Kind of an obsession right now. I had never heard of Emma Ruth Rundle until a friend sent me a writing playlist that had this song on it. After a few iterations, this one stuck out. It has a particularly '2 A.M.' sound to me, a tone I've talked about on here at various points in the past. Might be what I need to finish my novel 2:00 AM Corridors, or at least complete the outline. Regardless of how Ms. Rundle's music fuels my creativity, you can find her full albums - including Marked for Death - on Apple Music, and I was excited to see she has a new record in pre-order mode HERE.
Playlist for yesterday:
Deafheaven - Ordinary Corrupt Human Love
Write Dark Things Playlist
Card of the day:
Oppression? In this heat? Yup. That is the word. My sleep is bad, my stomach is bad, my head is heavy. Oppression is the exact word.
Junior Jr. just released the video for Guns A Blazin'! With the final issue of my DwC co-host Mike Wellman and his debonair artist extraordinaire counter part Rafael Navarro's cross-time comic epic close at hand, I can't think of a better song to start my dreary Tuesday morning with.
Playlist from Yesterday:
John Carpenter - Lost Themes
Chelsea Wolfe - Abyss
Deafheaven - Ordinary Corrupt Human Love
Card of the day:
Significance of the primary subject of this card - Knight on Horse, flying into the fray. Going toward your goal with no distraction. Funny then, that this morning I feel so distracted. Leave it to the cards to call me out on it.
I know I just posted the full album stream that Deafheaven's record label Anti- put up last Friday, however, I'm still ingesting the album and while it is chock full of wonderful surprises, this song hit me the hardest. Gorgeous. And look, there's Chelsea Wolfe, who I appear to be inadvertently stalking here on my blog.
Playlist from yesterday:
John Carpenter's Lost Themes II
Yep. That's it. One album. We spent the day cleaning and organizing our garage, which has enough storage to essentially be a storage unit, so there wasn't a lot of time for music. Ended the night by viewing my new Scream Factory Blu Ray of John Carpenter's Prince of Darkness, my favorite Carpenter film (not his best film, but my favorite). I had a hard time deciding on the collector's edition or the steelbook, as the latter comes with an awesome lithograph. I went with this one because it is my all-time favorite cover art for a dvd/br, artist Justin Osbourne:
If anyone knows where I can get a poster of this, please let me know. I've looked online but found nothing and apparently this edition was originally released with one.
No card today, but let's do the Prince of Darkness trailer to round things out:
To celebrate the Steelbook/Angela Figure exclusive Scream Factory announced last week. I won't be ponying up for it, at least not with the figure (no room for it), but it's pretty damn awesome.
Haven't been on here in a few days. Pulled a trip to Fingerprints in Long Beach on Friday during the day after K and I declared it a mental health day. Traded in a bunch of old CDs that didn't make the cut and used the credit to buy a couple gems on vinyl we'd been wanting.
Did a DwC Friday night and had the delightful Karen Kunawicz from the Manilla Times as our guest. Already editing it, so hopefully I'll have it up mid-week. As always, live feed is on our FB Page in perpetuity.
Spent most of Saturday, from about midnight to 8 PM watching the amazing Joe Bob Briggs on Shudder's The Last Drive In. A 24 hour horror movie marathon, this was basically a 27 hour horror movie party and I loved every second of it I caught (had to sleep for a few hours Friday night/Saturday morning). I'd never encountered Joe Bob Briggs before, and now that I've had a taste I can only hope this isn't, as he says, the last one of these he'll be doing. The entire event is up on Shudder as a season with each movie an episode. Each film has a considerably longer-than-usual runtime, as Mr. Briggs cuts in every so often to offer facts about each film, aside, stories, insights. This is the real draw, and I can only hope I can see him do this again, whether by having more, or through finding ways to watch the old Up All Night events.
Films played:
Tourist Trap
Sleepaway Camp
David Cronenberg's Rabid
The Prowler
Sorority Babes in the Slime Ball Bowl-O-Rama
Daughters of Darkness
Blood Feast
Basket Case
Herbert West: Re-Animator
Demons
The Legend of Boggy Creek
Hellraiser
Pieces
Great stuff, eh?
Playlist from the last few days has been sporadic at best with all the movies, so I'll refrain from posting it for now and pick back up tomorrow.
Well, it's 12:27 AM. I've officially called out from work tomorrow. Mental Health day. AND the new Deafheaven just dropped! and their awesome label Anti- is streaming Ordinary Corrupt Human Love in it's entirety. I'm a little pissed that the vinyl copy I pre-orderd the day the album was announced has not shipped yet (or King's Road Merch/Anti- hasn't updated the order status on their website), but I've got it digitally and now I've got all night and all day to listen to it!
There's a Drinking w/ Comics live streaming on our Facebook page tonight at 9:00 PM Pacific Time. Check it out - we've got Karen Kunawicz as a guest. She's the entertainment columnist for the Manilla times and a good friend of Mike's so I'm psyched to talk geek shop with her.
And a BIG Also, Joe Bob Briggs is hosting a 24 hour horror marathon on Shudder starting at 6:00 PM Pacific (that's 9:00 PM Eastern Standard) and other than listening to Deafheaven and doing my show, I'll be watching that.
Comics I will (Try) to talk about tomorrow:
Earlier this evening I watched a flick on Shudder I'd not heard of before. Described as a modern Giallo, Cold Hell defied ALL of my expectations and proved to be a fabulous film. A Giallo that is not content to just hail the flags of the genre, Cold Hell is a story of violence, but more over it is a story of the human heart. That might sound a bit heavy handed, but it's not. Absolutely, positively recommended:
Followed that up with this classic:
Card of the day:
Balance. Kind of feel like that's what I'm doing now, by not going to work tomorrow. Sometimes you have to do that; call it a mental health day.
I've been on a bit of an Electric Mud kick and this was always one of my favorite songs and one of the ways I got into the record, as Cypress Hill sampled this on their first album, which I used to be quite the fan of.
Playlist from 7/11:
Greenhaus - The Unmistakable Sound of Sloth
Chelsea Wolfe - Abyss
Muddy Waters - Electric Mud
Andre Previn & The London Symphony Orchestra - Samuel Barber: Adagio for Strings, Op. 11
My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult - Sinister Whispers: The Wax Trax! Years
The Atlas Moth - Coma Noir
New Drinking, Fighting, F*&king, and Crying is up HERE. Two more to go and it is officially retired.
Card of the day:
Let's take a literal interpretation, shall we? That'd be nice.
Because I'm still charged from that video I posted yesterday for The Culling, and I'm crushing on her pretty hard at the moment.
Playlist from yesterday:
John Carpenter - Lost Themes
Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Everybody Knows This is Nowhere
The Veils - Total Depravity
Various Artists - Twin Peaks Ssn 3 OST
Jeff Grace - House of the Devil OST
Secret Chiefs 3 Traditionalists - Le Mani Destre Recise Degli Ultimi Uomini
AND my good friend Chris from Drinking with Comics gave me a sneak peak at some of the tracks on the forthcoming new Thirsty Crows record his band has been recording for Batcave Records. It is awesome!
Card of the day:
Willing a spark of intuition or creativity into a form. Again, the writing analogy. Also, notice in spite of yesterday's deviance, I've gone Fool, Magus Priestess in succession; I have to look into what exactly that can represent, as I've not seen that before.
Also, I'm always drawn to this card for the grid, which represents order to me. And the camel, a representation for the Hebrew letter Gimel, which is the third letter of the sacred alphabet and corresponds to the third Sephiroth, Binah, the Great Mother. Lots of water in this card, and it shows in the feminine (ie the suite of Cups; Emotions) attributes of the card. Thus, the Priestess. And interesting that one of my setbacks in working on Please Believe Me is probably because the main character is both female and elderly, and I'm attempting to find an authentic voice there. I've re-written Heddie Larsen now multiple times to try and find and air of authenticity.
What do you know? A video for my favorite track on Chelsea Wolfe's unbelievable record Hiss Spun dropped yesterday. Creepy AF. I love that they continually show you even less than just enough to intrigue you, provoking rabid contemplation and nightmare like mental recoil and reflex.
Playlist from yesterday:
The Besnard Lakes - The Besnard Lakes are the Roaring Night
The Paper Chase - God Bless Your Black Heart
Marilyn Manson - Antichrist Superstar
Windhand/Satan's Satyrs - Split E.P.
Card of the day:
Tipareth - shelter from the storm. A healthy balance between emotion and intellect. I can use this, first and foremost in my current writing project, "Please Believe Me," where I'm really trying to nail a genuine reaction to something terrible.
