New Music from Gnarls Barkley

Calling it now - there's almost no way anyone will release an album I love more than the new and totally unexpected Gnarls Barkley record that landed out of nowhere (from my perspective, at least) on March 6th. I caught wind of this last week, and have been unable to stop listening to it multiple times a day. Talk about coming from out of nowhere for a win!

You can order a copy from the group's webstore HERE.

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NCBD:

New Comic Book Day pulls for Wednesday, March 18, 2026:

I enjoyed the adaptation of Lovecraft's seminal short story in issue one of this mini-series, and I'm looking forward to seeing how the rest of the story progresses toward its inevitable ending. Or rather, how exactly we reach that ending. 

I LOVE that this cover was created sensitive to the HUGE change that occurred in Transformers 30, a book that literally floored me. Is this the beginning of an Autobot/Joe team-up? If Duke can get over himself, we might just get that.

We've winnowed away most of the killers and have a few spunky civilian survivors. Deals and agendas abound with the power elite behind the massacre and things are heating up for a final confrontation most will not walk away from. Need context? Check this book out! One of my favorites of 2025, we're poised to hit ground zero in two issues, so heads should really start to roll now...

And last but not least, Greg Rucka is writing a new Batwoman series and I am here for it. I don't really know anything about this character other than I've always dug this design. I did read some of the JH Williams III series from back in... I don't know, 2012, maybe? That was 100% about the art - I couldn't tell you anything about the story. With this new series, I'm here for Rucka. After recently reading his Lois Lane miniseries in TPB form and loving it, I'll follow this man to hell and back. 

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Watch:

Since we did our annual St. Paddy's celebration/State of Grace viewing this past Saturday, this evening we rewatched John Wright's Grabbers. 

"Residents of an island off the coast of Ireland learn that the only way to survive an invasion of blood-sucking aliens is to stay drunk." 

I originally saw this back circa 2019 for an episode of The Horror Vision. I really dug it that time, and did so again. The FX are mostly CG, but that's forgivable when you consider the size of this production and how much goddamn heart it has. Here's a trailer.

I can't stress enough what a good time I had with this one again. Wright's later film, Unwelcome, made my best-of list for 2023, and that's a very different kind of film, thus showing that Jon Wright is a filmmaker to keep an eye on. He doesn't currently have anything listed as "upcoming" on IMDb, but tonight was a good reminder to check in more often. 

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Playlist:

Gnarls Barkley - Atlanta

James Pants - Welcome

Pixies - The Night the Zombies Came

Atticus Derrickson - Black Phone 2 OST

High on Fire - Luminiferous

High on Fire - Electric Messiah

Steve Moore - Jimmy & Stiggs OST

Tangerine Dream - Sorcerer OST

Jóhann Jóhannsson - Mandy OST

Godflesh - Purge

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Card:

Setting aside Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot (which you can buy HERE.) for another Thoth pull:

• XV: The Devil

•  Two of Wands: Dominion

• Queen of Wands

Two Queen of Wands in a row? What's she trying to tell me? I read this simply as don't believe what they tell you, avoid the patriarchy and focus on love. Feels like this is a spread for america, not me. Either way, two Wands and ol' Scratch tell me to trust myself, not what others say. Definite work-related spread. 

New Blackbraid!!!

New Blackbraid EP is out today! You can order a copy right here on their Bandcamp for Bandcamp Friday! 

Blackbraid III has become one of my all-time favorite records, and hearing this EP, I can tell that my fervor is only going to continue to mount with each subsequent release.

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Watch:

After falling in love with James Gunn's Peacemaker series recently, I've actually started a "Shawn Was Wrong" segment on Drinking with Comics. DC finally has its head out of its arse. Need more proof? 

 

I cannot believe they've made Green Lantern something I am interested in! Now that's f**king magick, baby!

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Watch:

Beyondfest Chicago announced the lineup and hopefully, about ten hours after this posts, I'll have tickets for a handful of screenings. 

None of the films I have my eye on are ones I know nothing about. Always the best way to see any movie. 

That said, the film Normal has one familiar variable: Bob Odenkirk. Here's a trailer:

I've been a fan of Odenkirk's since Mr. Brown made me a lifelong disciple of Mr. Show back in the 90s. It's been a joy to see his film career evolve the way it has. 

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Playlist:

Tool - Undertow

Foxy Shazam - Dark Blue Night

sunn O))) - Eponymous (pre-release singles)

Matte Black - I'm Waving, Not Drowning

Blackbraid - III

Blut Aus Nord - Ethereal Horizons

Blackbraid - Nocturnal Womb (pre-release single)

Jucifer - Lambs EP

Pixies - The Night the Zombies Came

Melvins - Houdini Live '05

Barry Adamson - Scala! OST

Fever Ray - The Lake/Wrong Flower EP

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Card:

Back on the Thoth (But you can still order Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot HERE.)

• Ace of Wands

• Ace of Disks

• I: The Magus

Notice how the numbers read 911? Weird, right? 

The two Aces are breakthroughs, so watch for gains and new creative ground (my Will tends to center on creation). The Magus is the flex that makes it happen. Magick.

So we're at this crossroads again, eh? 

