2018: March 24th, 12:16 PM

Well, yesterday's blog came and went - it's down right now but I'll re-post it with the correct time-stamp in a bit. Had a weird problem with HTML I had to figure out, which basically meant re-writing the entire thing. And as usual, what do we re-learn from re-writing? Everything always benefits from a re-write.

Lots of stuff to do to get the new place in order but it's my birthday and I'm going to try to enjoy it. Going to see Annihilation in a few hours, going to walk to the Comic Bug (yeah, we can do that now!), and then probably and evening of chill. I'm fighting the urge to throw a lot of stuff I own away, and I'm also trying to figure out how to arrange the entertainment center in the house; may have to purchase separate speakers for the U-Turn record player. Not loving that idea, as the last thing I want right now is more things, but if I can't get some room-volume music that's not coming out of a portable bluetooth speaker soon, I may loose my mind.

First world problems, eh?

Nothing in my head upon waking but the lingering strains of last night's beer, so here's what I'm listening to as I write this:

Playlist from yesterday was virtually non-existent. Actually, it may have been completely non-existent. Wow, a day with no music. That's f*&ked up.

UPDATED: I was incorrect on the 'no music' from the 23rd - we woke up to the last morning in the old pad with The Cure, Collector's Curiosities, Vol.#1, particularly for Carnage Visors.

Card for the day:

The journey continues...

2018: March 23rd, 4:34 PM

It’d been quite some time since I’d jammed the Singles OST. For an album that was a staple of my earlier life, Singles has essentially sat dormant on my shelf for years. Last night however, after spending another commute home with The Verve’s A Storm In Heaven as a soundtrack to unexpected Southern California rain, Singles caught my eye in the newly stocked CD wallet that now inhabits my car. The thought of traveling back to that sonic space rooted in ‘grunge’ seemed just what the doctor ordered.

And it was.

Later, driving to the new pad to sign the lease and take possession of the keys, the rain-slicked streets of Redondo Beach and balmy beach air* felt welcoming in the same way San Pedro now feels dismal. After the formalities, I drove over to my favorite beer store - now five minutes by car - and picked up some celebratory beverages: a twelve of Sierra Nevada in bottles and a six of Three Weavers’ Seafarer Kolsch. Windows down and Singles once again cranked, Eddie Vedder’s voice sounded like pure rocket fuel for a future where maybe all this highfalutin ‘re-contextualization’ might pay-off with some of the disparate or abandoned elements of my personality coming together into something stronger and more productive. It felt good.

Now, today, we’re almost finished moving. Keller and Kenta are irreplaceable in their fervor at moving my shit from the location they know to the one we will all acclimate to together. Tonight we dine and unwind in the new crib. 

Playlist from yesterday:

The Verve - Storm in Heaven
Interpol - Turn on the Bright Lights
Mastodon - Once More Round the Sun
Interpol - El Pintor
Converge - The Dusk in Us
Singles - OST

Card of the day:

Makes sense - I feel as though I am definitely on the right path. 

2018: March 22nd 4:35 AM

Woke up with this firmly entrenched in my head. Great song:



Two nights ago I watched the newest Hellraiser movie, Hellraiser: Judgement. I'm a huge fan of the first two films, and maybe a fan of number three, although it's not been since Hell on Earth was first released to video (while I was in high school!) that I've seen it and, in spite of liking it then, I've grown suspicious of it due to the fact that Part 3 is essentially where dimension films began to try and shoehorn Pinhead into being another Freddy-sized horror icon in a cookie cutter franchise series. Maybe cookie cutter isn't the correct term, but all I know is there are not too many instances where Hellraisers 4-8 are spoken of nicely, if at all. Judgement, however, was good despite its ostentatious nature, particularly in The 55 Ludovico Place sequences, which are gorgeous but suffer from a certain one-upmanship to its grotesqueries. You can almost hear the writer's process during these sequences, something along the lines of, "Oh, what if then the blood the Surgeon unleashes... um... gets sprayed from industrial piping built into the table and... soaks down the demon chicks' naked tits? Yeah! Holy shit! That's gnarly!" I mean, I loved the sequences in question, bloody naked breasts and all, but there's a certain contrivance that goes along with both the presentation and my appreciation. Regardless, in spite of this and a slightly tired biblical serial killer storyline with a predictable twist (for my $$ Se7en opened and shut the door on this concept), I really liked Hellraiser: Judgement.



Playlist from yesterday:

Flying Lotus - Cosmogramma
Screaming Females - All At Once
Ghost - Infestissumam
Windhand - Grief's Infernal Flower
The Verve - E.P.
Touche Amore - Eponymous
Antlers - Familiars
Boards of Canada - Music Has the Right to Children
Boards of Canada - In a Beautiful Place Out in the Country

Card for the day:

"Incredible energy to physical matters." Yep. That's moving. I've worked non-stop since Monday, coming home after work and physical grinding out the packing, cleaning, condensing, purging. Hard work pays off tonight when we sign the lease, pick up the keys and finish final preparations for the move tomorrow!

