) The Haunting of Bly Manor episodes 1 & 2/Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2

12) The Haunting of Bly Manor episodes 3, 4, and 5/House of 1000 Corpses

13) Masque of the Red Death/Creepshow (2019) Episode 7/Creepshow (1982)

14) The Haunting of Bly Manor episodes 6 and 7

15) The Haunting of Bly Manor episodes 8 and 9/Roseanne (88) season 2 and 3 Halloween Episodes

16) The Mortuary Collection/Roseanne (88) season 4 Halloween Episode

17) Ginger Snaps Back: The Beginning

18) Lovecraft Country episode 9/The Haunting/Roseanne (88) season 5 Halloween Episode

19) Lovecraft Country episode 10/Tales From the Crypt season 1 ep. 5 "Lover Come Hack to Me"

20) George A. Romero's Season of the Witch

21) The Omen

22) Texas Chainsaw Massacre: A Family Portrait/Masters of Horror: "Sick Girl" (Lucky McKee)

23) Joe Bob's Halloween Hideaway: Haunt/Hack-O-Lantern

24) Eight Legged Freaks/What We Do in the Shadows season 1 episode 1/Night of the Demons

25) 10/31 - "The Old Hag"/Absentia

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Playlist:

The Sisters of Mercy - Floodland

Iress - Prey

Low Cut Connie - Hi Honey

Brand New - God and the Devil are Raging Inside Me

Doves - The Universal Want

Perturbator - Dangerous Days

Type O Negative - October Rust

John Carpenter - Lost Themes

Zeal and Ardor - Wake of a Nation EP

Chris Connelly - Artificial Madness

Zeal and Ardor - Stranger Fruit

Chris Connelly - Phenobarb Bambalam

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Card:

Continue to build upon the solid foundation you have previously laid. I'm hoping for an extra day off this week. If so, MASSIVE writing day.

Larry Fessenden's Depraved

A friend and I are going to check out Larry Fessenden's new film Depraved in Hollywood tonight, and I am excited! I've been waiting for some time for this, a modern re-telling of Mary Shelley's classic Frankenstein tale. The trailer looks fantastic, and the theatre the film is playing at is one of my favorite little nooks and crannies in a city where everything is overblown and overexposed. A fun time will be had by all, of that I am certain.

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New Fangoria arrived two days ago and I've barely had a chance to scratch the surface.

Great cover.

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Playlist from 9/18:

Sausage - Riddle Are Abound Tonight
Sleep - Sleep's Holy Mountain
Sepultura - Roots
Malcolm Middleton - Sleight of Heart
Lustmord - The Word as Power
Perturbator - Dangerous Days

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Card of the day:

I love seeing the same card multiple days in a row, especially when I can interpret the pull as a nod that what I've been doing is the right thing to be doing. Burnt out and not in the best physical shape, I took another day off from writing after work yesterday and had a big ol' nap. It was glorious! This restorative, Powering Up period has worked wonders - I feel considerably better today than I did yesterday, so tomorrow it's going to be rest in the morning, and then back at it.

Actually, I did a little bit of work yesterday: finally dug out an old manuscript I intend to canabalize for an upcoming short story. It was fun revisiting old material, especially looking at it with fresh eyes, seeing what I can use and what will be changed or tossed. This new one's been on my mind for over a year, so I can't wait to tear into it!

Blood Machines Official Trailer

SO happy I helped kickstart this one! There are two slots for this year's Beyondfest still to be announced - I'm hoping one of them is Blood Machines. My hope for the other slot is either Babak Anvari's Nathan Ballingrud adaptation Wounds or the Soska Sisters' Rabid.

Speaking of Beyondfest 2019, I was able to get tickets to almost everything I wanted:

Joe Bob Brigs - How Rednecks Saved Hollywood
Tammy and the T-Rex
Joe Begos Double Feature: Bliss and VFW, with Begos and crew in person
Tom Atkins Triple Feature with Mr. Atkins attending: Halloween III Season of the Witch, Night of the Creeps and John Carpenter's The Fog

The only flick I missed out on is Richard Stanley's adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft's The Color Out of Space with Stanley in person, but I'm cool with what I was able to score. There's also tickets available for a bunch of other films I'm toying with, but I'll probably decide some of those last minute since most are during the week.

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NCBD - so weird. Third NCBD in a row with no books, and I'm not particularly bothered. In fact, probably to sub the weekly comic experience, I chomped down hard on my re-read of Rick Remender and Matteo Scalera's Black Science, which I erroneously reported ended last month, but actually ends next week with issue forty-three. As of last night, I am eight issues into the re-read, and having an absolute blast with it. Such great world building, both story wise and with Scalera's incomparable art.