I had a notice in Google to 'rediscover this day' for June 24, 2016 - two years since I saw Eagulls at the Teragram Ballroom in DTLA. That means it's just over two years since Ullages came out, so hopefully these lads have a new record in the wings. I'd like that very much. In the meantime, HERE is the Google Link to my very mediocre photos of the show (I share these merely for posterity's sake, and have never claimed to be any kind of photographer).
I finished Lauren Groff's The Monsters of Templeton over the weekend. Very good novel; first thing I'd categorize as "East Coast Lit" that I've read in a while. No genre trappings at all; nothing wrong with genre, in fact, I guess you could say that 'lit' is kind of a genre to me. The idea comes from working in a book store for five years - I read voraciously and definitely began to see a difference in what was in the Fiction/Lit section and what was in the various genre sections. And of course this isn't a blanket policy. But, you know, William S. Burroughs' Science Fiction is different from John Scalzy's. Neither is better than the other, they just come from different angles. Or, all that's shite. This is the inner workings of my own head, don't think I'm subjugating anyone else with these parameters.
Anyway, it really put me back in a lit frame of mind - I've put off reading almost anything I'd categorize that way for years, from the time I began to write heavily plotted material I considered more genre than anything. Irvine Welsh has released four or five novels in that time and although he's one of my favorite writers, I've avoided them completely. However, after Monsters fired me up again on the lit 'flavor', I broke out Norman Mailer's The Deer Park. This a novel I've had on the shelf for some time. From the first sentence I was in love; The Deer Park is kind of The Great Gatsby in the Southern California desert, a tale of the vices of 1950's Hollywood that has Fitzgerald written all over it. I love it. And I know Gatsby isn't Fitz's Hollywood novel, but there are HUGE similarities, especially, it seems, with contemplations of morality.
The playlist from 7/08/18 was a short one:
Anthrax - Sound of White Noise
Johnny Jewel - Digital Rain
Chromatics - Night Drive
Card of the day:
From the grimoire: "Can represent desire for rebirth or a new beginning." Interesting that I've started the new short I'm working on, "Please Believe Me," three times already, slightly tweaking the way I bring the reader into the world. And it's been a journey so far, a lot of subtle changes in the way I present the characters.
I've been using a lot of instrumental music for my writing sessions of late. Most of the time lyrics don't bother me, because most of the time I write to metal and the lyrics can almost be seen as another instrument anyway, especially with the throatier stuff (hence why I listen to Deafheaven so much when I write). But I've noticed while working on this new short story, tentatively titled, "Please Believe Me," that lyrics have proven a distraction. So the other night I fell pretty hard for the Jim Jarmusch/Jozef Van Wissem stuff, and now today I'm finding Johnny Jewel's newly released Digital Rain and absolute aces album to craft by. Here's a sample:
Oh! Before I forget, happy birthday to my one of my best friends in the world, Sonny V. Despite our distance and life's continued efforts to occupy all our time and keep us apart, I love you sir, and one day we will jam together again. In the interim, I found myself thinking about some of our old comedy skits recently, so here's an oldie but a goodie:
I attended my first Horror Writer's Association meeting yesterday, thanks to the generosity of David Lucarelli. I loved it, the idea of a large group of people gathered to discuss the craft. I found inspiration from pretty much everyone present, and I absolutely cannot wait to officially join and begin attending the monthly meetings! Also, two of the gentlemen in attendance have books I am planning on reading in the very near future. Both are available on amazon, or if you're local, I believe at Dark Delicacies, a horror-shop in Burbank I wasn't really aware of until yesterday. Can't wait to check that out as well.
Zeal and Ardor - EP
Zeal and Ardor - Stranger Fruit
Beak - L.A. Playback
Beastmilk - Use Your Deluge E.P.
Best Coast - Crazy for You
Card of the day:
Working to develop a better understanding of the intricate Universe that surrounds us. This is Magick, the idea of tapping into something greater, and that the energies from doing so flow both ways.
Tommy gave me a new favorite record yesterday with his edition of The Joup Friday Album. The Paper Chase had been recommended to me several times by several different friends, chief among them, I believe, Mr. Brown and Jeffrey Equality Brooks, but it wasn't until Tommy put God Bless Your Black Heart up and I read his interpretation that I actually succeeded in hearing them beyond a track or two (and let's be honest, the immediacy of Apple Music helped immensely as well).
