Stephen Sanches - High

 

Here's one K found recently and I am completely enamored with. If you're like me and feel compelled to make "Best of the Year" lists, then you probably know that the rule of thumb is traditionally, the moment you post your "Ten Favorite Albums of the Year," you'll come across a new one that should have been on it. That is most definitely the case with Stephen Sanchez's Angel Face. K's a huge Twin Temple fan, and it was on some social media page or feed dedicated to them that she ran across Mr. Sanchez's music. The moment I heard this, I was in love!

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Read:

My month in L.A. essentially served as a complete pause on Acceptance, the third and final volume in Jeff Vandermeer's Southern Reach Trilogy. 

Despite my gusto for Vandermeer's writing, I found myself having a difficult time concentrating while I was there. Off nights where I stayed in the hotel - of which there were purposely quite a few - I advanced a handful of chapter but never made any significant progress. So, now home and properly rested, I took to finishing Acceptance over the weekend and am happy to report that, while the second book, Authority, remains my favorite of the three, the entire cycle is an outstanding example of Literary Science Fiction meeting Literary Horror. Really deep concepts of self, authority, defiance and human nature at play, with some genuinely horrific ideas executed in a generally psychologically disturbing manner. Although, there are some real visceral moments, as well. The kind of "shell game" Vandermeer plays with his characters is endlessly fascinating, as you see people's situations and motivations from multiple angles, back and forth through time. This lends the books an even more surreal quality than they already have, just being based on the concept of a subtle alien presence slowly imitating and replacing all life inside a specified area. 

Next, I'm picking back up with Mary Roach's Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife.  

This is a loaner from Mr. Brown that I began to read several months back, but got sidetracked. So far, Roach's writing is very approachable for a layman like myself, and I enjoy her personality quite a bit. We start off in India, researching/interviewing possible cases of reincarnation. 

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Playlist:

Tangerine Dream - Sorcerer OST

Genghis Tron - Dream Weapon

Richard Einhorn - Shockwaves OST

Blut Aus Nord - Memoria Vetusta I: Fathers of the Icy Ages

Turnstile - Glow On

The Bronx - (II)

Ministry - Filth Pig

Firebreather - Under A Blood Moon

Nobuhiko Morino - Versus OST

Stephen Sanchez - Angel Face

Double Life - Indifferent Stars

Witchfinder - Hazy Rites

Run the Jewels - RTJ4

The Plimsouls - Everywhere At Once

The Police - Synchronicity

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Card:

Back to the classic Thoth for today's Pull:

• 10 of Swords - Ruin

• V: The Hierophant

• Princess of Swords

The hasty revelation of a 'secret' results in a negative experience. 

Wow. Okay. The surprise I was going to reveal this week is going to wait until I put a little more time into it. Well-timed, Thoth. Well-timed.

Falling From the House of Usher

 

I'd never heard of British electronic artist Sampha until Mr. Brown messaged me about him a few days ago. Upon checking out his new album Lahai, I'm sold. I'm always looking for the next Burial, and although in no way would I compare this record to Untrue, there's definitely some shared DNA. Spacious, floaty and a beautiful approach to the vocals and backing textures, this record drifts along at a slow speed so you can be sure to catch all the gorgeous sonic scenery that populates each track. Throw in some really tight bass lines and beats to boost the tempo now and again, and this one is a perfect late-night, winding-down record. You can pick this one up at the shop HERE.

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Watch:

I watched the first two episodes of Mike Flanagan's The Fall of the House of Usher on Friday and quickly dismissed the show as "not for me." I have issues with the last few Flanagan Netflix projects and am actually looking forward to him shaking up his paradigm with his new deal at Amazon. 

Yet, I kept thinking about it all day Saturday. So I went back and watched two more. I was destined to finish this anyway, as we're recording an episode on it for The Horror Vision this coming Thursday night. Regardless of that, episodes three and four smoothed over some of the rough edges. Then, yesterday K started the show from episode one, and I sat through 1-4 for a second time. Not sure what my problem was on Friday, but I was 100% wrong. This one is fantastic!

One of my initial problems was that the creators seemed hellbent on critiquing the "Hedonism of the Rich," which, to me, is a moot point. We're well over a decade into kardashians and their public sex tapes/church scams/meltdowns. It's old news. The first two episodes of Usher really spend a lot of time making this point, and it feels goofy. Also, since Midnight Mass, Flanagan's characters spend a lot of time making grand soliloquies, and for me, they don't always work. 

These are minor grievances, though. 

One of the things I'd forgotten about Flanagan's style is he plays a long game, dropping bits that seem inconsequential or startling for the sake of being startling at the time and really don't come together until the end. This has been in his work almost from the beginning; I first discovered him by randomly watching Absentia circa 2012. That one put his name at the top of my "Directors to watch" list so that, in 2013, when Oculus hit theatres, I sat alone in a theatre on opening day. Oculus was definitely one I had to adjust to; my first viewing was, a lot like watching these first two Usher episodes, an exercise in frustration for me because I was rushing the story. When I eventually rewatched Oculus on video, I realized it was fantastic and essentially the template for everything the Director would do going forward. 

Also, it seems this "watch the first half and then watch it a second time before you continue" is a sound strategy for Flanagan's work, as in looking back through old posts here, I found THIS about The Haunting of Hill House:

"K and I plowed through the first five episodes of the Netflix/Mike Flanagan epic The Haunting of Hill House. I was a bit uncertain at first, but quickly came around. It has Flanagan's time weaving technique, the one that makes Occulus so unique. I dig it, probably not as much as I'd hoped I would, but for watching five episodes in a binge -something I haven't had the time to do in forever - it was good. We wanted to make it through the first five because an article popped up last week HERE on Bloody Disgusting where Flanagan suggests people watch the first five, then go back and watch them again before continuing on to episodes 6-10. This is based on a revelation in ep. 5 that changes the way you will see things in the first half if you watch them again with that in mind."