2018: March 21st 4:44 AM

So, a clarification I need to make from yesterday's post. I'm not intending to half-ass anything here, but there's no wifi connection in the office at work right now, it's crazy busy beside, and now even the personal hotspot connection when piggy-backing off my phone just doesn't hold up. I'm wondering if someone painted the office with lead over night?

I inadvertently listed the first item on yesterday's detailing of the 19th's playlist as "Introduction to Stereoscopic Sound". That's close, but it doesn't really tell you what the hell this is. This is what that is:

A record I picked up in a thrift probably 10 or 11 years ago, I had a bunch of these 'demo' vinyls until the recent purge. Now I just have two, and this is one of those that I kept. It's gorgeous, sonically and visually, simply because it is such a holdover from a different era. These were records labels like Columbia released to demonstrate the new art of Stereo - imagine! Something we take 100% for granted! Very cool, and sounds a little something like this, with a track listing that includes Tchaikovsky, Bartok,Gershwin and Duke Ellington!



Playlist from 3/20:

Led Zeppelin - Presence
Screaming Females - All At Once
Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin I
The Veils - Total Depravity
Alice Donut - Three Sisters
Blur - Eponymous
The Fixx - Reach the Beach
Black Sabbath - Sabotage

Card for the day:

From the grimoire, "Can be a dirt, focused woman or period of female-inspired energy. Confident in what she wants and forthright in acquiring it. Unceasing energy and determination, but this can lead to not knowing when to stop for the love of the battle."

Hmm...

2018: March 20th 8:56 AM

Let's start with some Zeppelin, shall we?





Attacked the house yesterday. Those who know it wouldn't recognize it. So much to do before Friday, but considerably less thanks to the hangover from hell keeping me out of work yesterday.


Playlist from yesterday:

Introduction to Stereophonic Sound
Urge Overkill - Saturation
King Woman - Created in the Image of Suffering
Charles Bradley - Changes
Led Zeppelin - Presence

Finished American Horror Story Roanoke last night. You know why it's the best season of AHS yet? Because it's only ten episodes! The one thing that always drags the show down a bit for me is the last few episodes where I always find myself asking, "Why is this still on?". Roanoke's narrative device of adopting reality TV formatting is, of course, an aesthetic problem for me, as I hate and have seen very little reality tv, yet the way they use it I can excuse the form and not hold it against the show. I really thought it was brilliant, especially because they didn't get too many plates spinning. Best and most concise season. And Kathy Bates was phenomenally terrifying, but Susan Berger ... just her statuary appearance in episode 8 left me with nightmare chills. Kudos.

No card today either, because I'm at work and there's just no time.

Almost forgot 3/18's Playlist

Which consisted of this record over and over again all day and all night. No bullshit.

2018: March 19th 4:10 PM

Well, I missed yesterday completely. Yeah, that St. Paddy's/moving out party was a mother fucker. Before I get into that, let's get into a tune for you to read by. I'm still really loving on Saturation; I haven't played it this much probably since it came out:



I didn't actually go to sleep Saturday night until Sunday morning, once for about two hours from 10AM to 12PM - woke up and had breakfast with those who had remained behind to sleep on the couch/floor/spare room (it was really that kind of party. Like we're fucking 20 or something... yeesh). Last breakfast at the Omelette and Waffle House for a while, although I will definitely be driving back to Pedro to eat there again. Still my favorite breakfast place ever. And I ended it how I began there, back the first time I walked through its doors and looked at its menu - Pineapple, Avocado and Sour Cream omelette. The rub was, I couldn't eat the damn thing. My stomach was a roiling sea of chaos and the cacophony of the breakfast crowd slammed through my ears and rattled my head until I nearly lost my mind. We returned home, friends departed and I lay in bed all day and all night, getting up to vomit occasionally, then curling back up and laying fetal in the dark, waiting for nausea to pass me by like some stalking predator in the dark. It was horrible, but not incredibly so. Really, I had anticipated it once I claimed the last third of the bottle of Bushmills as mine and carried it around the party like a glass iPhone.

Playlist from the Saturday, 3/17 was divided between work and the party, which flew well out of control at some point, so I'm probably not getting it all here:

Led Zeppelin - Presence
Fear - Live for the Record
David Bowie - Diamond Dogs
Monolord - Vaenir

The Pogues - Red Roses for Me
The Pogues - Rum, Sodomy and the Lash
The Pogues - If I Should Fall From Grace With God
Flogging Molly - Drunken Lullabies
Floggy Molly - Float
Urge Overkill - Saturation

No card yesterday, no card today. I'll get back to that tomorrow. For now, I had to call out from work today and since crawling from bed I've been prepping for the move on Friday.

Oh! My good friend and co-conspirator on the now-underway 3-issue The Legend of Parish Fenn comic book, Jonathan Grimm, sent me a birthday present that arrived today. Four of his absolutely legendary prints, a Phantasm, an Alien, Alien vs. Predator, and Pumpkinhead. SO good. Check out his art HERE. Prints are a fucking STEAL at $10 a pop.