A little Fuck Buttons to start the day. Been awhile since I jammed these guys. Still one of the best electronic shows I ever saw - circa 2010 at LA's Troubador.
Watch:
Tell me this doesn't look like a bowl of fun:
Yeah, the 80s Summer Camp Slasher has been done to death, and maybe this won't work as well as the trailer suggests, but when done correctly, with a dash of something new, this genre still makes my blood sing. There's a full write-up over HERE on Bloody Disgusting.
Playlist:
C-Building Kids - Shitting in the Urinal
Cocksure - Operation C.O.C.K.S.U.R.E.
Metallica - Hardwired
Karl Casey - XX EP
Fvnerals - Let The Earth Be Silent
Fuck Buttons - Tarot Sport
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
In order to transform, Understanding and Balance are required. This is kind of what I'm in the middle of at the moment - I've been on a tear working on Shadow Play Book Two, and it's transforming before my eyes. However, while wholly invigorating, the actual act of this Transformation can lead to an overzealous tendency toward flights of fancy. The writing must remain balanced and joined to the inherent understanding I'm developing - in other words, let the book talk through me, and don't get in its way.
From Jarvis Cocker's 2009 album Further Complications. Not sure what brought this to mind yesterday, but it had been years since I jammed this record, and it still totally holds up (of course).
NCBD:
My picks for this week's NCBD:
The end of the storyline and the end of my time following Marvel's Alien comics. Exactly like that first year after they launched, we come to the end of the first arc with promises of this insanely horrific Alien-Lady that, to my knowledge, they still haven't actually introduced. This series was fine, but not enough for me to continue when it returns.
A book that just barely stayed on my recently abbreviated pull; I'm still not done with this one. Especially when Danny Ketch is returning this issue and he is apparently now part of the Weapon X program? What????
The Sins of Sinister stand-in for X-Men: Red. I'm very curious to see where this goes.
Watch:
Picked up my tickets to see this tomorrow night:
One thing about Skinamarink I love, despite not being able to make it through the movie in the theatre or at home, is I believe its success has opened the doors for a lot of way lower-budget Horror to get a shot at a big screen run. That's a win-win for everyone, and it should launch some interesting, non-Hollywood careers, also a win-win.
Playlist:
The Smiths - God Save the Queen
The Smiths - Hatful of Hollow
Chameleons UK - Strange Times
Jarvis Cocker - Further Complications
Pulp - A Different Class
Metallica - Hardwired
Fvnerals - Let the Earth Be Silent
Christopher Young & Lustmord - The Empty Man OST
Blanck Mass - Animated Violence Mild
Trombone Shorty - For True
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
Completion of a project forestalled by obfuscation due to an overly emotional predilection. More commentary on my mental health, which is pretty much continuously at risk due to my living arrangement.
In a Smiths mood this morning. Sometimes Morrissey's biting observations and poetic turns of phrase just hit the spot intellectually, to say nothing of Marr, Rourke and Joyce's music, which transports me to a very specific place in my head, more feeling than thought. That's why this group worked so well for the time it did - Morrissey anchors you while the music compels the soul to soar.
Of course, to enjoy any of this, I've had to maintain my ignorance of what an unbelievable twat Morrissey has become over the years.
Watch:
Browsing the Just Added on Shudder, I followed a hunch - a hunch that all Irish Horror Films are fantastic - and clicked on Billy O'Brien's 2005 Isolation.
I could not find a serviceable trailer, and also, I think the less you know about this one going in, the better you are. Believe me, however, when I tell you that my hunch continues to prove correct because Isolation is fantastic. A taut little creature feature with notes of The Thing and Alien, only set on an Irish farm.
Read:
Completely off the cuff, I began re-reading Alan Campbell's brilliant Deepgate Codex trilogy over the weekend. About a third of the way through the first book, Scar Night (2006), these have a special place in my heart, and I am ashamed to say I never finished the trilogy by reading that final book.
Back when I first moved to LaLaLand in 2006, I was working at a Borders bookstore as an inventory supervisor. Myspace was the thing at the time, and through its messaging, author Alan Campbell - then relatively unknown, as Scar Night was his first novel coming off the success of having helped write the Grand Theft Auto game - messaged me. Seeing that I was a pretty vocal champion of China Mieville's work at the time (still am), Campbell reached out to tell me about his book, which is set in the city of Deepgate - a city that hangs from chains suspended above a bottomless pit.
No way I wasn't going to read that!
