Whispers From The Abyss Volume #2

I've really only just begun reading the first volume of Whispers From the Abyss from 01 Publishing but I'll stay straight off it's fantastic. Two of the stories in it - Nation of Disease: The Rise and Fall of a Canadian Legend by Jonathan Sharp and Death Wore Greasepaint by Josh Finney are probably among my top five Lovecraft-inspired stories ever. And now 01 has the second volume out digitally and are kickstarting the print edition. If you're a Lovecraft fan, a fan of dark or Weird fiction, or just a fan of great writing this is a well-worthy cause. AND might I add that 01 has procured none other than Laird Barron for an entry into this second volume.

Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children

A Tim Burton movie without Johnny Depp or HBC? Based on a book I LOVED? I'm in.

(pleasebegoodpleasebegoodpleasebegood)

Homicidal Homemaker's Black Lodge Pie!

Mr. Brown sent this to me on Twin Peaks day and I'm late getting around to watching the entire thing (yeah, at a whopping 6 minutes and some change this would'a kept me up all night, right?). I am SO going to make this. And I absolutely love the idea of a horror-themed cooking show, so I just did what I'm going to suggest you do - if you dig this subscribe to the Homicidal Homemaker's youtube channel!

The Callas - Could You?

There is A LOT to love about the new album from The Callas, a band whose previous record Am I Vertical? made my best of list in 2013. Returning to produce is Bad Seeds/Grinderman member Jim Sclavunos on a record that totally threw me for a loop at first listen. Not that there's not some sonic threads that pull Half Kiss Half Pain and Am I Vertical? together, but this is definitely not a case of a band sticking with a producer and adhering to a 'sound' that they created together. Half Kiss Half Pain still has those gloriously jagged garage rock leanings, but they're tempered with a nuance and sophistication that gives the record an incredible sense of dynamism.

I get the impression from juxtaposing these two most recent records (I am completely unfamiliar with the four previous LPs the band has - going to remedy that real soon) that The Callas are very much about moving forward, in the way that a band like, say Liars is also. Which is going to be a very good thing for those of us that follow their career.

So if you dig this, you know, buy Half Kiss Half Pain and follow their career.

Live WEEN from last week's shows

Screen shot courtesy of Tara Cushing's youtube channel

Mr. Brown sent me a sampling of what some of the fine folks who attended these reunion shows have put up on youtube. This user, Tara Cushing, has an wonderfully extensive documentation of all three nights so check out her youtube page here. They make me smile. Again, I simply cannot describe how happy I am to see one of my all-time favorite bands back together again - I'm literally tearing up just writing this.

BOOGNISH!

H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival 2016 San Pedro

SUPER happy to be able to promote this. I've gone two other times and both were fantastic - really looking forward to this year! If you're unfamiliar with the H.P. Lovecraft Film Fest and are a Lovecraft fan you can read my review of the first one I attended here to get an idea of the level that this fest takes it to. And as good as that initial experience was, my subsequent one was about ten times better, so that's really saying something. This fest improves exponentially with every passing year. And honestly, it's just a great round-up of Weird and Horror culture, as well as being a great time to boot, whether you're an HPL fan or not.

Among the vendors this year I happen to know that Josh Finney and Kat Rocha will be representing the wonderful 01 Publishing. Josh and Kat were our guests on the live stream of Drinking w/ Comics #31 last night and they were awesome! 01's line-up is kind of a dream come true for Lovecraft/Weird/Cyberpunk fans and if that sounds great or even the littlest bit titillating, I suggest you make an intro to their world with Josh and Patrick McEvoy's Casefile: Arkham "Nightmare on the Canvas", which made it into my top comics of 2015 and is an exhaustively researched mash-up of Lovecraft mythos and Noir.  Another great entry to the 01 world would be the Lovecraft-inspired prose anthologies Whispers From the Abyss, volume 2 of which is available in digital right now here or can be pre-ordered in print here. I only just got my hands on Vol. 1 and it looks fantastic and features stories by Josh, Kat, Silvia Moreno-Garcia as well as many others. And Vol. 2 features a story by one of my favorite writers ever, the inimitable Mr. Laird Barron.

Ghost interviewed at the grammys

The woman interviewing them clearly has no prior knowledge of them. I'm sure that was the case with most of the people at/watching the grammy's. That makes this all the better.

Thanks to my friend John the Viking - if he hadn't shared this clip with me I would have never seen it.

Papa kind of reminds me a bit of a less hostile Mike Patton circa Angel Dust era as he subtly makes fun of the interviewer's questions. Favorite quote: "You want to win to win prizes for what you do."

Awesome!