Still riding near the top of my favorite albums of 2024 list is Amigo the Devil's Yours Until the War is Over, and what's that? This unstoppable force of storytelling goes and drops another new song at a live show last week. Mr. Brown sent that footage to me, and I'd planned to make it today's musical post; however, this 'Tour Bus Edition" popped up in my feed yesterday, and the choice was clear.
Head over to Liars Club Records to order the album OR the nifty new "My Body is a Dive Bar" T-shirt. I scooped that one up the moment I saw it.
NCBD :
Oh man, a fantastic-looking pull today. Let's not waste any time:
To say I have been waiting for Dan Watters' Destro book is an understatement of the highest order. I cannot wait to see where this takes us in the formation of Cobra, and what kind of relationship develops between the silver-visaged Scottish Laird and our dear, sweet Commander.
As I mentioned previously, I've really been enjoying hanging out with John Constantine again. I'm not sure if Dead in America is coming to its inevitable conclusion, but League of Comic Book Geeks has the series ending at issue 9, which is a weird number of issues for a series. Is it possible this may play out like Tynion's Nightmare Country and come back in a few months? We will see.
Okay, this second issue of Last Ronin II is starting to remind me of Jason Mrowski's older brother in his IROC. You know the type - he offers you a ride, then keeps pulling up just out of reach so you can't actually get into the car? Yeah. How many times have I posted this issue on a Wednesday?
And we come to the end of The One Hand, which really is only half the end of the story, because the final issue of The Six Fingers drops July 24th. I've really enjoyed this Neo Noir by Ram V and the aforementioned Dan Watters, and I'm hoping the books did well enough to warrant more stories set inside Neo Novena's seedy walls.
I caught up on this one over the weekend and am still really digging it. I love the commitment the modern TMNT universe takes to exploring new characters and not just using and reusing the old mainstays. Case in point: Shredder has been out of the picture since issue... what? 100? That's several years they've let Oroku Karai lead the foot and develop into a really cool character that stands on her own. Sure, she doesn't have the gnarly army her Grandfather Oroku Saki had, but like so many of the characters, her look as evolved and is still super sleek. The introduction of a secret sect of the Foot that has survived until now could have been exhausting, but this series is playing it smart and I am intrigued to see where this will go.
Watch:
This just made me incredibly happy:
Way jealous of the "Ceiling of Toys." Talk about living in a surreal environment.
Playlist:
Alice in Chains - Dirt
Mastodon - Once More Round the Sun
Amigo the Devil - Born Against
Amigo the Devil - Yours Until the War is Over
Man Man - Carrot on Stings
Chelsea Wolfe - Hiss Spun
Card:
One card from Missi's Raven Deck for today:
From the Grimoire: "Literally, "What comes next." To me in this moment, this denotes finalizing something I've been flighty on and moving onto the next project.
The morning my vacation begins, I wake up to find not only new music from The Raveonettes—a Gram Parsons cover, no less—but a full album of covers up for pre-order over on Cleopatra Records and a tour announcement! Regarding that pre-order, there's GLOW IN THE DARK VINYL! Man, this just gets better and better. Pre-order The Raveonettes... Sing on vinyl HERE (while it lasts).
Watch:
K and I went to see the new Amy Winehouse biopic Back to Black last night, and while there are probably some issues I could cite with the film, none of them matter. We loved it!
I thought Marisa Abela did a great job, especially with the singing, and overall, I just really loved seeing this story brought to life on the big screen. Add to that an original score by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis, and getting to hear not only Amy's songs on a theatrical sound system, but a new Cave/Ellis track composed for the film, and I was in heaven. According to the film's director:
"I watched him sit at the piano and just sort of conjure up this incredible song, which is now at the end of the film."
If you love Amy Winehouse's music as much as we do, see this on a big screen. Your heart will swell and burst, and it will feel wonderful through the tears.
Playlist:
Various - The Void OST
CCR - Cosmo's Factory
Chris Isaak - Heart Shaped World
Lustmord - Much Unseen Is Also Here
Amigo the Devil - Everything is Fine
Uncle Acid and The Deadbeats - Nell' ora blu
Jim Williams - Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched OST
Sunn O))) - Monoliths and Dimensions
The Damage Manual - Limited Edition
White Zombie - Astro Creep 2000
Shellac - 1000 Hurts
Pink Milk - Ultra Violet
Pink Milk - Night on Earth
Amy Winehouse - Back to Black
Card:
A quick one-card draw for travels today:
XVIII: The Moon - I typically relate this card to "the unseen"; however, it can also mean relinquishing fear. Not sure if that's a nod toward anxieties I hold at work or maybe about our drive to MS today, as our destination is currently part of the "Gulf Coast Storm" area with heavy flooding. I'll take this to mean proceed, but keep up on the alerts (Which would be 'unseen' if we ignored them, which I am wont to do).
