The Cramps - Surfin' Dead Live!!!

Howzabout one of my favorite tracks by The Cramps to kick off Monday? I'm off Thursday and Friday this week, and you can betcher arse I'm going to be listening to more of these guys! Originally published on - get this - their Gravest Hits album, which came out before their debut full-length, Songs the Lord Taught Us. Think of it the same way Joy Division's Substance Collection is a collection of early singles that predate the recording of their two studio albums. Either way, Surfin' Dead blew up when it was included on the soundtrack for Dan O'Bannon's 1987 Return of the Living Dead. This particular version is from the Smell of Female live album.

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31 Days of Halloween:

I hate that we're not even a week out from the end of October! I'll be cruising directly into Noirvember again this year, and plan to try Dreamcember after that, but 31 Days of Horror is my favorite. 

I must say, for a film I did not care much for upon first seeing, Rob Zombie's Argento-esque Lords of Salem has become a favorite of mine. This film is so insanely blasphemous that it sometimes feels dangerous. Now that's a feat of no small measure. 

Mr. Zombie really created something special with this one. I like most of his films to varying degrees, but there's usually something I roll my eyes at in each one. Not here. This is dead serious in the way it handles its subject matter. That attitude, combined with the stunning setting, cinematography, and John 5's score, really make this a must-watch every year. Hard to believe I lived so long without it.

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1) Incident On and Off a Mountain Road///The Funhouse (theatrical viewing)

2) Tales From the Crypt Ssn 1 Ep 4, "Dig That Cat... He's Real Gone"///Cabin in the Woods

3) Satanic Hispanics

4) Creature From the Black Lagoon 3D///Lucky McKee's May

5) The Strangers

6) [REC]

7) The Autopsy - GDT Cabinet of Curiosities///[REC]2

8) Where the Devil Roams

9) The Roost

10) Good Boy///The Viewing - GDT Cabinet of Curiosities

11) Blood Moon (aka Wolf Girl)///All Hallows' Eve (The Last Drive-In Helloween)

12) The Shining///The Simpsons Ssn 6 Treehouse of Horror V

13) Stream (2024)

14) Creepshow (1982; theatrical viewing)

15) They Live in the Grey///John Carpenter's Prince of Darkness (theatrical viewing)

16) Black Phone 2

17) Scream 2///Mayhem (The Last Drive-In Blu-ray

18) The Exorcist

19) The Wolf of Snow Hollow///The Taking of Deborah Logan

20) Tales From the Crypt: Demon Knight (theatrical screening)///Cellar Dweller

21) The Black Phone///"Dream Kill" (segment in V/H/S85

22) The Transfiguration///Black Phone 2

23) Shelby Oaks

24) Clown in a Cornfield/// Jack-O (The Last Drive-In Splatterween double feature)

25) Ken Russell's Gothic/// Inferno/// Lords of Salem

26) Night of the Living Dead 1990/// Night of the Demons

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Read:

Persistence paid off this week. Previously, I'd cursed Netflix for a seemingly small theatrical opening for Guillermo Del Toro's Frankenstein. I'd just about given up hope of seeing such a clearly cinematic film on the big screen when, lo and behold, our local arthouse theatre, The Belcourt, added screenings to their website. I procured passes for this coming Thursday, and in the interest of freshening up my recall on Mary Shelley's original novel, I began an impromptu re-read. 

Some readers may recall from previous posts I did a few years back that I have in my possession the hardback edition illustrated by Bernie Wrightson. This one is on display with several other key pieces of Frankenstein memorabilia, so I tend to eye it every day and briefly flirt with the idea of revisiting it. Now is the perfect time.

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Playlist:

Type O Negative - World Coming Down

Lebanon Hanover - Let Them Be Alien

Bauhaus - Burning From the Inside

Perturbator - Age of Aquarius

The Cure - Pornography

Type O Negative - Life Is Killing Me

Beastmilk - Climax

Steve Moore - Jimmy & Stiggs OST

Dream Division - Beyond the Mirror's Image

Type O Negative - Bloody Kisses (Suspended in Dusk edition)

Various - Return of the Living Dead OST

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

And Grimm's Kickstarter for The Eldritch Lace Tarot deck is live for just a handful more hours! You can go check it out and support it HERE.

• XII: Hanged Man

• Five of Pentacles

• Page of Swords

Decisions will need to be made that might result in a conflict over money. Stay firm and prepare to be combative. Hold your ground and you will persevere.

Perfect timing. Waging a bit of a war with payroll at the moment. 

My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult - These Remains

From their self-titled, 1988 debut full-length album. This always sets the Halloween mood for me. 

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31 Days of Halloween:

1) Incident On and Off a Mountain Road///The Funhouse (theatrical viewing)

2) Tales From the Crypt Ssn 1 Ep 4, "Dig That Cat... He's Real Gone"///Cabin in the Woods

3) Satanic Hispanics

4) Creature From the Black Lagoon 3D///Lucky McKee's May

5) The Strangers

6) [REC]

7) The Autopsy - GDT Cabinet of Curiosities///[REC]2

8) Where the Devil Roams

9) The Roost

10) Good Boy///The Viewing - GDT Cabinet of Curiosities

11) Blood Moon (aka Wolf Girl)///All Hallows' Eve (The Last Drive-In Helloween)

12) The Shining///The Simpsons Ssn 6 Treehouse of Horror V

13) Stream (2024)

14) Creepshow (1982; theatrical viewing)

15) They Live in the Grey///John Carpenter's Prince of Darkness (theatrical viewing)

16) Black Phone 2

17) Scream 2///Mayhem (The Last Drive-In Blu-ray

18) The Exorcist

19) The Wolf of Snow Hollow///The Taking of Deborah Logan

20) Tales From the Crypt: Demon Knight (theatrical screening)///Cellar Dweller

21) The Black Phone///"Dream Kill" (segment in V/H/S85

22) The Transfiguration///Black Phone 2

23) Shelby Oaks

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Playlist:

Type O Negative - Bloody Kisses (Suspended in Dusk edition)

Pilot Priest & Electric Youth - Come True OST

Type O Negative - Life is Killing Me

Bauhaus - Gotham (Disk 1)

Ain Soph - Rituals

My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult - I See Good Spirits and I See Bad Spirits

Miranda Sex Garden - Iris

Type O Negative - World Coming Down

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

And Grimm's Kickstarter for The Eldritch Lace Tarot deck is now live! You can go check it out and support it HERE.

