James Gunn's Superman

 

I've really been 'feeling' CDs lately. I think January/February always inspires me to return to a state of mind that reaches through time and connects to the mid-to-late 00s, when the internet was amazing, and the world hadn't yet shifted into a post-apocalyptic paradigm.

At the time, shortly before I moved from Chicago to Los Angeles, I was finishing up years of playing in bands and gigging pretty regularly. I met a lot of bands this way, and one of the fiercest was Amherst, Massachusetts' Read Yellow. 

I either saw or opened for these guys at Chicago's Fireside Bowl. Read Yellow had a big, noisy sound slightly reminiscent of Sonic Youth, but that comparison sells Read Yellow short. This band has such energy! When you exist for an extended length of time inside a live indie circuit, one thing you often find - and it definitely plagued a band or two of my own -  some bands who have fireball energy live don't always find a way to translate that to a recording.

NOT the case here.

Although Read Yellow broke up years ago (I just double-checked), their website is still up, which definitely suggests someone in the group understands the need to keep their flame burning, even dimly, for future generations to find.

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NCBD:

BIG week this week at the comic shop. 

This cover says it all! Looking ahead on this book's solicitations, Kirkman is building something epic with Megatron. The increased focus on his volatile madness we've seen over the last few issues is about to burst, and it should make for some awesome reading along the way. Also, I'm still just blown away by Thundercracker defecting to the Autobots. So cool!

A Lovecraft adaptation in mini-series form, it's been a couple of years since I read the original short story, The Thing on the Doorstep, but I'm really interested in how it will translate here, maybe because we never did get that Richard Stanley cinematic version he talked about doing after The Color Out of Space.

Having just caught back up on this book and found Splinter resurrected, I'm very curious how this is going to play out. On the surface, I don't love the idea of long-dead characters coming back from the dead, but I'm willing to give Turtles the benefit of the doubt. 

Ever wanted to see a priest kick the Mafia's ass? This is the book for you! Loved the first issue, can't wait to dig into number two!

Larry Hama's GIJOE: A Real American Hero hits another milestone, and to celebrate, he's apparently introducing two new Joes! Being that we're free and clear of toy tie-ins, unless Classified wants to take a nod from Hama, I'm pretty intrigued. What would two new Joes in 2026 look like? We'll find out today!

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Watch:

As I alluded to in Monday's post, my ventures into the DC Absolute universe have dovetailed with something... else. Let me explain.

This past Sunday, I woke up feeling burnt out. Reading a Substack newsletter from John Pavlovitz about the absolutely blatant racism of the *ahem* superbowl halftime alternative cooked up by magacunts and kid rock,* I found myself overwhelmed again by the "We can't fix this" mantra that has pretty much played on a steady loop in my subconscious since 2018. I don't doom scroll; I don't really 'scroll' all that much at all anymore, but what I have been doing is looking through the various newsletters I receive in my email. I happened on a new one from Grant Morrison's Xanaduum, and falling into the prosiac embrace of a man whose writing I was once obsessed with, I felt the urge to walk over to the bookshelf and pick up his 2011 treatise on Super Heroes as hopeful, psychological antibodies for the modern disaster.

Not looking to add yet another book to the "currently" or even "soon to be" reading piles, instead, I re-read the introduction and was reminded why Morrison once spoke so strongly to me. The bomb had begun as an idea and humanity had worked to give it material form. So too, could another idea - one infinitely more powerful than a mere bomb - be conjured into our lives to stave off the destructive potential assailing us?

Being that Morrison wrote about this way back in 2011 - when things were infinitely less F*cked than they are now - I had to ask myself, might I not need something like this now? Might I not benefit from exposure to something all-powerful and brimming with, of all things, hope?

It was with that in mind that I hit play on James Gunn's Superman laster that day.

 

All I can say is, always happy to be proven wrong.

In my defense, I have long answered the friends who assured me this film was great and that I was missing out with a patented, "I know it's great, I just don't care." So I simply reached a point in my lfie when I do care, and the film definitely worked its magic on me. 

My good friend Chris Saunders asked me to elaborate what I liked about the film and I rattled off the following list:

- That Nick Hoult's Lex Luthor was clearly designed to look like Grant Morrison was the film's evil doer

- That Coresweat somehow managed to avoid all the stupid foibles all other good-natured attempts at Supes have fallen prey to (from what I saw in Snyder's Batman V. Superman, his wasn't good-natured or cloddish, he (and Snyder) just had too much to prove by taking the chacter dark.

- That Rachel Brosnahan was born to play the role of Lois Lane

- That Gunn cast Wendell Pierce as Perry White

- That Edi Gathegi's Mr. Terrific stole every scene he was in

- That Nathan Fillion's Guy Gardner cut and attitude were spot on

- That Pruitt Taylor Vince played Pa Kent

- The Monkeys!

- "Thanks, bitch!"

Honestly, I'm shocked how much I liked this, but I'm not sure why. Apparently, my love of James Gunn far outweighs my detestation of Superman as a character. 

