New Trailer for Shudder's Creepshow!

This Thursday! Can't wait.

**

The Writing Process:

Lots of intense bursts of inspiration for Shadow Play Book Two: The Absence of Light. I have a general outline, sort of, but there's so much ground to cover and a lot of jumping around in the timeline, which currently runs from about 1576 to 2019, with one chapter most likely occurring in early pre-history. This is easily the most ambitious story architecture I've ever attempted, but it feels strong and alive in a way that is increasingly energizing. Which is great, because lately, I've had a lot of ups and downs with all the short stories I've been working on over the last year, and the first book of Ciazarn is largely written, but I can't quit nail the tone, so I'm easing away for the time being on that one. Frustrations are amplified by the fact that most of these issues would probably work themselves out if I could just get back on a consistent writing schedule. Hoping that happens this week.

**

Super excited to announce I'll be doing a bit of a collaboration with my good friend Mr. Brown. I've never really been an X-Files fan; I don't have anything against it, but I also have never really gotten into it beyond a dalliance with the 'mythology' episodes way back in the day, which dried up as it became apparent the story wasn't really mapped out to conclude in any satisfying way. Or maybe I'm wrong - I liked some of what I saw, but could never commit to a regular watch-schedule with it, despite being sexually obsessed by Gillian Anderson in my late teens/early twenties.

But I digress...

Brown asked me recently if I'd be into the idea of him curating a playlist of stand alone X-Files episodes, the idea being I would watch them and write a little something about them as I go. I love this idea, as I trust Brown's taste implicitly, and have always wanted someone to show me just what the hell everyone loved about this show in the 90s. This is the perfect time for such a project as well; 31 Days of Horror begins next week, and I figure on days with little watch time, I could pepper in some X-Files. I have the list and can't wait to start!

**

Recent Playlist:

Carpenter Brut - Leather Teeth
Carpenter Brut - Trilogy
Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - Wasteland
The Ocean - Heliocentric
Drab Majesty - Careless
Various - A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night OST
Boy Harsher - Careful
Rob Zombie - Hellbilly Deluxe
Monolord - No Comfort
Joseph Loduca - Evil Dead 2 OST
John Carpenter - Prince of Darkness OST

**

Card of the day:

Turning. Changing. Cycles. You can see on the diagram below that Atu X: Fortune manifests as the path between Mercy and Victory. Not sure how to read that in my own current context, but while digging around online for the image below, I came across something I'd never really noticed about Fortune - The Wheel or The Wheel of Fortune in other decks. It moves counter clockwise. Macro-definitions aside, I'm looking at this today as a nod to move forward in reverse-engineering something that has been giving me a bit of trouble.

2019: August 24th The Mandalorian Trailer

One and a half years ago I sat in a movie theatre in the South Suburbs of Chicago and took a killing blow to my nostalgia-based love of Star Wars. Today, watching the trailer Lucasfilm released for The Mandalorian, I feel that love intensley rekindled. Not rekindled in a capacity that will see me paying ~$20 for the next installment of the film franchise, but in a way that does what this new series was quite transparently made to do: reach back into my nostalgia bunker and pull out a big ol' pile of my childhood guts. I count quite a few checks in boxes I'd forgotten I have:

Boba Fett (in visage if not character, which in my opinion, is a fucking brilliant way to fan service us without a retcon that resurrects the ill-fated bounty hunter).

IG-88. Kicking ass and taking names, no less.

That squid-faced guy from Jedi.

Cantinas filled with wretch scum and unabashed villainy.

Oh yeah, and then there's the fact that Werner Herzog plays a heavy. Herzog and Star Wars? Talk about two things I never knew I wanted before seeing them with my own two eyes.

So yes, I will definitely be on board with the Disney steaming app for this one. No doubt. And I can appreciate my rabid fervor as nothing short of nostalgia - I'm fine with that.