• Two of Cups

• VIII: Strength

• Seven of Wands

I've been thinking about Type O Negative and Peter Steele all day, and that came out in the cards. But what does that mean? What nuance does that add to the Pull? I think it says it right there on VIII - Strength. Peter was strong, or at least, he seemed strong. At the end? Maybe not so much. How does that factor into the rest of the sentiment expressed across these three Jungian Archetypal images?

Connections based on courage. Unified front; stand your ground and you will receive assistance, not necessarily from an outer source, but rather, an inner one.

Total work reference. I'm feeling burned out and emotionally spent from, well, living inside a corporate organism. I need to stand up for myself more. 

New Music from Blut Aus Nord!!!

 

The second track released from the upcoming album Ethereal Horizons, out November 28th on Debemur Morti Records. Pre-order HERE.

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31 Days of Halloween:

I was 100% unfamiliar with John Buechler's 1987 film Cellar Dweller before two nights ago. I'd heard of it, but knew nothing about it. After stumbling across it on Prime the other night, I'd have to say this fits right in there with 976-Evil and The Dead Pit as a lost 80s classic Video Store Horror gem!

Not a 'great' flick by any stretch, but FUN! I've grown to recognize seeing Buechler's name attached to a film as an exciting thing, and this only reinforces that assessment. 

...

1) Incident On and Off a Mountain Road///The Funhouse (theatrical viewing)

2) Tales From the Crypt Ssn 1 Ep 4, "Dig That Cat... He's Real Gone"///Cabin in the Woods

3) Satanic Hispanics

4) Creature From the Black Lagoon 3D///Lucky McKee's May

5) The Strangers

6) [REC]

7) The Autopsy - GDT Cabinet of Curiosities///[REC]2

8) Where the Devil Roams

9) The Roost

10) Good Boy///The Viewing - GDT Cabinet of Curiosities

11) Blood Moon (aka Wolf Girl)///All Hallows' Eve (The Last Drive-In Helloween)

12) The Shining///The Simpsons Ssn 6 Treehouse of Horror V

13) Stream (2024)

14) Creepshow (1982; theatrical viewing)

15) They Live in the Grey///John Carpenter's Prince of Darkness (theatrical viewing)

16) The Black Phone 2

17) Scream 2///Mayhem (The Last Drive-In Blu-ray

18) The Exorcist

19) The Wolf of Snow Hollow///The Taking of Deborah Logan

20) Tales From the Crypt: Demon Knight (theatrical screening)///Cellar Dweller

21) The Black Phone///"Dream Kill" (segment in V/H/S85

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NCBD:

Just four titles this week (I think), so let's talk about the big one first.

Jason Aaron's run is already over? Weird - I don't feel like this book really did what I thought it would do. That's not good or bad, just... I don't even know. Maybe it's the bi-monthly thing that has me feeling so removed from it. Certainly there appear to have been some big changes on the surface, and I did really enjoy the way Aaron took the brothers apart and reintroduced them as a team that is more dysfunctional than we've ever seen before. We'll see how this transitions to the new creative team starting with issue 13.

After finally catching up and reading the first four issues of Chris Condone and Jeffrey Alan Love's News From the Fall Out recently, I have to say, this is the first book I've contemplated dumping before it finishes in quite some time, There was one whole issue spent with people arguing in a diner. I mean, if felt like that "Put on the glasses" scene in They Live, and while I love that film and that scene is hysterically iconic, it's best left not repeating it, because it still tests my patience when Carpenter did it! I don't know - I'm feeling like there's not enough of the story here to go a full six issues so things got stretched out in a way that really killed the momentum, but we'll see. I'm sticking it out until it wraps with issue six. Condone has never disappointed me before, so I owe the man the benefit of the doubt. 

At a glance, this cover gives me all kinds of Uncanny Valley weirdness. 

I've had this book on my mind after watching the 2024 film Stream recently, which was enjoyable, but didn't quite have the scope Walsh and Tynion present in Exquisite Corpses. 

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Playlist:

Type O Negative - Bloody Kisses (Suspended in Dusk edition)

John Harrison - Day of the Dead OST

Testament - Para Bellum

Misfits - Earth A.D. 

Saigon Blue Rain - Oko

Black Tape for a Blue Girl - Remnants of a Deeper Purity

Various - Lords of Salem OST

Count Gorgann - Corpse Eater: Satanic Misery Live for the Dead

77s - All Fall Down

Pilot Priest and Electric Youth - Come True OST

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

And Grimm's Kickstarter for The Eldritch Lace Tarot deck is now live! You can go check it out and support it HERE.

