Harmless

 

An oldie but a goodie from Helmet. I've had 1997s Aftertaste in regular rotation lately, and it feels good to reconnect with such a formative album for me. I am hot and cold on everything they did before this, but Aftertaste has blown me away since the first time I heard it, back when Mr. Brown slipped me a dubbed cassette shortly after the album's release. 

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NCBD:

A couple of books I'm very excited for on this list. Let's go!

A couple of years back, K and I randomly came across the old Thundarr the Barbarian cartoon we grew up with in the 80s and gave it a whirl. We were both shocked at what we didn't remember about this one - namely, that it takes place in a post-apocalyptic future! Way to turn the barbarian tale on its head! And now Jason Aaron is writing a new Thundarr comic for Dynamite! I've been waiting for this one since I first saw the solicitation a few months back, and finally, today, here we are!

A double dose of Barbarism this week! Savage Sword of Conan issue 12 lands and we get another single-issue story from Chris Ryall and Gabriel Rodriguez! Can anything top last month's Liam Sharp? I'm game to find out.

The Nice House By the Sea returns from its "mid-season hiatus," and I realize I'm going to have to re-read the previous six issues before digging into this one. Weekend project. 

Speaking of weekend re-reads, I fully intend to sit down and read all of Event Horizon Dark Descent in one shot now that the final issue is upon us. I didn't love this book (so far, anyway) but then, I like the film less and less the more I watch it. I mean, I still like Event Horizon, it just doesn't quite live up to that first viewing way back when, and looking too closely has revealed some gaps. Still, Sci Fi Horror is fun as hell, and watching Sam Neill take his eyes out in a hell dimension is no exception.

Finally, my first fully on board, subscribed and in my box waiting for me issues of Fraction and Jimenez's Batman, and after last month, I'm chomping at the bit for it. I LOVE this book!!!

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Watch:

I've reengaged with Japanese Cinema more over the last year, so when I saw this trailer about a man trapped in an endless subway station, I was immediately interested. Kind of a Japanese Backrooms, but also, this reminds me of Sofia Ajram's novel Coup de Grace, which I read last year (or the year before) and really dug.

I'm quite the fan of stories about people being lost in seemingly endless labyrinths. House of Leaves, In the Walls of Eeryx, No End House... the list goes on and I'm a fan of them all, so I'm excited to add another to that list, and Genki Kawamura's The Exit 8 looks to be just that. Read more about this one over on Bloody Disgusting HERE.

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Playlist:

Steve Moore - Jimmy & Stiggs OST

Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven

Protomartyr - Under Color of Official Right

QOTSA - Lullabies to Paralyze

Metallica - Ride the Lightning

Emma Ruth Rundle & Thou - May Our Chambers Be Full

H6LLB6ND6R - OST

Melvins - (a) Senile Animal

Agriculture - The Spiritual Sound

Massive Attack - 100th Window

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Card:

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

• Two of Pentacles

• Knight of Swords

• Six of Pentacles

Collaboration of Wills can create a balanced mechanism. No idea what this is trying to say, so let me look a little deeper with the help of Banzhaf & Theler's Keywords for the Crowley Tarot.

Two of Pentacles, combined here with the sharpened intellect of the Knight of Swords may point to paying attention to opposites. There's what I normally do, and then what's the opposite of that? Six of Cups suggests whatever that is, it might be a good idea. 

New Music from Myrkur!!!

 

Not certain if this single heralds a new Myrkur album coming this year, but that'd be pretty cool. I just cracked out the first record recently and it left me wanting new music.

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NCBD:

Okay - there had better be an ocean of Sharkticons in this issue. Just sayin'. Among my favorite of all Transformers released, I love these bitey little fuckers. Maybe because they kind of remind me of the old B&W TMNT robot mousers, or maybe because they had their debut in my beloved Transformers '86 with no small fanfare. Seriously, the Quintesson/Sharkticon segments are among my favorites in that film. Cant' wait to see what kind of damage Kirkman unleashes with them here. 

Roadblock's food truck defense system? Not sure what's going on here, but I'll be happy to get my hands on another issue of Joe so soon after that brilliant final issue of Dreadnok War!

Ah - Phil Bram and J.G. Jones' Dust to Dust is finally back. I believe there is just one issue left after this, out March 4th. Definitely going to wait to read this until that drops, so I can sit down and read the entire story in one sitting. 

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Watch:

There's not much Marvel does anymore that I like, but this? I am all about this:

What a super WEIRD trailer, right? Excited to see some old faces return, and I'm really digging the storyline with Michael Gandolfini and that looks like it will continue to evolve this season. 

Also, according to IMDB, this looks to have already been picked up for a third season, so I guess the "Born Again" moniker is the overall title of the revamped show, not the name of a specific limited-series storyline, as I originally assumed.

