Isolation: Day 131

I've had The Smiths on the brain of late, particularly The Queen is Dead, and even more particularly this song. I love Morrissey's lyrics, but even more, I love his delivery of the lyrics. "Dreaded sunny day, so let's go where we're happy, and I meet you at the cemetery gates" is a hysterically subtle indictment of 80s Goth culture - a considerable part of the band's fan base - that is beautifully countered by genuinely thought provoking and despondent lines like, "All these people, all those lives, where are they now? With loves and hates and passions just like mine, they were born and then they loved and then they died."

It's just so damn good.

The Smith are a band that, when I'm into them, I feel my love for each song and album deepen with each listen.

**

Last night, K and I finished Dark Season Three.

Holy. Shit.

In the interest of understanding the insanely well-written intricacies of this series, we'll be starting season three over again tonight. This time, however, we're going to follow every episode we watch at night by listening to the Digesting Dark podcast episode pertaining to the episode. These guys really know the show, and both K and I are really looking forward to having some third person insight into this one, because no one else we know is watching this, and it BEGS to be discussed.



**

Last week, the Maniac Cop trilogy dropped on Shudder. I've been wanting to see the original for years but haven't had much luck. As far as I knew until Arrow's recent release, the Larry Cohen created, William Lustig-directed Action/Horror classic had not been in print for quite some time. How was it? Exactly what I expected, and wonderful for just that reason. It's not everyday you have Bruce Campbell and Tom Atkins in the same flick.



**

Playlist:

The Smiths - The Queen is Dead
Tamaryn - The Waves
The Soft Moon - Deeper
Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine - White People and the Damage Done
Me and That Man - New Man New Songs Same Shit Vol. 1
The Stooges - Funhouse
Steve Moore - Bliss OST
The Beatles - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band


Card:

Big influences spur a new project. Yes. Very big. Not a new project, but a new direction for the current book as I've decided to take a completely different tack than I was originally planning.

Isolation: Day 130

Mr. Brown sent this video to me yesterday and it absolutely made my day! Henry Rollins' excitement for music is an enjoyable thing to experience, and watching this has made me miss listening to his radio show on Los Angeles Public Radio KCRW (Link directly to his show, where past episodes are streamable HERE). The show used to be my regular Saturday night thing, but that was years ago, and as soon as KCRW moved him to Sunday at 9:00 PM, it killed my patronage. I've been meaning to make a habit of streaming the shows the day after, and I think this video was just what I needed to finally make that happen.

As far as the subject of the video, Rhino's Funhouse 50th Anniversary pressing - it's awesome for sure, but not something I'd shell out $400 (plus, as Brown pondered in a text, what about shipping on a box that size?). Still, it's a pleasure to hear Rollins geek out about that which he loves, and it's definitely infectious.

**

Two nights ago I woke up from an after-work nap and found K about fifteen minutes into a movie I'd never heard of before. I sat down and ended up getting sucked in, especially when I saw that Hannah Gross and DAVID CRONENBERG both had roles in the flick (as does Aaron Poole). Albert Shin's Disappearance at Clifton Hill is a weird little flick, visually gorgeous, and with definite Lynch influence. Until I looked the film up, as we were watching it, I began to suspect it might be a Brad Anderson film, as Clifton definitely feels like something Anderson might have done around the time he made The Machinist or Transsiberian.



The film is currently streaming on HULU, and is definitely worth your time.

**

Playlist:

François-Eudes Chanfrault - Computer Assisted Sunset
Metallica - Master of Puppets
Melvins - Houdini
The Smiths - The Queen is Dead
The Stooges - Eponymous
The Stooges - Funhouse

**

Card:

Too much to get into at the moment, but let's just say I re-thought the book and am going to try something a little bit different with it than I originally intended.

