Suitable Prey, Tender Flesh

From the 1988 album Tender Prey. I'm not entirely certain how I wound up here yesterday morning, but other than occasional dalliances, I've been disengaged from Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds for a while now. Might be time to remedy that. Pure Creative Force contained in this man's records.

---

---

---

Watch:

As I was compiling my "Best Horror of 2023" list the other day, it occurred to me that I still had not seen Joe Lynch's Suitable Flesh. After Infinity Pool, this was my most-anticipated Horror flick of 2023. It did play at Beyondfest, but the day/time/location conflicted with our three-day When Evil Lurks/VHS 85/Adam Chaplain, so I made a hard call. Turns out, I made the right choice because When Evil Lurks is looking like it may end up being one of my favorite Horror films of the decade (yeah, it's a bit early to be saying that, but I can't help it, my reverence knows no bounds.

But what about Suitable Flesh?

Now a $4.99 rental on Prime and hitting Shudder on January 26th, I finally watch Joe Lynch's modernized adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft's The Thing on the Doorstep. It's great; easily one of the best modernizations of HPL, with fantastic performances, a wicked score and some amazing gore FX by Richard Jason Miller; I absolutely loved this flick. At this point, not sure it's ending up in my top ten (have one more rewatch to confirm or deny another film's placement), but it's still in the upper tier of 2023, which has been a fantastic year for Horror.

---

---

---

Playlist:

Massive Attack - Protection

Various - Spotify Haunted Playlist

Massive Attack - Heligoland

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Tender Prey

Negative Blast - Echo Planet

Electric Wizard - Dopethrone

High on Fire - Blessed Black Wings

---

---

---

Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

• Ten of Wands

• Ace of Cups

• Nine of Wands

A cataclysmic act of Will brings an emotional Breakthrough and a full the means to finish a project. 

Protection

 

I woke up with Massive Attack's Protection in my head. A pretty place to be but also an isolated and slightly forlorn one. Tracey Thorn's vocals play as the perfect accompaniment to the haunted music. Hearing this track always evokes the memory of listening to it on a bus in Bath, England, while we waited to find out what happened to another member of our tour that day. The woman never reappeared, and to this day, Protection carries with it the reminder of a now nearly two-decade mystery I will never have the answer to. 

Isn't that a perfect association for this album?

---

---

---

Watch:

I was in Dayton, Ohio, again over the weekend. We left Friday morning and upon returning yesterday evening, I had several packages waiting for me. One of those was my copy of Severin Film's newly restored and released edition of Gianfranco Giagni's 1988 little-known film The Spider Labyrinth.

There's a lot of talk of this being a "Lost Horror Classic," and I guess I can concede that. I liked the film, but classic? Well, not for me. This is kind of Argento-lite; I honestly thought it would be considerably weirder, or perhaps better said, utilize its truly weird portions more. Instead, there's a lot of "investigation runaround" that slows the flick down a bit. But again, still really dug this one, just not sure I'd recommend folks pay the sticker price for it unless you are an absolute Italian completist. 

---

---

---

Read:

I finished Richard Kadrey's The Pale House Devil over the weekend and can 100% recommend it for anyone who digs the "Occult Detective" genre, even if the two main characters, Neuland and Ford are hitmen instead of detectives. Hitmen who specialize in killing supernatural beings. 

This one is creepy and fun as hell, which is kind of Mr. Kadrey's specialty from what I've read of his work. Looking forward to seeing these characters pop up again, as this novella very much sets up the scaffolding for them to return. 

---

---

---

Playlist:

Blut Aus Nord - Disharmonium Nabib

Amigo the Devil - Everything is Fine

Beach House - Thank Your Lucky Stars

Cocteau Twins - Garlands

The Dillinger Escape Plan - Calculating Infinity

The Knife - Silent Shout

Fever Ray - Radical Romantics

Tuneyards - WHOKILL

Baroness - Stone

Mars Red Sky - Dawn of the Dusk

Deftones - Saturday Night Wrist

Brand New - The Devil and God are Raging Inside Me

War Curse - Confession

Calexico - Seasonal Shift

---

---

---

Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

Four cards today because they literally slid out of the deck together almost in this exact positioning. In the case of four, I'm going to do something different and, since there's no clear middle card, I'll be reading left to right.

