Low Cut Connie's Witchboard is Truly the Great and Secret Show

I've been on a Low Cut Connie binge all weekend and it's definitely helped elevate my mood. I'm turning 50 tomorrow, and, although that doesn't bother me the way it might a lot of people, it still kind of staggers the view I take of myself. On one hand, I'm still here and do not expect to be going anywhere for quite a long time. On the other hand, in ten years I'll be 60, and ten years after that - should I be lucky enough to live that long - 70. You see where this is going, right? I'm getting long in the tooth, and while that's definitely better than the alternative, well, it's fucking weird and a little scary if you don't find a way to keep it from your mind. And what better way to keep it from the mind than with some awesome, soulful Rock n' Roll!

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Watch:

I had my third-ever viewing of Kevin Tenney's 1985 debut film, Witchboard, last night. Here's one of the original 1986 TV spots for the film, which, back in the day, made me think this movie was hardcore intense (I was 10).

I never did see this back in the 80s. Or the 90s. It was sometime in the early 2000s that I picked up the Witchboard DVD secondhand, tried to watch it, and found it incredibly disappointing (that was nearly 25 years of anticipation based on what 10-year-old Shawn thought the film would be - hard for anything to live up to that). Then, a couple of years ago, Joe Bob did this one as part of his Walpurgisnacht episode, and I gave it another shot.

Still not much.

Last night, though, I really tried to look at this as Kevin Tenney's first film - followed soon after by Night of the Demons, which I love - and it kind of gave me a different perspective. I still don't think Witchboard is a very good film, but it's definitely a product of its time and entertaining enough if you have the right context (and alcohol - don't forget the alcohol). 

This is all run-up for an upcoming episode of The Horror Vision, where we'll compare the original film with the 2025 remake. I've heard it's completely different, which can only be a good thing.

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Read:

It's going to be some time before I get around to it, but I found a nearly perfect copy of the original, 1989 hardcover release for Clive Barker's The Great and Secret Show a few weeks ago, and it arrived in the mail over the weekend.

I read this when I was in early High School, and it was another of those books that completely changed the way I looked at fiction writing. The idea that the main character discovers the secret tapestry beneath the everyday world by working in the Dead Letters Office of the Post Office always felt like such an interesting and unique angle to take as a way into such a vast and epic story. This should serve as a perfect digestif after I finish my rereading of the Dark Tower/Talisman series late this year. 

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Playlist:

Low Cut Connie - Art Dealers

Low Cut Connie - Hi Honey

Low Cut Connie - Dirty Pictures (Part 1)

Low Cut Connie - Livin in the USA (pre-release singles)

Low Cut Connie - Tough Cookies: Best of the Quarantine Broadcasts

Low Cut Connie - Call Me Sylvia

The Rolling Stones - Some Girls

The Rolling Stones - Black and Blue

The Afghan Whigs - House of I (single)

Drug Church - Pynch (single)

Fever Ray -  The Bride EP

Fever Ray - Plunge

Gnarls Barkley - Atlanta

Gogol Bordello - We Mean It, Man!

D'Nell - 1st Magic

INXS - Kick

Dreamkid - Daggers 

Mike Doughty - Live From Ken's House

Low Cut Connie - Tough Cookies Nite 101

Low Cut Connie - Tough Cookies Nite 66

Low Cut Connie - Tough Cookies Nite 67

Low Cut Connie - Tough Cookies Nite 68

Van Halen - 1984

Various - Twin Peaks (Music from the Limited Event Series)

Joan Jett & The Blackhearts - Album

High on Fire - Surrounded By Thieves

High on Fire - Death Is This Communion

Stephen O'Malley - Spheres Collapser

sunn O))) - Eponymous (pre-release singles)

sunn O))) - Pyroclasts

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Card:

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

• Queen of Swords

• Five of Cups

• I: The Magician

Emotional aspect of the Intellect, which can be a bit of an oxymoron, right? The conflict inherent in the emotional realm of thinking people - and we're not all thinking people in 2026, are we? -  is exactly what gets in the way of things. In other words, emotions are important for ruling your heart and interfere with your brain. What the hell does any of this tell me today? 

Keep my mouth shut at work. That's all. Sounds easy, or maybe it doesn't, right? That's the emotional end of things. Everyone has someone they want to tell to go to hell, but just don't do it. Or maybe you will, but I won't. Or shouldn't. Maybe. 