For more, Mike and I discuss the film at length in the latest episode of Drinking with Comics, which I'll embed here in a few hours when it posts to youtube.

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* So proud that my long-time friend Cap'm Jack once cut KR's tires in a Michigan venue parking lot! I loved that story at the time - back when this cunt was first getting national exposure - but I love it even more now.

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Playlist:

Mountain Realm - Stoneharrow

Drab Majesty - Careless

Mr. Bungle - California

Mr. Bungle - Disco Volante

Mr. Bungle - Eponymous

The Dillinger Escape Plan - Calculating Infinity

Pixies - Surfer Rosa

Me and That Man - New Man, New Songs, Same Shit, Vol.1 

Mountain Realm - Rustborn

Mountain Realm - Frostfall

Atrium Carceri - Kapnobatai

David Lee Roth - Crazy from the Heat EP

David Lee Roth - A Little Ain't Enough

Helmet - Aftertaste

Blut Aus Nord - Ethereal Horizons

Corrosion of Conformity - Deliverance

sunn O))) - Glory Black (pre-release single)

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

• XVII: The Star

• XX: The Aeon

• XXI: The Universe

The reason I waited to discuss this was so I could have already talked about James Gunn's Superman, Grant Morrison's Super Gods, and this idea that I might be able to use these larger-than-life characters to help assuage the fears and neuroses. 

The Star - thinking bigger can act as cleansing. The figure on the card is literally washing themself in the rivers of cosmic confidence.

The Aeon - Pass from one ruling paradigm to another, or it's never too late to change, no matter how difficult it is. No matter how big a change it requires.

The Universe - Think macrocosmic, not microcosmic.

I'm going to pursue an interest in superheroes again - especially Superman - as a way to try and tip the scales and shake off some of the unhealthy mental 'doom plaque' that's built up since, oh, 2016. I'm going to read and enjoy in an active, not a passive manner, where I imagine the foes the super gods are fighting are the foes to the healthy world I want to inhabit, both in my head and outside the walls of my house. It might be a fool's errand, but it's what Superman would do. (since when do I say things like that? Well, maybe it's time I incorporated that kind of thinking into my life.)

You Absolutely Know More Than I Know

From John Cale's 1974 masterpiece Fear. Cale's delivery in this song is haunting - it's both sarcastic and filled with a tired sense of surrender. Feels appropriate when looking at world leadership from a private citizen's perspective.

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Read:

Somewhere around 2008 I read Stephen King and Peter Straub's The Talisman. I loved about half of that book and didn't care for the other half. No way of knowing if it was the King half I loved, but I'm guessing that, although you probably can't separate a collaboration like this into two completely self-contained 'halves,' that's probably close. Because of this, I never got around to cracking open the copy of 2011's sequel, Black House, and I just kind of forgot about these books. I love King, but I'm nowhere near what I'd call a completist with the man's work. Not because I wouldn't like to be, just because I don't have that much time in my life for his insanely prolific output!

Fast forward to last year, when I picked up a hardcover copy of The Talisman at a thrift store with the intention of sitting down for a re-read. It's not the original cover, but the 2001 edition:

Fast forward to earlier this year, and an article went around the internet where King talked about how the current book he was working on - a third and final book in the Talisman series - might be his last. Then, a few days ago, the press announcement hit for Other Worlds Than These - that third and final Talisman novel. You can read more about that over on the delightful Stephen King fan site Lilja's Library HERE. One thing King talks about here, is how this also ties up the Dark Tower's Mid-World, which King says, "...was always the Territories by another name."

Holy f*ck am I excited!!!

Apparently, although Straub passed away in 2022, the core idea of this one comes from him, and it's certainly nice to see his name on the third and final chapter. That's Stephen King, though. All around great human being. 

Also, the title for the new book comes directly from the very first Dark Tower novel, when Jake Chambers falls to his death and tells Roland, "Go then, there are other worlds than these." 

In some ways, this is one of the most influential and magical literary quotes that I've ever encountered in my life. I read The Gunslinger for the first time way back in early High School, when I found the trade paperback edition with Michael Whelan's gorgeous art in it at the school library. This was early enough in the series that I was able to go to my local public library and find Book Two: The Drawing of the Three (also with Whelan's art) and then wait with bated breath for the third book to come out about a year later. I've toyed with the idea of rereading the Dark Tower books for some time, as while I reread 1 and 2 when 3 came out and then reread 1, 2 and 3 when 4 came out, that cycle of rereading stopped when 5 came out, and I did 1, 2, 3 and 4 in preparation. Of course, due to the years-long hiatus King needfully took on the series after being struck by a car (those were dark years where many of us feared we would never get an end to the series), so 5, 6, and 7 I've only read once, as they came out. Will I have time to do that before I read Other Worlds Than These? Well... maybe. Scheduled for release on October 6, it's not out of the question. First, I'll start with The Talisman and Black House. 

This pushes a bunch of planned reading for the year back, but that's fine. This feels BIG, and I want to be in on it for the full ride, even if just to properly celebrate King and Straub's legacy.

