Midnight in the City

Still has the power to bring tears to my eyes, even after all this time, even after I've pretty much disengaged from everything Gonzalez has done since (except the Knife + Heart OST). Hearing this reminds me of the smoldering possibilities that still seemed to exist in 2011. Those are all but gone now, as we accept the shitty future the Corporations have made for us. Backed into a corner, hindsight isn't just nostalgic, it's paralyzing.

What a lead-in to our next topic of discussion...

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Watch:

Heed my warning: much as I expected, if you live in the US, Civil War might F**K you up.

Another five-star nightmare from Alex Garland. I'm telling you, I've read all his books and seen all his movies - he never fails. This latest is possibly the most nerve-racking, terrifying film I've seen in years. K has had considerable PTSD from the flick, and I get it. I was literally terrified for the characters (one in particular) for pretty much the entirety of the film. Also, super cool that Garland still uses Geoff Barrow and Ben Salisbury for every score, and on top of that, there are not one but TWO Suicide tracks in the film. I love how, in the past year, I've now heard Suicide in a major theatrical release and Throbbing Gristle's "Hamburger Lady" in two (Love Lies Bleeding and V/H/S/85; I guess the latter isn't a major theatrical release, but I saw it in a theatre, so it felt like one at the time).

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Read:

I had an insanely relaxing weekend—well, other than the anxiety from Civil War—reading comics. First, when my Drinking with Comics cohost Mike Shinabargar and his wife came down to visit us last weekend, he brought my Chicago Comics Pull down. This meant I could finally read the entirety of Garth Ennis and Jacen Burrows' The Ribbon Queen from start to finish.

This is easily my favorite Garth Ennis comic since Preacher. There - I said it. Man, this was just... perfect. A story of revenge set amidst a backdrop of the Me-Too and BLM movements in 2020, the characters are fantastically conceived, established and developed, and the situations are tense and beautifully woven together with one of the most horrific 'monsters' I've seen in quite some time. Ennis is one of the few writers in comics who can so effortlessly blend the social dramas of our time with pure nightmare fuel. 

After watching the above episode of Cartoonist Kayfabe, I felt compelled to dig in the box of old Punisher comics I pulled from my parents' house last year right before they moved and see if I did indeed own any Punisher War Zone. As I thought, I had issue one, but I also had 2-4, so I did a re-read Sunday. 

I really love how the CK boys add a level of artistic context I would normally never possess for books like this, and I thoroughly enjoyed this one. I have A LOT of old Punisher comics - the ones that have always traveled with me wherever I move are the original 80s mini-series, about the first 17 or so of the original ongoing 80s series, and the first 8 issues of Punisher War Journal (also 80s). My actual Frank Castle collection is at least 3x that size, though, and includes a lot of issues I bought as they came out, but which I'm not so sure about. The Punisher was one of those characters whose popularity in the 80s mandated he be strip-mined well into the mid-90s and the books and character suffered for it. I think War Zone was about where I checked out, hence why I only have those first four issues, which sucks because I didn't finish out what I'm now remembering is a pretty damn good story about Frank infiltrating the Carbone crime family. That means I'll be checking some back issue bins at Rick's Comic City and online this week, looking to find the rest of that storyline (seems to be up through issue 11).

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Playlist:

Dödsrit - Nocturnal Will

M83 - Hurry Up, We're Dreaming

!!! - Myth Takes

Dödsrit - Nocturnal Will

King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard - PetroDragonic Apocalypse

Ghost - Opus Eponymous

Anthrax - Persistence of Time

High on Fire - Cometh the Storm (pre-release singles)

Suicide - Eponymous

Jimmy Buffet - Living and Dying in 3/4 Time

Turnstile - Glow On

Idles - Tangk

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Card:

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

• Page (Princess ) of Cups

• Queen of Cups

• XI: Justice

I progression, I think, from my previous spread. Emotions are still high, but I'm keeping myself in check. I have a feeling this is a recurring cycle to the point that I could probably graph it, so I'm going to add a piece of metadata to this and my previous post, maybe even work back using the search function for keywords like "irritation" and "tolerate" so I can possibly get an even more accurate idea of how often and in what 'pattern' this occurs. 

