RIP Peter Steele - Ten Years Gone

Ten years. Unbelievable.

Isolation Day 33: Man or AstroMan?!

Mr. Brown sent me this link a few days ago, but I've only just got around to watching it. This went up six years ago, which is probably around the last time I saw Astroman live, at the Echo in LaLaLand. It'd been years before that since I'd seen them play live. Astroman was one of the staples of artists I saw on what feels like a regular basis in the late 90s, thanks to Mr. Brown's excellent taste in curating live shows. I guess that era has been on my mind, because two nights ago I broke out some Reverend Horton Heat - who I don't listen to nearly enough these days, and who was also a staple live show back when we'd frequent Chicago's Double Door, Empty Bottle, Lounge Axe, Metro, etc. Anyway, great set from a great band. KEXP: You fight the greatest fight! Thank you for all these wonderful live sessions; you are the John Peel of the PACNW.

**

Reading:

I blew through Charles Stross' Atrocity Archives in a matter of days. Now I'm tucked into Juan F. Thompson's memoir Stories I Tell Myself, about growing up with Hunter S. Thompson as his father. Great book, but much like Will Bingley and Anthony Hope Smith's Gonzo: A Graphic Biography of Hunter S. Thomspon, or rather Alan Rinzler's forward to that book, Juan Thompson's book doesn't always paint his father in the best light.

Not that it's trash-talking. No, JFT very obviously loved and looked up to his father. And to be clear: Obviously we are all multi-faceted organisms, with ups and downs, lights and darks, successes and failures. But seeing the first-hand ugliness of someone I consider a literary inspiration is tough. This is especially true as, after my recent viewing of Terry Gilliam's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas film adaptation, I am further possessed of an idea that first began setting in back about fifteen years ago - the fact that maybe Hunter S. Thompson wasn't a very good person at all. Does that matter? Was Burroughs a 'good' person? Martin Amis? DOES IT MATTER?

Well, yes. A bit.

The first time I had this sense that maybe Hunter S. Thompson was kind of a fucked up person who did things that weren't very cool was the opening chapter of the Literary Greatest Hits Songs of the Doomed. 'Let the Trails Begin' tells the story of Thompson's late night arrival at a library, and his manipulations of the poor sod working there border on the actions of a narcissistic sociopath. Even if that poor sod was a criminal and a plagiarist. Then again, in re-reading Let the Trials... this morning while penning this, it occurs to me, is any of this supposed to be taken at face value? That's the the thing with Gonzo as an aesthetic/mission statement/lifestyle choice: to what extent are we supposed to take what's written at face value? There's metaphor, prose, fact, all manner of lingual possibilities, but truly, all of this may have happened and none of it may have happened. The entire scenario is so outlandish it seems impossible. Then again, a lot of what HST is known for exists in a fringe-state of mutated factoid observation. What do we do with that? I've always taken the man's work in at the gut - kind of an amalgam of the heart and the brain - but that leaves the rational, box-checking part of me hesitant in discussing the actualities of all this.

Certainly JFT's memoir of the late night, intoxicated fights and psychological bullying sessions his mother and father put on during his childhood and early adolescence are harrowing to insert into my understanding of someone whose writing makes me infinitely happy, so there's a bit of cognitive dissonance that needs sorting out as I read this. That said, as I'm sure the man himself would appreciate, the truth is the truth, but ultimately the truth may not need interfere with the work.

Or is that also the problem with our current moment? Alternative facts? No, Thompson didn't traffic in that. Neither does his son. Both are worth reading.

Dipping back into the world of HST is long overdue and absolutely wonderful. Like Irvine Welsh, HST is one of my all-time favorite writers, one I purposely do not read much of anymore, as both author's tones influence my own writing in a way that doesn't quit gel with what I have been working on for the last seven years or so (genre). That said, what I am working on at the moment, during the COVID ordeal and this long moment of isolation is actually something I originally penned in 2007/8, back when I was still reading both Thompson and Welsh on a daily basis, so picking up JFT's book might have seemed a tangent at first, but now stands revealed as, well, perfect.