**

Today is day number 2 of Dead Milkmen Appreciation Week here on my page. For today's entry, I went with something newer - Fauxhemia, the second track from 2011's The King in Yellow. Once again, the Milkmen totally nail relatable lyrics. The entire album is quite adroit at that - surely one of the Milkmen's greatest strengths. What's more, this album really excels at striking a track-by-track synthesis of the two main song archetypes the band's songwriting typically manifests, which I'll trace all the way back to their 1985 debut Big Lizard in My Backyard (long my favorite by the band) to define: there's the biting, often hysterical social commentary in tracks such as Violent School and Right Wing Pigeons, and the more straight-forward, emotionally melodic numbers like Tugena. And the synthesis really works, perhaps on no song better than this one. In my head, when the "Your 300 lb Psychic Baby..." line comes up in the chorus, I immediately picture the cover of Big Lizard, except with the giant lizard replaced by a giant, fat baby, and it always makes me laugh.



**

Playlist from 8/23:

The Dead Milkmen - The King in Yellow
Roxy Music - For Your Pleasure
Mötley Crüe - Shout at the Devil
The National - High Violet
Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - The Night Creeper
Alabama Shakes - Sound and Color
The Dead Milkmen - Big Lizard in My Backyard
Amy Winehouse - Back to Black
Jenny Lewis - The Voyager
INXS - Kick

**

Today's spread:

Something I'm working on isn't working, I'm trying to force the issue, and that's not going to work. So the question then, is what do I need to re-think? I think there's an underlying current here of anxiety concerning Ciazarn, because Grimm and I are attempting to get this up on its feet by September. That feels like I'm trying to force that deadline, and I think this spread is telling me what I already know: push it back.

2019: July 27th - Shellac The End of Radio Live 2004

It's been a few weeks since Shellac dropped The End of Radio, a really nice collection of live tracks culled from Peel Sessions in 1994 and 2004. Being that the band's 2007 album Excellent Italian Greyhound just might be my favorite of Shellac's records (or it's tied with 2000's 1000 Hurts), and I think Greyhound has one of the best opening tracks of all time, this is my favorite on this new album. The Martina Navratilova aside near the end of this performance makes me so happy I can often hardly stand it.

You can order The End of Radio on Vinyl - as it was meant to be heard - from Touch and Go Records HERE.

I really need to see Shellac live again. It's been a while.

**

I'll admit that I fully expected to hate Amazon's adaptation of Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson's The Boys, but after watching one and a half episodes last night, I can tell you that is most definitely not the case. In fact, so far, I LOVE it. Karl Urban remains a perfect actor, in my book.


**

Playlist from 7/26:

Primus - Frizzle Fry
Motörhead - Ace of Spades
Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - The Night Creeper
Grand Duchy - Let the People Speak
Zeal and Ardor - Stranger Fruit
Numenorean - Adore

**

Card of the day:

Being that I've ended up working Tarot into Ciazarn considerably more than I expected, I'm going to continue interpreting these draws that occur while I'm on a writing streak with it as direct influences on the story and/or characters. In this case, I have two 'set pieces,' but I believe I need two more in order to have a solid first act.

2019: July 26th Spegetti Western Live '90

One of my all-time favorite Primus tracks. The sound on this one is HUGE. I've always loved the way Frizzle Fry ends: Sathington Willoughby into Spegetti Western into Harold of the Rocks. Hard to snip one of those tracks out and place it here, removed from that beautifully odd context, but I'd never seen this live version before and it's fantastic to see a camera on Ler and Herb for this long. Looks like NewWaveVault has some other cool old school stuff on their channel as well, so check it out and maybe subscribe. I did.

**

Last night I watched Hobo with a Shotgun for the first time since its original release. Man, I dig the flick, but it seriously reminds me of Robocop, which I have some problems with. My micro review - which contains my thoughts on Robocop - is up on my Letterbxd account HERE.



Also, I still really like the original trailer that writer/director Jason Eisener made in 2007:



The Blu Ray has a really cool "Shotgun Feature" where gun sights appear on the screen at times where you can click them and segue from the movie into behind the scenes stuff. Lots of detailed video of the practical FX and performances.

