As the wait for the next Perturbator records near neigh interminable lengths, and the knowledge that James Kent is leaving his former 'genre' behind, I've begun to clamor for more dark, brooding synthwave. Bandcamp remains a fantastic place to find what I'm looking for. Case in point, this week's Sunday Bandcamp spotlight on Dance With The Dead. I haven't made it very deep into their discography, but after absorbing Near Dark yesterday, I intend to do so in the very near future.
Sunday, September 20, 2020
Saturday, September 19, 2020
Isolation: Day 190
Musick:
I had NO idea Mastodon recorded a song with Gibby Haynes. Kinda made my day. Apparently, only released originally as a download from the Adult Swim website, Atlanta appears on the just-released Medium Rarities album, which is pretty fun all around, with instrumental versions of some songs, live versions, and this. Oh yeah, and this too:
Nice to have this on youtube, because having sat through that ATHF movie once, I'm in no hurry to do so again!
Watch:
I finally got around to Craig William Macneill's Lizzie, the Lizzie Borden dramatization starring Chloë Sevigny, Kristen Stewart, and Kim Dickens. Slooooow burn, but ultimately a very well-made, well-acted film that airs on the side of discretion and atmosphere.
Also under the umbrella of watch, a late-week announcement that Beyondfest would indeed be happening made my year! Instead of the historic Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood - which obviously would not be conducive to social distancing, those crazy fuckers that run the show are having it at Mission Tiki Drive-in Theatre, fifty-four miles from me in Montclair, California. This presents massive logistics issues, and I was not able to get everything I wanted because of that. However, what I did get, is awesome!
And...
I can't really complain, because this is a STACKED couple of days. This coming Thursday is the Possessor premiere, and I'll definitely be doing a quick, spoiler-free review of it for The Horror Vision, after the showing, so watch for that next Friday!
Playlist:
Electric Wizard - Let Us Prey
Portishead - Third
Death Valley Girls - Under the Spell of Joy (pre-release single)
Death Valley Girls - Hold My Hand (pre-release single)
Cocksure - K.K.E.P.
Doves - The Universal Want
White Lung - Paradise
Card:
A lot of Swords lately. Here, the Five of Wands - or Strife as Crowley dubbed it in the Thoth - appears to point toward my internal struggle over my work on the second Shadow Play book. It's been a difficult two weeks, which surprises and infuriates me, as with the intricate outline I previously created for this book, the writing is not that difficult. Yet, somehow, I struggle with it nearly every time I sit down to work on it. I've tried all my tricks - my timers and focus apps and whatnot - and I've tried just putting my head down and pummeling into it. All of this works in getting writing done, but none of it works in making the process gel in my head. I know this will come, it's just frustrating waiting for it.
Friday, September 18, 2020
Isolation: Day 189
Musick:
One week until the new Deftones Ohms drops! This video premiered last night - I'm putting it here for posterity's sake, and to pass along my excitement at having a new Deftones record on the immediate horizon, however, I won't be watching or listening to the track until I have sat and absorbed the full album. I'm planning on doing a full release event next week, which sounds bigger than it will be. Just me, a bowl of green, and the new record for at least one full spin, my attention undivided. Can't wait!
Watch:
I can hardly believe it's already time for me to re-subscribe to Disney+ for the new season of The Mandalorian. Looking forward to seeing where this goes.
Playlist:
Cibo Matto - Stereotype A
Cibo Matto - Viva! La Woman
Angel Olsen - All Mirrors
Zola Jesus - The Spoils
Zola Jesus - Stridulum
Ghost - Meliora
Ghost - Prequelle
Repugnant - Epitome of Darkness
Mastodon - Medium Rarities
Mastodon - Leviathan
X - Under the Big Black Sun
Firewater - The Ponzi Scheme
Angelo Badalamenti/Various - Twin Peaks: A Limited Event Series OST
Card:
Self-control and balance, two things I'm sorely lacking at the moment. Things keep coming apart, and my attention span has been f*&ked! I'm going to try and remedy that this weekend. There's so much not getting done!
Thursday, September 17, 2020
Isolation: Day 188 - Synchronic Gets a Trailer
I feel like I have been waiting for a long time for the new Benson and Moorhead. These guys look to be at the top of their game with Synchronic, they certainly have a lot more money behind them here. I see big things ahead for these two, can't wait.
Watch:
Closing in on the end of Halt and Catch Fire's final season, this song - which I've always dug but kind of also always took for granted - now has special significance. Wow. I'm going to hate to see this show go.
Playlist:
Alice in Chains - Dirt
Ghost - Prequelle
Electric Wizard - Dopethrone
Nirvana - Nevermind
Doves - The Universal Want
Tennis System - Technicolor Blind
Turquoise Moon - The Sunset City
Also, Apple Music does a weekly 'favorites' playlist based on what you're listening to. I normally ignore it, but this week's is pretty cool
Card:
Interrupted energy and/or creative flow. Heat, back pain, and lack of sleep have all conspired to interrupt my writing sessions.
