7 Days of Sabbath Day Day 3: Cornucopia Live 1973

Black Sabbath performing the criminally underrated "Cornucopia," one of my favorite tracks from 1972's Vol 4. 

This recording, which was apparently included in the Vol. 4 box set Rhino released a couple of years back, is fantastic! When I went looking for clean copies of this song live, I never dreamed this was out there. I guess I should have sprung for that box set!

Posted to YouTube by Marc Jacobs - go give this channel a browse and a follow. Lots of great stuff!!!

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I had the honor to once again sit in on the Dread Broadcast, this time for their July recap panel discussion.

This aired live last night from 7:00 PM CST until 9:30 PM, but it's up in perpetuity and totally worth your time. So many great films and books covered, and we kicked it off with special guest Writer/Director/Actor Chris Riggi, whose new film Abduct blew both K and I away when we watched it this past Wednesday night.

This one has such a unique tone! Abduct is not a comedy, but it's funny in the way that a film about a group of friends undergoing an extremely messed-up situation can be funny. It's also not afraid to get a little mean and a lot Weird. This is currently a $2.99 rental on Prime and available for free on something called Fawesome. Either way, HIGHLY recommended. 

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Read:

A little bit of personal historical data. 

The first time I saw Ozzy Osbourne live was August 23, 1992. I would have been 16 years old. This was the "No More Tours" tour. Goddamn, do I wish I still had the concert t-shirt I picked up!

Edit this setlist | More Ozzy Osbourne setlists

Personally, I definitely could have done with more of the heavier No More Tears tracks, but the two they chose are favorites, so it's an even trade, as this would have also been the first time I ever heard any Sabbath songs performed live. I remember this show in a very vague way: I remember the World Music Theatre (now called something else) and the way the seats were, the lawn, the metal chicks who were, to my sixteen-year-old eyes, ravishing. I remember Ozzy and excitment of seeing him on stage, but I don't really remember the performance overall. Seeing this set list (thank the stars for Setlist.com. I mean, really), it all seems like a remember it, but I can't be sure I'm not just remembering the decades of knowing what Ozzy does live and grafting it atop the memory. Either way, Glad I went to this, which would have, I think, been my third concert ever.

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Playlist:

Black Sabbath - Sabotage

Black Pyramid - The Paths of Time are Vast

Comic Tropes - Marvel Cancelled FF Out of Spite

Deftones - Ohms

Windhand - Eternal Return

Black Sabbath Live Paris 1970

Goblin - 2013 Tour EP

Ennio Morricone - The Thing OST

Escape Driver - No Fate

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Card:

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

• Queen of Cups

• Two of Wands

• XVI: The Tower

Deep emotional connection and a union of Wills lead to a paradigm shift. Hmm... 

When I turned 49 in March, I made the statement that for my upcoming 50th year, I want to finally make the short film I've been talking about for the last few years. K is on board - she's Magick with a camera - and I have some rough ideas, but I've had a hard time knowing where to start. I think the cards here are telling me that I should perhaps consult more with her, and figure out a game plan together, as opposed to keeping it in my mind to just bring her in as camera. Props to Chris Riggi for, I think, indiretly planting this idea in my head. 

7 Days of Sabbath! Day 2: Black Sabbath Full Live Set, Paris 1970

I originally set out looking for a video of "Lord of This World" from the 70s, but only found video of Sabbath performing it during their reunion tour in 1997/98. This, however... wow. The band was still four working-class guys from Birmingham, touring to support their first two albums. 

Note the alternate vocals on "Hand of Doom" and "War Pigs," or the (insanely out of tune) instrumental intro to Black Sabbath during which we get a close-up on Tony Iommi's finger extensions he had designed so he could play after having the tips of two fingers cut off in the machine press where he worked prior to the band's success.

