It's an early Frank Black kinda morning, so I fired up Teenager of the Year. Love this record!
Watch:
Last night I watched Roadhouse for the first time.
This movie is Ridiculous! I would have turned up my nose and made fun of this even ten years ago, but really, I've come to see a lot of these 80s studio action movies as major studios doing exploitation flicks, and that's essentially what this tries to be. Now, I believe there's a DVD out there with Kevin Smith doing the commentary back like 20 years ago. I'd be pretty interested in checking that out.
Playlist:
22-20s - Eponymous
Various - Up Above the Stars Spotify Playlist (culled from Barry Adamson's Biography)
T. Rex - The Slider
David Lynch & John Neff - BLUEBOB
Metallica - 72 Seasons (pre-release singles)
Lamp of Murmur - Saturnian Bloodstorm (pre-release singles)
Lustmord - The Others
Bohren & Der Club of Gore - Sunset Mission
Ozzy Osbourne - Patient No. 9
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
Willed transformation will result in an energizing new endeavor/perspective. I know exactly what this is referencing. Time to dig out something I've had on the backburner and give it another once over in between working on Shadow Play Book 2.
Well, I fell down a Mastodon hole yesterday and am having difficulty climbing out. When I first spun Medium Rarities, I thought it was cool, but being that Mastodon is such a great 'album' band, I didn't see getting all that attached to an odds and sods compilation. Also, listening at work on my blu tooth speaker, I was in and out of the office and missed quite a few parts. I know this because I had not even realized that Mastodon faithfully covers The Flaming Lips' A Spoonful Weighs a Ton. I'm not sure how the hell I missed both hearing the track and noticing the name on the tracklisting - one check in the 'con' column of digital music, I'd say, is that you don't have the liner notes in your hands for careful consideration before even playing the damn album! Anyway, it was the ever-vigilant Mr. Brown who mentioned it to me, and since hearing their rendition, I've pretty much fallen in love with Medium Rarities.
For comparison's sake, here is the original:
NCBD:
Of particular interest this week is the fact that Gideon Falls #25 comes out. Now, every week we get a new issue of Jeff Lemire and Andrea Sorrentino's Weird Fiction/SciFi/Horror mash-up is a great week, but this week's issue comes hot on the heels of the recent revelation that the series comes to its grand finale in December with an 80-page issue #27! Holy cow, I'm starting that re-read SOON just to be prepared.
Next, here's a new book from Vault I'm looking forward to, a book about Autumn that takes place in Chicago:
Issue Three of a series I've very much been digging so far:
And finally, I'd recently found myself wondering whatever happened to that Sam Keith Batman/Maxx crossover that began last year. I missed issue three, but four and five never came out. Now, they're on the horizon, and I'll be picking up this bargain-priced Compendium of the first two issues to prepare for it:
I wasn't crazy about the first two issues - you can't go home again - but The Maxx is one of those things I'm a completionist about, so they get my $$$!
Playlist:
The Veils - Total Depravity
Mastodon - Medium Rarities
Marilyn Manson - We Are Chaos
The Dean Ween Group - The Deaner Album
Windhand - Grief's Infernal Flower
Mastodon - Once More 'Round the Sun
Dance with the Dead - Loved to Death John Carpenter and Alan Howarth - Prince of Darkness OST
Card:
Stability and control, because I've finished the first draft of the first act (of three) of Shadow Play, Book Two! Onward to part two!
Michael Gira, the brainchild behind Swans, announced recently that their 1987 album Children of God will be re-released via Gira's own Young Gods Records in cooperation with Mute. This is Jarboe-era Swans, arguably the most lauded, and one I am not nearly as familiar with as I would like. You can pre-order the CD or Vinyl from Gira HERE.
