7 Days of Ozzy - Day 4: Rock'n'Roll Rebel

 

Years ago, my good friend Sonny observed that, on the cover of 1982's Bark at the Moon, Ozzy looked like someone shaved a poodle and then glued the shavings to him. That's a pretty funny - and still pretty freakin' accurate - description. But hey, metal album covers ran an interesting gamut back in the day. All things considered, you take the good with the bad. Which is kind of the case with Bark at the Moon, too. It's definitely not Ozzy's best solo record, and this is definitely not even the best song on the long player, but I dig the way the song moves and I dig the production. Ozzy does what he normally did back in the early 80s - Rock n Roll/you can't stop me/don't judge me. But the pre-chorus builds in a nice way and I swear I can hear how some of Jake E. Lee's guitar solos rubbed off on Kim Thayil ten years later. k >kl

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NCBD:

Despite the wait, I actually dig that Marvel held Immortal X-Men #2 back so it landed the same week as X-Men Red's second issue. 

Both these books are off to a great start, and I am still thinking about the closing page shocker of Immortal's first issue. 

Madelyne Pryor, aka the Goblin Queen, up against Illyana Rasputin, aka Magik for the reigns of Limbo? No way I'd miss this one. 

Speaking of Hulk, if the rest of Banner of War lives up to even half the promise of the Alpha issue, I will be super happy. Donny Cates continues to take huge swings and knock every issue out of the park. 

A Misfits-esque Taskmaster? This limited series has already paid for itself in just one issue. Can't wait to dig into #2.

The final chapter in a pretty great adaptation of Joe Hill's novella Rain. 

The first issue of Steve Niles and Szymon Kudranski's A Town Called Terror was mostly set-up, but that set-up brought the creep factor up to about an eight, so I'm in. I think the last Niles book I read monthly was Winnebago Graveyard, and that turned out to be a pretty wicked ride. Hoping for something in the same ballpark here, and pretty sure I won't be disappointed.

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Watch:

Thanks to Mr. Brown, without who, I probably wouldn't have seen this new trailer for She-Hulk for another day or so:

 

Despite giving Moon Knight two episodes before jumping off amidst a seething hatred nothing since the DCU live-action Swamp Thing from a few years ago provoked, I remain optimistic about everything Marvel is doing with their shows (Mr. Brown has even talked me into giving Moonie another chance. Eventually). 

The tone of this one is obviously going to be considerably less severe and more fun, but I am absolutely cool with that. Especially with appearances by "Professor Hulk."

Now, if we can just get Gray Hulk Joe Fixit. 
 

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Playlist:

Mr. Bungle - Disco Volante

Wesley Willis - Rock 'N' Roll Will Never Die

Calexico - El Mirador

The Bronx - The Bronx (II)

La Hell Gang - Thru Me Again

Various Artists - Nativity in Black: A Tribute to Black Sabbath

Joseph Bishara - Malignant OST

Ozzy Osbourne - The Ultimate Sin

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Card:

Taking stock, keeping a clear head and above all things, planning. That's how I read this one. There are variables coalescing soon, but for the moment, they are still en route, traveling at an undetermined speed. Get Ready.

7 Days of Ozzy - Day 3: Diary of a Madman

 

It's been a couple decades since I've listened to Diary of a Madman. This one was omnipotent in my life for a few years back around the end of High School/beginning of College. Not sure if the entire album will hold up, but I know the title track does.

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Cast:

The second episode of my new Southside 90s podcast went up today:

This is a project I'd wanted to do for so very long; all my life-long friends from High School and I gathering periodically to tell the tales that, well, when we tell them, people don't believe them. But they're all real. Seriously. This week's ep is largely focused on a house we hung out at first semester of Junior Year, a two-story in a rich subdivision where adults were almost never present, and when they were, they didn't stop us. 

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Watch:

Holy shite:

Have I mentioned how much more I like Amazon's version of The Boys than I do the comic? Nothing against Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson; this is totally a case of being able to improve a story with the hindsight that comes after a decade since its completion.

 

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Dollar Bin:

You know what I find A LOT of in Dollar Bins? Issues from Marvel's failed late-80s New Universe line:

I'm not interested in all the books from that particular experiment, but anything pertaining to The Star Brand, The Pitt or the surrounding narrative that encompassed the four titles that survived after that first, failed year. These are pretty easy to come by these days, and that surprises me a little. I don't read Jason Aaron's Avengers book, but I know he's integrated The Star Brand into the modern 616 continuity over the last few years. I'm curious if anyone has updated Spitfire - basically the Iron Man of the New Universe, except with a woman in the armor (long before that was fashionable, to boot!), DP7 (mutants), or Justice, which I can't compare to a regular Marvel 616 book, as I don't think I ever read it or at least don't remember it.

