The Cowboy and the Hot Air Balloon

 

BIG thanks to Mr. Brown for cluing me in on the fact that there's a new John Doe record out on the always delightful Fat Possum Records. You can order Fables in a Foreign Land HERE. 

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Watch:

Warning: This trailer may give some plot points away.

  

Michael Shannon in the die-hard tropey creepy neighbor role? SOLD.

 

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Read:

I gave up on the book I've been slogging through for the last few months, Helltown by Jeremy Bates. It's well written, it just did not connect with me. I've moved on to a novel I've been wanting to read for years, and which only recently came back into print via Drugstore Indian Press. 

So far, at only about 200 pages into its 608-page runtime, this is every bit as majestic as I'd expected. Klein needs more credit - he's a master of his craft and appears to be setting up a magnum opus that I'd wager influenced Clive Barker's Great and Secret Show, another of my favorite novels. I'd commented on this edition back when I bought it last year, specifically on my fears for its binding, which for this many pages, seems weak. That said, so far so good. 

Also, it's interesting to note that the first and for a long time only story by Klein I had read, Events At Poroth Farm, seems to have been a short born of the author excising and reworking a section of The Ceremonies, probably due to frustration with the novel in its original form, misgivings he has shared publically on more than one occasion.

Also, it should be noted that in checking out DIP's website, I realized they have also reprinted Klein's most heralded volume, the looooooong OOP Dark Gods, which I plan on ordering ASAP. 

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Playlist:

Yerusalem - The Sublime

The Bronx - II

Guns N' Roses - Appetite For Destruction

Black Sabbath - Technical Ecstasy

Deftones - White Pony

Deftones - Saturday Night Wrist

Blut Aus Nord - Hallucinogen

Bexley - Lost in the Moment EP

Bexley - Eponymous

John Doe - Fables in a Foreign Land

Cypress Hill - III: Temples of Boom

Emma Ruth Rundle and Thou - May Our Chambers Be Full

Def Leppard - Diamond Star Halos

Def Leppard - High 'N' Dry

Bauhaus - In the Flat Field

Allegaeon - Apoptosis

Revocations - Teratogenesis

Ozzy Osbourne - Diary of a Madman

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Card:

I always equate this particular card with emotional strength and support, so I'm reading this as it pertains to giving someone else the support they will soon need. 

What Are You Buying for Bandcamp Friday?

 

Here's one of my purchases. It's been a while since I posted anything by these folks, but they're Covers Vol. 5 is for sale on their bandcamp HERE today only and it included this little gem, which is one of my favorites from their ever-growing repertoire. You can also support Two Minutes to Late Night HERE.

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Watch:

Yesterday I woke up with a splitting headache that lasted pretty much all afternoon, so I left work a wee early, had half an Inidca Pro Tab and dozed on the couch. While I flit in and out of sleep, the new, "WWII Haunted Nazi Boat" Shudder exclusive Blood Vessel played. I saw most of it, or at least to recognize its fun attempt at doing for Strigoi what Dog Soldiers is for Werewolves. I wouldn't say that I loved the flick, in fact, I'm not sure I liked all that much about it, but it's well made, if not exactly well written, and I'd definitely be interested to see what the creators do next.

After I'd woke and ridden out the last third or so of Blood Vessel, I hoped around and found a pair of Anthology shows I'd never heard of before and that were pretty good. Here's trailers, and I'll be posting a small piece on them over on TheHorrorVision.com later today.

 

 

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Playlist:

Fen - The Dead Light

The Cure - The Head on the Door

Rollins Band - The End of Silence

Maggot Heart - Mercy Machine

Hall and Oats Greatest Hits

Opeth - Deliverance

Sinioa Caves - Beyond the Black Rainbow OST

For anyone who grew up on the Southside of Chicago in the 80/90s, you undoubtedly remember the more serious of the two Classic Rock stations at that time were 97.9 The LOOP and 105.9 WCKG, 'CKG as everyone called it. I found a lot of lifetime bands that way - Zeppelin, The Stones, etc., but there were also always Classic Rock artists - often ones who had gone solo after aging out of famous bands - that had a few songs amongst their singles that really resonated without turning you into a fan of the artist. My CKG Spotify playlist is kind of an odds 'n sods of such tracks.

A couple of these songs rank among my favorite songs ever, plus, they're fun. Double nostalgia - mine and that I inherited from older folks when I was younger, whose fervor rubbed off on me.

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Card:

The Princess of Cups has the ability to make dreams come true. This is a concept I think most of us in this world have forgotten about, so it's nice to see it here now, when everything seems held hostage by one big question, and so many of my own personal 'plates' from this year are still spinning.