Hit Play, For Today

 

This past Monday morning, it was raining when I woke up. It wasn't just raining - it was raining in that not-quite-winter, not-quite-spring way, where the sky was grey but still bright, the air was nippy but not cold, and the world outside seemed both decayed and renewed. In other words, a perfect morning to throw on some music by The Cure. My go-tos in this situation are 1982's Pornography or 1986's Disintegration. There's always an offhand chance Seventeen Seconds might beat one of those two out, and Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me is a rarity, but one that lives in my heart. I hardly ever go to the singles compilation Standing on a Beach, primarily for two reasons:

• 1) I don't generally love compilation albums - I'd rather get to know the entire albums the songs originally appeared on.
• 2) Early Cure - as in the first few years - is not my go-to with the band. I prefer the dark A.F. Pornography and the evolutionary climb that occurs between that and Disintegration, the former being what I would describe as Proto-Industrial, the latter being perfect downbeat Pop. 

Monday, however, it was indeed Beach that I pulled from my CD shelves and listened to from start to finish. I don't think I could accurately express how this listening affected me. Not nostalgia - an outlier or not, I have history with this record - but a new appreciation for the first singles by the band. This lead me down a brief rabbit hole with 1979's Three Imaginary Boys, the band's debut record and one that, while I've listened to it, I have never owned it. 

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NCBD:

Every issue of Matt Fraction and Jorge Jimenez's Batman title turns out to be pure joy, and that's something we could all use a little more of in our life. 

The end of issue #1 proved to be a total WTF? so I can't wait to get into this one. Jason Aaron was definitely the dude to go to for this relaunch of such a classic 80s property.

Finally - the finale to Zander Cannon's Sleep! If you're reading this, you know the last few months were not easy to wait for this conclusion, but we're finally here, and, as much as I want to see how this wraps up, I am sorry to see this one go. This was my #1 comic of 2025!

I still haven't done that re-read on The Nice House on the Lake since it came back for the second half. I'll have to get on that soon. 

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Playlist:

The Cure - Standing on a Beach

Faith No More - Angel Dust

Dead Kennedys - Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables

Jello Biafra and Melvins - Sieg Howdy!

Melvins - Houdini

John Zorn - The Big Gundown: John Zorn Plays the Music of Ennio Morricone

Melvins - The Crybaby

Godspeed You! Black Emperor - F♯ A♯ ∞ 

Rob Zombie - The Great Satan

Melvins & Napalm Death - Tossing Coins Into The Fountain Of Fuck (single)

Foxy Shazam - Eponymous

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Card:

One card from the Thoth deck because it's late and I'm tired.

Fight to impose your Will on the world around you.

This is interesting. I've been thinking about Magick a lot again. It's been some time since I actively practiced, but I'm feeling a pull. Is this an acknowledgement? 

Super Gore

From their now ten-year-old album Gore. Been a while since I've listened to this one, and one listen put it right back into regular rotation.

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Watch:

With all the big-budget stuff James Gunn is doing for DC that I'm only just now getting in on, I had an urge to go back and rewatch his 2010 film Super. 

Man, does this hold up! So F*cked up, but Super also has a lot of heart. It's a push-pull with where this one takes you, and I'm happy I finally added a Blu-ray copy to my shelves. Everyone involved gives fantastic performance, and even though it makes you uncomfortable and uneasy, a strange affirmation of humanity seeps in at the end. If Gunn has a superhero ability, that's it right there. 

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Read:

Also, I'm about 150 pages into Project Hail Mary. My cousin's husband put this on my radar last summer, and I finally grabbed a copy from Clarksville Bookshoppe a couple of months ago. 

Just getting around to it now - possibly the last non-Stephen King or research-related read I'll have for the foreseeable future if I really double down and go with this Dark Tower/The Talisman re-read in anticipation of Other Worlds Than These. As promised, Andy Weir is a fantastic author and this is a fantastic read. Very light for something so infused with actual scientific data. The day I purchased this was my clue that a film was on the immediate horizon, so I'm squeezing this in before the March 20th release date. 

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Playlist:

Tangerine Dream - Sorcerer OST

Various - An Anthology of Noise & Electronic Music/Second A-Chronology Vol 2 (Disc1)

Low Cut Connie - Art Dealers

Lou Reed - Eponymous

Fever Ray - The Bride EP

Melvins & Napalm Death - Tossing Coins Into The Fountain Of Fuck (single)

Helmet - Aftertaste

Blut Aus Nord - Ethereal Horizons

Adam Kesher - Local Girl (Hatchmatik Remix)

Faith No More - Angel Dust

Deftones - Gore

Rob Zombie - The Great Satan

Rammstein - Reise, Reise

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Let Love In

Foxy Shazam - Eponymous

Ghostland Observatory - Paparazzi Lightning

Team Human w/ Douglas Rushkoff - Chapel Perilous w/ Gabriel Kennedy & Grant Morrison

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Card:

I've been doing daily spreads with the Thoth deck, as well as before-bed single-card draws. The Two of Disks went face-up on my bedside table on Friday and I only just relinquished it. 

A change to the way I'm doing some 'Earthly' things will do me some good; that's enough of a kick in the pants to run with an idea I had recently. I'm getting pretty regular practice with spreadsheet creation and manipulation at work these days and I thought it might be advantageous to try adapting some of that stuff for personal functions. Primarily, money.

New Music From Myrkur

When I posted a new track from Myrkur back on January 28th, we did not yet know if more music would follow. Here then is the answer. 

Sort of.

Another fantastic new song, still no word of an album. 

Amalie Bruun's voice continues to amaze me; this is still probably the closest thing I know of to how the old school Miranda Sex Garden made me feel, once upon a time. 

