... is going to serve as the episode that marked my fervor for this season. Without treading into spoiler territory, the scene with a certain female character and Richard Ramirez having a heart-to-heart, and the darkness it hints at in said character, blew me away. From this point, I'm in, and what's more, I'm rabidly awaiting the next episode!
**
I dug out my first edition of Stephen King's Night Shift - which I found in a Las Vegas thrift store years ago - and re-read Gray Matter, the basis for the first episode of Shudder's new Creepshow series' inaugural story. The reading confirms it - Creepshow's version is a fantastic adaptation of a lesser-known King story, both versions being creepy as all hell.
**
Playlist from 9/27:
Opeth - In Cauda Venenum
Emilie Autumn - Opheliac
Heaven and Hell - The Devil You Know
Opeth's new album In Cauda Venenum dropped this morning and after listening to it, I find it's the first of the 'prog' Opeth that I really like. Maybe enough time has passed that I'm not still pining for the Opeth that gave us Blackwater Park and Deliverance, or maybe I've just come around some kind of corner with the band, but I'm digging this record.
**
If the first episode is any indication, Shudder and Greg Nicotero absolutely NAILED Creepshow. Talk about forty-five minutes of heaven. You can hear The Horror Vision's spoiler-free reaction/discussion at any of the links below:
There's not even a trailer yet, so all I can give you at the moment is this beautiful poster image, which is quite indicative of the film. I attended the West Coast Premiere of Richard Stanley's adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft's The Color Out of Space last night at Beyondfest. A great film! I stayed up late putting together a quick, under five minute review of the film for The Horror Vision, you can link to it below. In a nutshell, as with several other movies of late, I liked The Color Out of Space just fine for the first two acts, with only one or two small gripes, but when the third act rolled around, it cinched the entire film together for me and I ended up really liking it. Specifics at the links below:
New Foals! Like the first Part in this pair of albums, they sound as lush and haunting as ever.
New album, that second part of Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost drops October 18th, pre-order HERE.
**
Recent Playlist:
Sausage - Riddles Are Abound Tonight
Blut Aus Nord - Memoria Vetusta II
Blut Aus Nord - Memoria Vetusta III
Blut Aus Nord - Hallucinogen
Soundgarden - Badmotorfinger
Air - Talkie Walkie
Carpenter Brut - Leather Teeth
**
Card of the day:
Fire of Fire. Charge forward, pick your battles, and focus Will and Intellect. I'm taking this as confirmation I should finish something I've been hesitant to, a story that has languished in a state of perpetual 'almost finished' for some time. One last charge, then it hits the idea limbo for the foreseeable future.
Moments after I posted yesterday's page here I learned that Sid Haig passed away. This seemed inescapable after all the reading I'd done late last week about why he had such a small role in Rob Zombie's 3 From Hell, and sure enough, one week to the day after the film's release, we lost Captain Spaulding. I can think of no great tribute than the scene I've posted above; other than the intro to Way of the Gun, this is possibly my favorite to any movie ever.
**
This record is absolutely fantastic!
After stumbling across it's premature release late last week and posting about it here, I ended up truncating my first listen; last week was my on-call shift at work, and during those weeks I always refrain from smoking, which I knew I wanted to do for my first go-through on this one. So yesterday, after turning the phone over to the next person in the rotation, I returned home after work and hit the ol' dugout, then put on my headphones and lay on the bed listening - and I mean full-attention, not doing anything else listening - to the album all the way through.
It's epic. My favorite Blut Aus Nord record since Memoria Vetusta II, probably because this feels like a direct sequel to that record, even more than Memoria Vetusta III does. Epic, cosmic, and majestic, Hallucinogen takes me straight to the stars, and I love it.
**
NCBD: This will be the first week in number of weeks that anything I read comes out, so I'm pretty excited:
After mis-reporting it last month, here it is, just in time to coincide with my re-read of the series: Black Science ends with issue forty-three!
Two Remender books in the same week - always a great thing!
**
Playlist from 9/23:
Air - Talkie Walkie
Carpenter Brut - Leather Teeth
Rob Zombie - Hellbilly Deluxe 2
Blut Aus Nord - Hallucinogen
**
Card of the day:
Despite not having a formal writing session yesterday, I did a pretty good deal of research and I had a massive breakthrough on a major aspect of the overall Shadow Play story. It would seem the suggestion for today is to do a little housekeeping and translate some of those notes into actual story Bible material.
Lots of intense bursts of inspiration for Shadow Play Book Two: The Absence of Light. I have a general outline, sort of, but there's so much ground to cover and a lot of jumping around in the timeline, which currently runs from about 1576 to 2019, with one chapter most likely occurring in early pre-history. This is easily the most ambitious story architecture I've ever attempted, but it feels strong and alive in a way that is increasingly energizing. Which is great, because lately, I've had a lot of ups and downs with all the short stories I've been working on over the last year, and the first book of Ciazarn is largely written, but I can't quit nail the tone, so I'm easing away for the time being on that one. Frustrations are amplified by the fact that most of these issues would probably work themselves out if I could just get back on a consistent writing schedule. Hoping that happens this week.
**
Super excited to announce I'll be doing a bit of a collaboration with my good friend Mr. Brown. I've never really been an X-Files fan; I don't have anything against it, but I also have never really gotten into it beyond a dalliance with the 'mythology' episodes way back in the day, which dried up as it became apparent the story wasn't really mapped out to conclude in any satisfying way. Or maybe I'm wrong - I liked some of what I saw, but could never commit to a regular watch-schedule with it, despite being sexually obsessed by Gillian Anderson in my late teens/early twenties.
But I digress...
Brown asked me recently if I'd be into the idea of him curating a playlist of stand alone X-Files episodes, the idea being I would watch them and write a little something about them as I go. I love this idea, as I trust Brown's taste implicitly, and have always wanted someone to show me just what the hell everyone loved about this show in the 90s. This is the perfect time for such a project as well; 31 Days of Horror begins next week, and I figure on days with little watch time, I could pepper in some X-Files. I have the list and can't wait to start!