**

Playlist:

TV On the Radio - Dear Science
Code Orange - Underneath
Drab Majesty - Careless
White Lung - Paradise
Paramore - Riot
Paramore - All We Know Is Falling
Brand New - God and the Devil Are Raging Inside Me
Arthur Albes - Gold
NIN - Ghosts V: Together
Soundgarden - Badmotorfinger
Disclosure - Ecstasy EP
Sofi Tukker - Treehouse

Card:

Opening up good things and finding more good things inside of them.

Isolation: Day 30 - Kenny Hoopla

A friend shared this with me yesterday and I immediately fell in love. Mr. Hoopla has no proper albums as of now, however, there's a handful of singles I've turned into a playlist, and all of it's good.

**

Breaking Bad re-watch is now in full effect. We're just inside Season Two now, and although K - who'd never seen it before - had some trepidations, I'm happy to report that, like me back when it aired, the fulminated Mercury scene was the final straw in her falling in love with the show.

**

Director Marc Meyers' new film We Summon the Darkness hit VOD yesterday, and it's on my weekend agenda to watch it and hopefully get at least a few of The Horror Vision folks together on Zoom to do a review/reaction.



**

Some old friends of mine are bringing back something they originally created about fourteen years ago. Every Friday night at 7:00 PM PST, The Top Floor goes live on Twitch and Youtube. If the webcam-interactive dance party was waaaay ahead of its time back in the middle 00s, it's absolutely perfect for the current moment we find ourselves in, and one hell of a good time. Drop in; you might be able to catch me and some friends making complete asses of ourselves!

**

Playlist:

Killing Joke - Night Time
Steve Moore - Bliss OST
Jóhann Jóhannsson - Mandy - OST
Childish Gambino - because the internet
Kenny Hoopla - Singles Playlist
White Lung - Paradise
Gnarls Barkley - St. Elsewhere
Arab Strap - The Red Thread
King Khan and the Shrines - What Is?!
††† - Crosses
Sofi Tukker - Treehouse
Disclosure - Ecstasy EP

Card:

Diligence in dealing with practical matters.

Isolation: Day 27 - Second Still PTP Sessions

A track from their Part Time Punks Session Cassette floated to the top of my youtube channels this morning, and in listening to it, I realized glorious LA post punk band Second Still released a full-length record last year that I somehow totally missed! Time to remedy that - Violet Phase is available on the band's Bandcamp HERE, although as I write this I see all physical versions of the album are sold out. In the meantime, here's the track that started this morning's odyssey.

**

I'm pretty damn happy to still have a job, so I'm helping out in any way I can. We've been rotating shorter hours, and as such, I ended up with yesterday off. Here's the watchlist:



Letterboxd



Letterboxd



Letterboxd



Letterboxd

**

Playlist:

Jóhann Jóhannsson - Mandy - OST
Dean Hurley - Anthology Resource Vol. II: Philosophy of Beyond
Killing Joke - Night Time
David Lynch - Crazy Clown Time
Lustmord - The Dark Places of the Earth
Childish Gambino - because the internet
Second Still - Violet Phase
White Lung - Paradise
Dio - Lock Up the Wolves

**

No Card.

Isolation: Day 26 - Living Nudes

Living Nudes is the bedroom brainchild of the man who runs Heavenisanincubator. Yesterday, I saw a tweet that they'd released a new track titled - appropriately enough - Growing Global Pandemic Got Me Down. It's awesome. Go HERE to check it out, and if you dig, it's set up for a "name your price" purchase. Can't beat that.

**

The vocal harmonies that make up the center piece of this new Living Nudes track haunted me all day, and seemed to echo through my mind during the night, mixing with images from the second episode of HBO's Chernobyl, our perhaps foolishly chosen before-bed watch last night.



The resonance this show has with our own current moment is terrifying. World leaders telling people everything is fine when it certainly is not, sealing potentially millions of people's fates in a terrifying refusal to own up to a situation unlike any the planet has ever seen before. In watching this and now re-reading reports on the Chernobyl crisis, we're all lucky those officials in 1986 didn't destroy life on the entire planet.

