Tension Breaker, Had to be Done!!!

After watching Carl Reiner's 1987 Summer School last night for the first time in a long time, I woke up this morning with the desire to throw on Iron Maiden's seminal Live After Death. There may be no band/album that evokes the 80s for me more than this one. 

I used to think characters like this - although not specifically these two, because they were almost role models to me when I saw this film back around the time it would have first hit VHS or TV, circa 1988-1989; I would have been between 11 and 13 - were nothing more than adult creators not understanding youth culture and thus embarrassing themselves in their approximation. I still think that's the case in some 80s flicks (and beyond, but it was way more noticeable to me as a burgeoning teenager in the 80s), but not all. Chainsaw and Dave are great examples of hyperbole, and man, do they still resonate, especially as an adult obsessed with Horror flicks!

Also of note, and which I would not have been aware of during any other viewing, is foreign exchange student Anna played by Fabiana Udenio from Bride of Reanimator and Shawnee Smith, from the awesome Blob remake just a year later and, eventually, Saw franchise fame. 

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Watch:

While scrolling on Shudder last night, I realized Robert Fuest's 1970 And Soon the Darkness hit the streamer at some point in the last month or so. I knew nothing about this one, other than having heard it covered on Colors of the Dark podcast, and boy was a delighted with the experience this film offers.

I have a spoiler-free review up on Letterbxd HERE, but if you haven't the time/gumption to indulge me on that, let me just say now that the restoration on this one is outstanding. Truly a gorgeous and loving attention to detail in bringing a film from 1969 to 2023 audiences.

 

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Playlist:

Unto Others - Mana

Cyndi Lauper - She's So Unusual

Iron Maiden - Live After Death

Damone - From the Attic

Screaming Females - Desire Pathway

Cristobal Tapia de Veer - Smile OST

Fear - I Am A Doctor (single, Live for the Record)

        

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Card:

My two-week stint in LA with only my mini Thoth has stoked a taste for this deck once more, so I decided to Pull from my regular Thoth Deck for this Monday morning:

Princess - or what I'm learning to also read as "Page" - of Swords. Going to be an uphill struggle today, huh? I believe it, as I sleep an amazing 9.25 hours from Saturday into Sunday, and a paltry 3 hours and 7 minutes last night.  

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Julee Cruise - The Orbiting Beatnik

Circa its release in 2002, Mr. Brown gifted me a copy of Julee Cruise's The Art of Being a Girl. This is Cruise's third album and her first since 1993's second collaboration with Angelo Badalamenti and David Lynch, The Voice of Love. The sound of this one is all over the place in the best possible way, and I would argue slots in perfectly with that early 00s 'electronica' sound that eventually became ubiquitous. The light, almost mystical sound of this particular track always takes me places, in keeping with all of Cruise's previous work. What we see here and in the subsequent album My Secret Life, her 2011 collaboration with former Dee-Lite DJ Dimitry is an artist who is never content having one sound. Cruise knew her strengths, and she knew how to suss out the best partners to help that sound evolve.

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Play:

I'm still playing The Game Kitchen's Blasphemy, and I've made a vow not to buy any new games until I finish it. I don't have a hell of a lot of time for games, but Blasphemy is addictive enough that, considering it's the first video game I've played in probably close to 30 years, I do find myself enmeshed when I pick it up. Because of this, I'm close. Close enough to figure that by the time Rose-Engine's Signals hits Switch on October 27th, I should be ready to embark on its gorgeously horrific journey, made evident with this trailer:

Thanks to Bloody Disgusting for introducing me to this one, as I'd not heard of it before. You can read their article HERE.

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Watch:

I re-watched Summer of 84 last night for the third time, and I have to say, especially with this viewing following Stranger Things' amazing fourth season (part 1), I love this film even more. HERE is a link to the brief Letterbxd review I did last night that kind of sums up my feeling about the film, and in case you're unfamiliar, here's the trailer:

Afterward, K and I threw on Shudder TV and stumbled into Peter Carter's Rituals, a film I've been wanting to watch since just before it hit Shudder. Again, you can read my brief review HERE.

