2018: December 30th

It's been a few years since I've put on any of Ween's music. Still one of my all-time favorite bands, their break-up back in 2012 I was heart-broken. A reunion seemed possible down the road, but it hurt regardless because Ween were two friends that had gown up and shared so much making music together, it was exactly like my friends and I - Grez, Mr. Brown, Sonny, Tim - who had done the same. Then, in 2014 Aaron Freeman - AKA Gene Ween - released this song and I was deeply affected by it. I found myself hoping Ween would not reunite; I didn't want him to end up back where he had been. And ever since I've felt a disconnect from Ween.

Then, two days ago a younger guy was listening to Mac Demarco. I'd heard Salad Days before, but something about it grabbed me in that moment. I put the album on my headphones and by the end had an irresistible urge to listen to Pure Guava. After Guava, I dipped right into Painting the Town Brown, and for the first time in probably ten years listened to the entire 25+ minute Poop Ship Destroyer version in sheer, invigorated awe.

I've avoided seeing Ween since they reunited in 2016, despite the fact that they've played near me countless times. I'm not sure I'll go see them live again - not because of a grudge, just because I've seen them live SO many times - but it's nice to reconnect with something I love in a purely organic way.

Stay Brown!

Links to The Horror Vision's 2018 Year in Horror:

Apple Podcasts
Spotify
Google Play

I watched a couple flicks last night.



First Marvel movie I've seen since Civil War, which, along with batman vs. superman, kinda broke my interest in big two comic book adaptations. I would have been fine skipping this one, too, except I have to say, the trailer for Endgame has me, and I figured I should see the flick that leads into it.

I didn't hate this, but I will say I absolutely hated the overbearing score by Alan Silvestri.

All along, I've been far more interested in where Marvel is ultimately going with the big picture for their cinematic universe, and Endgame looks like it will shut the door on the Avengers, at least for a time.



Fucking insane. That's all I can say. Must have been an influence on Panos Cosmatos.



I watched this one more because I was in a Joe Bob mood than for the movie itself. That Last Drive-In special is still up on shudder, under series I think, and each film and its adjacent commentaries are listed as episodes in the 'season.' Did I call Blue Sunshine insane? I was wrong. This IS insanity. Like Porky's fucked Ghoulies and had a horny, satanic baby that grew up and went to college with the revenge of the nerds cast.

Playlist from 12/29:

Shannon - Let the Music Play (Single)
Ministry - Animositisomina
Corrosion of Conformity - No Cross No Crown
Deafheaven - New Bermuda

Card of the day:

Not, I think, the beginning of a journey, but the end of one.

2018: December 29th

I kept seeing the trailer for this new Black Mirror pop up, but as much as I love the first two seasons of the show, I'm behind. And it seems from afar that Netflix releases trailers for the individual episodes now, which feels a bit extreme to my increasingly trailer-phobic mindset, so I passed over Bandersnatch multiple times. In fact, despite posting it here now, I'm still not planning on watching this trailer. But the movie is definitely being pushed to the top of my watch list - especially now that we've done our 2018 Year in Horror on The Horror Vision Podcast (I'll have links tomorrow) - because according to a discussion with a friend last night, Bandersnatch is a full movie AND a choose your own adventure format. And I cannot even begin to imagine how that is going to work.

Probably my final read of the year - at least literature wise - was polishing off the last couple of stories in an old paperback copy of August Derleth's The Mask of Cthulhu. I've had this book for over twenty years and never read all of it; the first Lovecraft I ever read, The Lurker at the Threshold, turned out to be a Derleth book (the edition I found in a Record Swap in Tinley Park, Il in roughly 1993 boldly credited the novel to Lovecraft on the cover), and though I generally find Mr. Derleth to be a bit too repetitious for my taste, he is a pretty good writer at times, and his concepts often hook me, even if the execution isn't always great. I picked this one back up in October under the premise of finally reading some of the stuff I've had on shelves but never read or finished - an initiative that underscored my reading this past year - and I actually enjoyed pretty much all five stories to some degree. You'll note I had to break the book's contents up over a few months, though, otherwise that repetitious handling of Lovecraftian tropes can make me feel as though I'm reading one long reiteration of the same story.

