2019: August 12th The Veils - Another Night on Earth

I've been on something of a kick with The Veils lately. This song... so good. Finn Andrews is, in my opinion, the heir to Nick Cave's throne. Not that Cave is going anywhere anytime soon, I hope. But there's an artistic comparison to be made, for sure.

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Saturday night, K and I went to the theatre and saw Scary Stories to Tell In the Dark. It's not good.

I know, I know... what could go wrong? Well, for one, the framing device the filmmakers construct - a story about preteens that ride around on bikes and use walkie talkies to communicate during dangerous situations (sound familiar?; I can practically see the studio executives writing that in), situations that arise from the kids finding a mysterious book in a mysterious house and setting off strange events? It sucks. It's trite, completely unoriginal, and largely boring. Watching a movie that's this bad, I always go through about thirty to forty minutes of the, "Maybe it's just me..." phase, followed immediately by the, "Okay, if it's not me, what's wrong with it?" phase.

I really try. I do.

Finally, we get the "Well, how could they have done this better" phase. For this one, I think the better option would have been to invent a Cryptkeeper-like character or device and use that to introduce and/or narrate the 'Scary Stories' culled from the book. As it stands with this film, the framing device story involving the kids is about 90% of the screen time, and the Scary Stories are maybe 10%.

It is, however, visually and sonically really well made. And if you have younger children and want to get them on Horror, I'd definitely recommend this for them. And admittedly, the brief moments that bring the original stories from the books to life are pretty awesome, there just isn't nearly enough of them to make up for the rest.

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Playlist from the last few days:

Waxwork Records - House of Waxwork Issue #1
Revolting Cocks Playlist
Drab Majesty - Careless
Beach House - Thank Your Lucky Stars
Beak> - L.A. Playback
Opeth - Still Life
Sunn O))) - Life Metal
High on Fire - The Art of Self Defense
The Veils - Nux Vomica
The Veils - Time Stays, We Go
The Veils - Total Depravity
Sleep - Dopesmoker
Ritual Howls - Rendered Armor
Deafheaven - Ordinary Corrupt Human Love

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Today's spread:

Continuing the theme of larger ideas affecting everyday life. I'm really only feeling the barest beginnings of this, but it's there.

2019: June 4th Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark Trailer!

To say I have extremely high hopes for this one is an understatement. I know, I know; that's never a good idea. That said, when was the last time GDT let us down?

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Good news! Just to prove I'm not an anti-DC Comics curmudgeon, I watched the first two episodes of the DCU app's Doom Patrol last night and it is AWESOME! So happy for this. A fabulous cast, dark yet often hilarious vibe - thanks in large part to Alan Tudyk's narration - and stories ripped right from Grant Morrison and Richard Case's seminal early late 80s/early 90s run, but altered in a way that really keeps the spirit of the book's madness. Such a joy to have this. Also, watching this made me realize it's probably been 12 or 13 years since I originally read Morrison and Case's run, so I'm starting that today. More like this DCU, please!



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Talking Heads - Remain in Light
Protomartyr - Under Color of Official Right
My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult - In the House of Strange Affairs
My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult -  Confessions of a Knife
My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult - I See Good Spirits, I See Bad Spirits
Earth - Full Upon Her Burning Lips
Man or Astro-man? - 1000X
Man or Astro-man? - Intravenous Television Continuum
Deafheaven - New Bermuda
Dean Hurley - Anthology Resource Vol. 1: △△

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Card of the day:

Pure Will is what will be required from me to competently finish the novel; I've read this thing now multiple times, but it's been multiple versions as I've refined the plot. This was my first heavily plotted novel (my first novel that's going to see the light of day in a published capacity), and as such there's plot detritus hanging around my head from other versions. This final, post-Beta Reader go-through is to catch any last minute spelling or grammatical errors, neither of which should be possible at this point, as a human Beta Reader can miss something - though Missi didn't miss much - but Scrivener, Grammarly, and Vellum should not. I'm finding the first two have indeed missed a few small errors, and it's freaking me out. There's a predilection for reading absent-mindedly when you have had this much contact with something, and thus I'm requiring Pure Will to stay as focused as possible while reading. I'm roughly 40% of the way through, so I've adjusted my goal to end-of-week I order the first proof, so we'll see.