I bought the book when it came out in Hardcover, and continued to buy Campbell's books as they were released in that manner. By the time book three came out, though, I was probably in the middle of something with a completely different tone, and it wasn't the time to reread the first two and go into number three.
And the years lapsed...
Back around 2019, I picked up and plowed through the first two books of Campbell's subsequent series, The Gravedigger Chronicles. These were immediately among my favorite Sci-Fi/Fantasy novels ever - we're still waiting on that third book though, and from time to time the thought that we may never see it (the Author, who is not active on social media, has stated that the third book in the series is finished, however, the publishing deal he had went south and the book remains, well, suspended by metaphorical chains above the abyss that was once the publishing industry). That particular sadness darkened my door this past week, and thus, I grabbed the Deepgate Codex with the intention of loving it so much again that the power of that love might somehow aetherically find Mr. Campbell and transmute into a resolution for that final book.
And yes, Scar Night is just as good as I remember. Maybe better. And no, aetherically is not a word. Well, not until now.
Playlist:
Lustmord - The Others
Fvunerals - Let The Earth Be Silent
Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats - Wasteland
Karl Casey - XX
Battle Tapes - Sweatshop Boys EP
Final Light - Eponymous
Ager Sonus - Book of the Black Earth
Allegaeon - Apoptosis
Special Interest - Endure
Motörhead - Ace of Spades
Anthrax - Attack of the Killers B's
Aerosmith - Pump
Type O Negative - Life is Killing Me
Perturbator - Lustful Sacraments
Talking Heads - Fear of Music
Iron Maiden - Fear of the Dark
Made Out of Babies - The Ruiner
The Jesus Lizard - Goat
Thou - Rhea Sylvia
David Bowie - Black Tie White Noise
Silent - Modern Hate
Melvins & Lustmord - Pigs of the Roman Empire
Metallica - Hardwired...
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
A reminder that balance is what supports harmony, and balance is not achieved by the narratives about others we sometimes tell ourselves repeatedly. I've 100% done just this, and it's not without a breakthrough of Will that I will be able to smooth things over.
From 1973's Master of Reality, a perfect record. I leaned heavily into this one last weekend while in Chicago, so when I walked into Rick's Comics City yesterday and saw that variant cover of Dan Panosian's new book Black Tape, I kind of felt as though I manifested it.
Tulpas have been on my mind again because, you know, Department of Truth.
Watch:
Rob Savage's Host impressed me to no end, and I've been waiting to see what he does next. Somehow, I missed that he followed Host with a film called Dashcam, however, I think I'll leave that off the list until after I see what he does with a non-found-footage film. And Savage has a big one coming out in June:
This adaptation of Stephen King's short story The Boogeyman is receiving a lot of hype - word is it's terrifying, so I am excited at the prospect of seeing a film in theatres that might actually induce some fear in me.
Read:
Here's a book I did not mention as one of my picks for yesterday's NCBD simply because I was on the fence and trying very hard not to start new series. How do you say no to this cover, though:
Black Tape #1 is all set up, but that's fine. Even if I don't continue with the series - which I'm betting I will - I'm happy as hell to own this cover. Here's the press description of the book:
"Jack King was a rock'n'roll god who projected a stage
persona on par with the devil. After Jack dies on stage, his widow, Cindy, grapples with grief and struggles to protect his
legacy, unaware that she is being surrounded by dark forces that covet the master tapes to Jack's final,
unreleased album - a heavy metal masterpiece that just
might open a doorway to hell."
Great premise, so let's see where it goes.
Playlist:
Thought Gang - Eponymous
Anoni Wit & Warsaw National Philharmonic Orchestra - Pendereck's Polymorphia
Krzysztof Penderecki - Metamorphosen
Krzysztof Penderecki - A Polish Requiem
Miranda Sex Garden - Suspiria
Allegaeon - Apoptosis
Somnium Nox - Apocrypha EP
Karl Casey - White Bat XVIII EP
Karl Casey - XX EP
King Woman - Doubt EP
Godflesh - A World Lit Only By Fire
Metallica - ...And Justice for All
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
Tens in Tarot are interesting. On one hand, there's a sense of closure, of completion and accomplishment. On the other, you realize when juxtaposing the Tarot with the Sephiroths on the Tree of Life, Ten is where we enter Malkuth, and thus, the most materialized in the regular, physical world. This tells us that, what we consider a success or accomplishment in our physical lives, can conversely be seen as the farthest movement away from anything spiritually compelling. Which makes sense in a lot of ways. Today's pull builds on yesterday's Emotional question, suggesting that to transform from yesterday's Eight of Cups to today's Ten, a transformation of Will in order. What's more, there is a decision or leap of faith that will be involved.
