Showing posts with label Brian Eno. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Brian Eno. Show all posts

Sunday, January 14, 2024

David Bowie - Subterraneans

 
I love the way Bowie plays sax on this track. It literally soothes my soul, while also conjuring a mood similar to the one Cowboy Bebop does. 

Thus completeth David Bowie week, an annual event I like to do here to commemorate the life, work and passing of the Alien. He changed our world, I wish I could say we'd learned how to do that from him, but no, I don't think we did.
 


Watch:

I first saw Michael Mann's Heat opening weekend in 1995. I was nineteen and really just getting into film. I thought I knew a lot, and maybe I did for someone my age. I certainly watched and thought and wrote about them enough. This was, of course before the mass proliferation of the internet, so I'm not sure what I read about Heat before seeing it, but I was excited. I'd learned to identify and love Michael Mann's style via Miami Vice, Manhunter, Crime Story and Thief. All the hype that preceded Heat's release focused on Pacino and Deniro being together in a film for the first time since The Godfather flicks. I saw it, and was pretty damn disappointed. I'd never watched the film again until last night, when several of us headed out to Quentin Tarantino's New Beverly Cinema in Los Angeles. 

This outing possessed a two-fold purpose: 1) I'd lived in L.A. for 16 years before moving and never made it to the New Bev. 2) Because of Professor John Trafton and Miles Fortune's This Movie Saved My Life podcast, I found myself wanting to give Heat another chance. I'm happy to report that, while I still very much wish Pacino had dialed it back on a lot of his line delivery, I now agree that Heat is a Neo Noir Masterpiece. 

 
There were two big narrative gaps I credited as my major problem with the film: Waingro's "Serial killer" subplot, which I previously felt went nowhere, and the fate of Pacino's Stepdaughter, played by Natalie Portman. In the latter case, it always irritated me that, as I had previously perceived it, the film did not resolve her fate. Seeing this last night, I now think it is entirely possible that I ran to the bathroom during the scene where the surgeon tells Pacino and his estranged wife Justine (played by Diane Venora) that their daughter is alive and will pull through. I also think I may have just missed it because that scene is really the epitaph to the couple's relationship, and there's a lot of nuance to the scene and performances that I just don't think I would have been experienced enough in life and love to fully grasp at the time. I'd always viewed Portman's suicide attempt as a needless dramatic plot point stuffed in at the eleventh hour for no reason other than to tighten the screws on Al's character. It actually provides an exhale on the subplot of his marriage.

The Waingro issue is a different animal altogether, and last night's viewing led me to the conclusion that Heat is edited unlike any film I had ever seen previously. The film hits the ground RUNNING, and is such a rapid-fire accumulation of edits and characters, that Mann has to establish characters quickly. He does so deftonly, and while I do feel that the serial prostitute killer angle on his character should have had at least one nod past the original - because it's revealed early on that the police are aware they have an active serial killer - but ultimately is serves to establish A LOT about Waingro's character in very little time.




Playlist:

Marilyn Manson - We Are Chaos
Marilyn Manson - God's Gonna Cut You Down (single)
Massive Attack - Protection
PJ Harvey - Rid of Me
Marilyn Manson - AntiChrist Superstar
David Bowie - Hunky Dory
Run the Jewels - RTJ4
Robbie Dupree - Steal Away (single)
Doobie Brothers - What a Fool Believes (single)
The Bee Gees - Love You Inside Out (single)




Card:

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


• Four of Pentacles
• XIV: Temperance
• King of Swords

Logging this here and will try to circle back around for an interpretation at some point later tonight or tomorrow. L.A. is keeping me on my toes.

Thursday, January 11, 2024

David Bowie - Move On

 

"Move On," the second track from 1979's Lodger, the final of the Bowie/Eno Berlin Trilogy. Easily my least favorite of the three records, Lodger has never 100% caught me, but there are moments that really resonate with the rest of the Trilogy, and I'd argue that track two, "Move On" is one of them. 




Watch:

A couple of nights ago, I watched Jennifer Reeder's latest film, Perpetrator. Here's a trailer that I offer with the caveat you only watch the first minute:


Did you see the pull quote that said, "The meeting point between John Hughes and David Lynch?" Not too far off. I don't know that everything about this one 'worked' for me, however, I was distracted during the first forty minutes or so with some emergency yoga, and Perpetrator is SO insanely original, I'm definitely going to watch it again. 