**
Recent Playlist:
Carpenter Brut - Leather Teeth
Carpenter Brut - Trilogy
Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - Wasteland
The Ocean - Heliocentric
Drab Majesty - Careless
Various - A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night OST
Boy Harsher - Careful
Rob Zombie - Hellbilly Deluxe
Monolord - No Comfort
Joseph Loduca - Evil Dead 2 OST
John Carpenter - Prince of Darkness OST
**
Card of the day:
Turning. Changing. Cycles. You can see on the diagram below that Atu X: Fortune manifests as the path between Mercy and Victory. Not sure how to read that in my own current context, but while digging around online for the image below, I came across something I'd never really noticed about Fortune - The Wheel or The Wheel of Fortune in other decks. It moves counter clockwise. Macro-definitions aside, I'm looking at this today as a nod to move forward in reverse-engineering something that has been giving me a bit of trouble.
Holy cow - I didn't even know this was coming! Read about the whys and wherefores of the early release HERE. Meanwhile, I'll be clicking over to Debemur Morti's North American Shop to pick this one up (even though I missed out on the awesome pink and purple splatter variant! Drat!)
At a very early first listen, Hallucinogen appears to be the first Blut Aus Nord album in a while that really grabbed me right off the bat. That makes me super happy.
Also, I'm noticing Memoria Vetusta III: Saturnian Poetry is back in stock on Vinyl. That's been a long time coming! Can't wait for this package to arrive - two of my favorite album covers ever in one box!
M83's new album Digital Shades Vol. II dropped today. It's gorgeous, and coincidentally makes a perfect soundtrack to my re-read of Rick Remender and Matteo Scalera's Black Science. I'm eleven issues in and th Telepathic Millipede death cult is one of the awesomest/creepiest lifeforms I've seen in a SciFi/Fantasy story like this. Check that - there are no SciFit/Fantasy stories like this. Pure, unraveling, multi-dimensional madness, and I'm loving it, especially with this lush, analog soundtrack. I fell out with M83 after HUWD, and I still want a non-instrumental record from them again, but in the meantime, DSVII is fantastic.
**
Larry Fessenden's modern take on Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is fantastic, and if you're in Hollywood and get a chance to see that - or any of the other goodies playing there - you should definitely drop in at Arena Cinelounge. Fantastic venue for short run/obscure flicks. I posted the trailer for Depraved yesterday, so today, here's a super cool behind the scenes shot I found online, along with a LINK to a cool article by Fessenden on why he makes movies.
For my money, Mr. Fessenden is the closest thing to a John Carpenter-level talent who isn't wearing his JC influence on his sleeve (not always a bad thing, the point here is LF is as original in his approach now as JC was to his back in the day), toiling away in partial obscurity, making original, solid flicks that are as interesting to the philosophical mind as they are to the eye. Support this man's work!
My full, short review of Depraved is up on Letterbxd HERE.
**
Playlist from 9/19:
Tomahawk - Eponymous
Pixies - Beneath the Eyrie
Sleep - Sleep's Holy Mountain
Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - Mind Control
Rob Zombie - Hellbilly Deluxe
**
Card of the day:
Wow, talk about the cards talking directly, clearly, right to me! Two days of the 4 of Disks, Power while I recharge my mental and physical batteries, directly followed by the 3 of Disks, Work, telling me to get my ass back in gear and get to work. Time to wrap Black Science for the day and head out to write!
A friend and I are going to check out Larry Fessenden's new film Depraved in Hollywood tonight, and I am excited! I've been waiting for some time for this, a modern re-telling of Mary Shelley's classic Frankenstein tale. The trailer looks fantastic, and the theatre the film is playing at is one of my favorite little nooks and crannies in a city where everything is overblown and overexposed. A fun time will be had by all, of that I am certain.
**
New Fangoria arrived two days ago and I've barely had a chance to scratch the surface.
Great cover.
**
Playlist from 9/18:
Sausage - Riddle Are Abound Tonight
Sleep - Sleep's Holy Mountain
Sepultura - Roots
Malcolm Middleton - Sleight of Heart
Lustmord - The Word as Power
Perturbator - Dangerous Days
**
Card of the day:
I love seeing the same card multiple days in a row, especially when I can interpret the pull as a nod that what I've been doing is the right thing to be doing. Burnt out and not in the best physical shape, I took another day off from writing after work yesterday and had a big ol' nap. It was glorious! This restorative, Powering Up period has worked wonders - I feel considerably better today than I did yesterday, so tomorrow it's going to be rest in the morning, and then back at it.
Actually, I did a little bit of work yesterday: finally dug out an old manuscript I intend to canabalize for an upcoming short story. It was fun revisiting old material, especially looking at it with fresh eyes, seeing what I can use and what will be changed or tossed. This new one's been on my mind for over a year, so I can't wait to tear into it!
SO happy I helped kickstart this one! There are two slots for this year's Beyondfest still to be announced - I'm hoping one of them is Blood Machines. My hope for the other slot is either Babak Anvari's Nathan Ballingrud adaptation Wounds or the Soska Sisters' Rabid.
Speaking of Beyondfest 2019, I was able to get tickets to almost everything I wanted:
Joe Bob Brigs - How Rednecks Saved Hollywood Tammy and the T-Rex
Joe Begos Double Feature: Bliss and VFW, with Begos and crew in person
Tom Atkins Triple Feature with Mr. Atkins attending: Halloween III Season of the Witch, Night of the Creeps and John Carpenter's The Fog
The only flick I missed out on is Richard Stanley's adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft's The Color Out of Space with Stanley in person, but I'm cool with what I was able to score. There's also tickets available for a bunch of other films I'm toying with, but I'll probably decide some of those last minute since most are during the week.
**
NCBD - so weird. Third NCBD in a row with no books, and I'm not particularly bothered. In fact, probably to sub the weekly comic experience, I chomped down hard on my re-read of Rick Remender and Matteo Scalera's Black Science, which I erroneously reported ended last month, but actually ends next week with issue forty-three. As of last night, I am eight issues into the re-read, and having an absolute blast with it. Such great world building, both story wise and with Scalera's incomparable art.
