Techno Westerns - Loverboy

I rewatched In A Violent Nature last night, strictly because Joe Bob and Darcy hosted it on the previous installment of The Last Drive-In. Not a fan of this flick, but I did come away with this song, so that's cool.

The album this track is featured on shares its name, and while I didn't love it, I found a pretty reliable evocation of a certain kind of Electro-Indie-Pop that was ubiquitous in Los Angeles in the late 2000s and early 2010s, and thus, hits a certain nostalgic trigger for me. I'm not talking smack; I would have probably liked this a lot more back then, but my tastes have definitely shifted, and as it stands after a couple of listens, I do dig this, just not enough to really get excited by it. Still, if you dig this track, check out their music for yourself. 

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Watch:

Zach Cregger's follow-up to Barbarian received a trailer last week:

This is another example of a creator who must have a hand in controlling the marketing of his films because, like Barbarian, this gives nothing away. I'm not going to test that theory by watching any subsequent trailers New Line releases after this; Weapons hits theatres on August 8th, and I will be there on opening day. 

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Read:

Over the weekend, I ripped through a re-read of Preston Fassel's brilliant Our Lady of the Inferno. Second time reading this book, and it's an all-time favorite for me. 

The depth of emotion here is incredible. This is a book that can scare you, gross you out, and touch your heart. The imagery is above and beyond as Fassel conjures 42nd Street, New York, in 1983, in a way I cannot even begin to describe. You hear it, you feel it, you smell it. The characters are so well-written and so developed that you feel like you know them - like you have known them your entire life. And the Horror is both breathtaking and heartbreaking in equal measure.

I was lucky enough to grab this one upon original publication by Fangoria, but while that edition is long out of print, there is a new edition available everywhere books are sold. 

I know I say this a lot, and I always mean it when I say it, but I cannot recommend this book enough. While I would definitely classify Our Lady of the Inferno as a "Horror" novel, it is also a literary Horror novel and one that is far too human to be limited by any genre tropes.  

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Playlist:

Black Sabbath - Sabotage

Moon Wizard - Sirens

Sumerlands - Dreamkiller

The Raveonettes - PE'AHI II

Matt Cameron - Gory Scorch Cretins

Zeal & Ardor - GREIF

Fever Ray - Radical Romantics

Turnstile - GLOW ON

Primus - Pork Soda

The Atlas Moth - Coma Noir

Ghost - Skeletá 

Perturbator - Dangerous Days

Final Light - Eponymous

Techno Westerns - Lover Boy

Joseph Bishara - Malignant OST

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Card:

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

• Ace of Cups

• Four of Wands

• Seven of Pentacles

Emotional breakthrough leads to a stable foundation from which to move forward to victory.

Black Gloves & Broken Hearts is finished and is in the hands of my trusted Beta Reader, so I'm really just waiting on the cover art and any cleanup based on early readers' reactions. After that, we'll be looking at setting a release date. Conversely, I've added a chapter to my latest ongoing Nosleep Serial and moved back to Shadow Play Book Two with the intention of stripping it, streamlining it, and finishing it. I toyed with the idea of turning this proposed trilogy into a duology. However, I think I will simply make books two and three shorter than originally expected. There's just too much sprawl, and I think it's that admitting and acknowledging that right there that is the "Emotional Breakthrough" mentioned in the reading. Roping this in can only lead to a stronger foundation and, thus, completion (Victory).

New Music From Ghost!!!

 

More new Ghost! I'm waiting to listen to this and anything else they drop between now and April 25th, when Skeletá releases. Pre-order HERE. 

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Watch:

I had a mini Lucio Fulci marathon yesterday that included two films I'd never seen before. First up, I caught the last third or so of The Beyond on Shudder.TV. This one is an old favorite (thanks, Anthony), and it inspired the marathon.

 

Next up, The New York Ripper. I'd caught a few scenes of this here and there over the years but never watched it in its entirety. Truthfully, I had this one on in the background while I edited the latest episode of The Horror Vision, one earbud in, but with how downright mean and sleazy Ripper is, I got the gist, and it was more than enough.

 

Is it just me, or is there an exorbitant number of scenes in this flick of two men walking and talking exposition? Fulci uses that device often, but here it was cranked to eleven. 

 Finally, A Cat in the Brain. Man, this might be the grossest film by the gore master I've seen yet. 

There's a kind of lackadaisical chill to some of the gore, and it did wonders for the creep factor. This was a late-night watch, so I passed out during parts and need to go back to fill in the gaps. Probably. This is not a great flick, but I'd like to sit through it at least once, even if just to see Fulci as the lead.

 

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Read:

Now that Jeff Lemore and Garbriel H. Walta's Phantom Road is back monthly, I took the opportunity to re-read volumes one and two in one sitting, plowing right on through to last week's issue #11. 

