I don't think I was even aware this Bowie doc was on the horizon.
Dollar Bin:
One of my prized possessions is a beat-up old copy of Marvel Age Annual #2. This pretty much monetarily worthless periodical celebrates the first 25 years of Marvel Comics, and as such, it looks back on many key moments from Marvel Comics, as well as offering little one and two-page spreads that tease upcoming storylines in Captain America and Uncanny X-Men, among other titles. Because I love this book so much as a document of an era in my life, I recently jumped on another Marvel Age when I found it in a Dollar Bin.
Okay, I didn't exactly find this one in a Dollar Bin, as while I did purchase Marvel Age #44 for $1.00, it was not from a physical shop's bin, but from an eBay seller. Still, cost-wise it counts, and it's timely (see last week's Dollar Bin).
Inside there is pre-release news on the then-upcoming, original eight New Universe titles, as well as articles hyping the Mutant Massacre, G.I.Joe vs. Transformers, and a Spider-Man vs. Wolverine 64-page one-shot special. Pretty cool to go back and read this stuff. Also, the layout and design of all the 1986 Marvel Comics, with their key-character border around the cover image, has always been something I love very much, probably as they lined the shelves at the time I really fell in love with reading comics.
Playlist:
Alustrium - A Monument to Silence
Yard Act - The Overload
Carpenter Brut - Leather Terror
Tones on Tail - Everything
Mastodon - Hushed and Grim
Card:
The personification of a lot of issues I've had on my mind after a week-end of consciousness-raising viewing.
It's been a couple decades since I've listened to Diary of a Madman. This one was omnipotent in my life for a few years back around the end of High School/beginning of College. Not sure if the entire album will hold up, but I know the title track does.
Cast:
The second episode of my new Southside 90s podcast went up today:
This is a project I'd wanted to do for so very long; all my life-long friends from High School and I gathering periodically to tell the tales that, well, when we tell them, people don't believe them. But they're all real. Seriously. This week's ep is largely focused on a house we hung out at first semester of Junior Year, a two-story in a rich subdivision where adults were almost never present, and when they were, they didn't stop us.
Watch:
Holy shite:
Have I mentioned how much more I like Amazon's version of The Boys than I do the comic? Nothing against Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson; this is totally a case of being able to improve a story with the hindsight that comes after a decade since its completion.
Dollar Bin:
You know what I find A LOT of in Dollar Bins? Issues from Marvel's failed late-80s New Universe line:
I'm not interested in all the books from that particular experiment, but anything pertaining to The Star Brand, The Pitt or the surrounding narrative that encompassed the four titles that survived after that first, failed year. These are pretty easy to come by these days, and that surprises me a little. I don't read Jason Aaron's Avengers book, but I know he's integrated The Star Brand into the modern 616 continuity over the last few years. I'm curious if anyone has updated Spitfire - basically the Iron Man of the New Universe, except with a woman in the armor (long before that was fashionable, to boot!), DP7 (mutants), or Justice, which I can't compare to a regular Marvel 616 book, as I don't think I ever read it or at least don't remember it.
These are total nostalgia bombs for me, but also, The New Universe's arrival dove-tailed with my blossoming interest in the non-G.I.Joe comics in general and Marvel Universe specifically, so there's something about it that is integral to my love of the medium.
And as I've said before, post-Pitt New Universe is dark AF.
Playlist:
The Mysterines - Reeling
The Bronx - The Bronx (II)
Blut Aus Nord - Hallucinogen
Intronaut - Habitual Levitations (Instilling Words with Tones)
The Atlas Moth - Coma Noir
The Ruby Friedman Orchestra - Gem
Card:
I'm pretty sure this either has to do with something I thought I was done with. Modern Life is Rubbish, indeed.
New Meg Myers! Her stuff is getting weirder, but she still delivers those pulse-pounding hooks.
Watch:
Oh shit, I forgot ALL about this:
No release date yet, but the announcement says "Soon."
Dollar Bin:
I don't know much about Micronauts, other than it was a toy property from just before my era - before the era where cartoons and I always came across stray figures and playsets at garage sales in the early 80s and wondered what they were (same with Shogun Warriors). Last year though, when Chris Saunders and I interviewed comic artist legend Kelley Jones, he mentioned he started at marvel on the Micronauts book.