As though in total contrary to yesterday's post, here's Locust Abortion Technician at its grimiest. Is this my favorite track by the band? Might just be. I mean, this song is not only a total throwback to the earlier albums, it's just fucking nuts.
Watch:
Writer/Director/Producer/FX/Cinematographer/Everything else Doug Roos has released a teaser for his new film Bakemono along with a crowdfunding campaign to help add more practical FX to the film.
The teaser is just enough to ramp up my anticipation. Anyone else get total The Void vibes from this? Also, check out this poster!
You can click HERE to travel over to the IndieGoGo page and back this/read more. The $100 level included a making of for the Practical FX, which might come in handy down the road. Roos explains the film is already shot, so this is all for icing on the proverbial Gore Cake, which I am all about.
Read:
I really was not prepared for the angle Robert Kirkman and Joshua Williamson are taking for the new GIJOE Energon Universe. Although we've seen a few teasers and one full issue of Duke prior to the release of last week's Cobra Commander #1, it wasn't until Williamson got into old Chrome Dome's backstory for this series that we see this is definitely more akin to the Cartoon than Larry Hama's comic. And you know what? I'm alright with that.
SPOILERS below. You've been warned.
There is a lot to dislike about the original 80s GIJOE cartoon movie and the direction the show took after. There's also a lot of really cool ideas here, once you get past the insanely SciFi take on what Larry Hama made such a realistic property in the comics. Thanks to CC #1, we now see that, just like the Energon Universe's Transformers comic, this take on GIJOE is going to run closer to the cartoon. And I'll say, full-on Cobra-La excites me. The concepts are crazy and will fit in so nicely with how intertwined we already see Transformers and GIJOE are going to be (not to mention adding Void Rivals to the taepstry!) The revelation of both Cobra-La and that they have Megatron captive and are reverse engineering their technology from him sets an ENORMOUS stage for this series, and I'm exicted to see how the entire thing plays out without all the trappings and limitations that the movie/show had.
Playlist:
R0BBER - La Cosa Nostra EP
Butthole Surfers - Locust Abortion Technician
Cherry Cheeks - Lp2
Turnstile - Glow On
The Thirsty Crows - Hangman's Noose
Black Pumas - Chronicles of a Diamond
Disappears - Pre Language
Marilyn Manson - We Are Chaos
Baroness - Stone
Double Life - Indifferent Stars
Mannequin Pussy - I Got Heaven (pre-release singles)
Mannequin Pussy - Patience
Frank Sinatra - In the Wee Small Hours
Card:
I decided to jump back in on a new month with a single card draw from Missi's Raven deck.
• III: The Empress - Let's start with a quote from A.E. Waite:
"She is the inferior Garden of Eden, the Earthly Paradise, all that is symbolized by the visible house of man."
There's a lot here for me this morning. I have literally just returned to my own "House of Man," my Earthly Paradise. My home. It never really occurred to me while I spent the sixteen years that spanned the entirety of my thirties up through my early and mid-forties in LA that there was a way to carve out my own space in the world. By moving out of a major population center and leaving the rental lifestyle, K and I made our own paradise, and leaving it for weeks at a time is always a nice way to gain fresh perspective and appreciation. The Empress is oft associated with Love and Beauty, two attributes I couldn't associate with K more. The third Trump is also the path that bridges Chokmah (Knowlege - the Father) and Binah (Understanding - the Mother) on the Sephirothic Tree of Life. Interesting then that this is also the first time as an adult that my parents have become a regular social aspect of my life. Couple all this with the fact that today is the Eighth Anniversary of the day K and I met, and I believe The Empress has appeared to remind me to stop and take it all in.
November is nearly over, and I realized I have not posted any Opeth yet. For that matter, I hadn't even listened to them until whatever day last week I began this post. Back around 2006/2007, Opeth became a big winter band for me, with the time change and early night that directly follows Halloween a welcome signifier that it's time to crack out Deliverance, Blackwater Park and the Candlelight years.
Watch:
I did a bit of online Black Friday shopping last week. Nothing huge, but there were a few titles from boutique Blu-Ray labels I haunt online that I could not pass up.