This book is up there with Tynion's SIKTC as one of the most readable books to come out since Kirkman's The Walking Dead. Every issue flies by but packs a whole lot of Mystery and Horror in its pages. I love the character development and how it's taking place, and there are just all kinds of threads to pull on and unravel.

Another thing - this book has so much Twin Peaks influence in it! It's not overt, but it's very much decipherable if you're a fan of Lynch and Frost's epic, only we've transported the weirdness from the forests of the Pacific Northwest to the desert roads of middle America. 

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Playlist:

Bedridden - Moths Strapped To Each Other's Backs

All Them Witches - Lightning At the Door

Marilyn Manson - The Pale Emperor

Dreamkid - Daggers

Slow Crush - Aurora

Deafheaven - Lonely People With Power

Yawning Balch - Volume Two

Miles Davis - Birth of the Blue

The Thirsty Crows - Hangman's Noose

AC/DC - Highway to Hell

Preoccupations - New Material

Preocccupations - Eponymous

Baroness - Stone

Beastie Boys - Check Your Head

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Card:

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

• XI: Justice

• Knight of Cups

• Nine of Swords

What does it say that Crowley turned XI Justice in Lust? Justice is certainly something people lust after in certain situations. My notes from way back talk about primordial forces underlying existence, and while I'd definitely mark Lust as one of those, I can't say my 49 years on Earth have proven to me that Justice is comparable.

Taken here as the first step on a path that advances to the Will of Emotion and culminates with a foundation of Intellect, I'd say the point to today's Pull is to remember to temper with the underlying push/pull of emotions connected to our view of the world with a healthy dose of Intellect. Not everything is as it seems, we know this, but knowing and abiding or using that knowledge is most definitely not the same thing. 

Beedridden's Moths Strapped To Each Other's Backs is out now!!!

 

Very excited that Bedridden's debut album, Moths Strapped To Each Other's Backs, released today! You can head over to their Bandcamp and snatch up the digital copy for $8 or the cassette for $12! Great band, can't wait to hear more from them!

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Watch:

Although I have very few complaints about the theatrical releasing in Clarksville, I was bummed that all my Chicago friends got a pretty wide rollout of French Canadian directing trio RKSS's (Anouk Whissell, Yoann-Karl Whissell, and François Simard) new film Wake Up. All reports are, this is a great one.

I know nothing about Wake Up. This was completely off my radar until my friend Chris mentioned it to me, and from there, a few others picked up the chant. "See it in the theatre." Unfortunately, neither my failsafe Regal in Nashville nor the Belcourt has it, so I'll be holding out for VOD.

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Read:

Long-time HWA friend David Lucarelli has turned his brilliant 2018 spook show Doctor Zomba into a comic book, Doctor Zomba's Ghostly Tales!

David joined us on Drinking with Comics HERE to talk about the original stage production of Doctor Zomba's back circa 2019. K and I caught the show at that year's Fringe Fest in Hollywood and LOVED it, so I'm psyched to see David turning this into a Horror Anthology comic. Head over to the Kickstarter HERE and take a gander! 

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Playlist:

Radiohead - OK Computer

Lounge Lizards - No Pain For Cakes

Beastie Boys - Check Your Head

Drug Church - Prude

Greg Puciato - Mirrorcell

Godspeed You! Black Emperor - F#A#∞

The Thirsty Crows - Hangman's Noose

The Afghan Whigs - Black Love

Slow Crush - Aurora

Suburban Living - Always Eyes 

Carpenter Brut - Leather Terror

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Card:

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

• Seven of Cups

• Ten of Swords

• Page (Princess) of Pentacles

Imagination culminates into prosperity when focused through long-term effort. All good signs when you're getting ready to launch a new book. Not there yet, but close.

Money Mark - Hand in Your Head

From Money Mark's 1998 album Push the Button. One fine little tune to brighten your day. Had this man on my mind since watching that B-Boys doc on Apple, and it's been a while since I revisited this. So good.

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NCBD:

Are those... Sharkticons? Oh man! DWJ and team know exactly how to get me excited before I even hold the book in my hands.

The return of Jeff Lemire & Gabriel H. Walta's Phantom Road! This is long overdue, and I'm dying to re-read the first ten issues and pick right back up where we left off. So many burning questions with this one.

I'll admit, when this book flipped to the second arc last issue and I saw it involved that ventriloquist dummy character from Batman's classic rogues gallery, I was unconvinced. But Watters and Sherman left me completely agog by that issue's closing page, so I'm psyched to be back!

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Watch:

There's really only about 3% of stuff on Netflix I care about, and one of those is Love, Death + Robots, which is returning May 15th for Volume 4. Here's a teaser:

I've watched the first three volumes countless times, but I still somehow have the feeling I have not seen it all. This was a show I used to fall asleep to back in Redondo Beach when I first became enamored with it, so some episodes have a real 2:00 A.M. haze to them. That said, there's something particularly envigorating about viewing Science Fiction from a liminal conscious state, and I'm pretty sure that has added to my high regard for the show.

