For Day Two, I wanted to go with my favorite track from The City of Lost Children OST that Badalamenti did for Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet's hauntingly GORGEOUS film from 1995.
Watch:
A few months back, I read some advance praise for Writer/Director Paul Owens' first feature film, Landlocked. Finally, a trailer has landed:
Owens apparently built this narrative around old home movies, a fantastic idea that, in the wrong hands, would no doubt go horribly wrong. If this trailer and Fango's praise are any indications, here the execution meets the concept.
Playlist:
Type O Negative - Life Is Killing Me
Colors of the Dark Podcast Episode 49
Zeal and Ardor - Firewake (single)
Carpenter Brut - Leather Terror
The Mysterines - Reeling
H6LLB6ND6R - Side A
Beach House - Once Twice Melody
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
Hot take on all these Cups? Don't let my emotions get the better of me.
Well, it goes without saying that I'm doing a "Seven Days of Angelo Badalamenti" in honor of his passing. Let's start here, a video my good friend Jacob sent me yesterday to mark the man's exit through the big, red curtains.
NCBD:
What an irregularly slow NCBD. If I hadn't picked up some new titles, I'd be spending almost no $$$ this week. Can't have that, apparently...
I was hesitant going into Dark Web, but this Zeb Wells Event is so dripping with original Inferno vibes that I can't help but love it.
Yeah, like I said above. I love it so much, double-dosing this week.
And, speaking of Events (fuck!), all this pre-emptive conjecture for the upcoming Sins of Sinister has me so fascinated with the idea that there are numerous Sinister clones running around the Marvel Universe that I'm now fascinated by this Mother Righteous characters and reading Legion of X. Damn again!
Ah! I can't love this horror show more.
Watch:
Speaking of Twin Peaks, Butcher from the Horror Vision has mentioned Steven C. Miller's The Aggression Scale several times, but this past weekend, as we recorded The Horror Vision episode on Joe Begos' Christmas Bloody Christmas, I finally cued the film up and when I saw the cast not only included three Twin Peaks Alumni - Ray Wise, Dana Ashbrook, and Derek Mears, but Jacob "Solomon" Reynolds from Harmony Korine's Gummo, well, there was no way I wasn't watching it right away.
I was not disappointed.
This movie is brutal in the most enjoyable way because it's the bad guys that get f*cked up the most, and it's fun watching it.
Playlist:
Zeal & Ardor - Eponymous
Knorkator - Widerstand ist zwecklos
Ifernach - Capitulation of All Life
Lustmord - Dark Matter
Deth Crux - Bloody Christmas
Greg Puciato - Mirrorcell
The Notorious B.I.G. - Ten Crack Commandments (single)
††† - PERMANENT.RADIANT EP
SQÜRL and Jozef Van Wissem - Only Lovers Left Alive OST
Pop Will Eat Itself - Cure for Sanity
Neurosis - Given to the Rising
Isis - Panopticon
Made Out of Babies - The Ruiner
Rein - Reincarnated
Battle Tapes - Sweatshop Boys EP
Battle Tapes - In Too Deep EP
Battle Tapes - Polygon
Final Light - Eponymous
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
Collaboration has been coming up a lot, so I need to re-focus on something I've been struggling to maintain. A big writing project that I make headway in and then have to set aside to tool around with short stories I am submitting to various publication markets. The trick here is to make more time and use it wisely, something I'm not always good at doing.
Really digging this new ††† PERMANENT.RADIANT EP, especially of late, opening track Sensation. The chorus has an epic slamming that kind of marries a slow, sensual plod ala When the Levee Breaks (not quite, but ballpark) to what sounds like the fanfare of some futuristic stadium rock. Add onto that all the swirling keys, guitars, and some cool vox FX on Chino, and you get a fantastic album-opener and lead-in to that brilliant first single, Vivien.
Watch:
Since it was only in the theatres for about a week, we missed David O. Russell's Amsterdam on the big screen but finally caught it on HBO Max last night.
This is the film that failed so hard at the box office - undeservedly so, in my opinion - that I've heard titterings about it being the death knell for anything that could be called an "adult drama" rolling out big and wide at theatres. If that's true, it sucks. I'll be sure to be more diligent about getting out to see those films on their first weekend because that might be all we get while Marvel and their clones - some of which I also am a fan of - further strengthen their stranglehold on every big screen in the major movie houses.
I think back to Autumn/Winter 2007. I'd been in L.A. a little over a year, and the Regal Cinema at the Rolling Hills Terrace on Deep Valley Drive was my perpetual weekend spot, primarily because they had a killer Soundsystem and were not afraid to turn it LOUD. That year, I saw so many great films - none of which were, if I remember correctly - genre. No Country for Old Men, There Will Be Blood, and Charlie Wilson's War, spring immediately to mind. I can't help wondering if we'll ever see a roll-out of non-franchise films like that again. 2019 was a brief return to form; however, the pandemic may have been the real death knell for non-event films, the kind where two adults go to see a film unattached to properties or characters they are familiar with. And there's nothing wrong with big-budget, superhero blockbusters - I just hope that's not all there is to choose from on the big screen. Because I love seeing quiet, contemplative films like The Banshees of Inisherin at the theatre as much as I do whatever the next Avengers or whatever.
