Flies on Sandstone

 

Heaven Is An Incubator recently posted "Love Fade," from Tamaryn's 2010 album The Waves, long a personal favorite since one of my old-school Inventory team back at Borders Torrance turned me onto it. No other Tamaryn album has ever slipped so perfectly into my personal sonic cosmology, but I've laid beneath the stars in Joshua Tree and soaked this one in. It's special, so I had to break it out and post a track, too.

 
Thanks Tommy!!!

 

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Watch:

About three months ago, I kind of surprised myself by re-starting Drinking with Comics. This was something that had been on my mind off and on for a while; I LOVE the idea of the show, but it's hard to move beyond the previous iterations. For me, the pinnacle was when Mike, Chris, Jordan and myself were in front of the camera and Kirsten was running tech. Doing the whole thing at Atomic Basement never felt fully 'right,'  and whenever I look on YouTube for someone discussing comics that move me, I'm almost always disappointed. 

Other than Comic Book Herald's channel, pretty much every "discussion" video I've attempted to watch does that annoying YouTube thing of drawing out what you're there for as long as possible to increase their watch time. I fucking hate that! So, I finally decided I'd let the old Drinking with Comics be what they were and start a new iteration. It helped that I get to call it Vol. 4.

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Read:

My good friend Jesus surprised us with some Christmas presents in the post this past Friday. Jesus and I tend to ship books back and forth to one another, and he's introduced me to some incredible novels. Well, he outdid himself this time, because one of the books he sent was C.J. Leede's 2023 debut novel Maeve Fly. 

I read it in just over a day.

I can't recommend this one enough, the only caveat is, I'd say you should definitely read Bret Easton Ellis' American Psycho first, as this book is very influenced by it, and even pinions some elements of the seminal volume of transgressive 80s literature. Despite this, however, Maeve Fly is definitely its own thing, and I couldn't be more in love with Leede's prose. Also, this book made me insanely homesick for L.A.

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Playlist:

Various - Learn to Relax: A Tribute to Jehu

Van Halen - 1984

Amigo the Devil - Everything is Fine

Godflesh - Purge

Godflesh - Hymns

Steve Moore - Bliss OST

Fever Ray - Radical Romantics

Deftones - Saturday Night Wrist

Rein - Reincarnated 

Tamaryn - The Waves

Calexico - Seasonal Shift

Christmas Bloody Christmas Spotify Playlist

Rodney Crowell - Christmas Everywhere

Thou - Rhea Sylvia

Frayle - Skin & Sorrow

James Last - Christmas Dancing with James Last

Willie Nelson - Pretty Paper

J. D. McPherson - Socks

Luciano Pavarotti - Christmas with Pavarotti

Iwan Rebroff - singt Weison von Wodka und Wein

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

• Queen of Disks

• Knight of Disks

• Two of Swords

Emotional aspects of Earthly matters, honed by Will, collaboration of intent. Not sure if this is telling me I'll find the 'honing' in collaboration or not - seems doubtful - but I'm definitely feeling like Earthly matter could use a shoring up. 

New Music From The Dandy Warhols!!!

 

From the forthcoming album ROCKMAKER. No pre-order information up yet, so I'm not sure when this is coming out, but I'll definitely have my eyes open for more. In the meantime, digging the new track.

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Watch:

Thursday evening K and I went to the local theatre to see Bishal Dutta's debut feature film It Lives Inside. Here's a trailer:

I adored this flick. It doesn't reinvent the wheel; however, I'm all for seeing more culturally diverse Horror on the big screen, and this is where It Lives Inside offers a welcome new perspective for Horror fans. It also offers a really cool practical FX monster, one of my favorites in a while. 

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Read:

I was finally able to sit down and read Jeremy Haun & Jason A. Hurley's five-issue The Approach in one sitting yesterday. I'd been buying it monthly but had some trouble finding the last two issues. My good friends at Amazing Fantasy Books and Comics in Frankfort took care of that, though, and I started from the beginning and burned through this snowbound powder keg in less than an hour.

Fantastic series with art by J. Hervas, The Approach is a fantastic series that sets everything up in issue one, then just blows through to the end in an escalating storm of Terror and Violence, and I mean that in the BEST possible way. 

The TPB recently went on sale, collecting all five issues - you can grab it directly from Jeremy's website HERE.

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Playlist:

Angelo Badalamenti and David Lynch - Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me OST

The Coup - Your Parents' Cocaine (single)

Lead Into Gold - The Eternal Present

Godflesh - Recent Setlist Spotify Playlist

WYTCH FINGER - The Dance EP

Godflesh - Songs of Love and Hate

Blut Aus Nord: Disharmonium: Nahab

Lustmord - The Others (Lustmord Deconstructed)

QOTSA - In Times New Roman

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Card:

Well, I'm on the road, so all my Pulls will be from my mini Thoth deck for the next two weeks. Not a bad thing, but wanted to put up a reminder that Grimm's new Tarot Deck, The Hand of Doom Tarot, is both gorgeous and live on Kickstarter until Tuesday, October 3rd. Here's the LINK.

• 0: The Fool

• Princess of Cups

• Nine of Swords

A new journey begins; it will be difficult and emotional, but ultimately I remind myself any new journey is a good thing. Pattern Interrupt is a phrase I've been thinking of/talking about a lot lately. Fitting since I'll be on a plane to LaLaLand for two weeks, a few hours after this Post goes up. 

Before Ghost there was Repugnant

Before Ghost, Tobias Forge was in a band named Repugnant? I had NO IDEA, so thanks to THIS article on Metal Sucks. Death Metal isn't really my jam, but this... not too bad. And from the opening guitar, you can 100% hear that it's Forge's writing. So here's them playing live and that guy that looks kind of like he could be in the Misfits? That's Papa! Always cool to see where our beloved musical icons come from. 