The point of all this, then, is to tell you that if you haven't watched this one yet, and if you can find the time, watch episodes 1-4 of Usher once, then restart them and continue through to the end. I'm about halfway through six and extremely invested; none of my previous complaints have even occurred to me since that first failed viewing on Friday.

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In order to fully appreciate Flanagan's adaptation of Poe's work, I also picked up a $1.99 Kindle "Complete Works" for Poe, as my hardcover copy has long ago been lost to the aether, and all I still have is the paperback copy of the 1980 Signet Classic edition I've had since High school:

There are quite a few cheap Kindle editions of the complete works, and all of them will contain the main stories adapted here. So far, I've re-read Usher and The Masque of the Red Death, and it's been quite interesting to see what Flanagan and his writers pulled from each for the show. I'm looking forward to diving into Murders in the Rue Morgue next. 

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Playlist:

The Misfits - Collection I

The Cramps - RockinnReelininAucklandNewZealandXXX (Live)

Cocksure - TVMALSV

Anthrax - Among the Living

The Cramps - Smell of Female (Live)

Deafheaven - New Bermuda

The Heartwoods Institue - Unburied Bane (thanks, Tommy!)

Deth Crux - Bloody Christmas (single)

Bryce Miller - City Depths

Seashore Darkcave - Synthtales

Ulver - Teachings In Silence

Ulver - Bergtatt

Silent - Modern Hate

Greg Puciato - Mirrorcell

Loathe - I Let it in and It Took Everything 

Gazelle Twin - Black Dog

Umberto - Prophecy of the Black Widow

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New Music from †††!!!

††† dropped the title track from their new album! You can snatch this up directly from the band HERE. I'll admit the way ††† have been releasing songs, I was a bit confused as to what was the EP and now the full-length. Either way, it's good to have Chino's "other" band cranking music out, as their nine year hiatus left me wanting a lot more.

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31 Days of Halloween:

1) When Evil Lurks/VHS 85/Adam Chaplin

2) Tales From the Crypt Ssn 1, Ep 6 "Collection Complete"

3) VHS

4) All You Need is Death

5) Slashers (2001)

6) The Beyond/Phenomena

7) The Convent

8) Evil Dead 2

9) The Autopsy of Jane Doe

10) Totally Killer

11) Ritual (Joko Anwar)/The Final Terror/Grave Robbers

12) Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (w/Joe Bob)

13) Never Hike Alone/Never Hike in the Snow/Never Hike Alone 2

14) Puppetman

15) Creepshow Season 4 Episode 1

16) Return of the Living Dead

17) Don't Look Now

18) When Evil Lurks

19) Barbarian

20) Demons 2/All Hallows Eve

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Read:

While I'm still dabbling away at the last ten percent of Clive Barker's The Scarlet Gospels (I hate to say this, but it's awful beyond what I ever could have imagined), I couldn't help but begin reading Weird Walk's new, collected tome. 

If you are not familiar with Weird Walk, it's a British zine whose contributors walk the countryside in an effort to reconnect with the natural world of their ancestors. The ideology behind this often has to do with a hauntological approach to innoculating the failings of the present with the knowledge of our past. To quote the book's preamble:

"In Britain today we live in thrall to timetabels and technology, our lives increasingly scheduled and surveiled. Much of the population live in towns and cities (83 percent as of 2019), disconnected from the rural lives of our ancestors...The accepted notion in our modern present is that any kind of magical thinking... belongs to an older age...We are conditioned to push back against any sense of innocent bewilderment with nature and it's mysteries... If ubran and suburban surroundings reinforce this desacralised thinking, it follows that a shift to more pastoral realms might be a first step towards opening the door to re-enchantment."

As I said, the initial format of Weird Walk is an almost pamphlet-like paper zine. Seeing the content recreated in this gorgeous hardcover brick feels like a massive accomplishment for intellectual thought; the kind of victory that, in 2023, feels far too scarce.

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Playlist:

My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult - I See Good Spirits and I See Bad

Cristobal Tapia De Veer - Smile OST

Bauhaus - Burning From the Inside

Prince - Sign O' the Times

Deth Crux - Mutant Flesh

Rein - Reincarnated

Halloween Spotify Playlist

Ulver - Teachings In Silence

††† - Good Night, God Bless, I Love U, Delete

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Card:

During my recent travels I had to rely on the Mini-Thoth deck my good friend Missi gave me. It'd been a minute since I'd used this one; I carry it with me daily, however, my daily Pulls usually occur at my desk, and I have my Bound Tarot and full-size Thoth there, so I hardly ever pull the travel deck out of my backpack. Using it again, I realized I have a bit of a disconnect from the cards, so I'm trying to remember to use it at least once a week.

Lots of big themes at play today. We have Change, Will and - in this case at least - I'm reading Trump IV as Exploration. This fits. My parents are in town, and we're looking for a house for them now that theirs is sold. The deadline is coming up fast, so there's definitely a feeling that our shoulder is against the grindstone (moved by Will alone). My Father is expressing doubts they can pull this off, but I have no doubts whatsoever - here's our path forward. Heed the cards.

Picture 

New Music from Rein!!!

 

From the forthcoming album God is a Woman, out November 30th. You can pre-order the album from Rein's Bandcamp HERE.

I first discovered Rein at 2022's Cold Waves, and was pretty blown away by her performance. Since then, REINCARNATED has been in regular rotation, so I was happy to see this new track and subsequent announcement of the follow-up.