2019: June 12th New Drab Majesty!

The Youtube description for this track calls it the fourth single released so far from Drab Majesty's forthcoming Modern Mirror album. Really? I hadn't realized we were up to four already, I guess primarily because other than the first single, I'm not listening to anything until my actual physical copy of the record arrives. Modern Mirror drops in two Fridays - can't wait.

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Frank Black Appreciation Week continues in these pages with my favorite cut from 2007's Bluefinger, which marked a return to Frank's Black Francis persona. Well, not really a persona in the way, say, Bowie had personas, but Bluefinger definitely marked a change from the post-Catholics Americana vibe Black had been doing. Compared to Fast Man Raider Man, Bluefinger goes back to what I consider a more Pixies-ish approach to songwriting. Several of the tracks on Bluefinger - including this one - veer into similar territory as some of The Pixies' more unstable songs; Threshold Apprehension is nuts in the way Broken Face or Rock Music are nuts.



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So, Slayer is on their "Final Tour." I've lived through this with so many bands, so many times - I was in High School and fairly new to concerts when I attended Ozzy's No More Tours tour, thinking, "Oh my god, I'm going to see Ozzy Osbourne's final tour!"

Hahah.

And so it goes. Fool me once, yada yada. The point being, I doubt this is Slayer's final tour. And in my opinion, the band should have been over when Jeff Hanneman died. But here they are, dry humping a dead and bloated cash cow. I'm not going to say that Slayer doesn't still rule, because despite the fact that I haven't cared about almost any record they've released since Seasons in the Abyss - though Christ Illusion was a pretty nice return to form - I'd wager they still tear shit up live. And so it was that fact and the idea of the possibility the Forum show in Los Angeles - billed as their final show ever - might actually be Slayer's final show - that I tentatively went to the band's website to sign up for their newsletter and get the pre-sale passcode. You know, just to see what tickets are going to cost. And you know what I found? Slayer is charging $20 to join and get the passcode. $30 if you want some stupid poster with the code.

How completely un-fucking-metal.

Retire now guys, before you end up fucking up your legacy. PLEASE.

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Last night I happened to turn on one of Shudder's tv stations just as Ana Asensio's Most Beautiful Island began, so I dug in and followed it with absolutely no expectations. I do not believe I had ever even heard of this film before.

First good sign was Glass Eye Pics put this out. Always a good thing. So I let the story take me for its ride, and I absolutely loved it. Highly recommended. Here's the trailer, which I've vetted to make sure it doesn't show too much. Not that there's a twist, but the film didn't go anywhere I expected it to go, and I loved it for that.



Also, Larry Fessenden has a small part, so that always wins me over.

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Playlist from 7/11:

Mazy Star - So Tonight That I Might See
Balthazar - Fever
Ministry - The Land of Rape and Honey
Slayer - Seasons in the Abyss
Slipknot - Iowa
Zonal - Eponymous (Pre-release Single)
Perturbator - The Uncanny Valley

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Card of the day:

Normally, I don't have a particular question in mind when I do these daily pulls. Instead, I just kind of clear my thoughts for a second and let the card that comes up serve as a portent for the day itself. Today, I wanted to go specific, so as I pulled I thought about a current struggle I've had, namely doing this last read-through with the physical, paperback copy of Shadow Play.

My impetus for doing one last read-through, after just doing another, was the hunch (which proved correct) that reading a novel in physical book form rather than digital would be a drastically different experience, and thus, I would see or catch things I had not in that last digital pass over. And of course, I was correct. Nothing major, but I've already fixed a few minor grammatical errors, as well as at least two spelling errors, on this read. That said, I'm sick to fucking death of reading this book; between this and the short story I began in Spokane, love, but cannot seem to finish, I feel very much held hostage at the moment. Which is zapping my creativity. Ideas are floating to the forefront of my brain daily, and some of them seem so appealing. Plus, it's always invigorating to start something new. So, what do I do? Well, one interpretation of this card is a warning against succumbing to daydreaming, getting lost in flights of fancy, which I definitely take to mean - as my gut tells me - stay on course and do NOT get distracted.

2019: March 11th

I'm about a week late on this one, but there's a new video for one of my favorite tracks on Windhand's 2018 opus, Eternal Return. Oh, who am I kidding? They're all my favorite tracks on this record. Awesome video, as well.