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Watch:

I've struggled with Demián Rugna's 2017 film Terrified multiple times. I liked it, but I didn't feel for it as others who seemed to feel it was the scariest film in years did. My theory is this is due to the fact that I fell asleep during my first viewing (not the film's fault at all), and that tends to rob some film's impact for me. It happened to Duncan Jones's Moon, it happened to Denis Villeneuve's Arrival, and I'm pretty sure it happened to Terrified. Regardless of how I felt about it as far as being "scary," Rugna definitely crafted a confident, competent Horror film that I wouldn't hesitate to others. So it is with no small amount of fervor that I came upon Bloody Disgusting's posting of the trailer for his new film, Where Evil Lurks. Here's the trailer:

I was torn on actually watching this; as you know if you've been reading these pages lately, I've become very anti-trailer. In spite of that prejudice, and cautious that I might once again rob Rugna's film of power, I watched it and can happily confirm this is truly a 'teaser.' Well done, IFC. I can also say I am 100% in just for the sound design alone. Where Evil Lurks is supposed to have a theatrical run starting on October 6th, and will hit Shudder on the 27th of the same month.

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Read:

Almost two years ago, I posted about giving up on Clive Barker's Scarlett Gospels. Well, I decided recently to give it another shot. 

I'm not really far enough to pass judgment again, but this definitely still feels less elegant than any other Barker I've read. The opening scene sees the five remaining Black Magicians in the world (?) resurrect a sixth, more powerful one to try and survive a culling carried out by The Priest (don't use that other nickname!), who is now working separately from The Order of the Gash, attempting to amass all the world's Magickal knowledge for some as yet unknown purpose. The scene begins rather poorly and doesn't really feel like Barker until "The Demon" shows up. Here, I still get a sense that Barker is overdoing the gross-out factor in a misguided attempt to recapture something of his past works - which were all elegantly revolting and not nearly as gauche - but I'm hanging in and hopefully coming to terms with this in a way that will allow me to A) finish the novel this time and, B) enjoy it. Reminder to self: This man is a genius, an icon, and any Barker is better than no Barker.

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Playlist:

The Lucid Night - The Mystic Journey EP

The Lucid Night - The Celestial Voyage (single)

Lord Huron - Long Lost

Low Cut Connie - Tough Cookies: The Best of the Quarantine Broadcasts

This Movie Saved My Life Podcast - Barbenheimer, Farewell to Jane Birken, and the WGA/SAG Strike

Godflesh - Songs of Love and Hate

Repugnant - Epitome of Darkness

Carpenter Brut - Leather Terror

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Oracle:

From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE. Just a reminder that Grimm's new Tarot Deck, The Hand of Doom Tarot, is both gorgeous and live on Kickstarter right now. Here's the LINK.

• Page of Cups

• X: Wheel of Fortune

• Queen of Swords

The Page or Princess of Cups is a card I associate with inner vision, and taken with the Wheel in this case, I see ideas growing to fruition. Therefore, good day to write. Balance all that out with the Watery aspect of Fire and I'm reminded I have a major distraction going on in Chicago at the moment. Reading all these together then, tells me to get the writing in where/when I can today - even a little will be productive.

Alice Donut - Mother of Christ Live

From Alice Donut's 1994 Live at CBGB's album Dry Humping the Cash Cow. Fantastic double-disc capture of Donut in their prime. Mr. Brown gifted me this on vinyl and a few years ago and from first listen, the recording and performance blew me away. I wish I would have seen Alice Donut live, but alas, that never happened. I don't know their discography nearly as well as I should, with a large part of my time with the band having been eaten up by a preoccupation that bordered on obsession for a while in the late 90s with their 1992 masterpiece The Untidy Suicides of Your Degenerate Children, which is start to finish, one of the best and most underrated albums of the 90s.

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Watch:

I've been waiting for Stewart Thorndike's Bad Things to hit Shudder since reading an article in the most recent issue of Fangoria. I wasn't the biggest fan of Thorndike's 2014 film Lyle, but I definitely liked it and felt as though, my opinion aside, this was a director to watch.

 

This flick looks unnerving as hell, and all the references I keep seeing to Gayle Rankin's performance evoking Jack Torrance, well, sign me up.            

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Playlist:

Sigur Rós - Ágœtis Byrjun

Dungen - Ta Det Lugnt

Boards of Canada - Tomorrow's Harvest

Alice Donut - Dry Humping the Cash Cow

The Bret Easton Ellis Podcast - S7E21: The Top of the Heap

Metallica - 72 Seasons

Odonis Odonis - Post Plague

Deftones - Koi No Yokan

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Card:

• III: The Empress

• 0: The Fool

• XIII: Death

Lots of BIG influences are afoot today. Keeping my eyes open for signs to the contrary, but this seems to suggest a fork in the path; institution vs. change.

 

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Ruby the Hatchet/Medusa Deluxe

 

Currently unable to extract this song from my head. Not that I'd want to. From Ruby The Hatchet's 2022 album Fear Is a Cruel Master, which you can order directly from the band HERE.

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Watch:

A24 has a pretty interesting new flick coming out in August. From the trailer that dropped two days ago, Thomas Hardiman's feature debut Medusa Deluxe reminds me a lot of Peter Strickland's In Fabric.

 

If you know Strickland's film(s), you no doubt see what I mean. I don't bring this up as a critique; Hardiman's film looks stunning and weird in its own right, and I can't wait to see this when it hits VOD on August 11th. 

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Playlist:

Public Memory - Elegiac Beat (pre-release singles)

Public Memory - Veil of Counsel EP

Sandrider - Godhead

††† - PERMANENT.RADIANT EP

Flying Lotus - Yasuke

Flying Lotus - Los Angeles

QOTSA - Villains

QOTSA - ... Like Clockwork

QOTSA - In Times New Roman

Jogger - Nephicide (single)

Colter Wall - Imaginary Appalachia

The Doors - L.A. Woman

            

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Card:

• X: Fortune - Ka

• Queen of Cups - The Watery aspect of Water

• Two of Wands: Dominion

Moving from the well-spring, the idea source into reality can be a challenging process, especially when potentially bogged down by self-doubt; sacrifice that doubt, as it is a comfort. A familiar that only gets in the way of actualization.