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NCBD Addendum:

I'm sure anyone who keeps up with this page could have guessed this would happen, but I finally broke down and picked up Absolute Batman. In a true old-school maneuver, I grabbed the just-released Absolute Batman Volume 2: Abomination, choosing to jump in without the first arc's setup, much like buying comics off the stand in the 80s, before the proliferation of the write-for-the-trade paradigm. After reading this, I can say is, okay. Now I get it.

It's all about the BIG picture with this book, which is a plus for a Batman book. Nothing against the story of the week feel of the current Fraction and Jimenez run at all - that feels refreshing, too. But in my eyes, Snyder's Absolute Batman's strength seems to be building toward one big story and it has a lot of interesting elements to the setup that make me rabidly curious. 

- Pennyworth's constant references to "The War."

- Ark M as a blacksite just off the coast of Gotham, the surface-level construction hiding something dark and massive underneath. Also, the fact that this Ark M is literally "Ark: M," which I take to mean number thirteen in a proliferation of similar sites around the globe. 

- Genetically engineered snow dropped on the population to ready them for something nefarious

- Doctor Arkham turning men into monsters for purposes as yet unknown.

And of course, all that ties directly into that 16th issue that introduced this Universe's version of Joker - an ageless Billionaire with a butler, a cave beneath his mansion, and a stranglehold on the globe via economic, military and political posturing achieved over his inhumanly long life.

So yeah, reminder to self that sometimes the hype is earned. So that's two Absolute books I've converted to following in trade over the last month. Absolute WW is still the better book, but this one's intriguing as all get out, and combined they have me wondering if, despite my longstanding loathing of Superman as a character, I should check that one out as well. 

... And that 100% dovetails with something that happened to me/occurred to me shortly after typing the above paragraphs. Something I'll talk more about in Wednesday's post.

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Playlist:

Mountain Realm - Stoneharrow

Mountain Realm - Tribal Alliance

Darkswoon - Thread (single)

The Chameleons - Strange Times

Plague Bringer - As the Ghosts Collect, the Corpses Rest

(Lone) Wolf & Cub - May You Only See Sky

Canadia Rifle - Peaceful Death

Drain - ... Is Your Friend

Exhalants - Eponymous

Slow Crush - Thirst

Various - 85 Seconds Playlist

sunn O))) - Metta, Benelvolence BBC6 LIVE: At the Invitation of Mary Anne Hobbs

David Lynch & Marek Zebrowski - Polish Night Music

Mastodon - Once More 'Round the Sun

Tamaryn - The Waves

Boy Harsher - Careful

Revolting Cocks - Big Sexy Land

Tool - Ænima 

Mastodon - Blood Mountain

Swann Danger - Deep North

Au Pairs - Sense and Sensuality

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

• XVII: The Star

• XX: The Aeon

• XXI The Universe

All Major Arcana - rare for me - means BIG ideas, BIG picture, BIG everything. There are a few interesting connections I can make here, but I'm actually going to wait until Wednesday. Aaaaannnnd... I'll retake and light this picture better.

Batman and the Dead Boys

 

From the Dead Boys 1978 album, We Have Come For Your Children. Classic album, classic song. Also, talk about close to the bone - this was released less than a year after Berkowitz was arrested in August of 1978, and the fact that by '77 the Dead Boys had moved from Ohio to New York, this is a New York punk band singing about Son of Sam pretty much while it was happening.

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Watch:

Saturday night, K and I were invited to what will probably be our last screening with the crew from the Comic Bug. Owner Jun rents out a theatre for all the major comic book movies and invites a small cadre of family, friends and favorite customers. I have always felt deeply honored to be among the latter. What did we see? Why, Matt Reeves' The Batman, of course.

I would almost definitely not have seen this if not for this invite. I just feel so burned out on Batman in general. When I saw the trailer on the big screen a few months back, I had to admit the movie looked fantastic, but the thought of actually watching it held exactly zero joy for me, so I wrote it off. Was I wrong?

Well, there was more about The Batman that I liked than I disliked, so I'm glad I saw it. The film is visually arresting; it has a strong tone reinforced by a somewhat defining color palette that just works. Everything is dark AF, with lots of fluorescent red lighting thrown in to beautiful effect. There are also patches of neon throughout, and a certain embedded opulence that really serves to define the more upscale elements of Reeves' Gotham. Oh yeah, and I can honestly say this is the first Batmobile I didn't roll my eyes at (despite my adoration of Christopher Nolan's franchise, that one was pretty ridiculous).

Robert Pattison also turns in a fantastic performance. His is a perfected Batman and Bruce Wayne - despite the too-perfect bangs - that clearly had the benefit of observing and correcting what didn't work from Christian Bale's version, which I'm not knocking at all. But the newest version should learn from the previous, and Pattinson definitely owes at least a passing thanks to Bale. John Turturro was an absolutely inspired choice for Carmine Falcone, and it wasn't until after the movie when someone mentioned Colin Farrell had played the Penguin that I realized it. As tired as I find all of Batman's classic rogue's gallery, these reinventions are all great. Paul Dano went a bit overboard in some of his screen time as the Riddler - mostly in the declaration videos he baits the police with - but overall he's great, and I'm happy to report that there's not a "?" to be seen on his costume.

