7 Days of Ozzy - Day 2: Desire

 

One of my favorite songs on an album that is 75% favorite songs. The guitar on this album - and this song in particular - is, in my opinion, the heights calibre hard rock guitar can reach. It sounds so rich and fuzzy, yet retains fantastic definition. 

And, of course, great vocal lines, too. 

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Watch:

Bill Hader's Barry returned a few weeks ago and I only just found out. Over the weekend, K and I caught up and were pretty surprised by the tone of this third season:

One of this show's strengths is the way it balances its inherent darkness with some of the funniest shit I've ever seen. Part of that's the cast - Hader's fantastic, Anthony Carrigan (NoHo Hank) is brilliant pretty much every time he's on the screen, and Stephen Root is always gold. This season, the humor has, thus far, been seriously downplayed and we've been presented with a super dark take on the characters - especially Barry. Again, that comingling of tones has always been the strength of the show. Barry does not shy away from the reality of the concept: a hitman's a pretty dark protagonist. 

But it works.

Really not sure where this show is ultimately headed, which is always a good thing.

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Read:

I spent a large part of the weekend relaxing and catching up on my comics. Here's what I read:

So nice to finally sit and read this one all the way through, start to finish, in one tight sitting. The Last Ronin totally delivers that old school 80s Frank Miller dystopian aesthetic, while retaining and drawing from the original, B&W Mirage series. Gorgeous art - the design of everything we see in this dystopian world is gorgeous, and visually seems the natural evolution of the original book's Manhattan. 

I'd dropped off reading James Tynion IV's The Nice House On The Lake monthly, simply because I lost a lot after its hiatus. sitting down and reading 1-8 in a sitting really took some time, and that just goes to show what a meaty story Tynion's telling here. Very cool story that's essentially a zombie-less update on Romero's Dawn of the Dead (in a way it is! Think about it!)

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Playlist:

(Lone) Wolf & Cub - May You See Only Sky

Bexley - Lost in the Moment EP

Cypress Hill - III: Temples of Boom

Jerry Cantrell - Brighten

Calexico - The Black Light

Joseph Bishara - Malignant OST

Mike Doughty - Live at Ken's House

Calexico - Even My Sure Things Fall Through

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Card:

A Conservative approach to an infuriating problem will serve me better than, say, a hammer beating. Loud and Clear. 

Sabbath Lads

For my fellow Sabbath Lads. Ozzy has never sounded so serene.

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Watch:

The season opener of John Favre's The Mandalorian was so chocked full of goodness that I thought, for a moment, I might explode. Thankfully, someone is doing something cool with Star Wars.

Also, now that I've restarted my Disney + sub, I'm really looking forward to Wandavision. So much so, I think I'm going to start re-watching the MCU from the beginning, filling in those gaps I've missed along the way. What stoked my excitement?

I feel like I am about to very much re-engage with Marvel. 

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NCBD:

Pretty light week. 

A new series from Aftershock Comics, Miskatonic looks like it will pit J. Edgar Hoover's "Red Scare" against the seedy underground world of Lovecraftian Death Cults. How could I not want to read this?

The old reliable, every-month-is-better-than-the-last.

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Playlist:

Selim Lemouchi and His Enemies

Opeth Deliverance

I found an excellent podcast recently that has become increasingly important to the research aspect of writing Shadow Play Book II and spent some time listening yesterday. Mexico Unexplained is a series of quick but amalgam of informative historical facts and subsequent conjecture, and it's fascinating. Go to their site HERE. 

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Card:

Patient and stable. Also, coming out the other side of that solitude we started today's post off with. 

Isolation: Day 201- New Dame Fortune

Musick:

If you've been reading these pages long enough, you probably know that David Lucarelli is the author of both The Children's Vampire Hunting Brigade and Tinseltown comic series. He's also a friend. A jack of all trades, David recently brought back his band Dame Fortune with a brand new track, and after listening to it oh, maybe a dozen times the other day, I have to say, it's got a shit ton of swagger, awesome lyrics, and the kind of 1987, Sunset-strip bravado that catapulted a lot of hard rock bands to instant stardom back in the days of my youth. It's usually hard to reach me with that kind of sound, but call me crazy, Am I a Warrior rocks, and it's exactly what I needed to hear right now.

