To Answer The Black Phone, You Must Walk On Guilded Splinters

A couple of years ago, Mr. Brown turned me onto Gris-Gris, one of the darker Dr. John albums, and it's become a staple of my annual Halloween listening. Check out the album closer, "I Walk on Guilded Splinters" creates a creepy A.F. atmosphere.

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Watch:

Last night was my second night at Santa Monica's Aero Theatre for Beyondfest 2021, where we saw Scott Derrickson and C. Robert Cargill's new film The Black Phone.

Based on a Joe Hill short story from his debut anthology 20th Century Ghosts, Derrickson and Cargill's adaptation is fantastic. It lengths the fairly concise short story without weakening it. In fact, the flick is so strong that, re-reading the story this morning, I'd have to say it's the perfect kind of adaptation that takes nothing away from the story, but stands strong on its own.

In typical Beyondfest fashion, after the credits rolled and the lights came up, we were treated to an hour+ discussion where Mike Flanagan came out and spoke to Cargill and Derrickson about their creative approached to the film, what Joe Hill and his family thought of the adaptation of his story, ("Joe called us and said, ""Yeah, dad liked it.""), and all kinds of other great stuff.

31 Films of Halloween:

1) VHS 94 (don't waste your time)

2) The Mutilator

3) Demons 

4) Vortex

5) Possession

6) The Black Phone

7) Slumber Party Massacre

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Playlist:

Mastodon - Teardrinker (pre-release single)

Sam Hain - November Coming Fire

The High Confessions - Turning Lead Into Gold with the High Confessions

16 - Dream Squasher

My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult - Confessions of a Knife

John Carpenter - Lost Themes III: Alive After Death

Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon

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Card:

The cards are re-iterating what they told me yesterday because the event in question is later today. Just keep telling myself, "One and done. One and done."

Consider Your Health Before You Rust

 

Collaboration between NIN and Health. 

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Watch:

A new show by the creators of Dark? I'd heard about this last year, but completely forgot about it. 

 

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READ:

You may know C. Robert Cargill's name best as the co-writer of 2012's brilliant Horror movie Sinister. He's also a novelist, and although I'm unfamiliar with most of his work, I began his new novel Sea of Rust recently and can tell you it is fantastic.

The novel takes place in a world devoid of humanity. It's our world after the AI war that wipes us out, after AI factions off into super mainframe intelligence - there are two and the denizens of the novel refer to them as OWIs, or One World Intelligences - and rogue robots who fight for the freedom not to succumb to the edict of trading their selfhood for the ease of becoming part of the hivemind. There are so many analogs to our world here that it's crazy; from the Corporatization of everything to individuality in the age of our own accelerated (social media), that the book has an uncanny ability to feel in harmony with our lives even during the, frankly, pretty damn well-written action sequences. I'm really digging this one, and am moving Mr. Cargill to my 'pay attention to everything he does' list.

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Playlist:

Turquoise Moon - The Sunset City

Myrkur - Folkesange

DJ Muggs the Black Goat - Dies Occidendum

Ennio Morricone - The Thing OST

Judas Priest - Painkiller 

Kate Bush - The Dreaming

Zeal and Ardor - Devil is Fine

Waxwork Records - House of Waxwork Issue #1 OST

Led Zeppelin - Eponymous

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Card:

 

Ah, restraint. Thank you for the reminder. Here's the mantra for when I'm scouring ebay for things I do not need: I WANT A HOUSE.