Between this and Night's End - which I also loved - Jennifer Reeder is now a filmmaker on my "watch everything" list. 




Read:

My Horror Vision Co-Host Anthony recently talked me into giving SIKTC's sister book, House of Slaughter, another shot. I read the first two arcs and wasn't super into it, despite really liking the concept. One character introduced that has stayed with me is Jace, and he is the focus of the third arc, Return of Butcher.


So far it's pretty good, but I'm still not sold. This got me thinking about why that is, and I think I've come up with a fairly easy answer. SIKTC is one hundred about the momentum of the story, which is ongoing as it follows Erika Slaughter. House of Slaughter is different; five-issue arcs that jump around to give us windows into the world Tynion has built; ostensibly a welcome idea, it just does not inspire the passion in me that SIKTC does. I've always taken more to books with ongoing continuity - my first comic love was, after all, Larry Hama's G.I.Joe:ARAH and I never really cared much for Special Missions. The exact same paradigms apply here - ongoing vs. individual stories that are a part of the overall tapestry but do not add momentum to it. 

Regardless, House of Slaughter is still a quality book, and in no way am I complaining about reading or purchasing it. I just don't feel the allegiance to this book that I do for its sister. 




Playlist:

Marilyn Manson - We Are Chaos
Massive Attack - Protection
Cypress Hill - IV
David Bowie - Lodger
The Stooges - Eponymous
The Stooges - Funhouse
††† - Good Night, God Bless, I Love U, Delete.
Marilyn Manson - Mechanical Animals
The Damned - Machine Gun Etiquette
Killing Joke - Eponymous
Rein - God is a Woman
David Bowie - Black Star
The Cure - Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me




Card:

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


• Eight of Swords
• XIX - The Sun
• Four of Swords

Okay, now I'm really paying attention. I was all set to move on from the Truce/Rest interpretation from yesterday because not only did I go to bed at 8:00 PM Wednesday night, but I stayed in last night as well, taking a nap after work that made me feel the best I have so far this trip. But here it is again.

It dawned on me that the Truce also might apply to a small situation at work, which I came in a skosh concerned about and have definitely applied the Truce aesthetic to. Things feel better there than they have in over a year, so there's that. Aside from those two instances, what do today's other two cards suggest?

Eight of Swords - Eight. Hod - Learning and Ritual in the real of the Intellect.
XIX The Sun - Interestingly, I noticed Grimm posted this card on social media recently, accompanied by the lyrics to Sabbath's "Nativity in Black," and I can't help wondering if there's something there. 

"Some people say my love cannot be true Please believe me my love, and I'll show you I will give you those things you thought unreal The sun, the moon, the stars all bear my seal!"

Maybe not, or, if so, that's a code my conscious mind probably won't crack. So while that simmers on the ol' brain stove, I'm looking toward the "Optimistic" interpretation and stepping back to apply all of this - wait for it - to my worldview. In multiple conversations since I arrived here and have had the chance to reconnect with folks I haven't seen or talked to in months, world events come up and I always begin with the "I'm a pessimist" clause. L.A. just brings it out of me. I walk the streets of West L.A. and just can't believe the filth. Yet, also, this time, I honestly think things may not be as bad as they were in October. Maybe. 

My pessimism probably isn't going to recede permanently, but maybe I can give it a rest at least for a little bit and try and, ahem, Think Positive Thoughts. The Sun, The Moon, The Stars. 

Wednesday, January 10, 2024

David Bowie - Blackout at the Monolith!!!

 

Yeah, I'm a little hung up on Heroes lately. Love this track; there's something about it that nods toward Scary Monsters (and Super Freaks), even with the inherent Enoisms present. What a truly strange record, Heroes. Comprised of a single that can reduce me to tears or move me to shake my fists at the heavens, three increasingly odd instrumentals that feel a bit like Blade Runner-meets-John Zorn on quaaludes, a lushly arranged funk track, and then all kinds of Eno weirdness strained through David's pop sensibilities, it all works amazingly well together for a sound that you can only really compare to, well, the rest of the Berlin Trilogy.