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NCBD:

I'm so eager to know more about Edgewater and this strange place 

David and Maria Lapham's Good As Dead comes to an end, and although I'm bummed it's done, I can't wait to see how things end. I'm guessing horribly for some - or most - of the cast. This has been such a great ride; I miss having a regular Lapham book in my life. Might be time to re-read Stray Bullets!

The cover says it all!

Two issues left after this one, although I'm not sure if that's series end or 'season' end. Either way, things are really heating up (pun intended).

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Read:

My good friend Chris Saunders alerted me to a new Weird Tales Kickstarter campaign that launched earlier in the week. I backed this puppy the second I saw it. 

You can back the project HERE.

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Playlist:

Barry Adamson - Scala! OST

Ennio Morricone - Il Grande Silenzio (1968) OST

Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Slow Riot for New Zero Kanada

Myrkur - Touch My Love and Die (single)

Melvins & Napalm Death - Tossing Coins Into the Fountain of Fuck (pre-release single)

Plague Bringer - As the Ghosts Collect, the Corpses Rest

Plague Bringer - Life Songs in a Land of Death

Deliverance - Neon Chaos ina junk-sick dawn

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

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Card:

Just one card from the Thoth for today:

The culmination of a project brings a great payoff. 

New Music from Corrosion of Conformity!!!

 

New album Good God/Baad Man, out April 3rd. You can pre-order from Nuclear Blast Records HERE. Sounds good up real loud. Would you expect anything else from COC? Nope.

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Watch:

If you want to hit the theatre this weekend and have a ton of fun, my recommendation is right here:

I knew nothing about this film going in - I don't even think I'd heard of it before a week or two ago. Written by David Koepp - whose name I knew I recognized but did not realize from how many movies (Jurassic Park, Stir of Echoes, Presence, Premium Rush) and directed by Jonny Campbell, Cold Storage is a BLAST! Joe Keery, Georgina Campbell, Liam Neeson, Sosie Bacon - we've got a stacked cast, a great setup and an execution that evokes a bit of a comparison to such films as Slither, Street Trash, and Return of the Living Dead. This is kind of the pop version of a splattery outbreak flick, and it just works. 

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Read:

I finally got around to reading Savage Sword of Conan issue 11, the now-fabled issue helmed entirely by Liam Sharp. All I can say - asbsolute masterpiece!

That's a piece of full-page art from the issue, which Mr. Sharp posted on his Substack newsletter The Brave and the Bold - which you can subscribe to HERE. 

This book is just extraordinary, and I do not mean just the art. The storyline is pure Hyperborean Weird Fiction - Conan is injured and enters a liminal realm within which nothing is as it seems. Wolfmen, a beautifully dangerous sorceress, and scheming rulers all vie for his assistance. As usual, the Cimmerian is his own man, even in the face of insanely unfavorable odds. 

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Playlist:

Daydream Twins - Solstice For Embodiment

John Cale - Fear

Corrosion of Conformity - Deliverance

Mr. Bungle - California

Tomahawk - Eponymous

Brand New - The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me

Lamp of Murmur - The Dreaming Prince in Ectasy

Burzum - Filosofem

Mountain Realm - Stoneharrow

Ulver - Neverland

Blut Aus Nord - Thematic Emanation of Archetypal Multiplicity

Windhand - Grief's Infernal Flower

David Lee Roth - Crazy from the Heat EP

David Lee Roth - A Little Ain't Enough

Corrosion of Conformity - Gimme Some Moore (pre-release single)

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Card:

Continuing my newly reinvigorated workings with the Thoth deck:

Note to self: the green light works much better with Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

• Prince of Wands

• XX: The Aeon

• Ten of Wands: Oppression

The "Airy" aspect of Fire, or MOTIVATION. The Will to change the work, the paradigm, the Aeon and not succumb to the Oppression of the familiar. 

While there's some genuine intuition in this reading, I feel like I've fallen back on rote interpretations and interpretative guides. The added inroads I've made with this deck and Tarot in general just do not seem to want to stick. Part of this is because I am always distracted and I am always anxious. I hate that - I did not use to be this way. Modern Life is Rubbish, though, and it's pretty difficult not to be distracted in this day and age. Oh! What's that - yeah, that's right. I talked a bit about restarting meditation a few months ago and NEVER DID. You think that might help? Yep....

James Gunn's Superman

 

I've really been 'feeling' CDs lately. I think January/February always inspires me to return to a state of mind that reaches through time and connects to the mid-to-late 00s, when the internet was amazing, and the world hadn't yet shifted into a post-apocalyptic paradigm.

At the time, shortly before I moved from Chicago to Los Angeles, I was finishing up years of playing in bands and gigging pretty regularly. I met a lot of bands this way, and one of the fiercest was Amherst, Massachusetts' Read Yellow. 

I either saw or opened for these guys at Chicago's Fireside Bowl. Read Yellow had a big, noisy sound slightly reminiscent of Sonic Youth, but that comparison sells Read Yellow short. This band has such energy! When you exist for an extended length of time inside a live indie circuit, one thing you often find - and it definitely plagued a band or two of my own -  some bands who have fireball energy live don't always find a way to translate that to a recording.

NOT the case here.

Although Read Yellow broke up years ago (I just double-checked), their website is still up, which definitely suggests someone in the group understands the need to keep their flame burning, even dimly, for future generations to find.