Mindful Habitation:

Speaking of mass human destruction, you have to ask: will the slow-to-start response by certain world leaders during today's crisis finish what the Soviet's began? Only time will tell, but with the Orwellian nature of our world seemingly proved by captain hairdo's surge in approval ratings, well, maybe we fucking deserve it, eh? Not really, but an objective, non-human look at things definitely makes it easy to understand why this is happening. I mean, if you refuse to hold the lessons of the past in your head and your heart, how can your future be any different? Or is it the people making the decisions just don't care, because they have advantages most of us don't?

Yeah, I'm leaning toward door number two as well. But then, I'm also trying to stay positive. The peak is coming folks. Stay in your homes...

courtesy of https://brancastudio.bigcartel.com/

One of the funniest things I've seen in years. Thanks to Jonathan Grimm for sending it my way. If you need a pick-me-up, might I suggest after hitting Living Nudes' Bandcamp, you stop by his shop and browse all the damn awesome stuff he has for sale with his inimitable art adorning?


**

Playlist:

Wire - Pink Flag
David Bowie - The Man Who Sold The World
Foster the People - Torches
Chris Isaak - Heart Shaped World
Me and That Man - New Man, New Songs, Same Shit, Vol. 1
Pearl Jam - Gigaton
Childish Gambino - 3.15.20
Childish Gambino - because the internet
Living Nudes - Growing Global Pandemic Got Me Down
Wolves in the Throne Room - Two Hunters
Steve Lynch - Let Us Prey

**

Card:

From the Grimoire: "A new project or a sudden change in material fortune/status." Playing this one close to the chest so as not to tempt the Universe to smack me upside the back of the head.

Isolation: Day 23 - RIP Bill Withers

Bill Withers passed away a few days ago. I love this man's music; it echoes up from my childhood, one of my earliest exposures to Soul music. This song in particular has a lot of meaning for me, not only because I love it and it always makes me feel better, but because I put it on one of the early mix tapes I made for K when we first began dating. And yes, I used actual cassette tapes.


**

Finished Ozark Season Three. Good lord, it is going to be hard to wait for Season Four, especially not knowing when or if it might arrive after our current Global Crisis. In the meantime, I with Devs approaching the final episode (only two left), I think I may push to finally show K Breaking Bad, with the ulterior motive of finally being able to catch up on Better Call Saul afterward.



**

Chris Saunders and I recently relauched a Quarantine-approved version of Drinking with Comics. Not a replacement for the regular, live video-show, this spin-off, aptly named Drinking w/ Comics: The Conversation, is meant to be a podcast-only discussion of, well, comics. This first episode finds Chris and I discussing comic shop innovations during Quarantine, as well as what we've been reading, which includes but is not limited to Joe Hill's Hill House books, Mirka Andolfo's Mercy, and Jonathan Hickman's Decorum. Check it out!



**

Playlist:

Wire - Pink Flag
Prists - Nothing Feels Natural
Drudkh - Autumn Aurora
Apple Music Playlists - Blackgaze Pioneers
Helmet - Aftertaste
Slayer - Live Undead/Haunting the Chapel
BENNI - The Return
Steve Lynch - Let Us Prey OST
Anthrax - Among the Living
Wolves in the Throneroom - Two Hunters
Anthrax - Spreading the Disease
Carpathian Forest - Through Chasm, Caves and Titan Woods
Foster the People - Torches
Me and That Man - New Man, New Songs, Same Shit, Vol. 1 (Vinyl arrived!)

 **

Card:

The Six of Swords leads perfectly into today's Mindful Habitation: As the Orwellian nature of our world - a state derived primarily through the Internet's ease of access to both true and falsified information and humanity's increasingly rabid need for convenience over actual rational, logic-based thought - continues to provide baffling reports of what's happening, remember. Everything except Science is, at this point, extrapolatory at best and anecdotal or misleading at worst. We are still firmly in the forest, and thus, have no way of counting how many trees we will pass before we exit. Science, while not entirely accurate - nothing beyond the subatomic level is - is our best bet at survival.

And yes, I made the word extrapolatory up just now, but feel cheated that it doesn't already exist, at least officially.

Isolation Day 20: Priests!