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Playlist:

Steve Moore - Jimmy & Stiggs OST

David Lynch & Angelo Badalamenti - Mulholland Drive OST

Blood Cultures - Skate Story: Vol. I

Sunn O))) - Glory Black (pre-release single)

Sunn O))) - Metta, Benevolence BBC6 Live: On the Invitation of Mary Anne Hobbs

BLUEBOB - Eponymous

The Veils - Total Depravity

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Nocturama

QOTSA - Songs for the Deaf

QOTSA - Eponymous

The Afghan Whigs - In Spades

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Card:

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

• Six of Cups

• Three of Swords

• Ace of Cups

"Finding an emotional center after trauma can only come through empathy."

Okay, I'll admit I'm really reaching with this one. I see this spread and I feel like it's talking to me, but the message is coming out muddled, thus the crappy interpretation above.

Is it enough to think this is a direct nod to my emotional state after seeing this earlier today?

Agriculture - Live on KEXP

 

Mr. Brown first put L.A.'s Agriculture on my radar, and while I've logged a couple evenings spinning their 2025 album, The Spiritual Sound, I'm not sure I actually "got it" until I saw this live performance on KEXP.

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NCBD:

A nice, easy week with two books I am very much looking forward to reading:

One issue left after this one, and I can't wait to see how David and Maria Lapham's Good As Dead shakes out in the end. Fairly ominous solicitation over on League of Comic Geeks: 

"The truth behind the Port Lindon disaster is revealed, but not everyone will survive to hear it."

Mystery, Crime and Suspense, the way only the Laphams can do it! I've loved having a new series from them, so much so that this might kick off a long-overdue Stray Bullets reread.

Apparently, Walsh and Tynion's Exquisite Corpses just got optioned for adaptation. Couldn't happen to a crazier, bloodier book. Already cinematic in scope, this one really kicks you in the face every month. Hold my beer while I put in my mouthguard, new issue

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Watch:

Last Thursday night, K and I hit our local theatre for the first showing of Nia Dacosta's 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple. We were coming in hot off our first rewatch of Danny Boyle's preceding film, which we were both a little lukewarm on after our initial theatrical viewing back in July of 2025. 

Watching that first film again, I found I had warmed to it. Boyle is first and foremost an innovator, and I think my initial disconnect from the first chapter in his and Alex Garland's 28 Years Later trilogy had a lot to do with the visual language of the film, and not so much with the story. Jarring camera work, counterintuitive editing, stylized backgrounds and stock footage, and mixed-media injections all made for a unique but initially confusing undertaking. Having gotten that out of the way and acclimated to the expectation for these elements, the film played a lot better. 

And now we have this: a film so confident and viscerally affecting, not even the trailer takes away from it. 

I can't wait to see this one again on the big screen, and maybe more importantly, what a success like The Bone Temple will do to propel Dacosta's career into the stratosphere. 

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Playlist:

Muddy Waters - Electric Mud

David Lynch & Marek Zebrowski - Polish Night Music

Mountain Realm - Stoneharrow

Various - Twin Peaks (Music from the Limited Event Series)

John Zorn - IAO: Music in Sacred Light

Gylt - In 1,000 Agonies, I Exist

Deafheaven - New Bermuda

Dean Hurley - Anthology Resource Vol. 1: 𝝙𝝙

David Lynch - The Air is on Fire

Agriculture - The Spiritual Sound

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Card:

One Card from Thoth for today:

Who says you can't always get what you want? 

Seven Days of David Lynch Day 3: Polish Night Music

David Lynch and Marek Zebrowski's 2015 Polish Night Music is one of the most atmospheric albums I know of. Right from the start, I feel like I'm skirting the alleys of Łódź, passing dilapidated apartment buildings and ornate Gothic churches, only to be sucked into an ominous, failing machine. 

Abstract, yes, but I have Lynch himself to thank for those images. Łódź served as one of the filming locations for Inland Empire, and his lifelong obsession with industrial sounds and scenescapes is omnipotent in much of his work. 

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Watch:

I figured this would be a good time to compile a bunch of trailers released for David Lynch's films, starting with 1990's Wild At Heart. 

This film is so iconic, but it also skirts a line between deadly serious (Sailor beating a man's head open on the courthouse stairs) and completely hysterical (Thrash Metal band Powermad adding accompaniment to Sailor serenading Lula in the middle of a mosh pit). 

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Read:

Continuing with the Lynch-centric theme, I spent some time digging through my old issues of Wrapped in Plastic and found an article from the first issue I ever purchased - issue 17. The article in question was an interview with Twin Peaks writer Harley Peyton on the set of his film Keys to Tulsa. 

As usual, WIP braintrust Craig Miller and John Thorne conduct a fantastic interview, which becomes all the more entertaining as Eric Stoltz and James Spader drift in and out of it. In particular, I either had no idea or had just plain forgotten that Peyton wrote the screenplay for the cinematic adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis' Less Than Zero (a film I have yet to see, given how much I love the book).

