Post-Metal - remember when that term was everywhere? Hydra Head Records (RIP) introduced me to a lot of great bands in the late '00s, and one of those was Chicago's instrumental tour de force Pelican. They've been off my radar for some time, but it feels good to rediscover them through a new release this morning!
You can order Flickering Resonance directly from Pelican's Bandcamp HERE.
Watch:
I've become increasingly into Asian Horror over the last few years, and one of my recent explorations therein is the Netflix adaptation of Haro Aso's Alice in Borderland Manga.
I'm completely unfamiliar with the source material, but more than a few friends have recommended this to me, so I finally gave it a go and might be hooked.
Ostensibly another entry into the Battle Royale subgenre, this one also has major Cube vibes right from the jump. I'm a big fan of deserted major cities on film, partly because it must be so hard to pull off, partly because the imagery is often gorgeous and prophetic, and this one opens with a fantastic example. I'm not attached to any of the characters yet, but the opening episode's "Rooms Countdown" sequence is very well done and insanely engaging. Did I actually bite my nails? I might have.
There are currently two seasons of Alice in Borderland on Netflix, with a third on the horizon. Apparently that's a bit of a concern for fans of the book, as Aso's work is completely covered in the first two seasons, but we'll burn that bridge when we get to it.
Cast:
At some point I fell out of the habit of posting the new episodes of Drinking with Comics here, and I realized recently that's just dumb. Mike Shin and I did a new episode this week and it was a lot of fun, so here you go!
We talk this year's Energon Universe FCBD special, Daredevil: Born Again, and finish off our reading and discussion of Grant Morrison's Multiversity, which I still don't like, but at least found a way to stop hating.
Playlist:
Swans - The Glowing Man
PJ Harvey - Uh Huh Her
Cartoonist Kayefabe - Jim Lee's Love Letter to Frank Miller
Cartoonist Kayefabe - First Appearance of Deadpool
Eitrin - Eponymous
Turnstile - GLOW ON
Black Flag - Everything Went Black
Black Flag - My War
Blut Aus Nord - Disharmonium: Undreamable Abysses
Blut Aus Nord - The Work Which Transforms God
Various - Learn to Relax: A Tribute to Jesu
The Damage Manual - Limited Edition
The Coffinshakers - We Are the Undead
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• Four of Wands
• Queen of Pentacles
• V: The Hierophant
Completion can, in and of itself, be a weakness. That's exactly where I'm at. After finishing Black Gloves & Broken Hearts, I was quick to jump back into Shadow Play Book Two and really made some progress for about a week, but now I'm just kind of living off the high of finishing a novel and having a super positive response from my first beta reader. I'm just so fucking happy with how this one turned out; I'm actually considering shopping it to Agents and Publishers. We'll see. In the meantime, The Hierophant completes the consideration by reminding that tapping back into something bigger than myself might help with the creative output. Or, it could be reminding me of the importance of the dogma of ritual, i.e. GO FUCKING WRITE!!!