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31 Days of Halloween:

The next chapter in Womp Stomp Films's Friday the 13th sequel series, Never Hike Alone dropped today! I backed this on Indiegogo a couple years ago and can't wait to receive my Blu-Ray copy. Until then, it's free for everyone on YouTube. Give these folks some love! Not only are Director Vincent Disanti's films better than, oh, probably 98% of F13's actual studio-produced films, but he managed to entice Thom Matthews back to play Tommy Jarvis in the ultimate rematch. Here's the trailer:

Pretty sure I'll be rewatching Never Hike Alone and Never Hike in the Snow tonight right before this 'final chapter' drops. 

Was supposed to take K to see When Evil Lurks last night at the local Regal, but our 7:30 PM show was canceled last minute, so I'm hoping we'll have a chance before it leaves the theatre next week. I know it hits Shudder on the 27th, but I really wanted her to see it on the big screen and to send the message to the theatre that YES! There are people here who want to see crazy Argentinian Horror at the movies!!! Due to the cancellation, we went with Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers. This is one I never thought I'd watch, however, I was editing the first episode of the new Drinking with Comics when this came on Shudder TV in the background. I got sucked in, then realized Joe Bob had done this film (and part 5) a few years ago in his "Halloween Hootnanny," so I promptly restarted it with Joe Bob. Truth be told? I don't care much for any of the original Halloween films that feature MM (love part 3; Atkins forever!), so this was... whatever. 

1) When Evil Lurks/VHS 85/Adam Chaplin

2) Tales From the Crypt Ssn 1, Ep 6 "Collection Complete"

3) VHS

4) All You Need is Death

5) Slashers (2001)

6) The Beyond/Phenomena

7) The Convent

8) Evil Dead 2

9) The Autopsy of Jane Doe

10) Totally Killer

11) Ritual (Joko Anwar)/The Final Terror/Grave Robbers

12) Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (w/Joe Bob)

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Watch:

Holy cow, guess what? Drinking with Comics is back! The impetus for this is simply, I read a lot of comics I'd like to talk about, but many of them do not fit into either The Horror Vision or A Most Horrible Library, so here we go!

This was a lot of fun to do, so much so that I even gave it a few tweaks and threw it up on the new Drinking with Comics TikTok page. Yeah, that's right - DwC is on TkTk, and now I feel like I need a shower.

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Playlist:

NIN - Year Zero

Type O Negative - Dead Again

Fields of the Nephilim - The Nephilim

Bauhaus - The Sky's Gone Out

Halloween Spotify Playlist

Umberto - Prophecy of the Black Widow

Ritual Howls - Into the Water

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Card:

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

• Page or Princess of Pentacles (Disks)

• Justice (Lust)

• XVII - The Star

Creative force alone is not enough; Passion must be tempered against the Lust of Result by rigorous manifestation of idea through Will.

Okay, that's oblique, to say the least. To properly read this, I need to go back to Crowley and Harris's version of the Seventeenth Trump:

This card shows Nuith, Cosmic Mother, manifesting personified. This is not a concept; this is a PERSON. That's the clue here. You take the Earthly "go-get-em!" of the Page or Princess of Pentacles, literally the Earth of Earth, and when you begin mixing it with the creative process and achieve any degree of success, you get excited. I finished the second draft of Black Gloves and Broken Hearts the other day, and I felt like I could punch a planet in half. However, as soon as that charge comes in, so does the lust of result, which any Magickian worth his salt will tell you is exactly how you fuck things up. So, draw inspiration from Nuith, the personification of Night, of space, of turning the ineffable into the tangible. It takes work! Look at her; here's a goddess and she's bailing water, scooping up source material and turning it to crystals or glass or whatever the hell that is the pool around her feet is becoming. Becoming - that's the word. 

C.O.F.F.I.N. - Give Me a Bite

Early last week, my good friend and former Schlitz Family Robinson bandmate Sonny V. sent Mr. Brown and I this track from Australia's Children Of Finland Fighting In Norway, or, C.O.F.F.I.N. The album, Australia Stops, dropped this past Friday, and I have to tell you, the whole thing freakin' kicks some serious face in. Give this one a listen on your favorite music streaming service, and if you dig like I do, you can head over to the C.O.F.F.I.N. Bandcamp page and pick up the album for a pretty easy $18.99 with a mere $5.00 shipping for U.S. Pretty sweet, right? Now, prepare to have your faces kicked!

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Watch:

Bring this on right freakin' now, please!

Last week I scored tickets to a handful of Beyondfest screenings, with more of the RSVP to follow. I'm in Chicago this Friday through Sunday, seeing Godflesh for Coldwaves on Sunday, then boots on the ground for work and debauchery in LaLaLand for two weeks. writer/director Kristoffer Borgli's Dream Scenario is, unfortunately, this year's festival closer on 10/10, so I'll miss it there. That said, this  should be hitting theatres nationwide. 

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Playlist:

Baroness - Stone

C.O.F.F.I.N. - Australia Stops

High on Fire - The Art of Self Defense

Goatsnake - Black Age Blues

Blut Aus Nord - Disharmonium: Nahab

Perturbator - The Uncanny Valley

Lord Huron - Long Lost

Ritual Howls - Virtue Filters

Belong - October Language

Boy Harsher - Careful

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Card:

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.

• XVIII: The Moon

• King of Pentacles

• Ten of Wands

Hidden Aspects of Earthly concerns will require a perfectly harmonized application of Will to harness/overcome. 

I'm not in a headspace to properly decode this today. I'm scattered, and that in and of itself may be where I need to apply that Will in order to make any progress. There's a slowly increasing hum of anxiety surrounding my upcoming 17-day trip away from home, 14 of those in LaLaLand. The last two trips have instilled in me a rising sense of unease when residing in L.A., and that's something I'm dreading.

