My copy of Thought Gang's long-lost album arrived a day early, so I've already spent a fair amount of time with it (though not nearly enough). So far, this is my favorite track on the album. My mid-90s self would have been all about this one.
Another day home feeling like shite. Trying to use the time wisely, though I've yet to do any writing, which I have planned in a bit. Spent the morning reading old issue of Classic X-Men, as I've been wanting to re-read a large chunk of Chris Claremont's Uncanny X-Men for quite some time now but never manage to find the time. I started off with the Dark Phoenix Saga and will move on from there. There are a few holes in the collection, but for the most part I have it all from Dark Phoenix on. A few of my favorite issues that I am looking forward to re-reading:
Fede Alvarez just proved what I've been saying for going on six years now. Thank you, Mr. Alvarez. Now, how about that sequel???
My friend Daniel just published a beautiful, heartfelt goodbye to Stan Lee. Read it HERE.
Playlist from 11/14:
Ghost Cop - One Weird Trick
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - B-Sides & Rarities Vol. III
Thought Gang - Eponymous
Card of the day:
I continue to encounter larger, archetypal guidance. I'm reading this as a suggestion to keep up a new yogic routine, which I began with two days last week and subsequently slacked off on.
This is pretty awesome if you're a David Lynch fan. Sacred Bones, who just put out the long-thought-lost Thought Gang record (mine should arrive tomorrow!!!), dropped this video a few hours ago. It's a video piece Mr. Lynch did for this year's Festival of Disruption. The music used here is from the Thought Gang record - overall a match made in Heaven, where of course, everything is fine. Oh, and that Thought Gang record is still available HERE.
I'm home from work sick today and spending the morning reading the Bernie Wrightson/Steve Niles/Kelley Jones Frankenstein Alive, Alive! Frank, a childhood monster I was obsessed with, has come back around again in my thoughts of late. First, it was K sitting me down to watch the original Universal Frankenstein last year that started it. After that, I narrowly avoided ordering but spent quite a bit of time lusting over this:
Now, a new acquaintance through the HWA, Robert Payne Cabeen, has just had a series of illustrations published as the visual component of new tome Birthing Monsters: Frankenstein's Cabinet of Curiosities and Cruelties, and viewing his work takes me right back to when I would sit and stare at my Remco Frankenstein for hours. What is it about this creature that captivates so many of us? Is it the idea of human ingenuity and intelligence conquering the mystery of death? Or the posit that man could steal his creator's fire by creating life on his own, in a laboratory instead of with the organs of regeneration said creator gifted us? Of course, there's also the joyous gothic attributes Universal bestowed upon the saga of Victor Frankenstein and his creature, laying a cinematic cowl over Mary Shelley's original work of horrific literature. That same gothic version is joyously recreated in the figure/environment above, and is just as joyously disavowed in both Bernie Wrightson's version and several of Mr. Cabeen's illustrations. Perhaps that is the force that binds us to this legend; in Shelley's original novel the creature is a composite, so there has always been room for so many variations that the imagination can continually find new avenues to explore using the creature as an avatar or guide. Either way, my morning belongs to the monster.
After Monsters, I'll hopefully finish up editing the video version of last Friday's Drinking with Comics, with Special Guest Kristen Renee Gorlitz, whose Kickstarter is still going strong and which I implore you to investigate and, if so inclined, support. The Empties really has impressed the hell out of me, and as you know, I always pass along what I find that I like.
As this ailment came on suddenly yesterday while at work, I left early yesterday and watched two great horror flicks on Shudder. First:
Terrified is a ripping little ghost story from Argentina. It's creepy as hell, and although conceptually it's a bit unclear, I actually really liked that about it. I'm one who is perfectly okay with tales of the supernatural NOT following concrete rules since, you know, it's supernatural and thus, largely unexplained phenomena.