So what didn't I like? Well, it's just shy of three hours long, and absolutely shouldn't be. Oh, the story they ran with needs all of that time to work itself out (well, not ALL of it), but that's the thing. The story's not very good. Sure, parts of it are great, but it's written in a way that incorporated all kinds of elements it just didn't need. The script has some issues as well. There are three scenes with two people talking that go on way too long and border on irrelevant or not needed, as does some of the delivery of the lines in those scenes. Chewing the scenery, as they say.

My biggest problem? The third act. Well, felt more like the fucking tenth act by the time we got to it, and it takes the movie off the rails. What I LOVE about Reeves' The Batman is he gave us what he promised - a stripped-down, Detective story. Awesome, let's leave the semi-flips and city-wide destruction aside and see the detective side of Bats. Except - when you get to the final set-piece, it goes so big with its swathe of destruction that at times, it became laughable. 

Overall, if you brace yourself for a long three hours, this one is worth seeing on the big screen. And if you get the chance, do like I did and re-watch David Fincher's Se7en beforehand. There's a massive influence Fincher's seminal serial killer film had on Reeves' film, for the best.

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Playlist:

Firebreather - Dwell in the Fog

sElf - Breakfast with Girls

The Afghan Whigs - I'll Make You See God (single)

Sade - Apple Music Essentials

Allegaeon - Apoptosis

Beliefs - Habitat

Drab Majesty - Careless

The Ronettes - Presenting the Fabulous Ronettes

The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion - Now I Got Worry

The Ocean - Anthropocentric

Mark Lanegan - Bubblegum

Ghost - Impera (pre-release singles)

The Ocean - Mesoarchaean (single)

The Ocean - Heliocentric

The Devil's Blood - The Thousandfold Epicentre

Blanck Mass - In Ferneaux

Dead Boys - We Have Come For Your Children

Deafheaven - Infinite Granite

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Card:

Listening to inner dialogue, harmonizing renewal, which is funny consider "renewal" is a word used A LOT in The Batman. Anyway, I have felt pretty good of late, and my ideas are flowing again. 

11 Days 'till Halloween

 

Time to break out the MLWTTKK. While Confessions of a Knife is my go-to from them, the first album is pretty rad as well, and nothing on it lights my fire like this track.

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31 Days of Halloween:

1) Tales of Halloween: Sweet Tooth/The Wolf Man (1941)

2) From Beyond/Monsterland: Port Fourchon, Louisiana/Tales of Halloween: The Night Billy Raised Hell/Tales of Halloween: Trick

3) Mulholland Drive/Creepshow (1982): The Crate

4) Waxwork

5) Synchronic/Bad Hair

6) Dolls

7) Lovecraft Country Ep. 8/Tales of Halloween: The Weak and the Wicken/Tales of Halloween: The Grim Grinning Ghost

8) 976-Evil

9) Repo! The Genetic Opera

10) Firestarter/George A. Romero's Bruiser

11) The Haunting of Bly Manor episodes 1 & 2/Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2

12) The Haunting of Bly Manor episodes 3, 4, and 5/House of 1000 Corpses

13) Masque of the Red Death/Creepshow (2019) Episode 7/Creepshow (1982)

14) The Haunting of Bly Manor episodes 6 and 7

15) The Haunting of Bly Manor episodes 8 and 9/Roseanne (88) season 2 and 3 Halloween Episodes

16) The Mortuary Collection/Roseanne (88) season 4 Halloween Episode

17) Ginger Snaps Back: The Beginning

18) Lovecraft Country episode 9/The Haunting/Roseanne (88) season 5 Halloween Episode

19) Lovecraft Country episode 10/Tales From the Crypt season 1 ep. 5 Love Come Hack to Me

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Playlist:

My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult - Confessions of a Knife

Fields of the Nephilim - Elizium

Geraldine Fibbers - Butch

Naked Raygun - Basement Screams

Mrs. Piss - Self-Surgery

Type O Negative - Dead Again

Type O Negative - Origin of the Feces

Alice in Chains - Dirt

My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult - I see Good Spirits, I See Bad

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Card:

More inspiration, most likely from a larger-than-life source.

Isolation: Day 43 - Perturbator Hard Wired

There's a bunch of new music I could post, but I've been re-infatuated with Dangerous Days as we - hopefully - edge closer to a new Perturbator record. One that, according to the man himself, will not sound like this. I'm cool with that. Can't wait.