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NCBD:

BIG week this week at the comic shop. 

This cover says it all! Looking ahead on this book's solicitations, Kirkman is building something epic with Megatron. The increased focus on his volatile madness we've seen over the last few issues is about to burst, and it should make for some awesome reading along the way. Also, I'm still just blown away by Thundercracker defecting to the Autobots. So cool!

A Lovecraft adaptation in mini-series form, it's been a couple of years since I read the original short story, The Thing on the Doorstep, but I'm really interested in how it will translate here, maybe because we never did get that Richard Stanley cinematic version he talked about doing after The Color Out of Space.

Having just caught back up on this book and found Splinter resurrected, I'm very curious how this is going to play out. On the surface, I don't love the idea of long-dead characters coming back from the dead, but I'm willing to give Turtles the benefit of the doubt. 

Ever wanted to see a priest kick the Mafia's ass? This is the book for you! Loved the first issue, can't wait to dig into number two!

Larry Hama's GIJOE: A Real American Hero hits another milestone, and to celebrate, he's apparently introducing two new Joes! Being that we're free and clear of toy tie-ins, unless Classified wants to take a nod from Hama, I'm pretty intrigued. What would two new Joes in 2026 look like? We'll find out today!

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Watch:

As I alluded to in Monday's post, my ventures into the DC Absolute universe have dovetailed with something... else. Let me explain.

This past Sunday, I woke up feeling burnt out. Reading a Substack newsletter from John Pavlovitz about the absolutely blatant racism of the *ahem* superbowl halftime alternative cooked up by magacunts and kid rock,* I found myself overwhelmed again by the "We can't fix this" mantra that has pretty much played on a steady loop in my subconscious since 2018. I don't doom scroll; I don't really 'scroll' all that much at all anymore, but what I have been doing is looking through the various newsletters I receive in my email. I happened on a new one from Grant Morrison's Xanaduum, and falling into the prosiac embrace of a man whose writing I was once obsessed with, I felt the urge to walk over to the bookshelf and pick up his 2011 treatise on Super Heroes as hopeful, psychological antibodies for the modern disaster.

Not looking to add yet another book to the "currently" or even "soon to be" reading piles, instead, I re-read the introduction and was reminded why Morrison once spoke so strongly to me. The bomb had begun as an idea and humanity had worked to give it material form. So too, could another idea - one infinitely more powerful than a mere bomb - be conjured into our lives to stave off the destructive potential assailing us?

Being that Morrison wrote about this way back in 2011 - when things were infinitely less F*cked than they are now - I had to ask myself, might I not need something like this now? Might I not benefit from exposure to something all-powerful and brimming with, of all things, hope?

It was with that in mind that I hit play on James Gunn's Superman laster that day.

 

All I can say is, always happy to be proven wrong.

In my defense, I have long answered the friends who assured me this film was great and that I was missing out with a patented, "I know it's great, I just don't care." So I simply reached a point in my lfie when I do care, and the film definitely worked its magic on me. 

My good friend Chris Saunders asked me to elaborate what I liked about the film and I rattled off the following list:

- That Nick Hoult's Lex Luthor was clearly designed to look like Grant Morrison was the film's evil doer

- That Coresweat somehow managed to avoid all the stupid foibles all other good-natured attempts at Supes have fallen prey to (from what I saw in Snyder's Batman V. Superman, his wasn't good-natured or cloddish, he (and Snyder) just had too much to prove by taking the chacter dark.

- That Rachel Brosnahan was born to play the role of Lois Lane

- That Gunn cast Wendell Pierce as Perry White

- That Edi Gathegi's Mr. Terrific stole every scene he was in

- That Nathan Fillion's Guy Gardner cut and attitude were spot on

- That Pruitt Taylor Vince played Pa Kent

- The Monkeys!

- "Thanks, bitch!"

Honestly, I'm shocked how much I liked this, but I'm not sure why. Apparently, my love of James Gunn far outweighs my detestation of Superman as a character. 

For more, Mike and I discuss the film at length in the latest episode of Drinking with Comics, which I'll embed here in a few hours when it posts to youtube.

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* So proud that my long-time friend Cap'm Jack once cut KR's tires in a Michigan venue parking lot! I loved that story at the time - back when this cunt was first getting national exposure - but I love it even more now.

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Playlist:

Mountain Realm - Stoneharrow

Drab Majesty - Careless

Mr. Bungle - California

Mr. Bungle - Disco Volante

Mr. Bungle - Eponymous

The Dillinger Escape Plan - Calculating Infinity

Pixies - Surfer Rosa

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

Mountain Realm - Rustborn

Mountain Realm - Frostfall

Atrium Carceri - Kapnobatai

David Lee Roth - Crazy from the Heat EP

David Lee Roth - A Little Ain't Enough

Helmet - Aftertaste

Blut Aus Nord - Ethereal Horizons

Corrosion of Conformity - Deliverance

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

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Card:

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

• XVII: The Star

• XX: The Aeon

• XXI: The Universe

The reason I waited to discuss this was so I could have already talked about James Gunn's Superman, Grant Morrison's Super Gods, and this idea that I might be able to use these larger-than-life characters to help assuage the fears and neuroses. 

The Star - thinking bigger can act as cleansing. The figure on the card is literally washing themself in the rivers of cosmic confidence.