• Eight of Wands

• Nine of Wands

• Two of Cups

• Three of Cups

It doesn't look like I shuffled this deck very well - it is a brand new one I received for backing Jonathan Grimm's most recent Kickstarter (decks are still available at the link I posted at the top of this section). As far as interpretation goes, we see Transformation and Climax of the Will, followed by Collaboration and Growth of Emotions. I'm not entirely certain how to read that at the moment, but these are good ideas to keep an eye out for as the day passes. 

Fever Ray Live in an Abandoned Factory

I guess I had completely forgotten that Fever Ray released a new record earlier in the year. 

Historically, this is the time of the year when I go back and see what I missed or forgot about, and this was a big one. Great record. Even better - seeing them perform here for 

---

---

---

NCBD:

Here's my Pull for yesterday's week's NCBD!

This final issue of the That Texas Blood spin-off/prequel The Enfield Gang Massacre will be out of my reach for a while, as my Drinking with Comics cohost Mike Shinabargar will be pulling it for my box over at Amazing Fantasy in Frankfort, Il. No sweat, I haven't had time to read all four of the preceding issuues yet, so I'll probably just wait to do the entire series in one fell swoop once I have them all. Not like I don't have a ton of stuff to read, regardless.

Very excited to be two issues into the return of Phantom Road. I adore this book, and can't wait to see where this crazy ass alternate-dimension/Grindhouse story is going. 

Well damn. The last issue of X-Men: Red. I'm both bummed and excited to see how this Arrako civil war ends up, especially after that final panel last month.

Also, a couple of surprises, which I talk about at length on the newest episode of Drinking with Comics: NCBD & A Beer!!!

Really digging the Gargoyle of Gotham!

---

---

---

Watch:

In preparation for an episode of The Horror Vision we're recording later today, I rewatched Demián Rugna's Terrified and When Evil Lurks. I can honestly say that the latter elevates the former and also that When Evil Lurks is an early-in-the-running nominee for best Horror film of the decade. 

Much like Steven Kostanski and Jeremy Gillespie's The Void did in the 2010s, this one inspires nothing less than tireless awe every time I watch it.

---

---

---

Playlist:

Baroness - Stone

Fever Ray - Radical Romantics

Yawning Balch - Volume One

Yawning Balch - Volume Two

Amigo the Devil - Everything is Fine

Kings of Leon - Because of the Time

Blut Aus Nord: Disharmonium: Nahab

Rodney Crowell - Christmas Everywhere

---

---

---

Card:

My bandwidth is LOW, so today, just one card from Missi's Raven Deck:

VIII - Contemplate routines and make adjustments where needed. Interesting, as I feel like that's exactly what I just did by taking the shorter route for this Pull. 

Perturbator - Dangerous

 

I had no idea this existed until just now. Love it (even if I'm not interested in reading the series; I'd rather just re-read the novel for the fifth or sixth time). Still, I applaud Sumerian for using their record label chops to strengthen their publishing ventures.

---

---

---

Watch:

Two weeks ago, I watched Quentin Dupieux's Deerskin. This movie instantly became an all-time favorite film. 

I'd not seen Rubber, even though I'd heard good things. I posted the trailer to Wrong back in 2013 but never ended up seeing it. Now, I'm kind of obsessed with seeing all Dupieux's films. We did an Elements of Horror episode that just went up, a deep-dive into Deerskin and talking about it just made me love it more. Unfortunately, there is no standard-issue U.S. Blu-Ray; however, if you have a region-free player, there's a Region B on Amazon right now for a little over $10. TOTALLY worth it. 

---

---

---

Read:

After finishing Cassandra Khaw's Nothing But Blackened Teeth, I took a small detour from my next intended book and began re-reading the short stories in James Joyce's Dubliners. 

I like the idea of having a book of short stories I can go to here and there, and this is perfect for that. I'd never read all of these; this is a picture I found online of the edition I've had since sometime in late HS or early College, when I'm fairly certain volume-closing "The Dead" was assigned reading. I've been picking at these over the last few days, and will no doubt set it down soon to read my final book of the year, but while I'm on it, I'm loving the elegant prose and snapshot style, especially in "Eveline."

