Putting Out Fire

 

I've really been digging on David Bowie's 1983 album Let's Dance of late. This is one I never really deep-dived on due to the oversaturation of the hits - all of which I love - throughout most of my life. This one always felt a skosh... pedestrian to me previously. What a f*&kin' stupid thing to think. As if any David Bowie could be pedestrian. While there are definitely albums and eras of his career that appeal to me more than other ones, any Bowie is good Bowie, and my recent obsession with this album proves that. Here's my favorite non-single, "Cat People (Putting Out Fire)", of which I definitely am one. A cat person, that is.

 

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While the teaser for Jordan Peele's eagerly awaited Nope had a total of three images from the film in it and is mostly teased out by clips from his previous two films - which, although I can't wait for the movie, renders it meaningless for me to post here - the teaser for Dario Argento's new Giallo Dark Glasses is all I need to see to know I can't wait for this flick:

Looks like classic Argento to me, a flavor I haven't quite had enough of lately. No definitive release date yet, but "soon" is enough to get my heartbeat above 110.

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NCBD:

Another super light NCBD. Here's what's coming home with me this week:

Very curious about this new Fist of Khonshu that's shown up in the pages of Moon Knight, especially after seeing this cover. 

So, I gave up on the X Lives of Wolverine, and am moving forward with the Deaths because, so far, this one reads like a direct sequel to Jonathan Hickman's recent X-Swan Song Inferno. Deaths also, quite surprisingly, has thus far had very little to do with the titular, over-used mutant. Now, I'm not convinced this is a worthy sequel to Hickman's time on X-Men, but I'm willing to give it an issue or two more before I decide.

Is the tentative jive I throw down when talking about some of these books taxing? It might be. I'm just so suspicious of Mutant books, even after being so blown away by so many recent ones. The problem, of course, is that, to quote the Action Figure Insider, Daniel Pickett from one of his appearances on Drinking with Comics, "Comics has always been a strip-mining industry," and nowhere is that more true than with Wolverine and the X-Men. What you like one second will turn around and drastically disappoint you a minute later, so a savvy reader has to keep his guard up always while reading big-two series.

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Playlist:

Allegaeon - Apoptosis

AC/DC - Highway to Hell

Curtis Harding - Face Your Fear

Nick Cave and Warren Ellis - Carnage

Donny McCaslin - Beyond Now

Umberto - Prophecy of the Black Widow

Godflesh - A World Lit Only By Fire

Godflesh - Post Self

David Bowie - Let's Dance

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I raise a glass to he who inspires the grandest of stories, the oldest of tales, the inspiration for independent thought. Never forget - the snake was the enemy of the Old Testament's god because the snake offered enlightenment.

Long Snake Moan

 

PJ Harvey is one of my favorite artists. Has been since the 90s. Weirdly enough, I don't listen to her that often. In thinking about this, I realize that I hold her music in a sort of sacred regard that feels as though it might become deluded if I overdo it. Probably not the case, in reality, however, it is what it is. Here's one of my favorite songs from her seminal 1995 album To Bring You My Love.

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I dug out my copy of Weird Walk issue #2 recently and began re-reading it as research for the new podcast off-shoot my Horror Vision co-host Ray Larragoitiy and I are doing. Stick & Stones is a sidebar deep-dive into Folk Horror, which is a sub-genre I've been enchanted with (pun intended) for the last few years, although until recently, I always referred to most of these flicks as "UK Occult Films." 

Weird Walk is an indie zine in every sense of the word, but it's a class act and chock full of fascinating ruminations on the haunted underpinnings of the British landscape and society. Highly recommended - you can order it HERE and follow their podcast HERE or wherever you get your podcasts! 

Oh yeah, and as of yesterday, there are two episodes of The Horror Vision Presents... Sticks & Stones: A Folk Horror Discussion up. The newest one deals with Stephen King's Children of the Corn - story and movie - and Chad Crawford Kinkle's Jug Face. The first episode sets up the series with a discussion of Kier-La Janisse's Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched, then compares and contrasts Avery Crounse's Eyes of Fire and Robert Eggers' The Witch. Also available wherever you get your podcasts.