**

Playlist from 7/25:

PJ Harvey - Uh Huh Her
Pink Floyd - The Wall
Motörhead - 1916
Aerosmith - Permanent Vacation
Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - Wasteland
Zeal & Ardor - Stranger Fruit
Revolting Cocks - Big Sexy Land

**

Card of the day:

Two days in a row. Taking this as another nod toward my progress on Ciazarn and my basing one of the most enigmatic characters in it after the King of Swords. Perhaps he needs a Queen?

2019: July 25th Zombieland: Double Tap Trailer

I almost didn't post this. For one, I usually do not post entries this late in the afternoon (it's 5:30 PM as I edit this). Second, I don't love this trailer, and I absolutely adore the first Zombieland. I'm hoping this long-overdue sequel is better than it looks; Harrelson is about as close as I come to a big-name actor who can do no wrong with me, so I really want to like this. We'll see.

**

So Rutger Hauer passed away yesterday. I can't say I know a lot of his films, however, like so many other men my age, Blade Runner is near and dear to me, and a lot of that is Hauer. I know everyone is posting this scene as a memorial, but my upkeep on this site is primarily for myself, as a sort of diary or historical record, and I'd regret it if I didn't follow suit with "Tears in Rain" speech:



And let's chase that with a favorite musical reference to the film:



I've not been in a Blade Runner mood of late, but I have a Hobo With a Shotgun viewing coming real soon.

**

I've watched SO much Friday the 13th lately, and while I found The Final Chapter (IV) a chore, Five went down pretty smoothly. Not Sierra Nevada smooth, but, say, Coors Light. Which is to say not very, but at least I got through it in one sitting. Part Six though, I remember watching Friday the 13th Six: Jason Lives a couple years ago with a friend and both of us realizing, A) if we'd ever seen it before the details were completely lost to the fog of time, and B) it's a marginally self-aware comedy. Which means, thus far, it's my favorite of these first six Friday flicks. I'll be continuing with the viewings soon - this is all research for something I'm going to write, and, a bit of a self-dare, as I've never watched the Fridays in chronological order before.

**

Playlist from 7/24:

Sausage - Riddles are Abound Tonight
Ghost - Prequelle
Zeal and Ardor - Stranger Fruit
Telekinetic Yeti
Spotlights - Love and Decay
Sleep - The Sciences

**

Card of the day was

Interesting, in that I just referenced the King of Swords yesterday in Ciazarn. Modeling a character after that Court Card's attributes.

2019: June 21st - Lightning Born!

Thanks to Jonathan Grimm for the heads up on this one - I'd not even heard of Lightning Born until I woke up at 4:00 AM this morning, rolled over and saw a text from Grimm:

... and that about says it all. The band's self-titled debut is out today on Ripple Music, so it's available everywhere music is can be acquired. Or, order the record from the band themselves HERE.

**

I watched two fantastic movies yesterday. First, Knife + Heart just dropped on Shudder and I stumbled into it without knowing much. LOVED it. A kind of software, gay Argento-homage, the flick stalls a bit at times as it goes to incredible lengths to soak the viewer in atmosphere and aesthetic of 1979 Paris' underground gay culture. It does an excellent job with this, but imagine those overly descriptive paragraphs that plague genre books at times? There's a correlation to that here. Still, the movie is gorgeous, and what I did not realize it until this morning is M83 scored it. Basically a gallo that follows an underground porn studio's actors as they are picked off one-by-one at the hands of a masked killer, Knift + Heart doesn't reinvent the wheel, but it's a great watch. Here's the trailer:



Next, 1990's Hardware. I'd never seen this until yesterday and I absolutely LOVED it. Kind of a third rate Terminator knock-off, I'll take this over Cameron's epic any day. I loved the colors, the sets, the tech - everything. And a very cool soundtrack that juxtaposed Simon Boswell's neo-futuristic, Vangelis-light score with tracks like Stigmata from Ministry and this epic from PIL:



**

Playlist from 6/20:

The Verve - Northern Soul
Zen Guerilla - Positronic Saygun
Spotlights - Love and Decay
Various - A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night
David J and Federale - The Day David Bowie Died
Jefre Cantu-Ledesma - In Summer EP
Public Image Ltd - This Is What You Want... This Is What You Get

**

Card of the day:

From the Grimoire: "The beginning of a new project or job." Well, that could not be more appropriate. I took a few days off writing after finishing Shadow Play Book One, tonight I plan on walking to my coffee spot and digging into Ciazarn!

