Isolation: Day 200

Musick:

 
Well, we pulled the bandage off last night and finished Halt and Catch Fire. Easily one of the best shows I've ever experienced, and it really reminded me a lot of Six Feet Under, which K has never seen. We're going to move that one up the list, however, now is the time to really double-down on The Boys. I watched Season One last year without her, so this year I've been slowly rewatching that with her in preparation for moving into Season Two. Can't wait, even if the pop culture saturation point with it is riding an annoying level of saturation.

Rewatching Six Feet Under scares me a little bit. I loved the show, however, by the end it had very much changed the way I looked at Death in a tangible way, and with it, how I look at life. Not necessarily bad, but from about halfway through the second to last season, the show really gets heavy, and I'm not sure I can take the emotional beating until at least after November (and maybe not then, depending on how things go).

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NCBD

There's a number of great things out today:

The Boys: Dear Becky Issue 5, just in time for my engagement with the show. This book was obviously brought into existence to coincide with and capitalize on the show, however, I'm fine with that. Ennis is telling a story and flexing his absurdity muscles, so it's about what I would have expected. I don't love it, but I didn't love the entire comic series either - only the first six issues and the last year's worth, with the Butcher mini-series, included in that. Those were the facets of the saga I thought were fantastic. The rest had its high points but was a little too much of Ennis trying to out Preacher Preacher, if you know what I mean and I think you do.

I love this book, however, after reading 1-5 in a straight shot last month, there are some serious hinks to the writing. Usually, art will not make up for that in my book. With Mercy, the problems don't outweigh the good, especially with this art. It's fantastic.

Really digging this series so far, and meaning no disrespect whatsoever to Jacob Philips or Chris Condon, it fills the hole left by Criminal's end quite nicely.
 

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Playlist:

Deftones - Ohms 

Dame Fortune - Am I a Warrior (single) 

Molchat Doma - Etahzi

Not a heavy music day yesterday, because over on the Bret Easton Ellis podcast, Mr. Ellis has begun reading his newest novel in a serialized fashion. He hasn't given a title, and it wasn't until this newest episode - the first hour or so of which is the reading (followed by a fantastic interview with Hollywood Legacy Executive Peter Bart) - that Ellis even quantified that that's what he's doing - serializing his new novel. The story is a purported memoir, though at this stage I'm fairly certain it's about as much of a memoir as Lunar Park is. That's fine - Lunar is my second favorite novel of all time, right behind Gatsby, and I find Ellis' ability to sync real life with narrative both riveting and powerful. 

The book has to do with something terrible that happened to a teenage Bret Ellis and his close friends 1981 in Los Angeles, and how those events line up with a serial killer dubbed "The Trawler" who stalked LA at the time. Ellis has said everyone's names have been changed, and even the killer's nome de plume is made-up, although was bandied about early on in this larger than life horror's earliest days of activities.

I'm fascinated, and can't wait for more. You can click over to Ellis' Patreon HERE to sign up and get the podcasts. Worth every dime (roughly $3 a month I believe for the silver tier, which is what I have).

 

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Card:

New ideas, new journeys afoot.

2019: April 29th: New Music from Rammstein

I've never really kept up with Rammstein, but I would definitely consider myself a fan. Ever since David Lynch introduced the German metal icons to popular culture in Lost Highway I've had an on again off again fascination/appreciation of their sound. That said, the only album I own is 2005's Rosenrot, which I adore, but which never prompted me to purchase any others. Because, I think, Rammstein is a little bit like ACDC to me; one album is really all I need. That said, the keyboard that kicks in at 0:34 on Radio essentially guaranteed I'd get excited for their new eponymous album, which can be pre-ordered HERE, and has a release date of May 17th.

Interestingly enough, Radio bled directly into another track the band released at the end of March. I like Deutschland even more than the previous, and holy smokes - the video! If you read these pages on a regular basis, you know I'm not much of a music video fan - I'll post them for songs, but end up never actually watching many of them. These two Rammstein videos though, wow! Talk about production value!



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Jonathan Grimm and I trekked out to Hollyweird yesterday afternoon to catch Avengers: Endgame. Those who know me, know my relationship with the Marvel movies has been complicated. I began an enormous fan, but somewhere around Civil War I checked out, due primarily to fatigue, but also a host of other, slightly convoluted problems. My main issue began to take root following an interview with American Beauty screenwriter Alan Ball on the Bret Easton Ellis podcast, where Mr. Ball talked about how, in the studio system today (and this was at least four years ago), a movie like American Beauty would never be made at the level it was almost twenty years ago. I have long considered Mr. Ball's breakout opus to be one of the finest examples of filmmaking in decades, and the idea that a film of that calibre would be made on a considerably smaller scale to make room for more comic book movies terrifies me. I feel like, soon, there won't be any major movies that aren't comic book or pre-branded films (remember when this was only a concern for genre flicks? When there was still a corridor for studios to invest major funds on what we now collectively refer to as 'Prestige' films?)

Anyway, soapbox digression aside, I freakin' LOVED Endgame. Infinity War was a begrudging watch a few months ago on Netflix, just to make myself ready for this one, and I didn't love it. Maybe War suffered from home viewing - every time you pause it you see where you are in the egregious run time - but Endgame felt like such a better movie! And I had that feeling I did watching Age of Ultron four years ago, namely that I wasn't watching a movie so much as a comic book brought to life. I didn't know if I would dig Endgame or not, I was just rabid to know how this thirteen-year first phase ends, and let me tell you, it ends magnificently. I wept several times; not Logan sized tears, but sentimental, gooseflesh, 'This is my childhood right flashing before my eyes' tears, and it felt wonderful.

Now, I can't wait to see what they do next. And maybe I'll check out a few of those Marvel flicks I've passed over, starting with Spiderman: Homecoming, which Grimm considers his favorite Marvel movie.

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Playlists have been all over the place with Grimm in, but here's a smattering of the last two or three days:

Type O Negative - Origin of the Feces
Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - Wasteland
Zeal & Ardor - Stranger Fruit
Blackwater Holylight - Eponymous
John Carpenter & Alan Howarth - Prince of Darkness OST
Richard Einhorn - Shockwaves OST
Turning Teeth - Jesus & The Brides of Dracula (single)

Card of the day:

Okay, I pulled this card two days ago as well, but in spite of previously ascribing it value enough to log here, I skipped it an re-pulled. Getting this again today though, I'm going to log it and maybe spend some time reading randomly about the OTO. I'm not about to join, but it's been a while since I immersed myself in their lore, and maybe there's something there that can help one of my current projects.