The Aeon - Pass from one ruling paradigm to another, or it's never too late to change, no matter how difficult it is. No matter how big a change it requires.

The Universe - Think macrocosmic, not microcosmic.

I'm going to pursue an interest in superheroes again - especially Superman - as a way to try and tip the scales and shake off some of the unhealthy mental 'doom plaque' that's built up since, oh, 2016. I'm going to read and enjoy in an active, not a passive manner, where I imagine the foes the super gods are fighting are the foes to the healthy world I want to inhabit, both in my head and outside the walls of my house. It might be a fool's errand, but it's what Superman would do. (since when do I say things like that? Well, maybe it's time I incorporated that kind of thinking into my life.)

You Absolutely Know More Than I Know

From John Cale's 1974 masterpiece Fear. Cale's delivery in this song is haunting - it's both sarcastic and filled with a tired sense of surrender. Feels appropriate when looking at world leadership from a private citizen's perspective.

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Read:

Somewhere around 2008 I read Stephen King and Peter Straub's The Talisman. I loved about half of that book and didn't care for the other half. No way of knowing if it was the King half I loved, but I'm guessing that, although you probably can't separate a collaboration like this into two completely self-contained 'halves,' that's probably close. Because of this, I never got around to cracking open the copy of 2011's sequel, Black House, and I just kind of forgot about these books. I love King, but I'm nowhere near what I'd call a completist with the man's work. Not because I wouldn't like to be, just because I don't have that much time in my life for his insanely prolific output!

Fast forward to last year, when I picked up a hardcover copy of The Talisman at a thrift store with the intention of sitting down for a re-read. It's not the original cover, but the 2001 edition:

Fast forward to earlier this year, and an article went around the internet where King talked about how the current book he was working on - a third and final book in the Talisman series - might be his last. Then, a few days ago, the press announcement hit for Other Worlds Than These - that third and final Talisman novel. You can read more about that over on the delightful Stephen King fan site Lilja's Library HERE. One thing King talks about here, is how this also ties up the Dark Tower's Mid-World, which King says, "...was always the Territories by another name."

Holy f*ck am I excited!!!

Apparently, although Straub passed away in 2022, the core idea of this one comes from him, and it's certainly nice to see his name on the third and final chapter. That's Stephen King, though. All around great human being. 

Also, the title for the new book comes directly from the very first Dark Tower novel, when Jake Chambers falls to his death and tells Roland, "Go then, there are other worlds than these." 

In some ways, this is one of the most influential and magical literary quotes that I've ever encountered in my life. I read The Gunslinger for the first time way back in early High School, when I found the trade paperback edition with Michael Whelan's gorgeous art in it at the school library. This was early enough in the series that I was able to go to my local public library and find Book Two: The Drawing of the Three (also with Whelan's art) and then wait with bated breath for the third book to come out about a year later. I've toyed with the idea of rereading the Dark Tower books for some time, as while I reread 1 and 2 when 3 came out and then reread 1, 2 and 3 when 4 came out, that cycle of rereading stopped when 5 came out, and I did 1, 2, 3 and 4 in preparation. Of course, due to the years-long hiatus King needfully took on the series after being struck by a car (those were dark years where many of us feared we would never get an end to the series), so 5, 6, and 7 I've only read once, as they came out. Will I have time to do that before I read Other Worlds Than These? Well... maybe. Scheduled for release on October 6, it's not out of the question. First, I'll start with The Talisman and Black House. 

This pushes a bunch of planned reading for the year back, but that's fine. This feels BIG, and I want to be in on it for the full ride, even if just to properly celebrate King and Straub's legacy.

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NCBD Addendum:

I'm sure anyone who keeps up with this page could have guessed this would happen, but I finally broke down and picked up Absolute Batman. In a true old-school maneuver, I grabbed the just-released Absolute Batman Volume 2: Abomination, choosing to jump in without the first arc's setup, much like buying comics off the stand in the 80s, before the proliferation of the write-for-the-trade paradigm. After reading this, I can say is, okay. Now I get it.

It's all about the BIG picture with this book, which is a plus for a Batman book. Nothing against the story of the week feel of the current Fraction and Jimenez run at all - that feels refreshing, too. But in my eyes, Snyder's Absolute Batman's strength seems to be building toward one big story and it has a lot of interesting elements to the setup that make me rabidly curious. 

- Pennyworth's constant references to "The War."

- Ark M as a blacksite just off the coast of Gotham, the surface-level construction hiding something dark and massive underneath. Also, the fact that this Ark M is literally "Ark: M," which I take to mean number thirteen in a proliferation of similar sites around the globe. 

- Genetically engineered snow dropped on the population to ready them for something nefarious

- Doctor Arkham turning men into monsters for purposes as yet unknown.

And of course, all that ties directly into that 16th issue that introduced this Universe's version of Joker - an ageless Billionaire with a butler, a cave beneath his mansion, and a stranglehold on the globe via economic, military and political posturing achieved over his inhumanly long life.

So yeah, reminder to self that sometimes the hype is earned. So that's two Absolute books I've converted to following in trade over the last month. Absolute WW is still the better book, but this one's intriguing as all get out, and combined they have me wondering if, despite my longstanding loathing of Superman as a character, I should check that one out as well. 

... And that 100% dovetails with something that happened to me/occurred to me shortly after typing the above paragraphs. Something I'll talk more about in Wednesday's post.