If you grew up in the 80s and 90s like I did, surrounded by shelf upon shelf of mass market paperbacks in the local library and Kroch's and Bentano's, and whatever that other bookstore in the mall was, you know, before the advent of big box, stand-alone bookstores, then you might have an inherent understanding of the horror paperback boom that permeated the pop literary world. You might have an understanding, but probably not of the scope of that boom. Unless you've read Grady Hendrix and Will Errickson's Paperbacks from Hell, in which two things probably happened:

A) You had an extremely entertaining romp through the history of Horror Literature and understand its timeline a hell of a lot better
B) Since reading Hendrix and Errickson's tome, you find yourself occasionally scouring the internet for copies of some of these lost gems, only to find prices repugnant.

But fear not! Valancourt Books has begun a Paperbacks From Hell reprint series - which you can subscribe to - that in most cases will feature the original paperback artwork. For myself, the price point of $16.99 for a MM paperback is better than eBay pricing but still too much for me to pull the trigger, but then again VB has not really solicited any of the titles I want yet, so I'm still keeping my eyes open for some goodies I spied in Hendrix's tome.

BTW - Errickson is a fantastic curator and played a large part in amassing the subject matter of PfH, and his Too Much Horror blog is definitely worth following.

So what are the paperback gems from days gone by that I'm interested in?

Michael McDowell's The Elementals because I am really interested in his Blackwater series, based on the fact that of all the books in Paperbacks from Hell, Blackwater sounds like it might be solid literature. Before beginning a series, however, I'd rather my introduction to McDowell's work be a stand-alone.

Because the pen name Peter Saxon is awesome, and because The Guardians series sound like a lot of fun.

Because the cover is subtle yet absurd and reminds me SO Much of my childhood, when covers like we find on all these books were the wallpaper to my life:

And finally, because I remember holding this one in my hands at a young age back in the early 80s at and almost checking it out of the Worth, Il public library, but never actually doing so.

Satanic Rock bands. Sounds like a great double feature when I finally get around to Hendrix's latest novel:

Playlist from 3/10:

The Besnard Lakes - The Besnard Lakes are the Roaring Night
Exhalants - Eponymous
Firewater - The Ponzi Scheme
Earth - Phase 3 - Thrones and Dominions
John Cale - Black Acetate

Card of the day:

This is a very emotional card in respect to Earthly matters. There's revelation, although it might be confused at first. There's no inherent conflict, except maybe that of emotion taking over for a bit. Not really sure what this is in reference to, but I'll keep my eyes open today and try not to let emotions get the better of me.

2019: January 6th

First available track from The Thirsty Crows' new album Hangman's Noose. My buddy Chris Saunders from The Horror Vision and Drinking with Comics is the Upright Bass player, and set me up with an advance copy of the album. It's fantastic. Read my review HERE on Joup, and pre-order what sounds to me like the first great album of 2019 from Batcave Records HERE.

Playlist from 1/05:

The Thirsty Crows - Hangman's Noose
Iggy Pop - The Idiot
The Teardrop Explodes - Kilimanjaro
Tamaryn - The Waves
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - Damn the Torpedoes
Nick Lowe - Jesus of Cool
Henry Mancini - Charade OST
Steely Dan - Aja
Billy Joel - The Stranger
James Brown Presents - Funky People Part 2
Afghan Whigs - Gentlemen

Card of the day:

Honing emotion with earthly concerns. To me, the cards still seem to be talking about saving money. Of course, if you've been reading these pages long enough, you'll notice I use my interpretations to support whatever is the issue of the moment, i.e. the way every pull for most of last year pertained to finishing the book. The book's now almost done (will today be the day? There'll still be editing, but to type the words "The End"...), and money is on my mind now, because in order to actually save it I will have to be 'full hilt,' so to speak. Frivolous spending is an emotional thing for me; the things I buy are movies, comics, books, records. Not buying them is not easy, but I apply my Earthly ideals and remember that while short term spending feels great, long term will be a longer lasting kind of joy.

2018: September 9th

Starting the day off with a little Led Zeppelin.

Watched a couple great 80s horror flicks yesterday with K and my good friend John who is out visiting. First up:



I love both of the original Demons flicks by Lamberto Bava. The first would rank as my favorite, but mechanics of the horror in two is perhaps odder than the first, with the Demons coming through the television instead of the giant movie screen. In both films, I love the tone of the movie/show the audience is watching and how it kind of reflects their real world and kind of doesn't. There's a weird trans-meta element I can't quite explain, but it really works to make the entire thing creepier. And that's a lesson I often hear repeated - in horror, you don't have to explain everything. Sometimes that takes away from the story (I'm looking at you, Babadook).

Next:



Considerably more solid than you would think, I really enjoyed what I put on expecting a goof from.

