This one hurts. I'm starting Seven Days of Steve today, but don't have anything else to say.
Thursday, May 9, 2024
Wednesday, May 8, 2024
The Mysterines - Sink
Out June 7th, you can pre-order the new album Afraid of Tomorrow HERE.
NCBD:
Another fantastic Wednesday means comics! Comics! COMICS! Let's get into this week's pull:
Watch:
Over on Francis Ford Coppola's YouTube channel, the filmmaker released a "First Look" and official synopsis of his upcoming Megalopolis.
The clip reveals nothing story-wise. That said, the elements of composition at play on the screen are gorgeous. Also of note is the score, as credited to Osvaldo Golijov, who appears to be fairly new to a project of this size. What we hear sounds awesome!
We've been hearing about this for years; if you double-click the video above and read the summary in the description field on YouTube, this sounds like an 84-year-old master bestowing his most ambitious project on the world.
Playlist:
Alice in Chains - Facelift
Windhand - Eponymous
Turquoise Moon - The Sunset City
Calexico - Even Sure Things Fall Through
Trombone Shorty - For True
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• Three of Cups
• Six of Wands
• V: The Hierophant
In a nutshell, Threes points to Growth and Sixes to Support. The Hierophant often implies "something more;" read that as the Divine if you like; I see it more as Occult, or hidden, influences, similar to XVIII: The Moon. I'm looking at everything right now as pertaining to a stressful situation with work, and in that regard, there's more of a balm here than I would have anticipated.
Monday, May 6, 2024
Black Pyramid - Bile, Blame and Blasphemy
A YouTube rabbit hole last night led me to discover Black Pyramid's music. The new album Paths of Time are Vast drops this Friday; this one is a fantastic entry into the Stoner/Doom set. You can pre-order the gorgeous vinyl edition over at Totem Cat Records HERE. I got mine!
Watch:
Over the last three days, I've seen two flicks in the theatre. Both were fun as hell for totally different reasons. First up, The Fall Guy!
I grew up a big fan of the Lee Majors' tv show in the 80s, so I was interested right off the bat. Throw in Gosling and Blunt, and the fact that this was directed by Stunt Man David Leitch sealed the deal. Very fun flick! A little weird in the pacing, but I was never not entertained.
Next up, Boy Kills World.
This flick is NUTS! Reminded me a bit of the same energy in Guns Akimbo, so if you dug that one, definitely check this one out. The action sequences are all pretty insane, but the final battle is one of the best-choreographed fights I've ever laid eyes on.
Playlist:
Jim Williams - Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched OST
Jim Williams - Possessor OST
Greenhaus - The Unmistakeable Sound of Sloth
Black Pyramid - Paths of Time are Vast
Stone Rebel - Interstellar
Witchfinder - Forgotten Mansion
Windhand - Eponymous
All You Need is Lankum
As I reference below, my days have been filled with elemtns of Folklore of late, and one of the musical accompaniments for this is Dublin's band Lankum. One of the things about Paul Duane's All You Need Is Death that struck me during the screening at last year's Beyondfest was the score by composer Ian Lynch. Last week when Invada Records put the score up for pre-order (HERE), it led me to discover Lynch's band Lankum. I've been listening to their most recent album False Lankum ever since. A feast for the ears, you can listen to and purchase the record directly from the band over on their Bandcamp HERE. Really cool stuff, perfect for the thunderstorms we've had on an almost nightly basis of late.
Watch:
Over on The Horror Vision, we had the chance to interview Writer/Director Paul Duane last week. Mr. Duane's latest film, All You Need is Death was one of the highlights of 2023's Beyondfest, and after re-watching it now that it's available on VOD, we were all very excited to pick his brain about the film, Folk Horror, Documentaries, you name it.
Mr. Duane is a gracious man, and his film a marvel that will no doubt stand at or near the best of the year when I compile my list in December. Very much looking forward to seeing what else he does, as he teases a bit of what he's working on in the episode.
Read:
We recorded a new episode of The Horror Vision Presents: Sticks & Stones, our Folk Horror sub-show that had been dormant after two episodes Ray and I did in early 2022. Folk Horror is a huge topic, and had proved difficult for us to get a handle on after the veritable explosion of new films in the sub-genre back late 2021/2022. The purpose of this episode, then, was to use two films at the opposite ends of the Folk Horror spectrum to define what Folk Horror is to us and how we would cover it going forward. One of the two films we chose was Djordje Kadijevic's Leptirica, AKA The She-Butterfly.
After watching this film for what was my third time, I found myself interested in reading the story upon which it is based, Milovan Gilsic's After Ninety Years. There is a fairly recently published translated version by James Lyon available on Kindle for a pawltry $4.99, so I went ahead and ordered it.