Watch:

I am getting major Warren Ellis/Jason Howard Trees vibes from the thirty seconds of this trailer I watched. 

 

Also, despite my issues with Evil Dead Rise, I'm very much looking forward to seeing more Lilly Sullivan! 

Monolith is Directed by Matt Vesely and Written by Lucy Campbell. In looking through their discographies, I noticed Ms. Campbell is also a Writer and Co-Director of a 2021 Science Fiction miniseries titled The Big Nothing. Here's the summary:
 
"When the captain of an isolated mining station near Saturn is murdered, Detective Lennox is sent to investigate the three remaining crew members. Centered around a series of interrogations and flashback, Lennox discovers that everyone has a motive to kill. With otherworldly threats approaching and the killer amongst them, will everybody make it off the station?"

Intriguing, right? I went looking for this and found you can watch the entire five-episode series on an official YouTube channel HERE.


Very hopeful that Monolith will get a wide enough release to hit Clarksville!!!




Playlist:

The Damned - Evil Spirits
Killing Joke - Eponymous
The Sound - From the Lion's Mouth
Run the Jewels - RTJ4
David Bowie - Earthling
David Bowie - Heroes
Marilyn Manson - We Are Chaos
David Bowie - Low
Negative Blast - Echo Planet
The Afghan Whigs - Do The Beast
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!
The Afghan Whigs - Gentlemen




Card:

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


• Page of Swords
• Ten of Swords
• Four of Swords

Okay, not only all Swords this morning but also, this is the second day in a row the Four of Swords has reared its head. 

Writing this about eight hours after penning the original post. I was too tired to really deep dive into this Pull last night, but after reading a bit about it, I'm reminded of the "Truce" interpretation. A.K.A. rest. I actually drew these cards last night, while on the verge of what felt, rather dramatically, like exhaustion. It's taking me longer than usual to acclimate to walking as much as I am. Shin Splints set in Tuesday, tore me up yesterday. After scheduling this post last night at about 6:30 PM, I ended up writing for an hour and a half, then turning it in, and I think the "rest" recommendations worked. 

• Page of Swords - Pay attention (intellect) to your body, dickhead!
• Ten of Swords - Get your kingdom in order (when I travel, I very much set up a "Kingdom."
• Four of Swords - Truce between Intellect and Body - REST!!

Tuesday, January 9, 2024

David Bowie/Brian Eno - Neuköln Remastered

 

Being that David Bowie was not only born but also took his exit from our Planet on this week, I'm doing another edition of David Bowie Week! For today's post, I pulled the remastered version of "Neuköln," originally published on 1977's collaboration with Brian Eno, Heroes. I LOVE the arranging on this one, especially Bowie's Sax. Some interesting tonal ideas.

Heroes is a great album, but it could almost be pragmatically divided into two different playlists, one for the 'songs' and the other for the instrumental suites like "Neuköln." Such a haunting atmosphere to these passages, while the songs draw on a lot of the musical ideas/subsequent tropes being formed in the late 70s. Likewise, the Eastern influence of the instrumentals and overall world themes (




Watch:

A few days ago I fired up Shudder.TV to see what was playing and caught Writer/Director Liam Gavin's 2017 film A Dark Song. Here's a trailer:


I caught this once before, maybe three or four years ago. I really dug it at the time, and it totally holds up upon second viewing. Mr. Gavin clearly knows his way around the Occult, or at least he researched the hell out of this film. Also, I may be off base, but feel like I detect some Warren Ellis influence here. Maybe I'm just running an unconscious parallel to Ellis and Mike Wolfer's Gravel series from the 00's - also kind of a Mercenary Magician, although in Gravel's case, Combat Magician would be a better description.

Wow. I just realized how much I miss Gravel.


