Showing posts with label House of Slaughter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label House of Slaughter. Show all posts

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. 

Tuesday, January 3, 2023

Xiu Xiu Cover Blue Frank

 I'm really falling hard into my first rewatch of the original Twin Peaks since before The Return aired, and as usual, it feels good to have everything Peaks seep out of the screen and into every aspect of my life. First and foremost is always the music, which tends to never stray far from my mind. This time, Angelo Badalamenti's passing really hit home, and I'm getting even deeper into the sonic space of the show than usual. This, of course, sent me digging. 

I vaguely remember Xiu Xiu touring and then releasing their music of Twin Peaks project, but I'm not sure I'd heard any of it before. Full disclosure: I've never really gotten into this band. That said, I came across this recently and thought it was pretty cool.




Watch:

I finally sat down and watched Noah Baumbach's adaptation of Don Delillo's White Noise the other night. Turns out? It's my favorite non-genre film of 2022!


All the performances are fantastic, especially Adam Driver. Man, when I first saw this guy as Emo-Vadar, I never would have suspected what a great actor he has become. But between this and Jarmusch's Patterson from a few years ago, Driver just blows me away.

As far as adapting, it's been about a decade since I read White Noise, but a lot of it has stayed in my mind through the intervening years. Overall I loved it, especially how the cast delivers such obvious literary dialogue, which in lesser hands could have been obsequious and irritating. Robert Pattinson does a similar but not-quite-as-affective job with his Delillo dialogue in David Cronenberg's adaptation of Cosmopolis, and while that performance was instrumental in my accepting Patterson - at the time widely known as the 'sparkling vampire' -  as a serious actor, it left the cinematic version of that book something I have yet to revisit. 

I will revisit Baumbach's film often, and soon.




Read:

After succumbing to the Something is Killing the Children wave - worth it! - I've now caught up on the sister title, House of Slaughter.

Ostensibly an anthology series, the first five issues cover Erica Slaughter-adjacent Black Mask Aaron's past, while the subsequent six issues delve into one of the Scarlet masks, the young and precocious Edwin and his trials while afloat on a lake that he comes to suspect may house a Dragon.

This book is weird. I enjoyed the arc laid out in 1-5, but I'm going to have to reread 6-10. This story didn't come together for me. Whatever I was supposed to glean out of Edwin's insights and memories just didn't unravel into a satisfying conclusion, and I was left wondering if I'd missed something. Still, I enjoyed all ten so far, as well as last week's Book of Slaughter, which is kind of a clever way to get a lot of info text to us, cementing into factual lore a lot of what we've already pieced together about the politics of The Order of St. George. The new arc starts this month, and I'm looking forward to it despite any hangups I had on this most recent story.




Playlist:

Lustmord - Dark Matter
LCD Soundsystem - New Body Rhumba (single)
LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver
Talking Heads - More Songs About Buildings and Food
Black Sabbath - Vol. 4




Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.


Emotional stability disrupted by a seemingly unending conflict will work itself out if I extend a hand. Hmm.