Jesus. Friday, just in the nick O' time, eh? Here's a little Tom Vek to wake us up:
I've been having trouble sleeping, and when I wake up I feel - as I do now - as though my spirit was too far away from my body. Discombobulation. Whatever the case, it's making everything in my AM a chore. Also, waking up stupid has made me repeatedly unable to get my shit together long enough to do a pull with my beloved Thoth deck. That means I've been relying on my pocket-sized back-up deck, The Hanson-Roberts, more heavily than I would like. Nothing inherently wrong with the H-R deck, I just very much prefer the esoteric elegance of Lady Freida Harris' art over the H-R's, which is so 'classic tarot' that it's hard to hate but also a bit trite, if you ask me.
Playlist from 6/21:
David Bowie - Reality
Van Halen - Eponymous (Not the singles)
Tom Vek - Luck
Savages - Silence Yourself
The Rolling Stones - Let it Bleed
Revocation - Teratogenesis EP
Wrong - Feel Great
Perturbator - Dangerous Days
Card of the day:
Wealth, as in a comfortable surplus of Earthly attributes. Also, the implication that we have directed our energies positively in order to get here. Sounds like a good omen to me as I crest into writing the final chapter of the T12 book.
There is a melancholic air to this song that absolutely floors me. I love it SO much. Corniglia is a band that I happened across on LA's music treasure, KXLU, one morning on the drive to work, and in the two or three weeks since I just cannot stop listening to them. The album, self-titled, is easily in my top of the year. One of the things I like so much about this is, in some strange way, it reminds me of the vibe I had in my head in the early 2000s - a kind of delicious airiness that translated to a gray hopelessness as I graduated College: the future loomed before me, I buried a friend, and I felt more alone than ever. The new Drinking, Fighting, F*&king, and Crying is up HEREand while it would seem to glorify a somewhat frightening moment in my life, it actually very much illustrates the loneliness I felt at that time. 2001-2002 was dark, and although I had an awesome band (The Yellow House) and awesome friends (particularly at that time Brown, Tim, Sonny, Grez, Dennis and Dave), I was somewhat adrift on a mindset so bleak that it spurred me into frequent drug use and several bouts of totally vapid sex, both very much unlike me. And some how, I hear elements of that hear.
I'm digressing, or maybe I'm not.
My point is that music is the same as all art in that, to modify a famous saying, the beholder gets out of it what they put in. That is to say, there is often baggage you bring with you when hearing a new band, new song, new album, and that baggage - snippets of color or image associations, emotions, whatever form it takes - shapes how you hear that music and, ultimately, what it will mean to you. What's even more interesting is your interpretation could be light years away from what was happening in the artist's head at the time - it doesn't matter. Having also made music and talked to people who got something out of it that I had never anticipated or intended, I can tell you that just the idea that something you made could have such a multi-textural effect on another soul is rewarding beyond description. So, while Corniglia may not have intended the melancholy associations I ascribe to their sound, I'm sure they won't mind if there music drives me to stay awake long past when I should have my head down, trying to capture in words something they have made me feel with their song.
Playlist from Odin's Day, 6/20/18:
Danzig 6: Satan's Child
David Bowie - Hunky Dory
David Bowie - Scary Monsters (and Super Freaks)
David Bowie - Reality
Nothing - Downward Years to Come
Various Artists - Reservoir Dogs OST
Corniglia - Eponymous
Card O' the day:
The Lovers again, and how it currently applies to my life is still escaping me. I need to make time to look further into this. Perhaps I will ask Missi.
I've been listening to the Lost Highway OST a lot again lately - it's never far from my ears - and I realized I don't think I've ever posted this track here blog before. Apple of Sodom, as well as Manson's cover of I Put A Spell On You, were the tracks that made me a fan of his. Previous to that, I actually disliked him quite a bit. The problem was, in the mid-90s when he first got huge, depending on what interview you caught with Manson, he might come off like a complete tool. Those were the interviews I saw initially, including one at Woodstock '94, which was right around the time Jeffrey Dahmer was killed in prison. During an interview with Empty-V, Riki Rachtman asked Manson if he felt sadness at Dahmer's passing and Manson went on some asinine diatribe about how a he felt a little piece of him had indeed died with the imprisoned serial killer. Now of course, I realize that Manson was probably fucking with the moronic VJ, while at the same time playing up the stupid image much of his fanbase at the time ascribed to him (the guy singing about worshipping no one but yourself liked to fuck with those who worshipped him). Whatever the motivation, as an early encounter with his persona, I rejected it. It wasn't until the Lost Highway OST that Manson's music music begin to seduce me, and dovetailing with that, a friend lent me his Autobiography, which fully revealed just how smart this guy was. Finally, a rebuttal Manson penned in Rolling Stone magazine post-Columbine, after being blamed as a catalyst for the event, was so well written and thought provoking, I plunged headfirst into his music. I really can only lay the 'genius' tag on two MM records - Antichrist Superstar and Mechanical Animals, but the man is an icon and a really good motivator for self empowerment if you listen to the lyrics. A couple of years ago I recall finding a lot of strength in Superstar while my life was imploding around me and the person I had trusted the most repeatedly stabbed me in the back. I remember her commenting on me listening to Superstar a lot at the time, as if she felt threatened by it. She was right to feel threatened - it helped me stay afloat in one of the most tumultuous times of my life.