Second flick I watched was an older one, something I'd heard about in the 00s and had been meaning to find and get to eventually:
This obviously isn't the Creep that stars Mark Duplass, which I also liked, obviously for completely different reasons. This one plays to my obsession with stories that take place underground. Its use of tunnels, Earthen passages, and secret rooms underground made me unbelievably happy. Well-made British horror that feels of its time in the early 2000s but still works well today.
Playlist from 11/13:
Curtis Harding - Where We Are (single)
The Knife - Shaking the Habitual
Ghost Cop - One Weird Trick
Flying Lotus - Los Angeles
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - B-Sides & Rarities, Vol III
Card of the day:
Again? Well, let's dig deeper and see what old boy is trying to tell me. From the Grimoire, "Action, decisiveness, and high energy. Engage obstacles/enemies. Strength. The structure of civilization, social world - law and order; the establishment."
Two things - Civilization, well western civilization, requires linear thinking and rationality. These can also be a prison. I tend to adhere to a guise of linear, rational thinking when writing, but know it can foist frustration and dead ends upon me. Find a way to work in some non-rational writing time.
This new Curtis Harding single and it's awesome! Total 70s Isaac Hayes/Black Cesar vibes, with the cinematic string arrangements and lush reverbs that defined 70s soul. Very cool.
Also in the music department, that new Ghost Cop came out. I haven't had a chance to give it a good listen yet, however if you want a very cool limited edition physical copy, one that is filled with art and even some fiction, go HERE.
NCBD this week and I'm excited for a new Gideon Falls! Also, Cemetery Beach:
Playlist from yesterday:
Various Artists - Twin Peaks The Return OST
Interstellar Funk - Caves of Steel EP
Burial - Kindred EP
Remco Beekwilder - 10th Planet EP
The Ocean - Anthropocentric
Ghost Cop - One Weird Trick
Massive Attack - Mezzanine
Card of the day:
Two cards today. Not on purpose. There were actually three, as I had a kind of discombobulated draw as I rushed to leave late for work. Can't remember what the third card was now. But look at the color scheme here; Enlightenment is imminent.
With headphones this absolutely kicks. As the weather in LaLaLand turns cold - yes, feel free to laugh at me, anyone reading back home) I can feel my musical mood shifting to incorporate a lot more electronic styles. It's funny, seven or eight years ago I listened to way more electronic music than metal. For some reason though, metal became a driving force in my writing and because of that I'd never be able to go long without it.
Last Friday's Drinking with Comics is up on iTunes, video to follow later in the week. Our guest Kristen Renee Gorlitz was a pleasure to interview. We talked about the current Kickstarter for her independent horror comic The Empties - which I love - as well as how comics can help a filmmaker make better films. Also on tap was our reviews/reactions to Lucifer #1, the return of The Maxx in Sam Keith's Batman/The Maxx limited series Arkham Dreams, new Image titles Blackbird and Dead Rabbit, and a whole lot more.
Also on the podcast front, there's a new, short reaction piece my Horror Vision co-host Anthony Guerra and I posted after going to see Overlord in the theatre on Saturday. Did I like it? The short answer is yes. Go see it in a theatre with great sound.
And both of these podcasts are now available not only on Apple Music, Spotify and, any day now, Google Play.
When a Tom Waits jag comes on me like it has of late, usually a Pixies bender isn't far behind. Other than the obvious connections (moments of obvious musical influence, covers, etc), for me this is due to the fact that I discovered and was really into both discographies around the same time. Weird thing though is both are normally summer music to me. That said, it was 88° in LaLaLand yesterday, so summer is never really far behind here during the day.
Although my familiarity with Surfer Rosa has long ago smoothed away many of its deliciously uneven edges, sometimes when I listen to it - like right now as I write this - I really hear it again for the first time and realize what an unbelievably odd record it is. All the Pixies stuff is left-of-center as far as rock music goes, but this one is really, really out there at times. And I love it.
