Morphine

 

From 2000's The Night, Morphine's final album. Excellent track to close out their discography and career, even if their end came way too early. I'm realizing tonight that this past July 3rd marked the twenty-fifth anniversary of Mark Sandman's death. Twenty-five years... 

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Watch:

Seeing that Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury's new film The Soul Eater hit VOD yesterday made me extremely excited. I didn't even know they had a new film on the way. 

There is no way I'm posting a trailer here; this film is NOT what you think it's going to be, and I can only imagine the trailer will give something away. Regardless, if you're a fan of Bustillo and Maury's work (Inside, The Deep House, Livid, Among the Living), I think you'll agree The Soul Eater is a worthy addition to their body of work. If you're unfamiliar, give it a shot. These guys make really great Horror films, and Simon Roca's cinematography is fantastic to boot!

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Playlist:

Nirvana - Dive (single)

NIN - Year Zero

Crippled Black Phoenix - The Wolf Changes Its Fur But Not Its Nature

Oranssi Pazuzu - Muuntautuja

Amigo the Devil - Yours Until the War is Over

Drug Church - Prude

Ozzy Osbourne - Patient No. 9

Me and That Man - New Man, New Songs, Same Shit Vol. 1

Mastodon - Once More 'Round the Sun

Morphine - The Night

Prince - Sign O' the Times

The Bangles - Angels Don't Fall in Love (B-side to Walk Like an Egyptian single)

Smashing Pumpkins - Drown (single)

Sonic Youth - Washing Machine

ten Athlone - Street Trash (single)

Dreamkid - Daggers

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Card:

Today's card for study is XVII: The Star:

Yeah, I know I usually kind of poke fun at Crowley's writings on these cards, but this is one I actually really like his entry for. Nuith - the Lady of the Stars. Allow me to quote directly from The Book of Thoth:

"The Universe is here resolved into its ultimate elements... Behind the figure of the goddess is the celestial globe. Most prominent among its features is the seven-pointed star of Venus, as if declaring the principal characteristic of her nature to be Love. From the golden cup she pours ethereal water, which is also milk and oil and blood, upon her own head, indicating the eternal renewal of the categories, the inexhaustible possibilities of existence."

This is everything. I've come to realize that while the Thoth Trumps build toward the climax of Crowley's Magickal worldview, to me, The Star is the essence of life. Maybe not of reality, but of life as we know it as humans. Perpetual renewal. The image shows Nuith, the cosmic mother, essentially bailing the waters of life over herself. She is literally awash in the essence of life. This is a coded representation of humanity - we're supposed to renew. To bail. Instead, we situate and stagnate. This card is a reminder to live Life. 

From the Girmoire: "Create unto and within yourself a Universe, shaped of your strengths and built upon your accomplishments as a foundation."

Bright New Disease Renders Martyrs Livid

 

Boris and Uniform? Holy F*ck - talk about a shot in the arm first thing in the morning! From the forthcoming album Bright New Disease, out June 16th on the always stellar Sacred Bones Records. Pre-order HERE.

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NCBD:

A short and sweet NCBD this week. Here are my picks:

And we are back to our regular 616, Krakoa timeline. Thank You! I started re-reading Immortal X-Men from the beginning yesterday just to prepare.

My suspicion is I won't be reading Sons of X beyond the first issue,  I'm curious about the overall transition back into the regular, Krakoa continuity from the Sins of Sinister timeline. I will say that I reread Sins of Sinister: Dominion a few days ago and had a slightly better experience with it, and I'm curious how Mother Righteous's role might develop in the reinstated timeline.

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Watch:

Looks like Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury's hard-to-find 2011 Masterpiece Livid is now on Shudder: 

 

I picked a region-free disc of this one up sometime in the last year or two and was completely blown away. There's such a Fairytale quality to this film - visually, Vivid reminds me a lot of the music from long-defunct band Miranda Sex Garden. Gossamer-thin realities that come across more like a fable out of time than a modern movie, except that's there too. 

 

Also, Livid isn't the only renowned but difficult-to-find Masterpiece that popped up on Shudder. It's not often that I dig a movie like Martyrs, but despite its unparalleled cruelty, Pascal Laugier's opus more than earns its place in the "must watch at least once column." Just be prepared - it's not easy.

When I watched Martyrs, it was back when Netflix still 'rented' movies through the mail. I wasn't certain what I was in for, but the film had come feverishly recommended to me by my good friend and Horror Vision Co-host Tori. I smoked up, sat down in the middle of the day, and for the first 45 minutes, felt like I was watching a movie that, well, before long, I realized I was not watching. Maybe that's a convoluted way of saying that from the onset, Martyrs seemed as though it was going to be the first great 'Haunting' film I'd seen in some time. Then something happens to a character and I suddenly had the prescience to see where the film was headed. I remember that feeling because my stomach literally dropped*. From there, my resolve was tested, until in the final moments of the film, Laugier blew my mind.