It's been a very long time since I've seen Keys to Tulsa, may have to seek that out sometime soon...

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Playlist:

The Police - Synchronicity

Phil Manzanera - Listen Now

Midlake - The Courage of Others

Deftones - private music

YUNGBLUD - Idols

Drug Church - Prude

Fever Ray - Eponymous

David Lynch & Marek Zebrowski - Polish Night Music

Underworld - Lovely Broken Thing

Underworld - I'm a Big Sister, and I'm a Girl, and I'm a Princess, and This is My Horse

Underworld - 1992 - 2002 (Disc 2)

Zeni Geva and Steve Albini - All Right You Little Bastards

The Trapezoid & Six Ex - Cannibal Children of the West (single)

Shellac - To All Trains

David Lynch - Crazy Clown Time

Angelo Badalamenti & David Lynch - Twin Peaks Season 2 OST

Myrkur - M

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Card:

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

• Seven of Pentacles

• XIX: The Sun

* King of Swords

"The solution to the problem taking up most of your time is practice."

I had the idea to start adding quotation marks to the pulls that come off sounding like I'm offering them to someone else. I guess the idea is I'm placing the quotes there so it's obvious (to me?) that this is the cards talking to me. Or something like that. I don't know.

Anyway, pretty direct message on this one. I'm not entirely sure what it applies to, other than writing, which I've not been doing. So a nod to get back on that train, or something else?

David Bowie - Breaking Glass Live 1983

Thanks to the Mr. Screaming YouTube channel for adding this and a metric shit ton of awesome Bowie stuff. Definitely check out his channel HERE if you dig this.

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Watch:

This is how you market a Horror movie!

A24's Undertone already has some praise, but personally, I don't want to know anything else about this one until I have my arse in a seat at the theatre. 

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Playlist:

This Movie Saved My Life Podcast - Best of 2025

Deafheaven - Lonely People With Power

Deafheaven - Infinite Granite

Young Widows - Power Sucker

Hangman's Chair - Saddiction

Netherlands - Vapors

IDLES - CRAWLER

Ritual Howls - Ruin

Sylosis - The New Flesh (pre-release singles)

Justin Hamline - The House With Dead Leaves

David Bowie - Low

David Bowie - Heroes

David Bowie - Lodger

Double Life - Indifferent Stars

Helmet - Aftertaste

Deadguy - Near-Death Travel Services

Slow Crush - Thirst

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Card:

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

• XIII: Death

• XVIII: The Moon

• Two of Wands

Sacrifices made in the full knowledge of the desire. Two is stronger than one. 

Cryptic, but I think I get it. Not discussing it "out loud" at this time, but I think this pertains to a creative project I want to do this year. I think I need to declare it. 

Let's Spend the Night Together (Because They Will Kill You)

This coming Saturday, January 10th, marks the tenth anniversary of David Bowie's passing. I usually begin 7 Days of Bowie on the anniversary, but this year, I'd like to start it a little early. So here we go. We miss you, Starman!

It struck me again the other day just what a weird, awesome cover this one is. From his 1973 album Aladdin Sane, 

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NCBD:

2026 is starting out light. Not a complaint, that's for sure! I've been trimming back my pull list at Rick's, trying to stick with essentials. There will always be new books that catch my eye, and I'll almost always give them a try, as that's how I often find my favorite books (see the Drinking with Comics "Best of" for 2024 and 2025, where last-minute chances end up near the top of my year-end list). At the same time, I tend to overbuy, and I'm becoming increasingly neurotic when it comes to space. I have a short box and a half of stuff I want to get rid of but am not 100% sure the best way to do so, and I've spent several recent nights just sitting in my office/nerd dungeon* reflecting on how to improve use of the space for all my 'things.'

First world problems, fo sho.

Here are this week's books:

The first issue of Batman/Green Arrow/The Question: Arcadia either suffered from a skosh of awkward story compression, or I'm just missing a lot of assumed historical knowledge, being that I have zero experience with two of the three characters here. Still, this harkens back to the late 80s prestige-format DC books, so I'm hanging in. 

Not sure if this is the end of the second arc or the entire series. I'm pretty sure there must still be at least one more mini-series to go. Either way, Stokoe's art continues to blow me away on every page.

I'm still fighting a zeitgeist urge to get into this Absolute Batman. It's been pretty easy to avoid the regular series because the one issue I've read was not great. That said, there are some pretty interesting things going on in this "Universe," so I've been cherry picking a few titles. 

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Watch:

I only needed to make it 38 seconds into this trailer to know I was in. You can only watch it on youtube, but here's a poster and the embed should take you directly there:

Kirill Sokolov's They Will Kill You looks fantastic! I am absolutely psyched for this one, which comes out three days after my 50th birthday! Woo-hoo!!