It's difficult to pin this to anything specific, however, reading over it again and applying a strengthening force of contemplation - I'm scattered and fighting for clarity this morning - it seems a pretty good idea to juts blanket apply this to everything today.

 

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Duration:

I forgot to post my report this past Tuesday, which judging by the previous week, is the day I chose to check in with this. In an effort to keep myself honest, this report is for the seven days from July 6 to July 12. I actually lost three hours this week.

I feel like I worked more than this, but when next week hits this will look like a marathon; my folks came in yesterday, so between spending time with them and work, I'm losing days here. Luckily I'm off today, and will hopefully be able to carve out some time over the next three days. I'm typing this early because I woke up well before anyone should on a day off, and figured as long as I'm up, I should do some work on the book.

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God is a Maggot Brain

 

I went to the movies last night to see God Is A Bullet. My viewing experience was uneven - I'll be trying to unpack that below - but one scene about halfway through won me over, and a large part of the reason why was its use of Funkadelic's "Maggot Brain." 

The first time I heard this, I was on LSD in high school. Hanging out at a friend's. When this came on, everything just kind of stopped. The entire album is fantastic, but it's one where there is such a hard line between the eponymous opener and everything that comes after it; one is dark and meditative, the other is uproarious and celebratory and sometimes just completely insane in that crazy, George Clinton way. But it works. Boy does it work.

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Watch:

As I mentioned above, last night I went to a 9:35 PM showing of Nick Cassavettes new film God Is A Bullet. I posted this a while back, but for the sake of the current conversation, here's the trailer and below I've basically pasted my Letterbxd review verbatim:

 

What I wrote last night directly after seeing the film:

I'm still unpacking how I feel about this one. First, some of the ugliest subject matter and subjects I've seen in a long time. Almost to the point of contrivance. This is a well-made film, and the performances are intense. However, I'm just not sure about the script. This is an adaptation of a novel by Boston Teran. There are quite a few things in the film I am fairly certain work better in the novel, but also, I (maybe mistakenly) get a "Bob Sagat" vibe from the film. What I mean by that is, if you've ever had the unfortunate experience of seeing Sagat's stand-up, he goes so over the top vulgar in an obvious effort to distance himself from being 'The full house guy,' it ruins any chance of him being anything but that person he tries so hard to unmake. In that same way, I feel like maybe the director's motive was to make the starkest, most horribly disgusting film he could just to blot out being known as 'the guy who directed 'the notebook.'

After sleeping on the film:

I'm not sure how much of my opinion has changed, but the way I'm processing this definitely has. Which is the mark of a good film. But it's not quite that simple...

In combing through this in my subconscious, I think I've discovered something about myself. That sheer ugliness on display in God is a Bullet, both content and characters, actually scares the living sh*t out of me. The subject matter is disgusting - the scariest, most disgusting idea at play in the world of humans. And the costuming and make-up likewise scare me. There's something about people with heavily tattooed faces that produces fear from an almost atavistic place in my brain. I remember having a conversation about this once as a bartender, and the person speaking with me about it summed it up as such:

"You see someone with ink on their face, I mean, like a lot of ink, like spiderwebs and shit, that person gives absolutely zero fucks, and probably has nothing in this life to lose. To tattoo your face like that, it sends a very clear message."

Obviously, I'm paraphrasing a bit here, but not by much. Also, I don't mean to say that anyone who has facial tattoos is a sicko, but the practice definitely sends that message, so at some point they were thinking they wanted the world to fear them on sight...

That element of contrivance I mentioned when thinking about it last night? Now I'm wondering if Cassavettes - in what I would call a pretty deft maneuver - wasn't trying to make a more 'Earthly' version of the Cenobites, because suddenly, there's something very Clive Barker about a lot of this film to me. It's long, though, and that gets lost in the experience. There's a grittiness here that, although Barker's stuff is grotesque and Horrific, has a fantasy underlining that softens the blow. God is a Bullet is real all the way through, so there's nothing fantastical to soften its blow.

Anyway, I've debunked a similar prejudice before with other Horror movies I slighted or ignored. Specifically, Catholic Devil Possession flicks. Reflecting on my snobbery toward a recent flick like Prey For the Devil was what catalyzed the epiphany. Prey looked 'dumb' to me in the way I remember thinking 2012's The Devil Inside looked dumb. But did they really look stupid, or is that a defense mechanism? I'm not religious, wasn't raised Catholic, and the textures of that stuff are as far away from my daily life/belief system as possible. Yet, William Friedkin's The Exorcist is the scariest film I know. I always say, after I watch that film, I believe in the devil for three days. So maybe that Catholic Possession stuff really gets under my skin, so I turn up my nose and walk by with an air of superiority - without watching what I'm criticizing - previously oblivious to the fact that what I'm really doing is cowering at the prospect of another flick that might terrify me the way Friedkin's does. Same too, then, for God is a Bullet, because elements of this film frighten me to my core, even if I still do have some issues with the film's overall execution. And for clarity, it's not the Satanic Cult that frightens me, but the trafficking side of their operations.

Overall? Three stars and a heart, even if the heart may flicker on and off like a bad fluorescent bulb in a dingy motel on the border.

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Playlist:

Forhist - Eponymous

Fear Factory - Demanufacture

Blut Aus Nord - Hallucinogen

Holy Serpent - Endless

Ruby the Hatchet - Fear is a Cruel Master

Silent - Modern Hate

Uniform & The Body - Mental Wounds Not Healing

The Body - I Have Fought Against It, But I Can't Any Longer

Ghost - Infestissumam

Drug Chuch - Hygiene

Funkadelic - Maggot Brain

 

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Card:

• Six of Swords: Science

• II: The High Priestess

• Queen of Cups

Harmonious thinking/interpretation comes from a co-mingling of influences opposite to my own today. In other words - and as usual, I take the insight here to be a direct commentary on my current writing project - I'm trying to write female characters and probably need to ask for a female's perspective on some things. That's something I would have done down the road anyway, however, I'm a little bit stuck and could probably do with an outside perspective. 