But I totally side-stepped my own set-up with my maudlin reverie. How was Amsterdam? Pretty damn good. I'll specifically say that Christian Bale is fantastic, as are all the performances. The script is a bit overly ambitious and the plot suffers from that, so there were moments where I was a little annoyed at what began to feel unmanageably dense, but those performances really anchored the film for me.
Playlist:
Metallica - Kill 'Em All
Metallica - Hardwired... To Self-Destruct
Zeal and Ardor - Firewake (single)
Zeal and Ardor - Eponymous
Lustmord - Dark Matter
SQÜRL and Jozef Van Wissem - Only Lovers Left Alive OST
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
It will require an effort of Will to make the breakthrough that will move me into the next phase of a project.
Excited to see that, apparently, Zeal and Ardor are now on Sub Pop Records. With this kind of state-side distribution, it should no longer cost an arm and leg in shipping to order their records! Perhaps it was to celebrate that contract, the band just released a two-song single!
What a great day to wake up to! Last few days, no lie, my stress level has had me hovering at the "punch a hole in the window" stage. But I woke up a little while ago feeling fairly refreshed, and now I'm putting the finishing touches on this post, drinking coffee and listening to the new ††† EP, PERMANENT.RADIANT that dropped, counting the hours until I can hit play on Joe Begos' new flick, Christmas Bloody Christmas, now probably my most anticipated film of the year. I'd wanted to drive to Chicago to see it, but after spending $500 at the dentist over the last week, there's just no feasible way to swing that. My hope, though, is that, like Terrifier 2, it makes enough $$$ at the box office this week to see a bigger roll-out next week. If that happens, it's bound to end up here.
If you need help figuring if Christmas Bloody Christmas is playing by you, here's the link Begos put on his IG - it literally lists every theatre the film is playing. So crazy that, with all the smaller cities its rolling out to, it didn't come to Clarksville. Our Regal, which is pretty good and had Terrifier 2 for almost a month, had the new Martin McDonough and the George A. Romero Dawn of the Dead 3D, but instead of lining CBC up, they still have Prey for the Devil? WTF?
Life is good. If you're having a tough time at any point today, stop and think about the people and the stuff you love. It will HELP!
Watch:
New Brandon Cronenberg film? Sign me up.
I cannot overstate how unbelievably happy I am that we only had to wait about three years for the third film from Brandon Cronenberg. Possessor is still one of my all-time favorites, and with this cast and premise - what little of it may or may not be clear from this trailer - Infinity Pool looks likely to rank pretty high with me as well.
Out January 27.
Neon is just a fabulous company, isn't it?
Playlist:
Fvnerals - Let the Earth be Silent (pre-release singles)
Fvnerals - The Light
Final Light - Eponymous
Greg Puciato - Mirrorcell
Federale - No Justice
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!
The Mysterines - Reeling
H6LLB6ND6R - Side A
Metallica - Hardwired... To Self-Destruct
Metallica - Kill 'em All
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
Ask and ye shall receive your answer: I usually don't specify when I pull, but today I focused on my recent re-engagement with Shadow Play Book 2. The writing comes and goes, mostly rewarding while I'm doing it, then frustrating after. But I keep wondering if this is actually going to work. Well, apparently, if I am strong enough to persevere, I will get my outcome.
A special thanks to Heaven Is An Incubator for turning me on to Fvnerals. Their music has been an integral part of my afternoons as the sun sets earlier and earlier, I click over and let the slow wash of their dreary but beautiful, doom-laced music.
"Ashen Era" is the second track released from the band's forthcoming album Let the Earth be Silent, out February 3rd on Prophecy Productions, which also serves as home to one of my long-time favorite black-gaze bands, Fen. You can pre-order the album on Fvnerals' Bandcamp HERE.
NCBD:
Here are my picks for this week's NCBD:
Another crossover? Yeah, I'm going to give Dark Web a shot. I really dug the lead-on issue of Amazing Spider-Man two weeks ago. Hallows Eve is a great character name and design, a sort of female Hobgoblin, which I'm sure some folks will roll their eyes at, but based on my lackluster reception of recent iterations of old Hobby, I see this character as a welcome addition to Spider-Man's rogues gallery, which has contained more than a few Halloween-themed characters.
The final issue of Daniel Warren Johnson's Do A Powerbomb. I won't lie, the end of the last issue went big in a way that I didn't exactly love, but I can't wait to see how this plays out regardless. Love this guy and his work.
What a cover! I don't love this Diesel character, however, I think a lot of that has to do with its name. I'm hoping once he and Flame Head tangle, things will get brutal because this book has definitely had some brutal moments thus far.
