In Search of Darkness is the self-appointed, "Definitive 80s Horror Documentary." We've been knee-deep in horror docs at the moment, with both Horror Noire and Eli Roth's History of Horror landing on Shudder within a few weeks of one another, but who cares? I love watching these, hearing insider's interpretations, and building a scope for the tempest I grew up inside the eye of in the 80s. This is everything to pop culture at the moment, or at least the alleys of that culture that I traverse. Stranger Things is based on 80s Horror, Ash, Jack Burton, and Lucio Fulci all have current comic books on the shelves. John Carpenter makes records. Child Play's getting a TV show, and boutique Blu Ray imprints like Arrow, Vinegar Syndrome and Scream Factory and specialty streaming services like Shudder and Prime are making it possible for people to see movies they'd only ever heard of since those films disappeared off first-stage VHS rental shelves, never making the jump to disc. So why the hell would I not want someone to draw an outline around this behemoth?
The final Indiegogo is up now and ends on March 31st, link HERE.
Man, I walked into a book store the other day and hadn't realized Irvine Welsh released the 'Grand Finale of Transporting."
I felt so removed; I used to buy Welsh's books the day they dropped. But he's one of those authors I love SO much, his writing tends to steer my own, and I haven't had much space for that since starting to seriously work on Shadow Play, back in 2012 now. Of course, I've had a few long interstitial projects that have prolonged that, but really, this has been where I've learned to write genre, and there just wasn't room for a more literary pull in my voice. That's changing soon; I vowed to read at least one of the Welsh books I've missed this year, and now that there's a new chapter in the Trainspotters' lives, well, I guess I'll start there.
Wait, no. I believe I have to start with 2016's The Blade Arist, because I'm fairly certain this is what happens when Franco goes to America, which both amuses and terrifies me. Imagine Begby as your new neighbor. Nightmare fuel, that.
Playlist from 3/11:
John Cale - Black Acetate
Placebo - Meds
PJ Harvey - To Bring You My Love
Don Shirley - Don Shirley Trio
Erase Errata - Other Animals
Waxwork Records - House of Waxwork Issue #1 OST
Wink Lombardi and the Constellations - 10 Songs
Earth - Phase 3 - Thrones and Dominions
Chelsea Wolfe - Pain Is Beauty
Exhalants - Eponymous
Card of the day:
More Cups. Emotion and sensitivity as directed or acted upon by Fire. This is good. This will get me through the lag I've experienced in finishing the book, where daily life seems to be conspiring against my productivity. I'm saying it now: My birthday is on the 24th of this month. The reading of it will be done by then, which means a few days to listen to it, a few more to make changes based on that listening, and then it's done.
I'm about a week late on this one, but there's a new video for one of my favorite tracks on Windhand's 2018 opus, Eternal Return. Oh, who am I kidding? They're all my favorite tracks on this record. Awesome video, as well.
If you grew up in the 80s and 90s like I did, surrounded by shelf upon shelf of mass market paperbacks in the local library and Kroch's and Bentano's, and whatever that other bookstore in the mall was, you know, before the advent of big box, stand-alone bookstores, then you might have an inherent understanding of the horror paperback boom that permeated the pop literary world. You might have an understanding, but probably not of the scope of that boom. Unless you've read Grady Hendrix and Will Errickson's Paperbacks from Hell, in which two things probably happened:
A) You had an extremely entertaining romp through the history of Horror Literature and understand its timeline a hell of a lot better
B) Since reading Hendrix and Errickson's tome, you find yourself occasionally scouring the internet for copies of some of these lost gems, only to find prices repugnant.
But fear not! Valancourt Bookshas begun a Paperbacks From Hell reprint series - which you can subscribe to - that in most cases will feature the original paperback artwork. For myself, the price point of $16.99 for a MM paperback is better than eBay pricing but still too much for me to pull the trigger, but then again VB has not really solicited any of the titles I want yet, so I'm still keeping my eyes open for some goodies I spied in Hendrix's tome.