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Playlist:

Mountain Realm - Stoneharrow

Mountain Realm - Frostfall

David Bowie - Low

David Bowie - Aladdin Sane

Ghost - Impera

David Bowie - The Man Who Sold the World

Kildren - December (single)

Double Life - Indifferent Stars

The Jesus Lizard - I'm Tired of Being Your Mother (single)

The Jesus Lizard - Down

Helmet - Aftertaste

Spoon - Girls Can Tell

Spoon - Kill the Moonlight

Self - Niceness (single)

Self - Porno, Mint & Grime

Metallica - Ride the Lightning

Denison/Kimball Trio - Plays  the Music of Walls in the City

The Besnard Lakes - ....Are the Ghost Nation

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Card:

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

• Knight of Swords

• Seven of Pentacles

• Three of Pentacles

The Creative Will often needs to stagnate in order to prosper. 

That definitely fits. Yesterday was the first writing session I had in a week; whenever I blow a weekend without a creative outlet, it feels gross, and now that's kind of morphed into a long, slog of 'blah.' Up late writing this on Monday night, I don't feel like doing much of anything: writing, watching, nothing but listening to David Bowie. That's the only agenda I had that kept me from turning in. So I'm listening to The Man Who Sold the World for the first time in a couple years and writing this and I'm not really sure what I'll do when I reach the end of this sentence.

Idling in the Basement

 

I recently mentioned to an old friend I reconnected with that, while I LOVE Idles' 2018 album, Joy as an Act of Resistance, I've had a tough time getting into anything since. Not because I don't like what I've heard; I know myself and I call this the "PJ Harvey Syndrome." I adore PJ Harvey, but I fall so hard for an album at a time that it becomes difficult for me to acclimate to any of her other works beyond that album for usually years at a time. It started with about five years of To Bring You My Love, grew to include Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea for about another seven years, then finally let in Uh Huh Her. And that's about where I am with Ms. Harvey - I'm overdue for sure.

Back to Idles, David mentioned I should start with Idles From the Basement concert on YouTube, and I'll be gotdamned if he wasn't exactly right. Thinking this is the album that opens these guys' post-Joy work up for me. I had not realized just how much they'd developed as a band - watching this, it's difficult not to make comparisons to Birthday Party-to-Bad Seeds Cave and crew, especially while watching Guitarist Mark Bowen alternate between a whole slew of different instruments a la Warren Ellis. 

I'll be starting the day off with 2021's Crawler, so here's to the hearty exploration of sound and fury!

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NCBD:

Nothing on my pull list at Rick's today, so how about instead I post the latest Drinking with Comics, where Shin and I rattle off our top five list for 2025!

I went straight to the top five comics published this year; Mike did a little something different. When all is said and done, I think there's a lot of great stuff out there, and this is definitely meant to encourage folks who are looking for something new. 

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Watch:

K and I finally got around to Luca Guadagnino's latest film, After the Hunt, last night. As usual, this man excels in filmmaking.

The tension is profound. The acting is superb, and while I admit that I've spent most of my life running from post-Flatliners Julia Roberts, she is exceptional here. The film says so much with a bombastic nuance that leaves you breathless by the end, and I actually think it helped me come to a conclusion about our society that, while it's not a good thing, is definitely appreciated as a warning. 

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Playlist:

Kate Bush - The Dreaming

White Reaper - Only Slightly Empty

Gylt - I Will Commit a Holy Crime: Tandem

Orville Peck - Appaloosa

Netherlands - Vapors

Slow Crush - Thirst

Teenage Wrist - Chrome Neon Jesus

HEALTH - Conflict DLC

Mondo Decay - Nun Gun

Fever Ray - 

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - The First Born Son is Dead

The Cure - Pornography

Blut Aus Nord - Ethereal Horizons

Ethel Cain - Perverts

Ildes - From the Basement

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Card:

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

• XVI: The Tower

• Seven of Cups

• Six of Wands

Do not let massive emotional change poison the creative urge. 

Electric Wizard LIVE!!!

Here's a nice little 666 injection into your Christmas Holiday. Posted by the Kilkim Žaibu festival. Great channel - check 'em out HERE.

 

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Watch:

If there's one subgenre based on location I love, it's Horror set in the Irish countryside. Director Peter Vass's upcoming film Banshee looks to have the quiet atmosphere I love in spades. Check out this trailer:

I'm unfamiliar with Vass and everything about this project, but after watching this, oh do I yearn to know more! You can check out the film's socials via the YouTube link. 

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Read:

As I approach the finish line on Isabel Cañas's The Possession of Alba Díaz, I realized that my first read of 2025 is probably going to be a long-overdue re-read of William Gibson and Bruce Sterling's classic The Difference Engine. 

I pulled my old beat-up paperback off the shelf a few nights ago and set it aside in preparation. It's easily been 15 years since the last time I read this one, and I think it will help me nail the Victorian England portion of Shadow Play, Book Two, which I'm hip-dip in at the moment and needing some authenticity. 