The XI, which is Lust in the Crowley/Harris deck, is a nod toward the primordial power of Anger, however, it can also occasionally indicate a possible Lunar influence. That should be easy enough to map. I used to keep a moon phase widget this site, however, those always break. Might look for another one and begin adding that data to this section of the page, as I would be interested how this might line up with lunar cycles. 

Fugazi - Do You Like Me

 

From Fugazi's 1995 Red Medicine. I'm going through a bit of a Fugazi bender, only I've started at the end of their career. Arguably, this has always felt a bit like two bands to me, with this record being the crux. Fugazi had always harbored an experimental side, but I'll never forget Mr. Brown playing me this record upon its release and thinking, "They sound almost as much like Sonic Youth as they do Fugazi." Not to say anyone in the band's vocal approach ever changed, but the music become considerably more dissonant, distorted and, well, weird (see track 9 Version for the best example of that on this record). Anyway, it's going on 22 years since Fugazi went on hiatus. Wow.

 

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Watch:

Watched a couple of flicks over the long weekend. Here's a breakdown:

 

Letterboxd review HERE.

Letterboxd review HERE.

Letterboxd review HERE.

 

Letterboxd review HERE.

Letterbxd review HERE.

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Read:

Had a lazy New Year's Day with K. I ended up blowing through the last 150 pages or so of Jeff Vandermeer's Authority and beginning Acceptance, the third and final book in his Southern Reach Trilogy.

If you follow my Letterboxd link above for Alex Garland's adaptation of book one, Annihilation, you'll see that I mention watching the Blu-Ray extras for the film and seeing Garland talk about having to wrap his head around adapting that novel because it is so internal (those aren't Garland's words, I'm paraphrasing for simplicity's sake). Authority is even more an 'interior' novel, introducing the idea that the Psychologist character from the first novel was actually the Director of the Southern Reach Program, and after losing her during the events of Annihilation, Authority introduces and follows her replacement, the appropriately named Control, aka John Rodriguez, who is brought in under false pretenses to shore up the project, only to encounter hostile subordinates and a deepening mystery as to just why the Director went in on what she essentially had to know would be an ill-fated expedition.

Both these first two books in the series have been more intellectual than guttural, which incidentally makes for a great example of how Garland made his film, switching out the deepening paranoia and madness inherently easier to exhibit in a first-person novel than a film to extremely horrific body horror imagery (the 'snakes' in Mayer's stomach). Authority reads to me like a Horror/Espionage mashup; in fact, Authority reminded me a lot of Charles Stross' Laundry Files series.

On to the third and final book in the series now, and I really do not have any idea what to expect. Which is a fantastic way to go into the last volume of a series. One thing I did expect and thus far can confirm, Acceptance fills in some of the gaps left by previous volumes and is every bit as intellectually riveting as its predecessors. 

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Playlist:

Fugazi - Red Medicine

Fugazi - The Argument

Fugazi - End Hits

Fugazi - In On the Killtaker

Earthless - Rhythms From A Cosmic Sky

Wayfarer - American Gothic

The Bronx - IV

Best of 2023 Playlist

Julee Cruise - Floating Into the Night

Henry Mancini - Charade OST

U2 - War

Emilie Levienaise-Farrouch - Censor OST

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Card:

One card from Missi's Raven Deck to set the tone of the new year:

Knowledge is key for the coming year.

This feels like a huge affirmation to a concern that has been growing in me for some time. I feel as though my learning has stagnated, and might have taken with it some of my general 'knowledge base.' I've been left thinking I'm in too good a position, and perhaps need to find way to challenge myself a bit beyond thinking/writing on film/music/comics and literature. 

The Caretaker - Malign Forces of the Occult

 

Something prompted me to go looking for an old album by The Caretaker that I had back around the time I moved to L.A., circa 2006. I quickly found all but the most recent of Caretaker's albums are not on streaming platforms, but instead reside for a very modest cost on his Bandcamp Page. This is his second album and also the second in his Haunted Ballroom Trilogy.

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NCBD:

Pretty sizeable Pull this week. Let's get into it:

Issue three! I feel like there was a HUGE gap since number two, but maybe that's just further indication of how much I'm digging Dynamite Comics' Army of Darkness Forever book. 

I'm not super hip to starting off the new GIJOE Energon Universe book with a standalone book about Conrad Hauser, but we'll see. 

