2018: February 1st, 6:31 AM

Last night I absolutely killed the penultimate scene in my current writing project. It felt great. Today - if I have a chance - I'll move into the climax. This is all still just first pass, rough draft but it's still major progress. Once I write the climax and finale, I'll go back and add in a few chapters that I've come up with to flesh certain characters or ideas out - stuff I didn't know we were going to need until construction of the ongoing continuity revealed their necessity to me. One is probably a scene with Truby's "Half-man", although we intend to turn that on its ear a bit. After that I'll run everything through Grammarly, then tidy up and send it to Keller, who will read and add concepts/scenes/edits accordingly. Our deadline is in April - Thursday the 12th to be exact. Which is serendipitous indeed...

Started my musical day with Track #3 on Swans' 2016 release The Glowing Man. This is the title track and it's just fantastic. There's a real sense that Michael Gira's sound lodge has been influenced by the doors on this one, and after all the spacey effulgence that comprises the roughly the first half of the track, listen for the sheer awesomeness that Gira and company pull out at around the 15 minute mark. Mmmm-mmm!



Playlist for yesterday looks like this:

Zen Guerilla - Positronic Raygun
Nevermen - Eponymous
Faith No More - Angel Dust
Glass Animals - How to be a Human Being
Tuneyards - I Can Feel You Creep into my Private Life
Zen Guerilla - Positron Raygun
The Horrors - Primary Colours
Deafheaven - Sunbather
ttt (Crosses) Eponymous

Card of the day is The Priestess:

"The Will (Womb) that takes the Magus' spark (seed) and gives it form."

Can denote change/fluctuation; governed by gracious or pure influences.

The active difference between this and the preceding card in the deck's Major Arcana, The Magus, is that the Magus generates their own power, the Priestess taps into the power of the Universe.

Note the grid - I liken the difference outlined in that last sentence as the difference between so-called High Magick and Chaos Magick, the school I have always identified the most with. Chaos Magick is hacking the operating system or grid of reality. And there's that grid...

Looking forward to Sonny's Joup Friday Album tomorrow. In the meantime, I'll be posting the second installment of my "Drinking, Fighting, F*&king, and Crying later today. This week's song topic? Fighting.

2018: January 31st 5:02 AM

I woke up with an 'old' MIA song in my head so I thought I'd lead with it here:



Since the week began I have felt unusually sleep deprived and thus, I have not gotten much writing done. Interestingly enough though, the sleep-starved brain may not work very well at hammering out the actual interconenctive tissue of Prose itself, yet it seems remarkably capable in figuring out the foundation work underneath the Prose. Yesterday, I once again overcame a 'big picture' problem just by thinking about it. I know that sounds a bit obvious, but it's not; previously I've always written my way into structure. It feels like an ENORMOUS accomplishment to be hashing major plot points beforehand. I've never been too much on outlining but this is a bit different and doesn't make the actual writing process feel stodgy once I dig into it.

Playlist yesterday looks something like this:

Zen Guerilla - Positronic Raygun
The Casket Lottery - Real Fear
The Soft Moon - Zeroes
Curtis Harding - Face Your Fear
Tuneyards - I Can Feel You Creep Into My Private Life
Real Estate - Days
Glass Animals - How To Be a Human Being
Zen Guerilla - Trance States in Tongues

And yeah, I'm really digging The Casket Lottery. They're playing in Irvine at Chain Reaction on a Friday sometime in the spring and I'm almost definitely going to go. Oh! Also, I scored tickets to see Preoccupations at The Echo in May. Very excited about that.

Card of the day:

Again? Okay, that could be a good thing.

I had not realized Tuneyards third record had been released - I thought I read March originally - and as soon as I caught wind of it I added it in Apple Music and dug in. Once again they blow my mind. Merrill and company's sophomore release Nikki Nack claimed my number one album of the year in 2014 and after one listen I can already tell that is not outside the realm of possibility for I Can Feel You Creep Into My Private Life. Great title, too.

Track 6, Colonizer is my favorite track on the new album (thus far) but I can't find a good version to embed here so I'll go with the video they've released for album opener Heart Attack:

2018: January 30th 6:26 AM

I once again began the day in silent contemplation of my current writing project and I am happy to say, after a vexing and truncated writing session last night I smashed my problems this morning. Used the Olympus - let's call her Diane from now on, for obvious reasons - to record it all and now I'll transcribe it, let it stew for a few hours and try and map it on lunch. To reward myself I spent the later half of my commute listening to my two favorite tracks off Zen Guerilla's Positronic Raygun album from 1997, the second because I always lust for this track when Spring kicks in, and in truly baffling Southern California fashion, it's spring ladies and gentlemen. The first because I wanted something to zone out to in order to pull my thoughts out of the 'writing soup' they'd been in:





To get the full effect of Frequency Out you really need to do Healing in the Water, 2000 Watts over the South Side and then Frequency Out, but I figured two tracks as an intro here was already a bit cumbersome. The entire album is online and I can't recommend it or Zen Guerrilla in general enough;  these guys were one of the best live bands I've ever seen - and I've seen a lot of bands live. Miss these guys. Miss the people Healing in the Water reminds me of, too. That's a different post though, one that I may have already put on here somewhere in the murky aeythers of the past.


