Popcorn Fright Film Fest

 

I rewatched Richard Bates Jr.'s Excision (a perfect film) this past Saturday night, and it put me back on the White Lung. I don't think I'd ever seen this video, taken from 2016's Paradise (a perfect album), directed by Bates and starring Excision's Pauline, AnnaLynne McCord.

I miss this band.

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Watch:

I did a couple of Virtual Screenings at Ft. Lauderdale's Popcorn Frights Film Fest this past Friday. First up, Luke Bursaća's Videoteka.

I really liked a lot about this film, but found it's pacing to be off. I think the script either wasn't quite right, or there was something lost in the translation between Serbian culture and my own. Still, let me lay out the accolades because there are many: The lighting is exquisite! The Acting is all top-notch, the sound design and score are fantastic, and the locations and set/production design really transport you to the world of the film. I think the trouble lay in balancing a wrap-around with three fairly lengthy films within the film. That's definitely not an easy format to work with, and I'd say Mr. Bursaća did a pretty damn good job. Can't wait to see what he does next.

Next up, Michael Varrati's There's a Zombie Outside. No trailer up yet for this one that I could find, so here's the poster:

A very meta take on doing a zombie film about a guy who makes a zombie film and then fears that will be his high point. In that way, this is more a contemplation on the interior pressures of an artist than a straight horror film, but it was fun and had some great ideas, even if not everything worked all the time. Overall, a definite recommend, especially if you dig films like 2018's You Might Be the Killer; I feel like that would make a perfect double feature with this film.

Popcorn Fright Film Fest runs through August 18th. I don't think I'll have a chance to see any more virtual films, but if you're looking for some new Horror/Genre, check the fest out HERE.

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Read:

I tore through the final three volumes of Alan Moore's Swamp Thing saga over the weekend, and I can say that due to some neglect years before, I don't think I'd ever actually read the final three issues of the run. As the trajectory Moore and his artists create in the earlier volumes, their tenure on Swamp Thing more than lives up to the expectations they set at the outset redefining the character from Once-Man-Now-Monster to something God-like and, ultimately, Cosmic. The final two volumes especially really stretch Moore's concepts as far as they can go - like allll the way across the DCU's cosmic breadth. I wasn't huge on the Brujeria Cosmic World Ending Crisis storyline, but then me and world-ending cataclysms in comics reached saturation at least a decade ago. That said, it's still cool to see the template for what DC has been trying to refine into their "Dark Justice League" since the New 52 here in its inception and see it done flawlessly, no less.

Of particular note in these volumes is issue 60, Loving the Alien. Named after Bowie song, this is unlike any other mainstream American comic at this time (that I know of, at least).

A tale of techno-organic lust, the words flow more like William Burroughs than anything Moore did in Swamp book's done previously and the art... to say John TotLeben redefines what a DC comic can look like here is an understatement. This was such an interesting period in comics. 

Around the same time, Barry Windsor Smith did Uncanny X-Men #205, and there's a throughline here. This is where that Métal Hurlant influence really creeps into the establishment in the states, and it's glorious.

Now to move seamlessly into Neil Gaiman's Sandman, which in many ways picks up and continues some of the smaller threads of Moore's Swamp Thing. I'll admit, I'd also like to look into what followed this groundbreaking run.

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Playlist:

QOTSA - Villains

Jim Williams - Possessor OST

Anthrax - Sound of White Noise

Amigo the Devil - Born Against

Chris Isaak - Heart Shaped World

Chris Isaak - Speak of the Devil

Slayer - Live Undead/Haunting the Chapel

Danzig - Danzig 4

Stephen Sanchez - Angel Face

Roy Orbison - Greatest Hits 

Calexico - Even Sure Things Fall Through 

Melvins & Lustmord - Pigs of the Roman Empire

Perturbator - Lustful Sacraments

Final Light - Eponymous

Willie Nelson - Summertime: Willie Nelson Sings Gershwin

Simon Waskow - Luz OST

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE. Also, Grimm's Kickstarter for the Hand of Doom Tarot Art Book is up. Check it out HERE.

• XVIII: The Moon

• Knight of Swords

• Eight of Wands

Something obscured from sight (or neglected) will provide motivation for transformation. 

Can it get any more vague than that? Probably not, but my head's only half in this at the moment, so I'll be chewing on that all day.

Azim Ali - Live at Paste Studio NYC live from The Manhattan Center

 

Full confession - I am not familiar with Azam Ali's music at all. My good friend Dennis sent me this video a few weeks back and it just got lost in the shuffle of the day-to-day. I realized my negligence this morning and fired "Tender Violet" up and was pretty much completely blown away.

Link to the full youtube video in the playlist below. 
 

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Last night K and I went to see Tilman Singer's new film, Cuckoo.

The night before, I finally watched Singer's first film, 2018's Luz. Having now seen both in tight succession, I can say I will follow this man wherever he goes from here out.