• Six of Cups

• Queen of Pentacles

• Nine of Cups

The ache of memory can cloud the mind, emotion overwhelming the faculties that make the day-to-day decisions. This is how I feel I live sometimes. Is this a good thing? It can be, but here's an instance where I'll actually use the specific image on Grimm's card to help understand what the cards are saying: intoxication. I'm overflowing with emotional bias and it probably is responsible for regularly made bad decisions. Not like, hookers and blow bad decision, but like, I don't need to buy everything that looks like it will make me happy. 

New Music From Odonis Odonis!!!

From the upcoming self-titled album, due out November 14th on Royal Mountain Records. Pre-order HERE.

Honestly, a lot of what these guys have done since 2016's Post Plague hasn't really stood the test of time with me. Post Plague is just so good that it generated some serious fan inertia. This, however. Wow. I love both tracks the band has released from this forthcoming album, and can't wait to hear the entire thing.

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31 Days of Halloween:

 

I received my copy of Joe Bob Briggs' The Last Drive-In Blu-ray this weekend, and quickly set about watching the first of the two features included. I'd seen Joe Lynch's Mayhem once before - when Joe Bob did it during season one of the show - and rewatching it, I loved it even more. I need to procure a copy of the Steve Moore score, too. 

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1) Incident On and Off a Mountain Road///The Funhouse (theatrical viewing)

2) Tales From the Crypt Ssn 1 Ep 4, "Dig That Cat... He's Real Gone"///Cabin in the Woods

3) Satanic Hispanics

4) Creature From the Black Lagoon 3D///Lucky McKee's May

5) The Strangers

6) [REC]

7) The Autopsy - GDT Cabinet of Curiosities///[REC]2

8) Where the Devil Roams

9) The Roost

10) Good Boy///The Viewing - GDT Cabinet of Curiosities

11) Blood Moon (aka Wolf Girl)///All Hallows' Eve (The Last Drive-In Helloween)

12) The Shining///The Simpsons Ssn 6 Treehouse of Horror V

13) Stream (2024)

14) Creepshow (1982; theatrical viewing)

15) They Live in the Grey///John Carpenter's Prince of Darkness (theatrical viewing)

16) The Black Phone 2

17) Scream 2///Mayhem (The Last Drive-In Blu-ray

18) The Exorcist

19) The Wolf of Snow Hollow/// The Taking of Deborah Logan

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Read:

Inspired by the seasonal shift in the weather and my corresponding temperament, last Wednesday night I fired up Type O Negative's October Rust and dug Joseph Michael Linsner's Dawn: Lucifer's Halo from my short boxes. 

Originally published in 1997 as a six-issue monthly mini-series through Sirius, at first glance at this book on the shelves, I wrongly assumed this was another in the late 90s spate of T&A books that flooded the shelves of comic book shops. Then, a few months into the run, while hanging out at a friend's house, I saw the series sitting on his coffee table and picked up one of the issues and began to flip through the pages. 

I was floored. 

I sat there and read the first two issues, then drove to the comic shop later that week and grabbed what they had on the shelf. To this day I'm still missing issue #1, but I bought everything Linsner did under the Dawn character after that: Three Tiers, the NY book in '01, Return of the Goddess, etc.  

Dawn is a singular concept. Utilizing religious themes, flourishes of High Fantasy, Horror, and eroticism, this book is visually stunning and intellectually fascinating. There's a tenderness to the romantic elements of the story that really makes me feel for the characters, particularly Darrian Ashoka, who is hopelessly in love with a Goddess and awash in a reality that suddenly includes Angels and Demons of a most violent sort. There's brutality to the violence, and a grandeur to the philosophical elements that really posit Linsner's writing as the product of deep thought and intense introspection, not just directed inward, but outward toward the goal of understanding our rich and tempestuous existence.

And then there's the Art. Nothing I could post here does it justice. Yes, a large part of the art is Dawn herself, but beyond that, JML really breathes life into the Metaphysical realms with a unique and lavish style unlike anything else out there. 

Time to track down that first issue on eBay. 

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Playlist:

Type O Negative - Bloody Kisses (Suspended in Dusk version)

Miranda Sex Garden - Fairytales of Slavery

My Live with the Thrill Kill Kult - Confessions of a Knife

Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures

Telefon Tel Aviv - Immolate Yourself

Carpenter Brut - Leather Teeth

Miranda Sex Garden - Suspiria

Netherlands - Vapors

Asaf Avidan - Live at the Acropolis

Noga Erez - RADAR Reworked 

Slayer - Live Undead/Haunting the Chapel

John Brennan and the Bigfeet - The Last Drive-In w/ Joe Bob Briggs OST

Various - Return of the Living Dead OST

The Damned - Night of 1000 Vampires

Goblin - Suspiria OST

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

And Grimm's Kickstarter for The Eldritch Lace Tarot deck is now live! You can go check it out and support it HERE.

• Page of Cups

• X: Wheel of Fortune

• XXI: The World

Intuit change and stay ahead of it. That's the only way to survive the world as we know it today.

Again, I know that's pretty generic, but I'm running on fumes at the moment, so I'll be leaving the cards out on my desk to ponder in the morning.

77s - You Don't Scare Me

Full disclosure - adding this song from the 77s' 1984 album All Fall Down was an eleventh-hour switcheroo. In truth, I don't recall ever hearing of the 77s before last night, when this song played over the closing credits of Scott Derrickson, C. Robert Cargill and Joe Hill's Black Phone 2. 

F*#king track made an impression, to say the least.

I drove home on the 24 with both windows down, around 11:00 PM, blaring this track, and it felt GOOD. About as good as blasting "Rock You Like A Hurricane" felt leaving my first theatrical viewing of Ti West's Maxxxine* last July. Something about an awesome, swanky rock song pumping out the windows into the night air.

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I know that song's not actually in Maxxxine, but it fit the mood of the moment just fine.

