2018: May 26th 8:48 AM

I'm very late to Alkaline Trio. My friend Chris introduced me to their music a few weeks back and I'm surprised at how much I like it. At the time Crimson was released, I would not have been able to overcome my prejudices against anything that carried an air of slickly produced 'punk rock'. Now, I recognize this for what it is - good, fast rock with no agenda, politics or accoutrements. I'm loving this record - it's been a great sonic tool for writing.

Playlist from 5/25:

Danzig - Circle of Snakes*
Barry Adamson - Stranger on the Sofa
Chromatics - Cherry
Huey Lewis and the News - Sports
Lebanon Hanover - Let Them Be Alien
David Bowie - Low
Deafheaven - Sunbather
Alkaline Trio - Crimson
Crystal Castles - Amnesty (I)
Cocksure - T.V.M.A.L.S.V.

I wrote just over 3K words yesterday, after a full day's work. Not too shabby. Today shooting for 4K.

I subscribed to Shudder recently, and have been digging the app's selection. Checking off a lot of longstanding,"I need to see that" boxes. Last night it was Adam Green's Digging Up the Marrow and Until the Light Takes Us. The night before was a new movie, Sequence Break. This is Grahamn Skipper's directorial debut; it premiered in LA last fall at BeyondFest and I had really wanted to go, but that didn't work out. Reminiscent of Beyond the Gates and eXistenZ, Sequence Break was a great watch, even if it was a little bit awkward at times (mainly just one character, the enigmatic man, was a bit off, a kind of contrived Deus Ex Machina that revealed the lines of the writing almost every time he appeared to catalyze events - there was a better way to do what he did). Still, I enjoyed Skipper's first film and look forward to his next. Definitely a fun watch with great visuals and some awesome Body-Horror elements, a la Cronenberg's mid-period stuff.



Card of the day:

The perfect Mother. Hmmm... perfectly fits what I'm writing, I'll leave it at that. Also, it ties directly into Mr. Danzig, doesn't it? Weird, since the bit below this with the asterisk is something I wrote yesterday in the morning, after listening to Circle of Snakes on the way to work.

.........................................................................

* Other than albums 1-3 and 7, my relationship of Danzig's records runs the gamut from begrudging to tentative. I'd not listened to this one in some time, and as much as I still enjoy 1000 Devils Rain and Skull Forrest, the production on this one is so fucking bad it actually makes me angry. I'm pretty sure in the case of opening track Wotan's Procession, the subpar guitar sound is a nod to the Black Metal of Norway, which I remember from seeing Danzig live for this album, was heavily reflected by his "Blackest of the Black' Tour lineup. But the rest of the record? No excuse, can't even hear parts of the chorus vocals on several songs, including the aforementioned Skull Forrest. Yo Glenn, hire a fucking producer, eh? Also, is Forrest purposely misspelled?

2018: May 25th 6:54 AM

I shut the door pretty hard on Twin Peaks last year when it ended. Nothing against it, but when I stop to consider how much time and energy it consumed from me, it makes perfect sense that I would have needed to distance myself (I remember saying I was going to rewatch it like a month later - ha!). I've really only began to even think about it again recently. One insight these new considerations have  revealed is the idea that I'm slightly unsure and maybe even a little bit nervous as to how the new series may have affected my relationship with the original - when I deep dive, I'm not really finding that first run occupying the same place in my head. Maybe this is just an integration period - the new series fractured the old and how I relate to it, now I have to rebuild? Probably thinking about this too much (probably = definitely). I spent the last two days getting increasingly jazzed on the music from the new series again, and that's very much making me want to rewatch it. I've got a three-day weekend ahead of me, however I also have a backlog of flicks to watch and roughly 53K words to write in the next 35 days, so I'm thinking that probably won't happen. I will, however, continue to enjoy the music, like the link above. I know it's not the actual Lynch remix that appears on the Score for season three, but honestly I like this one better. It's a part of the Twin Peaks playlist I made early on during Season 3, adding to as I went along and peppering in some BlueBob and a few tracks from the Twin Peaks musical archive that was released through David Lynch.com a few years back.

Playlist from yesterday:

Dosh - Pure Trash
Twin Peaks Playlist
Twin Peaks Season 3 OST
Chromatics - Night Drive
Burzum - Filosfem
Blut Aus Nord - 777 Trilogy

Card of the day:

Emotionally charged but creative juices flowing? Luckily, I'm actually well-rested and think I can handle this today. I want to try and write at least 15K words over the next three days, so we'll see.

2018: May 24th New Preacher Trailer

Chris from DwC and I will be attempting to do our The Genesis of Preacher show again this year. Last year we got hit with a 'Cease and Desist' thing for using footage from the show, and that kind of took the wind out of our sails for a bit. Also, I was doing the Twin Peaks: Evolution of the Arm, and DwC, and working and writing a book, so that show just died. Not this year. Now I'm just hoping the show actually incorporates SOMETHING from the fucking comics this year; as much as I have enjoyed what they've done, I got a bit fatigued last season. If this trailer is any indication, I should get my wish.

The new Drinking, Fighting, F*&king, and Crying just went up. Read it HERE.

Playlist from 5/23:

Crystal Castles - Crystal Castles II
Alice Glass -  Alice Glass EP
Chromatics - Black Walls EP
Twin Peaks Playlist
Lebanon Hanover - Let Them Be Alien
Alkaline Trio - Crimson

Card of the day:

Going to interpret this visually today and say I need to have another ~3K word day writing, as what I'm reaching for is well within reach (that about 45K words in ~38 days).

2018: May 23th 6:29 AM

Two new Chromatics E.P.'s in the same week? Is the fabled Dear Tommy drawing near?

Playlist from yesterday:

The Ocean - Pelegial
Lebanon Hanover - Let Them Be Alien
Venue - Desireena E.P.
Zombi - Spirit Animal

Card of the day:

From my least favorite yesterday to one of my favorites today. Reward?

Nicolas Winding Refn's To Old To Die Young

via Bloody Disgusting. Now this is a teaser trailer! Now please.

2018: May 22nd 7:27 AM

Props once again to Heavenisanincubator for reminding of a band that had fallen off my radar.


Playlist from Monday, 5/21:

Helmet - Betty
Lebanon Hanover - Let Them Be Alien
Melvins - Pinkus Abortion Technician
Chromatics - Looking For Love
Neon Kross - Darkness Falls
Drab Majesty - Careless

Card of the day:

Funny. A couple days ago my friend Missi asked me what my least favorite card in the deck is (hers is the Emperor, and he's never been one of my favorite either, but I don't think I harbor the ill-will for him she does. Mine is more of an ambivalence, which also perfectly encapsulates my view on authority). I'd never really thought about it in those terms before, my least favorite card, and yet I knew immediatley what my answer was:

The Queen of Wands.

And yet, I see her in a good amount in my pulls. This seems to suggest I should engage with ideas that are contrary or combative to my nature - which is itself an idea that has been winnowed away from the collective consciousness of our society, the practice of confronting and working with ideas that don't exactly match up to your own, in order to grow and, help us, change our minds.

Drinking w/ Comics 41: Special Guest David Lucarelli!!!

New issue went up today after a lot of hard editing work. It's worth it, even though I totally blanked on adding a theme song for the new, apparently monthly segment titled, "What Stupid Thing Did Chris Buy This Time?"

Also, check out who gives us a bumper at the start of the episode! None other than Garth Fucking Ennis!

Next time.



And just because I dig Mr. Lucarelli and his work so much, here's the previous episode we had him on, back when his awesome new book from Alterna Comics, Tinsel Town, had just begun formulating for him: