RIP Jennier Finch

 

RIP. I don't give these ladies nearly the spin time they deserve. I'll never forget the first time I heard "Shit List"-a friend's car one afternoon, senior year. Everything about it blew me away. Everything about these ladies always blew me away, from their good nature at being referred to as "the wives of Metallica" back in the 90s while on tour, to their heavy fucking riffs and take-no-shit attitude. 

Finch's bass really made L7's sound. That low end, and how she positioned it so perfectly between Donita Sparks' and Suzi Gardner's guitars and Demetra Plakas' drums, just made them stand out. You can make sonic comparisons to Mudhoney and Melvins, but that's more era than anything else. 

I went back to their second record for this post because Jennifer takes lead vox, it kicks, and I love the good-natured (?) shade she throws at some of their, uh, contemporaries. Hahaha.

 

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Watch:

Ti West's next film is a version of A Christmas Carol? Really? Well, I'm there. And look - Johnny Depp!

I'd love Depp to make a comeback, and can think of no better Director for him to do it with than West. I'll definitely have my arse in a seat for Ebenezer come November 11th. This will also fit in nicely with the newfound proclivity I've exhibited the last few years for British Ghost Stories around Yule.

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Read:

After finishing Wizard and Glass last weekend, I took a short detour from the Dark Tower books to read some Giallo! First up, P.J. Thorndyke's Five Kisses From A Blasphemous Nun - best. Title. EVER!!!

This novel NAILS Giallo! A fantastic mystery that revolves around a series of grisly murders, a possibly reincarnated or possession-happy nun accused of heresy, and the Italian Fotoromanzi business. I really dug this one for its attention to detail, which in turn made it a breezy read (2 days) and completely immersive. 

Next, after reading David Sodergren's Death Spell last year, I'd been wanting to pick up another of his books, and Dead Girl Blues fit perfectly with the theme, although the author admits that while the novel began as a Giallo, it morphed as he wrote. Sodergren ends up coining the term Slasher Noir for it, and I think that's perfect. 

This one is mesmerizing in its violence and depravity. Again, two days to blow through it (both work days). Not for the squeamish, but worth the work. I'm shifting back to the Dark Tower books soon, but there's definitely more Sodergren in my future!

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Playlist:

Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - Blood Lust

Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - Night Creeper

Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - Shapes of Midnight (pre-release singles)

Ozzy Osbourne - The Ultimate Sin

Crystal Spiders - Metanoia

Holy Fawn - Death Spells

Obsession - Methods of Madness

Mountain Realm - Stoneharrow

Ozzy Osbourne - Diary of a Madman

L7 - Smell the Magic

L7 - Bricks Are Heavy

L7 - Scatter the Rats

Mastodon - Emperor of Sand

Pat Benatar - Little Too Late (single)

Journey - I'll Be Alright Without You (single)

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Eldritch Lace Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

• Knight of Wands

• Nine of Cups

• Queen of Wands

Ambition, wishful thinking and creativity. Hmm...

New Music from The Jesus Lizard!!!

 I'm behind everything by a couple of days. Had a friend in town earlier in the week, and between catching up at work after a few days off, digging back into finishing Black Gloves & Broken Hearts after five days away at a crucial point in the novel, and recording podcasts for both MaXXXine and Longlegs, I just haven't had time to do anything else. So here's some awesome new music by one of my all-times. You can pre-order the new album RACK from Ipecac Records HERE, it drops September 13th.

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Watch:

In the past week I have seen three movies that I expect will define much of 2024 for me. First, MaXXXine, which I've now seen twice on the big screen and am planning for another round:

I'm in the final stages of editing a HUGE episode The Horror Vision just did on this one. Ti West has been a favorite of mine since I first saw The Roost in 2005, and to see his very distinct filmmaking on the big screen for the first time since I caught The House of the Devil back in 2009 at the old Laemmle's on Sunset (after waiting for it for something like 3 or 4 years), but with a much bigger budget and not in a limited art-house release (I'm in Clarksville for hell's sake; I seriously doubt Hosue of the Devil played in Clarksville, haha) was an awesome experience. MaXXXine has some issues, but none that blind my love for it or the director.