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I inadvertently began a Phantasm series rewatch yesterday. I've been working shortened hours, 6-12, so I get home and put a flick on the tube, something I've seen before so if I nod out during it won't be a big deal. I went with the 2018 Joe Bob Briggs Christmas presentation of Phantasm yesterday. This was a marathon of all the movies but Part Two, which JBB boycotts due to the destruction of a Hemi Cuda during the making of. I'm not a car guy, but fine. Anyway, I slept through some of Phantasm, which was actually pretty cool, as the film's creepy dream logic bored into my REM and made for an almost interactive napping experience. I woke for the end, immediately threw on my disc of Part Two, then made it most of the way through Three - which if I've ever seen I forgot most of - and intend on finishing the rest today. Before the return of Joe Bob tonight on Shudder! I'm not super psyched about the first movie or the co-host, but hopefully the second film he picks will be a winner, and hell, it's Joe Bob!

BTW - I absolutely ADORE Phantastm II and III.



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Playlist:

Brand New - Daisy
Brand New - God and the Devil are Raging Inside Me
The Temptations - Cloud Nine
Various - Motown Deep Cuts (Apple Music Playlist)
Zombi - Shape Shift
Code Orange - Underneath
White Lung - Paradise
Steve Moore - VFW OST
Spotlights - We Are All Atomic EP
Doves - Lost Sides
Doves - Lost Souls
Lustmord - Things That Were 1980-1983
Pigface - Fook
My Morning Jacket - Z
Diana Ross and the Supremes - Love Child
Allegaeon - Apoptosis
Perturbator - Night Driving Avenger EP
Friendly Fires - Pala
Jawbox - For Your Own Special Sweetheart
Deftones - White Pony
Deth Crux - Mutant Flesh
Brand New - Science Fiction
John Zorn - Taboo and Exile
Perturbator - Dangerous Days

Card:

Last three days (because I pull every day, even if I don't post):

Wednesday:

Thursday:

Today:

I've had a lot of major influence over the last few weeks. A lot of Arcana and Court cards. Makes perfect sense, especially combined with the 7 of Swords Futility here, as being moved around by forces beyond our control can either make us feel manipulated and frustrated or empowered and ecstatic. And of late, we are all caught up in some pretty heavy, Macro shit that forces us to do or not do things based on variables we cannot control.

Mindful Habitation: Don't know what to believe anymore? The increasingly Orwellian nature of our Reality - where the State defines Reality - is the most frustrating and downright terrifying thing I have ever experienced. Don't know who or what to believe? Unplug the major News outlets and follow the impartial Science.

Me and That Man - On The Road

Holy cow. A good friend sent me a link to this 2017 album Songs of Love and Death by Me and That Man. Dark, fuzzy, gothic country, this entire album is fantastic. I know nothing about this band, but this album hits a perfect harmonic with the new Federale and a few other albums I've had on heavy rotation lately, most of which I'll get to posting from in the next few days.

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Last night K and I went to the theatre to see Mike Flanagan's adaptation of Stephen King's Doctor Sleep.

The best cinematic sequel ever.

Honestly, I miss spoke above, because Flanagan - who I now think might be the greatest living modern horror director - has made a film that is a sequel to both King's book and Stanley Kubrick's film The Shining, which are two very different entities. There's an article in the most recent Fangoria Magazine where Flanagan talks about how he approached this, and all I can say is, he hit it out of the park. Doctor Sleep is also a very tight adaptation of the novel, so it has the dual quality of feeling like a novel first, and a movie second. In other words, the three-act structure moviegoers have unconsciously come to expect is there, but in an over-arching way. The way the individual scenes are woven together, moving back and forth seamlessly between characters, events, and places, feels literary, as though you're plowing through sections or chapters in a book.

I loved Doctor Sleep when I read the novel back around the time it came out - many thanks to Mr. Brown for mailing me his copy just to be sure I read it, as our love for both King's book and Kubrick's film goes back a looooong way. And now I love the film. Win-win.




Playlist from 11/08:

Federale - No Justice
Billy Idol - Greatest Hits
Black Pumas - Eponymous
TVOTR - Return to Cookie Mountain
Revocation - Teratogenesis EP
Sunn O))) - Life Metal
John Coltrane - Coltrane's Sound

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Card of the day:

Balance and harmony; coherence and the intuition of a guiding light. I think so. Tonight we're doing a Horror Vision taping and I'll be premiering the finished version of this story I've been working off-and-on for over a year now to five people by reading it out loud. As Cap'm says, Proof is in the Pudding.

2019: March 28th: Helms Alee - Spider Jar

This new track from Helms Alee popped up in my youtube feed via Sargent House's channel. Wow. I know nothing of this band, but that changes today. From the forthcoming Noctiluca, out on Sargent House April 26th. Pre-order HERE.

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Shadow Play Book One: Kim & Jessie is finished. Well, the writing part. I spent a good four hours over the last two days tweaking the layout in Scrivener and Veullum, and it's almost right, but not quite. It looks like I'll be spending all day Friday watching 'how-to' videos for both programs, trying to dial in those last little nuances. Oh yeah, I've also secured my all-important First Reader! Thank You, Missi!