*****

*Incidentally, Laugier's 2018 Incident in a Ghost Land includes a moment that had a very similar effect on me. 

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Playlist:

Mastodon - One More 'Round the Sun

Beach House - Become EP

James - La Petite Mort

The Sword - Warp Riders

Slayer - Decade of Aggression

King Woman - Doubt EP

Windhand - Eponymous

 

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Card:

Since I utilized both my Thoth and Bound Tarot decks for yesterday's Pull, I specifically wanted to go to Missi's Raven Deck for today's Pull.

Buckle down. 

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Legions of Winged Octopi

 

I've been in the mood for some of the older albums by long-time favorite The Ocean, aka The Ocean Collective. This would be my favorite track from Precambrian, released on Metal Blade way back in 2007.

I love almost every album by these guys, and chief songwriter Robin Staps is a genius for my money, but there's something about the sheer assault of Precambrian and its precursor Aeolian, that the band has yet to capture again (not that I'm saying they need to).

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Watch:

The long-unavailable in the States second film by Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo, Livid, hit Shudder last week and I was able to eek in a viewing over the weekend.

Wow. This one did not disappoint. Livid is, like Inside before it, further proof that Bustillo and Maury are just as interested in making beautiful movies as they are Horror movies. Comparisons to Argento are on the money and yet also a bit misleading, and while the dance academy from Suspiria is mentioned in Livid and thus, ties the film directly to Argento's "Three Witches" world, there are no continuity, character or place/plot overlaps. This means whatever tie was intended is more homage than actual DNA for Livid. But there is a definite tone here that feels at the very least inspired by, if not directly related to, Suspiria. The color pallette is quite different - Livid prefers grey to bold primary colours - however, there is a softness to the visual life of the film that smooths the horrific edges and helps make it feel like a fairytale, much like Argento's technique. Part of this may indeed be that both films deal with the world of Dance, and this makes them feel 'old world' and steeped in tradition, which is often the very element of the world fairytales seek to unmoor. 

 

There's also the element of what I call "Doll Discovery." Dolls play a big part in the visual fabric of the film, from a strange, anthropomorphic children's tea party to a penchant for extreme taxidermy. This also helps the viewer feel what the characters feel - namely that they've accidentally stepped into some "other" place, where time does not necessarily behave the way it does for most of us. 

I adore this film, and pretty much immediately set out to order it on Bluray. Now I really need to go back and give the filmmakers' other movies a spin, as I didn't connect with Among the Living upon first viewing, and I still haven't watched Deep House. 

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Dollar Bin:

New feature. Every Tuesday, I'm going to post a comic I found in a dollar bin. What with hardcovers, omnibuses, trade paperback collections and even digital, old floppies just don't have the draw they used to. The Comic Bug is known for buying large collections and then placing the bulk of the stuff out as Dollar Bins, and I've had a lot of good times going through them, finding stuff that would be garbage to many. So here's where I highlight some of my finds.

I don't really know much about ROM Spaceknight except it was a toy I never had as a kid, and there was a Marvel Comic I never read. Later in life though, ROM began to pop up in weird places to remind me he existed, and once in a while over the last decade or so, I find a single issue in a dollar bin and pick it up. ROM is a book that has come to represent a certain era of comics and SciFi to me, and because of that, it's always fun to read. 

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Playlist:

The Ocean - Precambrian

The Dillinger Escape Plan - Ire Works

Mr. Bungle - The Night They Came Home

The Devil's Blood - The Thousandfold Epicentre

Ennio Morricone - Il Grande Silenzio OST

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Card:

I wanted to do a three-card spread today, primarily because I haven't done much other than pull one daily card for quite some time. What I got feels very on the money, true to recent form.

Past = 4 of Swords: Truce. Focus and concentration undercut by a certain restless energy. I love this card. The "restless" aspect is not always one of the most clear-cut elements of this card. In fact, I would normally ignore it based on how the other images - all balanced and proportional, right down to the swords that meet perfectly in the middle of a beautifully centered cross and the 49 petaled flower in its own heart. But mixed with the next two cards, that hectic background cannot be ignored.

Present = Knight of Wands. This card is pretty simple. Energy and Passion. 

Future = Prince of Disks. More focused energy, but proportionate. Those concentric circles in the background tell of using the second card's Will to help corral the energy of the first card into a culminating experience.