So today's Pull gives me the insight into yesterday's that I never arrived at. This is a direct nod to the fact that I'm attempting to change my daily writing routine - which has never been in better shape - by moving from driving to a coffee shop and paying $4.22 a day to sit and write to staying at home and saving that money but getting the same level of removal and concentration. I know this can be done because I did it during the pandemic when I wrote/re-wrote a novel sitting at the kitchen table in our Redondo Beach apartment. I just have to do it here now.
Quick reminder: if you dig those cards above from Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, he has an insanely awesome Kickstarter going on at the moment:
A considerably more mellow NCBD than I've had in a while and I like it!
Kinda glad to see Dark Web go. I mean, the series started great, but really overstayed its welcome about the time Peter began working at a Daily Bugle in Limbo. Dumb, as was the whole Rek Rap manifestation. Hopefully this "omega" chapter will dig back in and give us a satisfying ending.
Due to reassessments, this is most likely my last issue of Moon Knight. It's been a solid series, even though I never really warmed up to the art. I can't necessarily say I'll miss it, primarily because the big reason that I stayed around this long was what they did with making the House of Shadows the new Midnight Mission. I really thought there would be more with that, but we've been playing with vampires for most of the series since then.
Watch:
Last Thursday I saw Brendon Cronenberg's Infinity Pool at my local theatre. I really dig being able to say that. Then, on Sunday in Chicago, I saw it again.
My first impression was this was my least favorite of his three films. After that second viewing, I'd put it right up there, just behind Possessor. I'm still unpacking, and The Horror Vision will be releasing an in-depth discussion on the film next Monday, but for now, my knee-jerk from directly after that first viewing is a quick, spoiler-free read over on my Letterbxd.
Playlist:
Chat Pile - God's Country
Type O Negative - Dead Again
Zeal and Ardor - Devil is Fine
Type O Negative - Origin of the Feces
Joy Division - Still
David Lynch - The Big Dream
Revolting Cocks - Big Sexy Land
Mascara - Hla-11Tf
Angelo Badalamenti - Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me OST
Various - Shadow Play Two Writing Playlist
Lustmord - The Others
Black Sabbath - Master of Reality
Black Sabbath - Sabotage
David Bowie - Outside
Slayer - Live Undead
Megadeth - Rust in Peace
Bonny Doon - Longwave
††† - PERMANENT.RADIANT
Trombone Shorty - For True
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
Elements of Change that might be emotionally difficult will be better faced with a partner. No idea what that's about, and I'd be lying if I didn't admit it freaks me out a bit. I'll be chewing on this one all day. My new way to do that is to leave the three-card Pull out on my desk all day, so I'm constantly looking at it. Kinda a visual version of hearing music in the background and having it grab you. Revelations are not always won through direct engagement.
Hailing from France, Mascara is a band I know very little about. I picked this up after hearing the guys at Cinematic Void talk about the latest single, which this song is on. I really dig this and recommend checking out their Bandcamp HERE.
Watch:
Let's talk about David Lynch's Inland Empire.
I have to laugh at the idea that a trailer was cut for this film. I mean, this tells you nothing except Laura Dern is in the movie. I plan on writing a bit more extensively at some point, possibly on my Letterbxd, but for now, suffice it to say that while I love this film as an example of how David Lynch's mind works, I find it nearly inscrutable and a bit of a chore to watch in its entirety. I always think back to seeing this in Hollywood when it premiered. What I experienced that night was what I have always described as an absolute free fall - the film swallowed me whole, and I did not become lucid until the moment when Beck's "Black Tamborine" kicked in. Resurfacing, I had absolutely no idea how long I had been sitting in that theatre; it could have as easily been four hours as forty-five minutes. That's one of the best theatrical experiences of my life, the experience of being so taken over by a film. Translating that to at-home viewing, however, has been unbelievably difficult. I must have attempted to watch the Inland Empire DVD a half dozen times since it was released in '07 0r '08, and every time I failed. Until yesterday, when I watched it with headphones on.
Yes. Headphones.
You would not believe the sound design in this, and while I still felt the burden of sitting through the entire three hours, I made it and am glad I did. While I can't see myself ever frequenting this film like I do most of Lynch's other works, I'm glad I own it and look forward to whenever the next time I watch it - as long as the tv I watch it on has blue tooth.