There's definitely something about Singer's work that gives me a hint of Nicolas Winding Refn, but it's just a hint, a sort of Hauntology flavor that doesn't overpower everything else like the current crop of films I would describe using the same reference does. In Singer's work, there's just as much classic Horror and, after seeing Cuckoo I have to say it, 80s action mixed in. What that more subtle predilection for hazy, contemplative tempos and outdated locations/set design does for the film is anchor the story and characters in a recognizable, relatable world, even as the plot and FX push the film into some super bizarre territory. And Cuckoo is bizarre, make no mistake about it. Luz is, too, but in a much smaller way. Cuckoo is, well, a bit cuckoo.

Singer brings along several repeat collaborators, chief among them Production Designer Dario Mendez Acosta, Cinematographer Paul Faltz, and composer Simon Waskow. Waskow's work, in particular, has begun to greatly interest me; the Luz score is something to behold and has made it into regular, daily rotation. Cuckoo's score will no doubt follow.

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NCBD Addendum:

I wasn't expecting to pick up the first issue of Spider-Man: Black Suit and Blood this past week, but dammit do I love Black Suit Spidey, so yeah, I did. 

I've enjoyed all of the Marvel "Black, White and Blood" books I've picked up since they started the series a few years back, and especially when I saw J. M. Dematteis' name on this one, I just couldn't pass it up. There are four stories included of varying lengths. Here's what I thought of each.

1) Losing Face - J.M. DeMatteis/Elena Casagrande

    A fantastic story that spins off of a minor event at the beginning of DeMatteis' seminal Spider-Man Story Kraven's Last Hunt, which admittedly is getting a bit saturated with continuity spin-offs and references of late, however, this was tight and really sweet. 

2) Inside the House - Alyssa Wong/Fran Galán

    A quick little "It's coming from inside the house" type story set during the end of Peter's relationship with the symbiote. Very cool. 

3) Dysmorphia - Dustin Nguyen

    Very short but effective exploration of the inherent body horror in the human/symbiote bonding.

4) Fade to Black - J. Michael Straczynski/Sumit Kumar/Craig Yeung/Dono Sánchez-Almara

    I know JMS has one of the historic runs with Spidey, but I've never read any of it, so I wasn't sure how this would play out for me. Happy to report, I really dug it. A kind of current continuity reassessment of Peter's time with the b

Overall, a great issue that has me pulling out my Spidey short box to dig back into some old Black Suit issues. Can't wait for issue two on September 11!

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Playlist:

Glen Danzig - Black Aria

Vitriol - Eponymous

Deftones - Diamond Eyes

Danzig - Thrall/Demonsweat Live

Danzig - Danzig 4

Earth - Primitive and Deadly

Windhand - Grief's Infernal Flower

Deftones - Ohms

Jerry Cantrell - Villified (pre-release single)

Frank Black - Teenager of the Year

QOTSA - Villains

QOTSA - Lullabies to Paralyze

Azam Ali - Live at Paste Studio NYC live from The Manhattan Center 

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Abbatoir Blues

Deftones - Koi No Yokan

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE. Also, Grimm's Kickstarter for the Hand of Doom Tarot Art Book is up. Check it out HERE.

• Two of Wands

• Four of Cups

• Five of Wands

Two of Wands tends to suggest avoiding a single-minded Willful push. In other words, there may be more ways to get what you want than the one you're focusing on. Four of Cups in emotional stability, so moving from middle to left I'm getting a "Don't make decisions based on emotion." The five of Wands, then, is a break in emotional stability. This shores up the idea that a big, premeditated decision made in an overly emotional state can be as destructive as not making a decision. More sometimes. Now, what this applies to in my own life at the moment... nope. Never mind. It's work. Loud and clear.

Man... Or Astro-Man???

From Man...or Astro-Man?'s 2022 12" Distant Pulsar, available over on MOAS?'s Bandcamp HERE. Love these guys, and been listening to them more lately than I have in some time. Feels good to reconnect with an old favorite.

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NCBD:

This week's Pull (still haven't stopped in to pick up last week's yet!):

I have to say, I don't really give a toss about this Scarlett series. That said, I'm in for the bigger picture of the Energon Universe, so I'm hanging in there. Maybe I'll be surprised.

This is probably the best series I read on a monthly basis at the moment. I love The Deviant and can't wait to see how this all pans out. Only two issues left after this one...

Going to be sad to see this one go. The Principles of Necromancy has been the sleeper hit of 2024 for me. I knew nothing going in - hell, I know nothing from issue to issue - and maybe partially because of that, I'm staggered by this book every time I pick it up. The premise is nuts and Eamon Winkle's art is out of this world; his concepts are like nothing I've ever seen before.

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Play:

More Puppet Combo for Switch!

