80s Metal Week Day #4: Night Ranger - Don't Tell Me You Love Me

 

Okay, hear me out on this one. Back about the time I graduated High School - 1994 - my girlfriend at the time's older sister was dating my friend Rob. They had a dingy little apartment in Palos Hills, above the iconically scummy Pizza Pub on 103rd and 88th avenue. Their neighbor was an 80s holdover with a super 80s cocaine mustache that listened to Night Ranger. Fancying ourselves as belonging to the indie rock hoi polloi, we nicknamed this poor guy "Night Ranger" and made him the butt of all our jokes. But guess what? This song fucking rocks, and as my A Most Horrible Library cohost Chris Saunders has pointed out, has one awesome guitar solo. Which was definitely important in its era. nearly 40 years later, I'm secure enough in myself to admit, I totally dig this song, too. 

 

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Watch:

I've been on a bit of a "Folk Horror" bender, in both literature and movies, and I started my weekend bender with Arthur Machen's The White People (not about January 6th, 2021), then re-read H.P. Lovecraft's The Festival, one of the best examples of Lovecraft dipping his toes into Folk Horror, and also, probably my second favorite story among his oeuvre. 

Next up, M.R. James' A Warning to the Curious, followed by his classic Oh, Whistle and I Will Come to You, Lad. I'd never read this one before, as James - just like Machen and their contemporary Algernon Blackwood - have been on my radar for the better part of twenty years. I wasn't disappointed. 

Even though I'd never read Whistle, way back circa 2011 or 2012, I was introduced to the story at the  H.P. Lovecraft film fest at San Pedro's timeless Warner Grand, where along with a host of other great Lovecraft/Weird Fiction films, they played the BBC's 1968 adaptation of the story, directed by Jonathan Miller and starring - in a rather iconic role - Michael Hordern as Professor Parkins. This one has stayed with me for ten years or so now, crystal clear in my memory compared to a lot of other movies I watch, and it was quite satisfying to finally read the source material. 

Amazingly enough, the entire thing is on youtube. Here you go:

 

Totally worth your time, Miller's adaptation kind of feels like an extra spooky episode of The Twilight Zone. Now that I've read the story and found this online, my plan is to rewatch it within the next few days.

Finally, I'm working my way through Blackwood's The Willows, which is probably the longest of these stories I've read so far, and isn't really impressing me all that much. Yet. I'm hoping this is just a case of my falling out of sync with the concentration required to shift my mental palate to a place where I can read and enjoy fiction written in slightly outdated vernacular. Just based on this small sampling thus far, I'd have to say James stands out as my favorite of the three. I plan on continuing on, however, even if Phillip Pullman's final book in the original His Dark Materials trilogy is still at 83% on my kindle. I'm not usually one to be so capricious about my reading, but at the moment, I have to go where my passion takes me. 

I'd like to add, if you're at all interested in reading James' work, I've found A Podcast to the Curious to be a wonderful supplemental source for exploring and contextualizing his work.

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Playlist:

Boy Harsher - The Runner OST

Zetra - From Without EP

Talking Heads - Fear of Music 

Author & Punisher - Drone Carrying Dread (pre-release single)

Author & Punisher - Maiden Star (pre-release single)

Author & Punisher - Beastland

Author & Punisher - Women & Children

Drab Majesty - Careless

Zombi - 2020

Zombi - Shape Shift

Zombi - Digitalis

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Card:

While I've never really been a fan of this card as a Pull, seeing it now makes me think there's a bit of tumult occurring in my creative side. That feels right - I've recently finished editing my friend Jen's first novel, and now I have to get myself back into my own groove. I may need to take a different tack than I'm used to if I want to jumpstart myself back onto the road to where I was.

Beware the Silver Coin!

A little old-school Deftones for you. Love this album, but I've fallen into the habit of forgetting about it due to the fact that Apple Music ranks it as "Various Artists" and, thus, puts it in with the "V" artists instead of my other Deftones stuff. Of course, I still have the CD, but with the car stereo out of commission, those aren't nearly as handy as they used to be. Great track. I love the crickets. I'll forever be grateful to Jacob and Jeremy from Blue Karma for convincing me to give this record another chance, back in '06.

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NCBD:

Since Mike Wellman and I brought back Drinking with Comics, I've been buying way more stuff than I normally do. Big Two stuff, even. Later tonight we'll be live-streaming another DwC NCBD run-down on our FB channel, with the edited video to follow tomorrow. In the interim, here are the two surprise big hits this week, both of which I absolutely LOVED.

I don't think I've ever liked a Geoff Johns comic before, but then again, everything I'd be even remotely familiar with would be DC, and I wanted to give the man a chance. Glad I did, because Geiger's first ish knocked my socks off! Great art, and a really cool story, with a super-intriguing final image that guarantees I'll be back for more.