Years ago, I had a VHS titled something like "The Black Sabbath Story" that combined interviews with live footage spanning the group's Ozzy era. This particular concert supplied the War Pigs that video presented, and the band's no-frills vintage from this performance always stayed with me because most of what you see live from Sabbath footage is post-Master of Reality, when the band had become huge and Ozzy's fringe was growing longer and longer. Mr. Brown, Sonny and I always theorized that the more cocaine Ozzy used for the performance, the longer the fringe. 

There's something insanely intimate and special about this footage. I'm assuming it was released at some point, but I've never seen it (need to look). 

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7 Days of Sabbath! Day 1: Hole in the Sky Live 1975

The opening track from, in my opinion, the best album Black Sabbath ever recorded. Not only does all the music knock it out of the park, but Sabotage is easily the best collection of lyrics the band ever produced, highlights being "Meglomania," "Thrill Of It All" and "The Writ" (on an album where nearly every song has deep, introspective and philosophical lyrics, most of which were written by Geezer Butler).

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NCBD:

Cannot wait for this issue. You'll Do Bad Things is proving to be a bizarre, Slasher/Giallo tribute that has me questioning everything I've seen in its pages so far. Look at that cover! 

WTFPFH?'s current solicitations end with this issue, so I'm not sure where we are in the story. Also, because of the recent gap, I just feel lost again. I'll probably wait to start a re-read until I know when this is returning again. I did, however, sign up for Matthew Rosenberg's free Substack newsletter HERE just to see if I can get any updates. Looking at his page, it seems like all the focus is on a book I totally missed called, We're Taking Everyone Down With Us. I love Rosenberg's writing, but with how WTFPFH? has languished for so long, not sure I'm down with jumping on anything new from him yet.

Garth Ennis and Becky Cloonan? Goddamn right I'm picking this up. I'm so happy to see Boom! still doing so well. Not sure how many issues this is going to run, but I'm in just based on the creators alone. I can't remember the last title I read that Ms. Cloonan drew. 

Mike Shinabarger and I covered News From the Fallout issue one on Drinking with Comics a few weeks ago, and both of us quite liked it. Looking forward to issue 2. Jeffrey Alan Love's art really makes an impression and seems ideally suited to the story.

The more I hear about Mark Spears' Monsters, the more I realize this is a career-making book for Mr. Spears. I think that's awesome. I also think the book is slowly getting better, uncoiling into something I don't think any of us can anticipate. Spears is drawing from such a broad swathe of comic book character iconography - Universal Monsters, Spy Stories, Grindhouse, and now... Superheroes?

I'm still holding onto Lazarus Fallen issue #1 as I finish a rather large spate of current readings and prepare to deep-dive the original two series, Lazarus and Lazarus Risen, again. I can't believe this book is back and coming out monthly like clockwork! Not a knock on the creators; I've just gone without for so long. And talk about a timely return. A not-so-distant future where wealth is politics? Sound familiar?

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Last night, K and I saw Michael Shanks' debut film Together, where real-life couple Dave Franco and Alison Brie play a married couple going through issues who encounter an alien substance that begins to fuse them into a single form.

This one is getting A LOT of traction, and it's well deserved. I love that Body Horror has become something of a household word post-The Substance, and Together will likely continue that. And while I'm not the biggest fan of the two leads, both do a fantastic job, as does Damon Harriman, who most will know as Dewey Crow from Justified. 

I can't wait to see what Michael Shanks does next!

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Playlist:

Faetooth - Hole (pre-release single)

Ozzy Osbourne - Blizzard of Ozz

Ghost - Meliora

Faetooth - Remnants of the Vessel

Shellac - At Action Park

Type O Negative - Life Is Killing Me

Windhand - Eternal Return

Liars - Drum's Not Dead

Black Pyramid - The Paths of Time are Vast

Ozzy Osbourne - The Ultimate Sin

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Card:

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

• Page of Wands

• Eight of Pentacles

• XV: The Devil

Baggage. All the fiery energy of the Knight of Wands, but held back by over-analysis or indecision. Concentration can help. However, it's often difficult to know how to begin that, as concentration is itself a product of Will. 