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Playlist:

Metallica - Kill 'Em All

The Dream Syndicate - The Days of Wine and Roses

The Ocean - Phanerozoic I: Palaeozoic

Allegaeon - Apoptosis

Dreamkid - Daggers

D'Nell - 1st Magic

James Last - Christmas Dancing

Various - I'll Be Home for the Holidays

Bob Rivers - Twisted Christmas

Metallica - Ride the Lightning

Vince Guardaldi - A Charlie Brown Christmas OST

Rodney Crowell - Christmas Everywhere

Bing Crosby - Merry Christmas

Calexico - Second Shift

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Card:

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

• XVII: The Star

• XIX: The Sun

• Seven of Pentacles

Hope, clarity and assessment. That pain turned out to be another example of the bane of my middle age - gas. I'm alright now and ready to turn the volume up on my eating and drinking over the next few days. 

I Left My Heart in Sunnyvale

I don't know of another piece of music that fills me with such calm. I think it's because I started really getting into Trailer Park Boys shortly after I moved to L.A. in 2006, and I associate those first five years there as being the last bastion of the world before the post-apocalyptic bullshit started. This isn't political - well, not entirely - everyone's wrong. Everything's broken. This song represents a kind of precipice to me, and although the world has since fallen off, every once in a while I hear this and it slows the fall, reminds me what it was like to have our feet planted on what we thought was solid ground*.

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* It was never solid ground and every generation feels this. The current generations, though, are the ones living it.     

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NCBD:

Short week this week.

Finally - "The Quintesson War" begins! I've declared my love for these odd techno-organic monstrosities on this page many times, and I'm happy as hell to have a six-issue arc dedicated to them in Void Rivals. Unlike fellow Energon Universe title G.I. Joe's current "Dreadnok War" storyline, VR isn't going bi-weekly for this stretch, and I'm fine with that. Just happy to be getting more Quintesson goodness!

When I downloaded this cover, I noticed right away the "7 of 8" added to the corner box. NO! I thought Zander Cannon's Sleep was going to go on longer than just eight issues! I will miss this book SO MUCH! That said, I can not wait for the revelations we're sure to be getting over the next two issues. I mean, I don't need it all explained and wrapped up, but I'm dying to get at least a glimpse at what it is that Jonathan becomes when he falls asleep. That's really all I ask. 

The penultimate issue of this Event Horizon prequel series. This one isn't quite what I expected or hoped for, but it's definitely building to something. I'm hoping that something is as INSANE as those snippets of these events play in the movie. We'll see. 

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Watch:

I had the distinct pleasure of being offered a copy of Kyle Valle and Erin Áine's ZombieCON, Vol. 1 this week. Here's a trailer that just barely scrapes the surface of goodness contained within:

This is a super indie film, but I have to say, they really made everything about it work. This feels like it should have come out ten years ago - NOT a knock - and reminds me so much of Joss Whedon - specifically that Dr. Horrible web-series Whedon did circa 2008. This comes from a place of love with the Convention circuit and the entire culture that goes with it. 

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Playlist:

Radiohead - Kid A

Godflesh - A World Lit Only By Fire

Somnium Nox - Apocrypha EP

Somnium Nox - Terra Inanis EP

Black Taffy - Out Moon 

Metallica - Ride the Lightning

Metallica - Kill 'Em All

Odonis Odonis - Eponymous

Ashes and Diamonds - Are Forever

Eagulls - Eponymous

Faetooth - Labryinthine

Deadguy - Near-Death Travel Services

Deftones - private music

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Card:

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

• Three of Swords

• Five of Pentacles

• Seven of Pentacles

Blockage, worry and calamity. 

I had an Al Swearingen moment this morning. I drank a bit more beer than I probably should have last night, fully expecting to wake up in the middle of the night to answer the call of nature. Didn't happen. As a matter of fact, I woke up this morning and didn't feel an aching desire to relieve myself then, either. All day this has haunted me. I drank a ton of coffee, but never really felt like what came out was equal to what went in. That's not normally how my body works. So I see this full, and I'm a skosh concerned. 

Let's put a pin in this one and hope everything comes out okay tomorrow.

Cycle Sluts From Hell - I Wish You Were A Beer

 

Wow! I have not heard this in a very long time! I first heard this via the Operation Rock n' Roll compilation cassette I spoke at length about HERE. The band's 1991 eponymous debut turned out to be their only album, but it's pretty great. I never made it past the two singles back in the day - not for lack of interest, but hey, we didn't have the luxury of streaming back in 1991, hahaha - but I'm listening to it now and it feels a lot like what I'd pretty much always assumed: a bit of a female take on Gwar without the Horror Fantasy theatrics. 

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Watch:

I had an impromptu Jeremy Saulnier weekend this past Friday and Saturday. Started Friday with Blue Ruin, which I'd not seen since somewhere around the time it first hit streaming.