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If you're anywhere near my age - 43 - you remember a time before the Internet, when television required what we now refer to as Event Viewing. I'm not going to say that was necessarily better, but it's funny that, as we get further and further into the paradigm where we control the viewing experience 100% in most cases, there's still those of us who nostalgically long for an occasional movie or show to call the shots. I wouldn't want everything to revert to that paradigm because, hey, I'm freakin' busy, as I'm sure you are. But it's nice to have an event to look forward to every now and again. Shudder knows this. Joe Bob Briggs knows this. That's why, I am excited as all hell for tomorrow night and the inaugural Joe Bob Briggs The Last Drive In weekly Double Feature! I have no idea what JBB is showing, nor do I care. All that matters is that he is hosting.



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Playlist from 3/27:

Bonobo - The North Borders
The National - You Had Your Soul With You (Pre-release Single)
The National - Trouble Will Find Me
Brand New - Science Fiction
Windhand - Eternal Return
White Lung - Eponymous
Tamaryn - The Waves

Card of the day:

Balance and Harmony. The imagery on this card, perhaps more than any other in the deck, instills in my chest a calm and peaceful feeling. The Star sifts the cosmic waters of the Universe, which in a way, is what artists do. I feel good. I feel on track.

2019: January 1st

I've been hitting the Calexico pretty hard since Mr. Brown gifted me that Twentieth Anniversary vinyl edition of The Black Light. Their 2001 album Even Sure Things Fall Through still holds its place as my favorite record by the band, opening its sonic maw and swallowing me multiple times yesterday morning, a nice ending to 2018 that should help me segue into a peaceful and creative 2019.

2019, eh? Insert trite colloquialism about how fast the hands of the clock move here.

I finished 2018 reading the eldritch horrors of August Derleth, only to began 2019 reading about the real-life horrors of hatred in Christian Picciolini's autobiography White American Youth, a memoir of a youth spent organizing racial hatred in America and how the author escaped before it was too late.

I can't put this book down. Picciolini's  raw, unpleasant accounts are sociologically fascinating, but also enlightening in a true WTF way, as his accounts of places I know in the city I grew up in pave the way for my own personal realization to the dark underbelly of a burgeoning national hate movement in 90s Southside Chicago. A movement that was happening parallel to my own group of friends and our interest in Chicago punk rock. I didn't know Picciolini, but he was something of a boogey man in my youth. The skinhead thug brother-in-law of a high school friend whose house we partied at pretty much 24/7 Junior year, there was always frightened whisperings that while we filled my friend's two-level home with bong smoke, Picciolini might show up at any moment with a Buick of skinheads bent on kicking our scrawny asses for 'polluting our precious white bodies with drugs from the inner city.' The book and Picciolini's evolution out of the skinhead movement, his formation of the non-profit organization Life After Hate and its dedication to fighting racism, were a total surprise to me; Mr. Brown sent me a copy of the book last March, the first I'd heard Christian's name in twenty-five years.

I've begun and discarded several television shows recently; FX's Legion came highly recommended, but after four over-wrought episodes, ultimately just annoyed me. And the SyFy adaptation of Grant Morrison and Darick Robertson's Happy proved to be the funniest thing I've seen in yeaaaars for two episodes and then just kind of left me uninterested (I may go back to it; it's that funny). Finally K and I went back to Channel Zero: Candle Cove. We started this one before we left for Chicago and then kind of forgot about it. While there's some rough edges to the overall presentation, conceptually Candle Cove is right up my alley, and I'm eager to wrap up this first season and see how good the Anthology series becomes as popularity increases and, reciprocally, so does the show's budget.

Here's a clip of the titular phantom kid's show that runs through the first season storyline of Channel Zero; something about the close-up superimpositions of the character's faces freaks me right the fuck out:



Oh wow, and I almost forgot. Last night I realized for the first time that May 2019 brings another Laird Barron Isaiah Coleridge novel! The new literally made my New Year's Eve! You can pre-order Black Mountain here.

Playlist from 12/31:

Calexico - Even Sure Things Fall Through
Mark Ronson - Version
Perturbator - The Uncanny Valley
Graham Reznick - Robophasia
Iggy Pop - The Idiot
Alice in Chains - Rainier Fog
Anthrax - Persistence of Time
Bohren & Der Club of Gore - Sunset Mission

Card of the year:

Interestingly enough, both K and I received the same card. Spiritually aligned. The big idea here is the saving of money (both pulls of XVII were preceded by Princess of Swords, as if to help direct the reading). To quote from a source, "Make your plans for the future and risk a new beginning in which you set long-term goals."

2018: November 3rd - New Music from Chasms

One of my favorite live shows I saw in 2017 was Ritual Howls at the Echoplex. The show was fantastic, not just because the Howls absolutely killed it live, but because opening band Chasms - who I'd not heard at the time - held me mesmerized for the entirety of their set. The ethereal quality of Sky Madden and Jess Labrador's music stops time, transfixing moments into a fluidic-like substance that bubbles up around you in colors as you stand and stare at a stage that ceases to be a stage and instead becomes a portal.

Highly recommended live.

According to Chasms Bandcamp, this is the final track of their current shoegaze/industrial sound and a closing chapter on their time in the Bay Area. The band has relocated to Los Angeles (yah!), and 2019 will see the release of a new record on Felte. I can't wait.