An anthology comic that centers around a cursed (?) silver coin and the various lives it affects, each issue by a different creative team? Well, if this first installment was any indication, I'm in for the duration. I love that this is the second historic (1978) rock band comic horror comic I'm reading at the moment, Home Sick Pilots being the other (90s).

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Playlist:

Judas Priest - Hell Bent for Leather

Judas Priest - Screaming for Vengeance

Blanck Mass - Animated Violence Mild

Anthrax - Persistence of Time

Black Sabbath - Heaven and Hell

Judas Priest - Firepower

Valkyrie - Fear

Windhand - Grief's Infernal Flower

Deftones - Saturday Night Wrist 

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Card:

Insatiable. That feels about right because I'm really unable to concentrate, I'm eating too much, drinking too much, and not writing enough. I think I've run out of patience for this stunted COVID existence. I've been attempting to sign up for Vaccination, but it's mostly just making me frustrated as all hell. Looking toward the horizon and hoping to see better days and a return to productivity.

November 3rd as Portal to the Future

Poignant words from an album I fell in love with in High School. This day will change things going forward. Unfortunately - and I hope to hell I'm wrong here - I'm preparing for either outcome at the polls today to bring domestic terrorism on a scale we've not seen before. Obviously, the preferred outcome is achieved and we step into a new chapter, but I believe the "Stand back, stand by" was meant to put orange's cronies on watch for this very day. Expect militarized action if he is tossed out on his ass, as he should be. Of course, if the opposite happens, well, I guess we'll really know what kind of cuntry (and other cunt like tendencies) we live in, and how many bigots, xenophobes, and downright misguided people surround us. In that case, well, it's going to be a very long four years.

 

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Watch:

This is more of a listen than a watch, but here's a great episode of Henry Rollin's KCRW radio show where Mike Patton is his guest. They get into some great stuff in this one: 

 

In the actual category of 'Watch' however, my first non-US region Blu Ray arrived yesterday. If you listen to The Horror Vision, you'll know my cohost and good friend King Butcher swears by his region-free player, and I finally decided to listen to him. I jumped the gun and ordered several things from Arrow's Shocktober sale - the Hellraiser Trilogy Blu Ray Boxset and Bride of Renanimator - and then doubled down and picked up a copy of the Swedish release of Fede Alvarez's 2013 Evil Dead on ebay. I'd been planning to hunker down and pick up a region-free modified player this week, but LUCKILY, I did some reading first and found out that, joy of joys, the two Sony Blu Ray players I've had for the last several years already are region-free!!! Evil Dead arrived last night, I pulled it from the mailbox this morning upon seeing the notification, and popped it in. Happy to report - it works! 

I LOVE Alvarez's Evil Dead - I count it as my second favorite among all the films - adamantly battle the idea that it's a remake (Tappert, Raimi and Campbell have all said all along it's not), and am psyched to finally own the extended cut.

I'm thinking I may leave work a little early to try and avoid any madness, come home and watch this one while encased in a 'womb of refer.'

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Playlist:

Opeth - Deliverance 

Opeth - My Arms, Your Hearse 

Meg Myers - Sorry 

Foster the People - Torches 

Earth - Full Upon Her Burning Lips 

Apple Music Blackgaze Pioneers Playlist 

Amesoeurs - Eponymous 

Yob - Cleraing the Path to Ascend 

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Card:

I really read around on the Pull this morning, because here's the first card I drew:

From (source) "In a more personal view the Emperor might stand for a time of stability and structure, linear thinking and discipline. Yet we can't live without it, too many of those attributes will only lead to rational despotism and mental poverty."

Wow. On the nose for current situation. However, nothing to indicate which way things might go. (NOTE: I did not set out to direct my morning Pull at the election, that just happened.)

Next, in a classic Past - Present - Future Draw, I pulled:

For Past: Baggage - the Lust of Earthly result leads to a great weight that makes it impossible to get out from under. Yeah, the last four years I've increasingly felt that weight. Finally, for Future:

Hmm. From the Grimoire: "The Airy aspect of Earth. Pragmatism. Can be a bit of a cunt for matters pertaining to money and stability."

The Prince of Disks can be stubborn and ignorant when ill-dignified, which is something I only take into account when I'm having trouble deciphering how the cards in a Pull relate to one another, never in a one-card Draw. The Airy aspect of Earth, so strength in practical matters. This also implies a certain degree of trust-worthiness and inventiveness. Often, a good listener.

Definitely not our current problem's cup of tea, being a good listener.