I cannot wait to read this issue. After the previous issue of Immortal X-Men, I began reading about upcoming comics and saw that there is another, a smaller event coming up called The Sins of Sinister. Despite my usual trepidation with events, this one I will be reading with gusto.
Another final issue. Night of the Ghoul has been a fun Horror mini-series, which is a format Scott Snyder has always seemed to excel at.
The intensity dial continues to be slowly raised in this first iteration of Marvel's Predator series, and I'm digging that a lot. While I do think this will ultimately read better as a trade, if you're a Predator fan new or old, check this out.
I love that every year since its inception, Chris Condon and Jacob Phillips do a Christmas Special for their weird fiction/southern gothic detective book That Texas Blood. Last year's was a great way to outro from the intensity of the arc preceding it, and no doubt this will function much the same.
I'm a bit behind on TMNT, so I need to catch up soon. Some of that is due to avoiding the Event books for Armegeddon Game, as I'm not sure if I should be reading it to make sense of the last few issues.
Abigail Brand's duplicitous (triplicitous?) agenda has been revealed, so all sorts of shit is no doubt about to go off. I don't think I've looked forward to Cable's presence or reaction in a story this much since the original X-Force 7 when Sauron "killed" Sam Guthrie.
Watch:
I've been teetering back and forth as to whether I wanted to subscribe to the new Horror-centric Streaming app Screambox. If you look up what's available, there's a lot of exclusive stuff, but not necessarily anything I want to see. The rest of their catalogue reminds me a lot of scoping out Shudder back at its relative inception, circa 2013. That said, as the company continues to produce and buy new films, my interest is growing. Case in point:
Writer/Director Cristin Ponce is getting a lot of acclaim for this one,
Playlist:
Bobby Fingers Episode 2
Fvnerals - Wound
SQÜRL & Jozef Van Wissem - Only Lovers Left Alive OST
Dreamkid - Eponymous
Metallica - Hardwired... To Self-Destruct
Electric Wizard - Dopethrone
Perturbator - Dangerous Days
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
Ideas + Collaboration can lead to strife. Differing opinions. I drew a clarifier to see if a compromise is likely, Knight of Pentacles, which suggests to me that it may require an act of Will (i.e. be difficult or put me out of my comfort zone), but yes, compromise is likely.
In preparation for the recording of the first episode of our new spin-off podcast, The Horror Vision Presents: Elements of Horror, I rewatched Jim Jarmusch's Only Lovers Left Alive last night.
I have to say, not only do I think this is one of the coolest films ever made, but I think about it almost every day. There is not a lot that moves the needle as far as inspiring me to make music again, but watching or thinking about this film does in a BIG way.
Watch:
THIS will be in theatres? I won't hold my breath for it to come to Clarksville, however, I'm not averse to planning a trip to Chicago for this (if it even plays there).
This might tie Barbarian for the best trailer I've seen all year. Whether the movie lives up to the absolute lo-fi DREAD displayed here will remain to be seen. Below I've posted Skinamarink's summary, courtesy of the mighty Bloody Disgusting, whose article on the film is HERE:
“Two children wake up in the middle of the night to find their father is missing, and all the windows and doors in their home have vanished. To cope with the strange situation, the two bring pillows and blankets to the living room and settle into a quiet slumber party situation. They play well-worn videotapes of cartoons to fill the silence of the house and distract from the frightening and inexplicable situation. All the while in the hopes that eventually some grown-ups will come to rescue them. However, after a while, it becomes clear that something is watching over them.”
If, like Christmas Bloody Christmas, which I had also planned to travel for, I can't make the trip north for Skinamarink, then the good news that, also like Joe Begos' new film, this will be released on Shudder is a welcome balm. I would drive back and forth twice a month if I could, but the logistics of life do have a habit of getting in the way of plans like that.
Really looking forward to seeing this, the first feature from Kyle Edward Bell.
Read:
Last year at Severin Films' Black Friday sale, I picked up the Night of the Demon restored Blu-Ray and, perhaps more excitedly, Brad Carter's novelization that Severin commissioned in their possibly over-zealous roll-out for this widely unknown regional Horror film from 1980.
After finishing Barry Adamson's Up Above the City, Down Below the Stars I was tempted to jump into David Lynch's biography, Room to Dream. I figured I could use a palate cleanser though; Adamson's book was the best book I read all year - or at least my favorite - and I need to put something genre between it and the story of another creator I adore. So I cracked open Brad Carter's translation of this bizarre little Bigfoot tale...
Confession: I've yet to watch the Blu-Ray. I'd seen a good deal of scenes from Night of the Demon a while back on youtube; not a place I generally go to watch movies, but before Severin's remaster, this film was almost as much a legend as Bigfoot itself. Now forty or so pages into the book, I have to say, it is quite well-written. I know the basic story here and it feels quite a bit more substantial as prose than film. Some of that is obviously the hindsight employed, but also I think it speaks to Carter as a writer, and I quickly cued up a few of his novels for future reading, in particular the novel Saturday Night of the Living Dead.