The final issue of Benjamin Percy's current Ghost Rider endeavor and likely the final issue of my participating in what comes next in March. This hasn't been a bad series by any means, but it definitely wavered a lot, so I'm happy to prune some titles for the new year and concentrate on the books that really move me.

After the misstep I perceived issue 17 of Immortal X-Men to be, this has a lot to make up for. Final issue before the new titles kick in. 

Jesus Christ, everything is ending, huh? Remember when comics' numbering trudged on year after year? Not saying one way is better than the other. I can't find anything online that indicates if this is the final volume of Tynion's Nightmare Country epic, so I guess I'll just have to wait and read it to see. 

Only two issues left for Ennis and Burrows' The Ribbon Queen; did I think it was longer or only hope so? This is one that probably won't end up in my hands until March when the whole series is finished, so I'll patiently wait and try to read nothing about it.

Another book rounding the final lap, I realized today that there are only three issues of Lemire and Sorrentino's Tenement left after this one, so that coupled with the "Revelations" printed on the cover tells me things are about to get really weird, which some might think wouldn't be possible with as strange as this book and its overarching "Bone Orchard Mythos" series have been to date. Anyone who stuck it out with this team's Gideon Falls knows just how out there they're version of Horror can get.

That's quite a few books! Certainly the most for me in a while. Watch out for the new episode of Drinking with Comics: NCBD & A Beer, which should post later this evening, after I've brought all this home and had a chance to read and digest. 

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Read:

A few months back while I was in Los Angeles, my good friend and A Most Horrible Library cohost Chris Saunders gifted me a copy of Jeff Vandermeer's Annihilation. This is the first in Vandermeer's Southern Reach Trilogy, and after blowing through this in two days, I went out to the local Books-A-Million and picked up books 2 and 3. 

I previously saw Alex Garland's cinematic adaptation of Annihilation back when it hit the big screen in 2018. Loved it - a film that inspired days of conversation with K. I purchased the Blu-Ray when it was released later that year, but have yet to rewatch, an oversight I am now glad of. With five years and some change between that viewing and my picking up the novel, I was able to go in with zero baggage and I absolutely loved the book. There is an interiority to the first-person narration that creates an elaborate headspace in the reader, one unlike anything I've read in some time, if ever. Vandermeer's prose is the right balance between clinical and verbose, and in the meeting of these two methods we come to know the narrator - referred to by herself simply as the Biologist - in a manner that makes the scenes of isolated terror at her surroundings manifest almost in a sensory way. I felt her running through the reeds, trying to escape 'the creature,' and the feeling was marvelous.

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Playlist:

Tangerine Dream - Phaedra

The Caretaker - Stairway to the Stars

Ray Noble and his Orchestra - Midnight, the Stars and You (single)

Stereolab - Refried Ectoplasm, Switched On, Vol. 2

Earthless - Rhythms from a Cosmic Sky

Opeth - Blackwater Park

Belbury Poly - From An Ancient Star

Ghost - Impera

Various - Matthew Dear hosts Satan's Discotheque

Mike Patton - The Solitude of Prime Numbers OST

Bag Raiders - Shooting Stars (Kris Menace Remix)

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Card:

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

• Queen of Disks

• XII: The Hanged Man

• I: The Magician

That exertion of Will over emotional matters apparently was not as effective as it could be. Sacrifice and a touch of something more... for lack of a better way to say it, Magick, will resolve the issue. 

I have no idea what this is pointing me toward, event, action or assessment, but that Queen is pretty persistent. 

New Carpenter Brut!

 

New Carpenter Brut album Leather Terror, out April 1st, and the first song has Greg Puciato on vocals! Pre-order HERE.

 

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Watch:

I know nothing about this new Alex Garland film, but it's an Alex Garland film, so I am excited!

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Playlist:

Ghost - Meliora

Ghost - Infestissumam

Alabama Shakes - Sound and Color

Blut Aus Nord - Thematic Emanations

Shawn James - The Devil's Daughter (single)

Drab Majesty - Careless

Carpenter Brut -  Blood Machines OST

Isolation: Day 8 - More New Me and That Man!

At this point, I'm not listening to any more of Me and That Man's new record until I have the full album in my hands (pre-order HERE), but I'm posting it here so I can go back to it, and so you, dear reader, can strike out into the territory I'm eschewing simply because I am such a fan of full album immersion.

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The best thing to come out of social media that I've seen since the Pandemic began? Right here:



Love these guys.