How has it already been almost twenty years since this and Doktor Sleepless




Playlist:

Screaming Females - Desire Pathway
Fever Ray - Radical Romantics
David Bowie - Heroes
Marilyn Manson - We Are Chaos
Run the Jewels - RTJ4
Wayfarer - American Gothic
The Afghan Whigs - How Do You Burn?
The Afghan Whigs - In Spades
The Afghan Whigs - Do The Beast
Damone - Out of the Attic
Yawning Balch - Volume I




Card:

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


• VI - The Lovers - Influence or inspiration
• Ace of Wands - Essence inception
• III - The Empress - Fruitfulness

The big pinion in the interpretation for today is choosing to read The Empress as Fruitfulness, an association I often forget or disregard altogether. It fits in with all the other ideas attached to this card, though, and it shows here that I need a little something new to get back on track writing. Being away from home for so long, it would be damn easy to fall out of the habit of writing. Not gonna happen, however, I think I need to lean into a new idea briefly in order to get my momentum back up. I haven't written since Friday. I brought a nice microphone with me so I could record myself reading the current version of Black Gloves and Broken Hearts, a part of the process that can be cumbersome, but that is also one of the most beneficial elements of my edit strategy. So while I'll be doing that at night, I think I'll take some time this afternoon to start up a new Nosleep story I've had percolating in the back of my brain. My first, fairly successful three-part serial on Nosleep, I Got a Deal On My New House Because Someone Committed Suicide in the Garage really inspired me, as I feel like it's some of the best short-form writing I've done to date, and I've been wanting to kind of re-create that. Sure, the Nosleep Community is fantastic, and provides instant validation to writers if they take to your story, which might sound lame at first, but that validation can be used as fuel for stepping up projects.

Wednesday, March 13, 2019

2019: March 13th



For the last two days, I've actually woken up before my first alarm at 4:07 AM and had time to do my daily entry early. Both days I've begun things with Talking Heads' 1980 album Remain in Light on headphones. On an album where every song is my favorite song, Born Under Punches is probably my favorite of the favorite. There's something so huge about this song; so many moving parts that comprise the whole. If you listen to Remain in Light on headphones, Brian Eno's production becomes entrancing. This pairing was so well suited; on Eno's three collaborations with David Bowie you can hear how he brings a certain approach to rhythm. The only way I can think to describe it this early, while I wait for my first pot of coffee to complete its brew cycle, is he thickens it. This works wonders for Bowie's music, transforming it into something those who'd followed the Thin White Duke to that point hadn't heard before from him. When we apply the same aesthetic techniques to a band like Talking Heads, a band that already looks at rhythm from a slightly non-rock perspective (not to diminish Bowie), well, you get Remain in Light. This live version further emboldens that approach, only in a live environment, and the result is mesmerizing.

Such a great freakin' band!

Virtually nothing for me on this NCBD, although I'd been on the fence about continuing The Dreaming and I may stop in and pick up the three issues I've missed; having recently completed reading issues three and four, I'm finding I really want to continue. Lucifer, the book I previously thought I would be reading consistently, has kind of fallen by the way side for me, and I'm not sure I will go back to it.



Oh! After a quick check on today's release (I use THIS SITE), I've realized Dan Wickline's Freeze #4 hits stands today, so that's a definite reason to stop in at the Bug and hang out a bit.

Like I need a reason.

David Lucarelli, author of The Children's Vampire Hunting Brigade and the BRILLIANT Tinsel Town, just launched a Kickstarter for the expanded graphic novel edition of the five-issue series. Link to it HERE:



I can't wait to support this, and I suggest you do the same. Tinsel Town is a fantastic historical series about Abigail Moore, the first woman police officer in fictionalized version of the early Twentieth Century Universal City, when Universal Studios was had its own police force! Inspired by Lucarelli's mother, who was a Police Officer for twenty years in Pittsburgh, Tinsel Town is expertly plotted, beautifully told, and personal enough to give it a meaty emotional resonance that will linger in your thoughts well after having read it.

Playlist from 3/12:

Talking Heads - Remain in Light
Fela Kuti - The '69 Los Angeles Sessions
Fela Kuti - Sorrow, Tears, and Blood
Prince - Sign O' The Times
Nick Lowe - Jesus of Cool
Misfits - Earth A.D.
Le Butcherettes - bi/MENTAL
Bells Into Machines - Eponymous
Dillinger Escape Plan - Ire Works
King Woman - Doubt EP
King Woman - Created in the Image of Suffering

No card today.

Friday, August 31, 2018

2018: August 31st



This song.

8/31 - we are in the Dog Days, where Sirius is closest to our planet and has an effect on our gravitational pull and thus, us. I do not put stock in Astrology, this is Science. Look for shit to get weird.

