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.

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NCBD

A lot of good stuff this week!

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

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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:

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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.

November 3rd as Portal to the Future

Poignant words from an album I fell in love with in High School. This day will change things going forward. Unfortunately - and I hope to hell I'm wrong here - I'm preparing for either outcome at the polls today to bring domestic terrorism on a scale we've not seen before. Obviously, the preferred outcome is achieved and we step into a new chapter, but I believe the "Stand back, stand by" was meant to put orange's cronies on watch for this very day. Expect militarized action if he is tossed out on his ass, as he should be. Of course, if the opposite happens, well, I guess we'll really know what kind of cuntry (and other cunt like tendencies) we live in, and how many bigots, xenophobes, and downright misguided people surround us. In that case, well, it's going to be a very long four years.

 

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Watch:

This is more of a listen than a watch, but here's a great episode of Henry Rollin's KCRW radio show where Mike Patton is his guest. They get into some great stuff in this one: 

 

In the actual category of 'Watch' however, my first non-US region Blu Ray arrived yesterday. If you listen to The Horror Vision, you'll know my cohost and good friend King Butcher swears by his region-free player, and I finally decided to listen to him. I jumped the gun and ordered several things from Arrow's Shocktober sale - the Hellraiser Trilogy Blu Ray Boxset and Bride of Renanimator - and then doubled down and picked up a copy of the Swedish release of Fede Alvarez's 2013 Evil Dead on ebay. I'd been planning to hunker down and pick up a region-free modified player this week, but LUCKILY, I did some reading first and found out that, joy of joys, the two Sony Blu Ray players I've had for the last several years already are region-free!!! Evil Dead arrived last night, I pulled it from the mailbox this morning upon seeing the notification, and popped it in. Happy to report - it works! 

I LOVE Alvarez's Evil Dead - I count it as my second favorite among all the films - adamantly battle the idea that it's a remake (Tappert, Raimi and Campbell have all said all along it's not), and am psyched to finally own the extended cut.

I'm thinking I may leave work a little early to try and avoid any madness, come home and watch this one while encased in a 'womb of refer.'

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Playlist:

Opeth - Deliverance 

Opeth - My Arms, Your Hearse 

Meg Myers - Sorry 

Foster the People - Torches 

Earth - Full Upon Her Burning Lips 

Apple Music Blackgaze Pioneers Playlist 

Amesoeurs - Eponymous 

Yob - Cleraing the Path to Ascend 

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Card:

I really read around on the Pull this morning, because here's the first card I drew:

From (source) "In a more personal view the Emperor might stand for a time of stability and structure, linear thinking and discipline. Yet we can't live without it, too many of those attributes will only lead to rational despotism and mental poverty."

Wow. On the nose for current situation. However, nothing to indicate which way things might go. (NOTE: I did not set out to direct my morning Pull at the election, that just happened.)

Next, in a classic Past - Present - Future Draw, I pulled:

For Past: Baggage - the Lust of Earthly result leads to a great weight that makes it impossible to get out from under. Yeah, the last four years I've increasingly felt that weight. Finally, for Future:

Hmm. From the Grimoire: "The Airy aspect of Earth. Pragmatism. Can be a bit of a cunt for matters pertaining to money and stability."

The Prince of Disks can be stubborn and ignorant when ill-dignified, which is something I only take into account when I'm having trouble deciphering how the cards in a Pull relate to one another, never in a one-card Draw. The Airy aspect of Earth, so strength in practical matters. This also implies a certain degree of trust-worthiness and inventiveness. Often, a good listener.

Definitely not our current problem's cup of tea, being a good listener.

Is this Biden? It fits some of what I know about him, but the 'stubborn and ignorant' are almost our current problem's calling cards, especially the 'ignorant' aspect. The card was not ill-dignified, so I have to hope that's not the case and we have a change in Guard (I was really hoping to draw XVI The Tower as the future card, but no so luck). 

All this does is remind me that the cards are merely reflections of our inner psychology and how it rubs up against the collective unconscious and, perhaps, more 'cosmic' elements we don't really have a chance in hell of understanding in any literal sense, because they are not literal in nature. So what's the outcome? We'll have to see. Go Vote people. 

Isolation: Day 186

Musick

I've been in an Electric Wizard mood lately. Here's one of my favorites from 2011's Black Mass, probably my favorite of the group's. 

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Mindful Habitation:

The last few days have been a bit of a blank slate. Submerged in the same, endless routine of days didn't bother me at all. Until it did. I've experienced a sudden and overpowering loneliness that came on from out of nowhere. I need a pattern interrupt, but I'm not sure exactly how to do that. I would kill to go sit at the crappy BWW's in Hollywood by my friend's apartment and sit with him, have a burger and a few beers. Just typing that makes me feel like I want to cry. This is crazy. I'm not sure where this overwrought deluge of emotion has come from, but it's almost crippling. The workweek feels like one endless day, and the pattern at home has disintegrated my sleep patterns so that I'm always tired when I'm there during the week. I find joy in consumerism and food, a slippery slope. I'm not gaining weight, but the extra I have is setting up shop right in my stomach. 

Okay, now that that's hopefully been expunged, I can maybe get on with my day. Everything I said above is true, but it's also exaggerated from my perspective because everyone needs to feel a little goth/emo now and again. I'll continue to do what I do, however, I think K and I will maybe take a small weekend trip soon, and perhaps meet up with some friends this weekend, just to alter our landscape.

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Playlist:

Slipknot - Subliminal Verses

Electric Wizard - Black Mass

Code Orange - Underneath

 

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Card

Cause and Effect, eh? An interesting pull based on everything I wrote above. The emotional and psychological effects of this long-term isolation will most likely resound through our society for years, perhaps even after a vaccine.

Speaking of vaccines, I might as well put down my prediction here before it's too late, both as a warning and an 'I told you so,' because the frustration of the current socio-political landscape has made me into the kind of cunt that will say exactly that. Prediction: A 'vaccine' will appear shortly before the election, Trump will take credit, and it will then turn out to not work. Such is our world that even if he introduces a fake vaccine, his die-hard supporters will smile and champion its (and his) merits regardless of whether it's real or not. This MIGHT put him in enough favor to win.

I can see it clear as day: the CDC, FDA, AMA, can all shout at the top of their lungs that it's not thoroughly tested, or straight up doesn't work, and he will cry fake news and people will rally around him as a savior. Let's hope I'm wrong, let's hope there is some Justice served in November. But really, it wouldn't surprise me at this point if there wasn't.