Isolation: Day 129

Kind of a slow news day, so to speak, so I landed on this via Brooklyn Vegan. Apparently, Metallica has been doing "Metallica Mondays" which sounds like some weird food theme at a Chili's restaurant, but is actually a kind of cool quarantine coping mechanism the band has been doing for their fans. As my interest in this band stops after about 1988, this video is of particular interest to me. 1983 at Chicago's Metro? As a young metalhead in the 90s who would go on to frequent shows at the Metro, this is the kind of show I often dreamed of having been able to go back in time and see. Now, thanks to Metallica, I can. You have to get through a rather annoying minute or so of Lars talking about... not really sure, but I have to admit it. As hard as I am on these guys, they often come off pretty cool to their fans.

**

NCBD tomorrow is another short lister this week. Action Lab's Sweet Heart #2 finally hits the stand - this was another one I'd mentioned a few weeks ago, only to realize I had my dates completely out of order.

Other than that, the first issue of a new Image book called Bliss caught my eye recently:

The cover art is obviously gorgeous, but what really has me curious is this book's solicitation description from Image that ends with, "Breaking Bad meets Neil Gaiman's Sandman."

Huh?

The first issue of a two-arc maxi-series, I might just pick this one up. (Yes, I'm still attempting to limit taking on new books. No, it's not always easy.)


**

Playlist:

Cypress Hill - III: Temples of Boom
Soundgarden - Super Unknown
The Smiths - The Queen is Dead
Sleep - The Sciences

**

Card:

The urge to do bad is often extremely strong. It's part of the flow of life to balance that out with positive stuff.

Isolation: Day 129

16 is new to me, but I'm digging their new albums Dream Squasher, just released on Relapse Records!

**

Saturday we ended up having an impromptu Danny Boyle double feature. It started with his latest film Yesterday, which is absolutely fantastic. I'm not a very big Beatles fan, but I can definitely recognize the impact they've had on the world, so the idea that their music would disappear is a pretty interesting one, especially when your main character is the only person on Earth who remembers it.



Once Yesterday, I followed up an itch I've been meaning to scratch for quite some time now, and put on Boyle's 2011 Oscar-winning Slumdog Millionaire. I hadn't seen this one since it was in the theaters:



Slumdog holds up 100%. Loved it.


**

Playlist:

Cypress Hill - Elephants on Acid
16 - Dream Squasher
Coheed and Cambria - The Aftermath: Ascension
Various - James Brown's Funky People Vol. III

Card:

New, big things.

Sunday Bandcamp: Dead

An awesome two-piece I found while snooping around at the Wäntage USA label's Bandcamp page. These chaps are from Australia, and they make some heavy freakin' tunes.

Isolation: Day 127

Back in the 90s, Cypress Hill completed the holy trinity my friend Jake and I were musically obsessed with, the other two groups being Black Sabbath and Type O Negative. I hung with the Hill all the way until Skull and Bones, but even my fan inertia couldn't get me to listen to that one for very long before I bounced, and I've never looked back. The few tracks I've caught wind of on subsequent records felt watered down and lame (What's Your Number? Really?), and without Muggs at the helm for ten years, I was definitely not interested.

Until now.

IV ended up in my rotation recently, and I found once I'd listened to it the first time, I couldn't get it out of my head. My favorite will always be III: Temples of Boom, specifically because at the time of its release, I'd never experienced an album that affected me the way that one did. There's a sick undercurrent to its amalgamation of Muggs' music and production and the cartoonish violence of the lyrics that just left me feeling unsettled for the first few listens. Full disclosure, this was the year Jake gave me a glass bong for my birthday, so I was really high most of the time I was listening to it.

At any rate, IV is the first of their albums to show a crack in their sound; I really dig about 80% of the record, but the stupid sex rhyme and an over abundance of down-tempo tracks on the B side means it starts strong and peters out. I'd forgotten how strong that first half was, and after falling back into it, I noticed the group released an album in 2018. I decided to give it a try.

Elephants on Acid is fantastic! There's probably too many songs again, but over all I am absolutely loving this album. Muggs in on 100% of this one, and it feels a bit like a sequel to Temples of Boom, with similar imagery and aural textures; lots of sitar and otherworldly atmosphere. The opening track takes this a bit overboard, and initially I almost turned the record off because of this. However, I hung in for a full listen, and immediately went back for a second. It feels like old Hill, but not in the way that, say, Rick Rubin returns old metal bands to their former glory by basically creating a caricature of their original sound. This feels fresh at the same time it feels old school. and I'm assuming that's because the group has stripped away ideas of doing anything other than being true to what they are.