 

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Rina Mushonga - Narcisc0

I'd never heard Rina Mushonga's music before two nights ago when I watched Carter Smith's new film Swallowed. More on that in a minute, first I want to open today with the track used in that film. Taken from the 2019 album In a Galaxy, this entire record is fantastic. My elevator pitch would be Tracy Chapman meets Tune-Yards, but that's just meant to whet the appetite; comparisons really do Rina's music no justice, as it is extremely unique and wonderful.

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NCBD:

Another light NCBD this week, which is fine since Night Fever dropped last week and that was a $25 cost I hadn't figured into my initial budget. Light maybe, be it's quality that counts, right? Yeah, and it's a good week:

Saga #65. Lying Cat on his back begging for belly rubs! Looks great, until you remember this is Saga and that means there's probably more horrible stuff for the people I love who live this book. 

The first issue of the newest series in Jeff Lemire and Andrea Sorrentino's Bone Orchard Mythos, I'm pretty psyched for this one. I loved Ten Thousand Black Feathers but felt it ended just as it began to build into something revelatory. I guess that was intentional, as Lemire has said Tenement is the book where all the disparate pieces begin to connect. There are only three issues solicited so far that I see, but whether it's three or thirty, I'm on board. 

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Read:

I'd had Carter Smith's new film Swallowed on my viewing list since hearing him interviewed on the Colours of the Dark podcast a few months back. MAN did this blow my expectations away, which, incidentally, were fairly high. 

 

Not for everyone, but if you're willing to take the ride promised by the trailer, this is a super solid flick, with great performances from everyone involved. Like, really great performances. Also, great to see Mark Patton kicking ass and taking names in a flick. Very cool. 

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Playlist:

Godflesh - Purge

Fen - Dustwalker

Sinoa Caves - Beyond the Black Rainbow OST

Carpenter Brut - Blood Machines OST

Rina Mushonga - In a Galaxy

Tune-Yards - WHOKILL

Pastor T.L. Barret and the Youth for Christ Choir - Like a Ship Without a Sail

Isaac Hayes - Truck Turner OST

Ghost - Impera     

   

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Theory/Practice:

• Eight of Swords - Interruption

• XV The Devil

• XI Lust

This one's all about distraction. I've found that writing for long stints over successive days equals an eroding lack of attention that actually manifests physically as an almost obsessive/compulsive awareness. This "distraction radar" widens my attention to include anything and everything, which in turn gets me out of my chair and away from my work for things that a moment later, either seem unimportant or I forget completely. This is all compounded by a generally erratic nature when in this state, which is the very definition of counterproductive.

All this just means I'm on the correct path.

I haven't had this in a long time, and it means I'm expanding my writing stamina. At my peak performance, I remember sitting down and writing a script for someone in a little over a day. That happened two times, I think, and in doing it, I remember the process that helped me build the 'muscles' to get there. It wasn't easy, because it was a lot of fighting the exact behavior I mentioned above. Which is actually a lot like Yoga, Meditation, or any aspect of Magick in general.

Years ago, when I went through a period of reading works by Aleister Crowley's works on Magick, I began trying Raja Yoga. I believe Crowley talks about this in The Book of Lies, (or it might be Aha! - been a minute). Crowley introduces the idea of Raja Yoga, then talks about how to start practicing Yoga, one must first learn to sit completely still for long periods of time. The idea is, Stillness is a first strike at the crazed torrent of Horror the modern body feels at being asked to sit still. 

Think about that for a minute.

No matter how old you are, or how educated, or successful, if you have no practice in keeping still, your body will act like a child and find a way to make you move. A tiny itch on your nose, a cramp; in more extreme cases, you'll hear things like a knock on the wall, or the snap of a twig. These aren't necessarily auditory hallucinations - although sometimes they might be. This is what happens to our brains in Stillness: we begin to hone in on our surroundings and seek beyond the filters that usually buffer our consciousness, so we can concentrate on the 'important' stuff. Once we can successfully apply the Will to keep Still for a considerable amount of time, we can then focus on controlling our Body in other ways, ie Raja Yoga. To paraphrase the most important morsel Crowley offers on this, "How can you hope to affect change on the Universe with your Will if you can't use it to keep still for five minutes?"

The joke at the time I implemented this was, I had no experience with any Yoga, so beginning with a considerably more severe form like Raja was doomed to fail. That said, man - I could almost perform and hold the Thunderbolt. That shit ain't easy.

All this Theory/Practice I'm talking about above is what led to me being able to sit at a desk for an entire day and write a script from scratch. One of my favorite writing memories, even if that project went nowhere. This is a great example of why I'm reformatting this section of the page to dip back into these ideas. If I am to look at my Practice as having built the life I have, then it makes sense that some of the systems I've put in place would need a tune-up now and again. Although I have maintained a ritualized practice of writing every day for close to a decade now, the duration of the sessions has dwindled. Time to rebuild this engine. In that, I've also added a Duration section to end the page with. This section (below) will be my personal journal of how long I wrote the day before. No hiding my failures now.

 

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Duration

I have long used an app called ATracker PRO to 'punch in and punch out' for writing sessions. I get sloppy about using it sometimes, and when I'm as distracted as I was yesterday, I have to turn it off and on as I flit away and back again. In that, I have to get better. I want truthful accounts of solid writing time. I have never used the export function, so I'll probably tweak this as I go. Looks like dedicated time yesterday was roughly two hours and twenty-four minutes.

2:24 Hours

I use another app called Focus Keeper concurrently with ATracker for sessions within the overall session. This allows me five-minute breaks - which I often skip if things are rolling - after 25 minutes of dedicated writing. 