BTW - Errickson is a fantastic curator and played a large part in amassing the subject matter of PfH, and his Too Much Horror blog is definitely worth following.
So what are the paperback gems from days gone by that I'm interested in?
Michael McDowell's The Elementals because I am really interested in his Blackwater series, based on the fact that of all the books in Paperbacks from Hell, Blackwater sounds like it might be solid literature. Before beginning a series, however, I'd rather my introduction to McDowell's work be a stand-alone.
Because the pen name Peter Saxon is awesome, and because The Guardians series sound like a lot of fun.
Because the cover is subtle yet absurd and reminds me SO Much of my childhood, when covers like we find on all these books were the wallpaper to my life:
And finally, because I remember holding this one in my hands at a young age back in the early 80s at and almost checking it out of the Worth, Il public library, but never actually doing so.
Satanic Rock bands. Sounds like a great double feature when I finally get around to Hendrix's latest novel:
Playlist from 3/10:
The Besnard Lakes - The Besnard Lakes are the Roaring Night
Exhalants - Eponymous
Firewater - The Ponzi Scheme
Earth - Phase 3 - Thrones and Dominions
John Cale - Black Acetate
Card of the day:
This is a very emotional card in respect to Earthly matters. There's revelation, although it might be confused at first. There's no inherent conflict, except maybe that of emotion taking over for a bit. Not really sure what this is in reference to, but I'll keep my eyes open today and try not to let emotions get the better of me.
I've always been a bit on the fence when it comes to Black Mountain. Not sure why, but it very well could just be a case of not having spent enough time with them. Whatever the case, I'm digging this new song the band dropped off their upcoming album Destroyer, out May 24th on Jagjaguwar. Pre-order the album HERE.
Finally heeded all of the recommendations to go see Spider-man: into the Spiderverse last night. BLOWN AWAY. The animation was revolutionary, a far cry from anything that all the pixars of the world put up on the big screen. I never read Brian Michael Bendis' Ultimate Spider-man past the first trade back in the day, so while I've been peripherally aware of Miles Morales since he took over the Spiderman persona in the former Ultimate Universe, I'd never actually engaged with him as a character in a story.
He is marvelous.
As much as I grew up with and will always have a soft spot for Peter Parker, this is the Spiderman of the future. I'm reminded of Grant Morrison's run on Batman and Robin, where Bruce Wayne was dead and Dick Greyson took over the Batsuit, with Damien Wayne as his Robin. Brilliant arc, and Morrison spoke on Kevin Smith's Fatman on Batman podcast about how he told DC that Bruce should stay dead, and that Dick and Damien were the team for the new millennium. And of course, DC ignored him. Status Quo - the staunchest villain to the medium of comics ever. Marvel has, of course, figured out ways to keep all their Spider-characters going, but with the emphasis on Miles in this film, they're clearly hedging their bets on him, as though they heeded Morrison's advice for their own major flagship property.
Playlist from 3/09:
Windhand - Eternal Return
Playlist from 3/10:
Firewater - The Ponzi Scheme
AC/DC - Highway to Hell
Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - Blood Lust
Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - The Night Creeper
Twin Temple - Twin Temple (Bring You Their Signature Sound... Satanic Doo-Wop)
Chromatics - Camera
Noctural Projections - Complete Studio Recordings
Card for the day:
Nine = Yesod: the fields fo imagination, reflection, and foundation, where you can root your creation in firm soil and sit back and let it breath on its own. This pull is telling me I'm pretty much finished and need to prepare to release the book. It's a bit ahead of the actual workload being completed, but close enough to be a sound reminder not to overthink things.