Playlist from Friday, 7/07/18:
Secret Chiefs 3 Traditionalists - La Mani Destre Recise Degli Ultimi Uomini
Beak - L.A. Playback
The Paper Chase - God Bless Your Black Heart
SQÜRL - EP #1
Jozef Van Wissem & SQÜRL - Only Lovers Left Alive OST
Jim Jarmusch & Jozef Van Wissem - The Mystery of Heaven
Jim Jarmusch & Jozef Van Wissem - Concerning the Entrance Into Eternity
My obsession with Predator is at an all-time high. My friend Joe and I walk around all day at work quoting this scene:
Playlist from 7/05:
John Carpenter - Lost Themes
Grimes - Oblivion
Goblin - Dawn of the Dead (Theme)
David Lynch - The Big Dream
Alice in Chains - Facelift
Mastodon - Emperor of Sand
Crippled Black Phoenix - Horrific Honorifics
NIN - Add Violence E.P.
Perturbator - New Model
In light of recent news, let's have some Them Are Us Too, shall we?
I finally saw A Cure For Wellness. Visually I dug it, and three-quarters of the way through I was still more or less smitten. The last third, where Gore Verbinski couldn't quite decide how he wanted to end the film, just that he absolutely had to wedge in a series of scenes that all felt as though they ended the movie, really toppled the film under the weight of lofty ambitions. A Cure For Wellness just falls apart at the end, and it's a shame. Worth a watch for sure, but even at $9.99 I have buyer's remorse that I picked up the Blu Ray. #firstworldproblems for sure.
Also watched the 1986 Transformers animated movie - the ONLY Transformers movie in my book - for the first time in probably fifteen years. Still pretty damn awesome, and the soundtrack actually bothers me less today. All the ambient/synth-based stuff is great. The hair metal not so much, but again, it doesn't quite bother me as much now as it did fifteen years ago.
The new Drinking, Fighting, F*&king, and Crying is up HERE.
Playlist from 7/04/18:
Sinoia Caves - Beyond the Black Rainbow OST
Joseph Loduca - Evil Dead 2 OST
John Carpenter - Lost Themes
Card of the day:
Balance. Also, results from hard work or actualization from an idea. This is good; working on a new short story.
How about a little Ted Leo and the Pharmacists to kick off the mid-week holiday?
Get you feeling good? Me too. There is so much Thin Lizzy in that song it's awesome!
The Comic Bug recently bought at massive collection and that means there are about a dozen long boxes (at least) of comics out for $1.00 right now, set up in the middle of their shop. A couple weeks I did some light digging and, as I always am when digging through back issue long boxes like this, I was in the mood for grabbing a few 80s/early 90s copies of Newsprint Marvels. I went with a few issues of The Avengers, specifically #352, 353, and 354. Why? Well, I never really read Avengers growing up, however I did pick up a few issues around this time back in the day and I've always been subsequently intrigued by the way the team - much like Chris Claremont's Uncanny X-Men, often cycled out the 'Big Names' and operated with a cast of C, D, and maybe even E level characters. And you know, that didn't make the stories bad, it actually made them more interesting than just having status quo re-achieved after every arc or crossover.
Also of note in these three particular issues, penned by Len Kaminski and drawn by M.C. Wyman, is the heavy influence of the original Evil Dead movies. You see it a bit in the covers to 353 and 354, but there's a lot of little stuff lovingly cribbed from the ED2 and Army of Darkness. This fits, as these were published right about the time AoD was released.
Great covers, right? I am especially fond of 353.
Playlist from 7/02:
John Frusciante - Niandra LaDes and Usually Just a T-Shirt
Zeal and Ardor - Stranger Fruit
Jane's Addiction - Kettle Whistle
Nirvana - Incesticide
Cocksure - Corporate_Sting
Deafheaven - New Bermuda
The Casket Lottery - Smoke and Mirrors E.P.
Fever Ray - Plunge
White Hex - Gold Nights
Jeff Grace - House of the Devil OST
Card of the day:
Pressure has eased. Yes - perfect. Yesterday was the first day after I handed over the 76k+ second draft of T12 to Keller. Immediate relief, although I didn't come until I walked to my writing spot, fired up the laptop and closed the T12 Scrivener doc, then opened up my short story one and started something new. So yes, the pressure has eased.
Dug out the first John Frusciante solo album yesterday. Hadn't listened to it in some time. Say what you want about the performance/production, but there is something so psychologically intimate about this one. The story that he was basically found living in his own squalor when he recorded this on a four-track is legendary by now, and I no longer even remember if it's true or what the specifics are, but there's some raw shit here, and some of it is genius.