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Playlist:

Chelsea Wolfe - She Reaches Out to She Reaches Out to She

The Jesus Lizard - Rack

Me and That Man - New Man, New Songs, Same Shit, Vol. 1

Neverly Brothers - The Dark Side of Everything

Sumerlands - Dreamkiller

Sqürl - Third Man Records Session

Beastie Boys - Check Your Head

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Card:

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

• Two of Swords

• Four of Cups

• King of Pentacles

As I've said here before, one of the many things I love about Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot is the imagery he uses is so particular to me, so invested in meaning, I can sometimes just read these based on what I see and not the learned associations of the number/suite/arcana. In this case, I'm hearing loud and clear I should pursue a new musical idea I have. Heard, chef.

Reba Meyer's Solo Music!

Reba Meyers' solo record to follow this, her second single, later this year! Super good news. I love Meyer's work, but Code Orange has slowly drifted into realms that, while I'll continue to give them a chance to come back, are far afield from what I listen to.

Check out Meyer's BandCamp HERE. Also, a short interview with her can be found HERE.

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Watch:

Have not had time to watch much in the last week or so. Three series have been competing for my time and heart: Severance, Yellowjackets Season Three, and a combination of Daredevil: Born Again and a rewatch of the original Daredevil Netflix series, currently nearing the end of the first season. I did, however, have occasion to watch the 2020 Spike Jonze documentary Beastie Boys Story, which I cannot recommend enough, even if you're not a fan. 

The format here is Mike D. and Adrock on stage in front of a live audience, with Spike Jonze controlling images and footage on a movie screen behind them as they talk. The show is an intimate, no-holds-barred look at their history, and I cannot commend Diamond and Horowitz enough for facing some of their uncomfortable moments head-on. Also, the love and admiration on display between these two for each other and their fallen comrade Adam Yauch makes for a beautiful framing device for the group's history. Lots of stuff here I didn't know, and I grew up a pretty big fan in the 90s.

And, of course, I had to follow that up with Fight for Your Right (Revisited), which I hadn't watched since it was released. 

So much fun just spotting all the cameos, and, of course, even though I'm not generally a fan of most of these gentlemen's brand of humor, here, applied to a topic that resonates, it's just a blast.

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Playlist:

Pink Floyd - UmmaGumma

Frankie and the Witch Fingers - Data Doom

Ozzy Osbourne - No More Tears

Ozzy Osbourne - Diary of a Madman

Ozzy Osbourne - Blizzard of Oz

Blut Aus Nord - Memoria Vetusta I: Fathers of the Icy Age

Blut Aus Nord - Memoria Vetusta II: Dialogue with the Stars

Blut Aus Nord - Memoria Vetusta III: Saturnian Poetry

Deafheaven - Lonely People With Power

Cocteau Twins - Heaven Or Las Vegas

John Carpenter - Big Trouble in Little China OST

Dreamkid - Daggers

Skid Row - Eponymous

Flying Lotus - Spirit Box

Flying Lotus - Cosmogramma

Alegeaeon - The Ossuary Lens

Cibo Mato - Stereotype A

Captain Jack - Pure Electric

Beastie Boys - Check Your Head

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Card:

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

• Ace of Cups

• XIII: Death

• XVIII: The Moon

Everything starts with or includes transformation of late. Big things on the horizon, I think. Lots of conversations in my life at the moment pertaining to work, home and family. This just tells me something needs to change, but it may not be the most obvious thing.

Mclusky

Mclusky is the closest thing I've seen to the old Butthole Surfers. Thanks to Mr. Brown and Jacob for sending this my way, because this band was not on my radar at all. 

New album, "the world is still here and so are we" is out now on Ipecac Recordings; order a copy HERE.

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NCBD:

I love that this week's pull is two super indie Horror books and one major. Makes me feel like maybe the indie comics world is making a new push. Let's do everything we can to help it succeed.

Barstow is so goddamn odd and I have loved every freakin' minute of it. A Desert X-Files analogue, except darker, weirder and a helluva lot bloodier than Mulder and Scully ever saw. This appears to be the final issue, but damn would I love to see a 'second season.'

I know nothing about Plague House by Michael W. Conrad and Dave Chisholm, but Oni Press has really been knocking it out of the park lately, so I'm on board to check this out. Here's the solicitation blurb from League of Comic Geeks:

"Thirteen years ago, Orin McCabe was a family man living a privileged life in the suburbs. Today, he’s condemned to death row for murdering his entire family in an unexpected fit of hammer-wielding brutality. In the aftermath of his heinous crime, it’s fallen to a trio of eclectic, but dedicated, ghost hunters—Jacob, the holy man; Holland, the skeptic; and their leader, Del, a true believer in the occult and worlds beyond—to surveil the abandoned McCabe home in search of proof for the existence of the undead . . . and whatever supernatural source may have possibly fueled McCabe’s inhuman massacre. But this ill-matched and uneasy squad of investigators is about to discover something much more terrifying than any ordinary spirit. . . . Something much more pernicious, much more contagious, that if not contained, could take full advantage of America’s unquenchable appetite for violence and deliver a plague of blood unto us all . . ."