**
I've been doing a lot of digital reading. So much so, that it's becoming a bit of a problem. Kindle books are so cheap it's insane. Case in point, this was $0.99:
Forty freakin' stories by a variety of different authors. Some of those, like the Lovecraft and the Howard I already have, but there's a ton of stuff I do not. In fact, what led me to this one was researching T.E.D. Klein, whose OOP paperback Dark Gods keeps coming up in conversation as essential reading to further Lovecraft's mythos, but which runs for about $50+ on eBay. Klein's story The Events at Poroth Farm is included in this one, and it also comes recommended as a great place to start with his work. Instead of that one though, I started with a Clark Ashton Smith, whose SciFi/Fantasy work I adore, but whose entries in the mythos I've never read before. I'm about a quarter of the way through The Return of the Sorcerer, and it is, as I suspected, fantastic. Smith's handling of Lovecraft's work actually reminds me a lot Howard's, whose Lovecraft-related work I actually probably like better than Lovecraft's. Sacrilege, I know, but the man can write. And so can Smith.
**
Well, I went and saw Rob Zombie's 3 From Hell two nights ago. I didn't like it. My short review is up on Letterbxd HERE. I'll add that I am happy RZ made the movie he wanted to, it just wasn't to my tastes or what I wanted from a sequel to two movies I adore. Despite of my negative take, I'll still go see the next one when it comes out (there will be a next one).
**
Playlist of late:
Danzig - Danzig 1
Sepultura - Chaos A.D.
Mark Korven - The Witch OST
Slipknot - We Are Not Your Kind
Marilyn Manson - Antichrist Superstar
David Bowie - Aladdin Sane
Flipper - Generic Flipper
Various - Under Frustration, Vol. 2
Brass Hearse - Eponymous EP
Rob Zombie - Apple Essentials
Brass Hearse - In Death (I'll Love You More) single
**
Card of the day:
To me, this card always indicates a solid foundation, or re-gathering thereof. And that's what I've been doing of late - a lot of rest. I've felt out of sorts, stressed out, and my wrist in probably badly sprained. I may continue to rest today, even if I am neglecting my writing. We'll see. The reading - of comics, The Queen's Conjuror, and now some Cthulhu Mythos, is also an attempt at re-cementing my foundation, and that combined with the added rest is helping put me back together a bit after traveling and a grueling return to work last week.
Ghost released two new tracks last week. At first listen, I'll be honest and say I wrinkled my nose a bit. After a few more, I've come around a bit. I get the campy 70s thing, I just don't particularly care for it. Still, new Ghost is always something to look forward to. However, now I'm curious. Since the second record, Ghost's M.O. has been an album every two years, with an E.P. in-between. Do the two tracks released as "Seven Inches of Satanic Panic" constitute the entire release, or is there more still to come?
**
In keeping with the theme, I watched Chelsea Stardust's Satanic Panic last night. Solid horror comedy, with some very bizarre scenes. Watch Rebecca Romijn read recently excavated intestines was fantastic, and I'm always happy to see AJ Bowen.
**
A new episode of The Horror Vision went up Saturday. Featured film is Richard Stanley's Hardware, but we hit all kinds of stuff, from Wes Craven's original The Hills Have Eyes, to Mindhunter Season Two, to the theatrical release of Ari Aster's Midsummer.
Pixies - Head Carrier
Ghost - Seven Inches of Satanic Panic
Ghost - Prequelle
Twin Temple - Twin Temple (Bring You Their Signature Sound... Satanic Doo-Wop)
**
Card of the day:
Change. This is good. I've been so stressed out from work lately, I'm having night terrors. First time for that, and it's pretty fucked up. Also, my diet is not what I want it to be, and I need to change that; I've developed a running fear of heart attacks due to the stress and the amount of red meat I've been eating. Change won't be easy though, because having K's mother live with us means for the last year and some change and continuing forward, there's a lot of food in the house I would normally not buy. I need to figure out a way to topple this current paradigm. I also need to get back to my breathing exercises and meditation, which, after a good start, went out the window with my Chicago trip. First part of the battle though, is recognizing what needs to Change.
The new Pixies album came out yesterday. It's fantastic.
Long time Pixies fan, but I've always been a bit disappointed that their reconvening has pushed Black's solo career out of the picture. So there's that. But I loved Indy Cindy, and all the weird, negative shit I'd see online, like, "This isn't the Pixies I remember!" felt so ridiculous to me. It's that, no-matter-what-when-a-band-reunites-I'm-gonna-hate-it attitude that I don't get. I mean, I always approach long-awaited reunions with skepticism, but some bands pull them off. Off the top o' me head, Bauhaus' Go Away White in 2006 was fantastic. And I put Indy Cindy in that camp as well. Then Head Carrier came out and I tried multiple times but just did not get it. Until, several nights ago in Chicago, Mr. Brown recommended I give it another chance. This time, I did what I had not previously done - headphones. Late one night while staying at my parents' place, I had a late night writing session and put Head Carrier on the old Apple Music.
Instant fan.
And now, here's Beneath the Eyrie. And although I'm still spending most of my Pixies time with Head Carrier on repeat, the one somewhat choppy listen I've been able to give Eyrie lead me to believe it is more of the same.
**
It's been a while. Where do I even start? How about currently reading:
This is research for the second book in my Shadow Play series. The first book has ties into historical events, but in a much smaller way than I always knew subsequent books would. And of course, John Dee and Edward Kelley are going to play a part, because I've been obsessed with them off and on for almost two decades now. Although, their presence may largely be in an indirect way.
Regardless, I needed to brush up and expand my Dee/Kelley knowledge, and Benjamin Woolley's The Queen's Conjuror has turned out to be not only the best historical narrative I've seen yet of the duo, but a very well-written, enjoyable to read book.
Another book I grabbed on the day of release but haven't started reading yet came by way of a recommendation Warren Ellis wrote in his most recent Orbital Operations email newsletters. Tamsyn Muir's Gideon the Ninth had me at this blurb by author CharlesStross (also awesome):
"Lesbian Necromancers explore a haunted gothic palace in space!"
Sold! Can't wait to read this one; my deep dive into Alan Campbell's Gravedigger Chronicles earlier in the year left me seriously hungering for some strange SciFi/Fantasy, and Gideon sounds as though it will fit the bill.