During a pretty lucrative writing session yesterday I leaned on White Lung for momentum, and in doing so, inadvertently discovered Priests. Great band! The lyrics to 'Appropriate' - the lead song on 2017's Nothing Feels Natural are so insightful they hurt!

**

I sat down and watched Stuart Gordon's Stuck, a film that had been on my list for years, and which until recently I had completely forgotten was Gordon's. Really dark, sometimes funny, overall great. Read my small Letterbxd review HERE.



I'd never noticed it before, and maybe it's not true of Gordon's more phantasmagorical works, but this one really reminded me of Larry Cohen's work. I might try to squeeze in one of his films today, you know, since we have all this bloody time on our hands.

**

Beyondfest's Twitter account has been a bastion in this trying time. Earlier today they tweeted out the link to American Cinematheque Chief Projectionist Ben Tucker essentially giving a tour of the Egyptian's Projection Booth. I've been meaning to join the American Cinematheque for years, and I think now is when I will finally pull the trigger on that.



**

Playlist:

Wire - Pink Flag
Spotlights - Love and Decay
Soundgarden - Bad Motorfinger
Seefeel - Fracture/Tied (Single)
Mazzy Star - So Tonight That I Might See
The Obsessed - Lunar Womb
Slayer -  Live Undead/Haunting the Chapel
White Lung - Eponymous
White Lung - Sorry
Priests - Nothing Feels Natural
Ennio Morricone - The Thing OST

**

Card:

Again. From the Grimoire, "...skill and/or wisdom..." because I'm finally making real headway on what I'm working on. 

Isolation: Day 18 RIP Krzysztof Penderecki

I first heard Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima in the mid-to-late 90s. I was dating a classically trained violin player, and she was involved in a college performance of the piece. She talked about how different the piece was from a player's perspective. This is anecdotal, as I've only ever heard it from her, but apparently when Penderecki wrote the music for the piece, he had to devise an entirely new way to notate the passage where the players hit the bodies of their instruments. When she played me the piece, I was floored - I knew this! Of course, I didn't know it as a whole, but I'd heard passages of it for years as they were used in Stanley Kubrick's The Shining, a film I have been obsessed with for most of my life (less now, much more at that time). I had her make me a copy of the piece, and although it never led me to seek out more of Penderecki's compositions, I've loved Threnody ever since. Sunday morning, Mr. Penderecki passed away. Interesting that, only a few hours before his death, I rewatched Twin Peaks: The Return episode 8, which also utilizes this piece - to great effect, might I add. I wanted to post something here, as a memorial, and because composition is often best expressed in the moment, I went with a performance of the piece instead of the standard, studio recording.

**

Three of us at The Horror Vision did our first remote podcast session on Zoom this past Saturday, and it turned out pretty damn good, so there will be more episodes more often. That goes for Drinking with Comics as well, which I've decided to spin-off an audio-only version called Drinking w/ Comics: The Conversations. First episode of that will be up by the end of the week. In the meantime, check out The Horror Vision's first installment of Quarantine Guide:



**

Five episodes into Season Three of Ozark and it is glorious. Between this and Outsider, I am now a card-carrying fan of Jason Bateman and his work.



**

Playlist:

Slayer - Live Undead/Haunting the Chapel
NIN - Ghosts V: Together
Pale Sketcher - Jesu: Pale Sketches Demixed
Pearl Jam - Gigaton
Steve Moore - Frame Dragging

**

Card:

Failure to achieve a goal. That feels like what I'm up against at the moment, as my new schedule and the overall aesthetic of Shelter-in-Place combine to make me a lazy bastard. I'm still writing, but it's been difficult to drag myself up into my chair and actually put in the time to write. You'd think I'd be all over this, and I was at first, but currently, everything is a chore.

Mindful Habitation:

Build a new routine out of the bones of your old routine. It can be done, it just takes an initial investment of energy to build-up the inertia that will keep the thing moving once you get it shambling along on its own two feet, so to speak.

Isolation: Day 16 - The Return of Joe Bob Briggs!

Man, this could not come at a better time! I cannot wait for weekly event viewing with Mr. Briggs.

