Happy Halloween!

Yes, happy, happy Halloween! In honor of the day, this time of year, and my emotional attachment to all things Autumn, I have had to create and sustain what I think of as, "A perpetual inner Autumn" for years now because, well, there's no bloody seasons in LaLa Land. The Quarantine Junkie moniker worked during those months of intense isolation and introspection, however, while I'm still mostly avoiding social contact, I really can't consider myself fully quarantined after three drive-in movies with Ray from The Horror Vision, a visit to Anthony - also from THV - to see his new son, and an increasing desire to reengage with people. While I won't be acting on 99% of those urges - no beer patios yet I'm afraid, even though I'm dying for a proper pint - I certainly don't feel Quarantine Junkie fits any longer. Instead, I decided to rename this site after my aforementioned favorite day of the year, which also happens to be a favorite song of mine by a favorite band. So there you have it - Happy Halloween!

 

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31 Days of Halloween:

I may not be able to get around to it today, but Jonathan Grimm just pointed out that Australian film The Boys in Trees is available on youtube in its entirety for free. Now, I would normally never advocate sidestepping paying for a movie, especially one as independent as this, however, this one disappeared off Netflix a few years ago and while there are NO other release that I'm aware of, you can rent it on youtube  HERE. 

This movie is so amazing, a seminal Halloween classic in my book, it deserves our full support.

1) Tales of Halloween: Sweet Tooth/The Wolf Man (1941)

2) From Beyond/Monsterland: "Port Fourchon, Louisiana"/Tales of Halloween: "The Night Billy Raised Hell" & "Trick"

3) Mulholland Drive/Creepshow (1982): "The Crate"

4) Waxwork

5) Synchronic/Bad Hair

6) Dolls

7) Lovecraft Country Ep. 8/Tales of Halloween: "The Weak and the Wicked" & "The Grim Grinning Ghost"

8) 976-Evil

9) Repo! The Genetic Opera

10) Firestarter/George A. Romero's Bruiser

11) The Haunting of Bly Manor episodes 1 & 2/Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2

12) The Haunting of Bly Manor episodes 3, 4, and 5/House of 1000 Corpses

13) Masque of the Red Death/Creepshow (2019) Episode 7/Creepshow (1982)

14) The Haunting of Bly Manor episodes 6 and 7

15) The Haunting of Bly Manor episodes 8 and 9/Roseanne (88) season 2 and 3 Halloween Episodes

16) The Mortuary Collection/Roseanne (88) season 4 Halloween Episode

17) Ginger Snaps Back: The Beginning

18) Lovecraft Country episode 9/The Haunting/Roseanne (88) season 5 Halloween Episode

19) Lovecraft Country episode 10/Tales From the Crypt season 1 ep. 5 "Lover Come Hack to Me"

20) George A. Romero's Season of the Witch

21) The Omen

22) Texas Chainsaw Massacre: A Family Portrait/Masters of Horror: "Sick Girl" (Lucky McKee)

23) Joe Bob's Halloween Hideaway: Haunt/Hack-O-Lantern

24) Eight Legged Freaks/What We Do in the Shadows season 1 episode 1/Night of the Demons

25) 10/31 - "The Old Hag"/Absentia

26) Prince of Darkness/Tales of Halloween (remainder)

27) Joe Bob's Haunted Drive-In - Nine short films

28) Halloween III: Season of the Witch

29) Lords of Salem/The Connors 2020 Halloween episode

30) Mike Mendez's The Convent/The Wizard of Gore (2007)

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Playlist:

Emma Ruth Rundle and Thou - May Our Chambers Be Full 

Sir Neville Marriner & Academy of St Martin in the Fields- Amadeus: Requiem, K 626 Rex Tremendae Majestatis

Skinny Puppy - Rabies

Dance With The Dead - Loved to Death

Dance With The Dead - B-Sides: Vol. 1

Concrete Blond - Bloodletting

Concrete Blond - Eponymous

Fantômas - The Director's Cut

Fantômas - Delirium Cordia

Mr. Bungle - California

The Final Cut - Consumed

Goblin - 2013 Tour EP

Mr. Bungle - Raging Wraith of the Easter Bunny

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Card:

The fiery aspect of water, or Emotion tempered by Will. Time to shake off the slump and get back into it. October is always a difficult month for me to concentrate in, so after today, it's back to work.

