Showing posts with label XIX The Sun. Show all posts
Showing posts with label XIX The Sun. Show all posts

Wednesday, October 23, 2024

Skinny Puppy - Circustance


From my favorite Skinny Puppy album, 1991's Last Rights. This record blew my mind when I used a gift token from Coconuts to purchase it back circa 1992/93, not knowing what to expect, just that the weird/cool Industrial Senior in my art class named Matt once told me, cryptically, "The keyboards in Skinny Puppy will make you feel... like... you're... GOD!"

He wasn't wrong.




31 Days of Halloween:

Unpopular opinion: I actually prefer Carrie 2: The Rage to Brian De Palma's original Carrie. Now, I'm not saying Carrie 2 is a better film, but for me, there are a few major irks with De Palma's film.

Carrie is well made, but the 70s were often an ugly decade, and all the costume design and set decoration seems (to me) to revel in that ugliness. This is an excellent story; such a raw treatise on bullying and the personal, world-bending pain that comes of it. That’s something I love and respect. That and most of the performances. Sissy Spacek and Piper Laurie are a fucking powerhouse, and Nancy Allen is an unforgettable bitch. Alas, a lot of the suspense just doesn’t work for me. The entire protracted sequence before the bucket spills feels absurd on a cartoon level, with Sue and the Gym Teacher looking here, looking back, looking at each other, looking away… it ends up taking away from the blood and fire of the climax. Not completely, but enough that I get annoyed. Finally, I’ve said this for three decades, but travolta is not a good actor and really brings down every scene he’s in.


Katt Shea fills Carrie 2 to the brim with a sense of embitterment and isolation that, while affecting, fails to measure up to those feelings in De Palma's. That said, I think there is something about the time between the two films (1976 and 1999) and the severely different aesthetics of the eras that helps Carrie 2 feel like a natural extension of the original. Does it need to exist? Absolutely not. The entire movie is really just one long wait for some widespread comeuppance, but when Shea's film delivers this, it is GLORIOUS! I love that pretty much no one is spared. Does the film suffer from that pre-millennial cheese that so many films from this era do? Yes, but it also references both Scream and New York Ripper in the same line of dialogue! I feel some Twin Peaks in here, some NOES 2, a lot of disparate influences that work together to make Carrie 2 way more watchable than a lot of films from this time. 

Will I revisit this again? Maybe. Will I revisit the original? Absolutely. I check back in every few years on this and Dressed to Kill to see if my problems are me. So far, that has not been the case.



1) The Killing of a Sacred Deer
2) The Houses October Built (2011)/Texas Chainsaw Massacre (50th-anniversary theatrical screening)
3) Loop Track
4) It's What's Inside/LONGLEGS
5) The Babysitter/Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein
6) The Hitcher/Lost Highway
7) GDT's Cabinet of Curiosities: Graveyard Rats
8) V/H/S Beyond
9) Killer Klowns from Outer Space
10) Terrifier 3
11) Summer of '84
12) Rosemary's Baby/Suspiria ('77)
13) Daddy's Head
14) Undead
15) Moloch/Tea Cup (episode 1)/ Evil Dead 2
16) Smile
17) Laura Hasn't Slept/Smile 2
18) Terrifier
19) The House of the Devil - Last Drive-in Presentation (original air date April 26, 2019)
20) The Woods
21) Rob Zombie's 31
22) Carrie 2: The Rage




NCBD:

This week's pull starts off with one I've been excited about since seeing the cover solicitation.


Holy. Shite. I've been waiting for something like this since the inception of The Energon Universe. Cobra-La in space, mixing it up with, I'm assuming, either the Quintessons or the denizens of the Great Ring? And this is probably only the beginning. It's funny how I couldn't give a toss about these 'goofy' Joe cartoon characters in pretty much any other context but what Kirkman and his team are doing. Admittedly, Pythona has the best scene in that G.I.Joe cartoon movie from the '80s, but overall I always sided with Hama's comic and eschewed the increasingly day-glo aesthetic of the cartoon. But Kirkman has recontextualized all of this, and I am excited to see what happens.


Michael Walsh's Frankenstein has not disappointed me yet. I'm sure I've said this before, but Mr. Walsh is one of my favorite artists working today. Also, does this cover allude to The Bride joining the story? 


