Isolation: Day 12 - Anthrax Lone Justice

I'm not quite through posting about this one yet. Anthrax's 1985 Sophomore album Spreading the Disease has locked into my heart of late, and I'm finding it hard to get my fill of it. Every song is great, and what's really cool is this is Anthrax not fully formed as they will be by 1987's Among the Living. That's the album where I think pretty much everyone agrees the band solidified their sound for the next few albums (only to overthrow that again a few albums later by replacing Joey Belladonna with Stan Bush for the release of 1993's Sound of White Noise). But on Spreading the Disease we still have some of the young band's influences showing through, and both today's track 'Lone Justice' and yesterday's 'The Enemy' really show the Iron Maiden influence on these guys. I mean, listen to either of these songs and imagine Bruce "History Major" Dickinson singing over the top and you'll hear it right away. So cool, to see the primordial ingredients of one of the most iconic bands in Thrash history.

Speaking of history, I'm hearing Mr. Bungle's Raging Wraith of the Easter Bunny album should be out in fall, if, you know, the current crisis ends by then and the world that's left even slightly resembles what we have now. Which, hopefully, it will. More on those efforts in Mindful Habitation, below.

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Mindful Habitation:

Today is my 44th birthday. Holy shit, man! Forty-four. There were times I didn't think I'd get this far; I've always had sort of a prescient block on how to imagine aging (hence my Bowie article HERE), and in light of current events, well, you never know. Could be my last. Not that I'm walking around worried about that. I think we're all probably prone to a certain amount of on-again-off-again existential crisis at the moment, but generally I'm thinking I'll make it through to the other side of whatever this is shaping up to be. And so will all my loved ones, K and our family in both states I divide my consciousness between, but also, all the friends who probably don't know it, but who I carry with me day-to-day as a sort of live-in consensus. This is my world, and as long as they remain consistent, I can adapt. I'm not special; I'm sure most people have these lists and they're tossing dice against the Universe that when the dealer folds, they're holding the better cards. All we can do is sit at the table, employ the our best poker face, and try and beat this. It is going to take a bite out of our population, because it has to. The Planet's needs come first, y'all. However, play it smart and let those too stupid to pay attention or take this seriously be the ones weeded out. And that's the Mindful Habitation for today: I never thought I'd age into the kind of person who thinks the military needs to control things with a police state, but Jesus-Fucking-Christ, all these people still gathering in groups, still playing basketball at the park in large numbers, still not taking this seriously? STOP IT. If you don't? Well, then if Mother Nature has to thin the heard, I'm all for her starting there. The only problem is how many non-morons they might likewise infect. So - and this goes back to a life rule for me - minimize the number of morons in your life.

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I don't normally make much of a to-do out of my bday anyway, so this year won't be that different. I love to throw parties and celebrate my friends' reiteration renewal, but I prefer to let mine squeak by quietly. That said, I have today and tomorrow off, I ordered a growler of my favorite local beer (King Harbor Brewings' Swirly!), and K and I kicked off two days of marathoning stuff that I love last night with The Big Lebowski and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Been at least ten years since I'd seen either, and both hold up. Lebowski remains one of the funniest movies I've ever seen, and Vegas, although darker with each subsequent viewing, always hits my heart with the weight of Thompson's profound insight into the Death of the American Dream. Today? Not entirely sure yet, but I may be starting a marathon re-watch of Twin Peaks: The Return in a little while. I might work up to that with a first viewing of The Conjuring 2, though, simply because I've still never seen it.





UPDATE: We watched the Conjuring 2. It's very well made shit. I didn't hate it, but total disappointment, because I maintain the original is fantastic, even if it does lose a bit of steam once they show us the ghost on top of the armoire. Still Number Two felt like a massive step backwards, despite some very fancy and expensive camera work.

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Playlist:

Anthrax - Spreading the Disease
Deafheaven - New Bermuda
Deafheaven - Ordinary Corrupt Human Love
The Rolling Stones - Sticky Fingers
Steve Moore - Frame Dragging EP

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Card:

A reminder, I think, not to let the day go by without some creative time. Think I'll dig back into my current project for a little bit, come up for air in an hour or so. Just to keep the juices flowing.

Isolation: Day 11 - Anthrax The Enemy

When I was a Freshmen in High School in 1990, I fell really heavy into Anthrax. I loved all the Titans of Thrash, but Anthrax was the one that I loved best, mostly because of how The Persistence of Time hit me. That was the first Anthrax album I bought/heard, and when I spread my allowance out over the next few months digging into their back catalogue, I fell even deeper in love. Among the Living is the obvious gem, but State of Euphoria, Spreading the Disease, and the I'm the Man EP all occupied a place of great thrall in my cassette collection. Since then, Persistence, Among, and State have all stayed in and out of rotation, but for whatever reason, Spreading the Disease was the album I never really went back to again after those teenage years. Last month, after seeing Mr. Bungle's thrash set, I went through a reawakening on the marvels of classic thrash, and ever since then, Spreading the Disease has been inching its way up into the top rotation spot in my daily playlists. And this last week or so - no irony intended - it's been the album that has soundtracked my thoughts.

I wake up everyday with one of the songs in my head. For a few days it was Medusa. Yesterday it was The Enemy. Today it was Gung Ho. I'm absolutely loving this record right now, it feels like one of the crown jewels of 80s thrash. It's always such a good feeling to fall in love with an album all over again.

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Last night, K and I watched Roger Avary's 1993 French Bank Heist gone wrong Killing Zoe. I saw this movie a lot when it came out on video; I'm pretty sure other than Reservoir Dogs, this was a constant with my friends and I. Dark, funny, and thoroughly possessed by that "Tarantino Crime Aesthetic," probably because Avary helped create that vision with his work on Pulp Fiction. If you've never seen this one, it's definitely worth a watch, and if, like me, it's been at least a decade, I definitely recommend a re-watch. Killing Zoe won't disappoint.



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Playlist:

Anthrax - Spreading the Disease
Beach Slang - The Deadbeat Bang of Heartbreak City
Algiers - The Underside of Power
Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not

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Card:

Fours are solid, but in my opinion, sometimes misleading. I've had a few days off writing simply because of it was my weekend to work and it kicked my ass. Now though, I have the next two days off, so it's back to work.