After an unexpected trip to Chicago for a funeral this past weekend, I've been so slammed at work I've barely had a chance to think of posting here. I couldn't miss closing Bowie Week 2026 with one of my favorite tracks from 1977's collaboration with Brian Eno, Low. Of the three albums in Bowie and Eno's "Berlin Trilogy," I'm pretty sure this one is my favorite.
Ten years since he left us, and the world has done nothing but disintegrate.
From 1995's Outside. Or rather, this is a remix of the song on Outside. A remix that leans heavily into 90s electronica and really makes it work. I mean, I prefer the album version, but this is definitely a cut above what a lot of other established artists were doing to keep up with 'the new sound' at the time.
Also, is that Pet Shop Boys' singer, Neil Tennant, singing on this track?
Watch:
Last Thursday, I saw Johannes Roberts' latest film, Primate. Can't recommend it enough, but it's not for the faint of heart, that's for sure. The Horror Vision did a spoiler-free review:
We're only two weeks into the year and I already have one film I feel pretty strongly about as far as a "Best of 2026." Always a good sign.
Playlist:
Double Life - Indifferent Stars
Helmet - Aftertaste
Coleman Hawkins - Wrapped Tight
Tamir Hendelman - I Saw Three Ships (single)
David Bowie - Heroes
Chicago Underground Quartet - Good Days (For Lee Anne; single)
Carepenter Brut - Leather Temple (single)
Johnny Griffin - The Cat
David Bowie - Reality Live
Card:
Setting aside Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot 9which you can buy HERE) to work with Thoth for today's card.
Control desires. Or maybe, don't control them? I think one of the things I've taken away from this card over the years is a juxtaposition with Chaos Magick's edict not to let the lust of result hamper the chances of achieving what you want. This is pertinent in everything, although I didn't have anything specific in mind at the time I drew, so I'll be reflecting on this card all day today.
As the years have gone on, 1995's Outsidehas become one of my favorite albums, period, Bowie or not. Raiding the David Bowie YouTube channel over the last few days, I've found some gold.
Thanks to the Mr. Screaming YouTube channel for adding this and a metric shit ton of awesome Bowie stuff. Definitely check out his channel HERE if you dig this.
Watch:
This is how you market a Horror movie!
A24's Undertone already has some praise, but personally, I don't want to know anything else about this one until I have my arse in a seat at the theatre.
From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• XIII: Death
• XVIII: The Moon
• Two of Wands
Sacrifices made in the full knowledge of the desire. Two is stronger than one.
Cryptic, but I think I get it. Not discussing it "out loud" at this time, but I think this pertains to a creative project I want to do this year. I think I need to declare it.
I thought I'd try and do a little something different this year and post some non-music videos for David Bowie week. Here's legendary Producer and David's long-time collaborator Tony Visconti talking about the making of Blackstar.
This coming Saturday, January 10th, marks the tenth anniversary of David Bowie's passing. I usually begin 7 Days of Bowie on the anniversary, but this year, I'd like to start it a little early. So here we go. We miss you, Starman!
It struck me again the other day just what a weird, awesome cover this one is. From his 1973 album Aladdin Sane,
NCBD:
2026 is starting out light. Not a complaint, that's for sure! I've been trimming back my pull list at Rick's, trying to stick with essentials. There will always be new books that catch my eye, and I'll almost always give them a try, as that's how I often find my favorite books (see the Drinking with Comics "Best of" for 2024 and 2025, where last-minute chances end up near the top of my year-end list). At the same time, I tend to overbuy, and I'm becoming increasingly neurotic when it comes to space. I have a short box and a half of stuff I want to get rid of but am not 100% sure the best way to do so, and I've spent several recent nights just sitting in my office/nerd dungeon* reflecting on how to improve use of the space for all my 'things.'
First world problems, fo sho.
Here are this week's books:
The first issue of Batman/Green Arrow/The Question: Arcadia eithersuffered from a skosh of awkward story compression, or I'm just missing a lot of assumed historical knowledge, being that I have zero experience with two of the three characters here. Still, this harkens back to the late 80s prestige-format DC books, so I'm hanging in.
Not sure if this is the end of the second arc or the entire series. I'm pretty sure there must still be at least one more mini-series to go. Either way, Stokoe's art continues to blow me away on every page.
I'm still fighting a zeitgeist urge to get into this Absolute Batman. It's been pretty easy to avoid the regular series because the one issue I've read was not great. That said, there are some pretty interesting things going on in this "Universe," so I've been cherry picking a few titles.
Watch:
I only needed to make it 38 seconds into this trailer to know I was in. You can only watch it on youtube, but here's a poster and the embed should take you directly there:
Kirill Sokolov's They Will Kill You looks fantastic! I am absolutely psyched for this one, which comes out three days after my 50th birthday! Woo-hoo!!
Playlist:
Mountain Realm - Stoneharrow
Mountain Realm - Frostfall
David Bowie - Low
David Bowie - Aladdin Sane
Ghost - Impera
David Bowie - The Man Who Sold the World
Kildren - December (single)
Double Life - Indifferent Stars
The Jesus Lizard - I'm Tired of Being Your Mother (single)
The Jesus Lizard - Down
Helmet - Aftertaste
Spoon - Girls Can Tell
Spoon - Kill the Moonlight
Self - Niceness (single)
Self - Porno, Mint & Grime
Metallica - Ride the Lightning
Denison/Kimball Trio - Plays the Music of Walls in the City
The Besnard Lakes - ....Are the Ghost Nation
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• Knight of Swords
• Seven of Pentacles
• Three of Pentacles
The Creative Will often needs to stagnate in order to prosper.
That definitely fits. Yesterday was the first writing session I had in a week; whenever I blow a weekend without a creative outlet, it feels gross, and now that's kind of morphed into a long, slog of 'blah.' Up late writing this on Monday night, I don't feel like doing much of anything: writing, watching, nothing but listening to David Bowie. That's the only agenda I had that kept me from turning in. So I'm listening to The Man Who Sold the World for the first time in a couple years and writing this and I'm not really sure what I'll do when I reach the end of this sentence.