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Read

I picked up one new comic that was not on my list until I saw it on the shelves yesterday and I have to say, I have not spent $5.99 in a comic shop in quite some time that has brought me so much joy. What book is it I speak of?

This is a big, floppy, glossy volume of absolute joy that takes me back to how much I loved comics as a kid. The first (of three) stories inside is from the old Mirage TMNT, now colorized by Tom Smith's Scorpion Studios (new to me, but I love the name and they did a fantastic job). It tells the tale of Raphael's first encounter with Casey Jones. This is old school, and glorious because of it, and it set the stage for a fabulous reading experience, juxtaposed with two newer, IDW-era Raph stories (both also featuring Casey). Well worth a look.

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Playlist:

Electric Wizard - Let Us Prey

Deftones - Ohms

Deftones - Diamond Eyes

Kensonlovers - Keep Rolling

Blood Incantation - Hidden History of the Human Race

Mannequin Pussy - Patience

Bob Mould - Blue Hearts

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Card:

I don't feel nearly as grounded as drawing a three would suggest, however, per the Grimoire, "denotes upon appearance a situation to know yourself, what you want, and throw your self doubt away."

Isolation: Day 136 - New Sumac

A couple years ago, I caught Sumac live opening for Converge. Fantastic band. I kind of forgot about them after that, but with this lead track off their forthcoming album out October 2nd on Thrill Jockey - Pre-order HERE - I'm all in.

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NCBD:

Finally! We haven't been waiting for this new Brubaker/Phillips graphic novel for very long, but it's felt like a millennium! These guys are aces, and if you subscribe to Brubaker's email newsletter, you will have seen his announcement that they are releasing three original graphic novels over the next year as part of a new series. He hasn't released all the details yet, but he did include a few pages of the finished product, and it looks fantastic. Of course.

I'm a bit on the fence with this one, but I'm absolutely down to give Chris Condon and Jacob Phillips' That Texas Blood the benefit of a few issues to lock into place.

I LOVE this cover! So old school, black and white TMNT. This book just gets better and better, breaking new ground with world building no longer beholden to the old iterations.

**

Playlist:

Mitch and Ira Yuspeh - Seven Doors of Death OST

Godflesh - Streetcleaner

Low Cut Connie - Hi Honey

JK Flesh - Depersonalization

Baroness - Gold and Grey

Blueneck - Repetitions

Primus - Frizzle Fry

Blut Aus Nord - Hallucinogen

Black Sabbath - Sabotage

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Card:

I was super excited to draw a card this morning from my new deck, one my good friend Missi colored for me. The deck is just the Major Arcana, but that's super cool. I know a few people who only draw with the Majors, and I've kind of always wanted a deck to do that with. Broadstroke answers can be insanely helpful.

Of course I shuffled the hell out of the deck - I could feel the energy Missi put into these things - and what card flips out on its own and lands face up in front of me? The Fool, of course, because I'm beginning a new journey with a new deck. Not replacing my beloved Thoth, but adding to it, in a way.

I've never been one to have multiple decks, but this is special and I love it. Look at how gorgeous this card is! I'm christening this deck the Raven Deck, after Missi. 

Isolation: Day 117 New Exhalants!

New song from Austin's Exhalants. For my money, these guys are the closest band I know of to that old school Jesus Lizard vibe I love so much. I ordered their self-titled debut last year from bandcamp and love it, now it would seem we have a new record coming soon. Can't wait.

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NCBD:

Didn't 22 just hit the stands last week? Looks like there was one in the queue when the Diamond hiatus happened, so we're getting an extra treat here on the backend. Very nice.

I KNEW IT! I knew that zero issue for Transformers '84 that Simon Furman and Guido Guidi did last year would lead to a series. SO excited. I don't read any other title associated with this beloved childhood franchise, but if Furman writes it, I am there! And look at that cover - does anyone ever get sick of watching Starscream and Megatron try and kill one another? I know I don't.

Love this cover too! This series continues to blow me away with its new direction, so I'm psyched to have 106 come in so close to 105.

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Playlist:

Andrea Moscianese and Francesco Zampaglione - Tulpa OST
Iggy Pop - Lust For Life
Exhalants - Band (single)
Exhalants - Eponymous
Brainiac - Bonsai Superstar
Brainiac - Hissing Prigs in Static Couture
Perturbator - Dangerous Days
Perturbator - The Uncanny Valley
War on Women - Capture the Flag

Card:

A solid foundation of work yields results.