It's 12:00 AM, and for the second time this week, I can't sleep. There's bravado in the clouds tonight, distant thunder echoing across the sky, holding the population of LA's South Bay hostage. Those of us still awake, anyway. I'm on the couch, watching Lucio Fulci's City of the Living Dead as I type this. I've had horror on the brain this evening - I feel both that I want to consume an unheard amount of it, and that there's some new story bubbling just beneath the surface of this rabid spike in fandom I'm experiencing. Maybe it's an escalating love for Shudder's historically minded programming, or a love for all the peripheral content the open-market of the internet has made possible. Or maybe it's just that the world we live in is a horror story, a very sad yet wonderful story whose outcome remains unproven. I watched Horror Noire a few days ago, and the first episode of Eli Roth's History of Horror earlier tonight. One quote from Edgar Wright rings out in my head; while discussing George A. Romero's Day of the Dead, Wright says something to the effect of, "It's an apocalypse you wouldn't mind living in. Or at least, I wouldn't." Very true, but the question is, does ours measure up? Would you rather have a never-ending parade of narcissistic cunts running things and two hyperbolically ludicrous political parties totally devoid of common sense, or a hell-on-Earth, zombie apocalypse?
I'd wager you can guess my answer.
**
I ended up unable to drop off until around 2:00 AM, so I called out from work. Will use the time to make major progress in finishing the book.
But first, let's look at what's happening this morning, now that I have slept.
Sargent House just dropped new music from Seminal Crawl band Earth. New album Full Upon Her Burning Lips drops on May 24th; you can pre-order physical HERE and digital HERE.
**
NCBD:
This is the MVP pick of the day for me. Hell, maybe of the year. I acquired the first two volumes of Warren Ellis and Jon Davis-Hunt's The Wildstorm at Amazing Fantasy in Chicago back in December. I read them in a day, and seriously think it might be Ellis' best comic work since Transmet. The relationship between Jon Davis-Hunt's art and Ellis' script make this the best example of 'wide screen comics' I've seen in years, maybe ever. It's so clean. A complex, fascinating story that just feels effortless in how it's told. And if you're worried about the superhero source material, don't: I had next to no experience with the Wildstorm Universe before this, aside from the occasional mini series by Ennis (not even sure if those are Wildstorm, now that I think of it; all those early Image "team" books run together for me because I never read any of them back in the day), and I think my read on this new reimagining from Ellis is better for it. And it's not a superhero book. At all.
I Can't recommend The Wildstorm enough:
Finally! Walk Through Hell returns! I think I was referring to this in previous posts as "A Walk Through Hell," and now that I see my mistake, I feel like the title is even creepier, because, in keeping with the story, it's a command.
More Warren Ellis! Cemetery Beach, with artist Jason Howard, comes to an end. I'm assuming this is the end of a first volume, and now that Ellis and Howard's Trees is set to rotate back in with a five-issue third volume, we'll have to wait until after that completes before we have more Cemetery Beach. Whatever the case, this book has been fantastic. If you read Ellis' newsletter, with its fascinating glimpses into the man's work methodology, you can see a window into how he has evolved into such an efficient storyteller. This is the end goal for me folks; it gives me something to shoot for. Not to write like Warren Ellis, but to have as crisp and clean a process.
A new issue of Deadly Class will pair nicely with my continued love of the Remender-run SYFY adaptation, and serves as a reminder that now that K has read the entire run of the comic to date, I need to initiate my own re-read. Look at that cover!
Jesus, this is looking like an expensive week! No complaints though, not when Paper Girls is returning. And again, look at that cover! I'm going to have to revisit the final issue of the previous arc, because I can't quite remember where we are in this totally batshit crazy book.
And I may have listed it here last, but this will be the first book I read today! The Walking Dead 189. This book has, as always, been a riveting descent into the chaos at the heart of humanity's designs on civilization. Why doesn't structure work? Because we are the walking dead, and all order is transient when compared to the chaotic nature of the Universe. Or is it just order on a scale we can't see?
Who knows? Part of the fun is wondering. But I digress...
Part of the beauty of TWD, is it maps out an allegorical timeline to our own history inside the world of the book. The seeming perfection of this new society our long-haul characters have found in this newest arc is turning out to be not so civilized, and as we inch toward the landmark 200th issue, I think things are going to get hairy. As usual though, Kirkman has no limit in his writing and imagination, and he never does what I think he's going to do; that's why I love this book.