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31 Days of Halloween:

There's a lot of trepidation surrounding Scott Derrickson and C. Robert Cargill's Black Phone 2. The trailer looks fantastic, but A) like all goddamn Bluhouse trailers, it shows too much, and B) how do you follow that first film? 

I've been a fan of these two since Sinister. I stand by that one, regardless of that unneeded final scene. The atmosphere is so... heightened. I don't know that the film scares me, but I know it scares the characters. That's something I'm not sure I've ever put into words before, but it's accurate. The success of that first Black Phone film - what these two did with Joe Hill's wonderful but curt short story, it just seemed impossible to follow through on. Not the case. 

As annoyed as I've become seeing this trailer before every movie for the last month or two, somehow, it doesn't actually give that much away. That said, I'm posting this here for posterity's sake; if you haven't seen the film yet, don't watch it. The less you see, the better. Why? Because Black Phone 2 is visually and sonically STUNNING.

That should come as no surprise to anyone who has followed Derrickson's career. The two standout additions here are the use of grainy, 16mm film stock that signifies an altered state of awareness and Atticus Derrickson's score.

Both the 16mm technique and Atticus Derrickson carry over from the duo's "Dream Killer" in V/H/S/85. I'm not the biggest fan of that particular franchise; however, seeing that segment on the big screen two years ago is something I reflect on quite a bit. The visual textures Derrickson creates, and the way they're accentuated by the score (and a cameo by Throbbing Gristles' Hamburger Lady) make such a strong sense impression... It's unlike most cinematic things. Same too with Black Phone 2. I'm not saying it's the best thing since The Shining, but this style is unlike anything else I've seen. There's a nostalgic element, but I think that's the atmosphere, not the actual technique. 

Either way, if you dug the first one, Black Phone 2 is well worth your time.

1) Incident On and Off a Mountain Road///The Funhouse (theatrical viewing)

2) Tales From the Crypt Ssn 1 Ep 4, "Dig That Cat... He's Real Gone"///Cabin in the Woods

3) Satanic Hispanics

4) Creature From the Black Lagoon 3D///Lucky McKee's May

5) The Strangers

6) [REC]

7) The Autopsy - GDT Cabinet of Curiosities///[REC]2

8) Where the Devil Roams

9) The Roost

10) Good Boy/The Viewing - GDT Cabinet of Curiosities

11) Blood Moon (aka Wolf Girl)/All Hallows' Eve (The Last Drive-In Helloween)

12) The Shining/The Simpsons Ssn 6 Treehouse of Horror V

13) Stream (2024)

14) Creepshow (1982; theatrical viewing)

15) They Live in the Grey/John Carpenter's Prince of Darkness (theatrical viewing)

16) The Black Phone 2

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Playlist:

Bauhaus - The Sky's Gone Out

Miranda Sex Garden - Fairytales of Slavery

Type O Negative - World Coming Down

Odonis Odonis - Eponymous (pre-release singles)

Perturbator - Age of Aquarius

Dream Division - Beyond the Mirror's Image

Dream Division - The Devil Rides Out

Goblin - Phenomenon OST (Wax Work Edition)

Ghost - Infestissumam

Deth Crux - Mutant Flesh

Cursed Moon - Rite of Darkness

Gylt - I Will Commit A Holy Crime: Tandem

Bauhaus - Burning From the Inside

77s - All Fall Down

Beastmilk - Climax

Throbbing Gristle - Hamburger Lady (single)

Throbbing Gristle - Slut Bait (Live at the I.C.A. London single)

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

And Grimm's Kickstarter for The Eldritch Lace Tarot deck is now live! You can go check it out and support it HERE.

• Nine of Swords

• VII: The Chariot

• Eight of Wands

Anxiety, Willpower and Action. Meaning, I have to do something about the anxiety currently haunting me. That's pretty vague, but I don't have a lot of gumption in me at the moment, so leaving this here to possibly decode later. 

In Praise of Bacchus

Can you feel it? October is in full dying mode. The plants K and I worked so hard to keep alive all summer long through the heat are succumbing to the dying time. So am I, sonically speaking. So yeah, here's one of my all-time favorite tracks from one of my all-time favorite bands, so perfect for Autumn. I think that, after I post this, I'll get high, open another beer and read Dawn: Lucifer's Halo. Just list those autumns so long ago.

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31 Days of Halloween:

I had the really cool experience of finally seeing George A. Romero and Stephen King's original Creepshow on the big screen last night. Regal is doing a Horror movie a day in October, and this week is the big week for me: Creepshow last night, John Carpenter's Prince of Darkness tonight (never thought I'd have a chance to see this one at a theatre) and The Black Phone 2 on Thursday. Black Phone is not part of this month-long repertory stint; I'll be back at that next week. 

1) Incident On and Off a Mountain Road///The Funhouse

2) Tales From the Crypt Ssn 1 Ep 4, "Dig That Cat... He's Real Gone"///Cabin in the Woods

3) Satanic Hispanics

4) Creature From the Black Lagoon 3D///May

5) The Strangers

6) [REC]

7) The Autopsy - GDT Cabinet of Curiosities///[REC]2

8) Where the Devil Roams

9) The Roost

10) Good Boy/The Viewing - GDT Cabinet of Curiosities

11) Blood Moon (aka Wolf Girl)/All Hallows' Eve (The Last Drive-In Helloween)

12) The Shining/The Simpsons Ssn 6 Treehouse of Horror V

13) Stream (2024)

14) Creepshow (1982)

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NCBD:

Tomorrow's Pull at Rick's Comic City, Clarksville. 