First up, Synapse Films has a 4K restoration of one of my all-time favorite films, Mike Mendez's The Convent. I have no interest in the 4K, but the release includes a standard Blu-Ray, and I've been waiting some time for this one to get a proper clean-up and re-release:
Next, and this is a somewhat blind buy, one of Severin Films' secret titles for their Black Friday sale is Gianfranco Giagni's 1988 nightmare The Spider Labyrinth. This is one I've never seen, but I've seen a certain amount of buzz steadily build for it in the backwaters of the Horror Community, with Italian Filmofiles clamoring for a proper digital release (which the film never received before now). Check out the trailer below, and although I've become fairly anti-spoiler, I'm pretty sure there's no way to spoil the absolute madness of this one.
Finally, although this isn't a new title, it's one that's been on my radar for a while, and after watching Michael Venus' 2020 film Schlaf (Sleep), I forked over the dough for this gorgeous release from Arrow Video; for $20 how could I not?
If I were to elevator pitch this flick to you, I'd say it's kind of a cross between Anthony Scott Burns' Come True and the possibilities I saw inherent in Stewart Thorndike's Bad Things (which admittedly did not work for me, but had some very interesting potential insofar as location and plot).
Here are the purchase links if anyone is interested:
Richard Kadrey has released two books this year, and I've been wanting to read both, so after finishing Michael Wehunt's Greener Pastures, I slipped into The Dead Take the A Train, a collaboration with author Cassandra Khaw, whose Nothing But Blackened Teeth has been on my to-read list for the last two years or so and has now jumped to the top of that list based on the 65% of A Train I've read in the last few days.
Here's the solicitation blurb:
"Julie is a coked-up, burnt-out thirty-year-old whose only retirement plan is dying early. She’s been trying to establish herself in the NYC magic scene, and she’ll work the most gruesome gigs, exorcize the nastiest demons, and make deals with the cruelest gods to claw her way to the top. But nothing can prepare her for the toughest job yet: when her best friend, Sarah, shows up at her door in need of help. Keeping Sarah safe becomes top priority.
Julie is desperate for a quick fix to break the dead-end grind and save her friend. But her power grab sets off a deadly chain of events that puts Sarah – and the entire world - directly in the path of annihilation.
The first explosive adventure in the Carrion City Duology, The Dead Take the A Train fuses Cassandra Khaw’s cosmic horror and Richard Kadrey’s gritty fantasy into a full-throttle thrill ride straight into New York’s magical underbelly."
It's been some time since I read Richard Kadrey's Butcher Bird, but I loved that novel and have followed the man on soc.med ever since. He's a bright spot in the increasingly noxious online world, and it's great to 'catch up' with his writing over a decade since I began.*
Also, that cover has to be one of the most gorgeous I've seen in some time (artist James Jirat Patradoon's website is HERE).
.........................................
* I've always wanted to read Sandman Slim, however, much like Jim Butcher's Harry Dresden books, I have grown to baulk at starting so lengthy a series, in case I love it and it consumes the next year of my life.
Playlist:
Allegaeon - Apoptosis
Frank Black and the Catholics - Snake Oil
Opeth - Deliverance
Misfits - Collection II
Rodney Crowell - Christmas Everywhere
Godflesh - Purge
Perturbator - Dangerous Days
Dream Division - Beyond the Mirror's Image
U2 - Achtung Baby
Justin Hamline - Worst Locals Ever
Steve Moore - Gone World
The Cramps - Smell of Female (Live)
Lord Huron - Long Lost
Card:
I've been off the clock here since last week, and I am tired. Had a new round of the COVID booster yesterday, and it just hit me like a ton of bricks, so just one card from Missi's Raven Deck today:
I'll be double-verifying all information that crosses my path today and, perhaps conversely keeping an eye out for ways to slip mainstream corridors of thought.
I'm back from L.A. and ready to go full October. Let's start with some Bauhaus.
For my money, one of the greatest songs this band ever recorded. Not easy to say, becuase 98% of all their songs could fall into that category. I mean, there are really no less-than-stellar Bauhaus songs, and yes, I'm counting Go Away White when I say that. Something about this one, though, really resonates in a timeless manner. Maybe it's the title, maybe it's the upright bass, maybe it's the genuflective lyrics that seque into nonsense - conceivably to stress how ridiculous existential contemplation actually is. Whatever the case, this is one for the ages.
31 Days of Halloween:
I re-watched The Autopsy of Jane Doe on Monday night. I don't know; the first time I saw this film, it floored me, but every subsequent viewing has just rubbed me the wrong way. I love the performances, but there are little things about the script that irk me. Like the Sheriff's timelock of "I need a COD by morning because otherwise, I can't explain her presence at the crime scene to the press." What? How are the press gonna know?