**
I watched Gaspar Noe's Climax a few nights ago. With heavy trepidation, might I add. I ended up really liking it; there's a social, "getting to know the characters" scene after the first dance number that I hated violently, but aside from that, Noe crafts a harrowing hell on earth that can only be described as modern de Sade. Also, the choreography in this flick is fucking amazing:
**
K and I finally caught Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood last night. I have to say, I went through most of the film not really liking it; the film often felt aimless. Some of QT's more 'experimental' approaches to editing seemed sloppy. And Kurt Russell's narration appears in a way that made it feel like a rather sloppy device. Then the final, "Cielo Drive" sequence began and I LOVED it so much that this one sequence completely turned the entire experience around for me. I feel like I have to see it again, for sure, even if only to indulge in that final scene. Man! So good. Made me really miss Brad Pitt, so that I'm working it into the remaining days of September to re-watch both Twelve Monkeys and Fight Club, two flicks I haven't watched in ages, and in which Pitt really shines.
**
Highlights of music that is new or has been important to me since my previous entry:
The Pixies - Head Carrier
The Pixies - Beneath the Eyrie
Black Sabbath - Sabotage
Black Sabbath - Children of the Grave (Vol. 4 alternate, cassette release I've had for decades)
Black Sabbath - Eponymous
Fantomas-Melvins Big Band - Millennium Monsterwork
Ghost - Seven Inches of Satanic Panic
Purity Ring - Lofticries (single)
M83 - Saturdays = Youth
M83 - Temple of Sorrow (pre-release single)
M83 - Luna de Fiel (pre-release single)
Alice in Chains - Rainier Fog
Pale Dian - Narrow Birth
Slipknot - We Are Not Your Kind
Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - Wasteland
Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - Mind Control
Algiers - The Underside of Power
Iggy Pop - Lust for Life
Roxy Music - For Your Pleasure
Moderat - II
Nabihah Iqbal - Weighing of the Heart (ALL I listened to on the flight back to LA)
Drab Majesty - Modern Mirror
Venom - Welcome to Hell
David Bowie - The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust
**
Card of the day:
A nice apocalyptic image that fits right in with my delving back into Enochian Magick.
This track puts you in my exact headspace at the moment. Holed up in the business center in San Jose Airport - a layover on my way to Chicago - I've had a restful day of low impact/low stress. I arrived at Long Beach Airport an hour and a half early and spent most of that time sitting absolutely still, regulating my breathing, giving Tool's Fear Inoculum a second chance. Turns out it's fantastic, and designed around what I would guess is a formidable, uncompromising vision. That said, I've come away from two repeated listens with a newfound respect, but still feeling I'm only ever going to make a connection in it when I'm sitting in an airport, sitting perfectly still. Which isn't often.
**
My life reached a stress pinnacle and I had to rethink how I do this blog. My work day is now overflowing, and the writing/business of starting a publishing imprint draws much of the rest of my time. I'm still going to do these entries as often as possible, I just don't know that it'll be every day. Or even every other day. We'll see. But anyone who reads, I thank you for doing so, and there will always be more awesome to come.
**
Beyondfest 2019's lineup is a dream come true. Well, I've been going for something like five years now, and it's always a dream come true. Here's the list - my order of priority is as follows:
• Joe Begos double feature of Bliss and VFW, with Begos, Josh Ethier, and probably a lot more of the cast and crew present. A few years ago when Begos came to Beyondfest with Mind's Eye, I think he brought like, everybody. It was pretty fucking awesome. I can't wait. Highest priority.
• Tom Atkins afternoon triple feature of Halloween III: Season of the Witch, Night of the Creeps, and John Carpenter's The Fog, with Atkins in person. Let me say that again: with Tom Atkins in person. 'Nuff said.
• Richard Stanley's The Color Out of Space, with Stanley in person. SOLD.
• Joe Bob Briggs - How Rednecks Saved Hollywood. Joe Bob in person, doing the lecture he's becoming very sought after in city after city to do. This man is a low-fi genius, and I look forward to hearing him do his thing in person.
• Tammy and the T-Rex- the newly restored 90s kid's movie that, turns out, was really a heavily edited, gorey A.F. revenge movie where a girl's murdered boyfriend's brain gets put into the body of a T Rex. I haven't seen this in either form, but I've heard it discussed on Shockwaves and I'm IN. Also, it immediately follows the Joe Bob, so that should be nice and easy to maneuver.
There's also a handful of free showings I might try to make, and some unannounced dates, at least one of which I'm crossing my fingers will be The Soska Sisters' in person screening their remake of David Cronenberg's Rabid. That would also get high priority in my book. We'll see. The last three years, getting tickets to a lot of these screenings becomes difficult because every year, Fandango crashes. This year, apparently, they've moved ticket sales to Brown Paper Tickets. Hopefully the handle everything better.
**
Another minor logistical problem with buying tickets to Beyondfest this Saturday is, about the time they go on sale, I'll be at Scary Perry's Halloween Store for their Scare Faire. Jonathan Grimm and I have a table - he'll be hocking prints, magnets, stickers and who knows what else with his unbelievable art, I'll have copies of both A Collection of Desires: 7 Tales of Modern Horrorand the just-released Shadow Play Book One: Kim and Jessie. Unfortunately, due to some printing errors, I won't have as many copies as I would like, but there's a solid twenty of each, so if you're interested, come on down!
**
Playlist from the last couple days:
Budos Band - Burnt Offerings
Jenny Lewis - The Voyager
Roxy Music - For Your Pleasure
Joy Division - Closer
The Ocean - Rhyacian: Untimely Meditations (2017 Version)
The Ocean - Aeolian
The Ocean - Precambrian
The Ocean - Anthropocentric
The Ocean - Heliocentric
Twin Temples - Shadows
Slipknot - We Are Not Your Kind
Jane's Addiction - Ritual de lo Habitual
White Hex - Gold Nights
I had a difficult time choosing what track to end my Dead Milkmen Appreciation Week with, but in the end, it was always going to be this track. Why? Well, because I can relate; one time Senior Year, I stumbled across some friends at the party house where we all used to hang out, and saw they were removing banana peels from the oven and rolling them into joints. Perplexed and adventurous, I inquired and then partook. I don't know if what happened had to do with the peels, or the fact that one guy had laced them with Tic (tick?)- something I still have no idea what the hell it is. It was a looooong night. And as usual, the Milkmen nail it. Although really, they're kinda making fun of morons that smoke banana peels, but hey, I was pretty dumb at times as a rebellious teenager. We all were, to one degree or another.
Go out and pick up a Milkman album, download one on Apple Music, stream one on Spotify. Whatever. The point is, this is one band that deserves a lot more recognition than they get.