Playlist from 3/05:
Various Artists - Trainspotting OST
Cold Showers - Matter of Choice
Cold Cave - Cherish the Light Years
Prince - Sign O' The Times
Blut Aus Nord - Cosmosophy
Boy Harsher - Careful
Card of the day:
Perfectly grounded. Water of Earth; cares for her house. Perfect for the day for two reasons: A) The Earth track that dropped, and B) I'm home and going to attempt to finish this house I've built in Shadow Play, Book One. I finished the Grammarly editing last night, now I have to record myself reading the last half of act two and all of act three, and I can listen to it and suss out any final story edits that need to be made. Excited!
I've posted about LA's Cold Showers here before, but I don't think I ever really gave the band the due they deserve, because as much as I dug their dark, Post Punk sound, I never fully fell into them until yesterday. 2015's Matter of Choice spun around and around on my iTunes yesterday while I plugged along at work, and I became more and more entranced by it with every turn. It's one of those albums where I have trouble taking one song out of the larger context of the full cycle. Which of course makes me like it even more, because I've always held albums in higher regard than songs.
With 2015 being four years ago now, I began to fret that just as I fell in love with Cold Showers, they might have winked out of existence. Not the case. On their facebook page I learned that the band has an album coming out on the always awesome Dais Records this year. Why so long between records? Well, back in July, guitarist, engineer, and founding member Chris King was in an auto accident with an uninsured motorist and has had a slow recovery due to medical costs. The band set up a GoFundMe page, and I'll link to it here; I'm going to throw something down come payday, and if you can, I'd ask you to consider doing the same.
The uninsured motorist is a legitimately terrifying boogeyman here in LaLaLand; I walk A LOT and I can't tell you how many times I've almost been hit by people rolling through or just straight-up blowing stop signs (if I was a serial killer, I would kill people who blow stop signs. No BS, that'd be my MO). I used to be pretty bold about this; you know, someone shows no signs of stopping and I just keep walking, figuring, "Fuck 'em, they hit me, they better kill me or I'll ruin their life."
What a bunch of shit.
My attitude changed when formerly great weekly paper LA Weekly ran an article about what they called the "epidemic" of uninsured motorists who land people in the hospital with no insurance to offset their recovery costs. That, and K's pleading for me to exhibit a little common sense have turned my formerly fourteen-year-old's attitude around. Still, this shit happens, and just so no one thinks my 'uninsured motorist' is some kind of an invisible barb about illegal aliens, IT'S NOT. There's just as many douche bags born in the US as not who are riding around without the proper insurance.
***
Sunday night into Monday I didn't sleep very well, so with Cold Showers on my headphones I bulldozed through my work yesterday by 12:30 PM and cashed in some PTO. Went home and watched the following three films, all of which I enjoyed:
An exclusive on Shudder at the moment, Noroi: The Curse was recommended to me by a co-worker. Previously I'd attempted to get into this one and failed; you have to adjust to a certain pacing, as well as a bit of over-acting at times (Mr. Hori does crazy a little too over the top in certain sequences), but this one is unlike any other film I've seen, and stands as a pretty important cultural artifact as far as Japanese Horror is concerned.
I've been meaning to watch Jodorowsky's 'Horror' movie for years, and it's included with Prime at the moment so I finally had a chance. Wow. I won't lie; there's something about Jodorowsky that leaves me a bit cold. My theory is that it's the cultural background he draws from that I do not have experience with, so his movies resonate less with me than, say, David Lynch, another 'Avant Garde' director, who's life experiences are closer to mine and so I really relate to. That's not to say I didn't dig this film; Santa Sangre is beautiful, and watching the composition of some of the scenes I was blown away. The term 'visionary director' might be overused these days, but not on Jodorowsky it's not.