Honestly, I'm being a bit of a prick here. I think my real issue is that, between my first and second viewing of this flick, I saw the Director's Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark and hated it so much it spoiled this. I need to give Troll Hunter another shot because that's one I've only seen once and long before either of those others. Interestingly enough, my prejudice wasn't strong enough to spoil this year's Last Voyage of the Demeter, so maybe my issues with Jane Doe are legit. I don't know.
Next up, last night's movie was Nahnatchka Kan's new Amazon Original Totally Killer. This one was at Beyondfest, and my Horror Vision Cohost and I almost went; however, the day it played ended up being a low-key one, so we did not. Here's a trailer:
I was certain I would dislike this, however, turns out I really enjoyed Totally Killer. It's clever, but not in an overly ostentatious manner. Also, it's just a lot of damn fun! If you're afraid this was going to be another cutesy Blum House take on the post-modern Slasher, well, yeah. It kind of is. For me, however, it's one that really worked. Also, they freakin' NAILED gym class in the 80s.
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
Playlist:
BADBADNOTGOOD - IV
Nabihah Iqbal - Dreamer
Harsh Symmetry - Imitation
Boards of Canada - Geogaddi
Boards of Canada - Music Has the Right to Children
Sleep Token - Take Me Back to Eden
Van Halen - Eponymous
Zeal and Ardor - Eponymous
Boris/Merzbow - 2R0I2P0
Emma Ruth Rundle & Thou - May Our Chambers Be Full
Deth Crux - Mutant Flesh
Medeski, Martin and Wood - Uninvisible
Bauhaus - The Sky's Gone Out
Final Light - Eponymous
Card:
Just one card, this time from Missi's Raven Deck, for today:
A reminder to think BIGGER! Literally, just before pulling this card, my thoughts were mired down in a very localized, small facet. This is a reminder to "I've been doing a lot of thinking lately. And I've started to focus out beyond the edge of the board. On a bigger game."
Boris and Uniform? Holy F*ck - talk about a shot in the arm first thing in the morning! From the forthcoming album Bright New Disease, out June 16th on the always stellar Sacred Bones Records. Pre-order HERE.
NCBD:
A short and sweet NCBD this week. Here are my picks:
And we are back to our regular 616, Krakoa timeline. Thank You! I started re-reading Immortal X-Men from the beginning yesterday just to prepare.
My suspicion is I won't be reading Sons of X beyond the first issue, I'm curious about the overall transition back into the regular, Krakoa continuity from the Sins of Sinister timeline. I will say that I reread Sins of Sinister: Dominion a few days ago and had a slightly better experience with it, and I'm curious how Mother Righteous's role might develop in the reinstated timeline.
Watch:
Looks like Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury's hard-to-find 2011 Masterpiece Livid is now on Shudder:
I picked a region-free disc of this one up sometime in the last year or two and was completely blown away. There's such a Fairytale quality to this film - visually, Vivid reminds me a lot of the music from long-defunct band Miranda Sex Garden. Gossamer-thin realities that come across more like a fable out of time than a modern movie, except that's there too.
Also, Livid isn't the only renowned but difficult-to-find Masterpiece that popped up on Shudder. It's not often that I dig a movie like Martyrs, but despite its unparalleled cruelty, Pascal Laugier's opus more than earns its place in the "must watch at least once column." Just be prepared - it's not easy.
When I watched Martyrs, it was back when Netflix still 'rented' movies through the mail. I wasn't certain what I was in for, but the film had come feverishly recommended to me by my good friend and Horror Vision Co-host Tori. I smoked up, sat down in the middle of the day, and for the first 45 minutes, felt like I was watching a movie that, well, before long, I realized I was not watching. Maybe that's a convoluted way of saying that from the onset, Martyrs seemed as though it was going to be the first great 'Haunting' film I'd seen in some time. Then something happens to a character and I suddenly had the prescience to see where the film was headed. I remember that feeling because my stomach literally dropped*. From there, my resolve was tested, until in the final moments of the film, Laugier blew my mind.
*****
*Incidentally, Laugier's 2018 Incident in a Ghost Land includes a moment that had a very similar effect on me.
Playlist:
Mastodon - One More 'Round the Sun
Beach House - Become EP
James - La Petite Mort
The Sword - Warp Riders
Slayer - Decade of Aggression
King Woman - Doubt EP
Windhand - Eponymous
Card:
Since I utilized both my Thoth and Bound Tarot decks for yesterday's Pull, I specifically wanted to go to Missi's Raven Deck for today's Pull.