Playlist:
High on Fire - De Vermis Mysteriis
Gary Moore - Still Got the Blues
Black Sabbath - Eponymous
Black Sabbath - Master of Reality
Robot God - Portal Within
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard - PetroDragonic Apocalypse
Opeth - My Arms Your Hearse
Motörhead - 1916
Black Sky Giant - The Red Chariot
Mountain Realm - Frostfall
Lankum - False Lankum
Sunn O))) - Domkirke
Godflesh - Purge
John Carpenter - Lost Themes IV
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• Knight of Swords
• Ten of Wands
• Ten of Cups
Earthly matter abound, distractions from more intellectual pursuits should be minimized until such time as I can clear some bandwidth for them.
Thursday, May 2, 2024
Brigitte Calls Me Baby - Eddie My Love
Man, what a fabulous music video.
From This House is Made of Corners, available HERE.
Watch:
X-Men '97 has been the biggest shock of the year for me, and this week's episode RIPPED!
More and more, I'm seeing this cartoon as a very suitable replacement for the current X-Books. I might not have Krakoa, but I have a new continuity based on ones I previously know, with enough surprise story architecture to really keep me guessing. Also, this show has some teeth! Was not what I was expecting from a cartoon on Disney + but then again, as I'll talk about in a moment, maybe Disney has come around on embracing more mature content again (remember The Black Hole?).
NCBD Addendum:
Garth Ennis and Jacen Burrows on Get Fury?
Get Fury is a sequel of sorts to Ennis' Fury series as well as his Punisher: Born, Punisher: The Platoon. It opens in 1971 during the Vietnam War. Colonel Nick Fury has been captured by the North Vietnamese. The U.S. Army's solution to making sure he isn't successfully interrogated? Send Captain Frank Castle on a Black Op to assassinate Fury. Sounds right in Garth Ennis's wheelhouse, no?
I honestly didn't think we'd ever get another Garth Ennis Fury series like the MAX one from the turn of the century. I'd heard a story from someone inside the industry that basically puts the reason George Clooney turned down an early role as Fury as his reading that Max series. With the recently announced "Red Band" Werewolf by Night series coming in August, are we back to Marvel embracing a similar approach as they did with Max? Certainly, Disney has seemed to relinquish all concerns about cross-pollinating R-Rated material with their family-friendly aesthetic - when I sign in to Disney + now, I see everything on Hulu right alongside all the Disney stuff. So obviously, they've made the decision we all knew they would and embraced Marketing over brand optics.
As Hunter would say, "Works for me."
Get Fury is a 3-issue mini-series; the first issue hit shelves yesterday.
Playlist:
Ian Lynch - All You Need Is Death OST
Jim Williams - Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched OST
High on Fire - De Vermis Mysteriis
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard - PetroDragonic Apocalypse
Wach - Quae Infra Volo Videre (pre-release single)
Oranssi Pazuzu - Live at Roadburn 2017
Card:
Checking in with Missi's Raven Deck for the first time in a while this morning. Just looking for one card to summarize the day:
I'm choosing to interpret this as straight beauty and good vibes. A bit hippy-dippy, but I'm in a "broad strokes" mood.
Wednesday, May 1, 2024
NIB for NCBD before FCBD
'Nuff said.
NCBD:
I've spent a bunch of time tightening up my Pull list for the coming months, and I'm happy to say I'm all right jumping off so many titles. The books that really move me these days are Kirkman's Energon Universe titles, anything Brubaker and Phillips or Lemire and Sorrentino do, and a few titles beyond. There's always the chance I'll find something interesting on the wall at the shop, or that my erstwhile AMHL cohost Chris might shoot me a message about something I'd missed altogether, but for the most part, I'm feeling a distance from monthly comics again, and that's fine. Here's this week's Pull, complete with two FCBD editions that won't be available until Saturday.
Watch:
Paul Duane's All You Need Is Death just hit VOD and, of course, I rented it and watched it twice over the last few days.
After the screening at last year's Beyondfest - hosted at the Los Feliz 3 theatre - this film left a deep impression on me and I'd harbored an itch to return to it again ever since. I can tell you the film is even more gratifying in its ambiguity; there's so much here, such a deep dive into a subculture that both does and doesn't really exist, that I kind of feel like I'm uncovering something that shouldn't be seen while watching this one. Also, Ian Lynch's score is OUTSTANDING.
Playlist:
Black Sabbath - Eponymous
Robot God - Portal Within
Gary Moore - Still Got the Blues
The Damned - Night of the Living Damned
White Zombie - Astro-Creep 2000
Jim Williams - Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched OST
Alice in Chains - Eponymous
Lankum - False Lankum
Ian Lynch - All You Need Is Death OST
Card:
For this first day of May, I felt a pull back to an older deck, and picked up my beloved Thoth for the first time in a while (this one gets more difficult to satisfactorily photograph every day, as the cards are worn and bent with use and love):
• Ace of Cups
• Three of Disks: Work
• Nine of Cups: Happiness
I also felt the urge to break out Crowley's definitive text on the deck, The Book of the Thoth and do some actual reading for today's interpretation.