Playlist from yesterday was short:
Underworld - 1992-2002 (disc 2)
Underworld - Beaucoup Fish
Deadsy - Commencement
John Frusciante - Niandra LaDes and Usually Just a T-Shirt
I know this track from the OST for a movie called The Devil's Business. This is a soundtrack I love from a film I have never seen (need to change that). Because of this slightly obscure relationship with the material, I forget about this one for long stretches, something triggers my memory (usually an early, gray morning - the somber tone of this track always fits with an early, gray morning) and I pull it out for a few days. I don't think I need to explain that that is exactly what happened this morning as I woke up tired, and dragged myself through the preparatory hygiene required for me to go into work.
While listening in the car, I knew that since my drive would only take me ~20 minutes, I'd want to continue with the album once I got inside, punched in and began the tasks of the day. When I went to Apple Music, however, I was bummed to find the soundtrack was not there. As a work-around I googled the first track and for the first time in memory realized it was not a composer, but a band. After another quick search I found the track I wanted to post (above) AND I found an awesome band I had previously never heard of, Crippled Black Phoenix.
Playlist from 6/29:
Best Coast - Crazy For You
Zeal and Ardor - Stranger Fruit
Windhand - Grief's Infernal Flower
Windhand - Soma
I also subscribed to Bret Easton Elli's Podcast on Patreon and listened to two fantastic episodes:
B.E.E. Podcast - 6/15/18 James Van Deer Beek - wherein they discuss a lot of things, including but not limited to the 2001 70mm redux, Roseanne, Me Too and the usual woes of the business.
B.E.E. Podcast - 6/28/18 Ben Fritz - really great discussion about the death of Sony and the state of the movie business.
New Alice in Chains went up earlier this week. I haven't listened to it yet, not suer that I'm going to until I can hear it in the context of the new album (which I'm not even sure we need), but I figured I've posted everything else recent they've done here so I might as well do this too, if only for posterity's sake:
I was unofficially tagged to do this week's edition of The Joup Friday Album and it's up HERE if you'd care to take a trip with The Atlas Moth to open your weekend.
Playlist from yesterday:
Liars - Eponymous
PLANETS - The Dark Woods
David Bowie - Diamond Dogs
Wire - Pink Flag
Wrong - Feel Great
Slayer - Reign in Blood
Zombi - Spirit Animal
The Atlas Moth - Coma Noir
Card of the day:
Unkindness and a lack of empathy. Hmm... Definitely going to keep my head down today.
My friend Anthony recently turned me on to these guys. Powerful stuff.
Final issue of Ed Brubaker and Sean Philips' Kill or Be Killed came out yesterday. Great series. I didn't LOVE the end, would have found it more fitting with the severity of the series if it had ended at the end of issue 19, HOWEVER, I didn't not like having 20 end the series, and I get why they did what they did. Brubaker and Phillips have proven themselves so I don't question their work, I just enjoy it.
Watched a really cool little movie on Shudder last night. Sweet Sweet Lonely Girl is an exercise in both atmosphere and restraint, and it is definitely worth your time if you like retro, slow-burn films bristling with soft dread you know is going to go tits up before the end.
The new Drinking, Fighting, F*&king, and Crying is up HERE.
Playlist from Wednesday, 6/27/18:
The Besnard Lakes - The Besnard Lakes are the Dark Horse
PLANETS - The Dark Woods
NIN - Bad Witch
FMLYBND - Letting Go
The Effigies - Remains Nonviewable
Protomartyr - Under Color of Official Right
Wrong - Feel Great
The Atlas Moth - The Ache of Distance
The Atlas Moth - Coma Noir
I am completely unfamiliar with Billy Senese and his 2014 debut Closer to God, but that's about to change. Just found this trailer via Birth.Movies.Death. - caught my eye when I saw Shane Carruth's name attached, as both Primer and especially Upstream Color are among the most thought-provoking films I've seen in years. One look at this trailer and I am sold!
Somehow I think both this and Mandy will be playing Beyond Fest this year. I really don't want to wait that long, but what an awesome environment that will be to see these in.