Watch:
Being that The Mandalorian Season Two is on the horizon, I will be signing up for Disney+ again soon. After Marvel/Disney released this trailer for the upcoming WandaVision show yesterday, looks like I'll be sticking that sub out for as long as it takes to see this show as well, because folks, this looks insane! I'm not entirely sure what the premise, set-up, or plot of the show is, but I'm definitely digging the almost Doom Patrol vibe I'm getting (notice I said almost Doom Patrol, as in irreverence for the medium and conventions). We'll see if WandaVision is as weird as it looks, but as Mr. Brown observed to me recently, with the MCU flicks making a 'Bajillion' dollars, Marvel may have the elbow room to indulge in some weirder ideas for a while, and that, I'm all for.
Playlist:
Windhand - Grief's Infernal Flower
Sepultura - Quadra
Le Butcherettes - Don't Bleed
Mannequin Pussy - Patience
Exhalants - Atonement
Earth, Wind, and Fire - I Am
Black Sabbath - Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
Carpenter Brut - Trilogy
Mastodon - Medium Rarities
Card:
On the nose as usual, being that I should be completing the first of three acts in Shadow Play, Book Two this week.
That runs through my head pretty much from the time Beyondfest begins at the end of September, all the way through November 1st, and this year it's even more pronounced. Because of the late night at Joe Bob and Tammy and the T-Rex Monday night, I took October 1st off, which in turn gives me a nice head start on 31 Days of Horror. I started with a Rob Zombie double feature: I chose House of 1000 Corpses to kick the entire month off as a tribute to Sid Haig. From there I segued into 31, although that essentially played in the background as I started my writing day. BIG breakthroughs on the second book of Shadow Play, now I just have to work them into my outline, rejigger a few things, and then commence writing.
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Finally: here's a newly expanded version of that Halloween Playlist I've been listening to for the last year or two.
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31 Days of Horror:
10/01: House of 1000 Corpses/31
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Playlist from 10/01:
Blut Aus Nord - Hallucinogen
Ritual Howls - Rendered Armor
Opeth - Deliverance
Claudio Simonetti and Fabio Pignatelli - Phenomena OST
Zonal - Zonal (Single)
Dean Hurley - Anthology Resource Vol. II: Philosophy of Beyond
Mark Korven - The Witch OST
Lots of intense bursts of inspiration for Shadow Play Book Two: The Absence of Light. I have a general outline, sort of, but there's so much ground to cover and a lot of jumping around in the timeline, which currently runs from about 1576 to 2019, with one chapter most likely occurring in early pre-history. This is easily the most ambitious story architecture I've ever attempted, but it feels strong and alive in a way that is increasingly energizing. Which is great, because lately, I've had a lot of ups and downs with all the short stories I've been working on over the last year, and the first book of Ciazarn is largely written, but I can't quit nail the tone, so I'm easing away for the time being on that one. Frustrations are amplified by the fact that most of these issues would probably work themselves out if I could just get back on a consistent writing schedule. Hoping that happens this week.
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Super excited to announce I'll be doing a bit of a collaboration with my good friend Mr. Brown. I've never really been an X-Files fan; I don't have anything against it, but I also have never really gotten into it beyond a dalliance with the 'mythology' episodes way back in the day, which dried up as it became apparent the story wasn't really mapped out to conclude in any satisfying way. Or maybe I'm wrong - I liked some of what I saw, but could never commit to a regular watch-schedule with it, despite being sexually obsessed by Gillian Anderson in my late teens/early twenties.
But I digress...
Brown asked me recently if I'd be into the idea of him curating a playlist of stand alone X-Files episodes, the idea being I would watch them and write a little something about them as I go. I love this idea, as I trust Brown's taste implicitly, and have always wanted someone to show me just what the hell everyone loved about this show in the 90s. This is the perfect time for such a project as well; 31 Days of Horror begins next week, and I figure on days with little watch time, I could pepper in some X-Files. I have the list and can't wait to start!