I have developed a bit of a phantom nostalgia for toys and comics from just before my era, and finding these in the ol' dollar bin proved impossible to pass up. This falls in line with the weird, TSR, Hobby-Shop genre of SciFi and Horror that I feel existed as a kind of 'quiet zeitgeist' in the early 80s - a pop culture texture that has been mined and revitalized by Stranger Things perfectly. Anyway, I'm hoping to find more Micronauts, or maybe snag some on eBay. I'd like to read a solid run of a handful of consecutive issues, just to get a feel.
Also, they're written by Bill Mantlo, and I've really come to see him as a kind of underappreciated genius in that Hobby Shop Sci-Fi thing.
Playlist:
Ozzy Osbourne - Ordinary Man
Jerry Cantrell - Brighten
Mike Doughty - Live At Ken's House
Prince - Sign O' The Times
Testament - The New Order
Sparks - Hello Young Lovers
Mr. Bungle - The Night They Came Home
Run the Jewels - RTJ4
The Raveonettes - Raven in the Grave
Goatsnake - Black Age Blues
Card:
Once again, the ways of peace are strong in me, even in the midst of adversity.
Despite seeing a lot of praise for Ms. Olsen in my peripheral for years, she wasn't really on my radar until my cousin Charles professed his adoration for her 2019 album All Mirrors, which is fantastic. This new single feels like it hits a sweet spot between Patsy Cline and Sharon Van Etten, and I dig it. The new record, Big Time, is out June 3rd on Jagjaguwar, and you can pre-order it in whatever form you chose HERE.
Dollar Bin:
Well, how about this one, huh?
I still have a copy of one issue from the Temple of Doom adaptation Marvel did at the time of the film's release, but I don't even think I'd heard of this Further Adventures of... book before, although it's no surprise this existed based on how popular the Indiana Jones flicks were. I found five or six of these in the dollar bin last week, and although I haven't had a chance to actually read any of them yet, I've spent a few spare moments flipping through them, and they're great.
This particular mid-to-late 80s cover format for Marvel Comics is always going to be my favorite; I love the placement of the logos, the Marvel Comics Group banner along the top, and the character box in the upper left-hand corner. Just seeing these makes me feel happy.
Fleeting:
Blut Aus Nord recently repressed their first Memoria Vitusta album and it's available on their Bandcamp in a gorgeous "red with subtle yellow marble" that will undoubtedly be gone quickly, maybe before I finish typing this.
Playlist:
Rammstein - Zeit
Bloc Party - Alpha Games
Ozzy Osbourne - Ordinary Man
Ozzy Osbourne - The Ultimate Sin
Jim James - Eternally Even
Jerry Cantrell - Brighten
Card:
Oh yes. It will take me strength to get through this day.
Yeah, I guess Michael Graves is a proud boy or whatever now, but once upon a time his unfortunate nationalist tendencies hadn't floated to the surface yet and he took over as the first Misfits singer I gave a shit about since Danzig.
Wait, maybe he was the first after Danzig? I don't even remember anymore. Whatever. Either way, I had to post this track because of what you'll see in the next section of this post below. Regardless of his politics - which mind you, is mostly third-person related to me - I adore his two albums with the Misfits.
Read:
From the final page of Marvel Comics' new Spider-Punk mini-series. What an idea - a Misfits-inspired revamp of Taskmaster!
Dollar Bin:
If you've followed any of my comic/pop culture writings for long enough, you've heard me talk about my affinity for Marvel's 1986 failed New Universe line. I remember the ads building hype for this as if they were published yesterday:
I tried a few of the New Universe titles when they first dropped, but none of them moved the needle enough to make me spend my allowance on them monthly. Then, something amazing happened:
The Starbrand character accidentally nuked the city of Pittsburgh and the entire line of books changed, basically became a terrifying allegory for 80s Cold War Nuclear Panic. It was amazing!
After the one-shot graphic novel that changed the status quo of the line - aptly titled The Pitt - the 8 books in the NU turned into four, and things got dark AF. Shortly after came the four-part, Prestige Format series The War, which I believe ended the first iteration of Marvel's New Universe.
When these were coming out, I know I had books 1 and 2 of The War, but I don't remember having 3 and 4. I can't imagine why I wouldn't have bought them, but who knows. I'm pretty sure I don't still have now, although similarly I don't remember ever parting with them. Recently however, I found books 3 and 4 in the Dollar Bin at the Bug. Score! Now I just have to either find or re-buy the others and I can finally read the entire series.