These are total nostalgia bombs for me, but also, The New Universe's arrival dove-tailed with my blossoming interest in the non-G.I.Joe comics in general and Marvel Universe specifically, so there's something about it that is integral to my love of the medium.

And as I've said before, post-Pitt New Universe is dark AF.

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Playlist:

The Mysterines - Reeling

The Bronx - The Bronx (II)

Blut Aus Nord - Hallucinogen

Intronaut - Habitual Levitations (Instilling Words with Tones)

The Atlas Moth - Coma Noir

The Ruby Friedman Orchestra - Gem

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Card:

I'm pretty sure this either has to do with something I thought I was done with. Modern Life is Rubbish, indeed. 

7 Days of Ozzy - Day 2: Desire

 

One of my favorite songs on an album that is 75% favorite songs. The guitar on this album - and this song in particular - is, in my opinion, the heights calibre hard rock guitar can reach. It sounds so rich and fuzzy, yet retains fantastic definition. 

And, of course, great vocal lines, too. 

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Watch:

Bill Hader's Barry returned a few weeks ago and I only just found out. Over the weekend, K and I caught up and were pretty surprised by the tone of this third season:

One of this show's strengths is the way it balances its inherent darkness with some of the funniest shit I've ever seen. Part of that's the cast - Hader's fantastic, Anthony Carrigan (NoHo Hank) is brilliant pretty much every time he's on the screen, and Stephen Root is always gold. This season, the humor has, thus far, been seriously downplayed and we've been presented with a super dark take on the characters - especially Barry. Again, that comingling of tones has always been the strength of the show. Barry does not shy away from the reality of the concept: a hitman's a pretty dark protagonist. 

But it works.

Really not sure where this show is ultimately headed, which is always a good thing.

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Read:

I spent a large part of the weekend relaxing and catching up on my comics. Here's what I read:

So nice to finally sit and read this one all the way through, start to finish, in one tight sitting. The Last Ronin totally delivers that old school 80s Frank Miller dystopian aesthetic, while retaining and drawing from the original, B&W Mirage series. Gorgeous art - the design of everything we see in this dystopian world is gorgeous, and visually seems the natural evolution of the original book's Manhattan. 

I'd dropped off reading James Tynion IV's The Nice House On The Lake monthly, simply because I lost a lot after its hiatus. sitting down and reading 1-8 in a sitting really took some time, and that just goes to show what a meaty story Tynion's telling here. Very cool story that's essentially a zombie-less update on Romero's Dawn of the Dead (in a way it is! Think about it!)

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Playlist:

(Lone) Wolf & Cub - May You See Only Sky

Bexley - Lost in the Moment EP

Cypress Hill - III: Temples of Boom

Jerry Cantrell - Brighten

Calexico - The Black Light

Joseph Bishara - Malignant OST

Mike Doughty - Live at Ken's House

Calexico - Even My Sure Things Fall Through

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Card:

A Conservative approach to an infuriating problem will serve me better than, say, a hammer beating. Loud and Clear. 

Ozzy Osbourne Week - All My Life

No, you didn't miss a headline. Against all odds, Ozzy Osbourne is still alive. I know usually it's after someone has died that I do a "So-and-so week." But I'm always wanting to change that, and here's my chance. The motivation here is really simple: I'm finding that after not paying any attention to Ozzy's music since No More Tears - an album I'll stand by until my dying day - I've become somewhat enraptured by his 2020 record Ordinary Man. What's more, for the past few years I've kind of rediscovered albums like Bark at the Moon and The Ultimate Sin - the latter of which I used to hate every track on except Shot in the Dark, which will no doubt turn up over the next six days, even though I'm certain I've posted it here before.

 

Anyway, for the next 7 or so posts, I'll be celebrating the Ozman, so light a doob and frog leap off your front porch - we're biting heads (off bats)!

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Watch:

Holy Fuck!

 

Also, since I worked last Sunday, I had a half-day today. I drove home at a leisurely pace, made a turkey sandwich and fired up The Sadness on Shudder.

Holy. Fuck. X. Two.

Easily the most violent, gory and depraved movie I've seen in a long time. I'm not saying there aren't tougher flicks out there; I know there are. I just don't normally traffic in them. This, however, comes in right over the line in favor of my tastes. There were a few moments I thought we were going to dip into territory that I don't tread, but thankfully, that never happened. An unexpected result of this line-dancing is The Sadness clocks in as the first film I've seen since The Void that feels truly transgressive, or maybe even dangerous. 

 

Not for the faint of heart.

