2018: March 22nd 4:35 AM

Woke up with this firmly entrenched in my head. Great song:



Two nights ago I watched the newest Hellraiser movie, Hellraiser: Judgement. I'm a huge fan of the first two films, and maybe a fan of number three, although it's not been since Hell on Earth was first released to video (while I was in high school!) that I've seen it and, in spite of liking it then, I've grown suspicious of it due to the fact that Part 3 is essentially where dimension films began to try and shoehorn Pinhead into being another Freddy-sized horror icon in a cookie cutter franchise series. Maybe cookie cutter isn't the correct term, but all I know is there are not too many instances where Hellraisers 4-8 are spoken of nicely, if at all. Judgement, however, was good despite its ostentatious nature, particularly in The 55 Ludovico Place sequences, which are gorgeous but suffer from a certain one-upmanship to its grotesqueries. You can almost hear the writer's process during these sequences, something along the lines of, "Oh, what if then the blood the Surgeon unleashes... um... gets sprayed from industrial piping built into the table and... soaks down the demon chicks' naked tits? Yeah! Holy shit! That's gnarly!" I mean, I loved the sequences in question, bloody naked breasts and all, but there's a certain contrivance that goes along with both the presentation and my appreciation. Regardless, in spite of this and a slightly tired biblical serial killer storyline with a predictable twist (for my $$ Se7en opened and shut the door on this concept), I really liked Hellraiser: Judgement.



Playlist from yesterday:

Flying Lotus - Cosmogramma
Screaming Females - All At Once
Ghost - Infestissumam
Windhand - Grief's Infernal Flower
The Verve - E.P.
Touche Amore - Eponymous
Antlers - Familiars
Boards of Canada - Music Has the Right to Children
Boards of Canada - In a Beautiful Place Out in the Country

Card for the day:

"Incredible energy to physical matters." Yep. That's moving. I've worked non-stop since Monday, coming home after work and physical grinding out the packing, cleaning, condensing, purging. Hard work pays off tonight when we sign the lease, pick up the keys and finish final preparations for the move tomorrow!

2018: March 21st 4:44 AM

So, a clarification I need to make from yesterday's post. I'm not intending to half-ass anything here, but there's no wifi connection in the office at work right now, it's crazy busy beside, and now even the personal hotspot connection when piggy-backing off my phone just doesn't hold up. I'm wondering if someone painted the office with lead over night?

I inadvertently listed the first item on yesterday's detailing of the 19th's playlist as "Introduction to Stereoscopic Sound". That's close, but it doesn't really tell you what the hell this is. This is what that is:

A record I picked up in a thrift probably 10 or 11 years ago, I had a bunch of these 'demo' vinyls until the recent purge. Now I just have two, and this is one of those that I kept. It's gorgeous, sonically and visually, simply because it is such a holdover from a different era. These were records labels like Columbia released to demonstrate the new art of Stereo - imagine! Something we take 100% for granted! Very cool, and sounds a little something like this, with a track listing that includes Tchaikovsky, Bartok,Gershwin and Duke Ellington!



Playlist from 3/20:

Led Zeppelin - Presence
Screaming Females - All At Once
Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin I
The Veils - Total Depravity
Alice Donut - Three Sisters
Blur - Eponymous
The Fixx - Reach the Beach
Black Sabbath - Sabotage

Card for the day:

From the grimoire, "Can be a dirt, focused woman or period of female-inspired energy. Confident in what she wants and forthright in acquiring it. Unceasing energy and determination, but this can lead to not knowing when to stop for the love of the battle."

Hmm...

2018: March 20th 8:56 AM

Let's start with some Zeppelin, shall we?





Attacked the house yesterday. Those who know it wouldn't recognize it. So much to do before Friday, but considerably less thanks to the hangover from hell keeping me out of work yesterday.


Playlist from yesterday:

Introduction to Stereophonic Sound
Urge Overkill - Saturation
King Woman - Created in the Image of Suffering
Charles Bradley - Changes
Led Zeppelin - Presence

Finished American Horror Story Roanoke last night. You know why it's the best season of AHS yet? Because it's only ten episodes! The one thing that always drags the show down a bit for me is the last few episodes where I always find myself asking, "Why is this still on?". Roanoke's narrative device of adopting reality TV formatting is, of course, an aesthetic problem for me, as I hate and have seen very little reality tv, yet the way they use it I can excuse the form and not hold it against the show. I really thought it was brilliant, especially because they didn't get too many plates spinning. Best and most concise season. And Kathy Bates was phenomenally terrifying, but Susan Berger ... just her statuary appearance in episode 8 left me with nightmare chills. Kudos.

No card today either, because I'm at work and there's just no time.

Almost forgot 3/18's Playlist

Which consisted of this record over and over again all day and all night. No bullshit.

2018: March 19th 4:10 PM

Well, I missed yesterday completely. Yeah, that St. Paddy's/moving out party was a mother fucker. Before I get into that, let's get into a tune for you to read by. I'm still really loving on Saturation; I haven't played it this much probably since it came out:



I didn't actually go to sleep Saturday night until Sunday morning, once for about two hours from 10AM to 12PM - woke up and had breakfast with those who had remained behind to sleep on the couch/floor/spare room (it was really that kind of party. Like we're fucking 20 or something... yeesh). Last breakfast at the Omelette and Waffle House for a while, although I will definitely be driving back to Pedro to eat there again. Still my favorite breakfast place ever. And I ended it how I began there, back the first time I walked through its doors and looked at its menu - Pineapple, Avocado and Sour Cream omelette. The rub was, I couldn't eat the damn thing. My stomach was a roiling sea of chaos and the cacophony of the breakfast crowd slammed through my ears and rattled my head until I nearly lost my mind. We returned home, friends departed and I lay in bed all day and all night, getting up to vomit occasionally, then curling back up and laying fetal in the dark, waiting for nausea to pass me by like some stalking predator in the dark. It was horrible, but not incredibly so. Really, I had anticipated it once I claimed the last third of the bottle of Bushmills as mine and carried it around the party like a glass iPhone.