Playlist from 6/19:
Danzig 1
Belong - Common Era
Nothing - Zero Day (single)
Nothing - Downward Years to Come
Christopher Young - Hellraiser OST
Marilyn Manson - Antichrist Superstar
Fuck Buttons - Tarot Sport
Various Artists - Lost Highway OST
Watched Evil Dead (2013) for about the fifth time last night, as K had never seen it. SO fucking good. Please Mr. Alvarez, make that sequel!!!
Playlist from 6/18:
Chasms - On the Legs of Love Purified
Wrong - Fee Great
Cocksure - TVMALSV
Beach House - 7
Nothing - Zero Day (single)
Them are Us Too -
Perturbator - The Uncanny Valley
Card today:
The Emotional Aspect of Air. Wielding the Will with emotional maturity. Knowing when to back off and when to be assertive.
Just realized that Season 5 of Orphan Black hit Prime - finally get to finish one of the best series I've seen.
Playlist from 6/17:
Fuck Buttons - Tarot Sport
Venue - Desireena
Guns and Roses - Appetite for Destruction
Cocksure - KKEP
Nothing - Guilty of Everything
Secret Chiefs 3 - Traditionalists -Le Mani DestreRecise Degli Ultimi Uomini
Card of the day:
Union. Duality. Harmony within. Uniting opposites or complimentary aspects. I'm not entirely sure how any of this applies to me currently; what I've listed is very surface reading, so I could dig a lot deeper. Not on a Monday, though.
I know I'm late to the game on this one, as I think Bad Witch came out over a month ago. I still dig NIN, but I haven't really been in a hurry to hear anything they've put out in a while. This is by far the most interesting track to me since Year Zero. I guess I'll finally be listening to the whole EP today.
Went into Hollywood and had a great creator meeting with Keller on T12 and our next project, which he's been outlining. I realized I've written an entire novel in just over six months. What's more, I actually did two passes on the first half. And this iteration is nearing completion. So in a week or two I had him the full T12 novel, he hands me the outline for HSL and we switch places for a while. I turn out half of HSL, he edits T12, then we swap again. T12 will definitely be finished by at least October if not earlier, and HSL will be halfway done by then. From that point he begins the third of our first batch, and we move into 2019, by the end of which we have three completed novels, the release schedule hopefully looking something like this:
October 2018 - T12 (these are all working titles, as I'd guess you would have assumed)
First quarter 2019 - HSL
Third quarter 2019 - #3
In between, I'm hoping to have a novel and another anthology. But this is all pretty ambitious, I'll admit. Still, if I get half of this done - which I will - I'll be happy.
Playlist from June 15th:
Chris Connelly - Phenobarb Bambalam
Andre Previn & London Symphony Orchestra - Samuel Barber: Adagio, Violin Concerto
David Bowie - Diamond Dogs
Run DMC - Raising Hell
Beastie Boys - Paul's Boutique (side 2)
Gang Starr - Code of the Streets (single)
The Atlas Moth - An Ache for the Distance
Dee-Lite- Sampladelic Relics & Dancefloor Oddities
Deafheaven - New Bermuda
Card for the day:
From the Grimoire: "Can indicate missing/failing to achieve a goal." - So, ah, should I take that as a direct comment on the diatribe up top?
I recently dug out my disc copy of Phenobarb Bambalam, one of the earlier Chris Connelly solo albums. I'd forgotten how great this album is; Night of Your Life still holds such sway with me that it's often difficult to see past it.
I took my first day off writing yesterday for as long as I can remember back. It's no longer a matter of counting the days of my streak. Now I simply write everyday.
Playlist from yesterday:
Les Claypool - Of Whale and Woe
Andre Previn & London Symphonic Orchestra - Samuel Barber: Adagio, Violin Concerto
David Lynch & John Neff - Bluebob
Lustmord - Songs of Gods and Demons
Various Artists - Trainspotting OST
Two passages of note from the Grimoire:
"Life is about to get easier and brighter," and, "Create unto and within yourself a Universe, shaped of your strengths and built on your accomplishments as a foundation." - See my above observation about writing everyday. No wonder I pull this card so much. Also, no wonder it's my favorite.