LOVE this cover. I'm getting Shockwaves vibes from the thing in the background. Very cool.

As usual, it'll be a minute before I get my hands on the last couple Z News, but I always love to look at the covers and wonder what bizarre copy Mr. Zdarksy and crew will throw at us on any particular topic. 

So, The War turns out to only be 3 issues? The solicitation on League of Comic Geeks starts with, "the stunning conclusion...".  I'm both bummed and relieved. Even though the second issue of this series didn't hit me as hard as the first did, this is all so relatable it's insane. Ennis and Cloonan should collaborate more often - I definitely think she captures the darker aspects of his characters. 

I'll always support the Laphams, and after only one issue of Good As Dead, my doing so is rewarded. This book feels like it's going to be a wild ride. Nobody does crime comics like the Laphams. Sure, Brubaker and Phillips are at the top of their game, but this is something else entirely. There's always an element of low-key magical realism in the Laphams' work, and it often just springs out of nowhere. 

Another Night Force issue. Cool. I'm looking forward to how the two teams play out. G.I. Joe still feels like the Energon Universe book with the most to prove, and I'm hoping something big will come into play soon. 

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Playlist:

Black Tape for a Blue Girl - Remnants of a Deeper Purity

Blindfolded and Led to the Woods - The Hardest Thing About Being God Is That No One Believes me

Testament - Para Bellum

Tool - Aenima

Tear for Fears - The Hurting

The Damned - Evil Spirits

The Damned - Night of 1000 Vampires

sunn O))) - Eternity's Pillars b/w Raise the Chalice & Reverential EP

Saigon Blue Rain - Oko

Type O Negative - October Rust

Sisters of Mercy - Floodland

Skinny Puppy - Mind: the Perpetual Intercourse

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

And Grimm's Kickstarter for The Eldritch Lace Tarot deck is now live! You can go check it out and support it HERE.

• Five of Wands

• Six of Swords

• Four of Pentacles

Conflict, Science (skill) and a base of power. Sounds like it's time to circle the wagons. 

Ritual Howls - Going Upstate

It hit me today (writing this on Sunday) that Ritual Howls' Into the Water will be ten years old next year. That, in retrospect, made me reflect on how it's now been a decade since everything in my life got rewritten for the better. Not many folks get to start over again and improve their existence exponentially. I did, and these guys were one of the first bands I found waking up in that new life, this record in particular. So it will always be special.

Listening to this, the closing track, in the early night, winding home on the country road that takes me out of Clarksville proper where I sometimes write and into the unincorporated area where we live looked very much like this video. It was just kind of a perfect moment for October. 

Oh yeah, Ritual Howls have a new album dropping on Halloween this year. You can hear the singles and pre-order the Neon Green Vinyl over on their Bandcamp HERE.

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31 Days of Halloween:

1) Incident On and Off a Mountain Road///The Funhouse

2) Tales From the Crypt Ssn 1 Ep 4, "Dig That Cat... He's Real Gone"///Cabin in the Woods

3) Satanic Hispanics

4) Creature From the Black Lagoon 3D///May

5) The Strangers

6) [REC]

7) The Autopsy - GDT Cabinet of Curiosities///[REC]2

8) Where the Devil Roams

9) The Roost

10) Good Boy/The Viewing - GDT Cabinet of Curiosities

11) Blood Moon (aka Wolf Girl)/All Hallows' Eve (The Last Drive-In Helloween)

12) The Shining/The Simpsons Ssn 6 Treehouse of Horror V

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Playlist:

Slaughterhouse - Sick and Tired EP

Gylt - I Will Commit A Holy Crime Tandem

Perturbator - Age of Aquarius

Perturbator - I Am the Night

Deftones - private music

White Lung - Eponymous

White Lung - Sorry

Mannequin Pussy - I Got Heaven

Mark Ronson and RAYE - Suzanne (single)

RAYE - My 21st Century Blues

Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures

Ministry - Psalm 69

Ritual Howls - Into the Water

Ritual Howls - Ruin (pre-release singles)

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

And Grimm's Kickstarter for The Eldritch Lace Tarot deck is now live! You can go check it out and support it HERE.

• Page of Wands

• IV: The Emperor

• XXI: The World

Completion. To get there, though, I need the person holding the 'keys' to have an epiphany. Or maybe I'm the person holding the keys? If that's the case, I had the epiphany today. This is all vague, but I'll just say, working really hard on getting Black Gloves & Broken Hearts published by the end of the month. One big roadblock, and it's not me, it's the Emperor. 

Day of the Dead!

 

Started my Thursday morning off with John Harrison's Day of the Dead Soundtrack. There is no way this album isn't a massive influence on Boards of Canada.

This is interesting - this youtube post is from the 2022 Numenorean Music release of the score. Unlike the Waxwork vinyl edition I actually listened to, this changes the opening track of the album from "Main Title" to "Dead Suite," a track that essentially merges the first five tracks from the Waxwork edition. It should be noted that, without doing hardcore research, the Waxwork edition purports to be the definitive edition, and the accompanying essay by Harrison backs that up. From the Waxwork website:

"In 2013, Waxwork Records and composer John Harrison unearthed the original, lost 1985 master tapes containing the complete DAY OF THE DEAD film score from the attic of a recording studio in Pittsburgh, PA. After restoring, mixing, and mastering the complete musical cues for vinyl, Waxwork assembled a definitive and deluxe release of the film’s classic synth heavy score, approved by both the composer and director George A. Romero."

I actually had a bit of fun cueing up the vinyl with this youtube track and playing them simultaneously. In doing so, I was able to note their identical nature until a divergence that occurs at approximately 13:08 on the Numenorean version.

Unfortunately, the Waxwork is often out of print. However, if you go HERE you can sign up for notification when they bring it back, which they do so periodically. I can say this is easily one of, if not my favorite, record I have by them, so it's 100% worth it if you're a fan.

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31 Days of Halloween:

Ti West's first film, The Roost (2005), is criminally unavailable, and while I have a DVD I purchased from Blockbuster back in the 00s (it even has an embossed Blockbuster logo on the plastic of the inside front cover), this one is almost as hard to find as his follow-up, Trigger Man. Someone put these on Blu-ray! Seriously! 

Anyway, The Roost has become a semi-annual Halloween watch for me - thinking it made its way to annual this year - and I sat down with a vape pen and a beer to enjoy it last night. This one never disappoints, so while looking for a trailer to post, I came across the youtube channel Horror Channel Return, which has it up in full. Again, I can't feel bad posting this, because the film is just not available for people to watch. So I'm reposting it here, with the hopes that you'll buy it when and if you can, but also, that you'll head over to Horror Channel Return and check out the other cool stuff they have up. At a glance, I saw Rocktober Blood, so, yeah, instant sub.

1) Incident On and Off a Mountain Road///The Funhouse

2) Tales From the Crypt Ssn 1 Ep 4, "Dig That Cat... He's Real Gone"///Cabin in the Woods

3) Satanic Hispanics

4) Creature From the Black Lagoon 3D///May

5) The Strangers

6) [REC]

7) The Autopsy - GDT Cabinet of Curiosities///[REC]2

8) Where the Devil Roams

9) The Roost

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Read:

I'll admit, I had a few reservations about the end of Daniel Warren Johnson's run on the Energon Universe Transformers title and Robert Kirkman taking over. In retrospect, that's assinine. Kirkman wrote one of my favorite comic series of all time - The Walking Dead. Not only wrote, but kept it my favorite monthly book from the time I began reading it monthly with issue #25 to the end with issue #193. Favorite because it sustained a level of engagement, surprise and fervor that entire time. That's thirteen years!!!

As a lovely outro to series artist Jorge Corona (see also, The Me You Love in the Dark), he illustrates the first handful of pages, a Decepticon 'pep rally' of the violent sort, as Megatron returns to his rightful (?) place as leader. I LOVE the reasoning Megatron employs here - that all the "Domination! Oppression! and Conquest!" they enact is all in the name of eventual peace. Brilliant! So many parallels...

If this is any indication - and I'm certain it is - we are in for quite a ride, especially with Kirkman also writing the auxiliary Transformers book, Void Rivals. I think things are really about to get fun.

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Playlist:

Ozzy Osbourne - Tonight (single)

Joy Division - Still

RAYE - My 21st Century Blues

Gylt - I Will Commit A Holy Crime Tandem

Slaughterhouse - Sick and Tired EP

Fields of the Nephilim - The Nephilim

Goatsnake - Black Age Blues

Jammes Luckett - May OST

Sam Hain - Unholy Passion

White Lung - Paradise

Slaughterhouse - Fun Factory

John Harrison - Day of the Dead OST

Fred Myrow & Malcolm Seagrave - Phantasm OST

Tangerine Dream - Sorcerer OST

Deafheaven - Lonely People With Power

Deafheaven - Infinite Granite

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

And Grimm's Kickstarter for The Eldritch Lace Tarot deck is now live! You can go check it out and support it HERE.

• Page of Wands

• XIII: Death

• II: High Priestess

Creative Energy leads to a "death" - a complete change in scope for an already established idea. 

Mark Ronson & RAYE

It is rare to find music that you instantly bond with. That turns a Saturday night at 12:30 AM at age 49 into an event you cannot turn off. That makes you open another bottle of beer. That makes your heart pump like you've suddenly, unexpectedly fallen in love. That is RAYE. A chance encounter on KCRW on the way home from a great night out in L.A. that turns into an hours-long exploration of an artist's catalogue and yields a new obsession.

While the song above is the one that got me, I've been listening to Raye's 2023 album, My 21st Century Blues, for the last three days and it is stuck. In. Me. Head!!! Flashes of Hip-Hop and R&B, slick production and layered vocals really make this record stand out. Also exciting is the fact that Raye has a new album releasing next year. The pre-order is up HERE.

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31 Days of Halloween:

After rewatching Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza's 2007 film [REC] this past Monday night, I feel I can definitively say that I think this is the single best use of the found footage Horror trope/genre out there. In fact, the only thing that might top it is [REC]2.

 

[REC] gets you to drop your guard early on, and then, when shit goes down, quickly becomes increasingly savage. If you haven't seen these but ever wondered what a demonic possession movie would look like with the contagion mechanics of a zombie film, these first two [REC] flicks are for you.

1) Incident On and Off a Mountain Road///The Funhouse

2) Tales From the Crypt Ssn 1 Ep 4, "Dig That Cat... He's Real Gone"///Cabin in the Woods

3) Satanic Hispanics

4) Creature From the Black Lagoon 3D///May

5) The Strangers

6) [REC]

7) The Autopsy - GDT Cabinet of Curiosities///[REC]2

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NCBD:

This week's pull list over at Rick's Comic City, Clarksville:

One more issue of Batman: Dark Patterns to go after this. One of the best Bat-series I've read, and while I'll be sorry to see it go, with a character that is strip-mined as much as Bats, I'm glad Watters and Sherman are leaving us wanting more instead of overstaying their welcome. 

While I recall enjoying the first issue of this Event Horizon prequel mini-series, I don't remember it. I'm not the biggest fan of the flick - I dig it, but each subsequent viewing since my first has diminished it a bit. That's not to say there's a lot of mythology contained in that film that I'd like to see explored - hence my interest in this series. Like probably everyone else who has seen the film, I want more Hell dimension! This book promises to give it to us. 

