2018: January 24th 8:43 AM

Not looking forward to traversing the 405 this morning. Waiting for the traffic to subside after taking a late start at work because the MAINT REQD light came on yesterday on the way home. Everything's good though; my Mechanic was able to get me for a 7:30 and true to his word - he always is - I was in and out in half an hour. So I was able to sleep a bit late and then pass the first part of the morning sitting in his shop talking politics with him and another local I met, a retired LA Firefighter. Good guys. Not seduced by the lack of common sense that blinds both sides of the political arena to what I like to call good ol' common sense. I wish I knew how to start a political party, because the more people I talk to lately, the more my idea for a Common Sense Party seems like something that would appeal to all the people who don't simply treat their politics like a sporting event. Fuck you side - it's about pragmatism and common sense. Also, let me say if you do not have a local, independent mechanic, you are missing out. Find one in your area and go to them for your oil changes and maintenance - it's a great way to support local business and I've yet to meet one I didn't like. Well, that's not exactly true, but you can usually sniff out a bad one right away. Most are great people who will give you the proverbial seat cover off their back. Or something like that.

Starting my musical day with Preoccupations again:



The playlist for yesterday looks something like this:

Viet Cong - Eponymous
Preoccupations - Eponymous
(Those two probably at least four times each)
David Bowie - Black Tie, White Noise
The Jesus Lizard - Liar
Zombi - Shape Shift
Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross - The Girl w/ The Dragon Tattoo OST
Chasms - On The Legs of Love Purified
Disasterpeace - It Follows OST

That was my first time listening to the It Follows OST; I put the album on repeat as I fell asleep and it woke me up in the middle of the night with some sudden horrific sound that I think burrowed back into my brain and left me with a strange feeling and a constant, on-the-hour wakefulness. Good stuff.
As I intimated yesterday, I've always wanted to journal the daily totality of what I consume music-wise; I've always harbored suspicions seeing the trends and constants, after enough time, would give me some overarching insight into my daily 'self'. Also  as I said previously I have no idea how sustainable an idea this journaling will be. But for now, I'm enjoying the process.

Finished Reinhard Kleist's Nick Cave: Mercy on Me and dove into Han Kang's The Vegetarian. ~50 pages in and I am unsettled and beyond curious to know where the hell this is going. Thanks to Tori for lending me this and another novel I probably would not have heard of otherwise, The Book of Joan, which I'm also looking forward to reading before too long. Really interested in diversifying my reading habits this year and this is a good start. Not that there won't be that new Laird Barron in May (Can't wait!), as well as a whole host of the usual, creepy ass books I love so much. Next however, I think I'll finally dive back into Nick Cave's And the Ass Saw the Angel, which I started back about eleven years ago and regretfully never finished. Kleist's journey into, ahem, "Caveland" really reignited something.

2018: January 23rd 5:56 PM

Walked up to do my words today. About a nice mile hike uphill. Trying to regain some of what I lost with my health issues last year.

I finished Patrick Kindlon and Maria Lovet's There's Nothing There last night. Really cool book. The part that sealed the deal for me was when Oscar Zeta Acosta showed up. I mean - holy shite! He appears as something of a spirit, although maybe not exactly, and he drops the names of the other spirits that had previously appeared to the main character, Reno. Oscar's presence spurred me to do some research and sure enough, all of Reno's visitors were real people from history who disappeared.

Awesome!

Kindlon's afterwards are worth the read alone - they're all fantastic snapshots of the comic industry from someone immersed in it, and in the back of the final issue he teases that there's more to tell, that maybe he and Maria will get back to it some day.

Please do.



Fell head over heels in love with Viet Cong and their current incarnation as Preoccupations. I remember when all of the hullabaloo with their name was going on two or so years ago, but I never read up on it. Also never had the chance to check out the band, despite the fact that over on Heaven is an Incubator Tommy swore/swears by them up and down. Another great thing about Apple Music - everything I think of is at the touch of a button. These are good enough to own on tactile though, so I'm sure I'll grab the vinyls eventually. As I keep saying, Apple Music is great, but so is giving the artists your hard earned money for their art - not just the royalties they get from streaming services.

I'll be switching gears from the standard Deafheaven for those daily words today:

2018: January 22nd - 5:46 PM

Almost 12 hours since this morning's post. I just arrived at my writing spot, acquired more caffeine and am about to dig into the pure bliss of continuing work on a dream project, a kind of "what could be" for an iconic horror franchise that will probably never see the light of day. Or who knows? Between my writing partner and myself we have a few connections and an inimitable gift of salesmanship in certain situations.

As usual, digging into my favorite (and most played) writing music of all time:



Have an excellent night. I know I will.

2018: January 22nd

6:30 AM - I've already been awake for 2 hours. Going to be a long day, between work at the biorepository, the commute home (which hopefully won't be that bad but, well, I won't hold my breath) and my scheduled daily words for this evening, I'll be running on caffeine and sheer force O' Will for the next... 13 or 14 hours. And then I'll do it all again tomorrow, probably with less sleep under my belt. That's okay, Wednesday is nap day (I swear to the Sleep Bank theory, something I'll either link to or define myself sometime soon) and Thursday night is Converge at the Regent. Going to be insane. I've been looking for a band to fill the hole left by Dillinger Escape Plan's retirement, hopefully this will do the trick. I will NOT be hitting the action in the Pit however, as my torn hamstring at December 14th's Jesus Lizard show (The Fonda) has convinced me that, just like K warns me when I step up to the plate to do stupid things, I'm 41 and well past the age I can surf over a throbbing crowd on other people's fingertips and kindness.

Well, at least until I properly heal...

K and I watched The Killing of a Sacred Deer last night. Jesus H. Christ, where to begin? I'll save it for another time. I loved it though, and it will definitely make my "Shawn's Favorite Films: 2017 list, which I'm delaying publishing on Joup until the day of the oscars, just to allow myself time to see everything. Hey, if the awards that almost always get it wrong can have until February to see everything, so can I.

Began the day with some Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - From Her to Eternity.


Finishing up Reinhard Kleist's brilliant Graphic Novel Nick Cave: Mercy on Me

Also jogging through a re-read of Patrick Kindlon and Maria Llovet's There's Nothing There - issue 5, the final issue, came out recently and it'd been a few months since I'd read the previous ones, so I thought I'd go back to the beginning and read through until the end. Reno is a strange character; because of her vapid, media whore lifestyle I should hate her. I don't. I want to see her come out of this journey with something new to her, a better outlook. That said, I'll be just as interested in the final issue of the story if she doesn't evolve but receives some kind of comeuppance instead.