Playlist from yesterday:

Secret Chiefs 3 - Book of Horizons
Fred Myrow and Malcolm Seagrave - Phantasm OST
Alice in Chains - Rainier Fog
The Thirsty Crows - EP
Stellar Corpses - Hellbound Heart EP
Stellar Corpses - Respect the Dead EP

Card of the day:

Reinforcing the reading from September 3rd.

2018: September 3rd RIP Conway Savage

Long-time piano player for Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds Conway Savage passed away earlier today, so I thought this performance was doubly in order.

Playlist from 9/02:

Stellar Corpses - Respect the Dead EP
Alice in Chains - Black Gives Way to Blue
Alice in Chains - Rainier Fog
David Lynch - Crazy Clown Time

Card of the day:

As the final card in the suit, the Princess can be seen as the end result of the transformation begun in the Ace. Aces are always breakthroughs to me, in the case of Cups an emotional breakthrough. I feel like this describes where I am; I messaged a friend I haven't seen in a few years out of the blue earlier just to tell him I love him. My cup runneth over with emotion. But it's not schmaltzy or crippling; instead, I my emotional battery feels supercharged, while physically I remain somewhat drained and limited. My daily stretching - which falls by the wayside often of late - still tells me the damage from pulling my Hamstring almost a year ago has still not completely healed and it limits me. This of course causes unsought reflections on aging and mortality, which of course probably explains my current wealth of emotions.

2018: May 7th 10:00 AM

Hide is a band from my home town of Chicago that I discovered last night via Dais Records mailing list. I'm just beginning to delve into their work, but I find they scratch the itch left by bands like Throbbing Gristle, Excepter and, perhaps to a lesser extent but still in the ballpark, Skinny Puppy.

After people recommending it for years and me being a pig-headed hold-out, I've finally finished reading Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale's The Long Halloween. Gave it 5 out of 5 stars on Goodreads; sometimes I dumb.

(The reason I've long held out on reading The Long Halloween is everything I've ever read by Loeb - and granted all of it was well after this and Hush were written - was terrible. Not mincing words, and if you think I am, you try and make it through Ultimates, vol. 3. Go ahead, I dare you).

Oh! Finished Netflix's Dark last night. Holy mother of god, what an ending!!! Now, I need to construct my Dark murderboard so we can re-watch it and I can actually tell the characters apart.

Playlist from yesterday:

Converge - The Dusk in Us
Neon Kross - Darkness Falls
Alkaline Trio - Crimson
Bella Morte - Where Shadow Lie
Hide - Castration Anxiety

Card for the day:

The Earthy aspect of Water. From the Grimoire: "Dreams can become reality. Pay attention to your dreams. Focus thought through them, she can help you follow your intuition."

February 14th 5:03 AM

I don't listen to very many bands' lyrics. That is not the case with Touche Amore.

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Just did the 7 Minute Workout App for the first time. Not bad. After several health issues last year, I'm no longer near as physically fit as I was. Not that I was a bastion of fitness, but I could hold my own. Hopefully this will put me back there and maybe even beyond. Also, although I'm currently in an 'anti-exercise' inertia period, any exercise definitely makes you feel better during the day (after that initial soreness/adjustment period that is). My favorite piece of writing on that is HERE.

The Tuesday the 13th's playlist:

Fen - Epoch
Lantlos - .neon
Touche Amore - Eponymous
Blut Aus Nord - Cosmosophy
Blut Aus Nord - Memorial Vetusta III (Saturnian Poetry)
Sunn O))) - Domkirke
Lustre - Night Spirit

"Mutha fucka must'a thought it was black metal day. It ain't black metal day, is it Marty?"

"Naw man. It ain't black metal day."

Daily words have been rough, as I'm not plowing on ahead now but editing and filling in, tweaking and expanding. Thus, project goal word-counts are near impossible on a week night due to the fact that whenever I cut from the document - which I'm doing plenty of as I snazzy it up - I counterbalance whatever I have written. My addiction to that little "You've met your daily goal" bell is in withdrawal. I pass the doc to Keller this week and then I can focus on my upcoming 3-issue comic collaboration with my good friend John: "The Legend of Parish Fen."

Card of the day:

Two again. This is interesting, and I have to go back and really think about this. I'm curious if this run of two-day pulls might link up to the day last week when a friend asked me for some spiritual help. If so, I need to organize the second pull in each of these into an ad hoc spread and relay the message to her. As for The Star again for me, well, I can only hope life is about to become easier and a path to enlightenment - a vague and wonderfully applicable concept if you throw out the biblical sense of it - doth appear on said horizon after a helpful conversation with a friend and the closing of a loop in my own head, all pertaining to my constant battle with my living situation.