Is this Biden? It fits some of what I know about him, but the 'stubborn and ignorant' are almost our current problem's calling cards, especially the 'ignorant' aspect. The card was not ill-dignified, so I have to hope that's not the case and we have a change in Guard (I was really hoping to draw XVI The Tower as the future card, but no so luck). 

All this does is remind me that the cards are merely reflections of our inner psychology and how it rubs up against the collective unconscious and, perhaps, more 'cosmic' elements we don't really have a chance in hell of understanding in any literal sense, because they are not literal in nature. So what's the outcome? We'll have to see. Go Vote people. 

2019: August 8th - New Jaye Jayle Track!

I've kind of come to think of this band as the American version of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. In a very short period of time, Jaye Jayle have endeared themselves to me in a way few bands do. It's the 'Storyteller' aspect.

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Unbelievably, after only three chapters I put Laird Barron's Black Mountain to the side. Nothing against the book, but I paused to reconsider re-reading last year's Blood Standard, the first Isaiah Coleridge novel. I tend to forget things - character's names and whatnot, and in the case of books like these, they're so f'ing pleasurable to read, why not? Anyway, while I paused to consider this maneuver, I picked up Damien Echols' High Magick, and it dovetails so perfectly with my recent rekindling of Magick Practice, that I'm going to knock it out before going back to the Barron books.

A fantastic book on Magick; probably the most approachable example I've seen since Phil Hine or Grant Morrison's old Pop Magick essay on his website, except Echols' book is even more approachable, without ever giving an impression other than he knows exactly what he's talking about. And this is great for me at the moment; there's such a sense of pragmatism, unlike any other author I've read on the subject of Magick.

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Playlist from 8/07:

Shrinebuilder - Eponymous
Anthrax - Stomp 442
Algiers - The Underside of Power
The Flaming Lips - Hit to Death in the Future Head
Windhand - Grief's Infernal Flower
Waxwork Records - House of Waxwork Issue #1
Jaye Jayle - Soline (Single)

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Today's spread:

Queen of Swords AGAIN! Couple this with Princess of Wands and we're looking at the Earthy Aspect of Fire - the Practical honing of Intellect - and the Watery Aspect of Fire - the Emotional temperance of that same Intellect. I'm trying to put together where my Intellect - some flexing of sharpened awareness or acumen - may have been exerted of late. Princess of Wands is a volatile card; I'm tempted to read this as a warning, that the path to those ten cups - an achievement in Earthly matters - will be rocky, but ultimately bested if I remain sharp like the Queen of Swords, who I believe I am going to take on as something of a Deity.

2019: January 23rd

Long my favorite track from 2003's Nocturama, until this moment I had no idea there was a video for this song.

Short post today.

Playlist from 1/22:

Morphine - The Night
Cold Cave - Cherish the Light Years
Apparat - Devil's Walk
The Police - Regatta de Blanc
Algiers - Eponymous
Pastor T.L. Barrett & The Youth for Christ Choir - Like a Ship (Without a Sail)
Godflesh - Post Self
Jóhann Jóhannsson - Mandy OST

Card of the day:

Free, except for that one massive weight, which currently comes in the form of a chapter I encountered last night in my read-through of the novel to K; needs some serious work.

2018: May 3rd 6:28 AM

It is my opinion that Alice in Chains never had a bad album until The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here. Now, I like pretty much all the songs on this record, however, I find it difficult to listen to as an album, top to bottom. Maybe their time has run out, however the absolute Shock of finding that I really dug When Black Gives Way To Blue earned them a lot of respect in my eyes. In high school, pre-grunge, Anthrax was my band. After the influx of new material with the post-Nirvana wave, Alice was. Dirt made an ENORMOUS impression on me; I mean, there is no way to overestimate the effect that record had on me. And pretty much still does, although time and life experience has obviously diluted that experience. When Layne Staley died I felt what people felt when Cobain did. I followed Jerry Cantrell's two solo records and liked them to varying degrees, but something was, obviously, missing. A lot of time passed and then James Duval came in to the picture and I felt divided; I figured Cantrell was at least 50% of the band to begin with (at least), and his name did not have the 'branding' that AlC did, so why begrudge the guy? The test came down to the music, and I have to say, I dug Blue a lot. It's never been in regular rotation, but then again most Alice binges are sporadic events at this point and they usually center around the original albums. Recently I dug Dinosaurs back out and listened to it and found I really like it. The title track is especially haunting musically, and here's a video I'd never knew existed! The one thing that diminishes the track for me just a skosh is the slightly awkward rhyming couplet in the chorus, with "Jesus don't like a queer" working but only just - 'like' seems like a weak verb there. But that's nitpicking, which is okay when something is this good.