Wednesday, September 16, 2020
Isolation: Day 187
Musick
Another track from the upcoming eight album by The Ocean. Love this video, and love the song. The Ocean is still one of the bands that carry the metal through the 00s for me, and one that still feels as though they are reaching to continually change the landscape of the genre.
The new album, Phanerozoic II: Mesozoic I Cenozoic is out on September 25. Pre-order HERE.
NCBD
Not a lot of books this week, but one, in particular, I've been waiting for his Dead Day #3.
Playlist
Slipknot - Subliminal Verses
Kendrick Lamar - Damn.
The Ocean - Phanerozoic I: Paleozoic
Code Orange - Underneath
Electric Wizard - Let Us Prey
Turquoise Moon - The Sunset City
Card
Healing and compassion, two things I'm currently working on.
Tuesday, September 15, 2020
Isolation: Day 186
Musick
I've been in an Electric Wizard mood lately. Here's one of my favorites from 2011's Black Mass, probably my favorite of the group's.
Mindful Habitation:
The last few days have been a bit of a blank slate. Submerged in the same, endless routine of days didn't bother me at all. Until it did. I've experienced a sudden and overpowering loneliness that came on from out of nowhere. I need a pattern interrupt, but I'm not sure exactly how to do that. I would kill to go sit at the crappy BWW's in Hollywood by my friend's apartment and sit with him, have a burger and a few beers. Just typing that makes me feel like I want to cry. This is crazy. I'm not sure where this overwrought deluge of emotion has come from, but it's almost crippling. The workweek feels like one endless day, and the pattern at home has disintegrated my sleep patterns so that I'm always tired when I'm there during the week. I find joy in consumerism and food, a slippery slope. I'm not gaining weight, but the extra I have is setting up shop right in my stomach.
Okay, now that that's hopefully been expunged, I can maybe get on with my day. Everything I said above is true, but it's also exaggerated from my perspective because everyone needs to feel a little goth/emo now and again. I'll continue to do what I do, however, I think K and I will maybe take a small weekend trip soon, and perhaps meet up with some friends this weekend, just to alter our landscape.
Playlist:
Slipknot - Subliminal Verses
Electric Wizard - Black Mass
Code Orange - Underneath
Card
Cause and Effect, eh? An interesting pull based on everything I wrote above. The emotional and psychological effects of this long-term isolation will most likely resound through our society for years, perhaps even after a vaccine.
Speaking of vaccines, I might as well put down my prediction here before it's too late, both as a warning and an 'I told you so,' because the frustration of the current socio-political landscape has made me into the kind of cunt that will say exactly that. Prediction: A 'vaccine' will appear shortly before the election, Trump will take credit, and it will then turn out to not work. Such is our world that even if he introduces a fake vaccine, his die-hard supporters will smile and champion its (and his) merits regardless of whether it's real or not. This MIGHT put him in enough favor to win.
I can see it clear as day: the CDC, FDA, AMA, can all shout at the top of their lungs that it's not thoroughly tested, or straight up doesn't work, and he will cry fake news and people will rally around him as a savior. Let's hope I'm wrong, let's hope there is some Justice served in November. But really, it wouldn't surprise me at this point if there wasn't.
Monday, September 14, 2020
Isolation: Day 185
Music:
Wow. This just blew me right the F&*K away. This year's Underneath is already on the shortlist to be on my top ten albums of 2020, this perfect cover of Alice in Chains' immortal 'Down in a Hole' may just put the newly released Under the Skin live album on that list, as well.
This is one of those songs I can't hear without a slew of emotions, thoughts, and sensations from high school coming flooding back. That kind of emotion juxtaposition usually doesn't translate to covers. That is definitely not the case with this one.
Read:
Two stories from finishing Nathan Ballingrud's debut short story collection, North American Lake Monsters, I jumped into Stephen Graham Jones' Night of the Mannequins. I read the thing in a few hours and absolutely loved it. Funny, freaky, weird, hilarious, spooky, confounding. All of the above. This is a slasher novel that is not anywhere close to being what you would ever expect from a slasher story. Highest possible recommendation, especially since you can probably knock it out in a day. Perfect summer reading.
Night of the Mannequins is $3.99 on Kindle right now, and worth every goddamn penny!
Next, as I savor these last few stories in Lake Monsters, I'm probably going to start a long-overdue re-read of Clive Barker's iconic The Hellbound Heart.
Playlist:
Doves - The Universal Want
Earth - Primitive and Deadly
X - Los Angeles
Steely Dan - Aja
Mudhoney - March to Fuzz
Electric Wizard - Black Masses
Electric Wizard - Dopethrone
CARD:
Getting back up on my writing legs after a fairly successful weekend that proved my new outline method will make writing these next two Shadow Play books considerably easier than the first.
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