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Finished Black Stars Above this morning. Five Issues of creepy, nuanced cosmic horror. Here's one of my favorite images, from issue four:

This very much reminds me of Alan Moore and JH Williams III's Promethea. Jenna Cha's art, Brad Simpson's colors, and Lonnie Nadler's story work in such perfect synthesis. They have to, it's the only way to tell such a macro/micro story that delves into infinite cosmic territory. This page illustrates the beautiful way the creative team delivers the ineffable.

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Mindful Habitation:

As so many others are, Southern California is on Shelter-in-place. Weird, but really only in perception and big picture theory. Day-to-day won't be that different for many of us. I'm bummed to know this will halt a lot of businesses, the smaller ones especially. Many of those smaller ones are really using this to innovate and think outside the box. The Comic Bug remains purveyors of media via mail, delivery, or scheduled appointment (HERE for details). King Harbor Brewery is doing same-day local Growler delivery (HERE). These are examples local to me, however, I'm getting reports of this from friends all over the place, so if there's a business you love, reach out and see if they are working with similar innovations.

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Event Viewing:

Episode Four of Alex Garland's Devs landed last night, and it was quite the ride. The opening floored me with it's image/sound juxtaposition. Geoff Barrow and The Insects' score is overall fantastic, but in this particular scene, it was unearthly, layered, textured sounds arranged in a way that made the images bloom from the screen.

And Nick Offerman? Killing it.

Playlist:

Exhalants - Eponymous
Anthrax - Spreading the Disease
Slayer - Live Undead/Haunting the Chapel
The Bronx - The Bronx (I)
Seefeel - Fracture/Tied (Single)
David Bowie - Aladdin Sane
Deth Crux - Mutant Flesh
Metatron Omega - Evangelikon
Myrkur - Folkesange

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Card:

An agent of enlightenment. Reproductive force - not necessarily biologically speaking. I'm leaning more toward an interpretation that reinforces people are finally learning what needs to be done and doing it (even a certain douche celebrity decided to comply and close his shitty restaurant). Also, the gray skeins in the background speak to the illusory world losing its leverage as knowledge dawns. That's the Devil - the Morningstar, enlightener extraordinaire.

JARV IS - House Music All Night Long

Apparently Jarvis Cocker is now JARV IS, and the new album Beyond the Pale is out May 1st on Rough Trade. Pre-Order HERE.

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NCBD was a huge one yesterday, simply because I picked up a handful of new titles I'd decided to add to my pull over at The Atomic Basement. The split that occurred between my Drinking w/ Comics co-host Mike and The Comic Bug co-owner Jun - both great guys - left me in a bit of a funk. The Bug is literally walking distance from my crib, and Jun is a friend of mine. So while I of course want to support Mike's new venture, I didn't want to do it at Jun's expense. Thus, I've added a handful of titles to my monthly pull and pretty much set an even balance at both stores. Here's what I grabbed at The Atomic Basement this week:

I'm reminded of Black Monday Murders, and hope that this undertaking isn't taking place instead of a continuation of that book. Regardless, insanely vast opening to what seems like it might be a small story in a massive world.

No idea where this is going, but it's as creepy as it is gorgeous.

I'm not sure how long these Joe Hill books are running, but so far, I'm really digging Daphne Byrne, so I figured I'd give Low Low Woods a chance as well.

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Two episodes into Alex Garland's new Hulu/FX series Devs and it's already established itself as a powerhouse; something that could totally change the Medium. AND - it's weekly, so it gives me some much-needed Event Viewing for the next few weeks, hopefully to get us right up to that next season of Joe Bob's Last Drive-In, although to my knowledge they haven't confirmed a date for that one's return.



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Devs put me in the mood for some more techy fiction, so I finally made it back around to Black Mirror and watched Black Museum. My favorite of the few episodes I've watched since Netflix brought this show back. Directed by Colm McCarthy, whose indie horror flick Outcast I wrote about here last year - and which I LOVED and is now on Prime so watch it! - Black Museum sets up something I would like to see return - Rolo Haynes' titular roadside attraction, the Black Museum. There are at least a couple dozen stories that could spin out of this, and Douglas Hodge's portrayal of Haynes was a sheer joy to watch, so hopefully this will recur at some point.




