New Music from Human Impact!!!

 

The second single the band has released from the upcoming album Gone Dark, out October 4th on Ipecac Records. Pre-order HERE.

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Watch:

Being that I'm a huge fan of both Black Christmas and Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things, I'd been meaning to catch Bob Clark's Death Dream - AKA Dead of Night - for a number of years now. When it landed on Shudder a month or two back, I immediately added it to my list, but it wasn't until a few nights ago when I woke in the middle of the night and found I could not fall back asleep, that I  stumbled on it playing from the beginning on Shudder TV. 

Not nearly as grand as Clark's other two aforementioned forays into the Horror genre, however, Death Dream did not disappoint, and it's no surprise that William Lustig's Blue Underground restored this one and put it out on disc. Death Dream is pure 70s Cult Cinema, and taken in the mood for such things, I enjoyed it immensely. Even restored there is a palpable darkness the camera and lighting add to the story that almost makes you feel like you're watching it at a Grind House Drive-In circa 1974.

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Playlist:

Melvins - (A) Senile Animal

Melvins - Nude With Boots

Opeth - Deliverance

Charles Bradley - Victim of Love

Soul Coughing - Irresistible Bliss

Thou - Umbilical

Zombi - Shape Shift

The Knife - Silent Shout

Blue Meanies - Full Throttle

Mr. Bungle - Eponymous

Mike and the Mevlins - Three Men and a Baby

The Dillinger Escape Plan - One of Us is the Killer

Melvins & Lustmord - Pigs of the Roman Empire

Perturbator - Lustful Sacraments

Dr. John - Things Happen That Way

James Brown - Funky People Vol. 3

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE. Also, starting today for the next 30, Grimm's Kickstarter for the Hand of Doom Tarot Art Book is up. Check it out HERE.

• IV: The Emperor

• Two of Cups

• Page of Cups

Another late night photo of Grimm's marvelous Hand of Doom Deck. This time, the cards seem to be telling me to, oh gee, lookit that. Finish the book.

Crime Story

 

I've always loved Del Shannon's Runaway. I grew up in a house that played a lot of oldies. In the early 80s, "Oldies" radio was mostly defined by tracks from the 50s and early 60s, most of which seemed anathema to my own era's Pop music. Thriller, Purple Rain, 1984, Some Great Reward,  Rio and Sports were albums that comprised the bell curve of my taste, so songs like "When the Lion Sleeps Tonight" and its brethren often seemed 'dumb' to me, to invoke the parlance of an eight-year-old. That said, there were always a handful of oldies that moved me. Shannon's Runaway was one.

This became especially true when the Michael Mann-produced Crime Story came to NBC in 1985. Using Runaway as the theme immediately imprinted the show on me. As a kid, I was also a HUGE fan of Michael Mann's Miami Vice. I used to watch it every Friday with my father in a block that included the Sci/Fi show "V. When Crockett and Tubs' success opened the network doors to Mann. he quickly followed with Crime Story, and I ate it up. 

As a nine-year-old, Crime Story was most likely my introduction to the mobster genre. And make no mistake, the show's Big Bad Ray Luca and his laughable henchman Pauli Taglia could have hung with any of the Cinematic Godfathers I'd meet a few years later. 

These guys were something I'd not seen before; in the 80s action flicks I loved, bad guys were either 42 St. scum bags, terrorists, or aliens. These guys were slick, well-mannered and well-dressed.  They moved in circles of wealth and power, more than bombs and guns. Of course, this meant when they did enact violence, it often seemed especially cold, and this made the cops fighting them act in kind. Thrilling, to say the least.

Crime Story was also my introduction to Dennis Farina. Farina's Michael Torello was a tough guy who was so Chicago, he bared more than a passing resemblance to people I knew. The mustache, mannerisms and attitude were attributes I'd seen a thousand times in the adults around me, his accent and demeanor that of friends' parents and relatives, so the entire story seemed that much closer to real life than something like Miami Vice could ever hope to be. 