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I've been doing a lot of digital reading. So much so, that it's becoming a bit of a problem. Kindle books are so cheap it's insane. Case in point, this was $0.99:

Forty freakin' stories by a variety of different authors. Some of those, like the Lovecraft and the Howard I already have, but there's a ton of stuff I do not. In fact, what led me to this one was researching T.E.D. Klein, whose OOP paperback Dark Gods keeps coming up in conversation as essential reading to further Lovecraft's mythos, but which runs for about $50+ on eBay. Klein's story The Events at Poroth Farm is included in this one, and it also comes recommended as a great place to start with his work. Instead of that one though, I started with a Clark Ashton Smith, whose SciFi/Fantasy work I adore, but whose entries in the mythos I've never read before. I'm about a quarter of the way through The Return of the Sorcerer, and it is, as I suspected, fantastic. Smith's handling of Lovecraft's work actually reminds me a lot Howard's, whose Lovecraft-related work I actually probably like better than Lovecraft's. Sacrilege, I know, but the man can write. And so can Smith.

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Well, I went and saw Rob Zombie's 3 From Hell two nights ago. I didn't like it. My short review is up on Letterbxd HERE. I'll add that I am happy RZ made the movie he wanted to, it just wasn't to my tastes or what I wanted from a sequel to two movies I adore. Despite of my negative take, I'll still go see the next one when it comes out (there will be a next one).

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Playlist of late:

Danzig - Danzig 1
Sepultura - Chaos A.D.
Mark Korven - The Witch OST
Slipknot - We Are Not Your Kind
Marilyn Manson - Antichrist Superstar
David Bowie - Aladdin Sane
Flipper - Generic Flipper
Various - Under Frustration, Vol. 2
Brass Hearse - Eponymous EP
Rob Zombie - Apple Essentials
Brass Hearse - In Death (I'll Love You More) single

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Card of the day:

To me, this card always indicates a solid foundation, or re-gathering thereof. And that's what I've been doing of late - a lot of rest. I've felt out of sorts, stressed out, and my wrist in probably badly sprained. I may continue to rest today, even if I am neglecting my writing. We'll see. The reading - of comics, The Queen's Conjuror, and now some Cthulhu Mythos, is also an attempt at re-cementing my foundation, and that combined with the added rest is helping put me back together a bit after traveling and a grueling return to work last week.

2019: July 27th - Shellac The End of Radio Live 2004

It's been a few weeks since Shellac dropped The End of Radio, a really nice collection of live tracks culled from Peel Sessions in 1994 and 2004. Being that the band's 2007 album Excellent Italian Greyhound just might be my favorite of Shellac's records (or it's tied with 2000's 1000 Hurts), and I think Greyhound has one of the best opening tracks of all time, this is my favorite on this new album. The Martina Navratilova aside near the end of this performance makes me so happy I can often hardly stand it.

You can order The End of Radio on Vinyl - as it was meant to be heard - from Touch and Go Records HERE.

I really need to see Shellac live again. It's been a while.

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I'll admit that I fully expected to hate Amazon's adaptation of Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson's The Boys, but after watching one and a half episodes last night, I can tell you that is most definitely not the case. In fact, so far, I LOVE it. Karl Urban remains a perfect actor, in my book.


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Playlist from 7/26:

Primus - Frizzle Fry
Motörhead - Ace of Spades
Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - The Night Creeper
Grand Duchy - Let the People Speak
Zeal and Ardor - Stranger Fruit
Numenorean - Adore

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Card of the day:

Being that I've ended up working Tarot into Ciazarn considerably more than I expected, I'm going to continue interpreting these draws that occur while I'm on a writing streak with it as direct influences on the story and/or characters. In this case, I have two 'set pieces,' but I believe I need two more in order to have a solid first act.

2019: April 10th - Night Goat

It was only a matter of time until I sunk into my favorite Melvins album while walking around Spokane. There's an insane aural/visual connection I make exploring the various textures of this city - a lot of brick, stone and Earth - with heavy slabs grinding in my ears. It just works. I'm probably waiting until the last day to take pictures - the streets are a bit sketch in a lot of parts, overrun with homeless, many of whom I've seen bother random folks walking around on the street. This makes a lot of people nervous, I know, but I do my best to avoid standing out, and part of that is not pulling out my iPhone every few minutes and snapping pictures. Also, with my worn combat boots, fingerless glove, dark clothing, and fully engaged hoodie, I blend in with the homeless. Which works well for me.

Last night I took a deviation from Ciazarn and followed inspiration for a new short story. The inspiration came from a simple, everyday office scenario that my mind twisted into what is becoming a really fun direction. I wrote for hours yesterday, causally pecking away at an online that, at some point shifted to a full-on narrative. No working title, no nothing yet. Just 15K words and an escalating desire to see where this one goes.

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Later, back in my hotel room, I watched GhostWatch, currently on Shudder's "Last Chance" list. I'd heard the Shockwaves crew speak on this one a few weeks back, and earmarked it based on whatever that discussion entailed. I have to tell you, it had me all the way through. And genuinely scary, which you all know I consider rare. What's crazy is apparently, many of the British BBC ONE news folks in the movie are indeed real television news folks, and GhostWatch originally aired in Britain on Halloween, 1992 under the auspices of being an actual news program, Orson Welles style. Man! I wish I could have seen it in that capacity. Still, really cool flick. Here's a video that explains the occurrence in more detail than I can:



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Playlist from 4/09:

Young Widows - Old Wounds
Helms Alee - Night Terror
Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - Wasteland
Melvins - Houdini

Card of the day:

This resonates. My writing yesterday feels like it's put my power levels through the freakin' roof. More today.