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Recent Playlist:
Carpenter Brut - Leather Teeth
Carpenter Brut - Trilogy
Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - Wasteland
The Ocean - Heliocentric
Drab Majesty - Careless
Various - A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night OST
Boy Harsher - Careful
Rob Zombie - Hellbilly Deluxe
Monolord - No Comfort
Joseph Loduca - Evil Dead 2 OST
John Carpenter - Prince of Darkness OST
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Card of the day:
Turning. Changing. Cycles. You can see on the diagram below that Atu X: Fortune manifests as the path between Mercy and Victory. Not sure how to read that in my own current context, but while digging around online for the image below, I came across something I'd never really noticed about Fortune - The Wheel or The Wheel of Fortune in other decks. It moves counter clockwise. Macro-definitions aside, I'm looking at this today as a nod to move forward in reverse-engineering something that has been giving me a bit of trouble.
Let's go back a few years. Circa 2014. Via Blood Disgusting, I found and fell in love with a podcast called Double Murder. A kind of 'celebrity death match' of horror movies, our hosts Danny and Tim take two horror movies and weigh them for ranking against one another. The criteria is learned and often sophisticated understanding and discussion of content and craft, so it makes for a fantastic listen if you're into Horror as an aesthetic as well as a good time.
Double Murder is a deceivingly intellectual discussion of horror (see their episode Videodrome vs. eXistenz); one of those deep dive shows where you really get to know your hosts in regard to how they approach something you probably also love if you're listening, i.e. horror movies. As with life, over the last few years episodes have dwindled as the hosts' lives have presumably done what all our lives do - run all the fuck over us, stealing our moments and bludgeoning our wills. That's a beating you have to actively work against, and brother, it ain't easy. I mean, some days it can be difficult enough to motivate yourself to do something you love, let alone line up two or more schedules to work on a project. Anyway, due to the dwindle, I'd fallen out of habit checking for new episodes. Then, last week I noticed there was one from last October, a fantastic juxtaposing of Halloween H20 and Halloween 2018. Yay!
Now, here's the thing. Danny! and Tim are from my home town, and that further endears these guys to me. I don't know them, but I'm double rooting for them, in whatever they do. So when Danny! asks Tim for news on his band, Canadian Rifle, I remember that yes! I can look these guys up on Apple Music, a service I didn't have whenever the last time they might have mentioned the band on the podcast and I was listening. I did just that, and was pretty much immediately blown away by Canadian Rifle's 2018 album Peaceful Death. I played this fucker for about a dozen rotations that first day, and it has remained in heavy rotation since. Canadian Rifle's bandcamp is HERE - I'm so ordering some vinyl to support these fellas - and there's a ton of tracks on youtube, Apple Music, wherever fine paperbacks are sold.
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According to Comic List, it's another light week for NCDB. It can be depressing waiting for new issues of A Walk Through Hell and Gideon Falls. However, of note this week is Rick Remender and Matteo Scalera's Black Science begins its final arc with this week's issue #39. Consulting Image Comics, looks like this last arc will culminate in June with Issue #42. What a great book; looking forward to a deep-dive re-read as soon as Black Science is over.
I'm behind on Punks Not Dead. Issue One of the second arc, London Calling, is still sitting on my desk, waiting for me to re-read the final issue of the first arc before diving into this new one.
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Playlist from 3/25:
Talking Heads - Remain in Light
PJ Harvey - Uh Huh Her
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - The Good Son
Nabihah Iqbal - Weighing of the Heart
Throwing Shade - House of Silk EP
Windhand - Eternal Return
Card of the day:
Another nod toward a new beginning, and a fulfilling one to boot. As I begin to make a list of ideas and scenes for Shadow Play Book Two: The Absence of Light (Tentative title), I'm about to begin actually writing my second collaboration with Jonathan Grimm, a Depression-era, dustbowl circus zombie story called Ciazarn. Not a comic, this is more a prose novella with pictures by Grimm, and judging by what I've already seen, it will be gorgeous.