Finished Orphan Black last night. Wow. Great ending. Really satisfying. I mean, we're not talking Six Feet Under or Breaking Bad here, but really good. Loved this series. The above track was in the fourth to final episode, at Felix's Gallery show. Good stuff. I'll miss these characters A LOT. That said, coincidentally enough, this comes out today:
Comic adaptations that continue shows we love are hit and miss and even as good as they can be (Dollhouse), they're not the original. That said, I can't pass this up just because of the seemingly crazy synchronicity of K and I finishing the series a few weeks (at least) after SSN 5 hit Prime one day before the first issue comes out.
Playlist from 6/26:
The Besnard Lakes - The Besnard Lakes are the Dark Horse
Radiohead - Kid A
Portishead - Third
Chromatics - Night Drive
Perturbator - The Uncanny Valley
Card of the day:
From the Grimoire: "Emerging victories from a trying time; big change; think things through."
Pulled this right before a friend at work walked in and expressed concern about a situation taking place. He keeps talking about jumping ship (my metaphor, not his, but the sentiment's there). I told him thought he should hang tight and assess, which this Pull backs up.
A lot of Besnard Lakes lately. There's a certain, "Midwest Basement 90s" vibe that I need to tap into for my next big project, code-named HSL, and it requires that tone. So I'm dipping my toes in the sound of Great Lakes Rock, piecing together a short story that utilizes the same tone and generally trying to re-connect with the inner, seventeen-year-old me.
Weird.
Playlist from Monday, 6/25"
The Besnard Lakes Vol. 1
Lebanon-Hanover - Let Them Be Alien
Ice Age - Beyondless
Svvamp - 2
Ministry - Dark Side of the Spoon
NIN - Bad Witch
Faith No More - Angel Dust
Fantomas - Delirium Cordia
Flying Lotus - Los Angeles
Card for today:
From the Grimoire: "How True are you to your inner aspirations and Will? Denotes upon appearance a situation to know yourself, what you want, and throw your self doubt and fear away." I find that rather lovely. Also, as we're now apparently counting up through the Wands suit, coming on the back of Dominion yesterday, I feel as though this is more affirmation for my goals, which I continue to pursue rabidly.
From the Grimoire: "Indicates you are in charge of the way your life is unfolding. Striking the harmonic resonance that sees events occur as we would like them to. Planning - Thoughtfullness - Mojo." - Spot on, as I've been giddy all morning thinking about the fact that I just finished writing a 75k novel (it's expanding a bit as I edit each chapter once more in Grammarly) in 7 months (6 when you figure I had about 1 month off for our move). I feel like everything is going exactly according to the plan I have set up. And that's a damn good feeling.
Heard this in-between songs on my headphones yesterday while writing in my CBTL. How often do you find music you want to immediately download and listen to in a public place? Not very fucking often, that's for sure. But there are exceptions to every rule:
Playlist from 6/23/18:
NIN - Bad Witch
Beach House - 7
Preoccupations - New Material
Barrie - Canyons (Single)
Ice Age - Beyondless
Underworld - Beacoup Fish
New NIN dropped yesterday. I haven't listened to anything on it other than that God Break Down The Door song, which I quite liked for all its Bowie-ness. Figured I'd post it hear - I'll probably get to it later today, but I'd be curious to see comments about what anyone reading this who listens to it thinks. Trent remains an interest of mine, even if his lyrical persona and the subsequent 'Reznorisms" sometimes - sometimes - leads me to sigh.
BIG week at the Comic shop this week. NCBD is always a joy, but this week I had new Deadly Class, new TMNT, second issue of Garth Ennis's A Walk Through Hell (which was freakin' awesome!), the new Black Science, finally got the second issue of sold out Tinsel Town by David Lucarelli, Calexit #3, and new Gideon Falls and Days of Hate, probably my two favorite books right now (besides TWD, Deadly Class and Stray Bullets, which rule without me having to say so). Both Gideon Falls and Days of Hate are really starting to ratchet up, so it kills me a bit to see Days is on hiatus until August, but what's two months in the grand scheme? Also, a little love should be extended for IDW's TMNT - it is such a fantastic on-going redesign of a property I've loved since it helped kick off the 80s B&W Explosion. Issue 83 was a fantastic tale, juggling multiple storylines and character arcs in as deft a fashion as ever (this book has just gotten better and better at doing that). The Pantheon is a great addition to the cast, especially as it's super clear they are VERY influenced by Neil Gaiman's The Endless, from the Sandman books.