Although I saw Nikhil Nagesh Bhat's Kill last September at opening night of Beyondfest 2023, I am counting my viewing this past Sunday on a big screen in Nashville as the first salvo of what may very well be my favorite film of the year.

This film takes the "Surprise, I'm getting married" trope of Indian Cinema and uses it to propel the best Action-Horror film I've seen since Dog Soldiers, easy. See this on the big screen if you can, and don't worry about the run time. It's a little over two hours, and I won't feel it AT ALL.

Finally, Oz Perkins' Longlegs... I'm not really sure how I feel about this flick after seeing it last night. It's fantastic, no doubt, but something about all of Perkins' films creates a disconnect in me. 

You'll read this is the scariest movie of the decade. I think that's a bit much. But it is extremely unnerving, and everyone turns in a fantastic performance, especially Nick Cage, who defies all possible expectation and description with his performance.

The only other really big films I'm still waiting on for the year are Fede Alvarez's Alien: Romulus, Francis Ford Coppola's Megalopolis, and Robert Eggers' Nosferatu. I know there will be other, unexpected greats that filter in here and there, but for now, those are the horizon line. All in all, so far it's been a pretty great year, with Kill and Stop Motion duking it out for my favorite thus far.

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Playlist:

Various Artists - The Void

High on Fire - Cometh the Storm

Dean Hurley - Anthology Resource Vol. 1: △△

Kim Carnes - Bette Davis Eyes (single)

Scorpions - Rock You Like a Hurrican (single)

The Dillinger Escape Plan - Option Paralysis

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Card:

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

• XIV: Temperance

• XX: Judgement

• Page of Wands

XIV is Art in the Thoth deck, a variation that projects a slightly different connotation for me. Having only used Thoth for the first 17 or so years I've been familiar with the cards, this recent switch is something I've not quite worked out yet. Art usually suggests synchronization, often of disparate elements into a pleasurable outcome. Temperance, on the other hand, suggests Balance, which is and is not the same. Seeing this card here and thinking about it, I take this as a definite nod to balance some of the uneven and, frankly, negative emotions/thoughts that have ruled my head of late. Taken with XX - ACTIONS HAVE CONSEQUENCES - and the Page (Princess) of Wands, or the Earthly aspect of Fire, I'd say this is a Pull that suggests I really have some work to do on myself in order to regain the mental/emotional balance I've kind of misplaced the last two weeks or so

New Music From The Mysterines!

 

Another fantastic new track from The Mysterines' upcoming Afraid of Tomorrows album, out this Friday, June 21st. You can pre-order the album HERE.

 

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Watch:

On Tuesday night, K and I went to see the one-night-only re-release of Ti West's X at our local Regal. This screening was followed by a "sneak peek" of West's upcoming third film in the trilogy, Maxxxine. 

The "sneak peek" was basically the opening scene of the film. The real talking point here is seeing X again on the big screen. This is my third or fourth time doing so, but first since watching Pearl. Talk about a prequel shedding some serious light on the original film!

K said it best when she wished for an article that might point to whether these were all written together. My understanding (based on what I remember from an interview West did on the Colours of the Dark Podcast HERE) is that upon arriving in New Zealand to film X, the cast and crew had to quarantine for three or four weeks, and during that time, West and Goth conceived and wrote Pearl. My guess is from there, they had ideas to continue Maxine's story and A24 greenlit it the moment they realized what a good thing they had going. 

As I intimated above, watching X again for the first time since seeing the prequel, I have to say that Pearl's character resonates in a completely different and affecting way than when just experienced in the first film. There was already an element of that, thanks to the moments West steals in X to show the character's fragile longing (the "Landslide" scene). Now, however, Pearl becomes at once more frightening and more sympathetic—not an easy task for a filmmaker to achieve.

I've been a fan of Ti West since I first saw 2005's The Roost, thanks to my good friend Dennis' knowledge and knack for curation at the time. From the first mention of House of the Devil until the film's release, I waited for what felt like years, and I've watched the man grow as a filmmaker, always hoping for success on the level he has now experienced. There's a bit of a cultural fever pitch surrounding Maxxxine's release - one that seems to transcend Horror circles - and I can't wait to sit down and watch the end of the character's story play out surrounded by what I now assume will be a bit more people than I'm used to seeing at Horror screenings in Clarksville.

Hell yeah.

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Read:

I finished FantasticLand several days ago and was pretty much left breathless. This one affected me deeply; I'm seeing shades of the worst humanity has to offer echo in my perception of the world around me, and it's a bit disorienting. Based on that, I decided to switch it up and finally dig into my good friend and Horror Vision cohost John Trafton's latest book, Movie Made Los Angeles.

This is exactly what I need at the moment: a scholarly discourse about the nuances and intangible nature of the Cultural Economy of Los Angeles and how it became the mythic location it is in the world's mind. I'm forced to slow down and really "chew" what I'm reading, which is a good thing. I can feel my brain working in ways fiction just does not utilize.

You can order this one anywhere books are sold. You can also check out John's writing on his website, Johntrafton.com. I recommend starting with one of these two articles right HERE or HERE. 

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Playlist:

Riz Ortolani Feat. Katyna Ranieri - Oh My Love (single)

Molly Nilsson - Excalibur (single)

Mr. Twin Sister - In Heaven

Julie Christmas - Ridiculous and Full of Blood (single)

Jim Williams - Possessor OST

Tim Hecker - Infinity Pool OST

Alice in Chains - Jar of Flies EP

Alice in Chains - What the Hell Have I? (single)

Alice in Chains - A Little Bitter (single)

Megadeth - Angry Again (single)

Megadeth - Peace Sells... But Who's Buying?

Alice in Chains - Dirt

Guns N' Roses - Appetite For Destruction

Black Sabbath - Sabotage

Ozzy Osbourne - Patient Number 9

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Pulling out the Thoth Deck for this morning's Pull:

• Prince of Cups

• Ten of Wands: Oppression

• VII: The Chariot

Emotional Intelligence creates the opportunity to emerge from a trying situation Victorious!

Calling Dr. Fucker

A lot of Cramps creeping into the rotation of late. Here's one from their 2003 Fiends of Dope Island.

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Watch:

I've definitely figured out the movie theatre situation in Clarksville. Back in LaLaLand, post-COVID, AMC was the only big-box theatre I gave my money to. Not here; the AMC is inside the local mall, and my gut tells me it hasn't been renovated or even really kept up in any acceptable way since the late 90s/early 00s. The Regal, however, is the go-to. It's where I saw Barbarian the other night (this AMC doesn't appear to show anything other than the current big studio blockbusters), and it's where I saw Ti West's Pearl last night.

 

 The sequel to X, Pearl is a completely different movie - of course - but it's also of such craft and substance, I walked out of that theatre bowled over. I had no idea Ti West and Mia Goth were capable of this. Not that I ever sold them short, but Pearl contains an absolutely formidable performance by Goth, who also co-wrote the film with West.

Can't wait for Maxxine.

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Playlist:

Revocation - Netherheaven

Idles - Joy As An Act of Resistance

Idles - Crawler

Pailhead - Trait

My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult - I See Good Spirits, I See Bad Spirits

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

My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult - 13 Above the Night

The Cramps - Fiends of Dope Island

Revolting Cocks - Beers, Steers and Queers

Deth Crux - Mutant Flesh

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

Without a sharp eye to incoming changes, fortune can suffer. 

He Will Show You Fear In A Handful of Dust

 

 Like me, you may have been recently introduced to U.S. Girls via Netflix's The Sandman, where episode five featured THIS song. That song is awesome and makes quite the impression, but in checking out the 2015 album it hails from, Half Free, I can tell you that every track is awesome. This one, in particular, made quite an impression on me. Am I hearing traces of Prince-like songwriting and arranging? And Portishead... definitely Portishead. Great vibe and ironic, because I was only just recently waxing philosophical about how I miss the Trip Hop vibes of artists like Portishead and Poe.  

We're six episodes into The Sandman, and it is spectacular. I never thought I'd see a proper, nearly panel-for-panel adaptation of this book that had such a huge impact on me as a teenager, but here we are. The way things are shaking out, it looks as though this first season will contain two of my all-time favorite/most personally influential issues - John Dee's 24 hours in the Diner and the Cereal Convention. Watched the Diner last night, and it delivered, so I'm psyched to get to the Convention. Being that I like this so much, I can't help but be reminded of last year's Cowboy Bebop adaptation on Netflix, and the fact that they unceremoniously canceled it shortly after the first season dropped.

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Watch:

I believe this is the same trailer that ran post-credits at Ti West's X. I still can't believe how far beyond my expectations Ti West's return to cinema has been:

 

Now that I'm somewhat settled in TN, I'm anxiously awaiting this year's Beyondfest announcement so I can ready myself for the nightmare of trying to buy tickets for their tenth anniversary. I've been attending for all but the first year (didn't know about it then), and I'm certain Pearl will screen, most likely with West and Mia Goth in attendance for some form of Q&A. I'm banking on my boss flying me back to work in L.A. that week, so hopefully, this should all go kind of smoothly and not cost me much.

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Listen:

One of my favorite moments of my cross-country drive last week was while my co-pilot was sleeping in his seat next to me, middle-of-the-night, with the Weird Studies podcast on my earbuds (I use the ambient sound pass-through so I can hear everything going on around me). This episode, in particular:

 

Hearing Phil Ford and J.F. Martel discuss anything is an intellectually stimulating pleasure, but hearing them talk Twin Peaks? Priceless. That said, the conversation begins with Twin Peaks: The Return's infamous episode 8, but uses that as a jumping-off point to expound on the physical and physic changes in our reality that the Trinity Detonation ushered in. Their idea - which I will only very briefly summarize here in an effort to get you to head over to your favorite Podcast Platform and listen to the episode, is that using Lynch's Garmonbozia - pain and suffering - as something of a quantifiable metric, a particular 'flavor' of fear, a discussion can be had about how the world has changed since 5:29 a.m. on July 16, 1945.

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Playlist:

John Carpenter - Lost Themes

Anthrax - Attack of the Killer B's

Mike Doughty - Live At Ken's House

Alice Donut - Dry Humping the Cash Cow

Genghis Tron - Dream Weapon

Small Black - Cheap Dreams

U.S. Girls - Half Free

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

Now that I work from home - a scenario that has been slightly frustrating due to Amazon's delay on nearly everything I've ordered for my home office - the lack of a commute means I can make my daily Tarot pulls considerably more in-depth.

Starting in the Middle, with Past on the Left and Future on the Right, I'm reading this as my tendency to overthink and psychoanalyze everything has bound me. Somewhere inside that circuitous cavern of thought, however, is an epiphany, or at the very least a sublime moment of understanding. Applying a fresh perspective will open that up.

I think this is in relation to my home-from-home situation, which feels completely scattered at the moment. I need to build my space and from there, things will become better defined.

Rammstein - Zeit

 

What a weird coincidence this is. It's not all that often that I listen to Rammstein. They're definitely a band a dig, however, unless it's the two songs on the Lost Highway soundtrack, there's a pretty specific time and place for sure. Late last week I cracked out Rosenrot, and now look - new album Zeit out April 29th! Pre-order the album HERE.

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Watch:

This past Saturday, before the return of my annual St. Paddy's celebration, I caught a mid-day showing of  Ti West's new film X at the local AMC. I've posted the trailer here before, back when it first dropped, but here it is again:

X is fantastic. Don't read or listen to anything about it, other than me telling you right here to go see this one on the big screen. You won't regret it. In keeping with West's glorious style, this is a very loud quiet film. It's bloody and human and strangely sweet at times. 

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Dollar Bin:

Back for another Tuesday afternoon digging in the ol' dollar bin:

Despite my allegiance to Vertigo at the time of its release, I had never even looked through an issue of House of Secrets until two weeks ago when I found the first story arc from the 1995 reimagining of DC's House of Secrets. And yet, in spite of that, several of the covers in this arc loom in my comic book knowledge as extremely iconic images. Especially issue #2.

There's definitely an element to this series that makes me see Vertigo's mid-90s style storytelling as very brand specific, however, since nothing I know of looks or reads this way anymore, any problems I had with this first arc - this reinvention's arbitrary relocation of the titular House to Seattle, Washington in an obvious attempt to capitalize on the *ahem* grunge movement, the fact that every character in the book is in a band or fucking someone in a band, the then-current newsworthy societal plot points. Unfortunately, STDs and molestation have always been problems in our society, however, the ignorance and fear that limited allowed them to grow to epidemic proportions became a campaign slogan themselves, and a talking point for societal criticism. Not a bad thing, but also, the approach to a lot of the tv and literature that took a swing at incorporating such a hot button issue often feels trite and misguided. There's a bit of that here, or, I'm just out-of-phase with my residual 90s self.

Regardless of little gripes, this first arc was a good read and I was overjoyed to put all six issues into my short boxes for a mere $6.00.

Also, Teddy Kristiansen's art is most definitely iconic and hits the sweet spot created in my soul by similar artists such as Marc Hempel and Peter Gross. There's something so Grimm's Fairytales about this style, and as I intimated above, it's one we don't really see anywhere anymore (if you know of a place to find it, let me know!)

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Playlist:

Chelsea Wolfe - Birth of Violence

The Pogues - If I Should Fall from Grace with God

The Pogues - Rum Sodomy & the Lash

U2 - The Joshua Tree

John Carpenter with Alan Howarth - Big Trouble in Little China OST

Every Day (is Halloween) Newsletter Playlist: You, the Knight and the Music

Mastodon - Once More 'Round the Sun

Judas Priest - You Got Another Thing Comin' (single)

Til Tuesday - Voices Carry (single)

Ghost - Impera

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Card:

Past = XXI: The Universe

Present = I: The Magus

Future =  7 of Wands: Valour

Holding fast to a protocol - the word I'm using here in place of the more loaded 'belief' - I have established in a previous moment will put me in the position to successfully recreate something that has changed with time, never been completed, but remained a part of me. 

RIP Ronnie Spector

 

Seriously one of the most iconic voices of all time. So iconic, she makes me love an Eddie Money song.

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Watch:

The sting of the anniversary of David Bowie's death and now Ronnie Spector's passing was traversed by some really good news (thankfully, that's too many bummers to deal with in one week) - Ti West is returning with a new movie!!!

 

I am SO happy about this. West has directed a number of TV episodes (his two on Amazon's Them were incredible), but hasn't done a film since 2016's In A Valley of Violence (which is on Netflix and SO worth your time). West is easily one of the best directors working today, in my opinion, and I'm hoping having A24 distribute this new flick will A) put it in theatres for longer than a weekend, and B) herald his return to filmmaking.

