Abby Sage just climbed a little bit higher in my esteem when I saw the thumbnail for this one. WTF? Hot on the heels of seeing Robert Morgan, this grabbed me. Sage's predilection for larger-than-life, terrifying dolls and her generally dour delivery add a spot of Thomas Ligotti to her unique brand of smoky pop that seems to have more in common with the quaalude lounge life of the late 60s/70s than any modern female singer beyond maybe Beth Gibbons.
I'm really loving seeing where Abby Sage's career has gone and look forward to seeing just how far it will go. I think far.
The Rot is the title track from Ms. Sage's debut album, which you can link to HERE.
Watch:
Despite the initial anticipation the trailer for Ryan Stevens Harris' Moon Garden created in me when it first dropped a little over a year ago, I totally forgot about this one. Imagine my excitement when I found out the film had finally dropped on Shudder earlier this week:
Reading over that post I made last February (linked in the text above), I am happy to see that all my initial expectations were not only met but totally blown away. Moon Garden is definitely a throwback to films like The Neverending Story and Labyrinth, but also an exciting visual amalgamation of a lot of fantasy ideas that really only get cross-bred in novels because of the less than 1:1 ratio that accompanies attempting to bring the dark, effervescent folds of the imagination into the visual form. Guess what? Somehow Harris does it; I feel like this is possibly the most "pure imagination translation" I've ever seen. It's just... so much, and all of it works together to create an experience that is both harrowing and life-affirming. Can't recommend this one enough.
Playlist:
John Carpenter - Lost Themes II
Witchfinder - Forgotten Mansion
Witchfinder - Hazy Rites
Blut Aus Nord - The Work Which Transforms God
Jim Williams - Possessor OST
Dean Hurley - The Library of the Occult: Flower
The Devil's Blood - The Thousandfold Epicentre
Justin Hamline - The House With Dead Leaves
Card:
A quick one-card pull for the weekend:
Six of Cups: Pleasure. Emotional Balance. I think this is something I've been having issues with, especially on the weekend. There are a lot of 'existential stressors' pressing in on me of late, no one's fault but my own mind. Still, that doesn't change the fact that they affect my weekends the most - the time when I have the most time to sit and think. A nice reminder then, to fill the well and keep the perspective balanced. Not easy to do in 2024, but it is possible if you actively manage the shit you're putting in your head.
Let's start Wednesday with some heavy slabs of pot-choked doom. The opening track from Witchfinder's 2022 album Forgotten Mansion. This one plods with a satisfying heft until it breaks out and starts to chase you, Clément's voice haunting the darkening skies behind you as you try to get away...
Love this f**king band.
NCBD:
Another week brings another NCBD. Let's get into this week's pull list:
Loving these Energon Universe books, and especially love seeing the evolution of Cobra from the ground up as a merger between Cobra Commander and his, eh, backers, and Destro's MARS, which has a considerably heavier hand in this from the beginning.
One more issue after this and Newburn concludes. Man, I do not think things are going to go well for almost anyone in the cast.
Jeff Lemire and Gabriel H. Walta's Phantom Road just gets weirder by the issue. Let's see where we go this month.
Another book I retained absolutely zero from after reading the first issue. I think my fascination with the X-Books that began near the end of Hickman's run is coming to an end. We'll always have the highlights of this era.
Garth Ennis and Jacen Burrows' The Ribbon Queen comes to an end. Thus far I only have half of these in my possession, but those are four of the bloodiest, most compelling Horror comics I've read in years. I won't have the remainder of the series in my hand until early April. Can't wait to read the entire series straight through from beginning to end.
Watch:
I only had to watch 17 seconds of this trailer to know I'm in:
In theatres May 3rd, from Writer/Director Jane Schoenbrun, whose previous film We're All Going to the World's Fair has been on my list for some time.
Wow. This ROCKS! Kind of splits the difference between the "Delivering the Goods" and "All Guns Blazing" eras. New album Invincible Shield out March 8th; pre-order HERE.
Watch:
When we drove into Nashville to catch TENET this past Saturday, I was overjoyed to see that Regal Opry Mills also had Stopmotion, a film I had no idea I would be able to see on the big screen. Last night, K and I drove back and watched Robert Morgan's GROTESQUE masterpiece Stopmotion!