As I believe I mentioned earlier this month, I went in on a monthly Shudder sub and, although I haven't explored it fully yet, it's really a great subscription. Last time I brought this up I believe I mentioned Interior. I'll add Follow Me to the list now, another superb thriller that I thought unfolded beautifully from one of the best 'inciting incidents' I've seen in a while. Girlfriend gives her boyfriend a handgun for Christmas, asks him to put it in his mouth and pull the trigger if he trusts her.
And I'll just leave you with that... and yeah, it's a Christmas movie. In a sense.
Note: I used the Spanish Movie Poster here, because I like this one the best, but the film is not a Spanish-language film. Just in case anyone reading has an aversion to subs. I do not, but I know some people do.
Playlist from 6/22:
Radiohead - Kid A
Servotron - Meet Your Mechanical Masters
Slim day on the music. Crazy work day and a humungous nap afterward.
Card for today:
From the Grimoire (which I suspect by its tone was cribbed from Crowley): "The first step from the perfection of one divides it into two.
Jesus. Friday, just in the nick O' time, eh? Here's a little Tom Vek to wake us up:
I've been having trouble sleeping, and when I wake up I feel - as I do now - as though my spirit was too far away from my body. Discombobulation. Whatever the case, it's making everything in my AM a chore. Also, waking up stupid has made me repeatedly unable to get my shit together long enough to do a pull with my beloved Thoth deck. That means I've been relying on my pocket-sized back-up deck, The Hanson-Roberts, more heavily than I would like. Nothing inherently wrong with the H-R deck, I just very much prefer the esoteric elegance of Lady Freida Harris' art over the H-R's, which is so 'classic tarot' that it's hard to hate but also a bit trite, if you ask me.
Playlist from 6/21:
David Bowie - Reality
Van Halen - Eponymous (Not the singles)
Tom Vek - Luck
Savages - Silence Yourself
The Rolling Stones - Let it Bleed
Revocation - Teratogenesis EP
Wrong - Feel Great
Perturbator - Dangerous Days
Card of the day:
Wealth, as in a comfortable surplus of Earthly attributes. Also, the implication that we have directed our energies positively in order to get here. Sounds like a good omen to me as I crest into writing the final chapter of the T12 book.
There is a melancholic air to this song that absolutely floors me. I love it SO much. Corniglia is a band that I happened across on LA's music treasure, KXLU, one morning on the drive to work, and in the two or three weeks since I just cannot stop listening to them. The album, self-titled, is easily in my top of the year. One of the things I like so much about this is, in some strange way, it reminds me of the vibe I had in my head in the early 2000s - a kind of delicious airiness that translated to a gray hopelessness as I graduated College: the future loomed before me, I buried a friend, and I felt more alone than ever. The new Drinking, Fighting, F*&king, and Crying is up HEREand while it would seem to glorify a somewhat frightening moment in my life, it actually very much illustrates the loneliness I felt at that time. 2001-2002 was dark, and although I had an awesome band (The Yellow House) and awesome friends (particularly at that time Brown, Tim, Sonny, Grez, Dennis and Dave), I was somewhat adrift on a mindset so bleak that it spurred me into frequent drug use and several bouts of totally vapid sex, both very much unlike me. And some how, I hear elements of that hear.
I'm digressing, or maybe I'm not.
My point is that music is the same as all art in that, to modify a famous saying, the beholder gets out of it what they put in. That is to say, there is often baggage you bring with you when hearing a new band, new song, new album, and that baggage - snippets of color or image associations, emotions, whatever form it takes - shapes how you hear that music and, ultimately, what it will mean to you. What's even more interesting is your interpretation could be light years away from what was happening in the artist's head at the time - it doesn't matter. Having also made music and talked to people who got something out of it that I had never anticipated or intended, I can tell you that just the idea that something you made could have such a multi-textural effect on another soul is rewarding beyond description. So, while Corniglia may not have intended the melancholy associations I ascribe to their sound, I'm sure they won't mind if there music drives me to stay awake long past when I should have my head down, trying to capture in words something they have made me feel with their song.
Playlist from Odin's Day, 6/20/18:
Danzig 6: Satan's Child
David Bowie - Hunky Dory
David Bowie - Scary Monsters (and Super Freaks)
David Bowie - Reality
Nothing - Downward Years to Come
Various Artists - Reservoir Dogs OST
Corniglia - Eponymous
Card O' the day:
The Lovers again, and how it currently applies to my life is still escaping me. I need to make time to look further into this. Perhaps I will ask Missi.