Thanks to Kristen Renee Gorlitz - whose Kickstarter for her Zombie Romance comic The Empties, and who will be the guest on next Friday's Drinking with Comics, which streams live on the DwC facebook page - I've found an awesome new project on Kickstarter I just backed. The Murder Balloon! Check this out:



Four days left, so if like me, you love the idea of a vengeful clown inventing a Murder Balloon, click HERE and drop some $$$ - the rewards are worth it!

Playlist for 11/02:

Tones on Tail - Everything
The Ocean - Phanerozoic I: Palaeozoic
Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats - Wasteland
The Chameleons UK - Strange Times
Queens of the Stone Age - Villains
Alice in Chains - Rainier Fog
Blut Aus Nord - Memorial Vetusta III (Saturnian Poetry)
Chasms - Divine Illusion (Single)
Chasms - On The Legs of Love Purified

Card of the day:

My favorite card, the number 17, a beautiful portrait of the cosmos and the idea of ebb and flow, balance and harmony, and a guiding light. Reminds me that although last night I had appeared to write myself into a nasty little corner, this morning in the shower I thought my way out of it rather easily. Looks like she's bathing, right? I've come to suspect this card surfaces when I do my best problem solving, which is almost always in the morning, in the shower.

2018: October 21st

31 Days of Horror continued last night with yet another viewing of Panos Cosmatos's Mandy. Also, finished Mike Flanagan's The Haunting of Hill House. Pretty damn tight. Being that this is a series, and they do kind of set it up for another season, I'll be curious to see where it goes.


10/01) Summer of 84
10/02) Rope
10/03) Dreams in the Witch House
10/04) Crash
10/05) The Fly
10/06) Re-animator
10/07) Night of the Demons
10/08) Species
10/09) The Roost
10/10) The Convent
10/11) Killer Klowns from Outer Space
10/12) George A. Romero's Day of the Dead
10/13) George A. Romero's Land of the Dead
10/14) The Apostle
10/15) Phantom of the Paradise
10/16) Candyman
10/17) Ghoulies
10/18) John Carpenter's Halloween

10/19) Halloween
10/20) Mandy

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds tonight. Can't wait! I've seen Cave solo and with Grinderman, never with the Bad Seeds. Not happy it's at The Forum, but we do what we must.

Saw the trailer for The Invitation director Karyn Kusama's new film, Destroyer. Looks fantastic, and Nicole Kidman looks as though she puts in the performance of her life.



Playlist from 10/20:

Windhand - Eternal Return
Black Sabbath - Volume 4
Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats - Wasteland
Second Still - Eponymous
Bauhaus - In the Flat Field
Perturbator - The Uncanny Valley
Boards of Canada - Tomorrow's Harvest

Card of the day:

Still one of my favorite cards. From the Grimoire, "Create within yourself a Universe."

2018: July 29th

About a month ago I put Ministry's Dark Side of the Spoon in my car with the intention of finally getting to know it as an album. I've been a Ministry fan since just after Psalm 69: The Way to Succeed and the Way to Suck Eggs came out in 1992. The Mind is a Terrible Thing To Taste will probably always remain my favorite release, line-up, and era for the band, but I stuck with them fiercely through all the changes over the years. Where some folks I knew turned away from them after Psalm, I loved Filth Pig from day one, and although I fell off briefly with Spoon, when Animositisomina hit as the follow-up, I was right back in the fold and remained there until recently. I still dig what Uncle Al does musically, I've just become less interested in following it.

At some point in the last five or six years I found a used copy of Spoon at Amoeba and figured, what the hell? But still, that grand discovery never followed. Recently that changed, and Eureka Pile is, to my ears, one of the stand-out tracks. Above is a video I found while looking for the song on youtube; I'd never come across Chemical Traces' work before, but I'm intrigued. With its labored lope and lackadaisical drawl, this is a hard song to do a video to and keep it interesting, and CT pulls it off. Also, the work is deeply personal, and that makes it doubly effective. I'm interested to see more of their work. Looking at their artist's page on Youtube I see a lot of what I'm interested in here, so I'll probably be posting some more of Chemical Traces' work here in the future.

Into the last third of Norman Mailer's The Deer Park. If you're a fan of literary prose, specifically very Fitzgerald-esque literary prose, this novel should go on your list. It drifts a bit in the middle, but I'm enjoying this walk through 1950's McCarthyism Hollywood debauchery, set in a fictional oasis in the California desert.

Tennis System tonight at my beloved Echoplex. Haven't been there in a while, and I realized it's almost two-and-a-half years since I discovered this awesome Los Angeles band opening for Eagulls at the Teragram. Here's a Flock of Seagulls cover I had never heard them do before:




Playlist from yesterday:

The Veils - Total Depravity
True Widow - AVVOLGERE
Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not
Cold Cave - Cherish the Light Years
Ministry - Dark Side of the Spoon

Card of the day:

From the Grimoire: "When this card comes, go for your dreams - better than average chance something will pan out on a day ruled by this card."