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Cobwebs & Night Fever

 

Despite loving this song, I had never seen this video before yesterday, when I stumbled on it randomly. There is something so ethereal, so perfect about Greta Link's voice when paired with James Kent's music; she literally puts me in the world he's created just by having such a human, sensual voice. 

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Watch:

I watched the first 28 seconds of this trailer and knew I wouldn't be watching even a second more. Sold! Can't wait to see this, hopefully in the theatre:

If this really does go wide, we're in a pretty damn great for Horror fans in 2023. Flicks like Terrifier 2, Skinamarink and The Outwaters may not be everyone's jam, but they've helped carve a space for low-budget Horror flicks in big box theatres. What's more, The Boogeyman, Evil Dead Rise, Malum and Renfield have helped remind everyone that Horror makes money. As long as I'm within reasonable driving distance of a theatre playing it, I'll be supporting Cobweb in a theatrical setting. 

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Read:

As an admittedly rather late NCBD Addendum, I went into Rick's Comic City over the weekend to pick up my copy of the new Brubaker and Phillips Hard Cover Graphic Novel, Night Fever, which came in a bit late on Wednesday, and while I had 100% forgotten about:

The first non-Reckless book this team has done in two years, I have to say, I think this is my favorite story I've read by them. That might just be post-first read embellishment because - Night Fever is a fantastic read - however, the way Brubaker and the Phillips Boys portray and use the dark streets of Paris, 1978 - a location I know nothing about - really captured me. The story is just strange enough to feel a bit "Weird," while still being recognizably this team's own signature style. No one does this the way they do, and I have grown to love it very much. I can't wait for the next Reckless, however, anytime they want to take time off to release something new, I'll be happy with that, too.

         

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Playlist:

Almost everything I listened to on this list was on vinyl; that's normally hard for me to do. Trapping myself in the house to write has its advantages, for sure.

Turquoise Moon - The Sunset City

Windhand - Grief's Infernal Flower

Final Light - Eponymous

Witchfinder - Forgotten Mansion

Yeruselem - The Sublime

Blut Aus Nord - Disharmonium I: Undreamable Abysses

The Obsessed - Lunar Womb

Godflesh - Purge

Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins - Rabbit Fur Coat

Jenny Lewis - Acid Tongue

Steve Moore - Christmas, Bloody Christmas OST

Perturbator - The Uncanny Valley

Tangerine Dream - Sorcerer OST
Richard Einhorn - Shockwaves OST

Blut Aus Nord - Memoria Vitusta I: Fathers of the Icy Age

Emma Ruth Rundle & Thou - May Out Chambers Be Full

Joseph Bishara - Malignant OST

       

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Theory/Practice:

Changing the section heading because I'm going to start chronicling different aspects of my Practice, which is nowhere as robust as it used to be, but has been creeping back in around the edges of late. Part of that will be dream journaling because I found writing about the 'blood dream' the other night helped considerably.

All Major Arcana, eh? Universal forces at work:

• 0: The Fool - picking up from his appearance two days ago, this is something beginning...

• XII: The Hanged Man - typically I see this as a very broad-stroke signifier of "Sacrifice," however, it's good to remember that this shows the Pentacle the way I wear mine - one Point over four. From the grimoire: "Dreams are brought Low by Modern Rationality." I no longer remember where I cribbed that from, but I find it interesting that it pops up here after I just mentioned dreams.

• VII: The Chariot - Gathering strength before moving to the next step.

 

My read on this is jumbled and not all that easy to put into a paragraph or two. I think it has a lot to say about what I consider my "Practice" now, which is my life. When I got into The Occult, it was after being wooed by big, bombastic workings by Grant Morrison, tales of Jack Parson's in the desert, and of course, Aleister "I'll fuck anything that moves" Crowley. Back then, my Practice was more hands-on, occurring in self-made liminal spaces. As the fervor for drawing sigils and reading every text available cooled, as I stopped semi-regular iterations of the Lesser Ritual of the Pentagram and the like, I can look at the last ten or so years as my Practice waning, or, perhaps what this Pull reminds me, I can look at it as I simply massaged Magick into my daily life in a way that has seen me succeed in almost everything I've tried, in some way or another. Not always the success I want, but success is tiered in the overly complicated modern world. Certainly getting out of L.A. when I did has shown itself a success, and it's with that mindset that I must carry forth into the next "journey," whatever that may be.
 

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Godflesh - Army of Non

 

The mighty Godflesh has returned at last! I have a friend visiting from LalLaLand and as such, completely forgot that the new album Purge was released this week. Friday night as we left one of the three breweries we take all our visitors to, this popped up in my Apple feed and, after waiting for the conversation at hand to run its course while sitting in the parking lot, I warned everyone they were about to experience the new record at a rather loud volume while driving home. Wonderful; that's the only word here. We made it through about half, and with further conversating and what not once home, I refrained from playing the rest until I could do a nice, immersive listen on headphones, so that will be later today, and the vinyl I pre-ordered months ago doesn't ship until early July, so until all that happens, "Army of Non" is my current favorite track on the record.

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Watch:

Holy F*&K! Ted Geoghegan's new film Brooklyn 45 is fantastic! This one defied all my expectations

            

I don't want to say too much about this one; it's not as though there's a twist or anything, however, Brooklyn 45 really impressed me with the ambitious, and frankly unexpected dramatics that make up the meat of the film. Sure, there's a lot of Horror Fun to be had, but this one is more akin to Guillermo del Toro's film Pan's Labyrinth than it is Evil Dead (although there are moments...). This one dropped on Shudder last week and is WELL worth Your time, especially if you liked Geoghegan's 2015 film We Are Still Here as much as I did. Companion pieces in a way.
           