That said, this trip will not be like the one last March; Beyondfest is back, my good friend and Horror Vision Co-Host Ray is taking a week off work to hang out, and I get to meet frequent Horror Vision collaborator and all-around awesome new friend John Trafton in person! Not to mention, all the other friends I will see. I've spoken here before about the importance of populating your life with Events, and that's definitely how these fall trips are set up, so there should be considerably less time spent sad and lonely in my hotel room, surrounded by the trash-littered landscape of West L.A., basically a post-apocalyptic city at this point. 

Ritual Howls - Dark Ceiling in Tennessee

 

How did I miss the fact that Ritual Howls released a new record back in May??? I'm not sure, but in a way, this is like finding a $100 bill in my pocket. Every track on this is awesome! Released by the always wonderful Felte Records back on May 12, you can order Virtue Falters from the group's Bandcamp HERE. 

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Watch:

Martin Scorsese, one of the last true auteurs from an age that is coming to an end, is known for high-end films. Killers of the Flower Moon looks to be no exception.

Despite the fact that this is an Apple Production, I'm going to assume Scorsese's name will be enough to put this film in theatres. One of the reasons I never bothered with The Irishman is it went straight to netflix and only played very limited engagements in the cinema. Let that be another reminder that netflix considers 'content' all the same; Scorsese's film was even keel with Marie Condo in their book. 

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Read:

I was overjoyed to score a four-issue set of Mark Verheiden's Aliens: Earth War at Rick's Comic City on Wednesday. Despite my love for Predator: Concrete Jungle and the original Aliens Vs. Predator comics Dark Horse published in the late 80s, I never really read their straight-up Aliens titles. Time for that to change.

What has me very excited about this book is the fact that Sam "The Maxx" Keith is the artist! I'm only one issue in, but so far, this direct sequel to James Cameron's Aliens is fantastic - far better than Alien 3, at any rate. Newt's here, Hicks is set up to come aboard, and Ripley is being dragged back out onto LV-426 again. Yeah, the repetition of the setup has since gotten old, but being that this was published in 1990, I'm very much okay with it here. 

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Playlist:

Agnes Obel - Aventine

Happyween Spotify Playlist

Various - Rocktober Blood OST

Ritual Howls - Virtue Falters

Ritual Howls - Into the Water

The Thirsty Crows - Hangman's Noose

C.O.F.F.I.N - Australia Stops (pre-release singles)

IDLES - Joy as an Act of Rebellion

Lord Huron - Long Lost

Lard - Pure Chewing Satisfaction

La Hell Gang - Thru Me Again

Type O Negative - Life is Killing Me

Baroness - Stone (pre-release singles)

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Card:

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.

• Four of Cups

• King of Cups

• Page of Wands

All right, at a glance, cups by looking at the suits, I think I can read this as an overabundance of emotion that needs to be shaped by a clear-headed application of Will. Let's go deeper, though...

Fours indicate stability, but also, that stability can be a bad thing if it's status quo. 

King of Cups is a card I often read as a harbinger of Emotional Conflict. My grimoire entry for King of Cups has this in it, "emotional depths honed by intellect," and that definitely informs my initial read above.

Page of Wands - or Princess of Wands in Thoth - represents the physical aspects of Will, or the Earthly aspects of Fire. In other words, BAGGAGE. The Thoth card features a woman with a massive tiger wrapped around her - weighing her down. I'm always tempted to read that Thoth version as a fierceness that gets in the way - "Misguided Fire," I sometimes call it. This is the wrong approach - when you just keep at something without stopping to apply the other Aspects. Will without Intellect, Emotion and Resources can be destructive. 

End result: Pick your battles and keep your head about you; something will pop up that seems like the right solution, but it may only be the easy one. Very difficult not to apply this (as usual) to my writing. I've just reached a point where I'm entering the final scene of the book, so this is a reminder not to let the finish line confuse the path, which still must be laid a stone at a time, as opposed to rushed for lust of result.

New Music from Wolves in the Throne Room!!!

A gorgeous new video from Wolves in the Throne Room's upcoming EP Crypt of Ancestral Knowledge, out September 29th on Relapse Records. You can pre-order a copy HERE.

Also, and as an aside, pretty sure that's Zartan making an appearance in the video at 2:11.

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Watch:

It's been a slow week for watching stuff; after hearing John Trafton talk about how he's not streaming new content until the WGA strike is over, I decided to follow suit. So no new shows for the last few weeks, which isn't nearly as bad as some might think - yeah, I'm behind or half-complete with several shows - Justified, Secret Invasion - but honestly, I don't really care at all. 

I couldn't make the same pledge for films simply because of everything we cover on The Horror Vision (although if things get too rough for the writers, I may vote to stop covering new studio films altogether and redirect the focus of the show to reassessing older titles). This break in the ouroboros of media consumption has led K and I back outside, where the cooler weather this week has weakened the presence of the marauding mosquitos and allowed us to enjoy our backyard again. Last night, however, the bugs were bad, and we folded back into our couch and watched a flick the other members of The Horror Vision were talking about: Adam Schindler's 2015 home invasion film Intruders.

If you're like me, you've seen this thumbnail pretty much every day since 2015. I don't normally gravitate toward Home Invasion as a subgenre, so I know why I passed this one up. That said, finally seeing it, I can say that I really enjoyed it, and it's not what you think it's going to be. I opted to post an image instead of a trailer because I'd be willing to bet the trailer gives too much away; we went in 100% blind and were pleasantly surprised.