Playlist from 12/28:

Mac Demarco - Salad Days
Ween - Pure Guava
Ween - Painting the Town
Perturbator - Dangerous Days
Perturbator - Uncanny Valley
Calexico - The Black Light

Card of the day:

The card's titled Peace but I'm reading this as indecision, which I am suffering from majorly at the moment. Time to pony up.

2018: December 28th - My Top Ten Favorite Albums of the Year...

... can be found HERE on Joup. Hint: this is on it.

Playlist from 12/27:

Tool - Undertow
Ghost Cop - One Weird Trick

No card today.

2018: December 26th

This will be the only time and the only trailer for Jordan Peele's upcoming film Us that I watch. I do not want to know a single thing more about this film before I sit down to watch it in a theatre in March. But boy is it a doozy. Can NOT wait for this one; Peele had proven himself to be a major voice in establishing a beachhead of viability for horror with major studio budgets again. Also, watching this trailer and being genuinely chilled at several moments therein, the idea that Peele is Producing a new Candyman movie makes me extremely excited.

Playlist from 12/25:

Vince Guaraldi Trio - A Charlie Brown Christmas
Christmas Music of all varieties (kinda need it to stop)
Henry Mancini and His Orchestra - Charade OST
The Police - Synchronicity
Talking Heads - Remain in Light

Card for today:

The Earthly aspect of Air. Let's read that initially as keep your head out of the clouds and down to Earth, or translated into Writerly Advice, stop f&^king talking about it and do it. There's also an element of destructive logic, which fits my overthinking the ending of this book. I've become gun-shy, and the next four days needs to undo that so I have a completed manuscript - in need of a hardcore edit, mind you - by NYE.

Merry Christmas - Kate Nash

Another one I post every year. Love Kate Nash for this song.

Merry Christmas! The Pogues - Fairytale of New York

I post it every year, because it never gets old.

2018: December 25th

Merry Christmas, world!

I had long banished any semblance of Christmas spirit from my life as a sort of revolt against Christianity and the 'normal' upbringing that, while having molded me for what I believe was the better, I had cast off in my twenties in a series of mental and intellectual, psychonautic journeys. You know, the usual 20s stuff: Drugs, the Occult, alternative political science. By my thirties I was more formed as a person, and having moved to LaLaLand, used the distance from family to eliminate Christmas altogether. The holiday only ever meant family to me after I jettisoned everything else about it, and with family thousands of miles away, I was free to hold some strange grudge against it, the same way I used to hold a grudge against Christianity in general. Which, let's face it, was stupid. Because you know, live and let live. Also, it's very common in the fascist Left of California to preach anti-hate against on the behalf of minorities, or left-of-center groups, while actively hating on the established majorities, which is just fucking retarded. Crowley said it best, "Every man and woman is a star," or "Do what Thou Wilt Shall be the Whole of the Law," the basic tenets of his self-made religion Thelema. In other words, as long as it doesn't hurt anyone else, believe what you need to in order to be happy and a good person (by the basic nature of this, group hate such as nazi-ism is expunged).

Anyway, K and her Mom really helped reactivate my Christmas spirit last year; I'm about as far from a Christian as you're going to find, but all the pretty dressings they've hung on the winter solstice please me, and in no way threaten my own world view.

I can share.



Still obsessed with Synchronicity. I find that lately, I have to listen to it every day. I just have to.

Playlist from 12/24:

Talking Heads - Sand in the Vaseline disc 2
Talking Heads - Remain in Light
Talking Heads - Fear of Music
The Police - Synchronicity
The Police - Regatta de Blanc
Vaguess - The Bodhi Collection

Card of the day:

Lack of stability based on thwarted attempts to write that have become negative inertia. Jesus, I really need to get my shit on track. Tomorrow.