Catching up with Leo? Nice. Loving that this book has been taking its time to release. I'm hoping that doesn't fall away once things really get going. 


John Constantine is dead and his trek across the U.S. has been as bizarre as one might expect for a (ghost? Reanimated?) Britsh Punk Rock-reared Magician. 




Playlist:

Purple Hill Witch - Eponymous
Ritual Howls - Virtue Falters
Allegaeon - Apoptosis
The Soft Moon - Criminal
The Kills - Midnight Boom
Ministry - HOPIUMFORTHEMASSES
Justin Hamline - The House With Dead Leaves
John Frusciante - Brown Bunny OST




Card:

Today's card for study is XIX - The Sun:


The Triumph of the Spirit! This card is obviously a glorious one, filled with revelation or perhaps the idea of seeking revelation. From my grimoire: "Taking the Pill will open your eyes."

Crowley says it in his Book of Thoth: "This is one of the simplest cards; it represents ... the Lord of the New Aeon in his manifestation to the race of men as the sun."

The dancing children (?) represent humanity accepting the revelation of the new aeon, Crowley's Age of Horus. The philosophical reality of that can be argued, the important thing on the non-Crowley level of just reading the cards is this indicates the person in question will change. 

Thursday, October 10, 2024

Dreamkid - Chrissy

 

Back in 2022 my good friend and co-host on The Horror Vision Ray turned me on to Dreamkid's eponymous album. I liked it, but this guy doubles down on the '80s stuff a couple years after a lot of other people already resurrected that vibe and ran it into the ground, so while I dug the record to a degree, there remained a distance with it for me. I listened to it off and on for a while, then forgot about it. 

I Went to see Terrifier 3 this evening. Sold out show. Every seat taken. As I walked up to the ticket taker, there was a man dressed as Art - no mask - and his daughter dressed as the child demon from part 2 waiting to have their tickets scanned. They looked awesome! I mean, I don't know if I should be watching these, let alone a girl who probably wasn't more than 8 years old, but it is what it is and we like what we like. It's not that much different than the shit we watched at that age. 

Except... maybe it is. The practical FX here are out of this world, but the cruel depravity of these flicks gives me a bit of pause, even if I've really enjoyed seeing these last two on the big screen. In the theatre, Terrifier 2 and 3 have been some of the most immersive films I've seen in ages. There's the gore, but there's also some incredible sound design. It's as good as the practical FX, in my opinion. Plus, the colors, locations, clothes, props, and music. Paul Wiley's score is fantastic. Sick and dreamy. It all works together to make a super fun watch - even if it also kind of skeeves me out.

Dreamkid's "Chrissy" is sort of the theme of T3, and it sounded amazing on the big screen. Still not super sold on the overall sound - it's good, just a bit tough to get past the affectations for someone who grew up in that era. But again, we like what we like and I'm psyched he got his stuff in such a huge movie.




31 Days of Halloween:

Well, I pretty much said everything I wanted to about last night's viewing up above, so let's just log the list and move on.


1) The Killing of a Sacred Deer
2) The Houses October Built (2011)/Texas Chainsaw Massacre (50th-anniversary theatrical screening)
3) Loop Track
4) It's What's Inside/LONGLEGS
5) The Babysitter/Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein
6) The Hitcher/Lost Highway
7) GDT's Cabinet of Curiosities: Graveyard Rats
8) V/H/S Beyond
9) Killer Klowns from Outer Space
10) Terrifier 3




NCBD:

Man, I've been so hyped on 31 Days of Halloween that I forgot to post my comic pull yesterday. Better late than never. 


I forgot to put this one on my pull last month, so I had to have the guys order me a copy. That's fixed now; I Love these books that Lemire writes and illustrates; they have their own style and it's unlike any other. 


After the tease at the end of the last issue, I was just here for Cobra Commander (well, I was here because I read the first four issues). I was not disappointed. 


Another super solid triptych of Black Suit-era Spider-Man stories. Love it, and the editorial staff really seem to know how to choose artists whose style works super well with the color format. 
Netho Diaz, in particular, blew me away.


New arc and it's Starscream's origin? His real name is what now? This was a super cool issue. Lots of early Cybertron stuff AND a HISS tank? Oh man, we're starting to really cross the streams now...