Playlist from the Saturday, 3/17 was divided between work and the party, which flew well out of control at some point, so I'm probably not getting it all here:

Led Zeppelin - Presence
Fear - Live for the Record
David Bowie - Diamond Dogs
Monolord - Vaenir

The Pogues - Red Roses for Me
The Pogues - Rum, Sodomy and the Lash
The Pogues - If I Should Fall From Grace With God
Flogging Molly - Drunken Lullabies
Floggy Molly - Float
Urge Overkill - Saturation

No card yesterday, no card today. I'll get back to that tomorrow. For now, I had to call out from work today and since crawling from bed I've been prepping for the move on Friday.

Oh! My good friend and co-conspirator on the now-underway 3-issue The Legend of Parish Fenn comic book, Jonathan Grimm, sent me a birthday present that arrived today. Four of his absolutely legendary prints, a Phantasm, an Alien, Alien vs. Predator, and Pumpkinhead. SO good. Check out his art HERE. Prints are a fucking STEAL at $10 a pop.

2018: March 17th 9:12 AM

Happy St. Paddy's Day!



Two corned beef in the croc pots at home, a boat load of Guinness, Smithwicks, Bushmills, Jameson, and State of Grace on tap for a late viewing this evening. Life is good.

Playlist from yesterday:

Talking Heads - Sand in the Vaseline (disc 1)
Urge Overkill - Saturation
The Pogues - Red Roses for Me
Wrekmeister Harmonies - Light Falls
The Bronx - Eponymous
Sex Pistols - Never Mind the Bollocks...
White Zombie - Astro Creep 2000
Blut Aus Nord - Memoria Vetusta II (Dialogue with the Stars)
Blut Aus Nord - Memoria Vetusta III (Saturnian Poetry)
Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - Vol. 1 (Vinyl)

Card of the day:

Fitting, eh? As usual, totally in tune because, of course, this isn't "Magick" in so far as special powers from outside, but deeply connected Jungian hoo-ha from the gobbledygook far down inside our minds, the shit that comprises us but we don't understand or aren't even aware of. It colors every action, thought and day. And these cards help reflect a bit of it out into where we can try and draw juxtapositions with it. And here, Completion, because, of course, tonight is the end of my 11 years and 11 months at this place. I don't move until next Friday, but this is the pinnacle. Also, there's harmony here with the fact that, in 2006 when the girl I used to live with and I first got an inkling on moving out to CA, we flew out over St. Paddy's weekend to look at apartments and have her interviewed by her perspective employer. So total Completion. Yes.

2018: March 16th 8:25 PM

Somehow I stumbled back into Urge Overkill yesterday after having not even thought of them for quite some time. This probably has something to do with the fact that in preparation for the move, I am going through my CDs and slimming down the collection. Not a hard thing with Apple Music, although there is still a part of me that will always feel better having some things in a tactile form. That cloud goes down or my phone dies and I can't access The Birthday Party's Prayers on Fire or Bowie's Reality at the exact moment I want to hear them and I'm gonna flip. But, not everything needs to stay tactile, and a lot of what does can be trimmed by tossing the cases. It's funny, similar to how Amazon completely changed the way we shop for records - because I for one never thought I'd be into shopping for music online instead of walking stoned through a record store - Apple Music seems to be the service that has redefined my musical paradigm. And I love it, although I still don't like thinking of music as a 'service'. Gas is a service. Power's a service.

I ordered a Boskine 100-space CD wallet and will be tossing the cases on a lot of albums, slipping the discs and liner notes into far less ostentatious space. Doing the same with some DVDs too, another aspect of the collection that took a hit. I was able to pack up and send 14.83 lbs of movies to a good friend whose collection was pillaged a few years back - and his collection was awe-inspiring and an inspiration for my own - so I'm happy to do something to help a friend and clear up my clutter a bit. I just don't need Simpsons, Family Guy, or Aqua Teen Hunger Force seasons on disc when they're all so ubiquitous streaming anyway. Well, I did keep Simpsons seasons 5 and 6. Cape Fear, Clown College and several other of the best, Conan O'Brien-era episodes that remain among the funniest things I've ever seen. That has to be at my beck and call. Always. But there are limits to what I will purge movie wise as there is no comprehensive service for those and The Burbs, Dog Soldiers, May, and at least 100 other movies must remain in my possession, not to mention all the Twin Peaks sets I've amassed over the years... and the other lynch, and the Kubrick, and the...

You get the point. The other thing there's no compromise on is books. I've built a healthy collection, I re-read often, and one day I want Gatsby's library, complete with Owl Eyes. So aside from a few left over peculiarities from my previous roommate, everything stays.

Playlist from 3/15:

The Ocean - Anthropocentric
Odonis Odonis - Post Plague
NIN - Not the Actual Events
Say Sue Me - Eponymous
Urge Overkill - Saturation
Goblin - Dawn of the Dead OST (Waxwork vinyl)

Card of the day:

Second or third time this one's come up in a week and I've figured it out. My journey is this purge. It's something else. And if sweet, sweet detritus like Urge Overkill floats to the surface for the first time in a while, all the better.