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Playlist:

The Cure - Pornography

Anthrax - State of Euphoria

Testament - Low

Perturbator - Lustful Sacraments

Mastodon - Leviathon

Bluekarma - The Communication

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Oracle:

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

• XIV: Temperance (Art in Thoth)

• Ten of Wands

• V: The Hierophant

Easy associations this morning; a reminder to employ patience and consider the ideas of others (my folks) as I barge into the situation this weekend and attempt to fix a problem we have with the person representing the sale of their house. The Hierophant is the dogma of my own ideas, whipping my preconceived notions into a frenzy that, if left untempered, could lead to a Willful disaster. 

Just for perspective, I thought I'd pull Thoth today, as well:

• XVI: The Tower

• Seven of Wands

• XVIII: The Moon

A very similar reading as above (or, I suppose it's just my inclination for interpretation, after all, that's what Tarot is - it's not occult information from an outer source, but a way to bypass the conscious mind with symbols and associations and peak at what's already in your mind that you might be refusing or unaware of).

The Tower here represents the Idea I have in my head (the one that the first Pull warned me against giving too much credence to). The Seven of Wands is a Victory (sevens always are some kind of Victory or turning point because their Sephirotic association is Netzach) over that untempered Dogma (Hierophant). The Moon is almost always a nod to unconsidered or occluded information. I'm taking that to mean that while the person I have an issue with is definitely operating at their own agenda, there's more to the story than just their being a cunt.

New music from Helmet!!!

 

New music from Helmet! Holy smokes, thanks be to Mr. Brown for putting this one on my radar, because I've kind of fallen off Helmet the last few years. If their upcoming album Left is anything like this first single, we're in for a treat. Out November 10th on Earmusic, you can pre-order the vinyl HERE.

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Watch:

The V/H/S series returns to Shudder on Friday, October 6th. Here's the trailer that dropped yesterday:

 

I find this series super hot and cold. The most recent entry, V/H/S/99, proved pretty polarizing for me; I really dug a few of the stories and didn't care for the rest. That said, I'm always game to see what gets included in these flicks, and often find directors just starting out (Chloe Okuno comes to mind).

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Playlist:

Lustmord - Berlin

Walter Rizzati - House By The Cemetery OST

Telekinetic Yeti - Primordial

Blut Aus Nord - The Work Which Transforms God

Windhand - Grief's Infernal Flower

Blut Aus Nord - Disharmonium: Nahab

Soundgarden - Badmotorfinger

Fen - Monuments to Absence

Helmet - Holiday (pre-release single)

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Oracle:

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

• Knight of Swords

• Eight of Cups

• XVIII The Moon

Balancing the Creative energies with the Sharp edge of Intellect yields emotional transformation on matters at this point, unrecognized or obscured.

No idea how to apply this one at the moment, but then I guess that's why it's 'unrecognized or obscured.' The Moon is a favorite of mine - it tends to cast light in dark corners. Digging a bit deeper, I have a notation in the Grimoire that says the following for the Eight of Cups: 

"As advice - let it go. Don't cling to what's written." 

Well now, that would seem to add some clarification, as I just performed a major overhaul on something in the book, had to get rid of about eight thousand words of 'what's written.' Didn't cling, so I'm on track. Still not sure how that fits in with the other cards at the moment, so I'll be keeping my eyes peeled. 

New Music from Myrkur

From the upcoming album Spine, out October 20th on Relapse Records. Pre-order Spine HERE.

I'm not 100% on this track yet; I've really liked Myrkur's previous records, however, there's something about the hook in this that feels borrowed from Madonna. Not necessarily a bad thing, but it's rubbing at me a bit. I can't wait to hear the entire album when it's released in October.

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NCBD:

Here are my picks for this week's NCBD:

No idea what this series 'is,' however, with classic Jean Grey a la X-Factor scribe Louise Simonson penning it, I'm in.

Newburn's return last month reminded me how much I dig Chip Zdarsky and Jacob Phillips's street-level tale of a fixer who has - potentially at least - grown too big for his britches. Can't wait to see how the story continues to wind its way around Newburn - and his unweary assistant Emily's - throats.

The first issue of Tenement felt kind of like a gift; after a graphic novel (The Passageway) and a mini-series (Ten Thousand Black Feathers), we're finally getting a little more than just tone from Jeff Lemire and Andrea Sorrentino's ambitious, sprawling Bone Orchard Mythos. Don't get me wrong, I love tone. I'm not a person that needs a plot in order to enjoy a well-written comic or novel. That said, there are gottasees set up in those two previous entries into this Mythos that make me think the reveals will be INSANE, so I'm kind of chomping at the bit with this one. Tenement looks to be the chapter to finally drag some of that out into the light.

            

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Watch:

A new trailer for Neon Release's upcoming It Lives Inside dropped yesterday.

        

Releasing in theatres on September 22nd, I have a pretty good feeling about this one. Just like the last trailer that dropped for this one, I only needed a moment before I turned it off and knew I'd be seeing it. Directed by relatively newcomer Bishal Dutta, there's a buzz around this one that reminds me a bit of the buzz for Talk to Me. Could be a really nice Autumn entry into the year's Horror.

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Playlist:

Ozzy Osbourne - Diary of a Madman

Metallica - 72 Seasons

Myrkur - Like Humans (single)

Sinéad O'Connor - I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got

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Card:

• Eight of Swords - Interference

• Prince of Wands

• Queen of Swords

I'm pretty tempted to read this in a very surface-level manner. I've got two big ideas, or influences, interrupted in the middle by Interference. I made some HUGE revelatory thinking about the novel yesterday, just some enormous stuff, but didn't write. I've got a couple days' worth of inertia from not writing while I was in Chicago for a wedding (drove in Friday, drove out Sunday, thus, I literally had no time to write). Also, I continue to experience what I can only classify as major anxiety primarily shaped around my parents' eventual move, so I've been treating that with edibles. I don't write when I'm high, so the anxiety is an Interference while large ideas hang in the balance. 

