Walk on Gilded Splinters

 

From Dr. John's very Halloween-appropriate album Gris Gris, now an annual Autumn listen for me thanks to Mr. Brown. Love this tune, and coincidentally, the posthumous release Things Happen That Way contains a pretty banging version as well. I love both, however, the original on headphones really puts you there.

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31 Days of Halloween:

You know, based on my question about Michael Walsh's Frankenstein issue three last week, I found that I have no real memory of The Bride of Frankenstein. I watched so many of Universal monster movies as a kid that I'd always assumed I'd seen most of them. However, cracking James Whale's 1935 Frankenstein sequel out two nights ago, I realized I may never have actually seen it all the way through from the beginning. 

In particular, the "Little People" sequence kind of dropped my jaw. There's a definite comedic vein that runs through part of this film, and I don't love it. The recurring Minnie character, Dr. Pretorious' aforementioned little people experiments - hardly the same science as our man Henry's, perhaps closer to early IVF - and the Burgomaster shepherding the doddering villagers at the inception of the Bride all rub me the wrong way. That said, the climatic laboratory scenes just may outclass the original film's 'birthing' sequence, and the opening with Lord Byron, Mary and Percy Shelley hanging out immediately made me want to rewatch Ken Russell's 1986 Gothic, an old-school favorite I've kind of forgotten about over the last two decades.

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1) The Killing of a Sacred Deer

2) The Houses October Built (2011)/Texas Chainsaw Massacre (50th-anniversary theatrical screening)

3) Loop Track

4) It's What's Inside/LONGLEGS

5) The Babysitter/Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein

6) The Hitcher/Lost Highway

7) GDT's Cabinet of Curiosities: Graveyard Rats

8) V/H/S Beyond

9) Killer Klowns from Outer Space

10) Terrifier 3

11) Summer of '84

12) Rosemary's Baby/Suspiria ('77)

13) Daddy's Head

14) Undead

15) Moloch/Evil Dead 2

16) Smile

17) Laura Hasn't Slept/Smile 2

18) Terrifier

19) The House of the Devil - Last Drive-in Presentation (original air date April 26, 2019)

20) The Woods

21) Rob Zombie's 31

22) Carrie 2: The Rage

23) The Bride of Frankenstein (1935)

24) Planet Terror

25) Baron Blood

26) The Blob ('88)/ The Thing/Tremors/Abigail

27) Halloween Kills

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Watch:

Tom Savini on the old NBC Letterman show in the run-up to Day of the Dead's release.

I think I smiled for nearly twenty-four hours straight after watching this one. To see Savini go through some of the iconic props in a movie I love, and Letterman react in the way only Letterman can. Wow. 

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Playlist:

Various - My Halloween Spotify Playlist

Rodney Crowell - Eponymous

Oranssi Pazuzu - Muuntautuja

Nico Vega - Lead To Light

The Sisters of Mercy - Floodland

Skinny Puppy - Last Rights

Skinny Puppy - Remission

Double Life - Indifferent Stars EP

Dr. John - Things Happen That Way

The Replacements - Pleased to Meet Me

Dr. John - Gris Gris

Entropy - Liminal

Spotlights - Love & Decay

White Zombie - La Sexorcisto - Devil Music Vol. 1

Drug Church - Prude

Better Lovers - Highly Irresponsible

Entropy - Dharmak​ā​ya

YUNGBLUD - Eponymous (single)

The Streets - The Irony of It All (single)

YUNGBLUD - Eponymous

Soundgarden - Down on the Upside

Bandsplain Podcast - Soundgarden Parts 1 & 2  (HERE and HERE)

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The Big Guns

 

Seeing that I've been listening to Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins' Rabbit Fur Coat again lately, I figured I'd post my favorite track from the album (maybe from Lewis' career, although that's a tough pull from a looong list). Little did I know I would search for it on youtube and find them performing the song on Lettermen! Combining two of my favorite things, and proving Dave has immaculate taste in music.

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Watch:

K is traveling to see a friend this weekend, so it's me and the cats for a few days. I'm planning on using the time wisely: I've set a deadline of this coming Tuesday for the first draft of the novel I'm writing, so primarily focused on that after I punched out yesterday. When I retired for the evening, I popped open a Three Floyds Zombie Dust (thanks, Alex!) and fired up a flick I hadn't seen in... well, I think I saw Clive Barker's Lord of Illusions back in the day, but now I'm not so sure. Anyway, WOW! Here's the Red Band Theatrical Trailer from the year it released, 1995 (I didn't even remember there was such a thing as Red Band trailers back then):

 

So Hellraiser came out in '87, Nightbreed in '90 and Lord of Illusions in 1995. Then, as the story famously goes (and Barker has no problem talking about), the fickle, backstabbing nature of the studio system filled him with despair and he tapped out. 

What a goddamn shame! I mean, this isn't an observation probably millions of Horror fans haven't said previously, but those are three damn good films!