**

I've been on a reading tear. I finished my re-read of Inferno, the mini series that ran through all the X-books in 1989. I even through in the What If...? Issue that contemplated what would have happened had the X-Folks lost to S'ym and Madelyne Pryor. Mr. Sinister remains my favorite X-Villain, however, it's unfortunate that Mr. Claremont never had the opportunity to fully explore his backstory. I know subsequent X-writers did, however, I don't know that I'd ever be interested in reading beyond Claremont's X-Men again. Louise Simonson works well writing X-Factor inside Claremont's domain, and I don't want to belittle what she did, but really, she began as Claremont's editor on the books, so it makes sense that when he had to hand the reins of one book over to someone, it would be her. And Ms. Simonson's contributions are fantastic. I even like a bit of what Fabian Nicezia added closer to the end of Claremont's tenure, but most of what other creators did at that time grew organically out of the seeds Claremont had laid. Who knows? Maybe I'll find the one of those Sinister-related trades on sale for Kindle at some point and take a chance. I know they took him back to the Victorian era - an immediate 'Pro' for me, however, the subsequent convolution of all things X after Claremont and the editorial insistence on 'Status Quo' just makes me want to pretend the characters were part of a finite series. (Although Morrison's stands on its own as a three-volume masterpiece, and I suspect that may be just about up for re-read as well).

Possibly my favorite splash in the entire series

Next up was the complete Alien/Predator/Prometheus Fire and Stone saga, which was pretty awesome. 

One of my favorite elements of this was when the construct Elden - similar model to Bishop or David from the films - is injected with the Engineer's Life Accelerant "Black Goo" and begins an evolutionary journey that sees him become something almost as monstrous and distressing as the Xenomorphs themselves. Check this out:

More wonderful Nightmare fuel from the Alien Universe!

Next, the first installment of Warren Ellis' 2016 serial novel Normal, which I've had since its release and which I've just realized, is now only available as the collected novel. So, apparently in order to continue, I'll just have to pick that up, which is no problem, as it's readily available on Kindle:

Although I won't be doing the rest of Normal just yet, as reading the first part awakened in me a rabid desire to re-read Charles Stross' Atrocity Archives, which I believe I first read back in... 2007 or 2008, and which has perpetually been on my mind since setting up a Feedly account a few months ago and following Stross' blog (HERE).

If you're unfamiliar with Stross, his Laundry Files books follow an employee in the IT department of a company that deals with Necromantic Arts and Lovecraftian Elder Gods the way Silicon Valley companies deal with Technology. It's fascinating, and I'd been meaning to re-enter Stross world for sometime. I'm only a few pages into this re-read, but I may do more of the series afterward.

**

Playlist:

The Birthday Party - Mutiny/The Bad Seed EP
Fenn - Epoch
Balthazar - Fever
Beach House - Thank Your Lucky Stars
Siouxsie and the Banshees - Tinderbox
Tennis System - Lovesick
Spotlights - Love and Decay
Various Artists - The Void OST
LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver
Me and That Man - New Man, New Songs, Same Shit, Vol. 1
NIN - Ghosts V: Together
Rammstein - Eponymous

**

No Card.

Isolation: Day 13 - RIP Bill Rieflin

I've never been clear if Rieflin actually played on this particular song - he was in the incarnation of the Cocks for this record - but his mention in this, the title track from the album Linger Ficken' Good, always makes me laugh.

**

Last night K and I watched David Lynch's Wild at Heart. It's been a while since I've seen this one, and for some reason, there are a lot of details that I always forget, but overall, while not my favorite Lynch film by any stretch of the imagination, I still love this flick.



Note: In choosing a trailer to post, I opted for the original, unrestored version over the remastered, Shout Factory. I did this simply because I remember this trailer so vividly from television the year of its release, a time when I was in the throws of my initial introduction to David Lynch and the then-airing second season of Twin Peaks. Something about the grain and vague picture really authenticates the memory for me, so while I'd rather watch a restored version of the film, this trailer 'lights my fire' more than the glossy one.

