Long-time piano player for Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds Conway Savage passed away earlier today, so I thought this performance was doubly in order.
Playlist from 9/02:
Stellar Corpses - Respect the Dead EP
Alice in Chains - Black Gives Way to Blue
Alice in Chains - Rainier Fog
David Lynch - Crazy Clown Time
Card of the day:
As the final card in the suit, the Princess can be seen as the end result of the transformation begun in the Ace. Aces are always breakthroughs to me, in the case of Cups an emotional breakthrough. I feel like this describes where I am; I messaged a friend I haven't seen in a few years out of the blue earlier just to tell him I love him. My cup runneth over with emotion. But it's not schmaltzy or crippling; instead, I my emotional battery feels supercharged, while physically I remain somewhat drained and limited. My daily stretching - which falls by the wayside often of late - still tells me the damage from pulling my Hamstring almost a year ago has still not completely healed and it limits me. This of course causes unsought reflections on aging and mortality, which of course probably explains my current wealth of emotions.
Thanks to Jeff at the Comic Bug I found Vaguess. As you can no doubt hear from the above, they are awesome. Guilt Ring will definitely end up on my favorite albums of the year.
Long day of work and sinus infection yesterday. This iteration of the infection proved what the previous one (last year) suggested: the Z-pack antibiotic no longer works. The doctor I saw at the urgent care the other day backed this up, saying he has seen approximately 40% resistance to azithromycin. As a back-up, he prescribed me a secondary prescription of doxycycline hyclate. All this just further proves a theory I have had for about fifteen years now - being that bacteria lives generations for every day we do, eventually it will outrun our defenses and conquer us. The widespread proliferation of antibacterial hand sanitizers and a quick-to-subscribe attitude to antibiotics has expedited that outcome, so be prepared. And if you can't seem to beat your sinus infections, use doxycycline hyclate - until that no longer works.*
I watched a 1971 Italian Giallo last night called Black Belly of the Tarantula. Talk about an awesome title! Directed by Paolo Cavara and scored by none other than the great Ennio Morricone, I loved the flick and intend on hunting down the score on vinyl. It is gorgeous! Here's a taste:
Playlist from 8/31:
Secret Chiefs 3 Traditionalists - Le Mani Destre Recise degli ultimi Uomini
Alice in Chains - Rainier Fog
Talking Heads - Remain in Light
Roxy Music - Eponymous
Windhand - Grey Garden (single)
Kyuss - And the Circus Leaves Town
Playlist from 9/01:
Alice in Chains - Rainier Fog
Yonatan Gat - Universalists
Vaguess - Guilt Ring
The Veils - Total Depravity
BeNNi -The Return
Chris Connelly - Artificial Madness
Bowie - Stage
Bowie - Outside
Here's a card I haven't drawn since I began doing these daily pulls. See how intoxicating the visuals are, with their soft pastels and robust female figure? The surreal aspect, where her lower half almost looks more like a mermaid's fin than legs? Of the Swan - which Crowley refers to as a Pelican, and although that may have been his intent, Lady Frieda Harris most certainly painted a swan - tending its young is motherly. I'm interpreting this as my nurture of my ideas, which are essentially like children to me.
*Yes, I realize I am both lambasting and advocating the use of antibiotics here. I only use them for sinus infections, which I get about twice a year.
8/31 - we are in the Dog Days, where Sirius is closest to our planet and has an effect on our gravitational pull and thus, us. I do not put stock in Astrology, this is Science. Look for shit to get weird.
Last night I watched Brian Yuzna's Society. Wow.
Playlist from yesterday:
Second Still - Equals EP
Silk Worm - Firewater
Roxy Music - Eponymous
Talking Heads - Remain in Light
Card of the day:
And we continue with a veritable deluge of Court Cards. Freaking me out, a bit.
Being that I have never really connected with the Disks Suite isn't really surprising when I stop to think about it. It's Malkuth, Earthly matters, and I'm always in the clouds, up in Hod, or Yesod, straining to see Tipareth. I can buckle down and take care of Earthly matters, but I do it like I swim - only when I have to and even then, holding my breath the entire time. The Knight is the Fire of Earth, and to me it always looked like he was either bumping up against a forcefield (how money sometimes makes me feel), or about to enter a thin spot, crossing worlds. I take this today as a warning that I will have to cross from my heady Fiction world into the real one to take care of something, and try to recognize that when it rears its head.