Isolation: Day 103 Doves - Carousel

A few days ago, Doves released the first track from what will eventually be their looooong awaited fifth album. "Carousel" is the first since 2009. I'm a huge fan of these guys, in particular, 2000's Lost Souls. The song "Rise" from that album has somewhat of a recurring role in the novel I just finished writing, which will be out later this year, and which I still don't have a title for. Serendipitous then, that this new music drops when I'd gone back into something of an extended Doves mood.

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Already primed for another narrative podcast to listen to via The Magnus Archives - which I mentioned here a few weeks ago - my good friend Missi recently turned me on to Qcode's Borrasca. Cole Sprouse stars and produces - you might recognize the name as the actor who plays Jughead on Riverdale. While I've never been able to get into that particular show - despite my curiosity about its second season having what I've read described as a 'Giallo' thread in the plot - I'm extremely impressed by everything about Borrasca. At first it seemed a little too "Young Adult" for me, but that isn't the case at all as I've gotten through the first five weeks of what I'm assuming is the first season that's dropping now, new episodes every Monday.



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NCBD - nice to have this back, eh? I've got some books this week, and one from last week to grab. Here is what's going to be my haul tomorrow:

So nice to get back into this one. There was a moment a few issues back where I thought Gideon Falls might have lost me. No dice. I'm so ready to go deeper into this world:

A new one with art by Jacob Phillips, son and collaborator of one half the dynamic crime fiction duo Brubaker and Phillips. Very much looking forward to this, and I'm hoping for more of that substantial backmatter that makes these books well worthwhile reading month-by-month.

Waiting four months or so since TMNT 104 has been difficult. That issue set up such a rich new world for the brand that I'm even more excited than before with where this title could go. Also, mutant metal bands? Fuck yes!

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Now that Joe Bob Briggs' The Last Drive-In is over for another year, what the hell will I do with my Friday nights? Well, I recently signed up for HBOMax, and despite my annoyance that it does not work with my firestick, K and I decided to make Fridays Turner Classic Movie night, because TCM is one of the properties lumped in with the sub. There are a lot of movies on there, and being that K is a HUGE fan of old Hollywood, this is perfect.

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Playlist:

Perez - Les vacances continuent (single)
Deafheaven - Black Brick (single)
Deafheaven - From the Kettle Onto the Coil (single)
Apparat - Soundtracks: Dämonen
Baroness - Gold and Grey

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Card:

Seems about right, as since I have hit the beta reading phase of the new book, I've already spent an hour or so this morning dusting off something new-ish. Just a short story as a palate cleanser before I dip back into the outline for Shadow Play Book Three!

Isolation: Day 54 Nice Cave TeeVee

A couple weeks ago, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds announced their youtube channel would be going 24/7 with streaming content. This morning when I checked my subscription page (have I mentioned how much I hate the layout of the most recent youtube overhaul? It happened a few months ago, but I used to meticulously curate the landing page, which displayed a single, horizontal row of each channel subscribed to, history, recommendations, and trending, the category I couldn't give less of a toss about) I noticed the little "Live" icon in the bottom left-hand corner, clicked over and caught part of an in-studio segment from Henry's Dream. Not sure about you, but the idea of 24 Hour Bad Seeds makes my heart swell.

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Last weekend, I made serious progress in a project that I've been putting off for some time, transferring all of my comics out of long boxes and into short boxes. Oh, the humanity!

I'm about 80% finished. To be brutally honest, I've divested myself of quite a bit of my collection, and when all is said and done, I will still end up with 24 short boxes of comics! Madness! I've talked about this here before, the existential crisis that has held me in its grip since last September, this idea that all this stuff that I've accumulated ends up being the major "WTF was I thinking?" regret of my life. Maybe regret is a harsh word, but seriously, if I'd only adjusted to the digital thing sooner, I'd probably have at least double in my 'buy a house' fund. Add to this the idea that, as I go through a lot of these comics, even series and runs that I love, some of them I look at and know, "I'll most likely never have the urge/chance to read this again in my life." It makes me think about subscriptions, the current zeitgeist, and as such something I may eventually turn around on, too, but surely a better way to consume media. It's one of the reasons I hardly ever buy movies anymore (still some exceptions, of course). It's also one of the reasons I've started to dig digital comics, because they're generally cheaper, take up no space, can travel with you at all times, and thus, don't leave nearly the footprint, if at all.