All this seems to shore up this idea I have in my head that I need to take a reboot day and really dig in and clean up a bunch of the unfinished shit in my head to make room for a new concetration generator.

New Music From Faetooth!!!

Tomorrow I'm starting 7 Days of Sabbath, but in the interim, I wanted to get this awesome new track by L.A.'s Faetooth a little push. This band landed on my radar with their 2022 album Remnants. This new track precedes their upcoming second album, Labyrinthine, out September 5th on The Flenser record label. Pre-order HERE.

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I had my second theatrical viewing of Ari Aster's Eddington last night. There is almost no doubt this will be the movie of the year. I can scarcely believe the sophisticated levels of layering in this film. There are levels of insight into the human animal, human society and human ignorance in this film that I'll be unpacking for years. 

Eddington is a Western, a Horror movie, and on a very subtle level, a comedy made for people who see humanity the way I do - pessimistically. Ari Aster also crafts one hell of a shoot-out sequence, and has the subtle audacity to pepper it with Looney Tunes-esque visual gags that, if you catch them, will blow your mind. So many disparate elements synthesized into a perfect whole.

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7 Days of Ozzy Day 7: Tonight

 

The PERFECT 80s Hard Rock "slow" song. Not a ballad, but moody and great lyrics; a case where the kind of broad-stroke 80s hard rock platitudes pay off in dividends. 

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Holy shit! Jason's back!!

 

I don't understand what the "Short-Form Vignette" description means in terms of where, exactly, this is premiering on Friday, August 13, but I'm cautiously optimistic. Will this be on YouTube? Peacock? Angry Orchard.com?

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Playlist:

Ozzy Osbourne - Patient No. 9

Ozzy Osbourne - Bark at the Moon

Faith No More - Angel Dust

Flying Lotus - You're Dead

Ozzy Osbourne - Blizzard of Ozz

Ozzy Osbourne - No More Tears

Judas Priest - Stained Class

Judas Priest - Screaming for Vengeance

Drug Church - Prude

Sinéad O'Connor - The Lion and the Cobra

The Dillinger Escape Plan - One of Us is the Killer

Perturbator - Lustful Sacraments

Perturbator - New Model 

King Woman - Doubt EP

King Woman - Bury (single)

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Card:

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

• Knight of Wands 

• O: The Fool

• King of Wands

Started rebuilding my writing routine last night. This is a conscious act of Will that, essentially, is a brand new journey, as all my positive inertia is long gone, and I will have to overcome the entropy of neglect. 

7 Days of Ozzy Day 6: I Don't Want to Change the World

The second track on 1991's No More Tears, the album that solidified me as a fan when it came out, and that was so good it actually hindered my acceptance of its follow-up, 1995's Ozmosis. 

The guitars on this record are so goddamn gorgeous. I really feel like producers Duane Baron and John Purdell, who had not worked with Ozzy previously, took the sonic direction begun on 1988's No Rest for the Wicked and perfected it, and nowhere is that more evident than when this track starts. 

Also, Lemmy's songwriting is all over this record, and I feel like it really helped elevate the lyrics, which might be the best of Ozzy's solo career.

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7 Days of Ozzy Day 5: I Don't Know Live TV Performance, 1981

The first Ozzy Osbourne album that I spent any substantial time getting to know was 1987's Tribute to Randy Rhoads, so even though this live album came out well after the first, Jet Records era of Ozzy's solo career, that is the era that initially defined Ozzy as a solo artist for me. And believe it or not, Sabbath came later.

There's something magical about the Ozzy/Randy albums. I'd offer my suggestion that 1981's Diary of a Madman is a far superior effort than 1980's Blizzard of Ozz, but that's not to put Blizzard down. It's fantastic, and opening track, "I Don't Know," while not really having much to say, is a banger. Cool seeing it performed here, live, even if this 1981 performance on live tv in Rochester, NY is one of the more sedate Ozzy performances I've seen. Hangovers all around would be my guess. 

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