2019: Soviet Soviet Live on KEXP

Soviet Soviet performing Fairy Tale, the lead track from their 2016 album Endless, live on KEXP!

**

Congratulations to all my HWA brothers and sisters who won awards last night at the Bram Stoker Awards! Mike Glyer has a list of the winners up on HERE, on his Fanlight Zone website. Check it out!

**

Kind of addicted to the A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night OST. I'd never seen the film before; despite countless recommendations it seemed to remain perpetually on the list. That changed this past Friday when Joe Bob Briggs showed it on The Last Drive-In. LOVED it. Loved it so much, but I need to have an immersive viewing, one without JBB's wonderful sidebars, which I love and can help ease the way for a movie like Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, but which impede the full effect of something like Ana Lily Amirpour's B&W, Arthouse Vampire masterpiece.



Also, the OST is chock full of unbelievable music, pretty much all from artists I am - for the moment - unfamiliar with. Lots of new music heading my way, which always makes me happy!

Playlist from 5/11:

Faith No More - King for a Day
Various Artists - A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night OST
Prince - Sign O' The Times
Lovett - The Wind OST


Playlist from 5/12:

Faith No More - King for a Day
L7 - Scatter the Rats
Blut Aus Nord - What Once Was
Godflesh - Pure

Card of the day:

The Fiery aspect of Fire - Pure Will. Which is what I will need to get through the day, I think. Long work weekend, followed by a rough Monday morning so far. I'll do what I always do - put my head down and charge through, stealing any moments I have along the way to work on Ciazarn, a growing obsession now that I've found the voice for it.

2019: April 27th: Netflix's Dark Ssn 2 Trailer

Finally! Netflix's Dark, Season Two drops June 21st, and I cannot wait. Season one blew me away, even if it did take me two go-throughs to 'get' it. There are just so many characters, many of which are old white men with beards, and on first pass, I found myself having a difficult time differentiating between some of them. Second pass though, all that confusion dissipated, and I fell hard into the story. Not gonna lie, I'm baulking a little at the idea of the apocalypse being a plot point in season two, but Dark definitely gets the benefit of the doubt with me.

**

Woke up and watched Under the Silver Lake again, this time with K. Even better the second time. Love this film, and now Turning Teeth is stuck in my head.



**
Playlist from 4/26:

Soundgarden - Down on the Upside
Soundgarden - Super Unknown
Stevie Nicks - Stand Back (Single)
Stone Roses - I Wanna Be Adored (Single)
Suburban Living - Video Love (Single)
Deafheaven - New Bermuda

**

Card of the day:

Power given purpose and direction. A definite nod to Ciazarn, which I need to stop researching and begin writing, but also a cue to my short story Trending Now, which I am about to submit for a fairly high profile anthology.

2019: April 8th - Too Old To Die Young

I've been listening to Tricky's Maxinquaye a lot of late. An amazingly album built around uncomfortable atmosphere, Maxinquaye remains timeless. Those aberrant sonic elements that comprise many of the tracks will, I think, always feel fresh and groundbreaking. No one does shit like this except Tom Waits, and that's just a different thing.

**

I had a long flight yesterday. An hour and fifteen to San Jose, where I arrived at 5:00 PM and had until 7:55 PM before my connecting flight to Spokane. No problem. Seriously, some people would hate this, but I looked at it as time to write. Hot to trot on Ciazarn, I found an unbelievable business room in the San Jose Airport - with desks and everything - and I put up shop, adding bullet points to my outline and trying to figure this story out. In this regard, I ended up researching everything from the Dustbowl of the 1930s and what States it affected most, to the evolution of the Railroads up until and including the landmark Santa Clara County v Southern Pacific Railroad Company court decision of 1886 where the U.S. Supreme Court first ruled a corporation has the rights of personhood. This is, by the way, one of the most detrimental moments in Earth's history, if you ask me, because it makes corporations the dominant species on the planet. But I digress. A lot of these events and ideas may not explicitly occur in Ciazarn, but all of them most definitely inform its world. I think I have bigger plans for this project than I first thought, which is cool.

