X's For Eyes... And That's All

 

I have always carried a torch for a handful of songs from the Phil Collins/80s Genesis catalogue. I know, I know... I don't care. These songs are in my DNA from early life exposure. Also, weirdly enough, a lot of comic book memories are attached to some of them, this one in particular. Not necessarily specific issues, but eras.

The year Tonight, Tonight, Tonight came out - 1986 - was the year I first started reading comics on a regular basis with Larry Hama's G.I.Joe issue #49. The same year, this song appeared in a Michelob television commercial. Something about that commercial primed me to be both a Ministry fan and a Bret Easton Ellis fan, though it's difficult to explain the latter half of that statement. (Ministry's Everyday is Halloween would score a - get this - Old Style Dry commercial, just two years later. My memory so clearly stated it was a Bud Dry commercial that I would have put money on it. Also, who remembered that Old Style had a "Dry" beer? Not me, and probably not Dennis Farina, either. I mean, if he was still alive...)

---

---

---

Play:

The New Puppet Combo game Stay Out of the House drops June 16th! I've already pre-ordered my copy for Switch. Why? Check out this gnarly trailer:

Oh man, I need to double-down on No One Lives Under the Lighthouse, which I played the hell out of for the first week and a half and then haven't really had time for since.             

---

---

---

Read:

Blew through Laird Barron's third Isaiah Coleridge novel, Worse Angels and, exactly as instinct suggested, it went from a 4-star to a 5-star rating simply because I did not reread Black Mountain (Bk 2) first. Love this series, and it's put me in mind of tracing some of the recurring characters, so the instant I finished it, I picked up Barron's 2015 novella X's for Eyes.         

I've only read this particular Barron book once before when it first came out, and it's not a Coleridge novel, however, Tom Mandibole makes an appearance, and since he is a major force in Worse Angels, I really wanted to work backward on his character. The first memory I have of him is "More Dark," the closing story in Barron's 2013 The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All collection, where - in my mind at least - it's heavily implied he is a riff on author Thomas Ligotti. I read Barron's work as it's released, and in the past, I haven't kept notes, so I'm hazy on where and how often Mandibole has appeared. Hence the 'working backward.' At any rate, Mandibole shows up in the first two pages of X's For Eyes, as does Sword Industries, the Labrador family and who knows what else. So I'm in the right place until The Wind Began to Howl (Coleridge Bk 3.5) arrives.

 

---

---

---

Playlist:

Lustmord - Berlin

Low - Double Negative

Ganser - Odd Talk

Les Discrets - Prédateurs

Godflesh - Post Self

Danzig - Danzig III: How the Gods Kill

Alice in Chains - Sap EP

Soundgarden - Superunknown

Huey Lewis and the News - Sports

Phil Collins/Genesis - Collins. Phil Collins. Playlist

Pastor T.L. Barrett & the Youth for Christ Choir - Like a Ship (Without a Sail)

Ministry - Moral Hygiene

Yeruselem - The Sublime

Pigface - Pigface Live 2019 vinyl

            

---

---

---

Card:

Heading to Chicago today, so here's a card from Missi's Raven Deck to see me on my way and plot the course of the trip:

Things change; long-standing certainties switch polarity. Life is change, so embrace change. Kill. Your. Darlings.

 

---

---

---

November Walks at Dusk

Monday night was the first night I came home from work since the clocks went back. I'd gotten out late, and by the time I arrived home, the sky was already beginning to darken. K was still at work, so I threw on my headphones and took a nice long walk into the Dusk and listened to Yob for the first time. I mean, I'd given a song or two a whirl before, but the music hadn't really made an impact on me then, for whatever reason. This time though, I began with a song a friend recommended - Marrow, the final track on 2014's Clearing the Path to Ascend - and the timing couldn't have been better. Perfect.

---

---

---

NCBD

A lot of good stuff this week!

And yes, even the final issue of Batman/The Maxx: Arkham Dreams! 

---

---

---

Playlist:

The Velvet Underground and Nico - Eponymous

Meg Myers - Sorry

Naked Raygun - Basement Screams

Yob - Clearing the Path to Ascend

Kevin Ayers - The Confessions of Dr. Dream and Other Stories

Pink Floyd - Piper at the Gates of Dawn

New chapter in the Bret Easton Ellis serialized novel landed this week, and things are really beginning to get creepy. I'm really loving this as an addition to an already great podcast! Ellis' Podcast Patreon is HERE. In looking for an image to post, I found THIS insane little tidbit from a few months back. Ellis and Irvine Welsh writing a series together? YES PLEASE!