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Playlist:

Weird Studies - On Clive Barker's "Hellraiser" and "Hellbound Heart"

Colton Wall - Imaginary Appalachia

David Bowie - The Next Day

Ganser - Odd Talk

Iggy Pop - The Idiot

Blackbraid - Blackbraid I

Stormkeep - Tales of Othertime

Calderum - Mystical Fortress of Iberian Lands

CCR - Eponymous

Godflesh - Purge

Angelo Badalamenti - Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me OST

Pastor T.L. Barrett & the Youth for Christ Choir - Like a Ship (Without a Sail)

The Flamingos - The Best of the Flamingos

Jenny Lewis - Joy'All

 

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Card:

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

 

• Four of Pentacles - completion of a job: I have set a goal for the first draft of the novel I'm currently writing, and it is next Tuesday.

• Ace of Swords - Breakthrough: Not sure if this is confirming success or a nod that setting this goal was the 'breakthrough.'

• Five of Wands - Marshall the forces of Will, 'cuz it's going to be a struggle. A worthy struggle, though.
 

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New Music From The Mysterines!

 

 

The Mysterines dropped a new single yesterday, and I'm hoping it's the herald for a new album! 2022's Reeling easily made it into my ten favorite albums of that year, and as that was my jumping on point with the band, I'm anxious for more. In the meantime, hit their Bandcamp HERE.

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Watch:

Last night K and I had the extreme pleasure of watching Jon Wright's latest film, Unwelcome. Here's the trailer:

I'd only seen the director's 2012 film Grabbers, which is a riot, so I had no idea what to expect with Unwelcome. Well, this one shot to the top tier of my favorite flicks released so far in 2023. The characters are instantly likable and relatable - very important. Also, the effects are fantastic and the storyline really draws you in. Reminded me a bit of The Hallow, what with the rural Irish setting and use of Celtic Folklore. Unwelcome is a $3.99 rental on Amazon at the moment, and absolutely worth spending the dough on - highly recommended.

 

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Playlist:

Queens of the Stone Age - In Times New Roman (pre-release singles) 

King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard - Infest the Rats' Nest 

King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard - Gila Monster (single) 

Ganser - Odd Talk 

High on Fire - Snakes for the Divine 

High on Fire - Death Is This Communion 

Spotlights - Seance EP 

Spotlights - Love & Decay

Joan Jett - Album

Kaiser Chiefs - I Predict A Riot

 

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Card:

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

 

•Ten of Swords - Completion of challenge

• Ace of Pentacles - Breakthrough in Earthly matters

• Ace of Wands - Breakthrough of Will or through Will, which is the case here, I think.

More cosmic writing advice, which is paying off. I went to my coffee shop to ice out the world and focus. I've begun writing at home quite a bit, but being I was stagnant for several days (almost a week), I needed to jump-start the old attention span. It worked, but only too well. 4.25 hours of sleep last night; I'd gotten used to close to 8 for the last few weeks. Thus, Breakthrough of Will.

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Set Galactus's Hiding Mask Aflame!!!

A little Wino and his friends in The Obsessed to start our day. This tracks slams; love it!

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NCBD:

My picks for this NCBD; another slow week, but that's fine with me. Quality of quantity, right?

Loving this series. The throwback to the excesses of 70s and 80s rock gods is always welcome these days. Especially when the story gives us rock gods that worship Satan!!! Also, although the story is slightly obvious in some regards, insofar as to where it's going, the overall big picture of what that will mean is delightfully vague. 

I didn't read the first two issues of the Sins of Sinister series Nightcrawlers, however, being that this is the final issue before the closing Sins of Sinister: Dominion one-shot brings the sub-series to a close, and being that I've grown to actually really dig this series, I thought I'd pick this up. Who knows? Maybe I'll grab those first two issues eventually, too. Either way, seeing Galactus's burning face behind Mother Righteous totally sold me on this "A" cover.

That's one of the really cool things about these Marvel "possible future" stories - the degree to which the creators can totally fuck with everyone and everything. I feel as though it used to be, at the very least, every possible future would have Logan in it. Not this time. And although I doubt very much we'll actually see a Galactus flambé in this issue, just the fact that they could suggest this on the cover makes me feel like a kid again.

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Watch:

 

After reading about Scott Walker's upcoming film The Tank on Bloody Disgusting a few days ago, I'm intrigued. Reviewer Meagan Navarro very specifically states, "So much about Walker’s narrative structure and stylistic choices evoke ’80s creature features," (Read Meagan's full review HERE). That very much makes me take the possibility of shortcomings aside and want to see this flick. I think back to James Wan's Malignant a few years back - it took a good thirty or so minutes of laughing at that film's shortcomings before I got what Wan was doing - he made a 70s Giallo, and went so far as to build in the associated shortcomings from that particular style/era of film. This 'authenticity or bust' aesthetic we've seen in recent years - I could argue Psycho Goreman has this to a degree as well - is fascinating to me; a real breath of fresh air. I love the idea of filmmakers saying, "It's not enough to just add synthetic VHS tracking lines to your film" - the equivalent of the "vinyl" audio effect that adds pops and crackles to an audio track - "you have to be true to the essence of what we think of when we think of those films!"

Anyway, I'm none of the theatres in my area are playing The Tank - Clarksville's Regal is pretty great, but it's not that great - so I can't wait to watch this on April 25th (thereabouts) when it lands!

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Playlist:

Ruby the Hatchet - Planetary Space Child

CCR - Cosmo's Factory

The Obsessed - Lunar Womb

Alice in Chains - Eponymous

Mastodon - Hushed and Grim

Kyss - ...  And the Circus Leaves Town

The Sword - Warp Riders

Bill Dogget and His Combo - All His Hits

            

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Card:

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

In order to bring a project to completion, first emotional matters must be transformed into something useful through an act of Will.

Direct commentary on the process of writing. Well, the adage fits with any artistic endeavor, I suppose, but I'm applying it directly to my own process, which has begun to mutate for the better thanks to two separate but concurrent events. The first was Jonathan Grimm's three-day jaunt out to our new home. The guy is a self-made success with his art, and it's inspiring beyond almost anything I've encountered in some time. Maybe ever. The second came in the form of some thoughts on writing in one of the more recent This Is Horror Newsletters (which you can sign up for HERE and which is totally worth your time for the interviews alone, if not the contemplations of craft that sometimes come burrowed inside the missives).