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Playlist:

Mountain Realm - Stoneharrow

Mountain Realm - Tribal Alliance

Darkswoon - Thread (single)

The Chameleons - Strange Times

Plague Bringer - As the Ghosts Collect, the Corpses Rest

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

Canadia Rifle - Peaceful Death

Drain - ... Is Your Friend

Exhalants - Eponymous

Slow Crush - Thirst

Various - 85 Seconds Playlist

sunn O))) - Metta, Benelvolence BBC6 LIVE: At the Invitation of Mary Anne Hobbs

David Lynch & Marek Zebrowski - Polish Night Music

Mastodon - Once More 'Round the Sun

Tamaryn - The Waves

Boy Harsher - Careful

Revolting Cocks - Big Sexy Land

Tool - Ænima 

Mastodon - Blood Mountain

Swann Danger - Deep North

Au Pairs - Sense and Sensuality

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Card:

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

• XVII: The Star

• XX: The Aeon

• XXI The Universe

All Major Arcana - rare for me - means BIG ideas, BIG picture, BIG everything. There are a few interesting connections I can make here, but I'm actually going to wait until Wednesday. Aaaaannnnd... I'll retake and light this picture better.

Swann Danger

I hadn't thought of Swann Danger in quite some time, but I pulled out an old CD wallet the other day in the car, saw this and instantly threw it on. Huge, dark-wave, post-punk vibes and I love it. Saw these guys live at Chicago's Fireside Bowl, although I've no idea when. 2004 maybe? Either way, was a nice surprise to see they're on Apple Music. I only know this 2007 eponymous EP, but there's a full-length I'll be checking out this weekend, too. 

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Watch:

Last night K and I had our Thursday night movie date at the premiere of Corin Hardy's new film, Whistle. Here's the trailer:

I knew nothing about the plot for this one going in; hadn't even watched this trailer. I did know that Nick Frost, Dafne Keen and Sophie Nélisse starred, so that, plus my appreciation of Corin Hardy's 2015 film The Hallow and writer Owen Egerton's 2015 powerhouse Follow, I was already in and didn't need to spoil the surprise.

Here's what I'll say: It's competently made, and if you're not a total genre cunt like me, I think Whistle might be a pretty good popcorn Horror flick. I had A LOT of problems with this one, and if you're like me and lean a bit more into the "Talk to Me" side of modern Horror, this might not be for you. But if you're looking for something that's not too deep and a loud, bloody time, this might be for you.

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Playlist:

Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Slow Riot for New Zero Kanada

The Chameleons - Strange Times

John Cale - Fear

John Cale - Slow Dazzle

John Cale - Helen of Troy

Blackbraid - III

Swann Danger - Eponymous EP

Read Yellow - Radios Burn Faster

Angelo Badalamenti - Twin Peaks OST

Mountain Realm - Stoneharrow

Mountain Realm - Rustborn

Ritual Howls - Ruin

Final Light - Eponymous

Mastodon - Once More 'Round the Sun

Daydream Twins - Solstice For Embodiment

Type O Negative - ... A Dish Served Cold (single)

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Card:

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

• Nine of Disks - Gain

• Four of Wands - Completion

• XII: The Hanged Man

To finish, you'll have to go into yourself and try to attain a new level. 

I Care Because You Do, Wolf Boy

Aphex Twin's 1995 ... I Care Because You Do was once an almost nightly staple of my listening, but it's been quite some time since I'd spun this one. Felt really good to reconnect. 

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Watch:

I'm a pretty big fan of a number of Brad Anderson's middle-career films, but at some point, I fell off. Vanishing on 7th Street didn't do for me what I'd hoped, and Anderson's follow-up, The Call, admittedly did not get a fair shake due to my allergic reaction to the lead actress. All that aside, I LOVE Transsiberian and Session 9 - both of which Anderson wrote and directed, and The Machinist holds a special place in my heart despite the twist. When I stumbled across the trailer for upcoming Worldbreaker, I was interested - I don't know that Anderson has done anything like this before, and that alone puts it on my list.

This is getting a theatrical release, but I'm not sure if I'll be getting it here in Clarksville or not. Either way, I'll definitely check it out once I'm able. 

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Read:

A few weeks ago I had my local independent book store, Clarksville Book Shoppe, order me a copy of Nat Cassidy's 2025 novel When the Wolf Comes Home. I'd heard a lot of good things of late, and decided I felt like walking into a well-received, recent Horror novel absolutely blind. 

This definitely fit the bill.

Cassiday's prose is sold. Like, SOLID. His ideas are unqiue and, even though a couple things in this one rubbed me a little wrong, overall I really enjoyed it and 100% recommend it to fans of contemporary Horror. 

Not a werewolf novel, but also not entirely not a werewolf novel, the shapeshifting in this book has a very unique mechanism behind it; one that opens the story up to a much larger arc than first apparent. His characters are deeply developed and as real as characters get, and because of that, there are a couple of moments throughout that really hit me hard and made me set the book down before continuing for a day. Some harrowing circumstances befall Nat's characters, and he makes us love them enough that it hurts. 

That's great writing, isn't it?

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Playlist:

Radiohead - Kid A

Radiohead - Amnesiac

Radiohead - Hail to the Thief

Tool - Aenima

Alice in Chains - Eponymous

The Soft Moon - Criminal

Fever Ray - Eponymous

Gylt - I Will Commit A Holy Crime: Tandem

Chicago Underground Quartet - Good Days

The National - High Violet

Aphex Twin - ... I Care Because You Do

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

QOTSA - Songs for the Deaf

Fever Ray - Radical Romantics

Roxy Music - Eponymous

NIN - Pretty Hate Machine

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Card:

One of my favorite cards in the Crowley/Harris Thoth deck, XVII: The Star.

