A Drink Before the War

From 1987's The Lion and the Cobra. Outstanding song from an outstanding album. Makes 1987 feel so close I can almost touch it.

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Watch:

It's been a while since I'd enjoyed John Carpenter's In the Mouth Of Madness. I'm guesting on John Trafton and Mile Fortune's This Movie Saved My Life podcast next week for the second part of their 1994 retrospective (part 1 is HERE), and Madness was one of the four films we're covering. 

Maybe it's because I just rewatched Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master, too, but I'd never realized the influence that both the NOES and Hellraiser series had on this flick until now. I'm not sure if that influence comes more from writer Michael De Luca (who also wrote Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare) or JC himself, but it's definitely there. Also, and I know everyone who loves this movie knows this, but the brilliance of combining Stephen King's popularity with H.P. Lovecraft's ethos in Sutter Cane is one of the great triumphs of homage to either author, in a world where 75% of Horror is homage to one or the other (or both). I'd add that making Jürgen Porchnow look like Neil Gaiman - who would have been rounding the corner on finishing the original Sandman series for DC's Vertigo at the time, adds just the right amount of prescience about Gaiman's inevitable place in the pantheon King and Lovecraft reside over.

 

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Playlist:

Blut Aus Nord - Memoria Vetusta III: Saturnian Poetry

Blut Aus Nord - Hallucinogen

The Reverend Horton Heat - Whole New Life

The Raveonettes - Sing

Sinéad O'Connor - The Lion and the Cobra

Joy Division - Substance 1977-1980

Black Pyramid - The Paths of Time are Vast

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Card:

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

• Six of Cups - Emotional fulfillment.

• IX: The Hermit - I need a period to regroup. Badly.

• Three of Pentacles - Growth in Earthly terms. Not sure if this is responsibility maturation or windfall. Windfall would be nice.

Jade Bird - Trick Mirror

 

I'd never heard of Jade Bird until yesterday, as finding this record proved pure happenstance, in the best possible way. During my afternoon writing session at the coffee shop, the music on my earbuds stopped just long enough for me to catch a snippet of "Trick Mirror." This track reminds me of something I can't yet place; the up-front bassline, Bird's soft vocals accentuated by a rhythmic cadence that soars at times with lush double tracking, and that ghostly reverb return that's pinned in the depths of the right channel of the mix. It adds up to a pretty compelling tune. 

"Trick Mirror" is taken from the 2021 album Different Kinds of Light, available on Ms. Bird's Website HERE.

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NCBD:

Here are my picks for NCBD today:

Saga! Like TMNT below, I'm behind on this one. Still, just seeing a new issue of Saga hit the stands brings a smile to my face. Still gotta make that twice-aborted re-read happen!

If this is only Part Three of "Showdown at the Easy Creek Corral," that means this issue is really just going to continue to crank the tension between Erica and Cutter, which is INSANE because it's already almost at the point of being unbearable! NOT a complaint, mind you, I'm just way more invested in this book than ever before - a feat for sure - and the creative team have set up a massive payoff. Talk about great serialized writing!

So far, Lemire and Sorrentino's Tenement is vying for my favorite spot out of all their Bone Orchard Mythos titles. Can't wait to read this and see where the new issue takes our band of trepidatiously misplaced travelers.

I'm behind on this series again, and I doubt I'll be catching up before my trip, so by the time I get back, I should only have to wait a week or so before I can read  TMNT 143, 144 and 145 in a burst. 

The first issue of Gerry Duggan and Javier Garron's new iteration of Uncanny Avengers was a pleasant surprise, so I'm hanging in for the foreseeable future. This might be the book where I felt the ramifications of the Hellfire Massacre the most. 

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Listen:

It was a great pleasure indeed for me to be asked on as a guest of John Trafton and Miles' Fortune's This Movie Saved My Life podcast. 

 

John, Miles and I talk all things Horror, with a particular emphasis on 90s Horror and 1998's Fallen, which I had never seen before. Here's the trailer:

Fallen is by no means a 'must-see' film, however, I definitely liked it better than most of those late 90s, post-Se7en serial killer movies. 

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Playlist:

QOTSA - In Times New Roman

Godflesh - Purge

Zeal and Ardor - Eponymous

Madlove - White With Foam

Lead Into Gold - The Sun Behind the Sun

Jade Bird - Trick Mirror (single)

Ash Borer - The Irrepassable Gate

WYTCH FINGER - The Dance EP

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.  Just a reminder that Grimm's new Tarot Deck, The Hand of Doom Tarot, is both gorgeous and live on Kickstarter right now. Here's the LINK.

• Six of Wands

• Ace of Pentacles

• Ten of Cups

I inadvertently upset a delicate balance last night and can see my hard-fought plans - which have taken a few weeks to solidify - are in jeopardy. That's a bit of a hyperbolic statement: I'm trying to watch what I spend pre-LaLaLand, and I went ahead and bought a record on eBay. Nothing crazy expensive, however, finances are a delicate balance at the moment simply because we've depleted a lot of our 'home fund', and I really want to build it back up. The trip is going to have its financial footprint - work pays for all the travel and my meals, but I'm planning on being out and about as possible. So I'm reading this Pull as a gentle warning: No more late-night record buying for a while. 

I couldn't very well pass up Prince's Sign O'the Times, though. I used to have that, but it went out the door in my divorce.