 

I'm not certain, but judging by the face designs, I'd say this is possibly another Torture Star game, which means I might have an actual chance in hell of playing it through. The rule of thumb thus far with the games Puppet Combo releases seems to be if Torture Star is involved, it's beatable (for me); otherwise, not really. But this looks AWESOME! A lot of elements from Stay Out of the House, a game I adore but can't get very far in.

Rewind or Die drops next Friday, August 16th and will be available for Xbox and Playstation as well. 
 

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Playlist:

QOTSA - Villains

Black Venus - Eponymous

Man... Or Astro-Man? - Distant Pulsar 12"

Jerry Cantrell - Vilified (pre-release single)

Windhand - Grief's Infernal Flower

Zombi - Direct Inject

Chelsea Wolfe - She Reaches Out to She Reaches Out to She

Simon Waskow - Luz OST

Forhist - Eponymous

Danzig - Danzig III

Deftones - Live @Lollapalooza 2024

Fright Night - Some Are Born to Endless Night

QOTSA - In Times New Roman

David Bowie - Heathen

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE. Also, Grimm's Kickstarter for the Hand of Doom Tarot Art Book is up. Check it out HERE.

• Page of Wands

• Knight of Swords

• Wheel of Fortune

The Physicality of the Will. The Intellect, raw and pure. The tides of time and fate mixed with chance and served up as a cocktail brimming with potential.

See, this is just further proof that the cards work, but the reason they work is all subconscious to us and not traditional mumbo jumbo (although I would submit for review the idea that our subconscious has A LOT to do with traditional mumbo jumbo). Anyway, the point is, no matter what I draw or how poetic I try and make my interpretation, it's all saying the same thing to me - finish the fucking book. One story left to proofread. The last was easy, the one before it a BEAST that I cut a lot out of. Not story-wise, but syntax and grammar. The stories as narrative are long finished, it's finding the best way to say things that's the hard part.

New Music from Human Impact!!!

 

The second single the band has released from the upcoming album Gone Dark, out October 4th on Ipecac Records. Pre-order HERE.

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Watch:

Being that I'm a huge fan of both Black Christmas and Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things, I'd been meaning to catch Bob Clark's Death Dream - AKA Dead of Night - for a number of years now. When it landed on Shudder a month or two back, I immediately added it to my list, but it wasn't until a few nights ago when I woke in the middle of the night and found I could not fall back asleep, that I  stumbled on it playing from the beginning on Shudder TV. 

Not nearly as grand as Clark's other two aforementioned forays into the Horror genre, however, Death Dream did not disappoint, and it's no surprise that William Lustig's Blue Underground restored this one and put it out on disc. Death Dream is pure 70s Cult Cinema, and taken in the mood for such things, I enjoyed it immensely. Even restored there is a palpable darkness the camera and lighting add to the story that almost makes you feel like you're watching it at a Grind House Drive-In circa 1974.

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Playlist:

Melvins - (A) Senile Animal

Melvins - Nude With Boots

Opeth - Deliverance

Charles Bradley - Victim of Love

Soul Coughing - Irresistible Bliss

Thou - Umbilical

Zombi - Shape Shift

The Knife - Silent Shout

Blue Meanies - Full Throttle

Mr. Bungle - Eponymous

Mike and the Mevlins - Three Men and a Baby

The Dillinger Escape Plan - One of Us is the Killer

Melvins & Lustmord - Pigs of the Roman Empire

Perturbator - Lustful Sacraments

Dr. John - Things Happen That Way

James Brown - Funky People Vol. 3

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE. Also, starting today for the next 30, Grimm's Kickstarter for the Hand of Doom Tarot Art Book is up. Check it out HERE.

• IV: The Emperor

• Two of Cups

• Page of Cups

Another late night photo of Grimm's marvelous Hand of Doom Deck. This time, the cards seem to be telling me to, oh gee, lookit that. Finish the book.

New Music and a Mind-Ripping Video from Oranssi Pazuzu

This... this is the best video I've seen since Liars stopped making great videos circa 2013. This is just... unreal. Normally, if there's an age restriction on a video and it's only accessible on YouTube, I won't bother to post it. But this? This has to be added to my page. From the forthcoming album Muuntautuja, which you can bet your sweet ass I just pre-ordered HERE. Out October 11th on Nuclear Blast Records.

These guys have become a staple this past year. I still have so much of their music to dive into, but the Live at Roadburn 2017 album is now irreplaceable in my life. NOTHING sounds like Oranssi Pazuzu. 

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One of the major aspects of the second Terrifier movie I dug was the final girl, played by Lauren LaVera. Bloody Disgusting posted an article about a new film she's in, and honestly, although The Well doesn't look spectacular, the article's headline includes the words "Bloody" and "Italian" and I think I see what the filmmaker is going for. Here, take a look for yourself:

 

 Is it just me, or does this have Michele Soavi written all over it? Based on that, when this drops on September 3rd, I'll probably check it out. You can read the full article on Bloody Disgusting HERE.