New music from Swans! From the forthcoming album The Beggar, out June 23rd on Young God Records. Pre-order HERE.
Watch:
One of the things that saved my sanity over the last few days of my recent two-week stint in LaLaLand was getting stoned at my hotel one night and discovering Bobby Fingers had released his new Diorama video. The subject of Mr. Fingers' machinations this time?
There is a level-up in this video that absolutely blew me away, and that's all I'll say. Well, besides confirming that Bobby Fingers is now my favorite anything on the internet. Watching these literally helped quell the total disgust for humanity that arose in me while stationed in LaLaLand this time.
Plastic:
I have to confess that I've become one of the many disillusioned Hasbro Pulse fans. The company's entire manner of doing business is just disgusting. Due to this, and because I've cut my nerd-spending in half, there have been quite a few recent releases from their GI JOE Classified and Transformers lines that I want but have ultimately passed on. That said, here are a few I did allow myself to splurge on:
Copperhead is one of my all-time favorite characters, and this redesign is spot-on perfect in my opinion.
I don't know anything about Range Vipers, and this is obviously a rather "Sci-Fi" figure - an approach I do not normally appreciate in the series, but as a straight-up horrific-looking action figure, this thing is rad AF. Look at that brain!!!
This last one I actually have not yet ordered but am on the fence. One of the issues I (and a lot of other collectors) have with Pulse is their insane price markup. I've had Scrap Iron in my cart on their site for a few weeks now and, although this guy was one of my favorites of the original series' earliest figure designs AND a figure I never had as a child, this figure's pull is strong. I loved the character in Larry Hama's comics - that scene where he blows up the station wagon with the Soft Master, Billy and Mr. Coffee-in-my-Brandy has always stayed with me. That said, when you're at checkout and see a final cost of $57 for one figure, well, that's just INSANE, regardless of whether or not it comes with a 'vehicle' like old Iron's anti-tank drone. Magic eightball says I'll probably end up ordering this, but it irks me nonetheless.
Playlist:
The Veils - Total Depravity
King Woman - Celestial Blues
King Woman - King Woman on Audiotree Live EP
Led Zeppelin - Physical Graffiti
Lard - Pure Chewing Satisfaction
Godflesh - Pure Live
The Police - Regatta de Blanc
Silent - Modern Hate
Savages - Silence Yourself
Neverly Boys - Dark Side of Everything
Card:
From Missi's Raven Tarot:
I turn 47 today, and in light of this event, I wanted to pull a card from Missi's Raven Tarot as a sort of "Card for the year." Makes sense I would see The High Priestess, as I feel like she has been lurking in quite a few of my dailies of late.
From the Grimoire:
"Can denote change and/or fluctuation. Matter or situation shaped by gracious or pure influences. The Priestess taps into the power of Life and the Universe."
All of which is to say - or at least in my interpretation - I will have a year where I continue to shape my future. Sounds boring, but as anyone who has changed their life for the better multiple times and is generally unafraid to do so at the drop of a hat, it's not easy. Nor is continually affecting my own creative force, honing these lumbering documents of a novel that is hard A.F. to write, but ultimately rewarding A.F. when it begins to come together.
I don't think I ever noticed how much this track from 2002's Deliverance resembles Alice in Chains. It's the guitar, 100%. Has that woodsy, almost campfire sound Jerry Cantrell gets to his playing when it veers forlorn and reflective. Absolutely stunning, regardless of the comparison. I always teeter back and forth between Deliverance and Blackwater Park as the crowning jewel of Opeth's "mid" period.
Watch:
Over the course of two nights last week, I watched and rewatched Panos Cosmatos' entry in Guillermo del Torro's Cabinet of Curiosities.
To say The Viewing is my favorite installment of Cabinet would be an understatement. I liked all of them to one degree or another, and even the ones I connected with least - unexpectedly, both H.P. Lovecraft adaptations - rank as extremely well-made genre films. But The Viewing is something else entirely.
Read:
Seeing the announcements for Stephen Graham Jones' Don't Fear the Reaper, I finally ordered a signed Hardcover edition of last year's My Heart is a Chainsaw from the wonderful folks at Jones' home store, Boulder Books in Bolder Colorado. Chainsaw was the first volume in what Jones has dubbed his Indian Lake Trilogy, and Reaper continues the story. Here's the solicitation from Jone's publisher, Simon and Schuster:
December 12th, 2019, Jade returns to the rural lake town of Proofrock the same day as convicted Indigenous serial killer Dark Mill South escapes into town to complete his revenge killings, in this riveting sequel to My Heart Is a Chainsaw from New York Times bestselling author, Stephen Graham Jones.