What's that have to do with today's Pull? Well now sheriff, I don't rightly know. Pulls are not always straightforward. In fact, they're never as on the nose as my quick interpretations might make them appear. There's a lot of gooey ambiguity in the way they interact with the subconscious, and sometimes, you just contemplate the cards and see what associations they lead you to. Piecing it together - if you do - might take considerably more time. Hopefully, in the meantime, you've arrived at something useful. Like I just did.

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Dreaming of the Demeter

 

New music from Nabihah Iqbal's upcoming second record, Dreamer, out April 28th on Ninja Tune. You can pre-order HERE.

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Watch:

Though I hated Scary Stories To Tell in the Dark enough that it made me kind of retroactively dislike André Øvredal's previous flicks I'd seen and liked, I recognize my tendency to overreact to things like this. 

 

 

 

My reaction to Scary Stories isn't that different than, say, the reaction I had when I read the first issue of Frank Miller's All-Star Batman and Robin, way back in 2005. Shortly after reading that, I gave half my Sin City issues. I don't really regret that, but it's extreme, I'll admit. In recognizing that, I've been meaning to rewatch The Autopsy of Jane Doe again, and now that the trailer for his The Last Voyage of the Demeter has landed, well, I am cautiously optimistic!

This is apparently an adaptation of a single chapter from Bram Stoker's Dracula - how cool is that? 

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Playlist:

Black Sabbath - Eponymous

Valley of the Sun - The Chariot

Mars Red Sky - Eponymous

The Sword - Age of Winters

The Sword - Gods of the Earth

Led Zeppelin - Physical Graffiti

Steve Earle - J.T.

Lord Buffalo - Tohu Wa Bohu

Black Sabbath - Master of Reality

Telekinetic Yeti - Primordial

Clutch - Blast Tyrant

Intronaut - Habitual Levitations

         

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Card:

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

 

 

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Cold Sweats in the Basement, Baby!

 

Jonathan Grimm drove down a few days ago and we had a fantastic extended weekend drinking beer, watching movies and bullshitting. Grimm is definitely a stabilizing force in my life, not to mention a huge influence, and his visit really supercharged my creativity again. We capped the evening yesterday driving to Nashville and seeing Lord Buffalo, Valley of the Sun and Church of the Cosmic Skull at the awesome Basement East. It feels fortuitous indeed that the first show I see in my new state was at this venue, because I loved it. Basement East reminds me a lot of my favorite venue back in LaLaLand, Echo Park's Echoplex. I'll be keeping their calendar firmly in mind from here out, as it's the kind of venue I'll take pretty much any excuse to return to, again and again.

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Watch:

Curious to see this entire film. I love the idea of teenagers playing with a makeshift "Hand of Glory," though I didn't watch enough of the trailer to see if it actually came off a "hanged murderer." Makes me want to dig back into some of my Arcana and see what Eliphas Levi or, perhaps more appropriately, Alan Moore might have to say about how stringent the cocktail that produces that particular Magickal accoutrement is.

 

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Playlist:

Etta James - (Third Album)

The Besnard Lakes - The Besnard Lakes Are the Roaring Night

Locrian - Return to Annihilation

Locrian - New Catastrophism

Godflesh - Nero EP

Behemoth - The Satanist

Etta James - The Second Time Around

Me and That Man - New Man, New Songs, Same Shit, Vol. 1

Eldovar - A Story of Darkness and Light

Various Artists - Jonathan Grimm's Stoner/Doom Spotify Playlist

Black Sabbath - Vol. 4

Windhand - Grief's Infernal Flower

Goatsnake - Black Age Blues

Holy Serpent - Endless

Bettye LaVatte - Scene of the Crime

Pigs x 7 - Viscreals

            

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Card:

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

Where this might normally make me think some form of unpleasant emotional change is jump up the road, I instantly read it as a lifting of my already generally unpleasant emotional state that dug in during my extended stay in LaLaLand and has left me off-kilter and unusually anxious since.

 

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Dead Guy's Work Ethic

I received a spectacular early birthday present in the mail from Mr. Brown yesterday - Dead Guy's Work Ethic E.P. I first discovered Dead Guy back in 1995 when Victory Records released their Fixation On A Coworker LP. I was writing for Subculture magazine back then, and somehow became their default Victory Records guy, so I received all the promo CDs the labels sent in. I did not care for most of the bands, but Dead Guy... they kind of blew me away right off the bat. 

Funny thing about this live EP record, this track labeled as "Druid" is actually "Extremist" or "The Extremist", one of my favorites from that Fixation LP.  Song still shreds some serious face, and it reminds me I still need to track down that Dead Guy documentary Vinegar Syndrome's Partner label has for sale on their site/app. 

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Watch:

The verdict is out on Shudder's upcoming From Black. The trailer - I watched about half, and it sold me - looks like it can go either way, good or bad.

 

April 28th, we'll see. I love some of the imagery here, but certain elements of how this trailer is cut make me wonder if this will just be a rehash of what we've seen in some better movies of late.

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Playlist:

Spotlights - Seanace EP

Spotlights - Love & Decay

Cristobal Tapia de Veer - Smile OST

Dead Guy - Work Ethic EP

Dr. John - Ske Dat De Dat

The Veils - ... And Out of the Void Came Love

Sunn O))) - Domkirk

The Police - Synchronicity

King Woman - Celestial Blues

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Card:

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

One of the rare moments where I'm going to read a card at face value - I'm making some snap judgments about people in my life and it's leading to an uncomfortable mental space.

Fuck Buttons Came From the Woods

 

A little Fuck Buttons to start the day. Been awhile since I jammed these guys. Still one of the best electronic shows I ever saw - circa 2010 at LA's Troubador.