After Wild at Heart, we did indeed begin a rewatch of Twin Peaks: The Return. This will only be the second time I've watched the series, and I'm excited and trepidatious with going back to it. One thing that I feel is definitely going to enhance this go-through is the fact that I'm also re-reading Mark Frost's Twin Peaks: The Final Dossier, and watching some of the editorial/theory programming that popped up on youtube during and after The Return's initial broadcast run. Having access to information we did not during that initial run, I feel, will make a hell of a difference in accepting and understanding certain elements of the series that otherwise left me feeling a bit... unresolved. The most important video I've found for this is Wow Lynch Wow's brilliant examination of the Cooper/Mr. C connection. If you haven't seen this, dig into it before you go back to the series (or even if you just want to think about it after the fact). I am in complete and total agreement with this man's assessment here:



**

Playlist:

Man Man - Future Peg (Pre-release single)
Steve Moore - Frame Dragging EP
Led Zeppelin - I

No Card.

RIP Stuart Gordon

To quote Tod Ashley, they're droppin' like flies right now. This one hits hard. I love Stuart Gordon's movies. I loved that I was able to see him in person - briefly - at the Steve Allen Theatre back in 2011, when he directed the Re-Animator: The Musical there. I love Re-Animator and Bride of Re-Animator (the latter admittedly had Brian Yuzna at the helm, but it was still Gordon's movie). I love From Beyond. I love King of the Ants. I love Dagon. I love his Dreams in the Witch House. This sucks. Rest in Peace, Mr. Gordon. Hopefully Herbert won't be stealing your remains and attempting to bring you back to life as some ghoulish creature of the night. But then again, if he does, it'd make a good movie!

Isolation: Day 12 - Anthrax Lone Justice

I'm not quite through posting about this one yet. Anthrax's 1985 Sophomore album Spreading the Disease has locked into my heart of late, and I'm finding it hard to get my fill of it. Every song is great, and what's really cool is this is Anthrax not fully formed as they will be by 1987's Among the Living. That's the album where I think pretty much everyone agrees the band solidified their sound for the next few albums (only to overthrow that again a few albums later by replacing Joey Belladonna with Stan Bush for the release of 1993's Sound of White Noise). But on Spreading the Disease we still have some of the young band's influences showing through, and both today's track 'Lone Justice' and yesterday's 'The Enemy' really show the Iron Maiden influence on these guys. I mean, listen to either of these songs and imagine Bruce "History Major" Dickinson singing over the top and you'll hear it right away. So cool, to see the primordial ingredients of one of the most iconic bands in Thrash history.

Speaking of history, I'm hearing Mr. Bungle's Raging Wraith of the Easter Bunny album should be out in fall, if, you know, the current crisis ends by then and the world that's left even slightly resembles what we have now. Which, hopefully, it will. More on those efforts in Mindful Habitation, below.

**

Mindful Habitation:

Today is my 44th birthday. Holy shit, man! Forty-four. There were times I didn't think I'd get this far; I've always had sort of a prescient block on how to imagine aging (hence my Bowie article HERE), and in light of current events, well, you never know. Could be my last. Not that I'm walking around worried about that. I think we're all probably prone to a certain amount of on-again-off-again existential crisis at the moment, but generally I'm thinking I'll make it through to the other side of whatever this is shaping up to be. And so will all my loved ones, K and our family in both states I divide my consciousness between, but also, all the friends who probably don't know it, but who I carry with me day-to-day as a sort of live-in consensus. This is my world, and as long as they remain consistent, I can adapt. I'm not special; I'm sure most people have these lists and they're tossing dice against the Universe that when the dealer folds, they're holding the better cards. All we can do is sit at the table, employ the our best poker face, and try and beat this. It is going to take a bite out of our population, because it has to. The Planet's needs come first, y'all. However, play it smart and let those too stupid to pay attention or take this seriously be the ones weeded out. And that's the Mindful Habitation for today: I never thought I'd age into the kind of person who thinks the military needs to control things with a police state, but Jesus-Fucking-Christ, all these people still gathering in groups, still playing basketball at the park in large numbers, still not taking this seriously? STOP IT. If you don't? Well, then if Mother Nature has to thin the heard, I'm all for her starting there. The only problem is how many non-morons they might likewise infect. So - and this goes back to a life rule for me - minimize the number of morons in your life.