As for Night of the Demon, I'm particularly interested in how the novel handles the "cult" subplot of the story, which didn't really get the treatment it deserved in what I saw of the film, which admittedly was not the whole thing. Carter gives all the characters involved extra development, which in some cases may have been a thankless task. Being asked to novelize a forty-something-year-old regional Horror film must be comparable to being asked to take agent listings of a house in need of updating. However, where someone else might have been happy to just recreate the schlock seen on the screen, Carter's extra level of care and attention really make this feel like it's going to be a far superior vehicle for the story.
Playlist:
Beach House - Depression Cherry
Pete Shelley - Homosapien
Uriah Heep - Abominog
Metallica - Lux Æturna (pre-release single)
Revocation - Netherhaven
Tyler Bates - The Punisher OST
Fvnerals - For Horror Eats the Light
Fvnerals - Wounds
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
Previous issues with my finances (intermittent but seemingly unending fallout from identity theft) will come to a resolution.
As I mentioned here a few days ago, I recently finished Barry Adamson's autobiography, Up Above the City, Down Below the Stars. It's a fantastic read; a sometimes heartbreaking deep-dive into the origins of the Manchester Post-Punk movement. Thrilling not only because Adamson is such an engaging narrator, delivering the story of his life in a quasi-Noir tone that totally fits Manchester in this era (think of the Joy Division biopic Control), but also because he names and describes so much music - a lot of which I have never heard before. The track above is a perfect example; I knew nothing of the Tubby Hayes Quintet until Adamson describes hearing the Live at Spot's album (renamed Down in the Village if you seek it out on streaming) for the first time on his father's new record player. He describes the way the opening horn attack blew his mind, and sure enough, I had the same experience. That is some smoking horn to open a set with!
Watch:
Before I left L.A., I actually had a chance to see a test screening of Cocaine Bear. I ended up not being able to make it, and now, after seeing the trailer, I wish I would have canceled whatever else I did and gone to this instead:
This. Looks. INSANE. I mean, in every great way a film can be insane, this looks as though it will check those boxes.
Playlist:
Alan Haven - Image (single)
Kermit Ruffins - The Barbeque Swingers Live
Tubby Hayes Quintet - Down in the Village (Live at Ronny Scott's Club, London 1962)
Metallica - Lux Æturna
Metallica - Hardwired... To Self-Destruct
Metallica - ... And Justice For All
Blondie - Eponymous
Ruelle - Emerge
Drug Church - Tawny EP
Feuerbahn - The Fire Dance EP
Zola Jesus - Arkhon
Harry Nilsson - Without You (single)
T. Rex - The Slider
Roxy Music - Eponymous
Alice Cooper - Killer
Barry Adamson - Back to the Cat
Magazine - Real Life
Bret Easton Ellis Podcast S6E27
Low Cut Connie - Get Out the Lotion
Greg Puciato - Mirrorcell
The Knitters - Poor Little Creature on the Road
Magazine - Secondhand Daylight
Serge Gainsbourg - Historie de Melody Nelson
Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures
The Birthday Party - Hee-Haw
The Birthday Party - Pleasure Heads Must Burn (DVD)
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - The Boatman's Call
Barry Adamson - Moss Side Story
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
Obscured influences come from a place of benevolence and should be accepted in order to further emotional security. Pretty broad scope, so I can't really pinpoint what this is addressing yet. But I'll keep my eyes open for obscured influences, of which there are no doubt many afoot in all of our lives.
In the mood for some early Cure today, specifically Seventeen Seconds. It's funny, a few months ago, I'd felt as though I might have lost my connection to this band. Not really sure why, but it felt like the entire part of my inner scaffolding that bonded with these guys' early albums had just dissipated in the tide of time. Nope.
Seeing this video is crazy. I stumbled across early pictures of the band recently and completely forgot how they looked before Robert Smith developed his signature look, back when any images of the band were grainy and distorted, giving a further sense of the otherworldly to their music.
Watch:
I can't believe we're getting an adaptation of Don Delillo's White Noise!
One of my favorite books since I read it in the 00s, I just can't imagine how this adaptation is going to work. I'd seen the title and thumbnail advertised somewhere a few weeks or months ago but figured there was NO WAY this would be Delillo's seminal Cold War novel. Surprise! It is.
NCBD:
A VERY mellow NCBD today, and I'm going to try to keep it that way. I've been fighting the urge to order those last two Something is Killing the Children trades so I can hurry up and be current, so maybe since this week is so light on monthlies, I'll do that. Regardless, here's my picks for the week:
I'm assuming this book will not last in its current incarnation for much longer, with Clea Strange as the main character, so I'll enjoy it while this lasts. With no previous knowledge or attachment of the character, and no interest in reading a monthly based around Stephen Strange, this has been the most delightful of surprises. Every issue is great.
Issue #2 of Jeremy Haun's new Horror story The Approach, and by the look of this absolutely insane cover, it's shaping up to be quite a beast.