Sounds f'king awesome, right?

Finally, thinking of picking this up:

Larry Hama's GIJOE: ARAH is doing this weekly event "Silent Missions," and while I probably won't pick up the all, I have a soft spot for Beach Head, so I'm in on this one.

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Watch:

I caught the trailer for the new film by Talk to Me's Danny and Michael Philippou once in the trailer last month and it was enough to convince me that I would henceforth be in rabid expectation. 

Great title, too. The Philippou's are fantastic filmmakers who earned their first hit and will likely continue to make them. There's an interview with the brothers up on Indie Wire that I haven't had a chance to read and likely will avoid until after the film's theatrical release on May 30th, which you can bet your arse I'll be sitting in a seat at my Regal for.

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Playlist:

Pink Floyd - Umma Gumma

Alice Donut - Dry Humping the Cash Cow

The Kills - Live at Third Man Records

Arcade Fire - Everything Now

Deafheaven - Lonely People With Power

Ozzy Osbourne - No More Tears

Melvins - Thunderball

Mclusky - the world is still here and so are we

Various – The Daptone Super Soul Revue Live! At The Apollo

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Card:

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

• XXI: The World

• VIII: Strength

• King of Pentacles

XXI: The World (The Universe in Thoth) can sometimes indicate a happy ending. Combined with Strength and King of Pentalces - financial security - indicates, to me at this time, stay the course and things will work out. Really interesting developments after my recent pontifications on work and corporate life (anti-life), and I can't help but feel this pull is a direct response. 

Hangman's Chair Live at Hellfest!!!

 

Another fantastic live performance as posted by the fantastic ARTE Concert YouTube page.

I'm super new to Hangman's Chair - I discovered them by way of singer Cédric Toufouti's work on Perturbator's Lustful Sacraments - so I had no idea they were big enough for a crowd like this. Always nice to see a band you're sweet on getting an ocean of love at a live performance. 

I've posted recently about the band's new album, Saddiction, which you can pick up from Nuclear Blast HERE.
 

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Watch:

I really think I need to spend a little more time talking about Severance than I did the other day. This is, for me, the most important show I know of at the moment.

This show is an allegory for the ramifications of the Corporate paradigm we live in and its effect on human beings, and it's a damn good one, at that. It's really made me reflect on my life and my job, which is becoming so all-consuming that it's affecting my writing, my sanity, and maybe my overall person. I have dreams that express the fear I'm being slowly brainwashed into one of these fucking corporate pod-people, and it's terrifying. 

One of the major plotlines of Severance is how the "Outties" - i.e., the person when not at work- basically sell their "Innies" into slavery. Of course, the Outtie does not go unscathed. I've only seen far enough (season 2, episode 2) into the show to get a feel for one character's home life, but it's clear they are not happy. Because, of course, to draw a really strong comparison from Severance to a film I love:

You cannot treat one aspect of yourself poorly and not expect it to affect the overall organism. 

This is an exaggerated pretense of how I feel about my work-life balance, a term that in and of itself makes me crazy. I spend far too much of my time working, thinking about work, solving my Innie's problems, and in this way, I feel like, just as The Substance is a remarkable allegory for beauty and self-worth, Severance is an allegory for the trade-off we make for money, status and all the other trappings of 'success.' To many people who know me, I might appear successful. In my own mind, however, I realize the damage the trade-off is doing. 

Word.

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Playlist:

Ministry - The Squirrely Years

Tim Hecker - Infinity Pool OST

Flying Lotus - ASH OST

The Veils - Asphodels

Deafheaven - Lonely People With Power

Ozzy Osbourne - No More Tears

Motley Crue - Shout at the Devil

Heilung - Lifa

David Bowie - Outside

Metallica - Kill 'Em All

Slow Crush - Aurora

Low - Trust

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Card:

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

• Queen of Cups

• XVI: The Tower

• Seven of Wands

Look to your dreams for what comes after the Fall. Of special note may be causes previously thought irrelevant.

Ministry - The Squirrely Years

 

I had heard Uncle Al was bringing the band out on the road to play the material from the 12" Singles/With Sympathy era, but I didn't realize that meant we were going to get a fully reworked release of the most iconic tracks. That's right - Ministry: The Squirrely Years Revisited is out and it's pretty damn good. 

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Watch:

I could tell you about the movie with Jenny Ortega and Paul Rudd that I went to see last night, or I can keep it clean and talk about how, despite my lifelong disdain for Ben "The Black Hole of Comedy" Stiller, my sister recently talked me into watching Severence on Apple TV and I absolutely love it.