Don't Fear the Reaper is out February 7th, and you can pre-order it anywhere. I'm sure I'll be ordering a signed one from Boulder Books, and I'll probably ask for the personalized option this time. To good to pass up.
Playlist:
Barry Adamson - Back To The Cat
Opeth - Deliverance
Raveonettes - Chain Gang of Love
Opeth - My Arms, Your Hearse
With Strangers - A Love That's Gone (single)
Preoccupations - Arrangements
The Ocean - Phanerozoic I: Palaeozoic
The Ocean - Phanerozoic II: Mesozoic/Cenozoic
Zeal and Ardor - Eponymous
Card:
Returning once more to the Raven Deck for a quick pull to establish the week:
Reading this as a reminder to keep things fluid this week. I had a great writing session this past Saturday where I dug heavily back into Shadow Play Book Two, and then a massive, three-plus hour one again Sunday to further that. Raven's telling me to enjoy this, but be open to other projects that might need attention this week.
Mr. Brown has been telling me to check out Amigo the Devil for months, and while I know I downloaded and listened to part of his most recent album Born Against at some point, I must have been distracted. I say this because he reminded me again this past Friday, and the text just happened to arrive at a moment when I was looking for something new to listen to.
One time through Born Against was not enough.
This one is spectacular. A little Firewater at times, a little Waits, a touch of Zappa even. Really unique and enthralling. Also, laugh out loud funny at times.
Born Against is out on Liars Club Records and can be purchased HERE.
NCBD:
With the contagious period of my plague time over, I'll be heading back to Rick's Comic City to pick up this week's books for NCBD (and wearing a mask just to be extra careful around the employees):
Judgement Day has been pretty good so far, minus that Eve of Judgement title. I find that, after trying multiple times, I just don't like the Eternals as characters. That said, the end of last week's Judgement Day #2 took a very interesting turn, so as long as I don't flip through this and find it Eternal-centric, I'll be picking it up.
I still need to track down issue 1 of Daniel Warren Johnson's Do A Powerbomb, but even after jumping in on issue 2, I'm sold. Interdimensional Monster Wrestling, or something? Awesome, but more the fact that last issue made me cry. This guy is a fucking TREASURE. Makes me reconsider reading his Jurassic League, over at DC...
Well, this final chapter of Banner of War took a few extra weeks to come out, eh? Pretty sure this is my jumping-off point on Thor, but still interested in where Cates might take Hulk after this.
As long as this book stays focused on Madeleine and Illyana, I'm in.
Have you heard The Horror Vision's dissection of the first eleven issues of this wonderful series? No? Here you GO.
I'm really digging this Clea Strange series quite a bit. I think it's kind of scratching an old urge that last year's Defenders series rekindled - reading a kind of out-of-the-way Marvel mini-series. There's a certain joy to be found in skulking around the less bombastic, tentpole corners of the Marvel Universe, and this series is doing a great job of doing what a lot of the big name characters' titles did back in the 80s, before Cap and the Avengers were household names.
I had almost forgotten about this book and the fact that this issue should debut the new team!
Playlist:
Jonathan Grim Art Playlist: John Music
Every day (Is Halloween) Newsletter Playlist: The Immortal 90s
Every day (Is Halloween) Newsletter Playlist: Liminal
Perturbator - Lustful Sacraments
Perturbator - Nocturne City EP
Led Zeppelin - Houses of the Holy
Led Zeppelin - IV
Sharon Jones and the Dap Tones - Give the People What They Want
Underworld - Best of 1992-2002
True Widow - Circumambulation
Pseudo Echo - Autumnal Park
Zeal & Ardor - Eponymous
Stevie Wonder - Greatest Hits Vol. 2
Card:
I broke out The Raven Deck again. Haven't used it since I packed it, wanted to get its voice back in my head. I've had a couple of frustrating days with office set up stuff, so I definitely had that in mind when I drew:
So this reads pretty clear, but doesn't exactly answer my question. Pretty spot on, as The Hermit is exactly me at this point, having given up the world I knew and focused on a considerably more personal one. That took Strength, but the end result is a Life Change, in this case of massive degree. But we know all this already. So, I figured I'd draw with another deck to clarify:
The Chariot can be seen as a call-to-arms. Marshal the forces because there's conflict coming. In this case, I think I may be taking some luxuries that have come out of this new World too far, and that has weakened my methods, and my place.
All super sound. I'm trying to throw money at problems, and meanwhile, not taking basic steps that cost nothing, but will help solidify the ground I'm standing on. Wealth is not the Chariot. It can be a part of it, but it can also be false armor.