Plastic:
Speaking of Marvel Comics - Jesus F*&king Christ do I want this:
Thanks to Mr. Brown for sending the advert for this my way. I'm not sure I'm ready to pony up $275 bucks for this, but... damn! If it had been anyone but Man-Thing, I wouldn't even be entertaining the idea. I'll always have a fascination with Slime/Swamp/Sewer characters (what does that say about me???).
The psychedelic variant of Marvel's Man-Thing drops tomorrow from Mondo.
Playlist:
Carpenter Brut - Leather Terror
Metallica - Ride the Lightning
Megadeth - Rust in Peace
QOTSA - Era Vulgaris
Svarte Greiner - Devolving Trust
Blut Aus Nord - That Cannot Be Dreamed
Mark Lanegan Band - Here Comes That Weird Chill
Helmet - Aftertaste
Zeal and Ardor - Eponymous
Reflections - The Color Clear
Ghost Bath - Moon Lover
Steve Moore - Bliss OST
Card:
I don't even have it in me to interpret this at the moment, but it looks like a pretty big warning about letting emotional pile-up affect carefully laid plans.
Sweden's Watain has a new album on the horizon and the new single features Farida Lemouchi from The Devil's Blood and Molasses on guest vocals for part of the song. "We Remain" strikes me as the kind of track you need to hear in the context of the entire album that surrounds it in order to fully appreciate it, but it's a spooky track, with elements of The Devil's Blood and even a hint of Type O in the keys near the end.
Always great to hear Farida's vocals. Also, really cool video, directed by Johan Bååth. You can pre-order the new album The Agony and Ecstasy of Watain from Nuclear Blast records HERE.
Dollar Bin:
After a rough couple days at work last week, I spent about a good half hour flipping through the dollar bins at my home away from home, Manhattan Beach's The Comic Bug. Here's one of the gems I walked away with:
Jim Starlin's Dreadstar, published by Marvel's Epic Comics - sort of their version of Vertigo before there was a Vertigo - was a book I saw on comic shop shelves back in the 80s when I first started going to Heroland Comics in Worth, Illinois (the location attached to the Post Office on the Southwest corner of 11th and Harlem), and All American comics in Orland Park, on the second floor of a long-gone strip mall somewhere around 151st and LaGrange. These were the first two shops I ever frequented, and I'd make my poor Mother wait in the car while I went in and looked around for probably over an hour somedays, soaking in all the books that intrigued me but I couldn't afford to spend my money on. Dreadstar registered as something I might be into but wasn't quite sure; I've always dug SciFi, but when I was younger I was quite discerning when it came to anything I thought might be second-tier compared to my (then) first love, Star Wars*. In the last few years, I've really begun to look at the various waves of SciFi that hit post-Lucas, seeing a lot of it as forming a sort of genre in and of itself. The smelting pool of comics, TSR role-playing games, arcade games and knock-off SciFi movies (Creature, I'm looking at you, albeit with something approximating love) have formed a kind of gestalt in my mind, a nostalgic feeling that there was something very special brewing with the more street-level, hobby/comic shop SciFi than I'd previously given credit. This gestalt has become something of an unachievable haunting; I try to think about it in defining, cohesive terms. I try to channel its atmosphere, tone and texture. I fail to do any of this with any degree of accuracy that allows me to completely possess it. So when I see a book like Dreadstar that I associate with being possibly instrumental to this nearly ineffable sub-genre I loosely refer to as simply Hobby Shop SciFi in my head, I grab it.
Thus, I picked up issues three and four of Dreadstar and sat just flipping through the pages, enraptured by what I'd found for a mere dollar. These books feel like a piece of history. SciFi history. 80s history. My history. And maybe that's what all this comes down to, a nostalgic tickle I can't scratch; a deeply entrenched tapestry of memories and memory triggers that move further away the more I try to reach them. Because, you know, you can't reach the past, you can only catch occasional glimpses from our limited, human perspective. And isn't that what an awful lot of SciFi tries to undermine and eclipse?
*Don't even get me started on how much condescension I reserve for pretty much every iteration of Star Trek.