Now, Stiller didn't create this, but he directed the first three episodes, and they were stellar! I mean, credit where it's due, folks. 

Created by Dan Erickson, IMDB sums the show up thusly:

"Mark leads a team of office workers whose memories have been surgically divided between their work and personal lives. When a mysterious colleague appears outside of work, it begins a journey to discover the truth about their jobs."

This show is DARK. The lives of each character are divided as their "Innie" and "Outie." The Innie's lives exist solely at the office, and while most of them cope by convincing themselves they are doing something great, one character is desperate to get out and cannot. She makes several resignation requests to her Outtie, but each falls on deaf ears, leading to an increasingly malevolent response.

Can't recommend this one enough. 

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Read:

Late last week, I finished John Dies At the End, and I'm happy to report it was absolutely fantastic. Such a fun read that has a pretty unique tone. Dave, the Narrator, has a particularly snarky approach to the world, and the titular John splits the difference between stupidity and heroism perfectly.

Next up: Adam Cesare's Clown in a Cornfield.

I was on the fence about this one, but my good friend Jesus sent me a copy a year or two ago, and with the movie coming out, I knew we'd cover it on The Horror Vision, so I figured a comparison between the film and source material would be in order. ~80 pages in, and I can say this is a very readable book. Not much has happened yet, but I'm enjoying it for sure. 

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Playlist:

Shellac - Excellent Italian Greyhound

Pink Floyd - Piper At the Gates of Dawn

Tool - Ænima

Ike Reilly - Poison the Hit Parade

Ozzy Osbourne - No More Tears

Skid Row - Eponymous

Skid Row - Slave to the Grind

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Card:

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

• King of Wands

• Two of Swords

• Ace of Swords

Mastering Will to stand or severe unproductive partnerships. Hmmm... I hate when I receive 'work advice' from the cards, but it's on point. 

Chapter 49: Ash, Pain and Blood

I turn 49 today. Happy to still be here, slightly confused at how that's possible. Fuck it - let's listen to some Flying Lotus!

Even at a curt 1:24, "Blood and Pain" stands out as one of my favorite tracks on an album full of favorite tracks, Flying Lotus' 2021 Yasuke. I'd kind of lost track of this man's music for a few years when I discovered this record last year, and it brought me flying right back. 

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Watch:

Speaking of Flying Lotus, this past Thursday night, K and I sat at our local big box theatre and watched Flying Lotus' new film, Ash.

I wish I could tell you that I loved this as much as I love the man's music, but that's not the case. Do I regret seeing it in the theatre? Absolutely not, and in fact, I'd encourage others to support it as well. Just know what you're getting into.

Ash is slow and somewhat cumbersome in its dissemination of the story. It's meant to be that way because of where the characters are, but it takes making us feel what they do a bit too literally. Slow is never a problem with me, if the film has strong legs to stand on. But things here wobble; there's some convenience in the writing and some ambiguity that doesn't feel purposeful. Also, Ash substitutes - probably out of budgetary necessities - flashes of FX for anything of real depth, which is fine if it's not the only technique you're using. But here, we're indoctrinated with these kind of "nightmare, body-horror" flashes early on, fragments of main character Riya's damaged memory of events that led to the death or disappearance of her ship's entire crew. Later in the movie, we get some action, a fight for survival, and the FX opens up a bit, but it still feels right in line with what we had earlier. Limited.

Now, to play my own devil's advocate, while everything I mention above feels like a weakness, I can say there's also a strength and a healthy dose of hope here, as well. Everything I'm describing feels like a weakness because this is a movie on a big screen in a theatre. But can we not shift our bias and look at this as, "Holy smokes - this is basically a relatively new filmmaker being given not only a chance to make a pretty large-scale film but have it distributed nationwide? I mean, I saw this at a Regal in Clarksville, for fuck's sake. That's kind of staggering.

Granted, Ash is considerably more advanced than films like Skinamarink or The Outwaters - two films I give props to but fucking hated - but its distribution jackpot owes a lot to them*. So I guess all this is to say it's not really a surprise that Ash found a wide release, but even with its shortcomings, the hope is this will further develop Flying Lotus' career so that maybe next time, he'll have the budget and insight to really blow our minds. 

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* And yes, I'm aware both of those films owe their shot at the big screen to the massive success of Damian Leone's Terrifier 2; however, if you want to take it even further back, I'll bring up my absolute shock at seeing films like Hatching, You Won't Be Alone and Lamb in my local AMC theatre post COVID lockdown. 

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Read:

The same day that we went to Nashville to see The Straight Story at the Belcourt Theatre, we made our first visit to Jack White's Third Man Records.