Card of the day:

I've got nothing on this card in my Thoth Grimoire and I'm thinking now maybe that's why I have money but no gain - I don't know it, I haven't spent the time getting to know what it is to truly Gain. Or maybe that's a little new age. Not sure. More coffee please.

Yesterday's playlist looks like this:

The Knife - Shaking the Habitual
Teenage Wrist - Chrome Neon Jesus (just the three pre-release tracks currently available)
Teenage Wrist - Dazed EP
The Casket Lottery - Real Fear
Viet Cong - Eponymous
Sleigh Bells - Kid Kruschev
Ministry - Animositisomina
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - Wrong Creatures
Deafheaven - Sunbather

A little Roxy Music off their debut in there somewhere too.

Teenage Wrist is a band my good friend Jacob told me about. They are Incredible:



The Casket Lottery are an Los Angeles band the sound guy at The Love Song bar told me about last week - I added their album Real Fear that night so I wouldn't forget it but didn't have a chance to listen to it until yesterday. They are also fantastic and not at all what I expected based on the context of the conversation they were originally brought up in and what the name/cover image might suggest. Let's all say thank you for artists still willing to defy expectations.

2018: January 29th 6:40 AM

Started the day with some quiet drive time wherein I may have worked out a problem prohibiting another writing project I'm partially engaged with at the moment. Had that by the halfway point so I decided to reward myself with a little TV On the Radio:



In the interests of refining this journal as I go, I'm going to add and subtract things as I see fit. First thing I'm adding?

Tarot of the day.

The theme for this year is shaping up to be a daily one: daily words, daily playlists, and now daily card. Today's card is the Emperor. Note: I only use one deck and it's Crowley and Lady Freida Harris's Thoth.

Here's what I have in my homemade Tarot Grimoire - which is not nearly complete or even extensive at this point, more on that in a minute:

The Rules that Govern All Life. 

- Action, Decisiveness and High Energy.

- Engage obstacles/enemies

- Strength

Honestly that already feels like today, at least the action and high energy part.

It's been almost 3 years since I engaged with my deck, which I've had for close to 15. I wax and wane with activity in Tarot and Magick in general (although there is a part of me that chooses to see the way in have made writing an institution in my life as my own personal vow of Ipsissimis) and in that time I've probably done 2 pulls; this is all due to the fallout in 2015 of extended Magickal Practice surrounding Grant Morrison and Chris Burnham's Nameless comic, the annotations/research for which I did is still live on Joup. I don't think I ever put don't the experience I had in words, but maybe I'll do that soon. Needless to say it was a harbinger for the 'dark night of the soul' that 2015 was for me.

Playlist yesterday was non-existent; I started the day with that Eno and from there the only music I listened to was some Emily Kinney stuff K played in her car as we ran errands. Other than that the day disappeared in quiet chunks scored only by the sound of my Love's voice and the snarky complaints from our cat. We did watch Adaptation and it was just as good as I remembered it.

2018: January 28th 9:59 AM

"Juanita and Juan, very clever with maracas, making their fortunes selling secondhand tobaccos. Juan dances at Chicos and when the client's are evicted, he empties the ashtrays and pockets all that he's collected."



Beginning my musical day with Brian Eno's Here Come the Warm Jets. It feels like a warm blanket after the night we had. Surprise party for Keller went off without a hitch. Drinks were consumed - a lot of drinks. There was plenty of Sierra Nevada and Guinness going around, as well as a bottle of Basil Hayden - which is, thus far, the bourbon that has made me rethink Bourbon, which I normally turn my nose up to. And a bottle of Port Dundas, which was fantastic. Because of the party, the playlist was alllll over the place, but a snapshot of the entire day looks something like this:

Converse - The Dusk in Us
Revolting Cocks - Big Sexy Land
Algiers - The Underside of Power
Au Pairs - Sense and Sensuality
David Bowie - Diamond Dogs
Grimes - Art Angels
Black Francis - Bluefinger

Moved into the writing portion of my night, a brainstorm session with Keller to iron out some big picture problems with the structure of our story. Switched sonic gears to Reznor and Ross's OST for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. From there I segued into Sleigh Bells - Treatment, the opening track of which we're using as a soundtrack to a scene in our story we refer to as, "The Sleigh Bells Massacre".



No, its not a Christmas story.

The timing was impeccable - K showed up right as the song went nuts and charged through the door with many of our friends behind her. Keller was stunned. From there, all musical bets were off. I can tell you we indulged in some John Spencer Blues Explosion, Def Leppard, The Knife, Was (Not Was), Morris Day and The Time, Prince, then bafflingly I see New Edition and Bell Biv Devoe on my "recently played".

Huh. Never underestimate the nostalgic power of whiskey + friends.