---

---

---

Playlist:

Moderat - II

Steve Moore - Christmas Bloody Christmas OST

Perturbator (Feat. Kabbel) - Dangerous (single)

Carpenter Brut - Blood Machines OST

Amigo the Devil - Everything is Fine

Opeth - Deliverance

Cocteau Twins - Garlands

Baroness - Stone

---

---

---

Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

• Five of Pentacles (Disks) - Earthly Conflict/Struggle

• Eight of Pentacles (Disks) - Earthly Transformation

• Ace of Swords - A breakthrough of intellect

This is one of the more mundane discussions I've had "with the cards," but I'm reading today's Pull as a definite nod to the conflict that always permeates our household between K's mother and myself. It's the age-old story of the mother-in-law syndrome, and I hate to fall into these kinds of "Life Tropes," however, the struggle is real, brothers and sisters. The message imparted here would seem to be "use your brain, not your anger," as I tend to steam for a while and then verbally lash out. Nothing too untoward, but arguments occur and maybe this year they don't have to.

Nick Cave - A Rainy Night in Soho at Shane MacGowan's Funeral

 

My "Seven Days of Shane" may have ended a few days ago, however,  I couldn't pass up an epilogue when I saw this. Wow. A fitting tribute for an icon.

---

---

Watch:

Matt Berninger and David Letterman in discussion? Yes, please.

---

---

---

Playlist:

The Flesh Eaters - I Used to Be Pretty

Killing Joke - Epoynous

David Bowie - Black Star

Ozzy Osbourne - The Ultimate Sin

Calexico - Seasonal Shift

Bing Crosby - Christmas Classics

The Pogues - Fairytale of New York (single)

The Chieftains - The Bells of Dublin

Harry Connick, Jr. - When My Heart Finds Christmas

---

---

---

Seven Days of Shane: Day 7 - The Old Main Drag

 

We finish Seven Days commemorating Shane MacGowan with the sadly autobiographical "The Old Main Drag," the second track on 1985's undisputed masterpiece Rum, Sodomy & the Lash. Shane talks very frankly about this song in that Crock Of Gold Documentary I mentioned earlier in this run, and it really added new light to not only that track, but the first two Pogues records in general. 

---

---

---

Plastic:

It arrived.

 

I'll post my own video at some point - NOT an unboxing video, as I'm generally not a fan of those - but at this point, let's allow the professionals to speak for my absolute joy. Glad I backed this.

---

---

---

Playlist:

Chris Connolly - LARGO 22

Bret Easton Ellis Podcast S7E41 - Moby Disc

Bret Easton Ellis Podcast S7E42 - Quentin Tarantino

The Flesh Eaters - I Used to Be Pretty

Perturbator - Lustful Sacraments

Flying Lotus - Los Angeles

Deafheaven - Ordinary Corrupt Human Love

---

---

---

Seven Days of Shane: Day 6 - Haunted w/ Sinéad O'Connor

 

Yeah, I know it's not the original version with Cait, but I couldn't really pass up posting this one, as we lost both of them this year.  

---

---

---

Watch:

A few years ago, I read John Ajvide Lindqvist's novel Handling the Undead and really liked it. A very quiet, contemplative approach to the "living dead,"

As has become my custom, I'm posting this trailer here but not going to watch it . I want to go into this one not having the slightest idea what to expect from an adaptation.

---

---

---

Playlist:

Laura Cannell - Midwinter Processionals

The Pogues - Rum, Sodomy and the Lash

Opeth - Blackwater Park

Shane MacGowan and the Popes - The Snake

Opeth - Deliverance

---

---

---

Card:

Lots'a Disks. Let's see here...

• Six of Disks - Success

• Seven of Cups - Debauch

• Five of Disks - Worry

All the emotional fallout I've thus far been too busy to experience in having the connection to my childhood home severed at the age of 47 is about to come crashing down. My folks are out of the house in South Suburban Chicago and into the new one in Clarksville. There's still work to be done unpacking and arranging, but just being there all day yesterday unloading the last trailer of stuff or watching the movers bring in their furniture - furniture I've seen in the other house all my life - and set it up in foreign rooms was enough to create a sort of disorientation in me that feels a lot like what the Debauch card looks like. Not poison, but murky. Murky emotions that the Success of finally finishing this months-long project has kickstarted.

First world problems, but problems nonetheless.