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Playlist:

Black Sabbath - Vol. 4

Japandroids - Celebration Rock

Tim Hecker - Infnity Pool OST

Metropolis - The Darkest Side of the Night (single)

Valkyrie - Fear

Library of the Occult: Dream Division - Wolf

Opeth - §1 (pre-release single)

Oranssi Pazuzu - Valotus (pre-release single)

Ozzy Osbourne - The Ultimate Sin

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE. Also, starting today for the next 30, Grimm's Kickstarter for the Hand of Doom Tarot Art Book is up. Check it out HERE.

• Page of Swords (again)

• Knight of Swords

• Six of Wands

Same message as the last week. Finish the book. 

The Music at 12 to Midnight

As the comments on this video repeatedly declare, The Music may be the most underrated band of all time. These guys were a powerhouse, and I believe this is a great example of when the industry started to dissolve. If their eponymous debut had been released five, hell maybe even three years prior, this would have been a HUGE record. That, sadly, was not the case. Digging back into their albums yesterday, I was reminded just how much I love them, and this song - man, the guitar on this song reminds me so much of the music for the Nintendo Game Ninja Gaiden it crosses all kinds of wires in my head. 

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Two days ago, Bloody Disgusting ran an article about an upcoming sequel to J. Lee Thompson's 1983 sleazy action flick 10 to Midnight. The sequel, 12 to Midnight, comes 41 years after that original and 21 years after 10 to Midnight's star Charles Bronson passed away at age 81. Here's the news that I have been unable to stop thinking about since first seeing this article - the new film stars a Charles Bronson lookalike named Robert Bronzi as the main character. This is an "unofficial" sequel, so they've swapped out Bronson's Leo Kessler for Toth, but goddamnit! Look at this guy! He is the spitting image of Bronson:

 

I loved Charles Bronson's action flicks as a kid in the 80s, but I'm pretty sure my folks never let me watch 10 to Midnight. It's grimy as all hell—the killer is a naked man who kills couples out in public in the dead of night. Think The Town That Dreaded Sundown but directed by Andrea Bianchi. 

Oh, wait. Did I forget to mention that 12 to Midnight takes a totally different route with their killer and goes all-in for a werewolf? Cuz, yeah, this flick has all kinds of reasons for me to be so all-in on it.

But I really can't get over how much Bronzi looks like Bronson. It's uncanny. I mean, if you spot a Channing Tatum lookalike, no big deal, right? But Charles Bronson was one of the most unique-looking dudes to ever grace the silver screen, so this is just blowing my mind.

12 to Midnight hits VOD today and you can bet your sweet arse I'm watching it ASAP. Also, 10 to Midnight is currently included with Prime. I had a viewing a few weeks back, the night of my first MaXXXine viewing, to be exact. My friend Chris was in and in talking about the influences we saw in Ti West's latest film, I brought up Midnight. 

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My good friend and cohost on The Horror Vision, Professor John Trafton, posted a new article on his website about mapping The Dude's Los Angeles in Joel and Ethan Cohen's The Big Lebowski. 

It's a fascinating read. I can't recommend it enough. Read the article on John's website HERE. I met John after I found his article on Messiah of Evil. I'd just watched the film for the first time and went looking for something to read about it. Turns out I could find no critical writing except John's, which was fine because he nailed it. I'm always happy to see a new article, especially for a movie I love.

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Playlist:

The Music - Eponymous

The Music - Welcome to the North

The Ocean - Precambrian: Proterozoic

The Ocean - Precambrian: Hadean/Archaean

Melvins - (A) Senile Animal

The Last Drive-In with Joe Bob Briggs - OST

Amy Winehouse - Back to Black

Mannequin Pussy - I Got Heaven

Metropolis - The Darkest Side of the Night (single)

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE. Also, starting today for the next 30, Grimm's Kickstarter for the Hand of Doom Tarot Art Book is up. Check it out HERE.

• Page of Swords

• II: High Priestess

• Five of Wands

Page of Swords, or the Earthly aspect of the Intellect, flanked by the High Priestess, literally the Will that takes the spark of creativity and gives it form and the five of Wands, quite literally the Conflict of my own self-defeatism.

Read: Stop stalling finish the book.

The Monochromatic Hell Hole

 

Helmet's Monochrome is an album that I've recently spent some time reassessing. When this came out in 2007, I had just moved to L.A. two months prior and was still VERY high on the band's 2004 album Size Matters, which was and still is my favorite of their records. So Monochrome's vocal shift to a considerably more affected style from Paige Hamilton didn't quite sit right with me at the time. I've gone back and dug this one out a few times over the past - shit - eighteen years since its release, and it's never really done anything for me. I always kind of figured that one day it might, though, and that day has come! The shift from the more melodic vitriol of Size Matters and Aftertaste back to the absolute savagery from the first album threw me at the time, but right here in 2024, it fits like a glove. Album highlights (so far) upon reassessing are the above track, as well as the album closer, "Goodbye."