**

I don't normally make much of a to-do out of my bday anyway, so this year won't be that different. I love to throw parties and celebrate my friends' reiteration renewal, but I prefer to let mine squeak by quietly. That said, I have today and tomorrow off, I ordered a growler of my favorite local beer (King Harbor Brewings' Swirly!), and K and I kicked off two days of marathoning stuff that I love last night with The Big Lebowski and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Been at least ten years since I'd seen either, and both hold up. Lebowski remains one of the funniest movies I've ever seen, and Vegas, although darker with each subsequent viewing, always hits my heart with the weight of Thompson's profound insight into the Death of the American Dream. Today? Not entirely sure yet, but I may be starting a marathon re-watch of Twin Peaks: The Return in a little while. I might work up to that with a first viewing of The Conjuring 2, though, simply because I've still never seen it.





UPDATE: We watched the Conjuring 2. It's very well made shit. I didn't hate it, but total disappointment, because I maintain the original is fantastic, even if it does lose a bit of steam once they show us the ghost on top of the armoire. Still Number Two felt like a massive step backwards, despite some very fancy and expensive camera work.

**

Playlist:

Anthrax - Spreading the Disease
Deafheaven - New Bermuda
Deafheaven - Ordinary Corrupt Human Love
The Rolling Stones - Sticky Fingers
Steve Moore - Frame Dragging EP

**

Card:

A reminder, I think, not to let the day go by without some creative time. Think I'll dig back into my current project for a little bit, come up for air in an hour or so. Just to keep the juices flowing.

Isolation: Day 11 - Anthrax The Enemy

When I was a Freshmen in High School in 1990, I fell really heavy into Anthrax. I loved all the Titans of Thrash, but Anthrax was the one that I loved best, mostly because of how The Persistence of Time hit me. That was the first Anthrax album I bought/heard, and when I spread my allowance out over the next few months digging into their back catalogue, I fell even deeper in love. Among the Living is the obvious gem, but State of Euphoria, Spreading the Disease, and the I'm the Man EP all occupied a place of great thrall in my cassette collection. Since then, Persistence, Among, and State have all stayed in and out of rotation, but for whatever reason, Spreading the Disease was the album I never really went back to again after those teenage years. Last month, after seeing Mr. Bungle's thrash set, I went through a reawakening on the marvels of classic thrash, and ever since then, Spreading the Disease has been inching its way up into the top rotation spot in my daily playlists. And this last week or so - no irony intended - it's been the album that has soundtracked my thoughts.

I wake up everyday with one of the songs in my head. For a few days it was Medusa. Yesterday it was The Enemy. Today it was Gung Ho. I'm absolutely loving this record right now, it feels like one of the crown jewels of 80s thrash. It's always such a good feeling to fall in love with an album all over again.

**

Last night, K and I watched Roger Avary's 1993 French Bank Heist gone wrong Killing Zoe. I saw this movie a lot when it came out on video; I'm pretty sure other than Reservoir Dogs, this was a constant with my friends and I. Dark, funny, and thoroughly possessed by that "Tarantino Crime Aesthetic," probably because Avary helped create that vision with his work on Pulp Fiction. If you've never seen this one, it's definitely worth a watch, and if, like me, it's been at least a decade, I definitely recommend a re-watch. Killing Zoe won't disappoint.



**

Playlist:

Anthrax - Spreading the Disease
Beach Slang - The Deadbeat Bang of Heartbreak City
Algiers - The Underside of Power
Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not

**

Card:

Fours are solid, but in my opinion, sometimes misleading. I've had a few days off writing simply because of it was my weekend to work and it kicked my ass. Now though, I have the next two days off, so it's back to work.

Isolation: Day 10 - RIP Kenny Rogers

I'm not a huge fan or anything, but there's no denying the man is a legend. I know this is the obvious choice for people of my 'demo' to post as a tribute due to its presence in the Cohen Brothers' cult-favorite film The Big Lebowski. Regardless, I love this tune.