Balance is definitely something I struggle with these days. It's not just the ever-present, background hum of anxiety and existential horror the world of 2022 elicits, it's my reliance on caffeine and heavy metal to get me through the day, which works, but is also difficult to come down from even 15 hours after I wake up. Sleep is a luxury that I do not get enough of, and my ongoing deficit has been wreaking havoc with my cognitive skills and motor functions. I spend so much time during the day re-revving my engine that it's hard to 'chill' later on. I would resort to smoking ludicrous amounts of dope, except I'm trying not to smoke based on my lung condition, and the tincture I have has unpredictable onset times and effects.
I'll admit - I was pretty disappointed to see this pop up in my youtube feed, click on it and find that it's NOT a cover of the David Bowie classic by the same name. That said, I don't take to very much of the music Opeth makes these days, but I dig this.
Dollar Bin:
Welcome back to the Dollar Bin, one of my favorite corners of any local comic shop to spend some time digging through. This week's find: 1985's Moonshadow!
Talk about a book that's been on my radar for decades - maybe as long as I've been seriously reading comics - yet one I haven't actually picked up until now. Originally published through Marvel's Epic comics - kind of their Vertigo a full eight years before Vertigo existed - Moonshadow's J.M. DeMatteis and Jon J. Muth's coming of age, modern fantasy. I remember leafing through this one when it was still on the stands, probably near the end of its 12-issue run, so circa 1986. I would have been ten. This and Stray Toasters were books that initially confused the hell out of me as a die-hard disciple of Larry Hama's G.I.Joe, however, those books also planted the seeds for me to eventually see the potential that lay in the comic format beyond superhero books. I recently scored issues 1-4 in the dollar bins at the Comic Bug, and am looking forward to reading them.
Watch:
I remember seeing the thumbnail for the first Wyrmwood movie on Netflix for years but never being motivated to watch it. I've had plenty of people whose opinions I trust recommend I do just that, but for whatever reason, I just haven't. Now there's a sequel on the way, and I'm still not certain how I feel about these flicks:
It's not that this looks bad, it just looks kind of repetitive. If anyone out there has seen these and vouch for them - because apparently like five of my good friends aren't enough - let me know.
Playlist:
Sugar - File Under: Easy Listening
Quicksand - Distant Populations
The Mysterines - Reeling
Ministry - Filth Pig
Blut Aus Nord - That Cannot Be Dreamed (pre-release)
Svarte Greiner - Devolving Trust
Drab Majesty - Modern Mirror
Lower Dens - Escape From Evil
Opeth - Deliverence
Code Orange - Underneath
Card:
Again with the damn Hierophant. What the hell am I missing? What am I so blindly adhering to that it's impairing me in some way?
What a weird coincidence this is. It's not all that often that I listen to Rammstein. They're definitely a band a dig, however, unless it's the two songs on the Lost Highway soundtrack, there's a pretty specific time and place for sure. Late last week I cracked out Rosenrot, and now look - new album Zeit out April 29th! Pre-order the album HERE.
Watch:
This past Saturday, before the return of my annual St. Paddy's celebration, I caught a mid-day showing of Ti West's new film X at the local AMC. I've posted the trailer here before, back when it first dropped, but here it is again:
X is fantastic. Don't read or listen to anything about it, other than me telling you right here to go see this one on the big screen. You won't regret it. In keeping with West's glorious style, this is a very loud quiet film. It's bloody and human and strangely sweet at times.
Dollar Bin:
Back for another Tuesday afternoon digging in the ol' dollar bin:
Despite my allegiance to Vertigo at the time of its release, I had never even looked through an issue of House of Secrets until two weeks ago when I found the first story arc from the 1995 reimagining of DC's House of Secrets. And yet, in spite of that, several of the covers in this arc loom in my comic book knowledge as extremely iconic images. Especially issue #2.
There's definitely an element to this series that makes me see Vertigo's mid-90s style storytelling as very brand specific, however, since nothing I know of looks or reads this way anymore, any problems I had with this first arc - this reinvention's arbitrary relocation of the titular House to Seattle, Washington in an obvious attempt to capitalize on the *ahem* grunge movement, the fact that every character in the book is in a band or fucking someone in a band, the then-current newsworthy societal plot points. Unfortunately, STDs and molestation have always been problems in our society, however, the ignorance and fear that limited allowed them to grow to epidemic proportions became a campaign slogan themselves, and a talking point for societal criticism. Not a bad thing, but also, the approach to a lot of the tv and literature that took a swing at incorporating such a hot button issue often feels trite and misguided. There's a bit of that here, or, I'm just out-of-phase with my residual 90s self.