I didn't love the second issue as much as the first, but I'm still pretty happy with this one. I think that has a lot to do with my love of Chris Claremont's Uncanny X-Men #244, "Women," which followed the then teams female members - Storm, Dazzler, Betsy Braddock and Rogue - going out on the town and getting into trouble. Same concept here; in fact, I can tell writer Leah Williams is drawing on that one, to a degree, and it shows. I love how this began with Dazzler, Boom Boom, Jubliee (who was introduced in that classic 244), and Laura out drinking and ended up being a bloody A.F. battle with vampires. Another instance of the 'monsters' of the Marvel Comic Universe making their presence known, as we sneak closer to seeing some (or all) the Midnight Sons characters introduced in the MCU.
Pay attention DC - alignment is important.
Playlist:
H6LLB6ND6R - Side A
The Cure - Seventeen Seconds
Electric Wizard - Wizard Bloody Wizard
Type O Negative - Bloody Kisses (digipak)
Jessica Moss - Galaxy Heart
Tune-Yards - WHOKILL
Tune-Yards - sketchy.
Feuerbahn - The Fire Dance EP
Tyler Bates - The Punisher Main Title
Metallica - Lux Æturna (pre-release single)
Carpenter Brut - Leather Terror
The Doors - Riders on the Storm (single)
Kermit Ruffins - The Barbeque Swingers Live
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
The conclusion of a project will require change in order to work around confusion and/or conflict.
I've never been the biggest Blondie fan, but I've also largely remained to everything but the singles. They've long been one of those bands I keep meaning to dig into the back catalogue, and just never remember. Well, between the OST for Paul Schrader's 1980 masterpiece American Gigolo, which I just watched for the first time a few months back and became enraptured with, and now the Showtime series of the same name, I've been inundated with "Call Me" off and on for weeks, and I have to say, it is a fantastic song. I always liked this one, but now I'm seeing something deeper. So, motivated by that, I've begun digging. So far though, nothing matches this one.
Watch:
Yes! Bobby Fingers has a new diorama video up!
Oh man, this guy is my hero. I haven''t watched this yet, but the subject matter for this, his second diarama video, is so in-line with his first, and both seem culled from the 80s pop culture detritus that I favor for fun-making.
Read:
I finally began Barry Adamson's Autobiography, Up Above the City, Down Below the Stars this past weekend. Adamson earned a perpetual place in my heart with his albums Moss Side Tory, Soul Murder, and of course, As Above So Below. This was all after his work on the Lost Highway OST in 1997 put him and his album Oedipus Schmodipus brought him to the awareness of, well, of anyone paying attention to the kinds of music that Trent Reznor included on that Soundtrack.
As Above is still my all-time favorite by him, but I've followed Mr. Adamson's career ever since. I grabbed a copy of his first short film The Therapist back in 2011, and had the total joy of seeing him perform live, solo, at L.A.'s The Hotel Cafe in... I'm not even sure when.
Beer:
Now that I'm officially into my first real winter in sixteen years - I know the season doesn't officially start until December 21st, however, it's cold - my appetite for darker, thicker beers has returned full force. My palate would usually shift for a week here or there while in L.A., as nights did get down to the 40s on a regular basis, however, Tennessee is decidedly closer to what I grew up with. Already seeing the 30s and we're loving it.
Anyway, while I still always have cans of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale on hand, I've really been peppering in more Porters and Stouts on an almost daily basis. This is somewhat propelled by my neighbor Vincent, who I've befriended and who loves dark beer. He's brought me quite a few Crowlers from his (and now our) favorite Clarksville brewery Tennessee Valley Brewing, and to return the favor, while in Chicago recently, I picked up a sixer of something for him.
Three Floyds is one of those entities that 100% deserves all the hype and mania they fostered during the 00s. Every beer I've had by them has been insanely consistent in quality, and their aesthetic - kind of a Doom Metal/SciFi/ComicBook thing fits the beer perfectly. There's always an air of blue-collar debauchery that undercuts what, in my mind, are very high-brow concepts, and I love that.
Playlist:
Metallica - Lux Æturna (pre-release single)
Blondie - Autoamerican
Various - American Gigolo OST (1980)
Zola Jesus - Arkhon
Mastodon - Hushed and Grim
Type O Negative - Bloody Kisses (Digipak)
H6LLB6ND6R - Side A
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
A slightly more ambitious pull today. The card that started this fell separate from the deck during shuffle, so I started there. An accomplishment of Will can make a Dream come true. A breakthrough with my Art will come via collaboration. Again, spot on! I've really become shocked that Grimm's Bound Tarot has essentially replaced the Thoth as my go-to deck. That seemed impossible; I'm not one to own a lot of decks. Sure, there are scores of amazing ones, but I have never owned a deck just because of how it looks - I've always struggled with reading and thus, felt it an imperative to limit the number I have to the ones that I use and bond with. That's been exactly Thoth and, later, Missi's Raven Deck of Major Arcana, which by definition, serves a different purpose altogether. Broader. But Grimm's deck has really become something I reach for multiple times a day, and I feel my readings and intuitions stoking again (I lost a lot after my Tarot debacle in 2015, which is described somewhere in these pages).