Support:
Jonathan Grimm has his new Kickstarter up, and I'm blown away by the artwork he's produced for this.
I've known Grimm for a long time, and he has come a long way with his art. In the last year, however, his talent has grown exponentially, as has his business plan. Having all the risk removed from these campaigns before even launching them should instill a confidence in his fans and supporters that is equal to the awe his work inspires. Solid Dude, Incredible Artist. Honored to call him a friend.
Playlist:
Thou - Rhea Sylvia
Alice in Chains - Eponymous
Oh Baby - The Art of Sleeping Alone
Anthrax - Persistence of Time
Mascara - Hla-11Tf (single)
Deafheaven - Sunbather
Mascara - Cameo Blue Estate EP
Card:
Back to the Thoth deck for today's single card pull:
The Airy aspect of Water, so Will applied to Emotion. Sounds like this is still pointing to that same Emotional Breakthrough I keep missing on my recent daily spreads - and I believe I just figured it out. In jogging back through the other posts, I realized I've been reading these in a completely distracted state. On Friday, 1/20/23 my Pull had an Ace of Cups at its center, however, the two days this week I mistakenly read as a reiteration of that were actually Ace of Wands, thus Intellectual Breakthrough. Or an achievement of Will. This, I believe is a reference to a slight incoming lifestyle adjustment in terms of finally being removed from my salaried Associate Manager position I stepped down from in August when I moved and shifted to a work-from-home position. Not a huge change, but you'll be seeing a lot fewer picks for NCBD for starters. Hence, Will Power Adjustment.
I stumbled across this pre-release track from the new Industrial band Insolent yesterday while writing, and really dug it. The album is titled Drain - which I love - and comes out February 24th via Sentient Ruin. You can pre-order on Insolent's Bandcamp HERE.
Support:
I've been talking about this on recent episodes of The Horror Vision, but Author Laird Barron is in the midst of some pretty serious health problems at the moment. Being a professional writer - and a great one at that - it should come as no surprise to anyone that the man does not have health insurance. Thanks to John Langan (author of The Fisherman) and Mike Davis (from the Lovecraft Ezine Podcast), a GoFundMe went up for Laird. Here's the information; kick in if you can:
NCBD:
Here are my picks for this week's NCBD:
Dark Web still? Okay, let's hope this is better than issue #17. I feel like, if this had wrapped up faster, I wouldn't be losing interest.
The mini-series end! Creepshow has been an uneven ride, but overall I dug it. Will I return if it does? Not sure...
I hadn't even heard about this one until last week. With the success of last year's The Last Ronin - success the book 100% deserves - this was inevitable. I'm totally down with going back into this world and seeing how we got to where that story took place.
It's always a good Wednesday when there's a new issue of Saga waiting for me.
I've been kind of excited for this one. Full disclosure: The 'twist' at the end of Immortal X-Men #10 seems like too big a swing that is just going to bring this whole carefully balanced house of cards down around Gillen's ears, but I hope not.
The end to a fantastic mini-series that, I thought, harkened back to the way Chris Claremont did X-book miniseries back in the day.
Watch:
It's been quite a few years since I last read Mike Mignola's The Doom That Came To Gotham mini-series. A prestige-format, 3-issue mashup of H.P. Lovecraft's The Doom That Came To Sarnath and Mignola's Gotham By Gaslight timeline (I think), I loved this series when it first came out back in 2000-2001.
Now, it appears there will be an animated adaptation:
I've seen a few of the other Batman animated adaptations. Well, I've seen The Dark Knight Returns and didn't necessarily love it. But I think I'll definitely give this one a chance whenever it hits HOBO MAX.
Playlist:
Calderum - Mystical Fortress of Iberian Lands
Off! - Free LSD
Bonny Doon - Longwave
Cocteau Twins - Heaven Or Las Vegas
Cocteau Twins - Garlands
Realize - Machine Violence
Emma Ruth Rundle & Thou - May Our Chambers Be Full
Ghost Bath - Moonlover
Insolent - Inner Tomb (pre-release single)
Godflesh - Post Self
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
Man, that emotional breakthrough is really insistent, isn't it? What aren't I doing? Or is is something I am doing that shouldn't be? Looking at Old Scratch and then Justic, I find myself wondering if I'm mistakenly waiting for something I am not due to receive?