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NCBD:

Nice and easy week for the wallet.

Saga returns again! I feel like this one is being drawn waaaay the hell out now, and I'd really like to see it hit a monthly cycle and hold it for at least the better part of a year. Either way, though, I'm still just as invested as I was at the beginning, and I'm here for whatever.

When Department of Truth returned from hiatus last month, it marked the first time since I'd come to the book that I got to buy an issue day of release. I wasn't sure how that was going to play; having read the entire first four volumes in a few days last year, was I going to have to go back and re-read everything to remember where we are? Nope. This one is just such a pleasure to fall into that the only drawback reading single issues monthly is it's just not enough!

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Although the Adams family's Where the Devil Roams still hasn't been released, the trailer for their next film, Hell Hole, dropped yesterday. 

 

These folks make some awesome indie flicks, and this looks right in line with everything I love about Hellbender and The Deeper You Dig.

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Playlist:

QOTSA - In Times New Roman

Les Claypool - Of Wales and Woe

Les Claypool - Highball with the Devil

Pigface - A New High In Low (Low Disc)

The Raveonettes - Chain Gang of Love

Odonis Odonis - Post Plague

Odonis Odonis - Spectrums

Interpol - Antics

Amigo the Devil - Yours Until the War is Over

Metropolis - The Darkest Side of the Night (single)

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE. Also, starting today for the next 30, Grimm's Kickstarter for the Hand of Doom Tarot Art Book is up. Check it out HERE.

• Four of Pentacles

• Knight of Pentacles

• IX: The Hermit

Four of Pentacles is stability in Earthly matters, arrived at through no small exertion of Will as applied to Earthly desires/concerns after a period of contemplation. 

New Music from Pixies!

 

From the forthcoming album The Night the Zombies Came Out, dropping October 26th. Pre-order HERE.

Post-reunion Pixies has been a mixed bag for me. I LOVE Indie Cindy, but everything since has felt anticlimactic. Sure, I'll lean into Head Carrier and its brethren, but they don't put me in quite the same place. Plus, I've always been a bigger fan of the music Frank Black (or Black Francis) made after the Pixies' first breakup, so to see him essentially jettison those musical endeavors for the last ten years has been disappointing, to say the least. I'm hoping his upcoming Teenager of the Year anniversary tour early next year means maybe he will start dividing his time between Pixies and other bands (Catholics!). We'll see. In the meantime, I still love the Pixies, so I'm looking forward to hearing the new record come Halloween time.

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Watch:

The filmmaking collective of François Simard, Anouk Whissell, and Yoann-Karl Whissell - largely referred to as RKSS - is responsible for one of my favorite films of the last ten years: Summer of '84. Of course, they've also done Turbo Kid, which is fantastic in its own right. Not many films in recent memory have affected me like Summer of '84, though, so after that one, I'll follow RKSS to hell and back. And funny enough, it looks like that's where their next film will be taking us. 

Streaming everywhere on August 13th, We Are Zombies is based on Jerry Frissen and Guy Davis' comic series called The Zombies That Ate the World. I'm not familiar with that series, but like I said, I'd follow these filmmakers anywhere they want to take me, so based on the trailer, buckle up. 

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Read:

Over this past weekend, I sat down and re-read Ram V and Dan Watters' The One Hand and The Six Fingers as one complete story. 

This one is definitely going to be near the top of my year-end list. I read these all monthly, and re-read most of the series before the final two installments dropped, and I can say that when I finished the final issue last week, I was a little hesitant. I wasn't quite sure these guys had pulled off what they'd set up.

Boy was I wrong.

The key to 'getting' these books is reading them as one story because each issue of each book contains serious overlap, where we see the same events from both the Detective and the Killer's perspective. Not necessarily the most novel idea, except when you place the story in the context of a Blade Runner-esque Cyberpunk city like Neo Novena. 

Calling this Cyberpunk is a bit of a misnomer, but I can't really think of anything else that quite gets the tone across. With visual and tonal references to everything from the aforementioned Ridley Scott classic to Métal Hurlant, the atmosphere is thick enough to cloud the reader's perceptions. Something about the inevitability of these futuristic worlds makes them so real to me, and the creators use a mystery involving androids to pontificate on the human condition in a manner I've never quite seen before. I don't know. All I can say is there's a collected edition coming out in December, and I'm definitely going to recommend it to everyone who I think might dig this. 

Hopefully, this did well enough that both creators will return to Neo Novena at some point in the near future. Preferably before our world comes to resemble theirs any more than it already does.

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Playlist:

T. Rex - The Slider

Liars - Drum's Not Dead

Jerry Cantrell - Brighten

Japandroids - Celebration Rock

Queens of the Stone Age - In Times New Roman

Helmet - Monochrome

16 Horsepower - Hoarse

Liars - Sisterworld

Mr. Bungle - California

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE. Also, starting today for the next 30, Grimm's Kickstarter for the Hand of Doom Tarot Art Book is up. Check it out HERE.

