I guess I had completely forgotten that Fever Ray released a new record earlier in the year.
Historically, this is the time of the year when I go back and see what I missed or forgot about, and this was a big one. Great record. Even better - seeing them perform here for
NCBD:
Here's my Pull for yesterday's week's NCBD!
This final issue of the That Texas Blood spin-off/prequel The Enfield Gang Massacre will be out of my reach for a while, as my Drinking with Comics cohost Mike Shinabargar will be pulling it for my box over at Amazing Fantasy in Frankfort, Il. No sweat, I haven't had time to read all four of the preceding issuues yet, so I'll probably just wait to do the entire series in one fell swoop once I have them all. Not like I don't have a ton of stuff to read, regardless.
Very excited to be two issues into the return of Phantom Road. I adore this book, and can't wait to see where this crazy ass alternate-dimension/Grindhouse story is going.
Well damn. The last issue of X-Men: Red. I'm both bummed and excited to see how this Arrako civil war ends up, especially after that final panel last month.
Also, a couple of surprises, which I talk about at length on the newest episode of Drinking with Comics: NCBD & A Beer!!!
Really digging the Gargoyle of Gotham!
Watch:
In preparation for an episode of The Horror Vision we're recording later today, I rewatched Demián Rugna's Terrified and When Evil Lurks. I can honestly say that the latter elevates the former and also that When Evil Lurks is an early-in-the-running nominee for best Horror film of the decade.
Much like Steven Kostanski and Jeremy Gillespie's The Void did in the 2010s, this one inspires nothing less than tireless awe every time I watch it.
Playlist:
Baroness - Stone
Fever Ray - Radical Romantics
Yawning Balch - Volume One
Yawning Balch - Volume Two
Amigo the Devil - Everything is Fine
Kings of Leon - Because of the Time
Blut Aus Nord: Disharmonium: Nahab
Rodney Crowell - Christmas Everywhere
Card:
My bandwidth is LOW, so today, just one card from Missi's Raven Deck:
VIII - Contemplate routines and make adjustments where needed. Interesting, as I feel like that's exactly what I just did by taking the shorter route for this Pull.
From the forthcoming album God is a Woman, out November 30th. You can pre-order the album from Rein's Bandcamp HERE.
I first discovered Rein at 2022's Cold Waves, and was pretty blown away by her performance. Since then, REINCARNATED has been in regular rotation, so I was happy to see this new track and subsequent announcement of the follow-up.
31 Days of Halloween:
The next chapter in Womp Stomp Films's Friday the 13th sequel series, Never Hike Alone dropped today! I backed this on Indiegogo a couple years ago and can't wait to receive my Blu-Ray copy. Until then, it's free for everyone on YouTube. Give these folks some love! Not only are Director Vincent Disanti's films better than, oh, probably 98% of F13's actual studio-produced films, but he managed to entice Thom Matthews back to play Tommy Jarvis in the ultimate rematch. Here's the trailer:
Pretty sure I'll be rewatching Never Hike Alone and Never Hike in the Snow tonight right before this 'final chapter' drops.
Was supposed to take K to see When Evil Lurks last night at the local Regal, but our 7:30 PM show was canceled last minute, so I'm hoping we'll have a chance before it leaves the theatre next week. I know it hits Shudder on the 27th, but I really wanted her to see it on the big screen and to send the message to the theatre that YES! There are people here who want to see crazy Argentinian Horror at the movies!!! Due to the cancellation, we went with Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers. This is one I never thought I'd watch, however, I was editing the first episode of the new Drinking with Comics when this came on Shudder TV in the background. I got sucked in, then realized Joe Bob had done this film (and part 5) a few years ago in his "Halloween Hootnanny," so I promptly restarted it with Joe Bob. Truth be told? I don't care much for any of the original Halloween films that feature MM (love part 3; Atkins forever!), so this was... whatever.
1) When Evil Lurks/VHS 85/Adam Chaplin
2) Tales From the Crypt Ssn 1, Ep 6 "Collection Complete"
3) VHS
4) All You Need is Death
5) Slashers (2001)
6) The Beyond/Phenomena
7) The Convent
8) Evil Dead 2
9) The Autopsy of Jane Doe
10) Totally Killer
11) Ritual (Joko Anwar)/The Final Terror/Grave Robbers
12) Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (w/Joe Bob)
Watch:
Holy cow, guess what? Drinking with Comics is back! The impetus for this is simply, I read a lot of comics I'd like to talk about, but many of them do not fit into either The Horror Vision or A Most Horrible Library, so here we go!
This was a lot of fun to do, so much so that I even gave it a few tweaks and threw it up on the new Drinking with Comics TikTok page. Yeah, that's right - DwC is on TkTk, and now I feel like I need a shower.