Will be writing today for sure.

 

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Baroness - Shine

 

Baroness dropped another new track from their upcoming Stone, out September 15th. I'm really digging everything I've heard so far, and I adore this album art for this one; every album features Frontman John Dyer Baizley's paintings and all of them are fantastic. This one does something specific for me, apparently. Pre-order Stone HERE.

 

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Watch:

Based on the description Bloody Disgusting gives in a recent article, I'm a little afraid of Karim Ouelhaj's new film Megalomaniac. That said, I made it about 7 seconds into the trailer and knew I wanted to see it:

 

That imagery, whatever it is, took my breath. I won't be watching any more of the trailer, but you can. You can also read the BD article HERE, or Meagan Navarro's review of the film HERE. I'm literally doing none of that. Megalomaniac is receiving US theatrical distribution on September 8th via Dark Star Pictures, although I'm fairly certain it will be limited and I won't get it here in Clarksville, so I'll be keeping an eye open on VOD streaming platforms.

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Playlist:

Cristobal Tapia De Veer - Smile OST

Perturbator - Dangerous Days

Windhand - Eponymous

Count Gorgann - Corpse Eater: Satanic Misery Live for the Dead

Various - Lords of Salem OST

Perturbator - Lustful Sacraments

Melvins & Lustmord - Pigs of the Roman Empire

        

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Card:

About to head out for the six-plus hour drive up to Chicago for the weekend, so just a quick (but important) Pull. I still try and use Missi's Raven Deck for occasions such as these, where Arcana is all I really need:

 

Don't struggle against change. Prescient for sure, for reasons I won't go into here.
 

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Brian Jonestown Massacre Cover The Raveonettes!

How freakin' awesome is this? I mean, I'd rather have had a new Raveonettes record drop, but I'll take an all-star covers version of their debut, no problem. The list of participants here is fantastic, so it was hard to choose a track. Rip It Off is available everywhere now - rejoice!

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NCBD:

I'm pretty pumped for this week's NCBD. Here's why:

Once again I'd like to acknowledge how full of shit I am when it comes to my constant refrain of, "I'm jumping off this Ghost Rider book." Issue 16 had another total Clive Barker undercurrent to it, and the Ghost Rider/Wolverine: Weapons of Vengeance continued that (in a way), even though it did not do what I keep hearing about, the Weapon Plus (formerly erroneously referred to as the Weapon X) program reinstating with technology culled from Hell itself by Infernal Labs. I mean, that concept could be so freakin' Metal! Will it? Maybe. Either way, I guess I'll be around to see.

Nothing but good things to say about this one. Every issue of SIKTC comes and goes so quickly, I'm constantly wanting more. And that cover! This is one of the variants, but I'm hoping to snag one; very reminiscent of those House of Slaughter "Body Bag" covers last year.

Love the new, post-Armaggedon Game direction TMNT is taking. Between recent issues of this, the recently completed Last Ronin: Lost Years going out on such a high note, and all the various plotlines at play, I feel like we've weathered the crossover/event storm and finally gotten back around to some solid month-to-month storytelling!

I was not going to read this new iteration of Uncanny Avengers, then I found out Gerry Duggan is writing it. For me, that makes it worth giving the book a chance. The playing field is certainly aligned to make this a great book: how does Captain America stand beside mutants before a world Orchis has pretty much engineered to fear and hate them? This isn't like the old school, 'feared and hated' throughline that has haunted the X-books since the beginning; mutants are now globally blamed for terrible crimes against all of humanity, so I'm thinking the term "race traitor" is going to get thrown in Cap's face quite a bit. Of course, one of the things that makes Cap an evergreen character is his resolute adherence to his principles in the face of any and all odds and injustices. None of that means the book will be to my liking, however, Duggan's X-Men is such an outstanding read, how can I not give this a chance?

X-Men: Red continues to be one of the three most fascinating Marvel books I've read in a loooong time. The sheer grandiosity of Al Ewing's approach here, where so much is unrecognizable as X-continuity and so much is new, cosmic ground, is often breathtaking. This month's A cover says it all: I was never a Nova fan, but his inclusion in this book, along with all these intensely fascinating Arraki characters (never mind that I can't remember any of their names besides Jon Ironfire) make a far more interesting dynamic than just a bunch of the same old mutants. Add to that Apocalypse's apparent return, and I'm quite certain this will be another outstanding issue. 

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Watch:

When the most recent issue of Fangoria showed up on my doorstep a few weeks ago, one of the first articles I read was Jacqueline Castel's "A Very Modern Prometheus," a conversation with Birth/Rebirth director Laura Moss about her new take on Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. Of course this put the film on my radar, so I was pleased to see an article on Bloody Disgusting this morning reporting the film hits Shudder this Friday, August 18th.

 

I love modern takes on the classic Frankenstein story. As per my new distrust of trailers, I turned this off at 1:11; I don't need to see any more to know I'll be watching this.
 

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Playlist:

bunsenburner - Rituals

Telekinetic Yeti - Primordial

Mudhoney - 

Various - The Raveonettes Present: Rip It Off

Wesley Willis - Feel the Power

Mudhoney - Live at Third Man Records

High On Fire - The Art of Self Defense (remix/remaster)

Deftones - Gore

Blackbraid - Blackbraid II

Testament - Low

Testament - Demonic

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Card:

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

• Six of Wands

• XXI: The World

• XIX: The Sun

Six of Wands is a harmonization of Will, an achieved balancing point from which magnificent things can happen. Juxtapose that with The World (The Universe in Thoth-speak), and we see a massive overhaul of something coming up, especially when taken with The Sun, a card of revelations.