Basically,  a "go for it," situation. 

Thank You Judge

 

From David Lynch's 2001 collaboration with John Neff, BLUEBOB. This song cracks me up. There are lots of little things to notice the more you hear it, and all of it lands for me. One thing people often forget is just how damn funny David Lynch was. 

This is long out of print, and the version you can download from Bandcamp HERE has a slightly different track order. Glad I grabbed this the second it went on sale back in the day - I'll be buried with my CD copy. 

(Please! Someone release this on vinyl!!! Sacred Bones - I'm looking at you!)

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Watch:

Knowing nothing about YouTuber Markipliars, Game designer David Szymanski or his creation Iron Lung, I went to my local Regal and saw the premiere of Iron Lung last night.

I believe I mentioned this here a few weeks ago, when, upon exiting the aforementioned theatre, I saw the poster below, looked up the screening times and saw it had already almost sold out for the entire weekend.

That shit just doesn't happen in Clarksville. I mean, closest I've seen is the last two Terrifier films, but even those didn't sell out a month in advance. So there's hype, and it took some reading to figure out why. Pliars' YouTube channel is among the largest and most successful. Not necessarily a good omen, but I decided to abstain from anything else he's done until I've seen the film.

So how was Iron Lung?

Let's talk about a different movie instead, shall we?

Maika Monroe has just been on fire the last few years, and this new Blood Covenant anthology film looks like it will fit right in. I really dig this trailer and can't wait for a release date. Honestly, I'm just happy to have a new trailer drop for something I'm looking forward to. Despite a couple great films in January, 2026 is feeling like a bit of a dry year for Horror so far. 

Read more about Blood Covenant over on Bloody Disgusting HERE.

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Playlist:

BLUEBOB - Eponymous

Daydream Twins - Solstice For Embodiment

Mars Red Sky & Monkey3 - Monkey on Mars EP

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

Sunn O))) - Domkirke

Deadmau5 - Random Album Title

Alone in My Room - II

The Veils - Total Depravity

Helmet - Aftertaste

Self - Porno, Mint and Grime

The Afghan Whigs - In Spades

Chelsea Wolfe - Hiss Spun

Chelsea Wolfe - Birth of Violence

White Lung - Paradise

White Lung - Premonition

Radiohead - Kid A

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Card:

• Eight of Cups: Indolence

• III: The Empress

• Knight of Disks

See how card 1 is Indolence - lack of motivation, and card 3 is Knight of Swords, literally motivation. I've been teetering between long bouts of inactivity writing and some really good days (like today) at the keyboard. Sounds like a pendulum, eh? What's the deciding factor? I'm way too engrossed in my day job. That shit isn't me, but it's owning me lately. I worked extra hours multiple days over the past week, and didn't take a lunch or barely move away from my desk for a week. I need to put that back in its box. I took a good step toward that today, and will make sure to do so again tomorrow. They want to own you - Don't let them!!! 

New Music From Sunn O)))

 

From their upcoming self-titled album, out April 3rd on Sub Pop Records. Pre-order HERE.

I'm catching up on a bunch of new music released while I was in the throes of the back-to-back Bowie and Lynch tribute weeks. Not sure when Sunn O))) moved to Sub Pop, but it's weird not seeing their name with Southern Lord. Either way, I'm definitely in the market for a new record from these guys. I kind of check in on them every so often, with Grimm Robe Demos and 2009's Monoliths and Dimensions so far being the only ones I feel truly attached to. For me, it's all about the arranging Anderson and O'Malley add to their core concept of pitch-black drone metal, and "Glory Black" gives me hope that this album may incorporate some new ideas and instrumentation into the classic Sunn O))) sound.

 

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Watch:

We got hit with a "whopping" 2.5" of snow in Clarksville this weekend. I put that in quotes because, being from Chicago, 2.5" shouldn't really be that big of a deal. In a state that doesn't get very much snowfall, though, it is a big deal, and our town's effectively been shut down since Saturday. So K and I sat around and watched movies all weekend. One of those was a first for her and a second timer for me - Martin McDonagh's Seven Psychopaths.

When I watched this for the first time, back around 2014 or 2015, I didn't realize it was essentially McDonagh's version of Adaptation. I don't say that to take anything away from either film - both are brilliant. But where Charlie Kaufman's Adaptation is very 'heady,' Seven Psychopaths is manic and fun. Hilarious at times, really. The cast is a dream cast (Tom Waits!) and the juxtapositon of Los Angeles with Joshua Tree reminds me of an era of my life where I spent a lot of time driving back and forth between the two, staying out in the desert and really getting into a creative groove - which is all the main character in this film - Colin Ferrell's Martin - needs to do to solve all his problems. Well, not all his problems.

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Read:

I've mentioned my reticence to engage with Scott Snyder's Absolute Batman in these pages before; I've read three issues thus far - Daniel Warren Johnson's Annual, the Ark M special, and issue 16 of the ongoing Absolute Batman series. We've reviewed all of these on Drinking with Comics and my cohost Mike and I are pretty much in agreement - the writing's not great. There are some great ideas here, but also, the pull with this one is very much something I recognize as zeitgeist. Will I ever re-read them? Will the fascination outlast the fervor?