**

Based on my fellow Horror Vision Host King Butcher's recommendation, I picked up a Blu Ray copy of 2011's Fright Night Remake two weeks ago, and finally watched it Friday night. I saw Craig Gillespie's remake of the classic Tom Holland 80s Vampire flick back when it was released theatrically and liked it, although I don't have a ton of history with the original, which I know I've seen in its entirety but not until way later in life - about time I revisit that already. I liked it even more second time through. The cast is top notch, and late-00s CG doesn't bother me so much, as most of the scenes that require them are awesome regardless.

And then there's David Tennant. Goddamn, that man is awesome.



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Playlist:

Anthrax - Spreading the Disease
Chris Isaak - Heart Shaped World
Beach House - Thank Your Lucky Stars
Beach House - 7
David Bowie - Aladdin Sane
Beastmilk - Climax
Calexico - Even My Sure Things Fall Through

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Card:

It's a Swords kind of moment, that we find ourselves in, eh? But the Ten of Swords isn't a signpost as to where we're going, it's more a warning in my eyes, a warning that our negativity feeds itself and multiplies (10 is the initial multiple of 5, which is Swords is Defeat). Our ruinous thoughts and negative attitudes do nothing but perpetuate themselves and our misery. So...


Mindful Habitation:

As stupid as it sounds, smile when you're tempted to freak out. I've done this for years - when I can have the presence of mind to do it. Smiling releases chemicals that make you feel better. Sounds awful new age, but it works. Even if it doesn't work and this is a case of "if you've convinced yourself, that's great," I've always been okay with the so called Placebo Effect. As long as I get the end results I set out for, who cares if I tricked my brain into getting there?

Isolation: Day 8 - More New Me and That Man!

At this point, I'm not listening to any more of Me and That Man's new record until I have the full album in my hands (pre-order HERE), but I'm posting it here so I can go back to it, and so you, dear reader, can strike out into the territory I'm eschewing simply because I am such a fan of full album immersion.

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The best thing to come out of social media that I've seen since the Pandemic began? Right here:



Love these guys.

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Finished Black Stars Above this morning. Five Issues of creepy, nuanced cosmic horror. Here's one of my favorite images, from issue four:

This very much reminds me of Alan Moore and JH Williams III's Promethea. Jenna Cha's art, Brad Simpson's colors, and Lonnie Nadler's story work in such perfect synthesis. They have to, it's the only way to tell such a macro/micro story that delves into infinite cosmic territory. This page illustrates the beautiful way the creative team delivers the ineffable.

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Mindful Habitation:

As so many others are, Southern California is on Shelter-in-place. Weird, but really only in perception and big picture theory. Day-to-day won't be that different for many of us. I'm bummed to know this will halt a lot of businesses, the smaller ones especially. Many of those smaller ones are really using this to innovate and think outside the box. The Comic Bug remains purveyors of media via mail, delivery, or scheduled appointment (HERE for details). King Harbor Brewery is doing same-day local Growler delivery (HERE). These are examples local to me, however, I'm getting reports of this from friends all over the place, so if there's a business you love, reach out and see if they are working with similar innovations.

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Event Viewing:

Episode Four of Alex Garland's Devs landed last night, and it was quite the ride. The opening floored me with it's image/sound juxtaposition. Geoff Barrow and The Insects' score is overall fantastic, but in this particular scene, it was unearthly, layered, textured sounds arranged in a way that made the images bloom from the screen.

And Nick Offerman? Killing it.

Playlist:

Exhalants - Eponymous
Anthrax - Spreading the Disease
Slayer - Live Undead/Haunting the Chapel
The Bronx - The Bronx (I)
Seefeel - Fracture/Tied (Single)
David Bowie - Aladdin Sane
Deth Crux - Mutant Flesh
Metatron Omega - Evangelikon
Myrkur - Folkesange

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Card:

An agent of enlightenment. Reproductive force - not necessarily biologically speaking. I'm leaning more toward an interpretation that reinforces people are finally learning what needs to be done and doing it (even a certain douche celebrity decided to comply and close his shitty restaurant). Also, the gray skeins in the background speak to the illusory world losing its leverage as knowledge dawns. That's the Devil - the Morningstar, enlightener extraordinaire.