Personal Shopper was a very pleasant surprise. I'd heard something about this film last year on the Bret Easton Ellis show; I can't remember what that something was, but it was enough to pique my curiosity, so that when I saw this pop up on Netflix recently, I ear-marked it. Really cool film, and it made me want to watch more from director Olivier Assayas.
Playlist from 3/04:
Joy Division - Still
Cocksure - T.V.M.A.L.S.V.
Cold Cave - Cherish the Lights Years
Cold Showers - Matter of Choice
Card of the day:
Lots of Swords lately. There's conflict on the horizon? To clarify, I pulled two more cards, so here's what the whole 3-card spread looks like:
This looks like a lot of confusion, or tiny skirmishes that ultimately play into the reverse side of my psychology. You know, the part of you that doesn't want you to finish those things you've worked so hard on? Chock this up to me not working at all on my book yesterday, but watching three movies instead. That wasn't easy; I positioned it as a 'day of rest' in my head, because I'd been craving new content, but really I should have made some time. It's hard for me to fit anything into a weekday that's not writing, so to knock out those films and 'fill the well' I went the other way completely. The understanding was - and here's where I think the Knight of Cups comes in - I work my ass off for the rest of the week and through the weekend. See that Chalice with the Crab he's reaching for? Almost in reach. That's the book. So very close now that I have to be careful not to sabotage it.
I've been waiting for this documentary for a while now. Can't wait.
Hopefully going to the theatre to see this later today. I'm posting the trailer, but I haven't watched it; I want to go in blind, as I'd not even heard of it until K mentioned it two days ago.
Happy Birthday to one of my extraordinary co-hosts on The Horror Vision, Ray Larragoitiy.
It started strong, but around page 100, Alan Campbell's Sea of Ghosts became magnetic and I ca no longer put it down. The world Campbell has built, this drowned, imperial ghetto, soaked in the fall-out poverty of endless war and a desperate population, is both beautiful and affecting. There are scenes here that I visualize perfectly, in a way that makes me suspect I am seeing exactly what the author saw when he penned them. It's that vivid. HIGHLY recommended.
It's a real shame these books, the two Gravedigger Chronicles volumes Mr. Campbell published earlier this decade, didn't find their audience. I just ordered the second volume, The Art of Hunting, from a bookseller on Ebay. I worked at Borders for five years from 2006 to 2011. We received and sold all three main volumes of Campbell's Deepgate Codex series, but I remember we never received Sea of Ghosts in 2011 when it was originally published. Honestly, I'm not even certain the Gravedigger books were available in America. Tor is the publisher, and in crawling around online, trying to catch up with Campbell's been doing these last few years, I've seen on his facebook that apparently there is a third volume ready for print but Tor wouldn't invest in it because the first two volumes didn't sell well. To that I say, Did you fucking market them at all? Because as a fan, I've had to scratch and claw for every bit of information I've garnered about these books since their inception, and even on Amazon they fetch an insane aftermarket price. So no, I'd say you did not. I hold out hope someone will give this book and any future projects Mr. Campbell has up his sleeve a home, because he is an exceptional writer. This is the kind of Fantasy we need, not more Knights and Dragons.
Playlist from 2/28:
The Cure - Pornography
The Cure - Faith/Carnage Visors (Side B)
Deafheaven - Black Brick
Deafheaven - Ordinary Corrupt Human Love
Firewater - The Ponzi Scheme
Deafheaven - New Bermuda
Playlist from 3/01:
Wasted Theory - Warlords of the New Electric
Baroness - Purple
Ritual Howls - Turkish Leather
Budapest Festival Orchestra - Igor Stravinsky: The Firebird Suite
Budapest Festival Orchestra - Igor Stravinsky: Petrushka
Cocksure - K.K.E.P.
Firewater - The Ponzi Scheme
Deafheaven - Black Brick
Deafheaven - Ordinary Corrupt Human Love
Deafheaven - New Bermuda
Card of the day:
Epiphany. Good. I'm posting this, tearing Sea of Ghosts from my hands and digging in to work on my own book, which is coming along swimmingly.