New Music From Pulp!

 

I am waaaay behind on posting new music here. Mr. Brown alerted me to Pulp's new single last week, along with news of their forthcoming first album in... a really long time! More drops on June 6th. Pre-order from Rough Trade HERE.

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NCBD:

Very excited to hit the shop later today. Here's what I'll be bringing home:

Really digging A.J. Lieberman and Mike Henderson's The Hive. The first issue was something I grabbed on a lark, but it was enough to get me to come back for two, and now here I am waiting on issue #3! A street-level crime comic with a very subtle, maybe "Black Mirror-like" Sci-Fi twist.  

I'm going to have a boatload of these Z-News waiting for me in Chicago next time I'm on the South Side long enough to shop at Amazing Fantasy. The cover story here is on Joe Kelly helming the recent re-launch (yes, again) of Amazing Spider-Man with a new number one. I saw that on the shelf last week and almost went for it (there were certainly enough covers and copies), but they didn't get me this time, so it will be cool to read Kelly's plans or whatever this "interview" will be. 

I feel like this book is tri-monthly at this point, and that's okay with me. Take it slow.

Justin Jordan and Maan House's Mine Is A Long Lonesome Grave is now one of my most anticipated books every month! A creepy A.F. supernatural revenge story, I'm really hoping this runs longer than next issue, which is the last I see solicited. I suppose if it doesn't, we'll have a tight little tale easy to push onto others. Always better to leave 'em wanting more than give 'em too much. Still, this could unfold in some pretty crazy ways. I trust Mr. Jordan implicitly, so I'm here for it either way.

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Watch:

I'm not entirely sure how I made it to 2025 without seeing 1994's Brainscan, but I watched the flick for the first time last night and instantly fell in love with it.

With a screenplay written by Andrew Kevin Walker taken from a Brian Owens story, Director John Flynn leaves his 80s Action roots behind and crafts what I can honestly say is the only film I know of that delivers to me the same vibe that Robert Englund's 976-Evil does, and if you read these pages, you know how much I adore that film.

This a 90s film that feels like a natural progression from 80s Sci-Fi Horror; the suburban neighborhood, children who lead a seemingly adult-less existence and do just fine, and an otherworldly entity that singles them out for Horror that feels, at times, theoretically very frightening. I mean, the opening "kill" sees the film's Protagonist Mike (Edward Furlong) commit a savage murder first-person by way of a 'radical new video game.'

If you've read my story "Literal Death", I'm sure you'd think this film burrowed its way into me way back. That, however, is not the case. 

So, of course, after watching Brainscan, I had to follow it with 976-Evil. 

How could I not? Perfect timing, because I missed this one last year during 31 Days of Halloween, so I was overdue.

I don't know what it is about Englund's sole Directorial excursion that I love so much. It captures not an era, but an era as portrayed by Hollywood so perfectly, balanced on the precipice between when Horror and Exploitation were kind of studio-ish (Post-Terminator) because there were still successful, but still malleable, small studios with widespread distribution. The kids in 976-Evil are exacerbated stereotypes of 80s nerds and hoodlums like we see in so many other films (Return of the Living Dead springs immediately to mind), but combined here with Howard Berger's FX and the faux-small town but still recognizably urban environments the Art Director and Set Designers create, there's an etheral tone I've not seen many other places. Except in Brainscan, where Flynn updates the look to early 90s-but-still-oh-so-close-to-the-80s Suburbia, but still retains that 80s Kids in Danger vibe.

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Playlist:

Type O Negative - Bloody Kisses (Suspended in Dusk version)

Type O Negative - Life Is Killing Me

MadLove - White With Foam

Chelsea Wolfe - She Reaches Out to She Reaches Out to She 

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Card:

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

• Five of Swords

• Two of Pentacles

• XXI: The World

Routine can be damaging, but it can also help establish a new foundation from which new vantages reveal comprehensive comprehension. 

Or something like that. In other words, stay the course. 

Sadist Art Designs

Another rabbit hole Perturbator has sent me spiraling down. You know that awesome "Satan is a Computer"poster design that I posted along with the new album teaser? It was done by Sadist Art Designs. Intrigued I set out googling said Sadist and found that their website is filled with awesome stuff: poster designs for some very retro, 80s looking independent horror flicks, a Halloween nod and holy full circle - Sadist Art did a poster for Don't Move, the amazing horror short from Bloody Cuts Films that I posted last year.