Going to go to breakfast and then lick my wounds. Planning on watching Spike Jonze and Charlie Kaufman's Adaptation today, which I just received from Amazon and haven't seen since the theatrical run. I'll never forget walking out of that Orland Park cinema with Brown in 2002 and saying, "Well, I've never said it before and I'll probably never say it again, but Nicholas Cage deserved TWO fucking Oscars for that one."



Of course Cage didn't get it. We'll see how bad the oscars fuck it up this year - I usually just scoff at their sad attempts to 'reward' artistic merit, which I do not believe has anything to do with the oscar's agenda at all. This year the Golden Globes - an awards institution I normally pay less attention to than the oscars - really felt like they hit it on the nose, so I'll probably be more apt to talk about that show when in need of an industry awards reference, if ever.

2018: January 27th 9:51 AM

Started the day in silence as I drove to work on a relatively clean 405. As I've become increasingly intent on becoming a better writer I find starting the morning with my thoughts is a very good thing. Lots of ideas come to me in the morning, always have, and it's a good thing to let them flow. I work a lot of 'big picture' problems out this way, and I keep my handy dandy Olympus VN-722 PC Digital Voice Recorder in my car so I can always click it on and capture everything completely; one thing I've learned as I've aged is no matter how great an idea is, it will often slip away and disappear completely if I don't nab it on the spot.

Starting my musical day with Converge, as I'm still buzzing off the show on Thursday:



Didn't have a lot of time to make progress with Han King's The Vegetarian this week, but I'm eeking along; the perspective shift at about page 50 was interesting and adds a whole new angle to whatever the hell is happening. I'm enjoying this very much.

Reading-wise I did make some progress in catching up with all the comics I'm behind on, chief among them Kevin Eastman's ongoing relaunch of TMNT. I can't say enough good things about this series, it's still the best re-launch I've ever seen. I grew up in the mid-to-late 80s as a fan of the original Eastman and Laird B&W series, before the Turtles became marketed at children, a tactic I've never begrudged, as the creators have always been good about keeping at least one title on the shelves to appeal to us old school fans: there was the Erik Larsen B&W series in the 90s that continued the original series, then the Peter Laird series in the early 00s, and now this Eastman-driven one that started circa 2012 and has brilliantly brought in elements of every iteration of the Turtles and found a way to do all of it without alienating any aspect of the fanbase. The long form storytelling makes me smile to no end, and when I finished the double-sized final chapter of "The Trial of Krang" the other night I was once again in awe of how excellent this series is.

Yesterday's playlist was once again a bit diluted, as I started work later than normal to accommodate for the late night after the concert. I wasn't totally keeping track of what I was listening to, but I'll try to pull from memory:

Converge - The Dusk in Us

Fiona Apple - Tidal

Drab Majesty - Careless

Swans - Glowing Man (Disc 1)

David Bowie - Black Tie White Noise

This last album was also the subject of my Joup Friday Album yesterday, filling in for Sonny who takes up the reigns next week.

Speaking of Joup, I launched my new, weekly column this past Thursday: Drinking, Fighting, F*&king and Crying - check it out, this week's is Drinking, next week's is Fighting and so on. You get the picture.

2018: January 26th 9:19 AM (by way of 11:37 PM)

Converge at The Regent - awesome band, awesome show. Here's a break-down of my night in Downtown LA - still the filthiest city I've ever seen in my life:

-Drive to Hollywood after work and meet up at Keller's place

-One last Americano before the show to help buoy my up-since-four-AM-arse

-Drive to DTLA, stare aghast at the post-apocalyptic landscape - as Keller mused, "It's an abandoned city"

-Walk three blocks to The Regent. The Regent is owned by Spaceland, who now own/book the Regent and the two places on either side of it, Prufrock Pizza and The Love Song Bar. We had some pizzas and a pitcher of Stone IPA at Prufrock, then further avoided waiting in the massive entry line by walking over to the Love Song Bar, where they had Abita Amber on tap (Not my favorite Amber but I needed a break from the IPA mouth) and were spinning The Kinks on vinyl over the sound system. Halfway through the first pint local LA band Spain began a set of some of the most wonderfully jazz-tinted indie rock I've heard in years. We stayed for three songs and then...

-Go into The Regent just in time to see Sumac's set (we missed Cult Leader). Sumac is Aaron Turner's (formerly of Isis) new band. They are outstanding. Converge went on at 11:00 and KILLED it. No video up from last night's show yet, so here's them doing my favorite song on The Dusk in Us live a few months ago:



All in all a fantastic night that we rounded down with a few beers at a wannabe dive back in Hollywood.

Aside from the live experience, yesterday's playlist looked something like this:

Jimmy Hendrix and the Experience - Axis Bold As Love
Thin Lizzy - Fighting
Converge - Caring and Killing
Converge - The Dusk in Us
Roxy Music - Eponymous
Swans - The Glowing Man (disc 2)

Here's a trailer for a movie I really want to see. Thank the Universe for Larry Fessenden and Glass Eye Pix: