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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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