**

Well, FINALLY. Can't wait for June 14th:


Being that this is not only Nicolas Winding Refn, but Ed Brubaker also worked on it - and John Hawkes - I am so in.

Playlist from 4/07:

Boards of Canada - Campfire Headphase
Boards of Canada - Geogaddi
Boards of Canada -
Black Queen - Infinite Games
Ben Frost - By the Throat
Belong - October Language
Barrie - Canyons (single)
Tricky - Maxinquaye

No card today. Running late walking to this week's gig.

2019: April 7th - Droneflower

Well, I did not expect to be posting this track today. I didn't expect to even think of one of my favorite Guns and Roses songs any time soon. And 'favorite G&R song' is a somewhat exclusive label, as the band long ago irritated me to the point that I have little ability left to engage with their music in any meaningful way. It's all nostalgia, with only brief glimpses of the feelings their music - especially the epics on the two Illusions records - used to inspire in me back when I was in high school and G&R was a force to be reckoned with. It's not that the material is lacking, because songs like Estranged, Coma, and yes, even November Rain still feel epic and genuine to me. But for a band I once thought would be the 'next Rolling Stones,' G&R couldn't keep it together and ended up traveling through this timeline as a not much more than a bad joke. Nadler's upcoming collaborative album with Stephen Brodsky, out April 26th on Sacred Bones, however, is not a joke:



I can't place where I know Marrisa Nadler's name from; it doesn't matter. Between her, Chelsea Wolfe, Emma Ruth Rundle, and Myrkur, there is an amazing cabal of female artists exploring the dark and beautiful intersection of folk and black metal. It's not about sound, it's about tone and aesthetic. And Brodsky's discography is loaded with impressive projects, so I think I'll pre-order this one, which can be done HERE.

**

The Horror Vision had a group outing last Thursday and caught the first pre-screening of Kevin Kölsch and Dennis Widmyer's new iteration of the classic Stephen King novel Pet Sematary. I'm sorry to say I hated it. With a passion. And I think I have some pretty good reasons for that hate. Did my Castmates agree with me? Check out our reaction on any of the following platforms below to find out, but only if you've seen the flick; we go heavy spoilers on this one:

The Horror Vision on Apple
The Horror Vision on Spotify
The Horror Vision on Google Play
The Horror Vision Official Website

**

I leave for Spokane in a few hours, and in preparing for this trip, my main goal over the last few days has been to finish the First Reader copy of the Shadow Play Book One, so I could pass it off to Missi and NOT THINK ABOUT IT for a few weeks. I'm happy to say I accomplished my goal, even though by the end of the work - last minute touch-ups to the prose and a ton of formatting tweaks that resulted from taking the finished document out of Scrivener and into Vellum, I was spent. I raced through three hours last night and came out the other side feeling as though I'd been immersed in hard physical labor. Now? On to Ciazarn!

Ciazarn: also known as carny, is a private language employed by those who live and work in Carnival culture, meant to keep anyone outside that culture from knowing what is being said.

This is the new collaboration with Jonathan Grimm, who I'm also doing The Legend of Parish Fenn with. Fenn is a comic. Ciazarn is a short story - or perhaps eventually a series of short stories - with illustrations by Grimm. At some point I'll post an elevator pitch and sample art and I think you'll agree with me that Ciazarn is going to be awesome.

**

Playlist 4/05:

Brand New - God and the Devil are Raging Inside Me
Canadian Rifle - Peaceful Death
Canadian Rifle - Deep Ends
King Khan and the Shrines - What Is?!
Windhand - Live Elsewhere
Windhand - Grief's Infernal Flower

Playlist 4/06:

Uncle Acid  & The Deadbeats - Wasteland
Lustmord - Songs of Gods and Demons
Faith No More - Angel Dust

Card of the day:

Breakthrough. Exactly. One immediately behind me, hopefully one directly in front of me.