Maybe I'm just in a holiday mood, but I think I actually dig this new Metallica song. This would then be the first new song by the band I've liked since the Black Album, when I was a teenager, riding high on their previous records, and didn't know any better (fan inertia - it's a thing).
Believe me, I am dangerously self-aware (most of the time), and I'm so I realize that whenever I discuss this band, I have a sarcastic, cynical tone, and yet, I still talk about them. It's a defense mechanism. Part of me will never be okay with liking anything this band does because of what they have become. And conversely, I suppose, part of me will always want to like - well, no. Pretty sure that's not the case. I think Some Kind of Monster pretty much ruined any good will I had toward them.
But I saw this new track from the forthcoming 72 Seasons album dropped and, unlike anything they've released in years that I've been aware of, I couldn't help but click on it. Maybe it's because I root for Robert Trujillo, and regardless of what I think of the band, want him to succeed. Talk about a rags-to-riches story with a happy ending (when I moved to San Pedro and joined the YMCA there, I saw the enormous check he donated, as it used to be framed on the wall).
The first thing here that grabbed me - the production is AWESOME. Listen to those drums. Wow. Sure, the main musical ideas are all kind of recycled from previous iterations (did you hear the little bit of Whiplash, in the guitar solo especially). But overall, music alone - heightened as it is by the production - I dig. I'll never be a fan of how Hetfield sings now - probably because of those embarrassing songs that were plastered all over the sonic landscape of the late 90s. Give me fuel? Ugh. Or, that Bee-otch song? Jesus - that did more to sink his vocals than anything. And that, combined with my self-conscious defensive approach will no doubt keep me from ultimately engaging with this on any real level, but overall, this feels like a 'win' for these guys.
It might also be said, in a more positive vein, that I've been impressed by a couple things about these guys. First, they play so much, they're tight AF. This isn't a band that physically rests on their laurels, and I'll give 'em that. Sets I've seen listed over the last few years include older albums from their "good" period (Kill to Justice) in their entirety. And what was the thing with them playing in Antarctica? Can you imagine hearing The Call of Ktulu in Antarctica? I mean, not that anyone was there for that show, but still. Pretty cool idea.
So, I'll probably check this album out when it drops, and I'm sure I'll report back here. Until then, if you're so inclined, you can check out the pre-order page for 72 SeasonsHERE.
Watch:
With some trepidation, K and I binged the remainder of Showtime's American Gigolo series last night. After only three episodes, I'd become irritated with certain elements of the show and was pretty close to jumping off. However, in the end, I'll say that, while there is some pretty dumb writing that ends up being major plot mechanics (there is NO way Julian saw that hand tattoo from that far away), overall I enjoyed this.
I don't know that I'd go so far as to say I'd recommend it. Well, maybe. Jon Bernthal is absolutely fantastic, and I have to say that, while initially, I could not stand Rosie O'Donnell's character Detective Sunday, she ended up really winning me over.
Read:
I finally have jumped into James Tynion IV and Werther Dell'Edera's Something is Killing the Children and I'll tell ya, the book is worth the hype:
I'd read and reread the first five issues twice earlier in the year, when my buddy Gerald at the Comic Bug in Manhattan Beach gave me a "going away" present and knocked half off a pack of the David Mack covers of those first five issues. Something about it, though, didn't really register. In the interim, I learned about the body bag covers that the prequel series, House of Slaughter, have gotten, and began picking those up at Rick's Comic City purely on a whim. This, plus my Horror Vision cohost Butcher's regular admonishments that I needed to, "get on this, man" finally won out, and I followed his advice (knowing I would not regret it). I ordered trades 2 and 3 on Amazon the other day and read them in a day.
This series is fantastic. I won't go into spoilers plot-wise, however, I'll just say that the fact that the first three trades all take place over the course of basically a day or two, with most of that hinging on one insane night in Archer's Peak, well, it did a lot to bring me into the story. Now, I have to pick up the fourth and fifth trades, because I've already begun buying it monthly as of issue 26.
Playlist:
The Men that Will Not Be Blamed For Nothing - Now That's What I Call Steampunnk, Vol. 1
Bret Easton Ellis Podcast The Shards (about the first eight hours)
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
The emotional aspects of Will and the Willful aspects of emotion - a tad jumbled until you add in the idea that this confusion is probably what has been hampering a decision intimidated by the Ace of Pentacles. Not sure I've dialed this in exactly, but that's probably also part of the confusion, the fact that I have more than one decision that's overdue based on conjoined elements of what I want for the real world and what I want emotionally.
I'm fairly certain I posted this track here at some point in the distant recesses of the past. This is the track that made me a fan of Ms. Jesus. Reconnecting with her music of late (via that old iPod), I was pleased to see she released an album this year.
Watch:
Holy smokes. Nicolas Winding Refn has a Noir releasing on Netflix just after the new year?