Playlist:

Type O Negative - Bloody Kisses (Suspended in Dusk Edition)
The Final Cut - Consumed
Saigon Blue Rain - Oko
Skinny Puppy - Too Dark Park
Baroness - Stone
The Smashing Pumpkins - Gish
The Cramps - Songs the Lord Taught Us
The Cramps - A Date with Elvis
Orville Peck - Pony
Various - Lost Highway OST
Boy Harsher - Careful
Dreamkid - Chrissy (single)
Dreamkid - Daggers
Dance with the Dead - Neon Cross (single)
Dance with the Dead - The Shape
The Veils - The Ladder (pre-release single)




Card:

Today's card is XIX - The Sun:


This is what I love about Aleister Crowley. From The Book of Thoth:

"This is one of the simplest of the cards; it represents Heru-ra-ha, the Lord of the New Aeon, in his manifestation to the race of men as the Sun spiritual, moral, and physical."

Simplest? Oh, of course! Heru-ra-ha. Yeah. Easy.

This is a card of epiphany. Rejoice! The answers you seek have arrived. Of course, that can also bring with it unwanted knowledge. So the dance we see is one of balance, a theme much more common in the cards than I previously realized. 

Thursday, May 19, 2022

7 Days of Ozzy - Day 5: Little Dolls

 

While posting yesterday's track, I ended up inadvertently listening to the entire Diary of a Madman album for the first time in, well, in a very long time. And I really enjoyed it, the entire record. 

This is one that kinda got beat to death in my late teens. I dated a girl for three years in/after High School who had two older sisters and they were all HUGE Ozzy fans. So much so that the oldest sister had a boyfriend who kind of modeled his life after Ozzy. His Mustang even had vanity plates that read "Im Ozzy 1" if you can believe that. Anyway, Diary was a staple of our lives, and so I guess it just became associated with that version of me and that time in my life. Nearly thirty years later, I've apparently reclaimed it, free from any nostalgia associated with that particular version of me. Which is pretty cool, to kind of hear something again, for the first time when you knew it so well to begin with. And Little Dolls was a track I don't think ever really clicked with me as being all that great, but last night, hearing it again, listening to the words and that glorious chorus, well, it felt a bit like a small, unimportant (in the grand scheme) epiphany. Which was nice.




Watch:

Another new flick hitting Shudder at the end of July. Really looking forward to this one:

 

As is my growing custom, I watched the first minute or so, got a feel for how good the cinematography and tone are and then clicked off. Trailers are increasingly frustrating pleasures that are better after you see the movie.


NCBD Addendum:

A couple things I picked up that I forgot to list or didn't expect to buy:


I still love the entire physical presence of these TMNT "Best of" Books.


A new Shaolin Cowboy book! I read the second series (I think it was the second one), back circa 2015 (I think) and loved it, so when I saw this new number one, I couldn't resist. Will also fill the void left by Orphan and the Five Beasts returns at some undisclosed time in the future, as I just re-read the first arc again, and really loved that, as well. 




Playlist:

Ozzy Osbourne - Diary of a Madman
The Mysterines - Reeling
Small Black - Moon Killer (pre-release single)




Card:


Again? Okay, so seeing this, I went to my Thoth deck to pull a clarifier. Here's what I turned:


It's a little on the nose as an interpretation, however, I take this to mean whatever it is I'm supposed to be learning or picking up on is right in front of my face. 

Wednesday, January 6, 2021

MF Doom

 

I'm way late to post a tribute to MF Doom. I love this guy, but honestly, haven't listened to him on a regular basis if at all in quite some time. One of the 'methods' to my creative process is curating (read: micromanaging) the media I consume, and just like I haven't read any of the novels Irvine Welsh has released since Skag Boys - and he's one of my favorite authors ever - I very rarely listen to Hip Hop. RTJ4 broke that mold a bit this year, and if there was ever a time I felt like I needed to step out of my own headspace and try and reconnect with the world around me, it was the summer of 2020, hence I dialed back in a lot more Public Enemy, Kendrick, etc. But a lot like Guru and his Gang Starr and Jazzmatazz, MF Doom, or perhaps more accurately, Doom and Madlib's 2004, one-time collaboration Madvillainy, I just haven't gone back there in quite some time. Doom's recent death made me revisit the record, and move beyond it to some of the stuff I missed.