Besides spending the morning listening to The Pixies, I'm re-reading Sam Keith's seminal comic book series The Maxx. God, I love this comic. I was introduced to The Maxx via MTV's mid-90s animation show Oddities, the second season of which was an animated adaptation of the first dozen or so issues. Reading this now, I'm kind of tripping off the fact that every time I go back to the book and read the issues that were adapted, in my head, clear as day, I hear all the actors' voices as I read the lines. It's very cool, and makes these occasional revisits even more spectacular.
We had an excellent episode of Drinking with Comics last night, and I'm hoping to get the episode up on Apple Podcasts this weekend.
Playlist from Friday, 11/09:
Ethyl Meatplow - Happy Days, Sweetheart
Deerhunter - Microcastle
The Chameleons UK - Strange Times
Card of the day:
The aforementioned 88° isn't helping the fires burning in Malibu and spreading to the surrounding areas. If you look to the sky outside our apartment, you can see a hazy orange glow irradiating what is probably most of the greater Los Angeles area by now. Creepy then, that the Ten of Wands comes up. Taken from a website I sometimes turn to for interpretation purposes, "Oppression and restriction, showing the fire on the grounds of the Earth, where they cause an uncontrolled, destructive burning."
I'm in an Ethyl Meatplow mood this morning, so I started the day off with their Barry Adamson-produced, 1993 record Happy Days, Sweetheart before I move into Daniel's Pick for the Joup Friday Album. Now, I've had Happy Days for a long time, considered myself a fan of both Meatplow and Carla Bozulich's Geraldine Fibbers, but I guess I've never really dug around on youtube for more stuff by either because I'd never seen this live footage before. This is one for the annals of history folks, 90s underground awesomeness, short-lived but amazing nonetheless. And really, could Carla Bozulich be any hotter than she is in this video?
Playlist from 11/08:
Various Artists - Twin Peaks Limited Event Series Soundtrack
The Chameleons UK - Strange Times
Tom Waits - Bone Machine
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - B-Sides & Rarities Vol. III
Boy Harsher - Country Girl EP
The Body - I Have Fought Against It, But I Can't Any Longer
Jóhann Jóhannson - Mandy OST
Card of the day:
Breakthrough. I've got a meeting this morning that could use one, and a lot of writing to do this weekend that could benefit from my plotting breakthrough from earlier in the week carrying through to a few more smaller epiphanies.
The new album Careful drops February 1st, 2019 on Nude Club Records.
Had a really nice night just reading in bed for an hour or so last night. The next DwC is tomorrow, and I've a gaggle of stuff to catch up on. First and foremost, as I've already talked yesterday about Blackbird, let me tell you the other new book I'm really hot for right now is Dead Rabbit:
Gerry Duggan and John McCrea. A retired criminal/vigilante thief finds he has to reinstate his life of crime to pay his wife's medical bills. Shit goes wrong. It's great.
Playlist from 11/07:
Algiers - The Underside of Power
Metallica - ... And Justice For All
Deafheaven - From the Kettle Onto the Coil
Briqueville - II
Deafheaven - Ordinary Corrupt Human Love
Card of the day:
This card always speaks of things gone out of control to me. It also reminds me a bit of Ash being taken down by the three mini-Ashes in Army of Darkness. And believe it or not, that seems a pretty good place to start, because a lot of times I understand things better if I run them through a familiar lens, and film is a very familiar lens to me. So, in Army of Darkness, Ash fucks up, tries to play it off and ignore his mistake, and it ends up coming back to haunt him as these three mini-doppelgangers that bite and chew at him. Nothing important. But it's his lack of taking these little nuisances seriously that ends up leading to full-on Evil Ash, who is a Huge threat to him. So, what's the card saying? Take care of the little stuff - don't let it build up, or it will come back three times the size and way more serious. I think that's a health cue for me, specifically pointing to the two problems that persist - my sarcoidosis and my still-not-right left hamstring. I've made serious inroads to finally get back to taking care of both of these, but it's going to take a serious chunk of my already limited time. That's okay. This is a reminder that it's worth it.