Second Still is yet another awesome LA band KXLU turned me on to. SO good. You can hear more and buy their stuff on their Bandcamp HERE. I can't wait to see them live.
Playlist from 8/29:
The Flying Luttenbachers - Constructive Destruction
Alice in Chains - Rainier Fog
David Bowie - A Reality Tour [Live]
Cough - Athame
Windhand - Grey Garden
Lustmord - The Word As Power
John Carpenter - The Thing OST
Card of the day:
A lot of Court cards lately. Higher influence. This card is waaaay loaded for me, so I went to a few websites I like with tarot information and looked around. What I found morphed into this when reflected through my own lens: Self Discovery; Moving on and moving forward. Incorporating past pain into a healthy life view.
How about a little ditty by The Flying Luttenbachers to kick things off today, eh?
A raging sinus infection woke me up in the middle of the night Monday. Ugh. Consequently, I took the day off yesterday, wrote, urgent cared and watched two unbelievably good films, both with the common theme of endurance. The first was a loan from Mr. Brown, a Sydney Pollack flick from '69 entitled They Shoot Horses, Don't They?
Bleak and Brilliant. This one is going to stay with me always. Loved it. And I finally get why Jane Fonda was such a name back in the day. She is excellent in this film. And this is based on a phenomenon that actually used to happen in this country during the Great Depression. Mind blowing.
Next up, one on Netflix I've been meaning to get around to for a couple years: A Dark Song. Wow. The best and most accurate account of Ritual High Magick I've seen in a film, even if writer/director Liam Gavin was very non-specific. Not a critique, mind you. Also, this felt so much like a filmed version of a Warren Ellis story that I immediately posit Mr. Gavin is a fan. Mr. Solomon's approach to Magick reminds me a lot of how Ellis wrote William Gravel and John Constantine in their approaches to the Occult.
A Dark Song will also be with me for a long time, and will totally go on the shell soon, even if it does appear to be perpetually on Netflix. Highly Recommended. Please do another film soon, Mr. Gavin.
NCBD this week is light, however A Walk Through Hell #4 is finally out! I feels as though it has been months since #3. Also, Bendis and Maleev's Scarlet has moved to DC with Bendis?
Playlist from 8/27:
Alice in Chains - Rainier Fog
Chris Connelly - Artificial Madness
Alice in Chains - Dirt
Godflesh - Flowers*
Nothing - Dance on Rooftops
Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - Vol. 1
Drab Majesty - The Demonstration
8/28:
Algiers - Eponymous
*Droney remix from In All Languages. Fantastic to write to.
Nurture your personality. Seems to describe yesterday, with A Dark Song really sating a long ignored aspect of my personal ego-system, i.e. the one interested in Magick. This is rearing its head a bit in my writing of late, too. After a disastrous attempt at a first novel based on Magick - this is going back to the early 00s and while it has some great scenes, it's a mess of a 'novel' - I've largely stayed away from Magick in writing. Now, I'm finding it's helping act as glue in my current project.
My favorite song of the year, thus far. And the entire album is, after an intense day of listening to almost nothing but, clocking in at #2 of the year, right behind Zeal and Ardor's Stranger Fruit. Another great year for music (if you know where to look).
Finished Thomas Harris' Silence of the Lambs. Solid four stars. I'm still irked by some of the pacing manipulations, but that's a small thing. The end speeds by and is excellently paced. I definitely learned a thing or two here. Next up:
Playlist from 8/26:
Etta James - Second Time Around
Louvin Brothers - Satan is Real (vinyl - thanks Mr. Brown!)
Alice in Chains - Rainier Fog
The Damage Manual - >1
David Bowie - Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars
The Body - I Have Fought Against It, But I Can't Any Longer
Card of the day:
And yeah, my lust of result is interfering in my work process. So I'm at my CBTL trying to fix that now.