It's been a couple decades since I've listened to Diary of a Madman. This one was omnipotent in my life for a few years back around the end of High School/beginning of College. Not sure if the entire album will hold up, but I know the title track does.
Cast:
The second episode of my new Southside 90s podcast went up today:
This is a project I'd wanted to do for so very long; all my life-long friends from High School and I gathering periodically to tell the tales that, well, when we tell them, people don't believe them. But they're all real. Seriously. This week's ep is largely focused on a house we hung out at first semester of Junior Year, a two-story in a rich subdivision where adults were almost never present, and when they were, they didn't stop us.
Watch:
Holy shite:
Have I mentioned how much more I like Amazon's version of The Boys than I do the comic? Nothing against Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson; this is totally a case of being able to improve a story with the hindsight that comes after a decade since its completion.
Dollar Bin:
You know what I find A LOT of in Dollar Bins? Issues from Marvel's failed late-80s New Universe line:
I'm not interested in all the books from that particular experiment, but anything pertaining to The Star Brand, The Pitt or the surrounding narrative that encompassed the four titles that survived after that first, failed year. These are pretty easy to come by these days, and that surprises me a little. I don't read Jason Aaron's Avengers book, but I know he's integrated The Star Brand into the modern 616 continuity over the last few years. I'm curious if anyone has updated Spitfire - basically the Iron Man of the New Universe, except with a woman in the armor (long before that was fashionable, to boot!), DP7 (mutants), or Justice, which I can't compare to a regular Marvel 616 book, as I don't think I ever read it or at least don't remember it.
These are total nostalgia bombs for me, but also, The New Universe's arrival dove-tailed with my blossoming interest in the non-G.I.Joe comics in general and Marvel Universe specifically, so there's something about it that is integral to my love of the medium.
And as I've said before, post-Pitt New Universe is dark AF.
Playlist:
The Mysterines - Reeling
The Bronx - The Bronx (II)
Blut Aus Nord - Hallucinogen
Intronaut - Habitual Levitations (Instilling Words with Tones)
The Atlas Moth - Coma Noir
The Ruby Friedman Orchestra - Gem
Card:
I'm pretty sure this either has to do with something I thought I was done with. Modern Life is Rubbish, indeed.
From the Official Type O Negative youtube channel, here's Blood and Fire. Do yourself a favor and let the playlist take you directly into the track that follows it - hopefully, there won't be an ad - because really these two are two halves of an extremely powerful whole. I can still remember
Watch:
Other than that first trailer that dropped last year for Stranger Things Season 4, I have avoided all subsequent trailers for the upcoming penultimate season. In keeping with this, I was not going to watch this trailer, either.
Then I did.
Wow. I am blown away! This is the show that continually proves the exception to the rule: it's always as good as the hype that precedes and follows it. In fact, in my opinion, each season of Stranger Things is increasingly better than the last, so much so, that I would say this show doesn't get nearly the hype it deserves.
Read:
I took a break from the Lovecraft and blew through Brian Asman's novel Man, Fuck This House. This is a fantastic Horror-comedy that plays with the Haunted House subgenre.
Great characters and a truly unique mechanical approach to how the house interacts with the unwitting family that moves in. The book really cozies you up to the characters and their lives, kicks off the festivities, then sprints for 60% of its length toward a fantastic conclusion. Very suspenseful, but never at the expense of its humorous tone. If you dig Grady Hendrix, you will definitely dig this. Plus, it's $2.99 on Kindle at the moment.
Playlist:
Iwan Rebroff - Na Sdarowje (singt Weisen von Wodka und Wein)
Every Day (Is Halloween) - Playlist #3 "In Fear"
Beach House - Once Twice Melody
Card:
Super appropriate as a reminder that, although I have to do some stuff at work this week I don't like to do, I need to be mindful of how I do it, lest others see me as a dick(tator).
Sweden's Watain has a new album on the horizon and the new single features Farida Lemouchi from The Devil's Blood and Molasses on guest vocals for part of the song. "We Remain" strikes me as the kind of track you need to hear in the context of the entire album that surrounds it in order to fully appreciate it, but it's a spooky track, with elements of The Devil's Blood and even a hint of Type O in the keys near the end.
Always great to hear Farida's vocals. Also, really cool video, directed by Johan Bååth. You can pre-order the new album The Agony and Ecstasy of Watain from Nuclear Blast records HERE.
Dollar Bin:
After a rough couple days at work last week, I spent about a good half hour flipping through the dollar bins at my home away from home, Manhattan Beach's The Comic Bug. Here's one of the gems I walked away with:
Jim Starlin's Dreadstar, published by Marvel's Epic Comics - sort of their version of Vertigo before there was a Vertigo - was a book I saw on comic shop shelves back in the 80s when I first started going to Heroland Comics in Worth, Illinois (the location attached to the Post Office on the Southwest corner of 11th and Harlem), and All American comics in Orland Park, on the second floor of a long-gone strip mall somewhere around 151st and LaGrange. These were the first two shops I ever frequented, and I'd make my poor Mother wait in the car while I went in and looked around for probably over an hour somedays, soaking in all the books that intrigued me but I couldn't afford to spend my money on. Dreadstar registered as something I might be into but wasn't quite sure; I've always dug SciFi, but when I was younger I was quite discerning when it came to anything I thought might be second-tier compared to my (then) first love, Star Wars*. In the last few years, I've really begun to look at the various waves of SciFi that hit post-Lucas, seeing a lot of it as forming a sort of genre in and of itself. The smelting pool of comics, TSR role-playing games, arcade games and knock-off SciFi movies (Creature, I'm looking at you, albeit with something approximating love) have formed a kind of gestalt in my mind, a nostalgic feeling that there was something very special brewing with the more street-level, hobby/comic shop SciFi than I'd previously given credit. This gestalt has become something of an unachievable haunting; I try to think about it in defining, cohesive terms. I try to channel its atmosphere, tone and texture. I fail to do any of this with any degree of accuracy that allows me to completely possess it. So when I see a book like Dreadstar that I associate with being possibly instrumental to this nearly ineffable sub-genre I loosely refer to as simply Hobby Shop SciFi in my head, I grab it.
Thus, I picked up issues three and four of Dreadstar and sat just flipping through the pages, enraptured by what I'd found for a mere dollar. These books feel like a piece of history. SciFi history. 80s history. My history. And maybe that's what all this comes down to, a nostalgic tickle I can't scratch; a deeply entrenched tapestry of memories and memory triggers that move further away the more I try to reach them. Because, you know, you can't reach the past, you can only catch occasional glimpses from our limited, human perspective. And isn't that what an awful lot of SciFi tries to undermine and eclipse?
*Don't even get me started on how much condescension I reserve for pretty much every iteration of Star Trek.
Balance is definitely something I struggle with these days. It's not just the ever-present, background hum of anxiety and existential horror the world of 2022 elicits, it's my reliance on caffeine and heavy metal to get me through the day, which works, but is also difficult to come down from even 15 hours after I wake up. Sleep is a luxury that I do not get enough of, and my ongoing deficit has been wreaking havoc with my cognitive skills and motor functions. I spend so much time during the day re-revving my engine that it's hard to 'chill' later on. I would resort to smoking ludicrous amounts of dope, except I'm trying not to smoke based on my lung condition, and the tincture I have has unpredictable onset times and effects.
I love this book! It's a pretty out-there approach to Bruce Banner and Hulk, and it really shouldn't work at all, yet somehow 100% does, right down to this first story arc's title; Smashtronaut! How goddamn METAL is that?
Cautiously optimistic for Kieron Gillen's run to take Hickman's set-up and really do something special. Oh, and look at that, speaking of Jonathan Hickman, he's writing another X-book!
I've never been a huge fan of the vagueries of the "unlimited" books, but with Hickman at the helm AND Declan Shalvey on the pencils, well, I'm all in.
Let's go street level for a minute:
Another great indie crime book from the extended Brubaker/Phillips family. I'm really digging this one and feel pretty certain it's going to end up a streaming show sooner rather than later.
This is apparently a big deal, another female turtle named Venus? I'm unaware of the character but will follow this book wherever it goes.
Double the killer Eastman covers this month with the yearly annual, a tradition I largely eschew, except for with this book.
And I'm hanging around with this new Ghost Rider for at least this second issue. I feel like the tone of the art isn't quite dark enough for the character, however, that first issue may have presented itself that way based on the fact that Johnny Blaze was essentially being gaslit into thinking he was living the perfect suburban life, so let's see if things darken now that the cat's out of the bag and ol' flame head is back in control.
Playlist:
Opeth - Width of a Circle (single)
Nothing - Downward Years to Come
MadLove - White With Foam
Nothing - Guilty of Everything
Year of No Light - Consolamentum
Nurse with Wound - Soliloquy for Lilith
Newsletter Playlist (under construction)
Card:
Okay, this is beginning to feel like someone's set my house on fire and I'm too busy looking for the handle on the faucet to call 911. What the hell are you trying to tell me???