I'm not a Jack White fan. The White Stripes were a much-needed breath of fresh air at the time Elephant blew up, but White's meteoric rise to stardom afterward kind of baffles me. I think I can trace my cynicism back to the moment I saw the DVD It's Going to Get Loud on a shelf at Borders. This is a video that hoists White up as a peer with The Edge and, even more incredibly, Jimmy Page. I can't say I ever watched this video, but its very existence rankled me, and from there, whatever tidbits of information that have trickled down to me about the man have just reinforced that opinion. Well, except one.

His records stores.

From all accounts I'd read, Third Man Records is a bastion of old-school record store glory in an age devoid of such places. Add to this innovations like converting an ice cream truck into a mobile record shop and I almost want to cry. I mean, what an unbelievably cool idea! Literally bringing the music to the people. 

I knew Third Man was in Nashville, but I hadn't been yet, so when my cousin asked if we could visit while he was in town, I assured my wallet all would be well and set the controls for 623 7th Ave South.

The moment I stepped inside, I fell in love with the place.

Wall-to-wall vinyl, all gorgeously packaged and displayed. So many items unique to this store, and just a general sense of reverence for physical media. Yeah, it didn't exactly alter my opinion of White as an egotist when, for the entire forty-five minutes or so we were inside, all they played on the overhead speakers was White's music. That's fine, though. I mean, flaunt it if ya got it, I guess, right? Especially when you maintain a place like this (named after my favorite black and white movie, no less)

Other than the records I purchased, I also picked up an issue of Maggot Brain, Third Man's quarterly music magazine.

I primarily grabbed the issue because of the TVOTR article, but in slowly working my way through it over the last few days, this is the closest thing to when I used to read The Wire back circa 2008-2011. I LOVE this magazine for the same reason I loved The Wire or Heaven is an Incubator. Simply put, there are more words spent on bands and artists I have never heard of than those I have. That's super important to me because I am always looking for new music.

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Playlist:

Blind Willie McTell - Complete Recorded Works In Chronological Order (Vol. 1)

Sqürl - Third Man Records Session

Spoon - They Want My Soul

QOTSA - In Times New Roman

INXS - Kick

TVOTR - Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes

Deftones - Ohms

Flying Lotus - Yasuke

Flying Lotus - ASH OST

Windhand - Levitation Sessions (Live)

Heilung - Lifa

Radiohead - Myxomatosis (single)

Radiohead - In Rainbows

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Card:

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

• Four of Wands

• Ace of Swords

• VI: The Lovers

Being that it's my day of reiteration today, I'm viewing this spread as an indication of how to proceed for the next 365 days. What does it say? Well, I see a steady foundation and a healthy application of Will - moving forward with these two ideas as a basic tenant for the next year will provide an alchemical reaction. 

Melvins 1983 - King of Rome

 

Holy F**K! I knew songs from this record had already dropped, but I kept missing it. Until now (Thanks, Mr. Brown!). I love this opening track and can only imagine it bodes well for the rest of the album. A little weird missing Dale, but after just (finally) watching the Colossus of Destiny: A Melvins Tale, I'm picking up what Buzz and original drummer Mike Dillard are putting down.

Out April 18th, you can pre-order Thunderball directly from Ipecac Recordings HERE.

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Watch:

A trailer for Michael Shanks' debut feature Together dropped the other day. I have not watched it; I've heard a few small things about this. Only vagueries, really, but enough to make me curious as all hell. And when I'm curious, I try to remember one simple fact: Trailers spoil movies. 

Still, I always post here for posterity's sake. So watch at your own risk.

I'm pretty sure I said it here before, but I love that Body Horror has become viable enough to be getting wide theatrical releases. Let's all go see this and make sure that remains a thing, shall we?

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Playlist:

Angus MacLise - New York Electronic, 1965

Sqürl - Third Man Records Session

Pink Floyd - Ummagumma (thanks, Josh!)

Dinosaur Jr.  - Sweep It Into Space

Melvins - Hold It In

Sunn O))) - Monoliths & Dimensions

Flying Lotus - Yasuke

Melvins - Thunderball (pre-release singles)

Zonal - Eponymous (single)

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Card:

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

• IV: The Emperor

• Eight of Pentacles

• XI: Justice

Concentrate on the rules we've made, which are faltering, and you can move past them into the underlying, seemingly unconnected processes. It is here you will find the architecture that governs this existence.

Not sure what I'm going to do with that, but it just kind of came to me while thinking about each individual card and how they fit together. I really don't "read" tarot that way, but maybe a little woo-woo is needed to even out my constant overthinking and page-turning.

Powermad - Slaughterhouse

 

Over the last two weeks, I had the distinct pleasure of watching several of David Lynch's films I had previously missed on the big screen at Nashville's Belcourt Theatre. The Belcourt's retrospective on Lynch's work was comprehensive; a true celebration of the man's life and art.

