2018: September 27th

File that one in the #currentlyspinning category; I have it up loud in my office and people who walk by look a little creeped out. Good. It's almost October - the perfect chance to be creeped out!

Super excited to be going to see Jonas Åkerlund's new film Lords of Chaos on the big screen tonight at my favorite theatre ever, The Egyptian in Hollywood (There's no trailer - not sure why, but I find that kind of cool). Having just read the book a few months ago, this is perfect timing!

This is the first of several Beyondfest screenings I'll be attending this year, so that only adds to my fervor. I love Beyondfest. So much so, I used it in one of my stories. Sort of. If anyone out there has read A Collection of Desires: 7 Tales of Modern Horror, the first story in the book - Scare Me - is set partially at the Egyptian, and the screening Apple and Lucas are attending is in many ways based on my first experience at Beyondfest - three years ago now if my math is correct - where my friend Missi and I saw an amazing double feature of Evil Dead 35mm and Evil Dead 2, with an interview set in between where Edgar Wright interviewed Bruce Campbell and surprise guest Sam Raimi. Before the show, representatives from Shudder worked the crowd, trying to get people to sign up for the just-launched horror streaming service. I used all that - tweaked it for my nefarious tale of course -  as well as much of the surrounding Hollywood neighborhood - one of my stomping grounds for years now - as a setting for the story. It's one that I am very proud of.

Playlist from yesterday:

Bauhaus - In the Flat Field

Perturbator - New Model

Perturbator - Terror 404

Waveshaper - Station Nova

Windhand - Grief's Infernal Flower

Sunn O))) - 

Brand New - Daisy

Waxwork Records - House of Waxwork Issue #1 OST

Zombi - Shape Shift

Card of the day:

Reading about this card again after not seeing it in a while, I feel this is a harbinger for me. I've been physically hurting for a while, with various issues resurfacing just in time to slow me down. The yoga isn't doing a hell of a lot, but it's doing something. However, while none of my setbacks are serious enough to cause alarm, they do add up to an exhausting daily toll. The Empress seems to suggest I need to nurture myself a bit more, and in a period of withdrawal I should be able to reclaim my health.

2018: September 26th

I messed this up and should have posted this yesterday, as September 25, 1980 is the day John Bonham passed away. 38 years... wow.

A week or two ago, the new Grady Hendrix book came out. Author of My Best Friend's Exorcism, Paperbacks from Hell, and Horrorstör, this guy has become a recent favorite of mine. Looking forward to this new one. Why?

Right up my alley. That said, I still have a lot of books to tackle before the year is over. My list of "To-Read" goes a little something like this:

Neil Gaimen - The Graveyard Book
Robert Payne Cabeen - Cold Cuts
Dead Reckoning - Dino Parenti
David Lynch - Room to Dream
Gemma Files - Experimental Film

That's not all of them, but it's the ones I really want to read before the end of the year.

Playlist from 9/25:
Bauhaus - In the Flat Field
Jóhann Jóhannsson - Mandy OST
Boy Harsher - Country Girl EP
Mad Love - White With Foam
Briqueville - II
Godflesh - Post Self

Card of the day:

As often as it appears in my daily pulls, I'm going to have to dig deeper on this card. I'm not getting a 'journey' vibe, literally or figuratively for today, so let's look at the Grimoire:

"Everything within. No external or obscured (The Moon) influences. Trust you gut. Materiality can point to eccentricity or folly."

Hmm. The materiality bit rings a bit true to some of my deep-rooted neuroses about money; I tend to buy to much stuff. Or this may be a resolution to a certain fatigue that has haunted me of late, making it more difficult than usual to walk down to my local coffeehouse and write (I drove yesterday, but only just convinced myself to go).

2018: September 25th - Cold Showers

Cold Showers is a band I discovered a few years ago via KXLU. They fell off my radar shortly after, but I've rediscovered them recently. Matter of Choice is a solid album that lines right up with Drab Majesty's sound, a modern example of that wonderful spot where Post Punk and New Wave meet.

NCBD - this week, nothing I have in my pull comes out, so my intention is to catch up on the newest Marvel Venom series.

Yep. A Marvel series.

A few weeks ago when my friend John was out visiting, we stopped in the comic shop. John is a huge comics fan, and I tend to get more excited about comics in general when I'm around him, so I ended up looking at a lot of the stuff I normally ignore, i.e. the Big 2 section at the Comic Bug. I'm not about to go see the Venom movie, but I have a soft spot for the character, especially after Rick Remender's brilliant run on the book back circa 2012-2013. A lot of this newest series - which predictably puts Eddie Brock back in the Symbiote suit to coincide with the movie - feels heavily inspired by Remender's run. The art by Ryan Stegman is gorgeous, and both it and the character designs pick right up on where I left off with the characters, especially Jack O'Lantern, a D-lister Mr. Remender permanently endeared me to. I've only read two issues, but it's kind of insane, with the Symbiote speaking in an alien language (is this the first time we've heard its native tongue?), and prophesizing that its race's 'god' is coming.