• Two of Wands

• XVI: The Tower

• Seven of Swords

Collaboration of Will leads to a change in pre-existing paradigms - not an easy thing, but a good thing for those with the intellect to recognize the advantages of a system overhaul.

This has to be work-related. Not sure if that's good or bad. 

New Music from Jerry Cantrell!!!

 

From the forthcoming album, I Want Blood, out October 18th. You can pre-order a copy HERE.

Jerry Cantrell kind of blows me away these days. I can't say I'm the biggest fan of his first two solo records - though I do like them, despite their somewhat uneven listening experience - and although I'm all for Alice in Chains continuing with James Duval, it doesn't always work for me. But between AIC's Rainier Fog, Cantrell's previous solo album Brighten (how has it been three years?), and now this 11th-hour announcement of I Want Blood, I feel the man is unpredictable in the best possible way. Aging musicians from bands that lost a key member over twenty years ago just don't act like this, and I LOVE it!!!

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Watch:

Yesterday, K and I finally started Evil's long-awaited fourth and final season.

A) This might be the best show ever (minus Twin Peaks), and B) the writers have definitely been reading Laird Barron. The first episode of Season Four deals with strange happenings at a particle accelerator on the East Coast, and the second has a robot guard dog attacking innocent people. In a way, both of those are right out of Barren's third Isiah Coleridge, Worse Angels, although in the book, it's a robot sentry that attacks Coleridge while he's exploring an abandoned particle accelerator in upstate New York, but the influence is there.

And that's not to say all Evil's charms are limited to homage. This show has been a wild ride, a totally new take on a procedural crossed with X-Files, a demon-of-the-week that strictly adheres to a larger arc. The characters are among my favorites ever in a show like this, and the actual production... the lighting! This is THE BEST television lighting EVER. No joke. It works hand in hand with the set design to create this extremely relatable yet also liminal space the characters live and move within. And the practical FX! Also, Katja Herbers, Mike Colter and Ben Shakir are just fabulous. 

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Playlist:

Big Black - Lungs

Jim Williams - Possessor OST

Ennio Morricone - Black Belly of the Tarantula OST

Jeff Grace - The House of the Devil OST

Cocksure - TVMALSV

Liars - Drum's Not Dead

Deadguy - Fixation on a Coworker

Mörmaid - Pearlescent Dark

Fvnerals - Let the Earth Be Silent

The Church - Starfish

Mr. Bungle - Eponymous

Suicidal Tendencies - Controlled By Hatred/Feel Like Shit... Déjá-vu

Loathe - I Let It In and It Took Everything

Loathe - The Things They Believe

Mirar - Mare E.P.

Black Sabbath - Master of Reality

Alice in Chains - Jar of Flies E.P.

The Dillinger Escape Plan - Calculating Infinity

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Card:

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

• Ten of Cups

• Eight of Swords

• Ten of Wands

Earthly completion, a profound use of intellect (problem-solving) and completion of that which thou has Willed.

Okay, first, funky 70s lighting courtesy of a late-night photo in my office. Might play around with different lighting for these photos down the road. The aesthetic fits Grimm's Hand of Doom Deck. Which, by the way, there's a coffee table art book Kickstarter starting tomorrow. I'll post here.

As for this morning's cards, it's another nod toward finishing both the free Vol. 4 collection that should drop tomorrow (I think; I still have to iron out some last-minute copyright stuff today) and Black Gloves & Broken Hearts, which I wrote the final sentence of yesterday. I've had the ending for months, I just had to finesse the final chapters to get there. That appears to be where I am now, and I should just need to sort out the epilogue and then go through for a reading edit on two fronts - me and my constant beta reader, Missi. 

Frankie Freako

 

I'm not certain I actually dig this song—not that I think it's 'bad' per se, just not sure it's my cuppa—but this video is insane. This is my first exposure to Mörmaid, and after seeing it, I put their new album Pearlescent Dark on my Apple Music to give the entire thing a go. You can download the album from Mörmaid's Bandcamp HERE.

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Watch:

I love Steven Kostanski.  After helping bring us one of the greatest Horror films of the past twenty years (The Void, Co-Written and Directed with Jeremy Gillespie) and Writing/Directing one of my favorite films of all time (Psycho Goreman), photos of him hard at work on a remake of Roger Corman's Deathdealer surfaced earlier this year. Then, he goes and drops a teaser for an entirley different film, one much more in line with PG than Deathdealer:

Did I mention Kostanski also headed the FX team that brought us the yoga kill in this year's In A Violent Nature?  I mean, his team did all the FX, but really, that's the one everyone's still talking about, whether you liked or disliked the film. All this, and he's still had time to finish what looks like a veritable practical FX bonanza called Frankie Freako? Steve baby, you are amazing, and I'm here for anything you have to drop on us.