**
The new Tool album is out, and I may eat my words later on, but after 75% of one listen, I turned it off. My knee-jerk reaction is that all my grudges against them over the last several years have been confirmed and they've released a completely forgettable record that, honestly, I can't imagine giving a second go-round, though I will, just to give them the benefit of the doubt. Part of my major problems is every song has approximately the same tempo, so it all kind of blends together. Oh well, win some, lose some. The Ocean kind of took over as my go-to prog metal band a few years back, anyway, so I've spent the day listening to their 2010 masterpiece Anthropocentric.
**
Playlist from 8/29:
The Dead Milkmen - Metaphysical Graffiti
Led Zeppelin - Eponymous
The Ocean - Precambrian
The Ocean - Phanerozoic I
Type O Negative - Dead Again
**
No card or spread again today. Work has been insanely busy, I've been eeking these posts out on my lunch breaks.
This is amazing in conception; go HERE and read the 'linear notes' on this upcoming Sunn 0))) record - essentially a daily musical meditation everyone assembled to record Life Metal performed and recorded. That's really just a bare bones explanation, the band's is much more in depth and fascinating.
**
I finally watched Turbo Kid last night. Pretty cool. I can't say I'm in love with it as some folks I know are, and it still had to fight for my attention during the first forty minutes or so, but by the end I'd become quite affectionate to it, and will definitely see the upcoming sequel.
**
Although this is day seven of Dead Milkmen Appreciation Week, I'm going to go a full Friday-to-Friday, so consider this the 'penultimate' post. And it's about the time I just start posting tracks I love from my first and still favorite album by the band, 85's Big Lizard in My Backyard. I will forever be grateful for Mr. Brown gifted me this for my birthday one year back in the mid 90s. No bullshit - this has shaped a large part of who I am.
**
Playlist from 8/28:
Sausage - Riddles Are Abound Tonight
The Ocean - Precambrian
Shellac - The End of Radio
Cold Cave - Cherish the Light Years
Sleep - Sleep's Holy Mountain
Martin Atkins is taking Pigface out on the road! According to what I've been reading surrounding the announcement of this tour, it's been 15 years since the rotating line-up insanity that is Pigface toured; that both surprises me and does not. Surprises me, as when I trace fifteen years into the past it's not quite as far back as it feels like it should be (when did the tide line from subtracting 15 from the current date push up to almost the mid-00s?). Fails to surprise me when you consider Atkins - who I'm a fan of - stop beating the dead horse for all it's worth? Well, in the case of this recent tour, which you can read more about on Brooklyn Vegan HERE, the line-up is fantastic, and I'm definitely considering attending an eventual LA stop. That said, if there's one thing we all of us in this generation of music fans know, you can't go home again, so maybe I might just let this one slide by without thinking twice. We'll see how I feel when a venue is announced and tickets go on sale.
I saw Pigface in 1994 for Notes From the Underground, and it's hard to imagine placing another show atop that one in my memory. Three drummers - Danny Carey (yes, that Danny Carey), Atkins, and the Sugar Cubes Sigtryggur Balduron, plus Genesis P-Orridge, Charles Levi, Dirk Flanigan, En Esch, Lesley Rankine, Mary Byker, Chris Connelly, and who knows how many others. It's really hard to imagine even coming close to the magic that night. But maybe it's not about competing with that. I'd be more concerned that after all this time and the probable malaise that has set in, a subpar experience. I don't know, we'll see. I'm always overly skeptical about reunions; there have been fantastic ones, to be sure. But there have also been shite ones.
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NCBD:
And another book I read comes to and end. Rick Remender and Matteo Scalera's Black Science has been one hell of a ride. My recent initiative to re-read this one from the beginning stalled, but I'm hoping to get back on that this weekend. Don't want to read the finale until I've dug back through the entire series. There's sure to be many points of confluence/closure with what has come before.
And if City at War isn't hot enough already, issue 97 will most likely up the stakes exponentially as we near the conclusion of the first one hundred issues of the best reboot I've ever seen.
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Dead Milkmen Appreciation Week continues with another more recent track, Big Words Make the Baby Jesus Cry, from the 2012 EP with the same name. As usual, fantastic social mockery from the Milkmen.
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Playlist from 8/26:
Jeffrey Alan Jones - Most Beautiful Island
Frank Black and the Catholics - Eponymous
Moderat - II
The Ocean - Rhyacian: Untimely Meditations (2017 Version EP)
The Ocean - Precambrian
Sunn 0))) - Flight of the Behemoth
Soooo... this season is an amalgam of a multitude of different slashers flicks from years past? The Burning, Friday the 13th, I Know What You Did Last Summer? Well, even if it looks pretty uninspired, it might be fun. I usually know within two episodes whether or not I want to complete a season of AHS, so I'll give it a try.
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Originally, Wednesday the 28th I was slated to do a signing of my new book, Shadow Play Book One: Kim & Jessie at the Comic Bug in Manhattan Beach. Unfortunately, due to a production delay with the copies I ordered, I was forced to cancel. The event will most likely be re-scheduled for 9/11, but in the interim, Jonathan Grimm and I will have a table at Scare Faire, the annual Horror Event held in Scary Perry's Halloween Store and Hardcore Hearse Club in Chicago on Saturday, September 7th. Grimm will be selling art prints, magnets, stickers, and all the awesome stuff he does, and I'll have copies of Shadow Play and my first book, A Collection of Desires: 7 Tales of Modern Horror. If you're in the area, stop in and see us. Both of us love to talk all things horror.
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Dead Milkmen Appreciation Week continues with another classic track, the James Brown-parody RC's Mom, from Beelzebubba. So good...
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Playlist from 8/26:
Talking Heads - Remain in Light
The Ocean - Heliocentric
The Ocean - Precambrian
The Ocean - 1.0 Ansia - EP*
Roxy Music - For Your Pleasure
Black Sabbath - Eponymous
Mastodon - Once More 'Round the Sun
Jenny Lewis - Acid Tongue
High on Fire - The Art of Self Defense
Budos Band - Burnt Offerings
* Not sure this is actually same The Ocean as the other tracks. Researching it online has been frustrating to say the least. If anyone happens to know anything about this, please leave a comment.