Very solid film, and as I say in the review, I'll need another viewing to fully 'get' it.

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Playlist:

King Dude and Julee Cruise - Sing Each Other's Songs For You

M83 - Saturdays = Youth

Blut Aus Nord - Hallucinogen

Various - Twin Peaks (Music from the Limited Event Series)

Brand New - Science Fiction

Mrs. Piss - Self-Surgery

Darkness Brings the Cold - Devil Swank, Vol. 1

Metallica - Ride the Lightning

Blut Aus Nord - Dismarmonium: Undreamable Abysses

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Card:

Page of Cups again, eh? Interesting that, in only three recorded readings so far with this deck, two of them are the same. I take this to mean that I really didn't pay close enough attention the first time I drew this card, two days ago. I'll also admit at this point that, since I am solely used to using the Crowley/Harris Thoth deck, I am not used to having Pages as part of the Court Cards.

Crowley famously reinterpreted quite a few aspects of the traditional Tarot for his deck. We can sum up his Court Cards as such:

Being that Grimm's Bound Tarot utilizes the traditional paradigm, I have not yet developed that ease with which my mind should read the Page as Princess, but in today's reading, I may have received such a solid example of interpretation factoring immediately into real life, that hopefully, the lesson will persevere. 

From the grimoire:

The Earthy aspect of Water; Dreams can become Reality.

I literally woke up this morning after dreaming about officiating my Sister's wedding in less than a week and found my brain immediately transcribing the dream into what has now, several hours later, become the foundation for my speech. So I literally turned my dream into Reality. I'm assuming my first pull of this card the other day was the first indication - amidst my mounting anxiety at not having started the speech - that I needed to listen to the dreams of the event I've been having. I did not heed the first instruction, so the cards gave me the same recommendation a second time.

You can buy a set of these amazing cards on Grimm's site HERE. 

New (?) Music From Stereolab!

I'll admit that I'm not nearly the Stereolab fan today that I was in the late 90s-early 2000s. I had quite the collection of their albums on CD, but eventually realized it was hard to listen to a lot of those records in any mind-frame other than a passive one. The textures of their music are amazing, but a lot of it ends up being 'mood' pieces. Kind of sonic wallpaper, as one friend put it. That's not a dig, however, my listening has become increasingly 'active' since I first fell in love with the band. Still, very cool to see they're releasing another of their Switch On series, which, if I remember correctly, are all B-Sides and rarities. In keeping with these past releases, and again emphasizing the sheer volume of music this group has released in the last several decades (quantifying how many decades will put me in danger of feeling frighteningly old) I'm not entirely sure if Super-It ever saw the light of day before, however, here today, it sounds pleasingly fresh. 

You can order Electrically Possessed, the fourth volume in Stereolab's Switched On series, one HERE, it drops Friday.

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Watch:

I have been wanting to see The Strange Color of Your Body's Tears for a couple years now, and it finally landed on Shudder, so I left work on time yesterday, loaded up a chillum when I got home,e and fell straight into this one:

The first 40+ minutes are a delight. After that, however, despite fighting like made to keep an open mind and positive outlook, this one devolves into what I would say is little more than aesthetic. I want to love this film, but a perhaps overly generous three-stars is all I could muster on Letterboxd. Still, Tears is GORGEOUS even as it tries your patience, and the OST is fabulous.

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Playlist:

The Soft Moon - Black Sabbath

The Soft Moon - Criminal  

The Soft Moon - Deeper

Stereolab - Electrically Possessed (pre-release singles)

The Raveonettes - In and Out of Control

Ghost of Vroom - I Hear the Ax Swinging (pre-release single)

Ghost of Vroom - 2 (Single)

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Card:

Pretty gnarly advice for me and a friend (I think) on how we can get tripped up by our own thinking and expectations of what we believe is "going to happen" based on pre-existing experience, which emotionally, can masquerade as emotional empirical evidence, such a thing that is not to be taken on faith. 

From the Grimoire: "Beware the mire of the mind; consciousness needs to flow freely, not become muddied by obsession. Push past what you think you know and be open to the Universal influence that can often reinvigorate our thoughts and practices."