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Playlist:

Man Man - Beached (Single)
Fen - Dustwalker
The Thirsty Crows - Hangman's Noose
Ghosts of Glaciers - The Greatest Burden
The Mars Volta - Deloused in the Comatorium
Myrkur - M
Beth Gibbons/Henry Gorecki - Symphony No. 3
Neon Kross - Darkness Falls

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Card

The positive break-up of structures and limitations.

2019: February 25th

A little classic Firewater to kick off the morning. I drove in to work playing The Ponzi Scheme, the band's 1998 masterpiece, and it reminded me how much I love this album. I've always been a bit reticent when engaging with their other albums; nothing against the band or Tod A, the principal composer/arranger/lyricist who is the anchor of the group, Firewater is just one of those band's whose first album I heard made such a deep impression I've always had trouble going for anything else. That changes today, I think. I've loaded 2003's The Man on the Burning Tightrope to my Apple Music and intend on engaging with it shortly after I post this.

Congratulations to Green Book for winning best picture. I know, I know: I'm one of those people who  flap their gums about detesting the oscars and then applaud when the awards line up with my personal choices. What'dya gunna do?

Quick correction on my previous entry to these pages. In 2015, Hateful Eight was not my favorite/the best movie of the year, it was Alex Garland's Ex Machina.

Saturday night I had the guys from The Horror Vision over and we watched Philip Ridley's INSANE 1991 film The Reflecting Skin. This just hit Shudder and is a bit hard to come by, so I recommend if you have the service you watch it. Haunting, and you will never see daylight and fields of wheat look so freakin' ominous again.



The final episode of True Detective season 3 aired last night. Much like the first season, I didn't love the finale. Still, no complaints on an overall awesome season. My slight disappointment simply stems from the fact that, even more than season 1, this season set up a lot of what could have been really profound ideas and then skirted around them for a pretty convenient and simple resolution. I guess the show will never be what I want it to be, but even just these teases - when executed this well - are enough to permanently endear it to me.

Playlist from 2/23:

Beck - Odelay
Don Shirley Trio - Don Shirley
The Devil's Blood - The Thousandfold Epicenter
Godflesh - A World Lit Only By Fire
Paramore - All We Know is Falling
Ritual Howls - Into the Water
Odonis Odonis - Post Plague
The Cure - Pornography

Playlist from 2/24:

United Future Organization - Third Perspective

Card of the day:

Hmmm... poisoned waters? Overflow of emotion tainting the perfection of the Six? No idea on this one, though I'm tempted to read it as my preoccupation with a new short story idea - well, a couple of them really, hence the overflowing symbolism - interfering with my editing of the book I've promised myself will be published in April.

2018: March 25th, 8:49 AM

Establishing a new routine for the new pad. It's good that the first thing I want to do when I wake up is write, and now I have a desk with all my stuff on it directly next to the bed.

Saw Annihilation yesterday, the 'second'* film directed by Alex Garland. It probably will not last in the theaters past this coming Friday so I'll just say, if you have the chance, go see it. Now, if you can. As in, right now. It is gorgeous, nightmarish and utterly breathtaking at times. That bear scene... wow.



Playlist from yesterday:

iPod on shuffle
Preoccupations - New Material
Nikka Costa - Everybody's Got Their Something
Tears for Fears - Songs from the Big Chair (first LP played on the turntable in the new home, seemed a good choice)

Card for the day:

From the Grimoire: "Financial/material/domestic trouble on the horizon." - for my money this is representing the fact that we just moved into a new place, so I have a bunch of financial 'plates' spinning right now, and they're all going to come down around the same time. I've got a large tax bill, my half of the move-in (which luckily gets us to May 1st, so that's not a huge deal), as well as all the little expenses that sneak up after a move like this. We're in a good place and all of this is doable, it's just until I'm over that tax line I'll be a little anxious, or worried. Now, what the Grimoire goes on to say here is a very good 'fix' for that anxiety, because:

"Worrying about encroaching threats only feed them. Emphasis in understanding and working with this card is it represents the anxiety of the threat, not the threat itself. Under the influence represented by this card, the worry becomes it's own threat."

It goes on to suggest a pattern interrupt; also says, "physically write down the object/cause of the anxiety," which I just did above, so that already feels as though I've transmuted some of the nervous energy.

There's an interesting site on this card here.

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*Second in quotes because it recently came out that Garland directed Dredd.