From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• Page or Princess of Pentacles (Disks)
• Justice (Lust)
• XVII - The Star
Creative force alone is not enough; Passion must be tempered against the Lust of Result by rigorous manifestation of idea through Will.
Okay, that's oblique, to say the least. To properly read this, I need to go back to Crowley and Harris's version of the Seventeenth Trump:
This card shows Nuith, Cosmic Mother, manifesting personified. This is not a concept; this is a PERSON. That's the clue here. You take the Earthly "go-get-em!" of the Page or Princess of Pentacles, literally the Earth of Earth, and when you begin mixing it with the creative process and achieve any degree of success, you get excited. I finished the second draft of Black Gloves and Broken Hearts the other day, and I felt like I could punch a planet in half. However, as soon as that charge comes in, so does the lust of result, which any Magickian worth his salt will tell you is exactly how you fuck things up. So, draw inspiration from Nuith, the personification of Night, of space, of turning the ineffable into the tangible. It takes work! Look at her; here's a goddess and she's bailing water, scooping up source material and turning it to crystals or glass or whatever the hell that is the pool around her feet is becoming. Becoming - that's the word.
The only time I'd ever heard of Sleep Token before this past Saturday night was when my friend Josh asked if I'd heard of them, as his algorithm maintained a consistent recommendation. Driving back from a friend's house in Santa Clarita, my friend Bridget played several songs, and I almost instantly became intrigued. When Ray dropped me off at the hotel, I had a head full of smoke and laid down with their first album, Sundowning, on my headphones. I was transported somewhere I had never been before. This is the reaction I am most fond of with music, and based on that, I'm kind of an overnight fan here, despite the fact that some of the textures Sleep Token employs in its genreless music are coopted from styles of music I don't particularly care for. That said, in the context of this band's music and mythology, most of it works.
31 Days of Halloween:
Thanks to Beyondfest, I was able to kick off 31 Days of Halloween yesterday with a triple-feature over at the Aero. Here's what we saw:
Having just rewatched Demián Rugna's 2017 film Terrified, I wasn't entirely certain what I was in for with When Evil Lurks. Turns out, When Evil Lurks won the day. This film is relentlessly dark, it doesn't hold your hand, and it pays back what it demands of the audience with one of the most original and gnarly Horror flicks of the year, if not of the last few.
Next, the latest installment in the V/H/S series:
As I've stated here previously, this series is always a mixed bag for me. When I saw Gigi Saul Guerrero, David Bruckner and Scott Derrickson attached to direct segments in V/H/S/85, I had hope for a really solid anthology film, and I got one.
The one thing about the VHS that still wears on me is how they play with the mechanism of the format. Tracking lines, pops, squiggles, dither and interrupted interstitial elements - these contrived artifacts add little at this point, and I think take up far too much time. I know having these creates the VHS illusion. However, they're just such a given at this point it does nothing for me. I also thought a few of the shorts had some pacing issues, but overall, this is easily my favorite all-around entry into the series since the original. Scott Derrickson and C. Robert Cargill's "Dreamkill" was easily my favorite here, with its bloody set pieces that felt right out of an early 80s Video Nasty.
Finally, the night ended with Emanuele De Santi and Giulio De Santi's 2011 bloodbath, Adam Chaplain:
This movie would make an absolutely perfect double feature with Gabriel Bartalos's Skinned Deep. It's low on budget but a veritable "how to" lesson on shooting and FX when you have more Will than money.
As with last year's 31 Days, I'm aberrating my usual a-movie-a-day format due to the fact that I'll still be in a hotel room until the evening of the ninth. I always bring my firestick with me when I travel, however, working and seeing people come first, so I cannot guarantee I'll have the time every single day to watch something. With that said, Day #1 takes care of the next 3 days (not to say I won't try to watch something every day, it's just doubtful.
Playlist:
Jóhann Jóhannsson - Mandy OST
Deth Crux - Mutant Flesh
Baroness - Stone
The Warlocks - Vevey Live
Sleep Token - Sundowning
Sleep Token - Take Me Back to Eden
Voyage - Paradise (single)
Voyage - Second Light
Card:
I'm on the road, so all my Pulls will be from my mini Thoth deck for the next two weeks. Not a bad thing, but wanted to put up a reminder that Grimm's new Tarot Deck, The Hand of Doom Tarot, is both gorgeous and live on Kickstarter until Tuesday, October 3rd. Here's the LINK.
• II: The Priestess
• Three of Cups: Abundance
• IX: The Hermit
Another pretty easy one - an abundance of emotion can lead to isolation. This is, I believe, another tip for dealing with issues at work. It's pretty easy to become overwhelmed and transported right back into the "Manager Mode" that made me successful while I was still living and working here in L.A. That's a mistake, and I appreciate the Universe's constant reminders that is no longer my role.
