QOTSA on KEXP

 

Been trying to get to this QOTSA KEXP session for what feels like a few weeks now, so I'm putting it here and hoping to listen before this posts. Thanks to my good friends Mr. Brown and Mr. Joshua (Mr. Joshuan? Thank you, Mr. Joshua) for putting this on my radar, as my algorithm did not.

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Watch:

A trailer dropped for the next Bobby Fingers video. It's been a long time coming, but I can tell you that, as a member of his Patreon, there was a period between the previous two videos where he actually suspended Patreon payments because he wasn't working on anything, so that, plus the fact that he's posted numerous teaser images and updates, suggests that something BIG is coming. 

I'm with you regardless, Mr. Fingers, but The Wait is killing me!!! After the Jeff Bezos boat episode and its cinematic flourish, I'd predicted we might very well be getting a short film from Bobby Fingers within too long. Is this that? K and I went through the trailer twice, trying to interpret the imagery for clues (one of the Patreon subscribers' previous updates, from late last year, teased the next video would involve Mrs. Fingers and Rats. "Lots of rats."), But, thankfully, the trailer provides a lot of seemingly disparate elements, and we did not read into the comments to see any of the guesses that end up there.

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Read:

Last Wednesday, I walked into Rick's Comic City Clarksville to find that they'd pulled all the issues of Marvel's early 80s ROM: Spaceknight comic from their back issue bins to have ready for the inevitable hunts that will come after Robert Kirkman recently announced ROM is joining the Energon Universe in an upcoming issue of Void Rivals (we talk about it on Drinking w/ Comics HERE). Fortunitous for the, as the issues that had magically matched up with several I already possessed, so for a very nice price, I brought home well-loved copies of ROM 35, 49-61.

This is further down the "Hobby Shop Sci Fi" well I prattle on about now and again, and while it's cool that Kirkman is bringing it back around again for a new audience, I'm beholden to the old run. Bill Mantlo plays all the editorial Shooter-era edicts a book like this suffered from and still manages to create a unique, engaging story.

Although I will say, I am not much of a fan of the Starshine character in her original form. I much prefer the bloodthirsty version that takes the stage in issue 51, after her hometown is massacred by Dire Wraiths.

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Playlist:

DJM Trio Project

FILM50 Project

Quicksand - Bring on the Psychics (pre-release singles)

Mastodon - Emperor of Sand

Perturbator - Lustful Sacraments

Blut Aus Nord - Ethereal Horizons

Boards of Canada - Inferno

Boards of Canada - Tomorrow's Harvest

Butthole Surfers - Pioughd

The Besnard Lakes - ... Are the Roaring Night

Foxy Shazam - Dark Blue Night

Etta James - Second Time Around

Ghost - Skeleta

Dio - Holy Diver

Savages - Silence Yourself

Bee Gees - How Deep is Your Love? (single)

Blonde Goblin - Worlds to Burn

Russian Circles - Gnosis

Mogwai - Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will

The Atlas Moth - Coma Noir

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Card:

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

• Page of Pentacles

• Eight of Wands

• King of Pentacles

Advice to strike while the iron is hot in regards to Earthly concerns. Literally JUST did that before I drew these cards. The master of abundance represented by the King definitely feels appropriate.

Legions of Winged Octopi

 

I've been in the mood for some of the older albums by long-time favorite The Ocean, aka The Ocean Collective. This would be my favorite track from Precambrian, released on Metal Blade way back in 2007.

I love almost every album by these guys, and chief songwriter Robin Staps is a genius for my money, but there's something about the sheer assault of Precambrian and its precursor Aeolian, that the band has yet to capture again (not that I'm saying they need to).

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Watch:

The long-unavailable in the States second film by Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo, Livid, hit Shudder last week and I was able to eek in a viewing over the weekend.

Wow. This one did not disappoint. Livid is, like Inside before it, further proof that Bustillo and Maury are just as interested in making beautiful movies as they are Horror movies. Comparisons to Argento are on the money and yet also a bit misleading, and while the dance academy from Suspiria is mentioned in Livid and thus, ties the film directly to Argento's "Three Witches" world, there are no continuity, character or place/plot overlaps. This means whatever tie was intended is more homage than actual DNA for Livid. But there is a definite tone here that feels at the very least inspired by, if not directly related to, Suspiria. The color pallette is quite different - Livid prefers grey to bold primary colours - however, there is a softness to the visual life of the film that smooths the horrific edges and helps make it feel like a fairytale, much like Argento's technique. Part of this may indeed be that both films deal with the world of Dance, and this makes them feel 'old world' and steeped in tradition, which is often the very element of the world fairytales seek to unmoor. 

 

There's also the element of what I call "Doll Discovery." Dolls play a big part in the visual fabric of the film, from a strange, anthropomorphic children's tea party to a penchant for extreme taxidermy. This also helps the viewer feel what the characters feel - namely that they've accidentally stepped into some "other" place, where time does not necessarily behave the way it does for most of us. 

I adore this film, and pretty much immediately set out to order it on Bluray. Now I really need to go back and give the filmmakers' other movies a spin, as I didn't connect with Among the Living upon first viewing, and I still haven't watched Deep House. 

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Dollar Bin:

New feature. Every Tuesday, I'm going to post a comic I found in a dollar bin. What with hardcovers, omnibuses, trade paperback collections and even digital, old floppies just don't have the draw they used to. The Comic Bug is known for buying large collections and then placing the bulk of the stuff out as Dollar Bins, and I've had a lot of good times going through them, finding stuff that would be garbage to many. So here's where I highlight some of my finds.

I don't really know much about ROM Spaceknight except it was a toy I never had as a kid, and there was a Marvel Comic I never read. Later in life though, ROM began to pop up in weird places to remind me he existed, and once in a while over the last decade or so, I find a single issue in a dollar bin and pick it up. ROM is a book that has come to represent a certain era of comics and SciFi to me, and because of that, it's always fun to read. 

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Playlist:

The Ocean - Precambrian

The Dillinger Escape Plan - Ire Works

Mr. Bungle - The Night They Came Home

The Devil's Blood - The Thousandfold Epicentre

Ennio Morricone - Il Grande Silenzio OST

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Card:

I wanted to do a three-card spread today, primarily because I haven't done much other than pull one daily card for quite some time. What I got feels very on the money, true to recent form.

Past = 4 of Swords: Truce. Focus and concentration undercut by a certain restless energy. I love this card. The "restless" aspect is not always one of the most clear-cut elements of this card. In fact, I would normally ignore it based on how the other images - all balanced and proportional, right down to the swords that meet perfectly in the middle of a beautifully centered cross and the 49 petaled flower in its own heart. But mixed with the next two cards, that hectic background cannot be ignored.

Present = Knight of Wands. This card is pretty simple. Energy and Passion. 

Future = Prince of Disks. More focused energy, but proportionate. Those concentric circles in the background tell of using the second card's Will to help corral the energy of the first card into a culminating experience.