Positive Bleeding: RIP Blackie Onassis

 

Deeply moved to hear that Blackie Onassis from Chicago's Urge Overkill passed away yesterday at the age of 57.

Ten years older than me. Damn. 

This is THE Chicago band to me, as far as those who flirted with the big time. The Jesus Lizard will always occupy the throne, but while everyone screamed their way through Smashing Pumpkins songs in the mid-to-late 90s (I did until Melancholie) Urge represented the best Chicago's indie rock scene had to offer the mainstream. They didn't compromise, and they were honest-to-goodness Rock n' Roll, two capital R's and an apostrophe. Blackie, thank you for your service.

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Watch:

It's 11:13 on Thursday, June 15. I just finished a nearly two-hour recording session with The Horror Vision for Elements of Horror: Cruising. Prior to doing the episode, I found this on youtube:

There are SO many reasons I love this film and I love William Friedkin as a filmmaker. A LOT of those reasons are discussed herein, but pay special attention to Friedkin's discussion of the impetus for making the film. Also to Randy Jurgensen, the undercover cop who lived a large part of what we see on screen. As usual with Friedkin, I'm stunned not only by his art, but all of the thinking that went into and around its creation.

 

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Read:

Just a quick observation on this week's X-Men: Red #12. Man, when did this book start to resemble Rick Remender and Jerome Opena's fantasy epic Seven to Eternity? In retrospect, even the cover looks a bit like it could be a Seven for Eternity cover:

There's A LOT I'm missing here due to the fact that I've still not read a large swathe of Hickman's run after House/Powers, primarily X of Swords. I have so little background on the Arrako characters, The White Sword, Genesis and Orrako, etc. Going to have to remedy that eventually, but in the meantime, the landscape of this really reminds me of Seven to Eternity, and I wonder if Ewing is a fan of that series.

Pondering this, I stumbled on the following interview Marvel's Ryan Penagos did recently with Hickman and Grant Morrison, discussing how the two men changed so much of the status quo so successfully.

            

Good stuff; I haven't seen an interview with Morrison in a while, good to hear his voice. 

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Playlist:

The Native Howl - Thrash Grass EP       

Mudvayne - Choices (single)

King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard - Gila Monster/Dragon (pre-release singles)

The Bobby Lees - Bellevue

The Sword - Warp Riders

Spotlights - Seance EP

Locrian - Return to Annihilation

Zombi - Shape Shift     

Urge Overkill - Saturation

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Card:

Keeping on with the Crowly/Harris Thoth for today's Pull:

• 4 of Swords: Truce seems a direct connection to yesterday's 7 of Swords. The Pause becomes a truce. 

• III The Empress - this card has come up a lot in conversation lately. In this instance, quoting from the Grimoire, "can point to dissipation when paired with unfortunate cards; Swords, Princes."

• 5 of Swords - The Truce will dissolve and lead to a new conflict, issue, or the like.

Not terribly encouraging, but also, isn't that life? One thing directly precedes the next. I pulled a final, clarifying card and found exactly that:

No matter what life throws at you, one journey ends, another begins.

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Terrifier 2

It's funny. Two weeks ago today, I woke up and saw Boy Harsher had dropped a new single. I posted Burn it Down that day, hoping it heralded an upcoming full-length, not realizing less than twenty-four hours later, I would sit down in a cinema and hear the song featured in Halloween Ends. Then, last night, I went to see Terrifier 2 (at a Regal no less, which is just INSANE) and was overjoyed to hear "Pain," from the band's 2018 album Lesser Man.

Very cool to see these two blowing up. I love their music.

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Watch:

I don't know what it says about our society that Terrifier 2 is having a pretty big run at big box theatre chains, and likewise, I don't know what it says about me that I liked it as much as I did. I'm still uncomfortable with the revelry these two flicks place on violence, but there's a larger picture emerging that has me quite intrigued. 

 

 Looks like my 31 days of Halloween are still going.

 

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Read:

Holy cow. X-Men: RED absolutely blew me away this month. The level of planning, plotting and story architecture at work in the X-Books these days is pretty staggering, but the revelation of Abigail Brand's agenda is awe-inspiring. 

There's something magical about the way this book meshes the cosmic Marvel Universe - Nova has been regularly seen in its pages - and the X-Men. Previously, even when Chris Claremont took his Uncanny X-Men book into cosmic territory - usually with the Sh'iar - I always kind of tuned out. I never cared about Lilandra, Gladiator or Cycolops' father and his team of space swashbucklers, or whatever they were. But something about SWORD vol. 2 and now X-Men read, the overall story they're telling and the galactic stage they've set, it's really working for me. (I still don't care about the Sh'iar, who figured prominently in this book, however, I will say that the crimes they are on the brink of war for are very intriguing). 

Oh, and I'm back to loving Cable. Who knew that would happen?

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Playlist:

Opeth - In Cauda Venenum

Opeth - Watershed

Opeth - Deliverance

Ritual Veil - Wolf in the Night EP

Various - Terrifier 2 Soundtrack Playlist

Boy Harsher - Lesser Man

Bragolin - I Saw Nothing Good so I Left

Miami Nights 1984 - Sentimental

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Card:

A new venture brings success and balance. Not gonna lie - kind of needed this after that murky year-end pull.