 

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bunsenburner - Rituals

Sometimes the algorithm works in our favor (even if it will ultimately undo humanity completely). Case in point - bunsenburder's Rituals popped into my youtube feed last Friday. The front cover artwork reminded me of Genghis Tron's Dead Mountain Mouth, so I clicked play.

Forty-Seven minutes later I was left pretty much in awe. 

You just won't believe where this one goes based on how it begins. I LOVE this band! Hailing from Freiburg Im Breisgau, Germany, here's the bio taken directly from their Bandcamp:

"bunsenburner evolved into an ever-rotating and expanding hive mind initially conceived and realised by the bassist and producer Ben Krahl in 2012."

Kinda sounds like a description of The Ocean early on in their career, right?

There's stuff on Rituals that reminds me of early Jucifer albums, of The Sword, of Angelo Badalamenti, The Calexico... the list goes on, and while it's not my intention to drown bunsenburner's music in comparisons - because honestly, that's not really possible with so unique an outfit as this, especially after you begin digging through their previous albums - I wanted to give folks enough to make them seek these guys out. 

You can pick up a limited edition cassette copy of Rituals on the Bandcamp HERE, or also support the band digitally. 

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Watch:

Cinematic Void dropped a trailer for Up All Night - every Saturday this October, the Cinemadness movie will run on the Cinematic Void youtube channel HERE. 

I can't say enough good things about Cinematic Void. Founder James Branscome does some of the best programming in the states in my opinion, and now that he's expanded from being L.A.-centric to including The Music Box in Chicago and other cities like Boston, I really wanted to help spread the word a bit farther afield. Check the Void out online and if you follow them over on FB, Twitter or Instagram and see a show close to you pop up, check it out. Also, as I've mentioned here plenty of times previously, the Cinematic Void Podcast is one of the best cult/Horror/exploitation podcasts out there. You can find them on Apple Podcasts HERE or Spotify HERE and, of course, the show is available pretty much anywhere else you might get your podcasts.

Also, and I just discovered this myself, The Void has a pretty awesome Big Cartel shop HERE.

  

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Playlist:

The Hives - The Death of Randy Fitzsimmons

High on Fire - The Art of Self Defense (remix/remaster)

King Woman - Celestial Blues

bunsenburner - Rituals

Final Light - Eponymous

Trauma is Trauma: A Mental Health Talk with Kevin Smith

Metallica - 72 Seasons

The Besnard Lakes - The Besnard Lakes Are the Prayers For the Death of Fame EP

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

Blackbraid - Blackbraid II

Julee Cruise - Floating Into the Night

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Card:

• Three of Disks:Work

• I: The Magus

• Queen of Disks

The Three of Disks indicates successful growth, although I'm always quick to add that growth will come as the result of some kind of labor. Not necessarily hard, physical labor. In this case here, the card's referencing my own mental labor, as I try and twist the disparate elements I've set up in the new novel and have them coalesce into the climax I can feel, but can't quite 'see' yet.

The Magus indicates, of course, that Magick will come in handy. I know this; my Magick IS the work and my commitment to it, because as so many Chaos Magicians have told us, from Hine to Moore to Spare, it's all about The Will.

The Queen of Disks reminds me to be emotionally grounded during this period. This is a direct reference to a kind of mini disassociative state that can sometimes swallow me when I'm so zeroed in that I drive myself crazy because, as Life would have it, I just can't always work on what I want to based on, you know, the day job, family, friends, etc. A good reminder.

 

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New Music from 16 Horsepower's David Eugene Edwards!

Well, I totally fucked up Marty and Drexel's Live Music Week, so here's some new music from former 16 Horsepower's David Eugene Edwards. 

It's hard to imagine a band and album that affected me more in the early 00s than 16 Horsepower's Low Estate. I love everything they did, and everything David Eugene Edwards followed that band in Wovenhand, and now everything he's released under his name (which is still also known as Wovenhand? I'm not really sure). But everything has been chasing that feeling I got the first time I heard "Brimstone Rock" and the thirteen songs that follow it. But that's the thing with an artist like Edwards - he makes such a deep impact upon introduction because his approach, his songwriting, his tone and his lyrics all combine to make such a signature sound, that it's similar to but completely unlike anything you've heard before until you hear him. So too with this new track from the forthcoming album Hyacinth, out September 29th on Sargent House. Pre-order HERE.

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Watch:

I watched a couple flicks over the weekend, but none I enjoyed more than 2018's The Meg:

When I saw this in the theatre upon its original release, I didn't really care for it. Didn't hate it, but nothing about The Meg grabbed me at the time. After hearing Ben Wheatley is directing the sequel, and after seeing a trailer for Meg 2: The Trench a few weeks ago and really digging it (I can't turn the deep sea trench thing down, and there appears to be a lot more of that in this film), K and I decided to rewatch the first movie. You know what? LOTS of fun. I don't know if I was just in a more accepting mood because of my interest in the sequel, but I really had a good time with The Meg this time. 

 

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Read:

Less than one hundred pages from the end, I can tell you that Stephen Graham Jones's Don't Fear the Reaper is one of the best sequels ever! 

I blew through almost two hundred pages yesterday, which wasn't easy to do as we had guests visiting from out of town. This is one of those carry-it-everywhere-and-read-it-any-chance-you-get novels, and I am 100% riveted. If you've still not read My Heart is a Chainsaw and you love literature, Horror novels, Slasher flicks or just a damn good yard, grab that and this in one swoop and dig in. 
        