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Today's Spread:
I Love seeing this Spread! The juxtaposition of the intellectual refinement of emotion lends itself well to the pleasures of completion. I have my assignment for the day, and I'll let the cancellation of the signing roll right the f--- off my back!
I became esctatic yesterday after stumbling across the trailer for a big-screen adaptation of possibly my favorite novel by Jonathan Lethem. I read Motherless Brooklyn about ten years ago, and I absolutely loved it. In fact, I recently ear-marked several of Lethem's books to read/re-read, simply because it's been some time since I revisited his work; I think the last time I picked up Amnesia Moon at the always delightful Dark Carnival Bookstore in Berkley in the spring of 2012. I blew through that one in about a day and a half, and that's pretty standard for Lethem's work, which I've been interested in since his completely insane re-boot of Marvel Comics' Omega the Unknown back in 2007. Also of note is the fact that Lethem took David Foster Wallace's place as a Literary Professor at Pomona College after Wallace's death.
What a delightful surprise this adaptation is. Can't wait to re-read the book now.
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Day four of my Dead Milkmen Appreciation Week and I'm finally getting around to representing my favorite album, the band's 1985 debut Big Lizard in My Backyard. And what better way to represent the album than with the title track, which is both endearing and hysterical.
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New episode of The Horror Vision went up yesterday. In it, we discuss Ready or Not, revisiting Rob Zombie's Halloween, 1972 oddity Grave of the Vampire, Michael O'Shea's The Transfiguration, and a whole lot more. Also, as our featured flick, we watch and give an immediate reaction to Scott Schirmer's Found.
Check it out:
Etta James - Etta James (Third Album)
Joy Division - Closer
Deafheaven - New Bermuda
FMLYBND - Letting Go (single)
Ghost Bath - Moonlover
Kevin Morby - Singing Saw
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Today's spread:
When I pulled these, I had a very specific question in mind: I'm caught in a loop on a story that should have been finished weeks ago. It's repeatedly pulled me away from Ciazarn and really been nothing but a pain in the ass. What's more, although I love the core concept, it insists on going to places I'm not particularly comfortable with. So my question was, do I ditch it and start anew? Well, a path is laid one stone at a time (The Fool), and Victory (6 of Wands) often comes at the hands of Instinct (Knight of Disks). I'll give it one more day, as yesterday's writing session was largely instinctual, as I chopped massive sections out of the story in an attempt to stream-line it around an idea I had late Saturday night. One day, then it's back into the piles for it.
This new Chromatics video popped in my youtube feed yesterday. Directed by Johnny Jewel, this is a really cool piece that expertly masks what I have to assume is a low production budget. As with his music, Jewel knows his style and tone and has become at creating and adhering to it on the cheap. NOT a criticism.
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Friday night I saw Ready or Not. FANTASTIC! Go see this one - Dark, fun, and gory in all the right places. More of my thoughts - as well as the thoughts of two of my Horror Vision co-hosts - will go up later today in our new episode. I will post a link on tomorrow's page, but in the interim, here's the trailer again. So good.
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Today is day three of my Dead Milkmen Appreciation Week. This time, I'm shooting for what is most likely an obvious favorite of all Milkmen fans, Stuart, from 1988's Beelzebubba. This track basically constitutes the sonic equivalent of comfort food for me.
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Back on Laird Barron's Black Mountain, 50+ pages in, The Croatoan is a fascinating boogey man.
Being that both Isaiah Coleridge novels were released a year apart starting in 2018, I'm really hoping Mr. Barron is going for a hat trick and that a third hits next year. Coleridge is a fantastic character in both definition and execution, and his supporting cast is no less endearing, so it's only a matter of time until someone scoops this up for a series.
Playlist from 8/24:
The Dead Milkmen - The King in Yellow
Perturbator - Dangerous Days
Perturbator - B-Sides and Remixes
Windhand - Grief's Infernal Flower
Nabihah Iqbal - Weighing of the Heart
Card of the day:
Because my world currently revolves around my Art, and the alchemical act of balancing it with my regular life (two faces).
One and a half years ago I sat in a movie theatre in the South Suburbs of Chicago and took a killing blow to my nostalgia-based love of Star Wars. Today, watching the trailer Lucasfilm released for The Mandalorian, I feel that love intensley rekindled. Not rekindled in a capacity that will see me paying ~$20 for the next installment of the film franchise, but in a way that does what this new series was quite transparently made to do: reach back into my nostalgia bunker and pull out a big ol' pile of my childhood guts. I count quite a few checks in boxes I'd forgotten I have:
Boba Fett (in visage if not character, which in my opinion, is a fucking brilliant way to fan service us without a retcon that resurrects the ill-fated bounty hunter).
IG-88. Kicking ass and taking names, no less.
That squid-faced guy from Jedi.
Cantinas filled with wretch scum and unabashed villainy.
Oh yeah, and then there's the fact that Werner Herzog plays a heavy. Herzog and Star Wars? Talk about two things I never knew I wanted before seeing them with my own two eyes.
So yes, I will definitely be on board with the Disney steaming app for this one. No doubt. And I can appreciate my rabid fervor as nothing short of nostalgia - I'm fine with that.
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Today is day number 2 of Dead Milkmen Appreciation Week here on my page. For today's entry, I went with something newer - Fauxhemia, the second track from 2011's The King in Yellow. Once again, the Milkmen totally nail relatable lyrics. The entire album is quite adroit at that - surely one of the Milkmen's greatest strengths. What's more, this album really excels at striking a track-by-track synthesis of the two main song archetypes the band's songwriting typically manifests, which I'll trace all the way back to their 1985 debut Big Lizard in My Backyard (long my favorite by the band) to define: there's the biting, often hysterical social commentary in tracks such as Violent School and Right Wing Pigeons, and the more straight-forward, emotionally melodic numbers like Tugena. And the synthesis really works, perhaps on no song better than this one. In my head, when the "Your 300 lb Psychic Baby..." line comes up in the chorus, I immediately picture the cover of Big Lizard, except with the giant lizard replaced by a giant, fat baby, and it always makes me laugh.