Playlist from September 24th:

White Lung - Eponymous
White Lung - Sorry
Drab Majesty - Careless
Cold Showers - Matter of Choice
Motley Crue - Shout at the Devil
Sunn O))) - Kanon
Bauhaus - In the Flat Field

Card of the day:

From the Grimoire: "Denotes a situation to know yourself, what you want, and throw your self doubt and fear away." This may be telling me to rethink submitting Please Believe Me.

2018: September 24th

'cuz I'm kinda obsessed with this man's brain at the moment. And because Mr. Cosmatos highlights an album his movie Mandy has had me wanting to dust off:



Playlist yesterday was a single album:

Ennio Morricone - Black Belly of the Tarantula OST

No card today - I'll get my shit back together again tomorrow.

2018: September 23rd - New Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats!!!

Jesus. I'm going to go broke with all the new music on the horizon. Good problem to have, eh? The new album is called Wasteland and there is not a pre-order up yet that I could find.

Drove 35 miles both ways out to Santa Ana to see Mandy on the big screen again. The Frida Theatre is the only place anywhere even remotely close by - if at all - still playing it nightly, 10:00 PM shows until the 27th. So worth it!

Going to see Rebel Without A Cause today, thanks to AMC and the TMC's monthly movie. This is such an amazing program, and it's available at almost all AMCs and I think some Regal (Or at least in Southern California it is. Check the TMC website for details about theatre's near you - it's worth it!).


Playlist from Saturday, 8/22:

White Lung - Eponymous
Type O Negative - Dead Again
Type O Negative - Bloody Kisses (Digipak Version)
Sunn O))) - Domkirke

No card today.

2018: September 22nd - New Music from The Black Queen!

Bunch of new music on the way. My good friend Jacob alerted me to a new album from seminal Witch House group White Ring. They haven't been on my radar in ages, so it's cool to reconnect with their music, especially when some of is so indicative to me of what the mid-00s sounded like.

Memories of listening to music.

That's something you don't think about often, or at least I don't. Memories of listening to music. I mean, usually music evokes or scores memories, but to just reminisce on sitting in front of the computer on a day off from Borders and flipping around the internet looking for new stuff. I've lost a lot of the online gate keepers I that helped me find music back then (Not the best one, though), and tech has changed the hunting process greatly, what with the advent of Apple Music, so it feels further away than it is. And the tones White Ring utilizes, the actual synth and drum patches, they still sound right out of 2007, so it triggers these sometimes intense reveries.

Going to see Mandy in the theatre again tonight. It's such a shame this film is getting so small a theatrical run - I'm driving 35 miles each way to the Frida Theatre in Santa Ana so K can see it. This film was meant to be seen on the big screen, incredibly LOUD (thank you, Egyptian!). I ordered the vinyl a few days back, thought it wasn't coming out until November for some reason, but apparently they've already shipped, so I'm super happy about that. And, as you have hopefully already noted above, new music from The Black Queen. I don't know if all the guys from Dillinger Escape Plan's new bands can fill the DEP-sized hole in my life, but it's awesome they are moving on and trying!

Yesterday was apparently national Sunn O))) day, because that is most of what I listened to. Interesting first listen to Flight of the Behemoth, as a lot of it reminded me quite a bit of Throbbing Gristle.

Playlist from Friday, 9/21:

Sunn O))) - Monoliths and Dimensions
Sunn O))) - Void 00
White Ring - Gate of Grief
Sunn O))) - White1
Queens of the Stone Age - Villains
Sunn O))) - Flight of the Behemoth

Card of the day:

As usual, perfectly relevant to me at this moment, as I've just spent a large part of my morning working out the logistics for a new 'journey' I'm poised to begin with three very good friends. What is it? You will know soon enough.

2018: September 21st

I first came to know this track as Canon, on 2009's Domkirk record. That was my first Sunn O))) album; I saw it advertised in an issue of Wire and immediately knew it was something I had to own. Yesterday I went searching through the band's catalogue on Apple Music to dive into some of the albums I don't know. 2015's Kanon was one of them. I was stoked to rediscover the track in studio form. There's something about it that, to continue the purple prose metaphor from yesterday, sounds like you're staring into the abyss. A lot of Sunn O))) stuff is like that, but this one especially. Listening to it during the second of a surprise, 3-day FDA inspection at work, I realized the band's music relaxes me, almost feels like a form of meditation. It was a valuable epiphany.

Talk about an effective trailer. Watch this in the dark, with headphones on and tell me you don't get chills.



It's difficult for most filmmakers to create and sustain a truly scary tone for 80 minutes, imagine if this show does it for multiple episodes? Getting my hopes up? Maybe. But you never know.

Playlist from yesterday:

Lake Trout - Another One Lost
Avenged Sevenfold - Eponymous
Windhand - Grief's Infernal Flower
Sunn O))) - The Grimm Robe Demos
Sunn O))) - Kanon
Earth - Primitive and Deadly

Card of the day:

From the Grimoire: "Rapid, clear communication. Ending of confusion. Divine or otherworldly communication.  A swift action toward goal; decisiveness." Not sure what this concerns yet, but I'll keep my head up.