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Playlist:

Calderum - Mystical Fortress of Iberian Lands

Led Zeppelin - Eponymous

Led Zeppelin - IV

The Door - L.A. Woman

Dean Hurley - Anthology Resource Vol. 2: Philosophy of Beyond

Bohren and der Club of Gore - Sunset Mission

Sandrider - Godhead

Perturbator - The Uncanny Valley

John Harrison - Day of the Dead OST

Blackbraid - Blackbraid II

Blanck Mass - Animated Violence Mild

The Dillinger Escape Plan - One of Us is the Killer

The Besnard Lakes - The Besnard Lakes are the Roaring Night

Johnny Cash - Live at San Quentin

Various - The Daptone Super Soul Revue LIVE at the Apollo

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Card:

• Three of Disks: Works

• Five of Cups: Disappointment

• Ten of Cups: Sobriety

I'm having self-doubt that I can pull off this new novel the way I want to. That's a bit vague, but the cards definitely seem to be referencing this fear. There is a height I feel as though this story can attain, I'm just not sure I'm completely on the path to achieving that. Which would be a shame, because if I finish it and it's not what I want, I'll have to take a break for a while and come back to it. The Three of Disks indicate success through effort but juxtaposed with disappointing results. The Ten of Cups indicates perfect alignment, which leaves me needing a clarifying card:

• XVII: The Star indicates a turning point for the positive. Also, from the grimoire:

"Fulfillment - when this comes up, go for your dreams - better than average chance something will pan."

 

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Talk to Me

 

Another new Ghost of Vroom track dropped two days ago, and it's probably my second favorite from the pre-release singles for the upcoming album Ghost of Vroom 3, out September 1st on Mod y Vi Records. You can pre-order the vinyl from Doughty's website HERE.

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Watch:

Last night K and I saw Talk to Me at the local theatre. I am still thinking about it. This was one of those films that afterward, I didn't come home, open a beer and throw something else on. I dug right into those articles in the new issue of Fangoria that I'd been saving. 

Luckily, after seeing the trailer back when it first hit the internet, I have not watched it since, so I barely even remembered anything about this one. There's hype building around it that's turning some folks off, but I'm here to tell you, that hype is deserved. I've seen Beyondfest post on their socials numerous times declaring the first feature by twin brother directors Danny & Michael Philippou as the best Horror film of the summer, and Fangoria put it on the cover of that aforementioned new issue. Also, I've heard there is a lot of viral marketing that somehow I was fortunate enough to have missed. So I went in pretty virgin.

Even if you're inundated with the marketing, I'm recommending you see Talk to Me and you see it in a theatre. The sound design is a large part of how effective the film's unease is - it's LOUD and SHARP and often pummels you in short, declarative bursts. No explosions - just visceral, meaty stabs of sound. The performances are all fantastic, and the overall manner in which the plot unfolds felt fresh to me. 

The Philippous have created a Horror Prop that, in my opinion, has similar potential to Hellraiser's Lament Configuration, so we'll see if we get a sequel. 
            

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Read:

This morning I discovered that there's a new novel on the horizon from Jonathan Lethem, author of a couple books I adore, namely Motherless Brooklyn; Gun, Occasional Music, and Amnesia Moon. Not to mention his batshit crazy Omega the Unknown for Marvel back in the early 00s. 

From the official Publisher's solicitation for the novel: 

"On the streets of 1970s Brooklyn, a daily ritual goes down: the dance. Money is exchanged, belongings surrendered, power asserted. The promise of violence lies everywhere, a currency itself. For these children, Black, brown, and white, the street is a stage in shadow. And in the wings hide the other players: parents; cops; renovators; landlords; those who write the headlines, the histories, and the laws; those who award this neighborhood its name. The rules appear obvious at first. But in memory's prism, criminals and victims may seem to trade places. The voices of the past may seem to rise and gather as if in harmony, then make war with one another. A street may seem to crack open and reveal what lies behind its glimmering facade. None who lived through it are ever permitted to forget. Written with kaleidoscopic verve and delirious wit, Brooklyn Crime Novel is a breathtaking tour de force by a writer at the top of his powers."

Brooklyn Crime Novel drops on October 3, and can be pre-ordered on Indiebound HERE or wherever books are sold. 

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Playlist:

Sigur Rós - Ágœtis Byrjun

Sandrider - Godhead

Sinéad O'Connor - I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got

H6LLB6ND6R - Side A

Ghost of Vroom - Ghost of Vroom 3 (pre-release singles)

Zeal & Ardor - Stranger Fruit

Zeal & Ardor - Eponymous

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Card:

• Knight of Wands

• Six of Swords - Science

• XV The Devil

Will applied to Will, a strengthening of resolve and a healthy dose of knowledge - possibly from a less-than-ideal source or possibly even a dodgy source.

Because I didn't ask a specific question, I have to read this as applying to my current writing project. If you read these pages, you know that's how I usually do Tarot. The specific question thing always seems a bit... dodgy to me (look! The cards are already sussing things out). It works, for sure, but I've never seen Tarot as a mystifying oracle, i.e. Omnipotent third party. I mean, I don't know that anyone who seriously studies the cards looks at them that way, but that's something that's definitely in the air. that said, I've done a specific question or two lately and the resultant Pulls have been spot-on, so it does work. The thing is, that just means I already know the answer to the question, anyway...

How this relates to the current project? Not so sure yet. I'm thinking it has to do with the ending, which exists in a theoretical way, but doesn't quite have the steam behind it for the prose to manifest yet. Perhaps I need to carouse some other works of fiction to look for some kind of jumpstart phrase or idea?

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