2019: March 26th

Let's go back a few years. Circa 2014. Via Blood Disgusting, I found and fell in love with a podcast called Double Murder. A kind of 'celebrity death match' of horror movies, our hosts Danny and Tim take two horror movies and weigh them for ranking against one another. The criteria is learned and often sophisticated understanding and discussion of content and craft, so it makes for a fantastic listen if you're into Horror as an aesthetic as well as a good time.

Double Murder is a deceivingly intellectual discussion of horror (see their episode Videodrome vs. eXistenz); one of those deep dive shows where you really get to know your hosts in regard to how they approach something you probably also love if you're listening, i.e. horror movies. As with life, over the last few years episodes have dwindled as the hosts' lives have presumably done what all our lives do - run all the fuck over us, stealing our moments and bludgeoning our wills. That's a beating you have to actively work against, and brother, it ain't easy. I mean, some days it can be difficult enough to motivate yourself to do something you love, let alone line up two or more schedules to work on a project. Anyway, due to the dwindle, I'd fallen out of habit checking for new episodes. Then, last week I noticed there was one from last October, a fantastic juxtaposing of Halloween H20 and Halloween 2018. Yay!

Now, here's the thing. Danny! and Tim are from my home town, and that further endears these guys to me. I don't know them, but I'm double rooting for them, in whatever they do. So when Danny! asks Tim for news on his band, Canadian Rifle, I remember that yes! I can look these guys up on Apple Music, a service I didn't have whenever the last time they might have mentioned the band on the podcast and I was listening. I did just that, and was pretty much immediately blown away by Canadian Rifle's 2018 album Peaceful Death. I played this fucker for about a dozen rotations that first day, and it has remained in heavy rotation since. Canadian Rifle's bandcamp is HERE - I'm so ordering some vinyl to support these fellas - and there's a ton of tracks on youtube, Apple Music, wherever fine paperbacks are sold.

**

According to Comic List, it's another light week for NCDB. It can be depressing waiting for new issues of A Walk Through Hell and Gideon Falls. However, of note this week is Rick Remender and Matteo Scalera's Black Science begins its final arc with this week's issue #39. Consulting Image Comics, looks like this last arc will culminate in June with Issue #42. What a great book; looking forward to a deep-dive re-read as soon as Black Science is over.

I'm behind on Punks Not Dead. Issue One of the second arc, London Calling, is still sitting on my desk, waiting for me to re-read the final issue of the first arc before diving into this new one.

**

Playlist from 3/25:

Talking Heads - Remain in Light
PJ Harvey - Uh Huh Her
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - The Good Son
Nabihah Iqbal - Weighing of the Heart
Throwing Shade - House of Silk EP
Windhand - Eternal Return

Card of the day:

Another nod toward a new beginning, and a fulfilling one to boot. As I begin to make a list of ideas and scenes for Shadow Play Book Two: The Absence of Light (Tentative title), I'm about to begin actually writing my second collaboration with Jonathan Grimm, a Depression-era, dustbowl circus zombie story called Ciazarn. Not a comic, this is more a prose novella with pictures by Grimm, and judging by what I've already seen, it will be gorgeous.

2018: September 11th - Melvins Cover Sabbath

With Al Cisneros from Shrinebuilder/Sleep!

I talked a bit previously about my friend John being in town. This is John of Jonathan Grimm Art. His work is amazing, and he's also the artist and co-creator of The Legend of Parish Fen, the swamp monster comic we hope to have the first volume out of mid next year. We spent the day yesterday working out the entire 2nd issue and it is grand, much better than what we had when we originally beated out this 3 issue arc about a year ago. We also came up with something else, something that's not quite a comic and not quite prose, and should prove considerably easier to release in a more expedient fashion. More on that later, but for now I'll leave you with the title.

CIAZARN

There was no playlist yesterday, as we chose to work on Fen without music. Weird - a day with no music. I'll make up for it today.

Tonight - the Los Angeles premiere of Mandy! I can NOT wait! Here's the recently released Japanese trailer - I'm not watching it, but I'm on trailer ban.



Card of the day:

Always good to see you pop up, especially after a week off working on my current project. I'll be back to that tomorrow, until then, TO VICTORY!!!