READ:

I finally finished my re-read of the entire Gideon Falls series by Jeff Lemire and Andrea Sorrentino. I will say, great book, great ending, but the abstract, Twin Peaks-meets-Grant-Morrison-like premise and evolution of the book left for a slightly frustrating aftertaste. Still, really cool series and, reading it in a binge is a totally different experience than reading it monthly/yearly, as you really see how much heavy lifting Andrea Sorrentino's art does. The issues fly by at about five minutes a piece, so there's a cumulative frenzy effect after you pass the half-way point.


The art in this book really blows me away. I don't normally bond this strongly with the art in the stuff I read, but this... this really transcends a lot of what people are doing to push the medium. And while some of it is obviously influenced by and predicated on books that Grant Morrison and various artists conceived over the last 25-30 years, Mr. Sorrentino really stands on his own.




Playlist:

Steve Moore - Bliss OST
Blut Aus Nord - Memoria Vetusta: Saturnarian Poetry
The Used - Vulnerable
Turquoise Moon - The Sunset City
Cocksure - TVMALSV
Drab Majesty - The Demonstration




Card:

Illumination. 

This really feels like where I'm at in this particular moment. The best thing I've done in a while was take yesterday off work. I filed the Copyright for Murder Virus, got Jonathan Grimm the specs to do the art (and he already sent me a mock-up that far surpassed what I had in mind), and my mind and body feel rested. It's been a few weeks since I could say that.

Saturday, March 2, 2019

2019: March 2nd



I've been waiting for this documentary for a while now. Can't wait.

Hopefully going to the theatre to see this later today. I'm posting the trailer, but I haven't watched it; I want to go in blind, as I'd not even heard of it until K mentioned it two days ago.



Happy Birthday to one of my extraordinary co-hosts on The Horror Vision, Ray Larragoitiy.

It started strong, but around page 100, Alan Campbell's Sea of Ghosts became magnetic and I ca no longer put it down. The world Campbell has built, this drowned, imperial ghetto, soaked in the fall-out poverty of endless war and a desperate population, is both beautiful and affecting. There are scenes here that I visualize perfectly, in a way that makes me suspect I am seeing exactly what the author saw when he penned them. It's that vivid. HIGHLY recommended.

It's a real shame these books, the two Gravedigger Chronicles volumes Mr. Campbell published earlier this decade, didn't find their audience. I just ordered the second volume, The Art of Hunting, from a bookseller on Ebay. I worked at Borders for five years from 2006 to 2011. We received and sold all three main volumes of Campbell's Deepgate Codex series, but I remember we never received Sea of Ghosts in 2011 when it was originally published. Honestly, I'm not even certain the Gravedigger books were available in America. Tor is the publisher, and in crawling around online, trying to catch up with Campbell's been doing these last few years, I've seen on his facebook that apparently there is a third volume ready for print but Tor wouldn't invest in it because the first two volumes didn't sell well. To that I say, Did you fucking market them at all? Because as a fan, I've had to scratch and claw for every bit of information I've garnered about these books since their inception, and even on Amazon they fetch an insane aftermarket price. So no, I'd say you did not. I hold out hope someone will give this book and any future projects Mr. Campbell has up his sleeve a home, because he is an exceptional writer. This is the kind of Fantasy we need, not more Knights and Dragons.



Playlist from 2/28:

The Cure - Pornography
The Cure - Faith/Carnage Visors (Side B)
Deafheaven - Black Brick
Deafheaven - Ordinary Corrupt Human Love
Firewater - The Ponzi Scheme
Deafheaven - New Bermuda

Playlist from 3/01:
Wasted Theory - Warlords of the New Electric
Baroness - Purple
Ritual Howls - Turkish Leather
Budapest Festival Orchestra - Igor Stravinsky: The Firebird Suite
Budapest Festival Orchestra - Igor Stravinsky: Petrushka
Cocksure - K.K.E.P.
Firewater - The Ponzi Scheme
Deafheaven - Black Brick
Deafheaven - Ordinary Corrupt Human Love
Deafheaven - New Bermuda

Card of the day:


Epiphany. Good. I'm posting this, tearing Sea of Ghosts from my hands and digging in to work on my own book, which is coming along swimmingly.