K was not a fan, but I loved this one. The pacing is plodding and deliberate, much like the creations that slowly enact the terrible fate that eventually we grow to dread will fall upon our protagonist, so I'm pretty certain that's going to ostracize some folks; for me, it only added dread. I keep using that word, but I'm thinking that's possibly the best descriptor for this one, because it's filled with it.
Read:
Not so much read as stare in awe. I wasn't aware of this until this morning:
The painted packaging art from the old ARAH line is in my blood. The Joe, Transformers and, to a lesser degree, MOTU artwork was instrumental in my brain becoming what it is - whether that's good or bad remains open to debate. But I'd say some of the more spacey, cosmic images planted the seed as to why I can sit and listen to Blut Aus Nord's "Elevation," the final Memoria Vetusta II: Dialogue with the Stars and 'go someplace' far away inside my head. That's a bit of an oblique attempt at describing so abstract a concept, but there's something about this art that just burns as the purest fuel for my imagination.
This omnibus is a pretty good chunk of change, but watching this video, I'm blown away by the work the fine folks at 3D Joes did for it, so it's definitely worth the price tag. I'm not 100% certain I'm going to spend the money on this, simply because I'm trying to save at the moment. That said, HERE is the link to do so.
Playlist:
Marilyn Manson - We Are Chaos
Moderat - II
Moderat - III
High On Fire - Burning Down (pre-release single)
High On Fire - Electric Messiah
Pearl Jam - Dark Matter (pre-release single)
Pearl Jam - Vs.
High On Fire - Luminiferous
John Carpenter - Lost Themes II
Blut Aus Nord - Memoria Vetusta II: Dialogue with the Stars
Shadow Show - Fantasy Now
Fever Ray - Eponymous
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• Ace of Swords
• O: The Fool
• Queen of Cups
A breakthrough of Will is the impetus for a new journey into emotional canals neglected.
What's that, a poem? Hahaha. No, but it's an attempt at stream-of-consciousness interpretation I've fallen out of habit on. You see, I've come to rely on my various notes and texts concerning the Tarot so much, my brain draws blanks when faced with just cards. Trying to get that muscle back.
So what the hell does that mean? I think it's a reference to a friend who needs kindness and a journey into deeper friendship that looms on the horizon. Always help a brother - or sister - out when they are in need.
While you listen to the wonderful opening track from Erosion Cycle's 2015 Maladies - available on their Bandcamp HERE - follow the logic of how I re-discovered this artist I first connected with about a decade ago. It's a weird and winding road.
I began Sunday morning in a manner I try not to begin any morning; I picked up my phone. Sunday's go one of two ways: I either barely touch the damnable device all day and reach for a book instead, or I feel the need to read the latest Orbital Operations from Warren Ellis the moment I open my eyes. Yesterday proved a case of the latter. From that OO email, I redirected to Ellis' Ltd site (his daily notebook, which I often pick at during the week via the RSS reader Feedly). The article that caught my eye is titled "Cory Doctorow Blogging Style." One of the things I love about Warren Ellis, besides pretty much everything he writes, is how he serves as a hub for access to so many other writers. I share Mr. Ellis' fascination with hearing what writers have to say about their Process, and although I am familiar with Mr. Doctorow in name and reputation alone, a glimpse into his blogging style held a strong pull for me. Blogging continues to be a passion of mine, and in an age where it seems to have largely lapsed as a relevant cultural format, I find inspiration and solace in other people's versions of it. Especially someone as prolific as Cory Doctorow.
In familiarizing myself with Doctorow's Pluralistic, I began to lurk about, reading various thoughts and articles from the site's four-year history. That's when I hit on the "Enshittification" piece and, subsequently, THIS PIECE Electronic Frontier Foundation published as a five-part article on the cunning (and ruthless) manner in which social media companies basically capture an artist's followers and then ransom them back to them. I finally get it. For anyone else who feels as though their posts are the equivalent of hollering into a cyclone, here, then, is the answer.
When I used to add links to these daily posts on social media, at the very least I'd get some interaction from friends and followers. Then, for years FB began to classify any link to my blog as "inappropriate or harmful," based on, I finally deduced, the link to one of my previous musical project's names. This, as well as a growing general disdain, led me to all but stop using FB and eventually deactivate the page for a number of months. Later, when I re-engaged, the idea to link this Blogspot page to the URL www.shawncbaker.com solved the censoring problem. However, now I had next to no engagement for the posts whatsoever.