Also found out a friend of mine has been doing a BRILLIANT Quarantine Podcast called Cabin Fever. It began back in April, when all this was still fresh, and it's interesting to go back and hear other people's experiences as "essential" or "non-essential," and how either distinction affects their lives and the lives of the people around them. The cast covers everything: how they spend their days, how their roles have suddenly changed, what they're watching, insights into COVID, work, life, etc. It's all good stuff, and I've grown quite fond very quickly. Cabin Fever is up on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, here's widget:

---

---

---

Card:

Full disclosure: This post is scheduled to auto-post at 12:01 AM on Wednesday, October 4th. I'm writing this section, and thus drawing the card below, at 6:21 PM Tuesday, October 3rd. I have not checked in on the election all day other than one small peek at about 9:00 AM. What was the card I was hoping for when I did my draw this morning, saw it was addressing the election and thus, prompted me to draw two clarifying cards? This one, which I just drew from the Raven deck after a rigorous shuffle:

By the time you read this, maybe the results will be in. Maybe this will be erroneous, a moot point. Or maybe, the old guard will have, as indicated by the guard, imploded. One can hope.

Isolation: Day 154 Darling 666

 Holy cow! Dorthia from Windhand has a new band with Gina Gleason from Baroness? Count me in!

**

I was pleasantly surprised by not one but two movies yesterday. First up, We Summon the Darkness, which I'd originally blogged about my plans to rent a few months back when it first premiered on VOD. That never ended up happening, and the flick fell off my radar until Jonathan Grimm alerted me to the fact that it hit Netflix recently.

 

 This flick is 100% worth your time. I loved it; yes I saw a big WTF moment coming a mile away, but I think the filmmakers knew most folks would and added an extra little twist that I did not. Plus, who cares about twists when the characters, setting, mood, and overall layout of the film is this fun. We Summon the Darkness is a really good time that doesn't take itself too serious and knows how to get down and dirty in the mud and blood with Satan!

Next up, Host on Shudder. This is a 56 minute flick that was filmed during COVID shelter-in-place on Zoom. 

Yes, that's right. On Zoom. I know what you're thinking; stop thinking it. This one's scary as hell and quite a good time.

Granted, I watched Host in my ideal setting: alone, stoned, with all the lights off and totally focused on the film. It's 56 minute runtime helped in that, because these days an uninterrupted movie is almost an impossibility. 

**

Playlist:

Santogold - Eponymous

Perturbator - Dangerous Days

JK Flesh - Depersonalization

X- Under the Big Black Sun

X - Los Angeles

Dead Swords - Enders

Iress - Prey

Iress - Flaw (pre-release singles)

Card:

Back to the Raven Deck for this morning's Pull:

Old rules reassessed and rewritten? Or get off your lazy ass? I did a fair amount of work getting back into the sequels for Shadow Play over this past weekend. Not a lot of writing; mostly digging in and re-reading the bible for the series, plus the copious amount of notes I have on it. Feels good. That said, the Tower pops up to remind me that although I told myself I would send a query letter a day, it's been at least three days since I actually have, so I need to get back on that ASAP.

Ghost - 7" of Satanic Panic!

Ghost released two new tracks last week. At first listen, I'll be honest and say I wrinkled my nose a bit. After a few more, I've come around a bit. I get the campy 70s thing, I just don't particularly care for it. Still, new Ghost is always something to look forward to. However, now I'm curious. Since the second record, Ghost's M.O. has been an album every two years, with an E.P. in-between. Do the two tracks released as "Seven Inches of Satanic Panic" constitute the entire release, or is there more still to come?

**

In keeping with the theme, I watched Chelsea Stardust's Satanic Panic last night. Solid horror comedy, with some very bizarre scenes. Watch Rebecca Romijn read recently excavated intestines was fantastic, and I'm always happy to see AJ Bowen.



**

A new episode of The Horror Vision went up Saturday. Featured film is Richard Stanley's Hardware, but we hit all kinds of stuff, from Wes Craven's original The Hills Have Eyes, to Mindhunter Season Two, to the theatrical release of Ari Aster's Midsummer.