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Plastic:

I'm having a tough time not ordering these new NECA recreations of the Universal Monsters as originally released by Burger King. I remember these from the 80s!

Honestly, I really could just settle for The Creature, but it's a set. Read all about it over on the mighty Bloody Disgusting HERE.

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Playlist:

Dead Milkmen - Quaker City Quiet Pills

Horrendous - Ontological Mysterium

Jóhann Jóhannsson - Mandy OST

Frank Black - Teenager of the Year

JD McPherson - Undivided Heart & Soul

Deadguy - Fixation on a Coworker

Mr. Bungle - Eponymous

Jim Williams - Possessor OST

Nothing - The Great Dismal

The Pixies - Surfer Rosa

Frankie and the Witch Fingers - Data Doom

Deadguy - Work Ethic

Big Black - Lungs EP

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Card:

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

• Knight of Swords

• Seven of Wands

• Knight of Pentacles

That's a lot of Will. We have a concentrated effort of intellect that brings about creative completion (that's an announcement I'll be making next week), and a concentrated effort - what I'm reading as - to not spend the money on those Universal Figures I posted above. Okay, thank you Hand of Doom Tarot Deck, for putting a face to the inner voice I was set to ignore (really, that's all the cards do).

T. Rex - Jewel

 

If you've seen Longlegs, you'll probably be on the same page. I've been a T. Rex fan for years, but my exposure to the band never moved beyond Electric Warrior and my personal favorite of their records (that I'm familiar with), The Slider, which really helped get me through a tough month in LA last January.

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Watch:

Bloody Disgusting ran an article recently that introduced me to the Popcorn Fright Film Fest. Both a live event taking place in Fort Lauderdale, FL, and a virtual event, the fest runs from August 8th through the 18th and is stacked with awesome films. I'm seriously considering purchasing a virtual pass, and I'm looking through the trailers to try and assemble a priority list. Here's one that caught me right away:

Both Kyle Gallner and Willa Fitzgerald look awesome in what little of this trailer I watched. While I have not seen Writer/Director JT Mollner's debut feature, 2016's Outlaws and Angels, I'm very interested in it now. Also, Giovani Ribisi is credited as the Cinematographer on Strange Darling. How cool is that?

The Popcorn Frights Fest's website is HERE. Grab some tickets and maybe we can, I don't know, hang out in a virtual movie theatre.

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NCBD:

So, you'll notice I broke down and picked up one of the books I previously announced I was done with. Which one? NOT an X-book, I'll tell you that. Let's get into today's pull from Rick's Comic City in Clarksville:

A consistently delightful sequel to both the Army of Darkness Theatrical and Director's cuts, which in and of itself is a great reason to read. 

Finally! I'm going to hunker down and re-read The Nice House on the Lake before I jump into this new, sequel series. 

The Neo Novena saga comes to an end. I'm really hoping there will be more stories set in this world. 

Road Stories continues. Last issue was fantastic; interested to see where we go with Erika this time.

Yep, this is the one. I've decided to hang on and give this new Turtles book a chance. I'm just so invested in the continuity they built over the last 150 issues, it is difficult to abandon it now.

More Springer! You know, I think my Drinking with Comics cohost Mike Shinabargar was on to something when he said that, working in a comic shop, he sees that sales on Void Rivals could use a regular dose of a character from one of the Energon Universe's more well-known properties. I think that's fine - whatever Kirkman and his team need to do to keep this book coming because I LOVE Void Rivals. I think this 100% stands on its own, however, if we need a regular dose of Springer or any other Transformer, no problem. Especially Springer - for some reason, I've always felt he was a bit left-of-center and a great fit for a deep space, non-Earth storyline.

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Playlist:

USSA - The Spoils

Alice in Chains - Dirt

Shellac - To All Trains

Tim Hecker - Infinity Pool OST

High on Fire - Cometh the Storm

Man Man - Carrot on Strings

Black Sabbath - Eponymous

Horrendous - Ontological Mysterium

Deafheaven - Sunbather

Zeal & Ardor - GREIF (pre-release singles)

The Dillinger Escape Plan - Option Paralysis

Genghis Tron - Board Up the House

Mr. Bungle - Eponymous

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Card:

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

• Two of Pentacles

• XXI: The World

• 0: The Fool

Collaboration, as opposed to opposition, leads to what comes next, which is a new journey in and of itself. 

Sometimes the cards are so eerily straight forward, it's effortless to read them.

Frank Black Teenager of the Year 30th Anniversary Tour

 

Got my tickets to join some of my best friends in the world for Frank Black's Teenager of the Year 30th anniversary tour. Mr. Black even has Lyle Workman back! 

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Watch:

Damian McCarthy first impressed the absolute hell out of me in 2022 with Caveat, a direct-to-Shudder film about a man talked into wearing a harness in an old house on a small island in Ireland. The man is supposedly been hired by a friend to watch his niece, but there are all kinds of WTF surrounding that idea, and the film, for all its slow-burn tendencies, rapidly escalates into a terrifying dirge of haunted guilt and bad decisions that culminate in...