Anyway, in spite and contrary to all this, boy am I ready for Diamond to get NCBD up and running again. I stopped in at the Comic Bug this past Saturday to pick up more short boxes - the store isn't open, but you can call on Wednesdays from 12-4 and Saturdays from 12-2 and make an appointment to stop in - and picked up the last remaining book in my pull, one I hadn't gotten to yet. TMNT 104. The issue served as a beautiful coda on everything that has come before, and felt especially poignant reading now, in the midst of such an unprecedented industry stall. The final pages actually managed to bring a joyful tear to my eye, and closed and resealed it in bag and board remembering why, in spite of everything I just said above, I still read some comics monthly, in physical form.

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Playlist:

Cocksure: Operation C.O.C.K.S.U.R.E
The Juan Maclean - Happy House (Matthew Dear Remix)
X- Under the Big Black Sun
Chris Isaak - Heart Shaped World

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Card:

Art!

Locke and Key Gets a Trailer!

I knew this was coming, but I never dreamed it would look this good! More excited for this than pretty much anything else at the moment, and it serves as a nice bookend to the fact that I'm finally reading the series - only have Vol. Six and the one-off Vol. Seven left to go and I'll be completely ready for what looks like, at this point, the series of the year.

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It's time once again for...

Over the last three days I've watched two more episodes, thus rounding out the Season One tier on Mr. Brown's Playlist. First, Season One, Episode thirteen, "Beyond the Sea," which not only featured Brad Dourif as convicted serial killer-turned-helpful-psychic Luther Lee Boggs (aided by another killer named Lucas Henry - see what they did there?), but also had Twin Peaks alum Don "Major Briggs" Davis as Scully's father. Super cool episode; fairly tight script, good character development, and an almost over the top performance from Dourif that was just plain fantastic to watch. Probably my favorite episode so far.



Next up was Season One, Episode Nineteen, "Shapes." Basically a Shapeshifter/Werewolf story set on an Native American Reservation, this episode also featured a Peaks alum, Michael Horse, aka Deputy Hawk. This one was a slosh clunkier than the last insofar as script, but overall, a solid, simple approach to the kind of archetypal folklore that makes this show fun.

Next up - and this I'm very excited for because although the episode resounds in my memory for all its infamy, Season Two, Episode Twenty's "Humbug" is not something I'm one hundred percent certain I've actually seen before.

Can't wait. So far, this little collaborative experiment between Mr. Brown and I has been quite fun, and really, we're just getting started.

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NCBD yesterday:

This book gets more and more insane every month. I'm a little concerned at this point, it might not be able to stick the landing to whatever godforsaken place it's going, but it's still one hell of a ride getting there.

I am so very glad I started reading this book. Seriously, it's the type of dark, Ancestral Horror that used to populate paperbacks in the late 70s/early 80s, and although I was mostly too young to read that stuff at the time, I definitely picked up on its tone while stalking the shelves of the local libraries I used to frequent as a child. The Plot feels like a book that may end up leaving me with a gasp or two, which would be pretty cool, because with TWD gone, I need something to do that for me.

Whenever a major franchise book flips a landmark number, you have to kind of reassess. After the cataclysmic events of TMNT issue fifty, I felt the book took a few issues to really grab me again. Because of that, I've been a little concerned that for all its grandiosity, issue one hundred might do the same.

Nope.

I LOVE the new direction of this book. I won't go into spoilers, but we're finally done paying homage to all the stories of the past iterations of the characters, and are into completely new ground. And it. Is. Glorious, dark, and a little bit sad. And that's exactly where the characters should be. One thing about TMNT - probably the thing that always set it apart for me - for such a zany concept and highly marketable image, Eastman and, in the old days, Laird both excel at taking the characters and the readers out of their comfort zone. So yeah, I can't wait to read the next issue, and TMNT has pretty much replaced TWD as my new "gottareaditrightfuckingnow" title. Which makes me extremely happy.