I cannot wait for this. Despite the fact that I still have not finished Refn's previous series, the "We'll release that but f*&kin' bury it so no one knows it's on here" To Old To Die Young that Amazon 'released' on Prime back a few years ago. I really dig the series, however, when I copped to the fact that it is an exercise in one of Refn's favorite philosophical mantras, namely - It's so beautiful you will want to watch it, but it's so ugly you'll have trouble doing so - I nodded in understanding but moved away and haven't yet gone back to it. This will probably be the same, but I'm game regardless.
Read:
Two days ago, I restarted my reread of Nathan Ballingrud's Wounds: Six Stories from the Border of Hell collection. I blew through the first four stories - all as fantastic as I remember them from my initial reading several years back upon the book's release - and when I got to Visible Filth, I'm telling you. This is just one of my favorite pieces of prose ever. I fall so hard into the narrative, and every sentence, every sentiment and setting and character arc, they are all satisfying on a level not much else is. What I did not remember from that first reading was how absolutely glorious the final story in the volume is. The Butcher's Table - so named after a pirate ship that crosses from the Gulf of Mexico to the black seas of Hell, is nothing short of a masterpiece. With a remarkably wide and diverse cast that runs the gamut from the Egalitarian members of a refined Cannibal cult and a Secret Order of High Society Satanists, all the way down (or is that up?) the food chain to cutthroat Pirates and hired Victorian Dock Scum, this story winds itself taut and then literally springs to a conclusion that is satisfying right down to the final sentence. The Butcher's Table also showcases Mr. Ballingrud's ability to write in any timeline.
If you've not read this, please do yourself a favor and do so. I've already posted the US cover to Wounds multiple times, so in the interest of seeing something new and awesome, here's the Turkish cover, where the book was renamed The Atlas of Hell.
Playlist:
The Men That Will Not Be Blamed For Nothing - Now That's What I Call Steampunk, Vol. 1
Zola Jesus - Stridulum
Calderum - Mystical Fortress of Iberian Lands
The Men That Will Not Be Blamed For Nothing - Eponymous
Bat For Lashes - Fur and Gold
The Knife - Silent Shout
TVOTR - Return To Cookie Mountain
TVOTR - Staring at the Sun EP
Drab Majesty - Careless
Shellac - Dude Incredible
Vaguess - The Bodhi Collection
Rodney Crowell - Christmas Everywhere
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
The outcome of a material endeavor, possibly with an accomplishment.
Many years ago now, my good friend Grez turned me onto the band Karate, specifically, their 2000 album Unsolved. Remember that old iPod I mentioned last week? Yeah, this is on there, too. The entire album is fantastic, but final track "This Day Next Year" has to be one of the greatest closing album songs ever recorded.
NCBD:
My pull Thanksgiving pull-list for NCBD:
Still digging the new Alien book, where a squad of synthetics who have been dicked over by the Military and just want to be left alone are now stuck in a hotbed of Alien activity. Time to fight their way out - good news for us.
I'm on the fence with this "Dark Web" event, but I'm curious enough to give it a shot. It's not like I'm not already reading several X-Books and Amazing Spider-Man, so hopefully, I'll get the gist of it in those pages without having to buy anything extra (not bloody likely, mate)
In the previous issue of Creepshow, we were treated to a story by David and Maria Lapham; I can't wait to see what we get this time.
I was originally under the impression that, like Creepshow, Stuff of Nightmares was an issue-by-issue anthology. Not the case, and I'm glad because the Brothers Cameron are creating quite the crazy little arc. Part Reanimator, part Mystery-Thriller, this one is quickly becoming one of my favorites.
What's the Furthest Place From Here returns, and I could not be happier. I did a full reread of this back in late July, and I'm ready to get back in and learn some more about this truly bizarre world Rosenberg and Boss have created.
After last week's Immortal X-Men, I am chomping at the bit for more! I recently read something about an upcoming event - a smaller one this time - called Sins of Sinister, and being that the big "S" is one of the most fascinating characters in the X-Books at the moment, I'm getting pretty excited.
Watch:
Really? Really Olivia Wilde?
I have to say, this film is infuriating because, for most of its runtime, Don't Worry Darling is outstanding. And overall, it is a very well-made movie. That said, the 'reveal' in the third act is insulting. I mean, this is what happens when you have everything to make a fantastic film except a good idea.
Playlist:
Mastodon - Hushed and Grim
Karate - Unsolved
Wipers - Youth of America
Zola Jesus - Conatus
Zeni Geva & Steve Albini - All Right! You Little Bastards!
Zola Jesus - Stridulum
Deafheaven - Infinite Granite
Deafheaven - Sunbather
Uniform and The Body - Mental Wounds Not Healing
Orville Peck - Bronco
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
Retaining the ability to shift gears when working on something and realizing I'm not quite there yet. Yeah, that's on the nose. The free Kindle Exclusive Book has to wait. I realized this yesterday, as I've submitted one of the stories for publication elsewhere, and two of them are not quite up to the standard I am comfortable with.