This 100% holds up to the fairly lofty place that first viewing gave it in my head. I don't know if I've ever seen a revenge film with such heartfelt emotion. As big as this goes stakes-wise, Blue Ruin always feels grounded in the real world, with real people who do the things I think many of us would do in such a dire situation.

Next up, on Saturday I finally got around to Saulnier's 2024 film Rebel Ridge. 

This is one I'd rather not post the trailer for. I'd not seen it before viewing, and after watching it just now, I have to say, just go in as blind as possible. Saulnier's not reinventing the wheel here; he never is. The point is, he has such a unique style as a filmmaker who marries Suspense and Action. This one is about as tense as Denis Villeneuve's Prisoners, and that's saying something. Outstanding performances all around, but Aaron Pierre is just magnetic beyond words. 

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Read:

I blew through a re-read of Nathan Ballingrud's Crypt of the Moon Spider, the first book in his Lunar Gothic Trilogy on Saturday. I've been meaning to get around to re-reading this and picking up part two since it came out in October. Instead of giving the bezos corporation more money, I drove over to our local independent book store, Clarksville Book Shop, and asked them to order me Cathedral of the Drowned. I can't wait to read this one. 

In the meantime, however, I grabbed this off the store's shelves and am already over 100 pages in:

I knew nothing about this novel or author Isabel Cañas, for that matter, but if there's one predilection I tend to exhibit more or less consistently, it's going in blind. So far I'm pretty deeply immersed. Here's the solicitation blurb:

"When a demonic presence awakens deep in a Mexican silver mine, the young woman it seizes must turn to the one man she shouldn’t trust… from bestselling author Isabel Cañas. In 1765, plague sweeps through Zacatecas. Alba flees with her wealthy merchant parents and fiancé, Carlos, to his family’s isolated mine for refuge. But safety proves fleeting as other dangers soon bare their teeth: Alba begins suffering from strange hallucinations, sleepwalking, and violent convulsions. She senses something cold lurking beneath her skin. Something angry. Something wrong. Elías, haunted by a troubled past, came to the New World to make his fortune and escape his family’s legacy of greed. Alba, as his cousin’s betrothed, is none of his business. Which is of course why he can’t help but notice her every time she enters a room or the growing tension between them… and why he notices her deteriorate when the demon’s thirst for blood grows stronger."

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Playlist:

Carter Burwell - Blood Simple OST

Vitriol - Eponymous

Jim Williams - Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched OST

Testament - Para Bellum

The Atlas Moth - Coma Noir

Dance with the Dead - Driven to Madness

Meg Myers - Sorry

Perturbator - Age of Aquarius

John Coltrane - Blue Train

Odonis Odonis - Eponymous

Coleman Hawkins - Wrapped Tight

Cycle Sluts From Hell - Eponymous

Archspire - Carrion Ladder (single)

The Ocean - Fluxion

Oxcar Peterson, Joe Pass & Ray Brown - The Giants

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Card:

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

• Queen of Cups

• Knight of Cups

• Two of Pentacles

Pursuit of artistic endeavors can only be upheld with compassion for the world around you and the adaptability that requires. Because, in 2025, compassion can be a difficult thing. Maybe not for those in your immediate circumference, but definitely for the world at large. 

This is a fairly banal, vague reading, but there's something here. While I'm typing this, the Ocean's refrain, "Tonight we celebrate the human stain" echoes through my ears and makes me wonder if there might be a way to use art to connect to someone who I don't see eye to eye with. You can ask what's the point, but at the same time, partisanship and cynicism have all but bankrupted our culture and society. While art remains pure. Is there a way to use that purity to reach beyond our broken means of communication?

New Music From Amigo the Devil!!!

Not sure if this track heralds the coming of a new album from our friend, but any day with new music from Amigo the Devil is a good day.

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Watch:

I love this time of year for cinema. There is usually a wealth of non-genre film that pops up and offfers a brief respite from my obsession, but there's also occasionally a last-minute entry that arrives and shakes up my carefully thought-out Best Of list we do over on The Horror Vision (coming soon). This year, Dust Bunny is that film.

I approve this trailer, but as always, if you're reading this and you have any interest in seeing this and haven't already watched the trailer, skip it and go in as blind as possible. I knew nothing about this one when I sat down, and the viewing was all the better for it:

Dust Bunny reunited Writer/Director Bryan Fuller with Hannibal star Mads Mikkelsen, and throws Sigourney Weaver, David Dastmalchian and Shelia Atim for good measure. If you're a fan of Hannibal, this is not that. The interesting thing about this film's aesthetic is that Fuller seems to have gone back to the toolbox and reappropriated the stylistic elements he used to create his first show, Pushing Daisies, which I haven't seen in a very long time. Doesn't matter - the iconoclastic, singular fairy tale style is unforgettable, and here it is again, except honed by the nearly twenty years of experience Fuller has sweated and bled for since. 