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Playlist:

NIN - Year Zero
Yves Tumor - Safe in the Hands of Love
Sunn O))) - Pyroclasts
The Damage Manual - Limited Edition
The Rolling Stones - Dirty Work
Kevin Morby - Oh My God
Kevin Morby - Singing Saw
Federale - No Justice
Lingua Ignota - Caligula
The National - Trouble Will Find Me

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Card:

I guess I better start walking...

2018: November 27th

New Le Butcherettes! Very 90s sounding, not in a bad way. New album comes out February 1st.

New episode of The Horror Vision went up on Sunday. You can find it on Apple, Spotify, and Google Play, as well as at TheHorrorVision.com. This episode is our reaction/interpretation of Luca Guadagnino's Suspiria remake. Other topics include The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, Shudder's Dead Wax (which I LOVE), and the Indiegogo for The Barn II, which is fully funded as of 11/21 and now Indemand, which apparently means you can still contribute and secure cool rewards. I still haven't seen the first Barn yet - it's been on the list for at least a year if not two now, so what the hell am I waiting for, right?

NCBD this week isn't as light as last week, but it's light. Check out this gorgeous cover for TMNT 88:

Die! Die! Die! has been hit or miss with me so far, but the opening discussion between two high level US government officials in issue #4 may have permanently endeared this book to me. It's kind of a more violent, more philosophical approach to GIJOE and I find myself wondering if that was the goal. The real shocker here is that Stray Bullets Sunshine and Roses is on issue #40. Where the hell does the time go? It wasn't that long ago that David Lapham's brilliant B&W crime comic had been on hiatus for 9 years and we were jumping at joy with the announcement of its return via Image. Now we're 40 issues in on the second or third volume of this new series. And you know, it's still awesome.


Playlist from 11/27:

Monolord - Rust
Mastodon - Once More 'Round the Sun
Mastodon - Emperor of Sand
The Knife - Silent Shout
Mudhoney - Digital Garbage
Gogol Bordello - Gypsy Punks Unite
Ghost - Infestissumam
Godflesh - Post Self

Card of the day:

Gonna be an emotional day? Doesn't feel that way. There's a passivity here when it's water on water, however the passivity acts as a perfect transformer for other energies, maybe some that lack emotion.

2018: August 21st

Really diving into all the back catalogue material I'd missed from Chris Connelly lately. Some of these I'll be ordering on vinyl, like 2011's Artificial Madness. The album runs a gamut of industrial-influenced tunes to more melodic but still fuzzy numbers like this one. Such a gorgeous track.

About 200 pages into the Silence of the Lambs. It's been solid from the start, however some of the chapter stops are so forced in order to adhere to a 'page-turner' profile I've rolled an eye or two. Still, better short than over for this kind of book and the momentum it establishes early on. I can't wait to watch the movie again after I finish; it's been years, as despite my love of horror, the serial killer genre, especially when executed this well, is one that burrows too deep under my skin for me to partake of often.

NCBD tomorrow! Super excited for the return of Days of Hate and the second issue of Die! Die! Die! My recent re-read of Nameless stoked the flames of my Chris Burnham love, so this arrives just in time.

Playlist from 8/20:

Fugazi - Steady Diet of Nothing
Vaguess - Guilt Ring
The Body - I Have Fought Against It, But I Can't Any Longer
Algiers - Eponymous
Chris Connelly - Artificial Madness
Shostakovich - Symphonies Nos. 5 And 9
Glenn Gould - Goldberg Variations

Card of the day:

Focus on Earthly, pragmatic considerations. Contemplation and fortification, exactly what I'm working on at the moment in terms of my writing. I'll have a big one in a month or two, and I am excited.

2018: June 23rd 12:44 PM

New NIN dropped yesterday. I haven't listened to anything on it other than that God Break Down The Door song, which I quite liked for all its Bowie-ness. Figured I'd post it hear - I'll probably get to it later today, but I'd be curious to see comments about what anyone reading this who listens to it thinks. Trent remains an interest of mine, even if his lyrical persona and the subsequent 'Reznorisms" sometimes - sometimes - leads me to sigh.