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Epilogue

Finally, let me leave you with my standard, 'must play on Halloween track,' Type O Negative's Black No. 1, a perfect song and my favorite for the season:

New Music From Bohren and Der Club of Gore

It's been five years since we had new music from Bohren and Der Club of Gore. Five long years. And while I'm still largely hung up on Sunset Mission, I can't wait for this one. My life needs to feel more like a David Lynch movie, and, well, I can't think of any better way to accomplish that. Other than introducing myself to my neighbor whose husband is missing an ear, but I'm pretty sure this is the better route.

**

It's been a minute since I logged any X-Files episodes, but over the last few days I've been sick and had some time to slip back into that world. First, I have to say, although I was never a huge fan of this show during its original airing - I briefly became interested in the 'Mythology' episodes and made a few half-assed attempts to keep up with those - I am very much enjoying diving into The X-Files now. A large part of that isn't just the quality of the show, which, while still very much "TV," feels very nostalgic for me. This is indirectly the case with Twin Peaks as well; any TV from this early 90s era that I can connect with - which is rare - brings with it a sense memory of that time in my life. The feel of the house I grew up in, the elastic quality of nighttime spent in our living room, the large picture windows pulling the night inside, the many large trees that surrounded our small home always on guard just outside. The suburb I grew up in is essentially a township carved out of a forest preserve, and my memories of growing up there definitely play into watching this show the same way it does the original Peaks; the screen tends to blend with the environment, or in my current, mostly treeless home in LaLa Land, it blends with the memory of those trees and how they were a daily part of my life.

But I digress. It's time once again for...

Season Two, Episode Twenty, "Humbug" - Freakshow! While these days, the whole freak show setting feels overdone to me - I've continued to avoid the titular AHS season due to that feeling - this is another episode with Twin Peaks alumni, and a definite ploy to the at-the-time interest in all things "alternative." Not a bad thing; it works here, and even though Jim Rose and crew feel a little shoe-horned in (remember they opened Lollapalooza for a while in this era), the always marvelous Vincent Schiavelli evens everything out. This guy is such a great character actor, and his distinct visage and more than worthy chops are something I grew up with seeing in a lot of disparate places, from Night Court to Buckaroo Bonzai, so that he owns a little piece of my heart, for all time.

Season Three, Episode Four, "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose" - A great little episode co-starring Peter Boyle as a reluctant, socially confused psychic; an old man who has lived with a bizarre gift he doesn't want, and what happens when that brings him into a murder investigation. In his notes on this episode, Brown pitched it as, "Creepy," and he was not wrong. I really dug this one.

Season Three, Episode Twenty, "Jose Chung's From Outerspace" - An episode I had seen at least once before, and one that made a mark on me back in the day due to its strangely comedic tone. Really out there at times, to the point it seems to threaten the integrity of the mythology the show is building. But then it doesn't, and everything ends up working perfectly within the confines of what the show has already set up.

Also, Charles Nelson Reilly. 'Nuff said.

**
Playlist:

Zombi - Shape Shift
Lovecraft and Sabrina Spellman - Straight to Hell
INXS - Kick

Card:

Of particular interest to me here, today, is the image of the Crab, which here symbolizes the aggressive and/or healing attributes of Water, or Emotion. This plays directly into something I wrote into the outline for Book Three yesterday, and I think I'll read this as suggesting an attempt to work in a bit of symbolism in an otherwise literal scene.

2019: March 12th

In Search of Darkness is the self-appointed, "Definitive 80s Horror Documentary." We've been knee-deep in horror docs at the moment, with both Horror Noire and Eli Roth's History of Horror landing on Shudder within a few weeks of one another, but who cares? I love watching these, hearing insider's interpretations, and building a scope for the tempest I grew up inside the eye of in the 80s. This is everything to pop culture at the moment, or at least the alleys of that culture that I traverse. Stranger Things is based on 80s Horror, Ash, Jack Burton, and Lucio Fulci all have current comic books on the shelves. John Carpenter makes records. Child Play's getting a TV show, and boutique Blu Ray imprints like Arrow, Vinegar Syndrome and Scream Factory and specialty streaming services like Shudder and Prime are making it possible for people to see movies they'd only ever heard of since those films disappeared off first-stage VHS rental shelves, never making the jump to disc. So why the hell would I not want someone to draw an outline around this behemoth?

The final Indiegogo is up now and ends on March 31st, link HERE.

Man, I walked into a book store the other day and hadn't realized Irvine Welsh released the 'Grand Finale of Transporting."