I'm going on about all this because with my parents in town for the holidays, my father and I spent two days marathoning old cop shows. The first two days were all about Rockford Files episodes. Then, I got an idea: sure enough, both seasons of Crime Story are available for free streaming on Freevee. I'm not much for streaming platforms with commercials, but this was a no-brainer, and we're currently about halfway through the first season and absolutely loving it. Always nice when a show from your childhood holds up. Also, since I hadn't seen this since it aired, I was shocked to realize that, while the theme song is indeed Runaway, it's not Del Shanon's version. Instead, Tod Rundgren pulled off a pretty damn straight cover that can almost fool anyone, those falsetto "Wa-Wah's" in the chorus a close match to Shannon's.

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Watch:

Bob Clark's classic Christmas slasher film Black Christmas was my Christmas Night chaser this year. Here's a TV spot I found from when it aired as "Silent Night Evil Night":

This one always chills me; there's something about the stoicism Clack employs here, whether it's through the meditative movements of Reg Morris' camera, the haunting and ephemeral score by Carl Zittrer, or the "elevated" performances by Olivia Hussey and Keir Dullea, but this one really gets under my skin - in the best possible way. Also, as always, John Saxon gives the best cop performance this side of Tom Atkins. 

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Playlist:

Angelo Badalamenti - Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me OST

Nat King Cole - The Christmas Song

The Ronettes - Presenting the Fabulous Ronettes

Various - A Christmas Gift For You From Phil Spector

Willie Nelson - Red-Headed Stranger

Kermit Ruffins - Barbeque Swingers Live

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

What comes next is a practical solution to emotional setbacks and a long-awaited finish to one of my ongoing projects. 

A Dirge for November

Because although I live in Los Angeles and really have no business calling this 'winter', I wanted to start the dying time off with a dirge.

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31 Days of Horror Final:

10/01: House of 1000 Corpses/31

10/02: Lords of Chaos

10/03: Creepshow Ep 2/Tales from the Crypt Ssn 1, Ep 1

10/04: IT Chapter 2, AHS 1984 Ep. 3

10/05: Bliss/VFW

10/06: Halloween III: Season of the Witch/Night of the Creeps/The Fog

10/07: Halloween 2018

10/08: Hell House, LLC

10/09: Dance of the Dead (Tobe Hooper; Masters of Horror Ssn 1 Ep 3)

10/10: Creepshow Episode 3

10/11: Jenifer (Dario Argento; Masters of Horror Ssn 1 Ep 4)

10/12: Poltergeist/Phenomena

10/13: AHS 1984 Ep 4/In the Tall Grass
10/14: Invasion of the Body Snatchers ('78)
10/15: Rabid (2019)
10/16: Wounds
10/17: Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon
10/18: Creepshow Episode 4
10/19: Ed Wood/AHS 1984 Ep. 5
10/20: Sinister/Sinister 2
10/21: Uncanny Annie
10/22: Scream
10/23: Simpsons 666: Treehouse of Horror
10/24: Jennifer's Body
10/25: Belzebuth/The Lighthouse/Halloween
10/26: Murder Party
10/27: AHS 1984 Ep. 6/Arsenic and Old Lace/The Fair Haired Child (Masters of Horror Ssn 1 Ep 9)
10/28: May
10/29: The Exorcist (Theatrical Cut)
10/30: Nightmare Cinema
10/31: Night of the Living Dead

I tried to watch Bob Clark's Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things, as well, but failed. For anyone interested, my favorite zombie films are as follows:

Dawn of the Dead (original)
Night of the Living Dead
Day of the Dead
Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things
Shaun of the Dead
28 Days Later
28 Weeks Later
To Kako (Evil)

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Playlist from 10/31/19:

Miranda Sex Garden - Fairytales of Slavery
Type O Negative - October Rust
Halloween Playlist
Sunn O))) - Pyroclasts
High on Fire - Blessed Black Wings
Mayhem - Daemon
Type O Negative - World Coming Down
John Carpenter and Alan Howarth - Halloween III: Season of the Witch OST
Joseph Loduca - Evil Dead 2 OST

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Card of the day:

Hmm... money direction, for sure. Maybe I'll hold off two weeks on the small investment I'm primed to make.

Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things

Part of my viewing this evening. Been a while, but this is a great flick. What it lacks in budget (and fashion sense for fuck's sake) it MORE than makes up for in tone and that special sick quality that grainy film and an amazingly twisted score will produce when married together in the perfect amounts.

Favorite moments: From ~1:01:15 and right about 1:20:27.

And if ya didn't know, same director as A Christmas Story (among other titles of note).