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Playlist:

The Yellow House - Live at Southgate House

Darkness Brings the Cold (The Forest Children) - Human Me

Ween - Live In Chicago

PJ Harvey - To Bring You My Love

Zeal and Ardor - Stranger Fruit

Brand New - Daisy

Ministry - Filth Pig

Soul Coughing - El Oso

Cypress Hill - Black Sunday

Cypress Hill - Back in Black (pre-release singles)

Steve Morse - Mind's Eyes OST

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Reaping the rewards of good decisions.

Author & Punisher - Drone Carrying Dread

Let's wash that 80s Metal taste out of our mouth, shall we? Kinda tastes like Marlboro Lights mixed with Boon's Farm and Aquanet. Here's the first single Author/Punisher released from the forthcoming album Krüller, out on Relapse Records next Friday! Pre-Order HERE.

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After rewatching Scream 2 and seeing part 3 for the first time back in October, I have to say, everything but the original seems like they are most definitely not for me. The franchise feels like Friends with a murder. Because of this, it was with great reluctance I went to see part 5 a few days ago.  But lo and behold, Radio Silence turned in a really fun, gory AF flick that I had a blast with. And they manage to make "Meta" interesting again.

 

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Playlist:

Ministry - Filth Pig

Ministry - Twitch

Soul Coughing - El Oso

Cypress Hill - Back in Black (pre-release singles)

Cypress Hill - Black Sunday

Depeche Mode - Christmas Island

Ghost - Meliora

Ghost - Popestar

Allegaeon - Apoptosis

Deafheaven - New Bermuda

Anthrax - Among the Living

Author/Punisher - Krüller (pre-release singles)

Brand New - Daisy

The Atlas Moth - Coma Noir

Abigail Williams - Walk Beyond the Dark

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This card is so where I'm at right now. So many distractions and I'm finding it impossible to concentrate. I've upped my daily meditation regiment for the next few days after missing the last few, and knuckling down on enforcing mental discipline. 

80s Metal Week Day #7: Judas Priest - You've Got Another Thing Coming

 

I'm bringing 80s Metal Week to a close with a bit of a cheat. While I will admit to making certain eras of Judas Priest's music the butt of the joke back in the day, I have always held a place in my heart for early Priest, especially this song, which I can very distinctly remember making a huge impact on me as a kid. Love this track, so it doesn't really fit with the other six entries, all of which were kind of 'rediscoveries.' But I kind of ran out of those, and figured, what the hell, let's end with one of the best, most anthemic hard rock/80s metal songs of that era. As a disclaimer, when I say "80s Metal," I guess I kind of took for granted that people would interpret that phrase the same way I do - obviously, these aren't Metal in the sense that a lot of the iconic Heavy Metal bands of that era were, but the actual descriptor "80s Metal" has, to me, almost become a genre tag, so that I would not use it in reference to, say, Metallica, Slayer, Anthrax, etc. 

 

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Cautiously optimistic.

 

I've never followed TCM as a franchise. The original is a classic, and one of the first films to make me feel uneasy just based on how it was shot. The sequel is bonkers, and I love it. After that, parts 3 and 4 - both of which I've seen in parts or barely remembered ill-advised viewings - are conversation pieces at best. Especially four, which I caught part of on cable back in the late 90s and still am not quite sure what it is I saw... The reboot worked for about two acts, then the third just focuses on getting Jessica Biels' t-shirt as wet as possible. Even the one almost-amazing gag in the flick - the hitchhiker's suicide at the beginning - falls apart at the very end because of a sloppy edit. This one was close to a good attempt, but ultimately failed. And even though I've heard Adam Marcus and Debra Sullivan discuss at length their script for 2013's direct sequel to the original Texas Chainsaw and it sounds amazing, knowing that John Luessenhop basically came in and disregarded a lot of what they had planned meant I could never even giving the film a chance.

But this new one, well, Fede Alverez is the man, so here's to hoping. I mean, I don't feel like I need another TCM flick, but I'd love a new Alverez one, and even if he is only writing and Producing, I'm hoping it will inspire something close to what he did with 2013's Evil Dead, which I still count as my second favorite film in that particular franchise.

Also, John Larroquette. 

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NCBD:

Finally, a brief respite from the veritable deluge of titles I've been buying. Here are this week's NCBD titles I'll be picking up:

Nocterra returns. I'm digging this book but not 100% I'm going to continue with it. I'm really trying to talk myself into excising some of the books I'm following before I have to add another short box. The reality of 

This new Savage Spider-Man title picks up where Joe Kelly's Non-Stop Spider-Man left off, so I'm excited to get in some Spidey without having to dip back into the insane continuity that is ASM at the moment.

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Playlist:

AC/DC - Highway to Hell

Fleet Foxes - Shore

Ghost - Impera (pre-release singles)

Pat Benatar - In the Heat of the Night

Judas Priest - Screaming for Vengeance

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Creative energy cannot be destroyed. I'm re-routing some things at the moment.

80s Metal Week Day #6: Scorpions - Rock You Like A Hurricane

 

It's getting a bit tough to make it through all seven entries of 80s Metal Week and not repeat myself, but then it occurred to me, there is no way I wasn't going to include this song and, particularly, this video, which is ridiculous. That said, this one has stayed with me since I first saw it on Empty-V back when it came out, so I wanted to do it justice.

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David Lynch Executive Producer on a surreal thriller dealing with doppelgängers?

 

Sign me up. This also reminds me that I still haven't seen My Son, My Son, What Have You Done, the film Lynch produced for Director Werner Herzog back in 2009.

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Playlist:

Ghost - Opus Eponymous

The Ronettes - Presenting the Fabulous Ronettes

Judas Priest - Screaming for Vengeance

Suicidal Tendencies - Lights... Camera... Revolution

Author/Punisher - Krüller (pre-release singles)

Drab Majesty - Careless

Drab Majesty - The Demonstration

Ghost - Impera (pre-release singles)

Cypress Hill - Back in Black (pre-release singles)

Cypress Hill - Eponymous

Metallica - Master of Puppets

The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion - Now I Got Worry

Anthrax - Spreading The Disease

Back Sabbath - Master of Reality

Blut Aus Nord - Hallucinogen

Soul Coughing - El Oso

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Dealing with issues of stability as we move into the phase of booking all of the locations and services that will precipitate our escape from LaLaLand. Also, taxes always induce mild to threatening anxiety in me.

80s Metal Week Day #5: Bon Jovi - Livin' On a Prayer

 

This song is an absolute classic. It's not going to profoundly affect any of our lives, but damn if it isn't a near-perfect pop-rock ditty, with some outstanding production work from Bruce Fairbairn, who also brought us Aerosmith's Pump, AC/DC's Razor's Edge, and The Cranberries' To the Faithful Departed, along with a whole host of other records in his career.

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After hearing nothing but good things about Netflix's new show Archive 81, K and I decided to take a breather from Cobra Kai (about a quarter of the way through the new season) and give this a try:

 

So far, we both really like it. Creepy, and filled with things that totally pique the analog fetishist that I locked away inside myself long ago when moving forced me to get rid of a lot of the old equipment I had. Also, and this is always a plus, Archive 81 is super creepy. Two eps in and we dig.

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NCBD:

Another week packed with new comic book goodness:

We're getting really close to the end. The last two issues were jaw-droppers, let's see what Messrs. Remender, Craig and Loughridge have in store for us this week.

Really digging this book. It's not reinventing the wheel, but I definitely feel Block and Stark in its DNA, which in and of itself isn't unusual for a crime comic, but when you've got Zadarksy and Phillips driving, there's sure to be some intense crime drama.

All praise Saga, it hath Returned!!!! I could not be happier about this, however, I have not had a chance to really get my re-read of issues 1-54 going, so that kinda sucks. I'm not about to wait to read this until I do, however, that would have been my preference.

How could you not love a book with this cover? 

Speaking of covers, for someone who never really gave two squash about them before, I'm becoming a bit obsessed. This would probably clock in as my favorite thus far from either of the Two Moons story arcs, and even though I'm finding this one hard to read month-to-month, seeing this makes me want to allocate some time this week to re-read this second arc.

You know, when I saw that "Captain Krakoa" crap in last month's solicitation for X-Men issue 6, I rolled my eyes. Turns out I was wrong - it's not what it seems, and it's awesome!

Here's a new one I'll definitely be subscribing to through my shop - a continuation of the Netflix series, which was unjustly canceled before it could really even get going.