I spoke about seeing Eraserhead/The Grandmother in a previous post, but this past weekend my cousin Charles and his wife Lauren came down to visit us, and Sunday afternoon, the four of us caught The Straight Story on 35mm. I'll talk about that below, but suffice it to say, for Monday night's screening of Wild At Heart, Powermad's "Slaughterhouse" rang EPIC on the Belacourt's sound system. I never got into this band back in the day, but I was definitely aware of them, mostly through ads in Thrasher magazine. 

Released in 1989, this would have come at the height of my "Skate or Die" phase; man do I miss that. The last time I rode a board was circa 2011 in San Pedro; the hills almost killed me, and I kind of backed off again after that, only to have a friend accidentally break it a year or two later.

How the hell did I get here from where this began? Oh yeah, Powermad!

The bit with Powermad doing backups for Sailor's Elvis serenade really clues you into Lynch's mindset on this film. There are times when I'd almost liken Wild At Heart to Lynch's version of a Farce. Sailor's singing and mannerisms, Marietta's, well, everything, and Crispin Glover's joyfully insane Del are all so far outside the realm of seriousness for a film that can still take itself very seriously, that they help make this one unique, even among the greater body of Lynch's work. 

The two images that stand out on the big screen are the sequences of roiling fire and Bobby Peru's teeth. Nightmare fuel, that.

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Watch:

David Lynch's The Straight Story is an underseen masterpiece. I say that as a lifelong Lynch fan who, although I own the film on DVD, had only seen it twice before, and never at the Cinema. That changed this past weekend, and I can tell you that this film is a deeply moving character piece that wet my ocular sockets consistently from start to finish.  

Seeing this film on 35 mm was an entirely new experience; Lynch films on the big screen are heightened, almost altered states; few people who have experienced Lost Highway or Mulholland Drive in the cinema would contest that. Those are films that incorporate Neo Noir and Psychological Fugue/Horror elements that lend themselves to inducing altered states. The Straight Story is something else entirely. It is a story about family, love, and redemption. It is firmly rooted in the "real" world, so its altered state is a sharply emotional one. It's a beautiful and slightly disconcerting thing to let David Lynch lead you on a journey like this, but by the end, it makes you feel wonderfully alive.

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NCBD:

Finally, after being pushed back several months, we have the finale of James Tynion and Joshua Hixon's The Deviant!

To say I've been waiting for this is an understatement. Thinking about sitting down this weekend and re-reading the entire series in one sitting. One of my favorite books in forever. 

I keep thinking this cover is an homage to an issue of Larry Hama's original GI JOE comic at Marvel, but that may not be the case. Either way, pretty cool. Maybe I'm starting to warm up to this book a bit more? We'll see.

Now that I know Epitaphs From the Abyss is ending at issue 12, I'm cherishing each one of these even more. And as I say so often with this book, LOVE this cover!

Güs! 'Nuff said!

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Playlist:

Sqürl - Third Man Records Session

Melvins - Hold It In

Hangman's Chair - Saddiction

Vinyl Williams - Lansing (single)

Flogging Molly - Swagger

The Pogues - Hell's Ditch

The Pogues - Red Roses for Me

QOTSA - In Times New Roman

Sinéad O'Connor - The Lion and the Cobra

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Card:

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

Grimm currently has a Kickstarter running for his ... And the Night Stares Back Vol. 2 coloring book, which features some of the art from the Hand of Doom Tarot. I backed this instantly, but there's no way I would ever apply color to Grimm's beautiful B&W art.

• V: The Hierophant

• Knight of Swords

• Five of Wands

Knowledge (or information) wrested from a perceived opponent can require Will to make work. 

This is straight-up on point with my work at the moment, where I actually feel like I have a bit of a "Moriarity" at the moment, and the knowledge they disseminate to me often feels occluded or guarded. Maybe even false.

Live Deftones 2025

 

Courtesy of the Watch Your Head YouTube Channel, which I just subscribed to. Packed with Los Angeles fair, the channel describes itself as "South Central L.A. Locals Mainly concert videos, estate/garage sale treasure hunting, and raw and unfiltered daily street life videos."

Some really cool stuff, especially when I'm feeling homesick for my second home!

There's titterings of a new Deftones record on the way, and I'm hoping it soon. I haven't watched this full video yet, so not sure if there's any new material in here. We'll see. Just from the opening two songs, though, this must be career-spanning. 

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Watch:

I love Flying Lotus' music, but thus far, I haven't cared for his theatrical outings. Kuso just felt gross for the sake of being gross, and his entry in the VHS series, "Ozzy's Dungeon" from VHS '99 was... I guess I enjoyed it? I don't know. It's not that I think the cinematic work FlyLo has done is bad, it's that I expect so much more. And when I saw the trailer for his new film Ash in the theatre recently, I got the feeling I'll finally be getting it!

Really just speechless that I get to see this in the theatre. So cool! Opens March 21st - can't wait!!!