Regardless of little gripes, this first arc was a good read and I was overjoyed to put all six issues into my short boxes for a mere $6.00.
Also, Teddy Kristiansen's art is most definitely iconic and hits the sweet spot created in my soul by similar artists such as Marc Hempel and Peter Gross. There's something so Grimm's Fairytales about this style, and as I intimated above, it's one we don't really see anywhere anymore (if you know of a place to find it, let me know!)
Playlist:
Chelsea Wolfe - Birth of Violence
The Pogues - If I Should Fall from Grace with God
The Pogues - Rum Sodomy & the Lash
U2 - The Joshua Tree
John Carpenter with Alan Howarth - Big Trouble in Little China OST
Judas Priest - You Got Another Thing Comin' (single)
Til Tuesday - Voices Carry (single)
Ghost - Impera
Card:
Past = XXI: The Universe
Present = I: The Magus
Future = 7 of Wands: Valour
Holding fast to a protocol - the word I'm using here in place of the more loaded 'belief' - I have established in a previous moment will put me in the position to successfully recreate something that has changed with time, never been completed, but remained a part of me.
New music from Drug Church. Mr. Brown recommended these guys to me a few weeks back but they quickly fell off my radar before I ever got the chance to listen to them. When I sat down earlier today to start this post, something just clicked.
There's a distinct 90s indie rock underpinning here - I hear a lot of Bob Mould, especially Sugar-era, only with a huge drum sound that really changes the dynamic of that comparison. Turns out, exactly as Mr. Brown had promised, the entire record is Fantastic; you can order it from Pure Noise Records HERE.
Watch:
The new episode of The Horror Vision Horror Podcast went up yesterday. We gathered this past Saturday to watch Mickey Keating's new movie Offseason, and in my book, it did not disappoint. You can hear our spoiler-free review if you click the little widget at the top right hand of this page, or on your favorite podcast streaming service.
Also, the IndieGoGo campaign for Friday the 13th Fan Film Never Hike Alone 2 is now live! While I'm not a very big fan of the actual Friday flicks, I quite like Vincent DiSanti's films and will definitely be throwing down on this one that brings the Thom Matthews back as Tommy Jarvis for an ultimate showdown with Mr. Voorhees.
Can't wait to get this one in my hands and then watch all three of DiSanti's F13 films in one sitting! Back the campaign HERE.
Dollar Bin:
Last Tuesday, I introduced a new weekly feature called Dollar Bin. This is a place where I can talk about all the cool, nostalgic, or just plain awesome items I find while flipping through the dollar bins in the comic shops I frequent. That said, while this week's featured score was indeed found in a dollar bin, it is most definitely not a comic.
I'd never heard of Nyctalops magazine until I brought this one home last week. Nyctalops was a literary Horror magazine dedicated to H.P. Lovecraft and his contemporaries published independently in the 70s and 80s. It featured reviews and editorial pieces of contemporary and historic Horror and Weird Fiction and often included short stories by contributors that included Ramsey Campbell, Robert Bloch, and Thomas Ligotti, and many, many more.
This issue is #18, published in 1983, and it features two essays on themes found in the works of Robert Aickman, as well as an essay by famed Lovecraft scholar S.T. Joshi, to name but a few of its treasures. Also, I found it particularly thrilling to note that in the forward to this issue, Editor Howard O. Morris excitedly mentions that the Magazine's printer, Silver Scarab Press, has plans to publish, "... tentatively, a collection of horror stories by Thomas Ligotti, Songs of a Dead Dreamer."
Today, Horror literature fans know ..Dead Dreamer to be one of Ligotti's most influential works, and I found it super cool to stumble across a reference to it before the polarizing author made his mark.
Playlist:
Ghost - Impera
The Devil's Blood - The Thousandfold Epicentre
Mark Lanegan - Bubblegum
Tones on Tail - Everything!
