Agnes Obel - Chord Left

Man, I love this track. Agnes Obel's 2013 album Aventine has become a recent favorite, and this is one of the best "intro" tracks on an album I've heard in a while. Her playing here very much reminds me of Michael Andrews's score for Richard Kelly's Donnie Darko, which I'm sure has a lot to do in winning my favor. But Ms. Obel's voice nestles perfectly inside her piano, and the whole thing just kind of sounds like the last of the evening light leaving the room, shooed off by shadows. 

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NCBD:

Here are my picks for this week's NCBD.

The previous four-issue Volume of the revamped Creepshow comic felt - a lot like the Shudder show they brought back a few years ago - pretty uneven. That said, with Garth Ennis and Becky Cloonan involved in this first issue, there's no way I'm passing it up.

I've just embraced that I'll be hanging out with Johnny Blaze for the foreseeable future. If nothing else, the covers continue to blow me away. Björn Barends continues to turn in what are probably the greatest modern Marvel covers. I've liked a lot about this book of late, with only a few misgivings. However, I'm not super stoked about Talia Warroad. She feels a bit much like the people who designed her did so from a half-informed idea of what a 'hot goth chick' would look like. 

This That Texas Blood tie-in/prequel/whatever slipped right by me last month, and it's been a bit of a hard road trying to seek it out after the fact. If nothing else, I've got my friend Mike in Chicago holding this one for me, as my shop in Clarksville doesn't seem to have access to it (my fault that I didn't realize it was imminent early enough to have them add it to my Pull). Anyway, wherever Messrs Condon & Phillips take this crazy world their creating, I will follow.

Finally - The Fisher King! Dying to know more about this guy. I have a sneaking suspicion that a certain red helmet and cape-wearing former villain may end up having something to do with him, but who knows.

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Watch:

Mike Flanagan's final series for Netflix is out on October 12th. An Adaptation of Edgar Allen Poe's The Fall of the House of Usher. Here's the trailer (which I haven't watched):

I've been pretty adamant with myself that I won't be signing up for netflix until two things happen. For one, I'm streaming no new content (new movies on Shudder not counted) until the WGA/SAG-AFTRA strike is over because I 100% think we need to side with the creators. netflix gets a double Fuck You for just being all-around cunts of late. Beyond that, I'm hesitant to re-engage with the streamer because, honestly, there's only a handful of their proprietary shows/movies that I actually like (anything non-proprietary, I can rent). Unfortunately, that handful consists of a handful of titles I LOVE: Brand New Cherry Flavor, Copenhagen Cowboy, and Stranger Things spring to mind, for most of which there will probably never be a physical release. That said, I'd previously figured I would wait until Stranger Things returns for its final season to re-up my subscription. 

But I forgot about Flanagan's House of Usher.

I love Mike Flanagan's work he did for this company. I don't know that I feel like I have to hold onto a subscription to rewatch any of that work. However, I really want to see his Poe adaptation. I'd be willing to bet the strike lasts beyond October 12th, so while I'm still not considering patronizing them (or any other streamers for that matter) again until after that eventual resolution, I may eat my words and re-up before Stranger Things.

We'll see. 

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Playlist:

Skinny Puppy - Last Rights

Agnes Obel - Aventine

QOTSA - In Times New Roman

Bluekarma - The Communication

Goat Snake - Black Age Blues

Low Cut Connie - Tough Cookies: The Best of the Quarantine Broadcasts

Electric Youth & Pilot Priest - Come True OST

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Oracle:

From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.  Just a reminder that Grimm's new Tarot Deck, The Hand of Doom Tarot, is both gorgeous and live on Kickstarter right now. Here's the LINK.

Different feel to the picture because I typically spend my evenings bathed in Crimson light. For whatever reason...

• VI: The Lovers

• Seven of Pentacles

• IX: The Hierophany

Collaboration leads to an isolated success. Not sure what this one's trying to say. I have a collaborative project in the wings that's stagnant, so maybe it's a nod to go ahead and reach out on that today. Otherwise, if I squint, I can also interpret it as pertaining to the climax of the new novel, which looks like it will involve more than just the "Final Girl" on her own. I was unsure of doing that, but going it alone wasn't working for me, and this seems to suggest following a different path with it. 

Gift of Screws

Heaps of praise to Mr. Brown for introducing me to Lindsey Buckingham's 2008 solo album Gift of Screws, an album I am fairly certain would never have wound up on my radar without the guidance from my friend. This is one for the ages - as Brown stated in a text recently, the whole thing really highlights his guitar playing, an aspect that often gets pushed to the background in Fleetwood Mac. Opener Great Day has some truly fantastic finger-picking, and most of the tracks - especially "Did You Miss Me" above - would have made stand out singles for the radio, if there was an outlet in the major markets for guys like Buckingham, who are more often than not relegated to the 'was in a classic rock band' category. Reminds me a bit of the first time I heard John Paul Jones' record Zooma. 

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Watch:

I haven't watched Richard Kelley's The Box since it was in theatres in 2009. After that viewing, I left scratching my head even harder than I did after my first viewing of his Southland Tales. Do I like either of those movies as much as I do Donnie Darko? Not at all - in fact, I don't even know if I can say I actually like either. Well, Southland grew on me, and despite the fact that it's a fractured mess, I like enough of it to say, "Yes." The Box though... after this second viewing I'm less convinced I like it than if I had just left things at the one viewing eleven years ago. That said, it's a conversation piece for sure, and pretty damned engaging, so this isn't a dis, just a renewal of the hesitancy I reserve for everything Kelley did after DD.

 

The actual viewing of this film leaves me a bit baffled and I think it's because in some way I do not possess the technical vocabulary to describe, Kelley filmed this to look like a tv show from the 50s and seeing it packaged with the expectations of a big-budget (well, not that big) Hollywood movie creates a kind of cognitive dissonance that makes it hard for me to reconcile. Also, there's an element of the film that involves people becoming transmitters for alien intelligence, and I think Kelley brilliantly worked this into the fabric of the film itself, into performances, camera angles, and dialogue, so that many scenes are just jarring enough to create a disconnect with the viewer. I don't know. I'm not getting rid of my DVD copy of The Box or anything, but it may be another eleven years before I watch it again.

 

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Playlist:

Perturbator - Lustful Sacraments

Run the Jewels - RTJ4

El P - I'll Sleep When You're Dead

QOTSA - Rated R

Lindsey Buckingham - Gift of Screws

Lard - Pure Chewing Satisfaction

Lustmord - Heresy 

Slayer - Show No Mercy

Small Black - Cheap Dreams

 

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Card:

 

New ideas can free you from yourself. This is something I'm always glad to be reminded of because another side of the Devil is obsession or narrowing of vision, which is essentially anathema of a writer.