I was especially pleased with the track above because it brings back Sick Jacken from The Psycho Realm, whose first album is an underrated 90s hip hop classic.

Now, if only I still had that bong Jake gave me...

**

Last night's viewing:



Also, I did House By the Cemetery with commentary the day it arrived, and saved the actual movie for last night. It didn't disappoint. Never does. "Mommy..."

One of the extras on the main disc is the original TV spots for the flick that aired back in '81. Tell me this doesn't sound like Brother Theodore's character from The 'Burbs did the voice over:





**

Playlist:

Cypress Hill - IV
Cypress Hill - Elephants on Acid
The Psycho Realm - Eponymous
The Atlas Moth - Coma Noir
Brainiac - Smack Bunny Baby
The Cure - Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me

**

Card:

An abundance of ideas, projects, and interests, it takes a greater strength than usual to narrow things down and get anything done at all.

Isolation: Day 126 - Brandon Cronenberg's Possessor Gets a Trailer!

I feel as though I've been waiting for this trailer forever. Now that it's here, I really just want the movie. The real shame is, if not for COVID, Brandon Cronenberg's sophomore flick would most likely be premiering at Beyondfest. As it stands, I guess I'll be doing a big VOD event for it when the release is finally announced (please announce soon!)

**

Late last week I caught wind of William Lustig's company Blue Underground having released a 3-Disc, 4K Blu Ray edition of Lucio Fulci's House By the Cemetery. I love this flick - while it took me a while to come around on The Beyond and City of the Living Dead (I love both now), House has always been a film that fascinates me. So as soon as I saw this, I ordered it. Pricey, but worth it.

The restoration is, as with all Blue Underground's restorations - gorgeous. If you go to this edition's page on Blu-Ray.com (HERE), you can read about the transfer and see some screen shot comparisons. The second disc is filled with extras, including a lot of interviews with the actors and crew, and the third disc is a CD edition of Walter Rizzati's brilliant score for the film.

**

Playlist:

Walter Rizzati - House By the Cemetery OST
Primus - Antipop
M83 - Hurry Up, We're Dreaming
Moderat - II
Perturbator - The Uncanny Valley
Elephant Tree - Habits
Cypress Hill - IV
Flying Lotus - You're Dead!
Nine Inch Nails - The Slip
Agnes Obel - Citizen of Glass
Brainiac - Hissing Prigs in Static Couture
David Lynch and Marek Zebrowski - Polish Night Music

**

Card:

Power struggles, internal or external. I'm taking this as a warning that discipline will be needed to fully reintegrate my writing time back into The Secret Life of Murder, now that my belabored short story Fixation on a Coworker is finally finished.

Coworker proved extremely difficult to write; I worked on the thing off and on for a year and three months. I finally brought it in at ~7700 words, then decided I wanted to try submitting it to a publication I recently discovered called Infernal Ink. Some of my stories skew into what I'd call Erotic Horror, and this story especially plays in that arena. There's an overarching theme - or character actually - that runs through these stories, so even though they are stand alone, they're part of a bigger story slowly forming in my head. Anyway, Infernal Ink's submissions cut off at 5K, so I knuckled down and decided to practice one of my favorite parts of writing - editing. I cut the story down to 6K, then down another thousand to 5K.

It felt good! The story as it was is probably perfect at 6K. Chopping it down more wasn't easy, but I eliminated a supporting character arc that originally dovetailed with the protagonist's, eased the throttle back on some of my more descriptive passages, and landed it clean. It was at that point I realized Infernal Ink's submissions are closed, as their upcoming October issue will be the magazine's final issue as they switch gears to focus on book publishing.

Waste of time? Not. At. All. The editing process really bolstered my confidence in a story that otherwise had me running in prosaic circles, and that's never a bad thing. Plus, I found an awesome publisher/magazine in the process (all the issues are on Kindle for under $3).