Things are heating up in Springfield and beyond. Curious to see where the various threads are going to coalesce. I've been into G.I.Joe again in general, as evidenced by the fact that, earlier this evening, I spent 20 minutes lost in a rabbit hole about the character Sci Fi, a character I never owned or knew anything about. 

A new Horror comic from Spectrevision? Sign. Me. Up! Here's the solicitation, culled from League of Comic Geeks:

"Chicago, 1967. Magazine writer Harry Kean is dispatched to rural Indiana to investigate the sudden disappearance of Becky Plume, a local teenager who stepped into the national spotlight with staggering photographic evidence of a recent UFO sighting. Frustrated to leave his developing stories in Chicago—and the wife he’s hoping to win back—Harry sets off to expose a hoax but instead finds himself in a labyrinth of high strangeness involving a missing girl, her boyfriend, a UFO, and some mysterious black-clad visitors circling at the perimeter of a mystery more vast than Harry could possibly imagine."

I have no idea what this new SIKTC one-shot is, but, of course, I'm here for it!

And finally, Robert Kirkman takes over writing Transformers with issue #25. Looks like a potentially significant change in the book's tone, so I'm curious to see how this unfolds. 

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Playlist:

Dreamkid - Daggers

YUNGBLUD - Idols

Burial - Untrue

Telefon Tel Aviv - Immolate Yourself

Drab Majesty - Careless

Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures

RAYE - My 21st Century Blues

Type O Negative - Life Is Killing Me

Faetooth - Labyrinthine

Type O Negative - October Rust

Tones on Tail - Everything!

Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - Blood Lust

Spotlights - Love and Decay

Loathe - I Let It in and It Took Everything

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

And Grimm's Kickstarter for The Eldritch Lace Tarot deck is now live! You can go check it out and support it HERE.

• Queen of Cups

• Knight of Pentacles

• XI: Justice

Strong emotional responses can lead to Willful advances in compensation. 

That's pretty weak, fortune-teller vague, but I'm tired, so that's all I have at the moment. 

lords. - bleeding out

 

I've been growing increasingly obsessed with lords.' single "Bleeding Out," perhaps because I can find next to nothing about them online. This song has the proverbial "it," even if I can't really explain what that it is. It's a feeling. A lonely, haunted exploration of desolation, doom and despair, but also an infectious, cyclical, creepy energy that keeps it moving and pulls you in. Well, it pulls me in for sure. I wish I could post a Bandcamp or something, but other than a Soundcloud and an Instagram, there's no trail for these guys, which just makes it even creepier in an age of oversaturation and instantaneous communication. 

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31 Days of Halloween:

While in L.A. this past Saturday, I had the distinct pleasure of visiting two places I had never been before. The first is Gardena Cinema. This is a family-owned, single-screen theatre at 14948 Crenshaw Blvd, Gardena, CA 90249 that, while I lived here, was a first-run theatre that only played big Hollywood movies. Franchises and the like. They had an all-day Universal Monster-thon and some friends and I had the pleasure of seeing Jack Arnold's Creature From the Black Lagoon in Real D 3D. 

I've loved this flick since I was a child, and it's one of Kirsten's favorites, too, so I've seen it a lot. After seeing it restored in 3D, I can honestly say I feel like I've just seen it for the first time. The restoration and conversion must have been a painstaking but rewarding process, as this just looks so good!

Next up, I finally made my way to Vidiots in Eagle Rock. Part video rental store, part theatre, I'd been wanting to hit this place up since it opened in June of 2023, a little bit less than a year after I moved. I feel like the heavens must have aligned on this trip, because while I would have been willing to go see pretty much anything there, it turns out my visit coincided with a screening of one of my all-time favorite films, Luky McKee's May.

I have no trouble admitting that as the movie began, I almost burst into tears. I love this one so much, and to see it on the big screen after all these years, side by side with some good friends - two of whom had never seen it before - was an experience that will resonate for the remainder of my life. 

1) Incident On and Off a Mountain Road/The Funhouse

2) Tales From the Crypt Ssn 1 Ep 4, "Dig That Cat... He's Real Gone"/Cabin in the Woods

3) Satanic Hispanics

4) Creature From the Black Lagoon 3D/May

5) The Strangers

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Playlist:

lords. - bleeding out (single)

Drug Church - Prude

Maddie & Kenta Yacht Rock Playlist

Perturbator - The Uncanny Valley

NIN - I'm Afraid of Americans (single)

David Bowie - I'm Afraid of Americans (single)

David Bowie - The Stars (Are Out Tonight) (single)

Ozzy Osbourne - Tonight (single)

NIN - With Teeth

Faetooth - Labryinthine

Mark Ronson & RAYE - Suzanne (single)

RAYE - My 21st Century Blues

Gylt - I Will Commit A Holy Crime Tandem

Blanck Mass - Animated Violence Mild

The Cure - Alone (single)

Drain - ... Is Your Friend (pre-release singles)

The Bronx - American Heartattack (single)

Dreamkid - Chrissy (single)

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Card:

While I'm traveling, I'm using the mini Thoth Deck that Missi gifted me many years ago. Still, I have to offer a reminder that creator Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot has been my day-to-day deck for over a year now (buy HERE), and Grimm's new deck, the Eldritch Lace Tarot, is up for funding right now on Kickstarter HERE.

Just the one card for today, a reminder to hit the ground running on my book as soon as I return to my daily life later today. Traveling back from L.A., I will say, I kept the thread going by writing two of the four days I was gone. Small sessions, but some important groundwork was laid, and I need to continue that today and tomorrow, despite the shit storm that is likely waiting for me 'at the office.'

Revocation - Dystopian Vermin

 

I'm traveling, so I'm not as up-to-date as I'd like. Flew into LAX yesterday and it's been wham-bam since, with no slowing down in sight. Fuck - I'll be 50 in March, and I had to fight ALL my 49-year-old lethargy for this trip. A body at rest tends to stay at rest, and all that. Still, I can't complain - seeing good friends, eating Lee's sandwiches every chance I get, and going to see some solid flicks, even if I might not make it to any Beyondfest screenings while I'm here. Anyway, here's a video for one of my favorite tracks from Revocation's new record, New Gods, New Masters, out last week on Metal Blade. Order the album HERE, and if you get the chance, see these guys live. I saw them back in 2014 on the Summer Slaughter tour and although they were unknown to me at the time, I was a fan by the time their set finished. 

This song is just savage! No other word for it. 

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31 Days of Halloween:

Two nights ago, I had the treat of seeing Tobe Hooper's 1981 Carnival Slasher The Funhouse on the big screen. Regal Theatres is hosting a Horror movie night every night for the duration of October, and I thought it was awesome that they kicked the month off with this underseen gem. 

I remember hearing about this back in the day and it basically being out of print, because it took me quite a few years to track down a fairly cheap copy of the DVD. No idea where that went, and while I'm not sure this is one I'd add to the collection again at this point, I treasured seeing this in a theatre. 

The tally so far:

1) Incident On and Off a Mountain Road/The Funhouse

2)  Tales From the Crypt Ssn 1 Ep 4, "Dig That Cat... He's Real Gone"/Cabin in the Woods

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Read:

As I mentioned a few weeks back, one of the books I'm reading for my Shadow Play Book Two research project is Richard Ellman's Oscar Wilde.

I'm finding this book very engaging, and what's more, it's kickstarting a lot of interest in the Renaissance, which, admittedly, I know very little about. 

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Playlist:

Wojciech Kilar - Bram Stoker's Dracula OST

Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures

Type O Negative - Dead Again

Revocation - Teratogenesis EP

Revocation - New Gods, New Masters

Slow Crush - Thirst

Burial - Untrue

Boards of Canada - Geogaddi

Boy Harsher - Careless

HEALTH - DISC0=PART II

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

And Grimm's Kickstarter for The Eldritch Lace Tarot deck is now live! You can go check it out and support it HERE.

• Three of Swords

• Knight of Swords

• Five of Pentacles

Disappointment, ambition, hardship or isolation. 

New Music From The Subways!

Holy smokes, has it been a minute since we had some new music from The Subways! I was initially going to post this last Friday, but then I realized it wouldn't debut until Friday afternoon, and I completely forgot about it. Seeing it in my drafts, I became excited all over again. I mean, NEW music from The Subways?!? Sure, this song doesn't herald a new album, just a comp, but STILL! Hearing this band again, I remember how much I love their first album. 

 

That new compilation is called When I'm With You, and you can pre-order it HERE.

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NCBD:

Pretty cool NCBD this week, as I've added a few outliers to my pull. 

I'm not sure I'll be buying Matt Fraction's Batman title in perpetuity, but I definitely had to grab this second issue just for the way the cover complements issue #1. Also, I did really dig that first issue, so who knows? Dan Watters' Dark Patterns is ending soon, and I've kind of grown attached to having a monthly bat-book. We'll see. 

I don't know much about Spider-Man Noir, but I dug the character in Across the Spider-Verse, and I love the design and concept, so I'm giving this a shot. Also, Erik Larsen returns to a derivation of the character that made him famous, so that feels like something I want to be here for. 

It just dawned on me now that we're six issues from SIKTC #50. I can feel this title building toward something, as it has gone backward into the past to propel us into the future. I don't know if I've said it here before, but I've carried a distinct idea for a while now that this book isn't going to go past 75 issues, so we may be closing in on a whole new world here. 

Like Spider-Man Noir, I don't know a helluva lot about Zatana, although I've probably read a skosh more with her than our Cage-voiced web-head up there. How could I not buy a one-shot with this title on the first day of Halloween? 

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Watch:

Puppet Combo made a movie!

Okay, yeah, this isn't going to win any awards. It also might ultimately prove a bit of a chore to get through. But hit damn if I'm not psyched to A) Support Puppet Combo's first film and, B) see some of their game imagery come to life on the big screen. If this goes well... imagine a Nun Massacre film? 

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Playlist:

NIN - The Downward Spiral

David Bowie and Nine Inch Nails - Back in Anger 1995

David Bowie - No Plan EP

NIN - The Fragile (Disc 1)

Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures

Blackbraid - Blackbraid III

Trust Obey - Fear and Bullets (1998 Edition)

Odonis Odonis - Post Plague

Type O Negative - Dead Again

Mitch & Ira Yuspeh - Seven Doors of Death OST

At the Drive-In - Relationship of Command

Slow Dive - Thirst

Fabio Frizzi - The Beyond OST

lords. - Bleeding Out (single)

lords. - Singles playlist

Cryo Chamber - Echoes of the Hollow Earth

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

And Grimm's Kickstarter for The Eldritch Lace Tarot deck is now live! You can go check it out and support it HERE.

• Four of Cups

• II: High Priestess

• Six of Cups

There's that apathy again. So weird how certain cards in this deck just stick to me. I've never had this with any other deck. So we're looking at that disinterest I'm showing the digital world, and we see it undercut by cloudy logic; am I missing something? Am I mixing nostalgia with reason?