Dust Bunny is beautifully weird, existing in a world that is unlike any other. Also, it's adorable without losing its teeth, and violent without being too much for a kid. This is a gateway drug, people, and my mind still reels at the fact that the studio dropped the ball rolling this out wide (I had to drive to Nashville to see it). This would have been a perfect family film. Well, in my world, at least. 

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Read:

One of the rituals I'd forgotten how much I loved is the NCBD binge. Back in the day, I'd always come home from the shop, whole up on a couch with some coffee and read through my new stack. That's been gone for quite some time, but I'm bringing it back in a slightly different form. 

Wednesday night after work, I hit Rick's Comic City and hung out with Ryan and Walter there, talking comics and movies, then came home and hung out with K for a few hours. After she went to bed (I've moved back to being a night owl; she usually doesn't like to stay up beyond 11:00 PM), I cracked a beer and ascended the stairs to my office and read David and Maria Lapham's Good As Dead issues 1-4 in a tight burst.

Another outstanding series from the Laphams. There's so much going on here, so many fantastic characters, but it doesn't feel crowded. Instead, every new appearance adds a layer to the mystery. Good as Dead is violent, funny, tragic, baffling and compelling. David's in top form with his line work, and colorist Dee Cunniffe helps give each scene, each story, each character their own life within the greater context of the overall story. Which starts like many other Crime/Noir stories do - an unexplained, extremely grisly suicide - and then slowly grows ever more involved, until we're balancing on the cusp of something both staggering and more than a little crazy.

Perfect!

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Playlist:

Steve Moore - Jimmy and Stiggs OST

Steve Moore - Christmas Bloody Christmas OST

Metallica - Master of Puppets

Moon Wizard - Sirens

Massive Attack - Mezzanine

Phil Manzanera - Diamondhead

Dreamkid - Daggers

Perturbator - Lustful Sacraments

Brian Eno - Ambient 4: On Land

Odonis Odonis - Eponymous

Eagulls - Eponymous

Phil Manzanera - Listen Now

Orville Peck - Pony

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Card:

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

• Eight of Cups

• IV: The Emperor

• Five of Wands

Searching for deeper meaning than what I've found in 'known' places. This is a DIRECT call from the cards for me to engage with them more, because honestly, I've been half-assing it here for a while. I need a curriculum.

The Return of... Plague Bringer!!!

In celebration of the fact that Plague Bringer is back and playing their first show in ten years at this year's Forever Deaf Fest in Chicago on April 1st and I grabbed tickets HERE.

These guys have such a small internet presence. Thanks to the Spreading the Plague YouTube channel HERE for posting this video. Lots of great stuff on this channel - go check it out.

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NCBD:

What a great week! Let's go:

I really enjoyed issue 3 of David and Maria Lapham's Good as Dead, so I'm charged for #4! This book has some really interesting things going on in the background, and apparently, that's about to go off this issue!

This bi-weekly schedule for GIJOE's Dreadnok War storyline has really given the book the boost it needed! We've got major The Hills Have Eyes vibes in the outback with everyone's favorite grape soda addicts, and now that we've gotten an almost otherworldly, animalistic view of Cobra Commander, the pull on this one has strengthened for me quite a bit. 

I recently covered Tynion and Walsh's Exquisite Corpses on The Dread Broadcast because I think it's a book people need to know about. 

It feels like it's been forever since the first issue of Dan Jurgens, Mike Perkins and Mike Spicer's follow-up to last year's Bat-Noir, Bat-Man: First Knight, which I wrote about HERE. So far, I dig this new series just as much as the first; I could literally read one of these every year and be pretty happy. Batman fits 1930s Noir so well, and these creators really flourish in the style. 

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Watch:

Finally! The trailer I saw for Damian McCarthy's new film Hokum has hit YouTube, and I can share it! I know, I know - I don't normally like to watch trailers. I saw this before Sisu: Road to Revenge last month and was left jaw agape - another fantastic Neon trailer that shows us so much without telling us anything at all. Now that's how trailers should be!

Especially for McCarthy's films, which, to date, with Caveat and Oddity, are extremely unique and unnerving creations. Hokum - out May 1st - looks to be no different. 

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Playlist:

Tim Hecker - Infinity Pool OST

Bluekarma - The Information

The Afghan Whigs - Gentleman

Frank Black and the Catholics - One More Road for the Hit

Ritual Howls - Ruin

Drain - ... Is Your Friend

Plaguebringer - As the Ghosts Collect, the Corpses Rest

Orville Peck - Pony

Radiohead - Kid A

Radiohead - OK Computer

Dreamkid - Daggers

Eldov - A Story of Darkness and Light

Mondo Decay - Nun Gun

Massive Attack - Mezzanine

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Card:

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

• Four of Wands

• Seven of Wands

• Eight of Cups

Don't allow harmony to convince you to drop your guard. 