I've known Hellraiser since I was young. Nightbreed is one I didn't connect with when I saw it in High School, but then kind of rediscovered about ten or so years ago, thanks to friends who couldn't believe I didn't hold it in particularly high regard. But Illisions, as I stated above, if I saw it back in the day, I discarded it in the same way I discarded Lawnmower Man, a flick I was briefly obsessed with around the time it came out on video, and which I haven't seen since (and think it's probably better if I don't revisit that one).

Anyway, I think the casting of Scott Bakula threw my memory off. Nothing against the man; I was never a Quantum Leap fan (although the one episode I remember watching, where the devil shows up in the guise of Dean Stockwell's character was pretty cool, I have to say), but beyond that, there are plenty of instances of big-ticket Horror flicks in the early 90s casting TV actors to the film's detriment. 

1990's It I'm looking at you. 

In Illusions, though, Bakula does a really good job as recurring Barker character Harry D'Amour. His chops are plenty, and his presence doesn't feel like television casting. Plus, the entire film has such strong visual and narrative crossover with Nightbreed that the two films feel as though they could have been made back to back. 

Barker's imagination is so lush and unique; there are no other Horror movies like the three he wrote for screen and directed. Also, the way he incorporates the Occult always endears his work to me, film or prose. In Illusions, I was particularly excited by his use of Tarot; the scene that is set up by Harry turning over the Ten of Swords and how that pays off later at Swann's illusion just blew my mind. It's simple, but you just don't see the Occult used that way in Horror Movies that often. 

In thinking about that Ten of Swords scene before writing this page, I stumbled on this very cool video on the Rue Morgue Youtube Channel:

 

She goes way into it, with the full spread, which I hadn't even considered. This is exactly what I'm talking about - the lengths Barker uses the Occult for narrative purposes are beyond anyone else I can think of save, Kenneth Anger, who doesn't really have the same idea of 'narrative' as Barker.  

Lord of Illusions - happy to have found you. I believe this is the start of a long-lasting relationship. Now I'm tempted to rewatch Nightbreed again, however, I just realized I need to cancel my Showtime sub soon, and Cronenberg's Existenz is on there and it's been quite some time for that one, too. 

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Playlist:

QOTSA - In Times New Roman

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard - PetroDragonic Apocalypse

Realize - Machine Violence 

The Obsessed - Lunar Womb

 Secret Chiefs 3 & Traditionalists - Le mani destre recise degli ultimi uomini

Turquoise Moon - The Sunset City

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Card:

• Ace of Wands - Achievement of Earthly designs 

• Princess of Swords - A chaotic battle

• IX: The Hermit - Focus; isolation; determination

Not difficult to read at all. If I want to finish my first draft by Tuesday, I have to battle my distraction (chaos) and isolate myself. In keeping with that, I think I'll stop there, post this, and get to work!!!

 

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Gutter Twins - Idle Hands

 

The Gutter Twins - Mark Lanegan and Greg Dulli - performing "Idle Hands" on David Letterman. Easily my favorite song by the Twins, not because their other material is lacking, but because Lanegan channels a fucking demon with the low end on his voice in this one. The album version is sonically preferable, but how good is it to see these two icons playing side by side?

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Listen:

Thanks to Mr. Brown for messaging me about this one dropping - I'd missed it completely.

 

I am SO hoping this means there's a new Whigs full-length on the way. Also, wondering if Dulli released this earlier than expected as a statement on Lanegan's passing. Super awesome track, can't wait for more.

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Watch:

Tomorrow on Shudder:

 

The trailer Hellbender one played a few weeks ago during the halfway point of the Joe Bob Brigg's Valentine's Day Special. I've been looking forward to it since, and it finally hits tomorrow on Shudder.

 

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Playlist:

Boy Harsher - The Runner OST

Black Sabbath - Paranoid

The Gutter Twins - Saturnalia

The Gutter Twins - Adorata

Metallica - Kill 'Em All

Zeal and Ardor - Eponymous

The Jim Carroll Band - Catholic Boy

The Afghan Whigs - I'll Make You See God (single)

Mark Lanegan Band - Here Comes That Weird Chill

QOTSA - Songs for the Deaf

Chrome Canyon - Director

Cult Leader - A Patient Man

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Card:

The watery aspect of water. From the grimoire: "Deep, Emotional Realms of Personality." I'm plumbing ideas of Deep Personality in a new writing project I'm using to bridge the huge gap I've suffered in working on the second Shadow Play book. This is a short, probably a serialized piece for No Sleep, since the other was so well received, and it's keeping me writing while so many interruptions have made it impossible to hit any kind of a continuous stride while working on the novel. 

Japandroids Perform Adrenaline Nightshift on Letterman (via Pitchfork)

I've been so immersed in working on my novel I'm really behind on shit in the music world, so for now I'm just pilfering openly from random sites. This is via Pitchfork, and if you follow the link back there they have a great vid of the band performing Fire's Highway @ 2012's Pitchfork Fest in my native Chicago.

If I watched late night tv, I'd watch Letterman.

And I LOVE Japandroids.