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NCBD:

Not New Comic Book Day, exactly, but here's what I've picked up over the last few weeks via eBay and back issue bins:

I'd read the first issue of Hunger back when it first came out, then never continued. I've always wanted to go back and read the entire thing, though, because I'm something of a Galactus fan, even though I haven't really read many stories with him. Maybe that's the Unicron fanboy in me, I don't know. There's a lot about the Fantastic Four's history and rogues gallery that I retain something of an armchair interest in, but never really do anything about. I'm glad I bought this, even if just for the image of Galactus tearing through a hole in the fabric of the 616 Universe and entering the Ultimate Universe

Next up, I started reading The Low Low Woods when it first dropped back in early 2020, but never acquired all the issues. I finally solved that. Here's the bad ass cover I just scored for the fifth issue:

I'd put a poster of that on my wall. It's gorgeous. The book itself has an amazing premise - girls go missing in a small rural town where coal fires have burned for decades, then return missing time. The execution leaves a little bit to be desired, but overall I dig it. And for whatever reason, I wanted the issues of this one instead of the collected edition.

And I finally replaced the original Dark Horse Aliens Vs Predator that went missing at some point over the last few years. No idea where these went, and even though my Horror Vision cohost gifted me a beautiful hardback collection of this one, I had to put my hands back on the original floppies I bought as they came out monthly (or maybe bi-monthly) back in 1990.

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Playlist:

John Coltrane - Blue Train

The Outfield - Play Deep

Alio Die and Lorenzo Montaná - The Threshold of Beauty

Felicia Atkinson and Jefre Cantu-Ledesma - Un Hiver En Plein Été

Jefre Cantu-Ledesma - In Summer EP

Crumb - Ice Melt

Zombi - Liquid Crystal

The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion - Now I Got Worry

Genghis Tron - Dream Weapon

The Ronettes - Presenting the Fabulous Ronettes

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Card:

Definite stagnation in creative areas at the moment, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel...

Mark Lanegan sings Joy Division's Disorder for Charity

Posted on Peter Hook's youtube channel. Here's the verbiage:

"As part of Sweet Relief Musicians Fund's recent 'For The Crew' fundraising event, Hooky's son Jack teamed up with Mark Lanegan (Mark Lanegan Band/Screaming Trees), Smashing Pumpkins guitarist Jeff Schroeder and drummer Shane Graham for a special live version of the Joy Division classic 'Disorder'. All funds raised by this event went towards supporting out of work touring crews who have been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic. Please consider making a donation if you are able to: https://givebutter.com/FORTHECREW​

If you're in the US you can also text FORTHECREW to (202) 858-1233."

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Watch:

I had yesterday off, so Tuesday night K and I had a bit of a marathon. Being that it was my birthday, I wanted to reconnect with what I've come to think of my 'power movies.' There are quite a few, but here's what I went with:

 

Followed by:

 

Rounded out by my second viewing of Ryan Gosling's gorgeous directorial debut in the last two months (with a third already scheduled):

This was a great night for me; it'd been longer than I realized since my last viewing of my favorite Horror film of the 00s. Kill List I'd only seen once before but it left such a huge impression on me I'd been planning a follow-up for years. Luckily, thanks to Anthony (Butcher) from The Horror Vision, I located a B-Region BR for $5 a few months ago, so now I can watch my favorite Ben Wheatley film whenever I want. And Lost River has just become one of my all-times. I seriously think about re-watching it every day. 

Every. Day.

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Playlist:

Deafheaven - Ordinary Corrupt Human Love

Cocksure - TVMALSV

Etta James - Eponymous

Tennis System - Technicolour Blind

The Dead Milkmen - Welcome to the End of the World

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Abbatoir Blues

The Besnard Lakes - The Besnard Lakes are the Last of the Great Thunderstorm Warnings

Genghis Tron - Dream Weapon 

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Card:

I felt honored and ecstatic to do my first birthday pull from Missi's Raven Deck. I wasn't disappointed, either:

The presence of Boaz and Joachim are very positively charged images for me, one of the reasons this might be my favorite card from this deck. Plus, I've always considered a strong, mythical female presence as the closest thing to a supreme power in the cosmos of my life. Here, flanked by Soloman's pillars and a weird forest-derived rendition of the Tree of Life, I see nothing but the actualization of the processes I have put into place over the last several years. 

 

Isolation: Day 112 - Fourth of July

I have been nothing but impressed with Two Minutes to Late Night, both as an example of the Late Night TV format I grew up loving with David Letterman (that's where it ends for me), and a vehicle for outstanding cover songs. How do they handle one of my favorite Soundgarden songs?

Perfectly.

They're Patreon is HERE. I've been meaning to sign up. Seems like today is the day.

**

Last night I FINALLY watched Ti West's In A Valley of Violence. As a huge fan of Mr. West's work, my natural inclination to watch this one back when it became available on VOD in 2017. That said, the film proved a source of massive cognitive dissonance for me, as one of the stars is travolta, and I have a 'no travolta' rule when it comes to cinema. There's really no exception to this rule, and while I'll agree he did fine in Pulp Fiction, that film is one I pretty much have no interest in ever watching again, so it works out. At any rate, Valley is currently on HBO, and K was interested in seeing it, thus I had an impartial third party to help me over my hump. Turns out, as I suspected, the film is magnificent. Also turns out, JT does a pretty decent job in it.



Is this a learning experience for me? Should I break down and challenge my No-ben stiller and No jim carey rules?

Nope. Those will stay staunchly in place. I can make an argument that the JT rule was made broken already, as my boycott mainly applies to the post Pulp Fiction work of the actor. His earlier work is spotty, but definitely contains some gems, Brian De Palma's Blow Out being the example that immediately springs to mind.

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Playlist:

Mastodon - Emperor of Sand
John Carpenter - Skeleton/Unclean Spirit
War on Women - Capture the Flag
The Chameleons UK - Strange Times
True Widow - AVVOLGERE
Prince - Sign O' The Times
The Obsessed - Lunar Womb
Megadeth - Rust in Peace

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Card:

From the grimoire: "Big Influences and the creation of a new project."

Yes. I'm sitting down to that new project after I post this, so spot on.

2019: January 15th

I discovered The Blueflowers yesterday on KXLU. Wow. Love this band. They have several albums available through their bandcamp HERE, and most if not all of those are on Apple Music. I'm digging into 2018's Circus on Fire this morning, and it's taking me places both familiar and strange.

I forgot to mention that last Friday I watched Pod, a film from 2015 directed by Mickey Keating. I'd seen the thumbnail for this one for years. I've also started to see discussion among a fairly rabid Keating fanbase I never realized existed, and after just this one flick I can see why some would rabidly endorse his movies. Pod is fantastic; Larry Fessenden's in it, and that's almost always a great sign; based on the simple, no-nonsense execution of a straight forward horror/sci fi concept, I'm guessing Mickey Keating's work will fit in nicely alongside Ti West and Joe Begos. In fact, Pod and Begos' The Mind's Eye would make an Excellent double feature.



Playlist from 1/14:

Dillinger Escape Plan - Option Paralysis
Jozef Van Wissem & Jim Jarmusch - Concerning the White Horse (pre-release single)
Jozef Van Wissem & Jim Jarmusch - Concerning the Entrance into Eternity
Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Slow Riot for New Zero Kanada
David Zinman, Dawn Upshaw & London Sinfonietta - Gorecki: Symphony No. 3

Card of the day:

Second day in a row for this one. And that's probably because my interpretation yesterday was correct; I came SO close to finishing the book. So this card reappears today, because Today is the day.

2018: October 10th

Thought I'd start today off with another under-appreciated Type O track. I know, I know... wrong holiday. Still, it fits the season.

The first episode of The Horror Vision is now available on Apple Podcasts HERE. Also available on The Horror Vision website HERE. The audio is good but not great; tweaks coming for the next episode, which we recorded last night and will land next week. #2 is a discussion of our Halloween go-to watches, from the standards to the more individualized, left-of-center picks we watch every year.

31 Days of Horror continued yesterday. Since I was out doing the podcast last night, K and I opted to continue to push back Mike Mendez's The Convent back, and instead I treated myself to an afternoon viewing of Ti West's first feature film, The Roost. LOVE this one, and it'd been a while. Holds up and then some. K watched The Haunting of Molly Hartley, liked it but said it kinda resembled a Lifetime movie if they did horror.

10/01) Summer of 84
10/02) Rope
10/03) Dreams in the Witch House
10/04) Crash
10/05) The Fly
10/06) Re-animator
10/07) Night of the Demons
10/08) Species
10/09) The Roost

Playlist from 10/09:

High On Fire - Electric Messiah
Nothing - Guilty Of Everything
The Skull - For Those Which Are Asleep
Type O Negative - October Rust
Type O Negative - Dead Again

No card today.

In A Valley Of Violence

I feel as though I have been waiting for the new film by Ti West forever. I remember feeling the same way for The House of the Devil and despite that wait resulting in particularly insane levels of expectation I was not disappointed. I seriously doubt I will be for In a Valley of Violence, despite the presence of possibly my least favorite actor of all time (I won't name names, but here's a hint). Ti West's new feature film is out October 21st. I am posting this trailer here but would like to note that I have not and likely will not watch it. I want to go into this one as blind as possible.

Ti West's The Sacrament

image courtesy of wikipedia.org

It has definitely been hard for me to find time to post things here, so allow me to play a bit of catch-up on this wonderful three-day weekend.

I first encountered Ti West when my good friend Dennis showed me The Roost. Now, The Roost isn't an amazing film, but it's good and fun and it really left a lasting impression on me. Treated so that it plays on your screen as though you're watching it late at night in 1986 on a UHF station The Roost is creepy and visually fuzzy and features a wrap-around that seals the deal in my opinion. After that it was a very long wait from the time Mr. West's follow-up The House of the Devil was announced to the time it was actually released. I'd had something like two or three years to stoke my anticipation for The House of the Devil and when it finally played at the one theatre in Los Angeles that it did I took my friend Michael and we were both blown away. This is still one of favorite horror films of all time and I wrote an open letter to Mr. West on my then-stomping ground CHUD.com telling him how much I appreciated someone making a movie of this calibre - let's face it, at that time horror was in perhaps the worst era it'd been in for a while, with a lot of promising films stalled or fighting for distribution (ie Satan Hates You, off the top of my head) and a lot of shite being bandied about by major studios.

I went back and brushed up on the one Ti West film I'd missed, Trigger Man, and found it to be an exercise in efficient indie film making. Trigger Man is a very low-budget but very effective film about very real horror - several friends on a hunting trip in Upstate New York are pinned down by a sniper and slowly picked off one by one. Not as immersive as The House of the Devil - but then not a lot is - Trigger Man stayed with me for a long time after I watched it and served as a nice appetizer as I awaited West's next film, The Innkeepers.

Again, I don't love The Innkeepers as much as I do THOD, but as an entry into the timeline of a director I've long thought will evolve into one of the best of this era it's an important piece. The words slow burn, usually associated with Ti West's films, is appropriate here, however in The Innkeepers Mr. West plays with the idea and consistency of the film's tone in a way that, while it doesn't completely land, made the film interesting and enjoyable in unexpected if uneven ways and no doubt served to strengthen his overall approach/style.

West's entry into the original V/H/S is one of the most disturbing things I've ever seen in a cinema.

Now, The Sacrament. Holy cow, this film just blew me away.

I don't want to say too much, but The Sacrament had me from the opening text. The modern media framework for the story is a fantastic storytelling device and the story itself is both fascinating and horrifying, especially as it takes its cues from a real-life incident. And the acting is top notch. Joe Swanberg and AJ Bowen are becoming must-watch players in the indie realm for me. Gene Jones deserves to at the very least be nominated for an oscar for his performance and Kentucker Audley's portrayal of the character Patrick is, at his end, so chillingly realistic as to engrain his name in my psyche for all time.

The Sacrament is on VOD right now and it's worth every fucking penny. My suggestion? A pair of good headphones to make the immersion complete.