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Playlist:

Odonis Odonis - Spectrums

Ministry - The Mind is a Terrible Thing to Taste

Lard - Pure Chewing Satisfaction

Burial - Antidawn

Burial - Untrue

Mastodon - Hushed and Grim

Public Enemy - Fear of a Black Planet

James Brown - 70s Funk Classics

Ghost - Call Me Little Sunshine (pre-release single)

Atrium Carceri - Kapnobatai

Lustmord - Dark Matter

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Yeah, something is standing in my way, and it's totally me.

80s Metal Week Day #4: Night Ranger - Don't Tell Me You Love Me

 

Okay, hear me out on this one. Back about the time I graduated High School - 1994 - my girlfriend at the time's older sister was dating my friend Rob. They had a dingy little apartment in Palos Hills, above the iconically scummy Pizza Pub on 103rd and 88th avenue. Their neighbor was an 80s holdover with a super 80s cocaine mustache that listened to Night Ranger. Fancying ourselves as belonging to the indie rock hoi polloi, we nicknamed this poor guy "Night Ranger" and made him the butt of all our jokes. But guess what? This song fucking rocks, and as my A Most Horrible Library cohost Chris Saunders has pointed out, has one awesome guitar solo. Which was definitely important in its era. nearly 40 years later, I'm secure enough in myself to admit, I totally dig this song, too. 

 

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I've been on a bit of a "Folk Horror" bender, in both literature and movies, and I started my weekend bender with Arthur Machen's The White People (not about January 6th, 2021), then re-read H.P. Lovecraft's The Festival, one of the best examples of Lovecraft dipping his toes into Folk Horror, and also, probably my second favorite story among his oeuvre. 

Next up, M.R. James' A Warning to the Curious, followed by his classic Oh, Whistle and I Will Come to You, Lad. I'd never read this one before, as James - just like Machen and their contemporary Algernon Blackwood - have been on my radar for the better part of twenty years. I wasn't disappointed. 

Even though I'd never read Whistle, way back circa 2011 or 2012, I was introduced to the story at the  H.P. Lovecraft film fest at San Pedro's timeless Warner Grand, where along with a host of other great Lovecraft/Weird Fiction films, they played the BBC's 1968 adaptation of the story, directed by Jonathan Miller and starring - in a rather iconic role - Michael Hordern as Professor Parkins. This one has stayed with me for ten years or so now, crystal clear in my memory compared to a lot of other movies I watch, and it was quite satisfying to finally read the source material. 

Amazingly enough, the entire thing is on youtube. Here you go:

 

Totally worth your time, Miller's adaptation kind of feels like an extra spooky episode of The Twilight Zone. Now that I've read the story and found this online, my plan is to rewatch it within the next few days.

Finally, I'm working my way through Blackwood's The Willows, which is probably the longest of these stories I've read so far, and isn't really impressing me all that much. Yet. I'm hoping this is just a case of my falling out of sync with the concentration required to shift my mental palate to a place where I can read and enjoy fiction written in slightly outdated vernacular. Just based on this small sampling thus far, I'd have to say James stands out as my favorite of the three. I plan on continuing on, however, even if Phillip Pullman's final book in the original His Dark Materials trilogy is still at 83% on my kindle. I'm not usually one to be so capricious about my reading, but at the moment, I have to go where my passion takes me. 

I'd like to add, if you're at all interested in reading James' work, I've found A Podcast to the Curious to be a wonderful supplemental source for exploring and contextualizing his work.

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Playlist:

Boy Harsher - The Runner OST

Zetra - From Without EP

Talking Heads - Fear of Music 

Author & Punisher - Drone Carrying Dread (pre-release single)

Author & Punisher - Maiden Star (pre-release single)

Author & Punisher - Beastland

Author & Punisher - Women & Children

Drab Majesty - Careless

Zombi - 2020

Zombi - Shape Shift

Zombi - Digitalis

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Card:

While I've never really been a fan of this card as a Pull, seeing it now makes me think there's a bit of tumult occurring in my creative side. That feels right - I've recently finished editing my friend Jen's first novel, and now I have to get myself back into my own groove. I may need to take a different tack than I'm used to if I want to jumpstart myself back onto the road to where I was.