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Read:

I wanted to take a moment to say, A) I think my reading of yesterday's Tarot pull was right on, as when I arrived at the shop, there was exactly one copy left of both Batman: Dark Patterns and Mine is a Long Lonesome Grave, which I took to be a kind of 'reward' for my introspection. Not to rest on my laurels, I immediately put down to be subbed to both of those and The Hive - which interestingly enough had a stack of copies for issue #2 remaining, so either it's selling exceptionally well, and they ordered a lot, or the first issue did great and the second is dead in the water. Either way, I'll have my copies going forward.

Re-reading Lonesome Grave issue #1 and following it directly with #2, my initial excitement for this book is confirmed. This is a fantastic Revenge Story with what appear to be Black Magick or Voodoo flourishes. Southern Gothic A.F. Reminds me more than a little of Southern Bastards, a book I loved so much and which just disappeared. I haven't been this excited about a book in a while now. Looks like it's only four issues, but who knows. Maybe this will be like Into the Unbeing and have several iterations.

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Playlist:

The Bronx - The Bronx (I)

The Bronx - The Bronx (II)

The Bronx - The Bronx (III)

The Bronx - The Bronx (IV)

D'Nell - 1st Magic

Razor - Armed and Dangerous

Foster the People - Torches

IDLES - Joy As An Act of Rebellion

Steely Dan - Aja

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Card:

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

• Queen of Cups

• Page of Wands

• Two of Wands

Probing emotional depths can take an unprecedented amount of Will. To actually go deep and get to the issues that might be causing balance to waiver. 

A reminder of something I learned last week in an unlikely place: Interrogate Reality to the fullest extent of your being, and sometimes, that Reality is not the one around you, but inside you.

Live Drug Church for NCBD!

Live Drug Church from Glasgow, courtesy of David Tan Films. Do yourself a favor and check out their YouTube channel. I just found these folks, and they are packed with awesome multi-camera live show recordings!

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NCBD:

Pretty decent pull this week:

I love Dan Watters' Batman: Dark Patterns series. The first storyline wrapped up last issue, so this is the start of the second, which will run to issue six and round out the series. 

One of those my DwC cohost Mike Shin holds for me at the shop in Chicago, so I'll have a bunch of Z News waiting for me when next I travel North. So much fun.

Have we ever gotten Void Rivals and Transformers in the same week before? We must have, but seeing this today feels exhilarating. Maybe it's just because...

... Bruticus is on the cover! I've professed my love of all Combaticons here previously I'm sure; in fact, I just pre-ordered the new Vortex figure from HasbroPulse last week. Can't wait until I have them all and can combine them into Bruticus, maybe chase my cats around with him.

I loved the first issue of Justin Jordan's Mine is a Long, Lonesome Grave and I'm coming back for more! Like I mentioned below, though, I neglected to add this one to my Pull (I think), so I may have to have the shop order me one. Either way, going forward, this is on the list!

Take what I said about ...Lonesome Grave above and apply it to the second issue of A.J. Lieberman and Mike Henderson's The Hive. A street-level crime story with some odd flourishes; I'm very intrigued to see where this one is going. Add it to the list!

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Watch:

One of the trailers I've seen in the theatre of late that really catches my eye is Ryan Coogler's Sinners. Not the best title, but damn if this doesn't look fantastic.

The mythology behind Robert Johnson and the "Crossroads" has long fascinated me, and it seems like Coogler is doubling down on that here. There's just something about this era of American history when it mixes with the Supernatural. It really works for me. Can't wait to see this on the big screen!

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Playlist:

Erik Truffaz - The Walk of the Giant Turtle

Oranssi Pazuzu - Muuntautuja

The Body - No One Deserves Happiness

New York Dolls - Dancing Backward in High Heels

Windhand - Grief's Infernal Flower

Mastodon - Once More 'Round the Sun

Antibalas - Where the Gods Are In Peace

Metallica - Garage Days Re-revisited

Primus - Sailing the Seas of Cheese

Buster Pointdexter - Eponymous

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Card:

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

• Ace of Swords

• 0: The Fool

• XVIII: The Moon

I think this Pull actually explains something that just happened while writing this entry, or at least helps me understand why it happened.

I had this entire post penned and saved, I opened a new window to download the picture of today's Tarot Pull and when I came back, large chunks of what I'd written were gone. Only, this wasn't a case of  "I forgot to save." I titled this entry last, but that is still here. Missing are my comments under the trailer for Sinners, the entire NCBD section, and all the tags I'd added. 

I'm sure this is just a weird glitch, but these are things we should pay attention to from time to time. In this case, I think I'm taking away that I've been continuing on my comic book life as before, and that's a mistake. With Diamond going or gone, the landscape is changing. I typically forget to put myself down for books to be added to my Pull, and thus, I miss stuff. Specifically,