A couple years ago, while watching the extras on my then-newly received copy of Severin Video's edition of Alex De La Iglesia's Day of the Beast, I noticed one of the film's crew members wearing a Poni Hoax t-shirt. I'd never heard of the band, so I looked them up on Apple Music and then promptly forgot all about them.
Until recently.
I still don't know much about the band or their discography, but I will soon remedy that. I do know that the entire self-titled record from 2006 is fantastic, combining Post Punk DNA with throbbing synths and moody keyboards.
Watch:
Last Friday, K and I made it out to see The Menu.
I'm posting the trailer here, but I will say, this one was over-marketed in my opinion. You may have noticed that since moving, I go to the theatre more than ever before, and I must have seen this trailer before every movie since August. If you're as sick of it as I am, no need to watch it again, as I'm merely posting it here for posterity's sake.
I dug the film, although I had my issues.
The plot of The Menu is exactly what the trailer hints at, which I found to be a little bit of a disappointment. You get what you pay for, sure, and maybe in this day and age I've become wrongfully indoctrinated to expect a 'twist' or some sleight of hand in the narrative. Not so here. I accept this and move on, except that doesn't gel for me in regards to the end of the film. I think anyone that goes to see this film will expect Anya Taylor-Joy's charater to live, but being that the plot is what it looks like and Fiennes character has assembled all of these folks to end their lives makes me feel like the movie doesn't earn the right to let Margo live. I totally get the mechanics behind "The Cheeseburger," however, it just kinda feels like cheating, or maybe better put that the film doesn't have the heart to live up to its convictions. It's funny, because I was certainly rooting for ATJ to live, but when I got what I wanted, it felt hollow.
Oh well. All in all, a good film and a nice night out at the movies.
Read:
Last week, I mentioned finally receiving my copy of Brubaker and Phillips' new Reckless book, Follow Me Down. I have to say, this series is fantastic, containing now five of the best graphic novels I've ever read.
I adore everything about this series. The format is a massive win for comic fans: the fact that Brubaker and Phillips have proven the concept of releasing Hardcovers every six months instead of serializing floppies for eventual collection just proves that there are a lot of people willing to pay for this kind of thing.
Playlist:
The Thirsty Crows - Hangman's Noose
Rezurex - Skeletons
Scratch Acid - The Greatest Gift
Team Sleep - Eponymous
Gang of Four - Return the Gift, Part 1
The Juan Maclean - Happy House (Matthew Dear Remix)
Rein - Reincarnated
Poni Hoax - Eponymous
Mastodon - Hushed and Grim
Eldovar - A Story of Darkness and Light
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
Seven of Pentacles/Disks again, eh? Hmm... Well, the card I started with here, the Three of Wands, popped out of the deck while I shuffled, so that seems the point to which the others refer. Three of Wands often asks the question for you, a sort of, "How true to your ambitions/inner map are you at the moment? Seven of Pentacles denotes difficulty in material or "Earthly" matters, and in this case, the wheel tells me I may need to make an adjustment and wait out the ramifications before things realign with how I want them to be.
Ask and ye shall freakin' receive. New music from The Subways. "Black Wax" is taken from the forthcoming album Uncertain Joys, which drops January 13th, 2023. You can pre-order HERE. Very cool song; feels good to reconnect with a band like I have with The Subways.
Read:
Over the weekend, I finished up a couple of books I'd had lingering over the last few months. First, I knocked out all the remaining stories in my re-read of Irvine Welsh's seminal short story collection The Acid House. Fantastic stuff.
Second, I went back and read the last three (of a paltry four total) tales in Emily Carrol's Through the Woods. Somewhere between a book of short stories, a comic book, and a story book, Through The Woods is a joy to immerse yourself in, and proves to be too short an experience.
Ms. Carroll's style pushes and pulls the heart between youth and adulthood, joy and terror, naughty and nice. There's a similar appreciation for the Fairytales and Nursery Rhymes of the old world that you see in the work of Neil Gaiman, and there's just as sharp a'teeth here and there.
Playlist:
Rowland S. Howard - Pop Crimes
Poni Hoax - Eponymous
Orville Peck - Pony
The Final Cut - Consumed
Primus - Pork Soda
Sausage - Riddles Are Abound Tonight
Nun Gun - Mondo Decay
Joy Division - Still
Belong - October Language
Sylvaine - Nova
Beach House - Once Twice Melody
Preoccupations - Arrangements
Jackie Wilson - Higher and Higher
Ozzy Osbourne - Diary of a Madman
Jerry Cantrell - Atone
Fleet Foxes - Shore
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
Allowing Change to occur for the purposes of growth even when that change necessitates difficulty in material life.
Well, our Thermostat went down yesterday and we're waiting for a technician to come out, so that definitely fits. I'll take this as the cards reminding me to ask questions and pay attention when the tech is here, so I can learn something. I'm pretty bad about paying attention to homeowner things, and I suppose that needs to abate.