 

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NCBD Addendum:

I picked up my books for NCBD yesterday and had a few extra surprises. First, I'd forgotten Jeff Lemire and Andrea Sorrentino dropped a single-issue prequel to their new ongoing Horror Universe The Bone Orchard Mythos on FCBD. "Shadow Eater" arrives about a month before the first HC graphic novel, The Passageway.

This book is freakin' awesome, and if it's any indication - and I know it is - the Bone Orchard is going to be something I won't be able to shut up about for the next few years. Mapped out through 2023 "and beyond" according to Lemire, looks like we're in for some sleepless nights. Thanks guys! (really)

Next, and talk about couldn't be more different, I picked up the FCBD prequel for Judgement Day, the new X-Men/Avengers/Eternals crossover event.

Yeah, I hate crossover events, and I completely realize that I'm setting myself up to be pissed off, but I can't help it - I love this X-Men revamp, and my post-Hickman fears have been thus far trounced by Immortal X-Men, X-Men: Red, and now issue 11 of X-Men (holy cow Dr. Stasis!). 

Also, the final story in this Judgement Day lead-in has one of the most chilling moments ever in X-history (and Spider-Man history, to boot!).

Next on the "I didn't anticipate buying this in the comic shop today," I'd seen a little of the Professor Dario Bava books in a post on The Comic Bug's social media back a year or two ago for a signing, but ultimately forgot all about it. Luckily, there was a new book that dropped this week and I grabbed that and the previous. The new one is the first of an ongoing story (I think) that is actually a two-sided magazine-sized behemoth. 

The second is the first GN they kickstarted (again, I'm not 100% on the timeline here - this is very new to me).

Both are gorgeous, creepy and filled with Cult Cinema goodness. You can check the Dario Bava stuff out on their website HERE.

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Playlist:

Perturbator, Johannes Persson & Final Light - In the Void (pre-release single)

Calexico - El Mirador

Calexico - Even My Sure Things Fall Through

16 Horsepower - Low Estate

Atrium Carceri - Kapnobatai

Blood Red Shoes - Ghosts on Tape

(Lone) Wolf & Cub - May You Only See Sky

David Bowie - The Next Day

Journey - Escape

Stian Carstensen & Mike Patton - Hydrocephalus Epilogue (single)

Mr. Bungle - Disco Volante

Liz Phair - Exile in Guyville

Cypress Hill - III (Temples of Boom)

Bexley - Lost in the Moment EP

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Card:

Focused energy. What I need to regain.

Todd Rundgren - I Saw the Light

 

Last night we finished Ozark. Man, what a f**kin' ride! This show brings the anxiety meter to new heights. It obviously wouldn't exist without Breaking Bad, but that's not a knock. In fact, I'd say Jason Bateman and company managed to take the BB template and hone it into an even more impressive beast.

And what a beast this is. The ending didn't make me happy, but it had balls, and that in and of itself, makes me happy. As a viewer, I don't want to get what I want. I want you to tell your story. And they did. Oh boy, they did.

As for the song, if you've seen the latter half of the second season, you'll know why I'm posting this. I'd go on record as saying the "traffic incident" is possibly the best scene in the series.

Also, I loved the Killer Mike cameo in the first part of season four.

 

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NCBD:

Not much of a haul this week, although they're all big issues. Also, after buying the first issue of the Clea Strange-centered Strange series a few months ago, I think I'm going to pick up the second and third issues that I missed. 

Pretty psyched for a Hulk-Thor battle. I doubt it will be as awesome as the old Hulk-Thing battles in the 80s, but still, when Titans collide, and all that.

Loved the first issue, so let's see where this new Sandman spin-off is heading. The Corinthian has always been my favorite Nightmare, and although he received a lot of "screen time" in the old 90s The Dreaming series, I've always kind of felt like there was a lot more room for the right creators to explore with the Corinthian. I think we're finally seeing that.

The last all-women X-issue I read was back in the 80s: Uncanny X-Men #244, which introduced Jubliee. I'm hoping that, like that issue's follow-up in 245 with "Men," this current X-Book pays homage and does the same next issue. Either way, I love this book.

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Watch:

Eskil Vogt's The Innocents looks to be the very definition of unnerving:

 

You can read a nifty little article where Vogt talks about his new film over on Bloody Disgusting HERE. This one hits VOD on Friday, the 13th. I'd be doing a "Day-of" screening, if not for the fact that I've already got tickets to go see Friday the 13th Part 3 at the Aero. I mean, how could I pass that up?