Last night I watched Brian Yuzna's Society. Wow.



Playlist from yesterday:

Second Still - Equals EP
Silk Worm - Firewater
Roxy Music - Eponymous
Talking Heads - Remain in Light

Card of the day:


And we continue with a veritable deluge of Court Cards. Freaking me out, a bit.
Being that I have never really connected with the Disks Suite isn't really surprising when I stop to think about it. It's Malkuth, Earthly matters, and I'm always in the clouds, up in Hod, or Yesod, straining to see Tipareth. I can buckle down and take care of Earthly matters, but I do it like I swim - only when I have to and even then, holding my breath the entire time. The Knight is the Fire of Earth,  and to me it always looked like he was either bumping up against a forcefield (how money sometimes makes me feel), or about to enter a thin spot, crossing worlds. I take this today as a warning that I will have to cross from my heady Fiction world into the real one to take care of something, and try to recognize that when it rears its head.

Tuesday, February 6, 2018

Queens of the Stone Age cover Brian Eno

I didn't know this existed until just now. In the midst of a binge on Eno's Here Come the Warm Jets I set out to find a youtube video for Needles in the Camel's Eye and found this in the search results:



And the original:



No matter who is singing it, this song makes me love life.


Sunday, January 28, 2018

2018: January 28th 9:59 AM

"Juanita and Juan, very clever with maracas, making their fortunes selling secondhand tobaccos. Juan dances at Chicos and when the client's are evicted, he empties the ashtrays and pockets all that he's collected."



Beginning my musical day with Brian Eno's Here Come the Warm Jets. It feels like a warm blanket after the night we had. Surprise party for Keller went off without a hitch. Drinks were consumed - a lot of drinks. There was plenty of Sierra Nevada and Guinness going around, as well as a bottle of Basil Hayden - which is, thus far, the bourbon that has made me rethink Bourbon, which I normally turn my nose up to. And a bottle of Port Dundas, which was fantastic. Because of the party, the playlist was alllll over the place, but a snapshot of the entire day looks something like this:

Converse - The Dusk in Us
Revolting Cocks - Big Sexy Land
Algiers - The Underside of Power
Au Pairs - Sense and Sensuality
David Bowie - Diamond Dogs
Grimes - Art Angels
Black Francis - Bluefinger

Moved into the writing portion of my night, a brainstorm session with Keller to iron out some big picture problems with the structure of our story. Switched sonic gears to Reznor and Ross's OST for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. From there I segued into Sleigh Bells - Treatment, the opening track of which we're using as a soundtrack to a scene in our story we refer to as, "The Sleigh Bells Massacre".



No, its not a Christmas story.

The timing was impeccable - K showed up right as the song went nuts and charged through the door with many of our friends behind her. Keller was stunned. From there, all musical bets were off. I can tell you we indulged in some John Spencer Blues Explosion, Def Leppard, The Knife, Was (Not Was), Morris Day and The Time, Prince, then bafflingly I see New Edition and Bell Biv Devoe on my "recently played".

Huh. Never underestimate the nostalgic power of whiskey + friends.

Going to go to breakfast and then lick my wounds. Planning on watching Spike Jonze and Charlie Kaufman's Adaptation today, which I just received from Amazon and haven't seen since the theatrical run. I'll never forget walking out of that Orland Park cinema with Brown in 2002 and saying, "Well, I've never said it before and I'll probably never say it again, but Nicholas Cage deserved TWO fucking Oscars for that one."



Of course Cage didn't get it. We'll see how bad the oscars fuck it up this year - I usually just scoff at their sad attempts to 'reward' artistic merit, which I do not believe has anything to do with the oscar's agenda at all. This year the Golden Globes - an awards institution I normally pay less attention to than the oscars - really felt like they hit it on the nose, so I'll probably be more apt to talk about that show when in need of an industry awards reference, if ever.

Sunday, January 12, 2014

Brian Eno - Driving me Backwards



Although I am a massive fan of the several Brian Eno albums I own those are the only Brian Eno albums that I know. My friend John - who is of an age where he experienced Eno's records as they were released - lent me Here Come The Warm Jets. It is spectacular. Right now, this song is freaking me out.

Released in 1973 I can very much hear the influence this record had on Bauhaus, Daniel Ash most especially.