I felt so removed; I used to buy Welsh's books the day they dropped. But he's one of those authors I love SO much, his writing tends to steer my own, and I haven't had much space for that since starting to seriously work on Shadow Play, back in 2012 now. Of course, I've had a few long interstitial projects that have prolonged that, but really, this has been where I've learned to write genre, and there just wasn't room for a more literary pull in my voice. That's changing soon; I vowed to read at least one of the Welsh books I've missed this year, and now that there's a new chapter in the Trainspotters' lives, well, I guess I'll start there.

Wait, no. I believe I have to start with 2016's The Blade Arist, because I'm fairly certain this is what happens when Franco goes to America, which both amuses and terrifies me. Imagine Begby as your new neighbor. Nightmare fuel, that.

Playlist from 3/11:

John Cale - Black Acetate
Placebo - Meds
PJ Harvey - To Bring You My Love
Don Shirley - Don Shirley Trio
Erase Errata - Other Animals
Waxwork Records - House of Waxwork Issue #1 OST
Wink Lombardi and the Constellations - 10 Songs
Earth - Phase 3 - Thrones and Dominions
Chelsea Wolfe - Pain Is Beauty
Exhalants - Eponymous

Card of the day:

More Cups. Emotion and sensitivity as directed or acted upon by Fire. This is good. This will get me through the lag I've experienced in finishing the book, where daily life seems to be conspiring against my productivity. I'm saying it now: My birthday is on the 24th of this month. The reading of it will be done by then, which means a few days to listen to it, a few more to make changes based on that listening, and then it's done.

2019: Tuesday, March 5th

I've posted about LA's Cold Showers here before, but I don't think I ever really gave the band the due they deserve, because as much as I dug their dark, Post Punk sound, I never fully fell into them until yesterday. 2015's Matter of Choice spun around and around on my iTunes yesterday while I plugged along at work, and I became more and more entranced by it with every turn. It's one of those albums where I have trouble taking one song out of the larger context of the full cycle. Which of course makes me like it even more, because I've always held albums in higher regard than songs.



With 2015 being four years ago now, I began to fret that just as I fell in love with Cold Showers, they might have winked out of existence. Not the case. On their facebook page I learned that the band has an album coming out on the always awesome Dais Records this year. Why so long between records? Well, back in July, guitarist, engineer, and founding member Chris King was in an auto accident with an uninsured motorist and has had a slow recovery due to medical costs. The band set up a GoFundMe page, and I'll link to it here; I'm going to throw something down come payday, and if you can, I'd ask you to consider doing the same.

Chris King GoFundMe

The uninsured motorist is a legitimately terrifying boogeyman here in LaLaLand; I walk A LOT and I can't tell you how many times I've almost been hit by people rolling through or just straight-up blowing stop signs (if I was a serial killer, I would kill people who blow stop signs. No BS, that'd be my MO). I used to be pretty bold about this; you know, someone shows no signs of stopping and I just keep walking, figuring, "Fuck 'em, they hit me, they better kill me or I'll ruin their life."

What a bunch of shit.

My attitude changed when formerly great weekly paper LA Weekly ran an article about what they called the "epidemic" of uninsured motorists who land people in the hospital with no insurance to offset their recovery costs. That, and K's pleading for me to exhibit a little common sense have turned my formerly fourteen-year-old's attitude around. Still, this shit happens, and just so no one thinks my 'uninsured motorist' is some kind of an invisible barb about illegal aliens, IT'S NOT. There's just as many douche bags born in the US as not who are riding around without the proper insurance.

***

Sunday night into Monday I didn't sleep very well, so with Cold Showers on my headphones I bulldozed through my work yesterday by 12:30 PM and cashed in some PTO. Went home and watched the following three films, all of which I enjoyed:



An exclusive on Shudder at the moment, Noroi: The Curse was recommended to me by a co-worker. Previously I'd attempted to get into this one and failed; you have to adjust to a certain pacing, as well as a bit of over-acting at times (Mr. Hori does crazy a little too over the top in certain sequences), but this one is unlike any other film I've seen, and stands as a pretty important cultural artifact as far as Japanese Horror is concerned.



I've been meaning to watch Jodorowsky's 'Horror' movie for years, and it's included with Prime at the moment so I finally had a chance. Wow. I won't lie; there's something about Jodorowsky that leaves me a bit cold. My theory is that it's the cultural background he draws from that I do not have experience with, so his movies resonate less with me than, say, David Lynch, another 'Avant Garde' director, who's life experiences are closer to mine and so I really relate to. That's not to say I didn't dig this film; Santa Sangre is beautiful, and watching the composition of some of the scenes I was blown away. The term 'visionary director' might be overused these days, but not on Jodorowsky it's not.