Ghost - Opus Eponymous
Danzig - Thrall- Demonsweat Live
The Twilight Singers - Powder Burns
Orville Peck - Bronco (Chapter 1)
David Bowie - A Reality Tour
Motörhead - Ace of Spades
Pike Vs. The Automaton - Eponymous
Mad Season - Above
Mutterlein - Orphans of the Black Sun
Jim Williams - Possessor OST
Young Widows - Settle Down City
Revocation - The Outer Ones
Code Orange - Underneath
Deafheaven - Sunbather
Card:
Past = 7 of Cups: Debauch - taken here to mean I'm poisoning
Present = 5 of Wands: Strife
Future = 0: The Fool
I'm not entirely certain how to read this one. I'm tempted to interpret the 7 of Cups as an inverted victory; a good thing that goes too long and turns sour, but I'm not entirely sure how that... wait. Maybe. I'll have to report back on this one. Sometimes it's best to follow flashes of inspiration without thinking about them too much.
I've been in the mood for some of the older albums by long-time favorite The Ocean, aka The Ocean Collective. This would be my favorite track from Precambrian, released on Metal Blade way back in 2007.
I love almost every album by these guys, and chief songwriter Robin Staps is a genius for my money, but there's something about the sheer assault of Precambrian and its precursor Aeolian, that the band has yet to capture again (not that I'm saying they need to).
Watch:
The long-unavailable in the States second film by Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo, Livid, hit Shudder last week and I was able to eek in a viewing over the weekend.
Wow. This one did not disappoint. Livid is, like Inside before it, further proof that Bustillo and Maury are just as interested in making beautiful movies as they are Horror movies. Comparisons to Argento are on the money and yet also a bit misleading, and while the dance academy from Suspiria is mentioned in Livid and thus, ties the film directly to Argento's "Three Witches" world, there are no continuity, character or place/plot overlaps. This means whatever tie was intended is more homage than actual DNA for Livid. But there is a definite tone here that feels at the very least inspired by, if not directly related to, Suspiria. The color pallette is quite different - Livid prefers grey to bold primary colours - however, there is a softness to the visual life of the film that smooths the horrific edges and helps make it feel like a fairytale, much like Argento's technique. Part of this may indeed be that both films deal with the world of Dance, and this makes them feel 'old world' and steeped in tradition, which is often the very element of the world fairytales seek to unmoor.
There's also the element of what I call "Doll Discovery." Dolls play a big part in the visual fabric of the film, from a strange, anthropomorphic children's tea party to a penchant for extreme taxidermy. This also helps the viewer feel what the characters feel - namely that they've accidentally stepped into some "other" place, where time does not necessarily behave the way it does for most of us.
I adore this film, and pretty much immediately set out to order it on Bluray. Now I really need to go back and give the filmmakers' other movies a spin, as I didn't connect with Among the Living upon first viewing, and I still haven't watched Deep House.
Dollar Bin:
New feature. Every Tuesday, I'm going to post a comic I found in a dollar bin. What with hardcovers, omnibuses, trade paperback collections and even digital, old floppies just don't have the draw they used to. The Comic Bug is known for buying large collections and then placing the bulk of the stuff out as Dollar Bins, and I've had a lot of good times going through them, finding stuff that would be garbage to many. So here's where I highlight some of my finds.
I don't really know much about ROM Spaceknight except it was a toy I never had as a kid, and there was a Marvel Comic I never read. Later in life though, ROM began to pop up in weird places to remind me he existed, and once in a while over the last decade or so, I find a single issue in a dollar bin and pick it up. ROM is a book that has come to represent a certain era of comics and SciFi to me, and because of that, it's always fun to read.
Playlist:
The Ocean - Precambrian
The Dillinger Escape Plan - Ire Works
Mr. Bungle - The Night They Came Home
The Devil's Blood - The Thousandfold Epicentre
Ennio Morricone - Il Grande Silenzio OST
Card:
I wanted to do a three-card spread today, primarily because I haven't done much other than pull one daily card for quite some time. What I got feels very on the money, true to recent form.
Past = 4 of Swords: Truce. Focus and concentration undercut by a certain restless energy. I love this card. The "restless" aspect is not always one of the most clear-cut elements of this card. In fact, I would normally ignore it based on how the other images - all balanced and proportional, right down to the swords that meet perfectly in the middle of a beautifully centered cross and the 49 petaled flower in its own heart. But mixed with the next two cards, that hectic background cannot be ignored.
Present = Knight of Wands. This card is pretty simple. Energy and Passion.
Future = Prince of Disks. More focused energy, but proportionate. Those concentric circles in the background tell of using the second card's Will to help corral the energy of the first card into a culminating experience.