 

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Watch:

Tell me this doesn't look like a bowl of fun:

 

Yeah, the 80s Summer Camp Slasher has been done to death, and maybe this won't work as well as the trailer suggests, but when done correctly, with a dash of something new, this genre still makes my blood sing. There's a full write-up over HERE on Bloody Disgusting.

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Playlist:

C-Building Kids - Shitting in the Urinal

Cocksure - Operation C.O.C.K.S.U.R.E.

Metallica - Hardwired

Karl Casey - XX EP

Fvnerals - Let The Earth Be Silent

Fuck Buttons - Tarot Sport

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Card:

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

In order to transform, Understanding and Balance are required. This is kind of what I'm in the middle of at the moment - I've been on a tear working on Shadow Play Book Two, and it's transforming before my eyes. However, while wholly invigorating, the actual act of this Transformation can lead to an overzealous tendency toward flights of fancy. The writing must remain balanced and joined to the inherent understanding I'm developing - in other words, let the book talk through me, and don't get in its way.

Seven Days of Bowie: Day 4 - Tin Machine Live!

 

From the relatively recently released Tin Machine: Live at La Cigale, Paris, 25th June 1989. I never felt like Tin Machine's studio album captured their sound. Not that I ever saw them live, but I distinctly remember their 1991 appearance on SNL, where they performed Bowie's "Baby Universal" and what a little research now shows me was Roxy Music's "If There Is Something" (neither of which I was familiar with at the time, and there's no youtube clip of that second performance online). 

It was that performance, to a 15-year-old stoner who had only the most fledgling radio understanding of David Bowie, that imprinted something on me that would be called upon later in life when I became a full-fledged fan. In fact, Tin Machine was all over Chicago's Loop 97.9 FM rock radio at the time (not sure what song), and I have a  tiny memory of the disconnect between the kind of lackluster energy the track had compared to what I'd seen on SNL. 

Years later, I picked up the group's 1989 eponymous record, and again, felt like something was missing. It's a serviceable record but just does not present the band the way I remembered them from that performance. Then, in 2019, this live album surfaced, and it's perfect. 

Perfect. 

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Watch:

Here's a trailer for the new film from Christopher Smith:

Reminds me - I still need to watch The Banishing, and Black Death has been on my unrequited radar forever; I love Triangle.

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Playlist:

Talking Heads - Fear of Music

Brian Eno & David Byrne - My Life in the Bush of Ghosts

David Byrne & Brian Eno - Everything That Happens Will Happen Today

David Bowie - Black Tie White Noise

David Bowie - The Next Day

Sunn O))) - Pyroclasts

Godflesh - PURE Live

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Card:

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

My recent forays into emotional stability (via re-engagement with yogic discipline) will bolster a partnership and push me further away from the dogmatic thinking that can set in when a routine develops. 

Routines are good and bad. I have definitely established one since moving across the country; however, recently I've become aware that the routine is too entrenched and would benefit greatly from a pattern interrupt. Based on this, earlier in the week I began practicing yoga again. This is something I've flit in and out of over the last twenty years. I use it until I don't need it anymore, move on and eventually come back. However long I stick this time, in just four days, the practice has worked wonders for my body and mind. I can feel things clearing up and my everyday life, absolutely a partnership with K, has become a lot lighter. 

One of the things I initially told K concerned me about our plan to buy a house out in the country (relatively we're not on green acres or anything) was not letting it inadvertently become a prison. We left a lot of friends in L.A. The good news is my Chicago people are only 6.5 hours away, but that still leaves the day-to-day spent primarily in the house, where we both also work from home. So you see how quickly our retreat could become an agoraphobic processing center. 

Maybe this is paranoid, but I'm always on the look out for what I call "Life Traps." People maneuver themselves into situations that look good when juxtaposed with their current circumstance, the good in which they've probably grown blind to due to repetition and routine, and they take steps without considering the long run. In our veritable frenzy to get out of LaLaLand, I became hyper aware of the possibility we might be jumping into just such a trap. The good news is, just being aware of this stuff usually helps to mitigate it. 

But diligence is required. 

Thus, I'm looking at shaking up the small routines in favor of creating a bigger picture. To quote Special Agent Dale Cooper:

"I've been doing a lot of thinking lately. And I've started to focus out beyond the edge of the board. On a bigger game." 

Today's Pull definitely makes me feel as though I am moving in the right direction.

Evil Dead Rise Trailer!!!

How about a little Talking Heads to start the day before we get into my picks for NCBD and the trailer? One of my favorites from Fear of Music!

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NCBD:

A very quiet NCBD this week.

Two more issues left after this one, and things are due to start heating up! Hoping for some INSANE monster action, and this cover certainly suggests that's just what we'll get in issue #3 of Jeremy Haun, Jason A. Hurley and Jesus Hervas's The Approach!

I'm having a hard time ascertaining whether this is just the final issue of X-Men: Red before the X-Books get a three-month remake in the Sins of Sinister storyline (aka Age of Apocalypse), or this is the final issue of that book altogether. I'm hoping it's the former.

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Watch:

EVIL DEAD RISE TRAILER!!! 'Nuff said!

Can't freaking wait! I am a BIG fan of Fede Alvarez's Evil Dead 2013 (it's not a remake!), and I expect with Raimi, Campbell and Tapert all Producing again, this will be no different! 

So many DISGUSTING images! The Scalp! The cheesegrater!

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Playlist:

Bedridden - Soft Soap

Catherine Wheel - Ferment

Metallica - Hardwired... To Self-Destruct

Fvnerals - Let the Earth Be Silent (pre-release singles)

Ministry - Moral Hygiene

Various - Snow Day: Upcoming Every Day (Is Halloween) playlist

Zonal - Eponymous (single)

Zonal - Wrecked (instrumental side)

Lorn - Rarities

Ozzy Osbourne - Patient No. 9

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Card:

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

Emotional Breakthrough via applying learned knowledge but being careful not to be too dogmatic about the approach.