Well, read the book. Or, ah, watch the movie. 

McCarthy's new film Oddity was on my radar but just barely, and I was SHOCKED and delighted to find that it opened at our Clarksville Regal this past Thursday. 

So far, it is neck-and-neck with Robert Morgan's Stopmotion for my favorite film of the year. I would post a trailer, but no. PLEASE, go see this in the theatre (it will most likely be gone after this week due to Deadpool) and DO NOT read, watch, or listen to anything about it. Go in blind, and I think this will smack you in the gob the way it did me—so much so that I have tickets to see it again tonight. 

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Play:

I've had Playdead's Inside for a couple years now, and while I have played and enjoyed it, it wasn't until this past weekend that I really fell in love with this game. Described as 'dream-like' in all the solicitation copy I've come across, I have to say, that's the perfect description. 

 

A week or so ago, my good friend Maddie messaged me about this game, saying that she remembered I had mentioned it and that she had recently become enthralled. This had me pull the game back out and pick at it off and on for a few days. Then, this past Saturday, I sat down in a darkened room with a beer and Adam Egypt Mortimer's The Obelisk on my turntable and the way the game and the music melded... it was just incredible. I left the sound up so I could hear all the atmospheric sound effects - hurried footsteps through standing water, giant industrial cranes and elevators moving and clanking, explosions, and, yes, dream-like wind and breathing - and my consciousness just folded into this world. It was beautiful. 

I don't want this one to end.

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Playlist:

Fear - Live For the Record

Frank Black - Teenager of the Year

Black Francis - Svn Fngrs

Death Cab for Cutie - Narrow Stairs

Frank Black - Eponymous

Tomahawk - Mit Gas

The Dillinger Escape Plan - Irony Is A Dead Scene E.P.

Ministry - Rio Grande Blood

The Dillinger Escape Plan - Calculating Infinity

Justin Hamline - The House With Dead Leaves

The Replacements - Pleased to Meet Me

The Besnard Lakes... Are the Roaring Night

Adam Egypt Mortimer - The Obelisk

M83 - Before the Dawn Heals Us

Zeal & Ardor - Stranger Fruit

Concrete Blonde - Eponymous

Phil Collins - Face Value

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Card:

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

• Knight of Wands 

• Four of Pentacles

• Six of Pentacles

The firey aspect of fire, pure white hot Intellect, stripped of all other human trappings. Here, it's being applied to Earthly matters, as we can see via the two Pentacles or Disks cards that follow. Four of Disks indicates stability, and the Six support or balance. What this tells me this morning is the balancing act I now maintain Monday - Friday may require an extra dose of reasoning to maintain. Not sure if this means this will be a heavy spreadsheet week (I'm only half joking and all cringe when I reference a spreadsheet in relation to the Tarot), or if I'll just have to side step emotional reactions to things that will require logical consideration instead of capricious emotion.

Man Man - Alibi

 

LOVING this new Man Man album, Carrot on Strings, which you can order HERE.

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Watch:

Holy smokes - Arrow Video is releasing The Last Starfighter on Blue Ray!

You can order the Blue Ray HERE. There's also a 4K HERE. I LOVED this flick as a kid. We didn't have cable but one of my Dad's friends did, and he used to record me movies onto blank VHS tapes that I would then watch over and over and over. The Last Starfighter was one of those, along with Predator, The Ghostbusters and Romancing the Stone. Somehow, though, it never made it into my adult collection. Going to remedy that real soon. 

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Playlist:

T. Rex - Electric Warrior

Various - Mulholland Drive OST

Liars - WIXIW

Man or Astro Man? - Live Transmissions from Uranus

Mr. Bungle - Disco Volante

T. Rex - The Slider

Angelo Badalamenti - Dark Water OST

The Besnard Lakes - ... Are the Dark Horse

Simple Minds - New Gold Dream

Hot Stove Jimmy - Theme For a Major Hit

T. Rex - Eponymous

Frank Black - Teenager of the Year

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Card:

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

• Ten of Cups

• V: The Hierophant

• X: Wheel of Fortune

Earthly fruition from a fleeting opportunity. I'll be keeping my eyes out for this one. I still try to take negative events - or, at least events I perceive to have negative connotations - and spin them positive. NOT always easy, but seeing this is a reminder to be on watch for something today.

RIP Bob Newhart

Sad news today, hearing about the passing of one of the funniest comedians of all time. I grew up watching the 80s Newhart show Newhart, and a couple years ago K and I began rewatching it from the beginning. We made it somewhere near the end of the fifth season before the preparations for our move across country knocked it off our radar. Here's a reminder it's about time to get back into it, as my goal is to get all the way through, so I can re-experience the greatest television ending of all time. 

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