BIG week at the Comic shop this week. NCBD is always a joy, but this week I had new Deadly Class, new TMNT, second issue of Garth Ennis's A Walk Through Hell (which was freakin' awesome!), the new Black Science, finally got the second issue of sold out Tinsel Town by David Lucarelli, Calexit #3, and new Gideon Falls and Days of Hate, probably my two favorite books right now (besides TWD, Deadly Class and Stray Bullets, which rule without me having to say so). Both Gideon Falls and Days of Hate are really starting to ratchet up, so it kills me a bit to see Days is on hiatus until August, but what's two months in the grand scheme? Also, a little love should be extended for IDW's TMNT - it is such a fantastic on-going redesign of a property I've loved since it helped kick off the 80s B&W Explosion. Issue 83 was a fantastic tale, juggling multiple storylines and character arcs in as deft a fashion as ever (this book has just gotten better and better at doing that). The Pantheon is a great addition to the cast, especially as it's super clear they are VERY influenced by Neil Gaiman's The Endless, from the Sandman books.

As I believe I mentioned earlier this month, I went in on a monthly Shudder sub and, although I haven't explored it fully yet, it's really a great subscription. Last time I brought this up I believe I mentioned Interior. I'll add Follow Me to the list now, another superb thriller that I thought unfolded beautifully from one of the best 'inciting incidents' I've seen in a while. Girlfriend gives her boyfriend a handgun for Christmas, asks him to put it in his mouth and pull the trigger if he trusts her.

And I'll just leave you with that... and yeah, it's a Christmas movie. In a sense.

Note: I used the Spanish Movie Poster here, because I like this one the best, but the film is not a Spanish-language film. Just in case anyone reading has an aversion to subs. I do not, but I know some people do.
Playlist from 6/22:

Radiohead - Kid A
Servotron - Meet Your Mechanical Masters

Slim day on the music. Crazy work day and a humungous nap afterward.

Card for today:

From the Grimoire (which I suspect by its tone was cribbed from Crowley): "The first step from the perfection of one divides it into two.

2018: January 27th 9:51 AM

Started the day in silence as I drove to work on a relatively clean 405. As I've become increasingly intent on becoming a better writer I find starting the morning with my thoughts is a very good thing. Lots of ideas come to me in the morning, always have, and it's a good thing to let them flow. I work a lot of 'big picture' problems out this way, and I keep my handy dandy Olympus VN-722 PC Digital Voice Recorder in my car so I can always click it on and capture everything completely; one thing I've learned as I've aged is no matter how great an idea is, it will often slip away and disappear completely if I don't nab it on the spot.

Starting my musical day with Converge, as I'm still buzzing off the show on Thursday:



Didn't have a lot of time to make progress with Han King's The Vegetarian this week, but I'm eeking along; the perspective shift at about page 50 was interesting and adds a whole new angle to whatever the hell is happening. I'm enjoying this very much.

Reading-wise I did make some progress in catching up with all the comics I'm behind on, chief among them Kevin Eastman's ongoing relaunch of TMNT. I can't say enough good things about this series, it's still the best re-launch I've ever seen. I grew up in the mid-to-late 80s as a fan of the original Eastman and Laird B&W series, before the Turtles became marketed at children, a tactic I've never begrudged, as the creators have always been good about keeping at least one title on the shelves to appeal to us old school fans: there was the Erik Larsen B&W series in the 90s that continued the original series, then the Peter Laird series in the early 00s, and now this Eastman-driven one that started circa 2012 and has brilliantly brought in elements of every iteration of the Turtles and found a way to do all of it without alienating any aspect of the fanbase. The long form storytelling makes me smile to no end, and when I finished the double-sized final chapter of "The Trial of Krang" the other night I was once again in awe of how excellent this series is.

Yesterday's playlist was once again a bit diluted, as I started work later than normal to accommodate for the late night after the concert. I wasn't totally keeping track of what I was listening to, but I'll try to pull from memory:

Converge - The Dusk in Us

Fiona Apple - Tidal

Drab Majesty - Careless

Swans - Glowing Man (Disc 1)

David Bowie - Black Tie White Noise

This last album was also the subject of my Joup Friday Album yesterday, filling in for Sonny who takes up the reigns next week.

Speaking of Joup, I launched my new, weekly column this past Thursday: Drinking, Fighting, F*&king and Crying - check it out, this week's is Drinking, next week's is Fighting and so on. You get the picture.