New Music From The Afghan Whigs!!!

 

The Afghan Whigs covering Polica? I haven't thought about Polica since... well, since HERE. So f'king cool! The Whigs also released a Still Corners cover. I've always loved the way, every once in a while, out of the blue, these guys will release a couple of covers. Very cool. Hoping this means there's new music on the way. 

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Watch:

Last night I took in a viewing of Mike P. Nelson's (why can't I think or say that name without thinking of Craig T. Nelson?) new remake of Silent Night, Deadly Night. 

 

I'll tell you right off the bat, I'm not much of a fan of the original. It's fine, just so sleazy it's not really my thing. That said, this film has a sequence that's getting some press where Santa kills a whole shit load of nazis.

Pretty fucking satisfying, in 2025, where nazis apparently think they're an identity choice or a protected group, to be getting so many stories lately where nazis get killed. Because, you know, the only good nazis are dead nazis. We all know that, right?

Anyway, as for the rest of the movie... It was AWESOME! I really dug this one. Go in blind, and if you can, see it in theatre. This is not a straight remake of the original film; writer/director Mike P. Nelson really does something different and, in my opinion, awesome, even while still incoporating the many of the main plot points of the '84.

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Playlist:

Brand New - Daisy

Barry Adamson - Cut to Black

Sumerlands - Dreamkiller

Phil Manzanera - Listen Now

Dreamkid - Daggers

Oranssi Pazuzu - Muuntautuja

Arcade Fire - Everything Now

Phil Collins - Face Value

Blut Aus Nord - Ethereal Horizons

Faetooth - Labrynthine

Mondo Decay - Nun Gun

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Card:

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

• Ten of Pentacles

• XI: Justice

• II: The High Priestess

Lasting stability threatened (or perhaps earned) by intuition. Wow. Literally applies to my thoughts right before writing this. Don't overthink a good thing and thus, sabotage it.

New Music From Nothing

New music from Nothing! Lead single from their upcoming album A Short History of Decay, out February 27 on Run For Cover Records. Pre-order HERE.

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NCBD:

A nice, tight list of great books today. Let's get 

I guess I'll be leading every Transformers entry in these pages with, "Look at that cover!" because hot damn if Dan Moya isn't turning out some of the most elegantly pleasing covers in all of comics at the moment. I was a little concerned about switching out the analog space-dust style of Jorge Corona and DWJ for this more polished look for the book. However, it's been incredible so far.

Jason Aaron is out, and Gene Luen Yang takes over writing as of this issue, backed by Freddie E. Williams II and Andrew Dalhouse on art. I will miss Juan Ferreyra's art; Ferreyra's look was new to me and gave the book a bold new look that I think we were all ready for with 2023's continuity-adhering relaunch. Now, it looks like the new team has once again reinvented the book from the ground up, and I find myself once again happy that I didn't jump off when the issue counter got reset. 

Minor Arcana continues to thrill me with its seaside vibes and mysterious characters. 

Always a great thing to see Cobra Commander rising from the ashes of his missteps. Also, to have Copperhead feature so prominently on a cover makes my heart sing - one of me favorites, he is!

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Watch:

I finally had the chance to sit down and watch David Cronenberg's latest film, 2024's The Shrouds. 

After a few initial misgivings, I ended up really liking this. It reminded me a lot of Cronenberg's novel, Consumed, which I am a fairly big fan of. There are a few nuances to Vincent Cassel's acting choices (which might have more to do with an otherwise solid script), but overall, The Shrouds starts in a relatively small place and expands into a very Cronenberg-esque conspiracy. I've been thinking about his predilection and approach to conspiracy lately; most of his films deal with secret cabals and their agendas. Starting with Consumed - unless I'm missing something - those conspiracies become global, moving away from small groups of rag-tag conspirators to incorporate global countries. North Korea is a major force in Consumed, and both Russia and China may or may not figure heavily into The Shrouds. Fifty years of making films that have grown in budget, scope and acclaim have helped David Cronenberg become a Director with global urgency, and that is on full display here. 

I watched this on the Criterion Channel app, but it's likely available elsewhere as well (although Criterion is becoming a must-have channel in our house, so I'd just recommend signing up for the trial and checking them out).

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Playlist:

Steve Moore - Jimmy & Stiggs OST

Blackbraid - Blackbraid III

Willie Nelson - Oh What a Beautiful World: The Songs of Rodney Crowell

Deadguy - Near Death Travel Services

Fever Ray - Eponymous

Brian Eno - Ambient 4: On Land

Stone Angel - Eponymous

Carter Burwell - Blood Simple OST

Tim Hecker - Infinity Pool OST

Nothing - a short history of decay (pre-release singles)

Mondo Decay - Nun Gun

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Card:

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

• Page of Swords

• XIV: Temperance

• Eight of Cups

Agility again. Agility tempered with emotional control. Or, perhaps, Agility achieved through emotional distance?