Zero engagement can be tough when you've previously enjoyed a livelier go. I write here for my own benefit primarily, however, those years of having others chime in on my thoughts/work had created a sometimes reciprocal relationship with interaction. It's the same with all the podcast projects I do - it's nice to know someone other than myself is listening.
So now I understand. I've known since the Muskrat took over the bird page and made it x that my posts were being squashed in order to persuade me to pay for that blue checkmark. Not doing that. Hell, I'd love to actually drop my account there altogether. That said, like FB, it is the only avenue of "direct" connection I have with some folks, so I keep it regardless of how my steeping resentment prompts me to avoid actually posting on it for large swathes of time.
Anyway, by the time I finished reading all those articles by Cory Doctorow, I A) felt physically gross from staring at my phone for so long, despite the intellectual gymnastics my choice of reading promoted, and B) I ended up falling down a rabbit hole and pruning my follows on x (yeah, I don't understand how staring at a largely vapid social media feed fed to me by an algorithm that devalues me at every turn could prompt more time spent on said platform, but that's an avenue of insidiousness perhaps best left deconstructed by someone who earns their dimes in a field of psychological study). It was while doing this that I stumbled across Erosion Cycle for the first time in literally probably ten years, and fell in love as soon as I hit "Play."
Watch:
TENET absolutely blew my mind.
I am SO happy I waited four years for a chance to have my inaugural viewing of this film (because there will be oh so many more) on an IMAX screen.
For comparison's sake, I'll say this: Christopher Nolan is the exact opposite of Nicolas Winding Refn. Refn makes beautiful images that he strings together with concepts so foul he basically dares you to continue watching. This is not a negative criticism, and also not exactly accurately applied to Refn's MO until he became a box office draw. Only God Forgives, Too Old to Die Young, Neon Demon - all of these followed the breakout success of Drive and all of them, in some way or another, attempt to punish the viewer's revelry for their imagery with themes, characters and situations that are psychologically grotesque. We see examples of this in but not limited to Martin's high school GF or, hell, episode five of TO2DY; Gordon's request near the beginning of Only God Forgives and Julian's relationship with his mother, or pretty much all of the themes in Neon Demon.
Christopher Nolan, on the other hand, takes such care and pride in his work as a cinematic creator, that he develops stories that require multiple viewings to fully grasp. If you make a beautiful movie that everyone understands outright, they may return to it from time to time, but not nearly as much as if you challenge the audience's intellect; in this way, Nolan creates a compulsion to return to his films to "figure them out." I was halfway through TENET and already planning my next viewing.
Brilliant.
Cast:
The new episode of The Horror Vision Presents: Elements of Horror is up on all podcast platforms and with a swanky video on youtube. Full-Spoiler discussion on Gerald Kargl's 1983 "Video Nasty" Angst. I've been putting more and more work into these, and that's definitely starting to pay off:
Also, the recent episode of Drinking with Comics - now an "only YouTube" show, where Mike Shinabargar and I talk in-depth about Robert Kirkman's Energon Universe, especially what he and Joshua Willamson are doing with GIJOE:
I had a lot of fun doing both of these, which is really what it's all about.
Playlist:
High on Fire - Electric Messiah
Justin Hamline - The House With Dead Leaves
Jim Williams - Possessor OST
Emilie Levienaise-Farrouch - Censor OST
The Devil's Blood - The Thousandfold Epicentre
The Bronx - (I)
Blut Aus Nord - Memoria Vetusta II: Dialogue with the Stars
Chelsea Wolfe - She Reaches Out to She Reaches Out to She
Amigo the Devil - Yours Until the War is Over
Stephen Sanchez - Angel Face
Ozzy Osbourne - No More Tears
John Carpenter - Lost Themes II
Erosion Cycle - Maladies
Amigo the Devil - Everything Is Fine
Jerry Cantrell - Brighten
Nobuhiko Morino - Verses OST
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• Page of Wands
• IX: The Hermit
• Six of Pentacles
Page of Wands, the Earth of Fire; Tempering the Will to Earthly Concerns. The Hermit is, in my experience, often an indication to regroup and lay low. Finally, the Six of Pentacles can indicate the Balance of those Earthly Concerns, so I'm reading this the same way I've been reading a lot of these of late - take a respite, regroup and save, then redirect my Will. Several "Earthly" concerns I could align this with, but I'm wondering if this is a direct response to something I've been thinking about just before breaking out the cards. The idea that I consulted them without consciously realizing that's what I was doing is a little too good to pass up.