Check it out:

The Horror Vision on Apple

The Horror Vision on Spotify

The Horror Vision on Google Play

**

Playlist from the last few days:

Pixies - Head Carrier
Ghost - Seven Inches of Satanic Panic
Ghost - Prequelle
Twin Temple - Twin Temple (Bring You Their Signature Sound... Satanic Doo-Wop)

**

Card of the day:

Change. This is good. I've been so stressed out from work lately, I'm having night terrors. First time for that, and it's pretty fucked up. Also, my diet is not what I want it to be, and I need to change that; I've developed a running fear of heart attacks due to the stress and the amount of red meat I've been eating. Change won't be easy though, because having K's mother live with us means for the last year and some change and continuing forward, there's a lot of food in the house I would normally not buy. I need to figure out a way to topple this current paradigm. I also need to get back to my breathing exercises and meditation, which, after a good start, went out the window with my Chicago trip. First part of the battle though, is recognizing what needs to Change.

Read my books: Shadow Play Book One: Kim & Jessie • A Collection of Desires: 7 Tales of Modern Horror

2019: July 11th Nicolas Winding Refn Interview

Frank Black Appreciation Week continues here with probably my second favorite all-time Frank Black-related track, from the first Grand Duchy album, Petite Fours. With its men in black, government UFO cover-up vibe, this track always reminds me of a sequel to Space (I Believe In), from The Pixies Trompe Le Monde. Listen to Black's voice on those refrains - soul searing. I love everything about this and the album it's on.

**

After Stranger Things 3, K and I slipped back into episode two of Nicolas Winding Refn's bleak-as-all-holy-fuck Neo LA Noir, Too Old To Die Young. This show! It seems to me the second episode will be the firewall - anyone not in NWR will give up halfway through. Others will revel in the slow, contemplative nature of this hour-and-thirty-seven-minutes of a film maker drinking his setting and characters for tone and nuance. It's a fantastic piece of filmmaking and actually built up enough momentum that I had to force myself not to drift straight into the next episode, primarily because it was already past my bedtime.

Here's an interview with Refn; I'm leaving this here but not watching it until after we finish the series, just in case there are spoilers.



**

Ghost added a lyric video for Faith, my favorite track from last year's Prequelle record. I'm not usually into lyric videos, but this is pretty cool. Also, if the band's previous protocols are still in place, by my calculation we should be getting an EP from these guys any time now.



**

Playlist from 7/10:

Low - Trust
Tennis System - Shelf Life (Pre-release Single)
Tennis System - Pain EP
Joan Jett and the Blackhearts - Up Your Alley
Judas Priest - Screaming for Vengeance
David Bowie - Heroes
Drab Majesty - Careless
Judas Priest - Firepower
Johhny Marr - Call the Comet
Balthazar - Fever
Zonal - Eponymous (Pre-release Single)
Ned's Atomic Dustbin - Godfodder
Frank Black and the Catholics - Pistolero
Ritual Howls - Rendered Armor

**

Card of the day:

Paradigm shift. Not 100% on how this fits into my life at the moment; as usual, my inherent reaction is to read it as regarding my writing. Currently unable to mop up two things because of a hanging third. Does this say leave that third behind? Switch gears? Maybe, but an open loop is an open loop, especially when it comes to 'solving' something you've invested a lot of time and creative energy into.

2018: August 2nd

In just two days of sporadic listening, and after an initial and unfair dismissal upon its release earlier this year, The Body's I Have Fought Against It, But I Can't Any Longer is shaping up to be in my top ten if not top five of 2018. This is a POWERHOUSE of an album, and

The new and final of my Drinking, Fighting, F*&king, and Crying installments is up HERE - I'm hoping my fellow writers at Joup jump on this column and make it their own. It probably will no longer be a regular publication, but irregular's just as good.

Playlist from Wednesday, 8/01:

Shockwaves Podcast 104 - Paul Tremblay
Tennis System - Pain
Cold Cave - Cherish the Light Years
Johnny Marr - Call the Comet
The Body - I Have Fought Against It, But I Can't Any Longer
Ministry - Dark Side of the Spoon
Jenny Lewis - Acid Tongue
The Veils - Total Depravity

Card of the day:

This was apparently my friend Missi's pull today too. I don't have time to decode right now, but it's interesting we both received it.