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Playlist from 8/23:
The Dead Milkmen - The King in Yellow
Roxy Music - For Your Pleasure
Mötley Crüe - Shout at the Devil
The National - High Violet
Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - The Night Creeper
Alabama Shakes - Sound and Color
The Dead Milkmen - Big Lizard in My Backyard
Amy Winehouse - Back to Black
Jenny Lewis - The Voyager
INXS - Kick
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Today's spread:
Something I'm working on isn't working, I'm trying to force the issue, and that's not going to work. So the question then, is what do I need to re-think? I think there's an underlying current here of anxiety concerning Ciazarn, because Grimm and I are attempting to get this up on its feet by September. That feels like I'm trying to force that deadline, and I think this spread is telling me what I already know: push it back.
I always say I dislike music videos that showcase the band pantomiming like they're playing the song, but in this case, I just can't help but smile seeing the Milkmen as they were back in the day. A great song from a great album. The Secret of Life kicks off Dead Milkmen Appreciation Week. For the next seven days, I'll post one track a day that make the Milkmen among my favorite all-time bands. And although Soul Rotation isn't an album I go to often, I pulled it out recently - thanks for the copy Mr. Brown - and really enjoyed hearing it again after a couple of years.
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Next Wednesday, 8/28, my new novel Shadow Play - Book One: Kim & Jessie will be released, and if I've done my job this time, it will be available in Bookstores as well as on Amazon. When I released my first published work, A Collection of Desires: 7 Tales of Modern Horror, I did so only through Amazon, with a free, Amazon-only ISBN number. This time, I've started a Publishing Company, Horror Vision Press (THV Press for eventual non-horror content), and released a new edition of A Collection of Desires complete with an internationally recognized ISB that means you can order it at Barns and Noble HEREandAmazon HERE. I'm not really sure what other book specialty stores exist at this point, but if you have a favorite and they do not have ACoD in stock, they should be able to order it from Ingram wholesale with the following ISBN: 978-1733410700.
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There's a new trailer for HBO's Watchmen series. Color me intrigued, as this doesn't look like anything I would have expected. There almost seems to be a comedic streak at times, and if that is the case, it will be interesting to see how that might or might not mesh with the harsher tones of the original series and cinematic adaptation.
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Playlist from the last few days:
The Dead Milkmen - Soul Rotation
Uniform and The Body - Everything That Dies Someday Comes Back
Phanerozoic I: Palaeozoic
Beach House - Thank Your Lucky Stars
David Bowie - Lodger
Khruangbin - Hasta El Cielo
Windhand - Eternal Return
Jozef Van Wissem and Jim Jarmusch - An Attempt to Draw Aside the Veil
Iron Butterfly - In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida
Joan Jett and the Blackhearts - Album
Iggy Pop - Lust for Life
Ariel - Young Lovers
Alabama Shakes - Sound and Color
Jenny Lewis - The Voyager
Jenny Lewis - On the Line
Roxy Music - For Your Pleasure
Iggy Pop and Jarvis Cocker - Red Right Hand (single)
Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - The Night Creeper
Yesterday, while driving around the South Bay with K and my cousin Charles, my iTunes shuffled up Epiphany, the eight track from Heliocentric, part 1 of the two-part album cycle The Ocean Collective released in 2010. Back when this came out, it was largely all I listened to; both Heliocentric and its counterpart, Anthropocentric, are fantastic records with big, philosophical themes and seriously intense musical arrangements. Hearing the penultimate track from a former favorite album (tracks 9 and 10 are really one track, imo) reminded me how awesome The Ocean is, and that they released their first album in five years last November. Through no fault of its own, I barely listened to Phanerozoic I; Palaeozoic. Following all this up, I found that two months ago, the band released this awesome video. This is one of the things I dig about The Ocean - everything is art with them. Everything has meaning.
I guess it's safe to say I'm about to fall back in love with a band that really reintroduced me to metal in the late 00s.
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NCBD:
Ed Brubaker and Sean Philips continue to put out one of the only must-read monthly monthly books. And look at that cover! Also, hoping that Transformers 84 #0 lands today, as when I originally posted about it a few weeks ago, I later found out the date I'd seen reported online was erroneous.
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Playlist from 8/20:
Siouxsie and the Banshees - Tinderbox
The Ocean - Heliocentric
Har Mar Superstar - Bye Bye 17
Twin Temple - Bring You Their Signature Sound...
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Spread of the day:
Interesting to note that despite not posting a spread in nine days, The Queen of Swords remains a diligent influence. This spread was specifically geared toward an issue with someone at work, and the spread directly mirrors events of the day, in a good way. Savagery must be clinical in order to bypass the Strife that can accompany getting what you want.
Based on a story by Channel Zero creator Nick Antosca and produced by Guillermo del Toro, this looks fantastic! I know a lot of hype out there right now in upcoming horror flicks is for The Lodge, but that one doesn't get the benefit of the doubt from me, simply because, as well-made as Goodnight Mommy was, I severely disliked it in a manner that makes me think Severin Fiala and Veronika Franz's horror aesthetic is diametrically opposed to my own. Not a judgement, just means while I can appreciate their craft as creators, I'm not a fan. But who knows, maybe The Lodge will change that. Regardless, this teaser and the names on the banner push this one up there with Joe Begos' Bliss and Chelsea Stardust's Satanic Panic as among my most anticipated horror flicks of the year.
Oh yeah, and of course there's The Lighthouse, but that bloody well goes without saying. With a schedule announcement imminent any day now, looks like I may have to take some PTO for Beyondfest this year.
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I've put a pin in Damien Echol's High Magick for a bit because I'm actually following his suggestions as I re-map my daily world to accommodate Magickal Practice. I will be spending a few months creating and adhering to some of the breathing practices he outlines in Section Three of the book. This is something I've always been bad at, and I think, the reason my results have been spotty in the past. This time, I can tell you that keeping a regular practice of Four-Fold Breathing has filled my last three weeks with sometimes scary reserves of energy. It feels good.
Speaking of reading, as I mentioned a few weeks ago, I arrested my first read of Laird Barron's second Isaiah Coleridge novel, Black Mountain, to re-read last year's Blood Standard. For a book I first read barely a year ago, this is already my favorite read of the year. For the second year in a row. I can't wait to dig into that second volume, probably by week's end!
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I spent the last few days in Joshua Tree. First trek out there in four, almost five years. It feels good to stand and sweat in the desert, as it catalyzes a very cosmic perspective.