Conversely, I don't think I'd ever have considered reading Absolute Wonder Woman until I realized Hayden Sherman is doing the art. I've become a huge fan of this man's work over the last year. Titles Batman: Dark Patterns and the insanely creepy Into the Unbeing introduced and endeared me to Sherman's unique style, and when I saw he was drawing the Absolute version of Diana, I was intrigued.

This book is fantastic! Not your standard take on the character at all, which is great, because this is one of those DC icons that just does nothing for me. Here, Kelly Thomspon writes Diana in a manner that relies heavily on ancient Greek Mythology. Diana was taken from the Amazons at birth and given to Circe in Hell. Circe raised her, teaching her all of her Hecate-worshipping dark magick, and Diana rides the resurrected skeleton of the Pegasus instead of some invisible plane.

I can't stress enough how, despite this being a character I have never been able to take seriously before, Kelly Thompson has dashed those prejudices on the rocks. 

Best of all? Sherman gets to draw a lot of what I really love from him -giant, fleshy monsters! 

I won't be reading this monthly, but I'll definitely be following it in trade.

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Playlist:

David Lynch - The Air is on Fire

The Caretaker - An empty bliss beyond this world

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

PJ Harvey - Uh Huh Her

USSA - The Spoils

Mountain Realm - Stoneharrow

Saigon Blue Rain - Oko

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

Mars Red Sky & Monkey3 - Monkeys on Mars EP

Chrystabell & David Lynch - This Train

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Card:

Putting aside Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot again today (which you can buy HERE) to work with my Thoth deck. That's really where my head and heart have been at. 

The Princess of Cups has always felt like a very gentle card to me. Nurturing in a way most other cards in this deck (or most decks) are not. There's an embrace here, reminding us of the importance of love and understanding, but there's also a nod to methodology and escaping the interior for a bit of the exterior once in a while. Princesses are a creative court, and this card tells me to nurture ideas as though they were loved ones. 

Seven Days of David Lynch Day 6: Falling for Industrial Symphony No. 1

From the Lynch/Badalamenti-produced 1989 album Falling. A modern masterpiece, in my own humble opinion.

One of the tracks that doesn't appear in Lynch's cinematic work, but is just as beautiful and haunting as those we grew to love with Twin Peaks. 

I had this on disc in the 90s and finally upgraded to vinyl when Sacred Bones released it a few years ago. I've put the link HERE because even though it's currently sold out, there's a "Notify Me When Available" button, and although I'm not sure if Sacred Bones actually represses their releases, it's worth a shot.

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Watch:

It's taken me what? Twenty or so years to figure out I could search for and probably find David Lynch's Industrial Symphony #1 on YouTube. 

Special thanks to DinosaurVideoDV's channel for upscaling and uploading this to their awesome channel. Check 'em out HERE and give a follow if you dig.

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Read:

I broke out Chris Rodley's Lynch on Lynch and began rereading the Twin Peaks chapter. I was actually trying to remember what critical writing on FWWM I owned. I know I have issues of Wrapped in Plastic that analyze and pontificate on the film, but I really wanted to read something where Lynch himself speaks about the prequel. 

I'm always very grateful for Rodley's books (the Terry Gilliam one is also fantastic), because he's an interviewer with an agenda similar to my own, but also, he really knows how to put his subjects at ease. David Lynch speaks so casually in this book that he can sometimes digress into elements that, while they may not necessarily be relevant to the question at first glance, end up creating a much more satisfying read. Lynch is often like that in interviews, but the only other place I've ever 'heard' him sound so "off the cuff" is in his biography collaboration with Kristine McKenna.

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Playlist:

Julee Cruise - Floating Into the Night

Chrystabell & David Lynch - Cellophane Memories

Thought Gang, David Lynch & Angelo Badalamenti - Thought Gang

David Lynch & Marek Zebrowski - Polish Night Music

Perturbator - Dangerous Days

Perturbator - I Am the Night

Angelo Badalamenti - Twin Peaks OST

Angelo Badalamenti - Twin Peaks FWWM OST

Radiohead - Kid A

Marilyn Manson - One Assassination Under God Chapter 1

Loathe - I Let It in and It Took Everything

Loathe - Gifted Every Strength (single)

Etta James - The Second Time Around 

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Card:

Playing with the Thoth a lot again over the weekend. 

• Knight of Wands

• 5 of Cups: Disappointment

• XIII: Death

"Be decisive, your feelings have changed, so act fast and make the change."

It's always said that the Death card may be the most misunderstood in the Tarot, but I'd say in Thoth, a lot of the 'negative' cards are also misinterpreted. It's our natural reaction to think of things like disappointment and failure as 'bad,' however, the Universe is indifferent, and in the grand scheme of things - the 'long game' of our lives - disappointments and failures are part of the ebb and flow that evolves us. 

This pull shows that clearly. Things have changed, but we tend to cling to what we know, even if it's gone south. Recognize this and be decisive, make a change and evolve. Easier said than done. 

I'm not entirely sure what this is alluding to in my own life, if anything. I've been looking at my recent obsessive workings with Thoth as development of an institutional language with the deck. I've always kind of had one, but that relationship appears to be deepening of late, and for that, I'm excited. In that way, I'm looking at this as a generalized 'story' that will help me further understand the deck overall, and these three cards in particular.