One of the interpretations of the Minor Arcana or "pip" cards I've strayed from in recent years is how they relate to the Sephirotic Tree of Life. The sephiroth are something I consider when I really dig in, but I'm realizing I've strayed in keeping them as part of the mental mechanisms I utilize to "Divine on the Go," a terrible turn of phrase, but an accurate one, as I'm usually busy and in a time-crunch when it comes to these daily pulls. Thumbing through The Book of Thoth and landing on the Three of Disks first, I'm immediately reminded of Binah's association with the 'Threes." Binah, the great mother, strengthened here by Mars, we see the transmutation of water to a solid strong enough to support a three-sided structure.
Take that with the Ace of Cups, which is instantly an "Emotional Breakthrough" signifier for me, always has been, almost to a fault. Going deeper with the book, however, I'm reminded this Cup is the counterpart to the Ace of Wands: the first represents the feminine aspect of the sexes, the second the male. The Ace of Cups also relates strongly to the Moon, and the idea of hidden energies formulating new realities.
Round all that out with the Nine of Cups, which would be the Yesod of the Sephiroth. Nine is also the number of the Moon, so we have a lot of Moon here. Checking my Moon tracker, I see we are in the Third Corner of Waning; this moon is 23 days old. I'm stepping off on a huge tangent, but I find that funny, that my inclination to pick up not just Crowley's deck but his treatise on it, as 23 is possibly the most famous number ascribed to the mid-twentieth century Magician-cum-Charlatan.
The Nine of Cups also forecasts culmination and success—Crowley uses the word "perfection," but I will not—so my interpretation centers around the idea that this spread is a way of assuring me that inner tensions that begin at the office and meander through my household are on their way to a more stable status quo. That's kind of a little from a lot, but distilling this stuff down is the job.
Tuesday, April 30, 2024
Saigon Blue Rain - Visions
When I posted that Ships in the Night track last week, I fell down a rabbit hole that led me to the band Saigon Blue Rain. Instant infatuation. Their 2023 album Oko would have been on my top ten of the year list if I had heard it in 2023. Regardless, I'm really digging the music this two-piece makes. You can check out and support Saigon Blue Rain on their Bandcamp HERE.
Watch:
Last Friday, K and I got to see Ridley Scott's original Alien on the big screen for the first time. It was magnificent.
I've seen James Cameron's Aliens considerably more times than I have Scott's Alien; both are fantastic films, but Aliens was the first of the series I remember seeing, and that initial viewing - somewhere around the time it came out on VHS circa... 1987? - blew me away. I'll never forget sitting in our living room watching it on a Saturday afternoon with my Dad, both of us held taut by the absolute non-stop thrill of the film. Alien is, of course, not the same kind of movie. Alien is quiet, slow-burning and eerie. As a special introduction to this 45th-anniversary theatrical run, the film began with a sit-down conversation between Fede Alvarez and Ridley Scott. During their conversation, Scott mentions how he'd never been interested in Science Fiction until he saw Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey several years before and how that film was such an influence on Alien. I never really thought about that before, but watching the film with that in mind last Friday, I'd say the entire First Act is Scott's version of 2001. It was all about creating the illusion of Space Habitation and Travel, and the technology that goes with that.
Read:
Sunday I finished Ivy Tholen's Tastes Like Candy 2: Sugarless. FANtastic book! I've said it here before, Ms. Tholen's prose is so inherently readable, her books almost read effortlessly.
Next up: just like last year, I'm jumping directly from Ivy Tholen to Stephen Graham Jones. I'm raring to dig into the third and final Indian Lake book, The Angel of Indian Lake; however, first, I'm going to re-read last year's Don't Fear the Reaper to really set the stage for the finale to Jade/Jennifer Daniels' story.
Playlist:
Fever Ray - Radical Romantics
Metallica - 72 Seasons
Metallica - ... And Justice For All
Mannequin Pussy - I Got Heaven
Various - 4.28.24 Spotify Playlist*
Frankie and the Witch Fingers - Data Doom
The Beta Band - The Three E.P.'s
Bexley - Eponymous
Mazzy Star - So Tonight That I Might See
* made to shuffle
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• Nine of Wands
• VI: The Lovers
• Six of Swords
A lot of climax and support, with VI there to indicate a harmonization of opposites - or perceived opposites. This feels like more heartening news concerning my recent anxieties, which remain vague due to the public nature of this forum and the... watchful eyes that abound out in the world today.
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