Personal Shopper was a very pleasant surprise. I'd heard something about this film last year on the Bret Easton Ellis show; I can't remember what that something was, but it was enough to pique my curiosity, so that when I saw this pop up on Netflix recently, I ear-marked it. Really cool film, and it made me want to watch more from director Olivier Assayas.

Playlist from 3/04:

Joy Division - Still
Cocksure - T.V.M.A.L.S.V.
Cold Cave - Cherish the Lights Years
Cold Showers - Matter of Choice

Card of the day:

Lots of Swords lately. There's conflict on the horizon? To clarify, I pulled two more cards, so here's what the whole 3-card spread looks like:

This looks like a lot of confusion, or tiny skirmishes that ultimately play into the reverse side of my psychology. You know, the part of you that doesn't want you to finish those things you've worked so hard on? Chock this up to me not working at all on my book yesterday, but watching three movies instead. That wasn't easy; I positioned it as a 'day of rest' in my head, because I'd been craving new content, but really I should have made some time. It's hard for me to fit anything into a weekday that's not writing, so to knock out those films and 'fill the well' I went the other way completely. The understanding was - and here's where I think the Knight of Cups comes in - I work my ass off for the rest of the week and through the weekend. See that Chalice with the Crab he's reaching for? Almost in reach. That's the book. So very close now that I have to be careful not to sabotage it.

2018: September 13th

Beach House have apparently agreed to tell the story of my life in song.

I am still living HIGH off that Mandy screening on Tuesday night. There are so many people I'm trying to reach out to and tell them they will love it, moreso even if they see it in a good theatre with great sound. I'm already planning to see it again either this weekend or next.

NCBD yesterday:

And a preview for a new book coming out from Image/Top Cow on October 10. Infinite Dark feels like an awesome space Sci Fi rumination on the end of the world and humanity in general, but set in outer space, and I'm pretty excited to have creator/writer Ryan Cady will be our guest tomorrow night when we take Drinking with Comics on the road to El Cuervo Gallery in El Segundo!

Playlist from 9/11:
Ghostland Observatory - See You Later Simulator

Playlist from 9/12:
Dead Rabbits - The Ticket that Exploded
The Ocean - Permain: The Great Dying Pre-Release Single
Windhand - Grief's Infernal Flower
Ennio Morricone - Black Belly of the Tarantula OST
Sinoia Caves - Beyond the Black Rainbow OST

Card of the day:

I'm going with change of mood on this one, as something happened yesterday that totally revamped my current outlook on a project.

2018: February 8th 5:45 AM

Woke up with this one in my head today, probably because I listened to the album it's on - Teenage Wrist's Dazed EP about a half a half dozen times last night. At least.



Such a big, fuzzy neon dream of an album. Thanks to Jacob again for introducing me to this great band that has an album coming out in March. You can pre-order it HERE.

Playlist from yesterday:

The Fixx - Reach the Beach
ZZ Top - Tres Hombres
Nektar - A Tab in the Ocean
Odonis Odonis - Post Plague
The Jesus Lizard - Down
Teenage Wrist - Dazed E.P.

Card of the day:

Emotional deluge, use intellect and Will to prevent being drowned. Interesting... a few words on these daily draws. Events yesterday, Wednesday the 7th lined-up directly with two repetitive pulls that culminated the Wednesday before, on January 31st. What's the grid system at work here, or is there one? Well, we'll see. That's why I've shifted this blog into this 'journaling' paradigm - looking for patterns in the grid of chaos that, even though we do all we can to refute the fact, defines our existences. Hopefully I will find some and learn a way to 'hack' the graphs and grids I make from those patterns.

Yesterday I indeed stopped to buy my comics. TWD did not disappoint, but I haven't read Papergirls yet. Why? Well, I had an abortive attempt at my daily words, and after that I didn't have much time for reading, and this was unexpected but I ended up buying my first current Batman comic since Grant Morrison's run ended in 2013 and I was super excited to dive in. Why? What could make me jump into a Batman comic? Three words:

Sean. Gordon. Murphy. Look at this cover:

It's ultra rare to impossible for art to convince me to read a book, in Murphy's case it's a combination of his art and the fact that he can spin one hell of a yarn. Punk Rock Jesus is still one of my all-time favorites. One issue into White Knight and I don't quite have the lay of the land yet, but A) it's stand alone continuity and B) it's NOT the tired iterations of Batman and Joker we're used to being regurgitated every few years, although it starts there and moves out in what I believe is virgin territory for the characters from there. Either way, I'm in for all eight issues (five are out so far).