We stayed at the Joshua Tree Inn, of course, in the fabled Donovan Suite, no less. It goes without saying then that I christened the room with this classic track, first put on my radar by George A. Romero's criminally underrated Season of the Witch:
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On podcast news, my co-host Anthony Guerra and I released a brief review episode for Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark and 47 Meters Down: Uncaged. Spoiler-free. Check it out, we might save you some $$$:
Playlist from the last few days was largely curated by my cousin Charles, who drive K and I out to JT, so some of the specifics of what we listened to is lost. I'll do my best:
Donovan - Season of the Witch (Single)
Calexico - Even Sure Things Fall Through
Kevin Morby - Oh My God
William Tyler - Modern Country
Whitney - Light Upon the Lake
Jenny Lewis - Acid Tongue
Al B. Sure! - Nite and Day (Single)
Jenny Hval - Blood Bitch
Chris Connelly - Night of Your Life
Hamilton Leithauser - Black Hours
Daniel Rossen - Silent Hour/Golden Mile EP
Windhand - Grief's Infernal Flower
Jaye Jayle - No Trail and Other Unholy Paths
John Carpenter - Big Trouble in Little China OST
NOTE: I've been attempting to post this for several days. Busy week.
This past Wednesday, my first alarm woke me as it always does at 4:07 AM. I keep my phone outside of arm's reach from where we sleep, just to ensure I don't just roll over and silence the alarm. I do, however, get up, snooze, and lay back down until one of the subsequent seven alarms finally rouse me from slumber completely. This particular morning, when I picked up the phone, I saw a push notification from Bandsintown that Mr. Bungle had announced a new show. Still mostly asleep, I dismissed this and when I finally did make my way to the kitchen to feed the cat and put some coffee on, the image of the notification was gone, wafting away as if the contents of a dream. You can imagine my surprise then, when I finally checked my messages, I saw that Mr. Bungle's return was indeed a reality.
Nineteen years ago I saw Mr. Bungle - then easily my favorite band ever - on two tours for their third and final album, California. After that, the band dissolved, the members went their separate ways, and I figured that maybe we would one day see some form of reunion, but more than likely not. Needless to say, as I dug deeper into the circumstances that prompted the unlikely reunion and saw that three of the five core members - Mike Patton, Trey Spruance, and Trevor Dunn - would be joined by Dave Lombardo and Scott Ian, reality shook for a moment and the feeling that I may still be trapped in a dream settled over me. When I read further and saw the new lineup would be performing Bungle's High School demo tape The Raging Wraith of the Easter Bunny in its full, my jaw dropped. I mean, what the absolute fuck?
I'll admit, although there is a lot of pre-first studio album Bungle material I dig, the material on Easter Bunny doesn't really fall into that category. It's juvenile and largely painful to listen to, especially when juxtaposed with what the band became later in its existence. But the idea of seeing these five men re-work and possibly really make something of this material fills me with hope! Although tickets are already selling at a premium and they're not even really on sale yet - only about 25% of the overall seating was allotted for the pre-sales that sold out in seconds - I am happy to say my good friend Dave secured us each one. February 7th is six months away, but I am overjoyed to be going on this adventure with Mr. Bungle once again. Is it nostalgia? Probably, but I also think we're probably in for one fantastic fucking surprise.
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Playlist from the last few days:
Duck - Kaiser Chiefs
Time Stays, We Go - The Veils
Windhand - Eponymous
Waxwork Records - House of Waxwork
Wasted Theory - Defenders of the Riff
Black Sabbath - Master of Reality
Windhand - Grief's Infernal Flower
Bluebob - David Lynch and John Neff
Sleep - Sleep's Holy Mountain
High on Fire - Electric Messiah
Helms Alee - Sleepwalking Sailors
Iggy Pop - Lust for Life
Anthrax - Among the Living
Budapest Festival Orchestra - Igor Stravinsky's The Firebird Suite
Budapest Festival Orchestra - Igor Stravinsky's Petrushka: Part I
Opeth - Deliverance
Orville Peck - Pony
Mr. Bungle - Disco Volante
Windhand - Eternal Return
Sleep - The Sciences
Opeth - Dignity (Pre-release single)
Opeth - Heart in Hand (Pre-release single)
Monolord - The Bastard Son (Pre-release single)
Revolting Cocks Playlist
I've been on something of a kick with The Veils lately. This song... so good. Finn Andrews is, in my opinion, the heir to Nick Cave's throne. Not that Cave is going anywhere anytime soon, I hope. But there's an artistic comparison to be made, for sure.
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Saturday night, K and I went to the theatre and saw Scary Stories to Tell In the Dark. It's not good.
I know, I know... what could go wrong? Well, for one, the framing device the filmmakers construct - a story about preteens that ride around on bikes and use walkie talkies to communicate during dangerous situations (sound familiar?; I can practically see the studio executives writing that in), situations that arise from the kids finding a mysterious book in a mysterious house and setting off strange events? It sucks. It's trite, completely unoriginal, and largely boring. Watching a movie that's this bad, I always go through about thirty to forty minutes of the, "Maybe it's just me..." phase, followed immediately by the, "Okay, if it's not me, what's wrong with it?" phase.
I really try. I do.
Finally, we get the "Well, how could they have done this better" phase. For this one, I think the better option would have been to invent a Cryptkeeper-like character or device and use that to introduce and/or narrate the 'Scary Stories' culled from the book. As it stands with this film, the framing device story involving the kids is about 90% of the screen time, and the Scary Stories are maybe 10%.
It is, however, visually and sonically really well made. And if you have younger children and want to get them on Horror, I'd definitely recommend this for them. And admittedly, the brief moments that bring the original stories from the books to life are pretty awesome, there just isn't nearly enough of them to make up for the rest.
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Playlist from the last few days:
Waxwork Records - House of Waxwork Issue #1
Revolting Cocks Playlist
Drab Majesty - Careless
Beach House - Thank Your Lucky Stars
Beak> - L.A. Playback
Opeth - Still Life
Sunn O))) - Life Metal
High on Fire - The Art of Self Defense
The Veils - Nux Vomica
The Veils - Time Stays, We Go
The Veils - Total Depravity
Sleep - Dopesmoker
Ritual Howls - Rendered Armor
Deafheaven - Ordinary Corrupt Human Love
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Today's spread:
Continuing the theme of larger ideas affecting everyday life. I'm really only feeling the barest beginnings of this, but it's there.