 

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Playlist:

The Effigies - Remains Nonviewable

Zeal & Ardor - Wake of a Nation EP

The Mysterines - Reeling

Ozzy Osbourne - Ordinary Man

The Smiths - The Queen is Dead

Pink Mountaintops - Peacock Pools

Orville Peck - Bronco

Spotlights - Love & Decay

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Card:

It's been a minute since I've done a pull, so here goes:

I've been relying on my intuition when it comes to creative choices, and it's led me to a new strength. Now, I need to finish my current project and move into my next. 

Meg Myers - Children of Light II

 

New Meg Myers! Her stuff is getting weirder, but she still delivers those pulse-pounding hooks.

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Watch:

Oh shit, I forgot ALL about this:

 

No release date yet, but the announcement says "Soon."

 

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Dollar Bin:

I don't know much about Micronauts, other than it was a toy property from just before my era - before the era where cartoons and I always came across stray figures and playsets at garage sales in the early 80s and wondered what they were (same with Shogun Warriors). Last year though, when Chris Saunders and I interviewed comic artist legend Kelley Jones, he mentioned he started at marvel on the Micronauts book. 

I have developed a bit of a phantom nostalgia for toys and comics from just before my era, and finding these in the ol' dollar bin proved impossible to pass up. This falls in line with the weird, TSR, Hobby-Shop genre of SciFi and Horror that I feel existed as a kind of 'quiet zeitgeist' in the early 80s - a pop culture texture that has been mined and revitalized by Stranger Things perfectly. Anyway, I'm hoping to find more Micronauts, or maybe snag some on eBay. I'd like to read a solid run of a handful of consecutive issues, just to get a feel. 

Also, they're written by Bill Mantlo, and I've really come to see him as a kind of underappreciated genius in that Hobby Shop Sci-Fi thing. 

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Playlist:

Ozzy Osbourne - Ordinary Man

Jerry Cantrell - Brighten

Mike Doughty - Live At Ken's House

Prince - Sign O' The Times

Testament - The New Order

Sparks - Hello Young Lovers

Mr. Bungle - The Night They Came Home

Run the Jewels - RTJ4

The Raveonettes - Raven in the Grave

Goatsnake - Black Age Blues

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Card:

Once again, the ways of peace are strong in me, even in the midst of adversity.

New Music From Woven Hand

 

I will always miss Sixteen Horsepower, however, the work David Eugene Edwards has been doing as Woven Hand over the last decade-and-a-half (or so) is next-level stuff. It's interesting how the slightly toxic religious elements that informed/inspired Horsepower pushed this man into a considerably more Shamanic perspective with his music. 

Woven Hand's new record Silver Sash is out now on Glitterhouse Records and can be ordered from them or Woven Hand's Bandcamp HERE.

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Watch:

This is going to be one of those posts where I post the newest trailer for David Cronenberg's upcoming Crimes of the Future, but don't watch it:

 

Right now, this is my most eagerly awaited film of the year - thus far- and I say that on the cusp of seeing Sam Raimi's Dr. Strange In the Multiverse of Madness tonight, a film I have been CHOMPING at the bit for since... well, since I realized Patrick Stewart's voice is in the trailer. NOTE: I should say something here. Marvel, I'm talking to you now; if it turns out that Patrick Stewart is playing a man named Jim Bohner or some such, I will not be happy. Just saying. And as long as I'm posting trailers I have no intention of viewing, here's that 'Final' Dr. Strange trailer:

I have insanely high expectations for this one, even though I still have been unable to sit through the first Stephen Strange flick. I've always maintained I'm more interested in Marvel's big picture than I am the individual films, and this is the one that - I think - will firmly shape the post-Avengers landscape for the MCU into something more cohesive than it's been (not that I've minded the chaotic and disparate elements of the last few years, which have been very final-years-of-Claremont's-Uncanny-X-men at times).

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Playlist:

Bexley - Eponymous

Blut Aus Nord - Memoria Vetusta II: Dialogue with the Stars

Michael Jackson - Greatest Hits

Kate Bush - Hounds of Love

The Mysterines - Reeling

Sparks - Tryouts for the Human Race (single)

Helmet - Meantime

Motorhead - Ace of Spades

Anthrax - Persistence of Time

Jerry Cantrell - Brighten (Thanks to Mr. Brown for the beautiful vinyl!)

Prince and the Revolution - Purple Rain

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Card:

It's been a minute since I've pulled from Missi's Raven Deck, so here goes:

Expecting knowledge to come my way today that might turn things around a bit. Or maybe that was yesterday when we spoke to a new realtor in TN and received a lot of really good, inspiring information. I suppose there's a part of me that demonizes that, simply because the longer we've stayed in LaLaLand, the allure of the routine and easy (not really, but kinda) life we've made here pulls at my ideas of burning it all down and starting over. 

Don't trust comfort. That's the real Devil.