2018: June 15th

I recently dug out my disc copy of Phenobarb Bambalam, one of the earlier Chris Connelly solo albums. I'd forgotten how great this album is; Night of Your Life still holds such sway with me that it's often difficult to see past it.

I took my first day off writing yesterday for as long as I can remember back. It's no longer a matter of counting the days of my streak. Now I simply write everyday.

Playlist from yesterday:

Les Claypool - Of Whale and Woe
Andre Previn & London Symphonic Orchestra - Samuel Barber: Adagio, Violin Concerto
David Lynch & John Neff - Bluebob
Lustmord - Songs of Gods and Demons
Various Artists - Trainspotting OST

Two passages of note from the Grimoire:

"Life is about to get easier and brighter," and, "Create unto and within yourself a Universe, shaped of your strengths and built on your accomplishments as a foundation." - See my above observation about writing everyday. No wonder I pull this card so much. Also, no wonder it's my favorite.

2018: May 23th 6:29 AM

Two new Chromatics E.P.'s in the same week? Is the fabled Dear Tommy drawing near?

Playlist from yesterday:

The Ocean - Pelegial
Lebanon Hanover - Let Them Be Alien
Venue - Desireena E.P.
Zombi - Spirit Animal

Card of the day:

From my least favorite yesterday to one of my favorites today. Reward?

2018: May 8th 7:09 AM

One of my favorite tracks from one of my favorite albums. Had a massive writing day yesterday, and this was there to move me in over the finish line.

If you bought my book, read my book and like my book, please leave me a review. If you didn't like my book, you should leave a review as well. I'm all about the ying and the yang.

Playlist from 5/07:

The Birthday Party - Mutiny/The Bad Seed
Cocksure - K.K.E.P.
Mastodon - Emperor of Sand
Boy Harsher - Yr Body is Nothing
Jesus Lizard - Shot
Deftones - Koi No Yokan
David Lynch & John Neff - Bluebob

Card of the day:

Always a pleasure to see this, one of my favorite cards.

February 14th 5:03 AM

I don't listen to very many bands' lyrics. That is not the case with Touche Amore.

.......

Just did the 7 Minute Workout App for the first time. Not bad. After several health issues last year, I'm no longer near as physically fit as I was. Not that I was a bastion of fitness, but I could hold my own. Hopefully this will put me back there and maybe even beyond. Also, although I'm currently in an 'anti-exercise' inertia period, any exercise definitely makes you feel better during the day (after that initial soreness/adjustment period that is). My favorite piece of writing on that is HERE.

The Tuesday the 13th's playlist:

Fen - Epoch
Lantlos - .neon
Touche Amore - Eponymous
Blut Aus Nord - Cosmosophy
Blut Aus Nord - Memorial Vetusta III (Saturnian Poetry)
Sunn O))) - Domkirke
Lustre - Night Spirit

"Mutha fucka must'a thought it was black metal day. It ain't black metal day, is it Marty?"

"Naw man. It ain't black metal day."

Daily words have been rough, as I'm not plowing on ahead now but editing and filling in, tweaking and expanding. Thus, project goal word-counts are near impossible on a week night due to the fact that whenever I cut from the document - which I'm doing plenty of as I snazzy it up - I counterbalance whatever I have written. My addiction to that little "You've met your daily goal" bell is in withdrawal. I pass the doc to Keller this week and then I can focus on my upcoming 3-issue comic collaboration with my good friend John: "The Legend of Parish Fen."

Card of the day:

Two again. This is interesting, and I have to go back and really think about this. I'm curious if this run of two-day pulls might link up to the day last week when a friend asked me for some spiritual help. If so, I need to organize the second pull in each of these into an ad hoc spread and relay the message to her. As for The Star again for me, well, I can only hope life is about to become easier and a path to enlightenment - a vague and wonderfully applicable concept if you throw out the biblical sense of it - doth appear on said horizon after a helpful conversation with a friend and the closing of a loop in my own head, all pertaining to my constant battle with my living situation.

2018: February 4th 1:17 PM

The final of our three beautiful mornings sleeping late. It's been much-needed and glorious. Now that I'm up and moving - after spending the last two hours resuming my original issue-by-issue re-read of Preacher I left hanging back in late August - I'm starting our musical day with Sam Cooke's One Night Stand! Live at the Harlem Square Club, 1963, which Sonny chose for this past week's edition of The Joup Friday Album.

Playlist from yesterday looks like this:

Lacey Sturm - Life Screams

Shellac - 1000 Hurts

A Place to Bury Strangers - Exploding Head

Faith No More - Angel Dust

Deafheaven - New Bermuda

Glass Animals - How to be a Human Being

Card of the day:

In my mind, one of the most beautiful cards in Lady Freida Harris's deck stacked with nothing but beautiful cards, its mere appearance a good 'omen'.

"Create unto and within yourself a Universe, shaped of your strengths and built on your accomplishments as foundation."

I'll take that as a nod that I have earned my day of total rest. It's movies, a living room fort with my Love and relaxation, because tomorrow it's back to the grind.