Nick Vance from the excellent Cinematic Void Podcast has a debut EP out with Double Life. Indifferent Stars is a GORGEOUS slice of 90s-style sonic emotional rock, reminiscent of early Sugar, Embrace, and maybe even a little Sonic Youth. Click the Bandcamp widget above (or click HERE) to go support these guys and help let 'em know we need a full-length like now. Listening to this makes me feel SO fucking good!!!
Watch:
Boy Kills World has been on the very outskirts of my awareness for a while now. I've come to really like Bill Skarsgård, so that's a plus. On the opposite end of that is an easy association my brain plays with linking the title of the film to those "Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe" books, which I kind of roll my eyes at. So I didn't really think I'd care.
I stopped the trailer and put this on the "need to see list" when I heard the line about a televised execution... by breakfast cereal mascots??? Still not entirely sure this will be for me, but that definitely made me interested enough to go see it on or around when it hits theatres on April 26.
Chelsea Wolfe - She Reaches Out to She Reaches Out to She
Jim Williams - Possessor OST
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• Six of Cups
• Queen of Pentacles
• King of Wands
I feel like this is the most non-specific spread I've had with the Hand of Doom deck. That's not a knock in any direction on the cards - Jonathan Grimm's Heavy Metal/Acid Fantasy/Stoner illustrations bring great joy to my life, doubly so as the readings are the least ambiguous of any deck I've worked with. Here, we seem to have an indication that Emotional Balance comes with a passionate reclamation of the tactile. The King of Wands - or the "Air" of "Fire" suggests tempering the Will with the Intellect, always the best case scenario, will play a part in achieving this.
I don't really know what the hell this means, but I'll be mulling it over throughout the day.
Man, somehow I KNEW this was coming. I hadn't read anything about The Mysterines in a while, but I got the idea of a new album on the horizon in my head a week or two ago and have been checking that told me we were due. Out June 7th, you can pre-order Afraid of TomorrowHERE.
NCBD:
Pretty hefty NCBD this week. Let's get right into it:
I can't tell you how much I've been looking forward to Cobra Commander issue #2! Joshua Williamson and Robert Kirkman are taking a very different approach with the Joes in this whole Energon Universe take, and they've got me interested in a considerably more SciFi version of this franchise. I welcome it!
Still hanging in on the latest iteration of Larry Hama's GIJOE: A Real American Hero.
LOVED the first episode of this new Hellblazer series, let's hope that continues. I'm equally intrigued by and a bit concerned about seeing Swamp Thing show up already in the second issue. I feel like John and Alec have become a bit too codependent in recent years; just because we have one, doesn't mean we need the other. Still, I'm here for it, and look at that awesome cover!!!
No lie - going to have to reread the first issue of this "Ten years in the future" Rise of the Powers of X series before I dive into this. Whereas Fall of the House of X stuck, this did not.
The penultimate issue of Tenement. The previous issue blew my mind and I'm thinking Lemire and Sorrentino aren't done with the surprises yet.
Unnatural Order has proved to be a fantastic time-travel story thus far. There's an epic element to this one that promises big things.
What bizarre hijinx will Ash, Evil Ash and Sheila get up to in this issue? I'm really digging writer Tony Fleec's use of futuristic, robotic "Deadites"
Finally, tying directly into The One Hand series that launched this Neo-Noir universe, we have the first issue of Dan Watters and Sumit Kumar's The Six Fingers hitting shelves today. You can read how much I loved The One Hand and this concept in general HERE.
Watch:
Chock this up to the "Better late than never" category, but I just bought tickets to see Christoper Nolan's TENET on the big screen. IMax, no less.
I never saw TENET due to, well, COVID and not being able to see the film the way Christopher Nolan proclaimed it was made to be seen - on the biggest screen possible. But I waited patiently, avoiding the urge to watch this on HOBOMAX or Prime or where I saw the thumbnail, maintaining my aversion to the idea that my first viewing would be on a little screen. My patience has paid off! We have to drive to Nashville on Saturday for this one, but I have no doubt it will be worth it.
Playlist:
Justin Hamline - The House With Dead Leaves
IDLES - Joy As An Act Of Rebellion
IDLES - Tangk
Tar - Clincher
Matt Cameron - Gory Scorch Cretins
The Damned - Evil Spirits
Drug Church - Hygiene
Ganser - Odd Talk
Metallica - 72 Seasons
Chelsea Wolfe - She Reaches Out to She Reaches Out to She