Playlist from 5/02:

Trust Obey - Fear and Bullets
Prince - Sign O' The Times
Kings of Leon - Because of the Times
The Raveonettes - Ghost single
The Raveonettes - 2016 Atomized
Alice in Chains - The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here

Card of the day:

What is it with this card? Actually, now I know what all the recurrences of this one were warning me about - I'm not putting it down here, but suffice it to say it's something I have to solve and when I do, I will have a tiny influx of $$$.

2018: April 29th 8:07 AM

This song f*&kin' Rocks!



I've loved this song since I was a kid, and for some reason despite its heavy use of what is now very 80s synth patches and reversed drum sound, this one never felt old or dated to me. Of course, now, because of groups like M83 and Cut Copy, those 80s sounds have been re-contextualized and don't sound quite so dated anymore. Lots of radio yesterday - which is rare - but we shuffled back and forth in K's car to prep her Mom's place for the move today and Jack FM was on for most of that time, and what's more, they played a lot of really good songs. This song was one of those.

Playlist yesterday:

Radio
Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine - White People and the Damage Done
Black Sabbath - Paranoid
Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - Blood Lust

Card for today:

2018: April 22nd 12:29 PM

Still no dice on the damn Sleep vinyl. I'll give in tonight after work and listen to it on Apple Music. You can't win 'em all!

Listening to the Cramps live in Auckland, New Zealand. This vinyl is from Vengeance Records, a label started by The Cramps to release live and little-heard music on. The album in question, RockinnReelininAucklandNewZealandXXX is a testament to the absolute grandiose insanity of this band in their heyday.



I finished reading The Last Days of Jack Sparks - I gave this one a solid 4 out of 5 stars on Goodreads. For a first novel, I'd say Jason Arnopp knocked it out of the park. Next up, a quick re-read of The Author Startup by Ray Brehm and then The Book of Joan.

Playlist from 4/21:

Underworld - Beaucoup Fish
Windhand - Soma
Revolting Cocks - Beers, Steers and Queers
Savages - Silence Yourself
Cigarettes After Sex
Windhand - Grief's Infernal Flower

Card for the day:

Interesting that I continually see some of these cards pop up. This one is beginning to perplex me, so I consulted an outside source. I'm having trouble relating to its perpetual springtime rejuvenation energy whoo-ha, however I found an interpretation, categorized as creative energy that needs an outlet, and that seems to fit. Need to find the time to jump back on T12, which I've really only picked at the last two days.

2018: April 18th

Seeing Windhand this coming Monday at the Roxy. Psyched does not even begin to describe my anticipation.

Episode 6 of Dark sealed the deal; I can't tell any of these damn people apart half the time, but this show is gorgeous and I am deeply intrigued at just what the hell is going on. A friend at work just clued me in to the fact that there are some family trees online and I'm hoping that will help, because I love the show, but I keep getting extremely confused.

Playlist from 4/17:
Mudhoney - March & Fuzz (disc 2)
The Brains - Out in the Dark
The Jesus Lizard - Rash E.P.
The Stooges - Eponymous
The Soft Moon - Deeper
The Ocean - Aeolian
White Hex - Gold Nights

Card of the day:

Well, wouldn't you know. Two days in a row? Hmm... Perhaps I need to let something go? But what?

2018: April 17th 5:22 AM

Wow. R. Lee Emery was bad, but at least he lived a full life. Harry Anderson? That sucks.



Like Cheers, Night Court is one of those iconic 80s sitcoms that is extremely nostalgic for me but also totally holds up, unlike a lot of the shows I spent too much of my youth glued to the tv for. And Harry Anderson was, obviously a huge part of that. Dead at 65 is too young.

On the other hand, THIS made me laugh out loud. Good luck sir.

Playlist from 4/16 (A lot of vinyl):

Boy Harsher - Country Girl
Japandroids - Celebration Rock
Soviet Soviet - Endless
Nirvana - Bleach
Mudhoney - March & Fuzz (disc 2)
Odonis Odonis - Post Plague
Pixies - Surfer Rosa
Iwan Rebroff - Singt Weisen von Wodka und Wein

Card for the day:

From the Grimoire: "Baggage. The Princess tries to ascend but has a massive tiger wrapped around her neck, cloying to her shoulders. Being that she is the Earthy aspect of Will, this is the Lust of Immediate Earthly Result weighing down or interfering with her Will. Sepheriothic Correspondence is Malkuth (10; Earth)."

Funny to do Hod, Chokmah, and Malkuth in a two-day span that's an interesting looking path on the Tree of Life; you can't go directly from Hod to Chokman, an ascending route, without passing through Tipareth. You can, however, take a bullet straight from Hod to Malkuth.

I'm not fluent in the Paths; perhaps I need to spend some more time on them in the near future.