Finished Doom Patrol yesterday: absolutely outstanding! I really can't recommend this one enough. And last night, we began the long awaited second season of Netflix's Dark. This show is insanely complex, in a very good way. K and I just finished re-watching Season One a month or two ago in preparation for this season (I actually mistakenly thought it dropped in April, so we were well ahead of the curve), and I'm instantly feeling as though I need a brush-up on the cast. Luckily, there's a ton of character maps available online. I'm still saying there's just too many old, white guys with beards on this show, but that's a small criticism. Overall, I find the mental workout refreshing, and I'm so bitten by the mystery of it all, I'll gladly suffer some confusion.
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Playlist from 6/23:
Ministry - The Land of Rape and Honey
Lovett - The Wind OST
Various - A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night OST
Perturbator - New Model
Ella Fitzgerald - The Best of Ella, Vol. 2
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Card of the day:
Water in Air. The emotional aspect of Intellect. This comes in handy with my current approach to my writing.
Here's a video I've been meaning to post since Mr. Brown alerted me to its release late last week. Orville Peck's album Pony is neck and neck with Spotlights' Love and Decay for my favorite album of the year, and I have a feeling it will be that way all the way up until I post my annual year-end list at the end of December. Two amazing 2019 albums I found on the same day, that I have had to split my obsession with since. SUCH a great problem to have!
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Speaking of 'year's favorites,' I watched Yann Gonzalez's Knife + Heart on Shudder again Friday night. I'm really at a loss. This film is amazing in so many ways. The final scene, set to Jefre Cantu-Ledesma's Love's Refrain, is possibly the most beautiful juxtaposition of visual and aural imagery I've ever experienced; I've been haunted by it for days. Here's the track, which can be found on Cantu-Ledesma's EP In Summer, available on Apple Music or HERE:
I've slowly begun making my way through more of Cantu-Ledesma's work, and it is incredible, running in a range from eerie field recordings to hazy, ethereal synth drone like Love's Refrain.
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Playlist from the previous few days:
Motorhead - Eponymous
Motorhead - Ace of Spades
Public Image, Ltd - This is What You Want...
Felicia Atkinson and Jefre Cantu-Ledesma - Limpid As the Solitudes
Alexis Georgopoulos and Jefre Cantu-Ledesma - Fragments of a Season
Jefre Cantu-Ledesma - Alone Together #6: Faceless Kiss/Blut Mood
Jefre Cantu-Ledesma - Love is a Stream
Jefre Cantu-Ledesma - Visiting This World
Jefre Cantu-Ledesma - In Summer EP
M83 - Knife + Heart OST
Spotlights - Love and Decay
Canadian Rifle - Peaceful Death
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Card of the day:
Always nice to see this multiple times in one week. And it fits: I received the Proofs for Shadow Play Book One yesterday (their gorgeous but need a wee bit of tweaking), and when I sat down to work on Ciazarn yesterday for an admittedly abbreviated session, I absolutely experienced a breakthrough. I expect today will be HUGE for that story.
Thanks to Jonathan Grimm for the heads up on this one - I'd not even heard of Lightning Born until I woke up at 4:00 AM this morning, rolled over and saw a text from Grimm:
... and that about says it all. The band's self-titled debut is out today on Ripple Music, so it's available everywhere music is can be acquired. Or, order the record from the band themselves HERE.
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I watched two fantastic movies yesterday. First, Knife + Heart just dropped on Shudder and I stumbled into it without knowing much. LOVED it. A kind of software, gay Argento-homage, the flick stalls a bit at times as it goes to incredible lengths to soak the viewer in atmosphere and aesthetic of 1979 Paris' underground gay culture. It does an excellent job with this, but imagine those overly descriptive paragraphs that plague genre books at times? There's a correlation to that here. Still, the movie is gorgeous, and what I did not realize it until this morning is M83 scored it. Basically a gallo that follows an underground porn studio's actors as they are picked off one-by-one at the hands of a masked killer, Knift + Heart doesn't reinvent the wheel, but it's a great watch. Here's the trailer:
Next, 1990's Hardware. I'd never seen this until yesterday and I absolutely LOVED it. Kind of a third rate Terminator knock-off, I'll take this over Cameron's epic any day. I loved the colors, the sets, the tech - everything. And a very cool soundtrack that juxtaposed Simon Boswell's neo-futuristic, Vangelis-light score with tracks like Stigmata from Ministry and this epic from PIL:
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Playlist from 6/20:
The Verve - Northern Soul
Zen Guerilla - Positronic Saygun
Spotlights - Love and Decay
Various - A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night
David J and Federale - The Day David Bowie Died
Jefre Cantu-Ledesma - In Summer EP
Public Image Ltd - This Is What You Want... This Is What You Get
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Card of the day:
From the Grimoire: "The beginning of a new project or job." Well, that could not be more appropriate. I took a few days off writing after finishing Shadow Play Book One, tonight I plan on walking to my coffee spot and digging into Ciazarn!
Still catching up on all the stuff that dropped while I was radio silent, finishing Shadow Play Book One: Kim & Jessie. If you come here often, you'll probably get sick of hearing the name of my new book, but I'm excited and relieved like you would not believe. The first book of Shadow Play - conceived as a non-traditional trilogy with ample room for spin-offs - took me seven years to complete. Sure, there was about eight months off at two separate intervals during that time, but during that time, I was kind of working on it, too. Letting something you've written sit in a proverbial 'drawer' for the better part of a year and then going back to it, doesn't necessarily mean you're not working on it. Is "Indirect Writing" a phrase? You know, letting the story stew in its own juices?
Anyway...
Drab Majesty's new record Modern Mirror is out July 12, just over three weeks from now, and I am very excited to get my copy of the vinyl in the mail. You can still pre-order this one from the wonderful Dais Records HERE.
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Yesterday was NCBD, and it proved a fantastic leveler for me. I wrote earlier in the month about a sudden existential crisis pertaining to collecting monthly comics - part of it's space, part of it's longevity, part of it's douchey first-world anxiety - anyway you call it, the accumulation of such a large collection has begun to wear on me in a way I never would have anticipated (and I've downsized majorly on several occasions in my life). But to look at my pull list yesterday and know that I was leaving several titles behind and several others were close to finishing made me feel pretty good.
Garth Ennis' A Walk Through Hell is coming to a close next month, TheEmpty Man ended with this week's issue 8, and Black Science closes its doors in July. With the elimination of all the mini series, or the series on this list, as well as those most likely not coming back (*ahem* Southern Bastards, I'm looking at you), well, I'm edging my way out of collecting.
That's HUGE.
I'm probably going to end TMNT in seven months at issue 100, switching to digital trades instead, and I may do the same for Seven to Eternity as well. That doesn't leave much. Of course, I'll still buy anything Warren Ellis does, but I'll probably just wait for the trades, like I've been doing with The Wildstorm (still need to read that third volume!). The goal is to have the only periodical-format books I buy be The Walking Dead, Stray Bullets, Criminal, and Gunning for Hits, the last two because they have such a wealth of extra material in their monthly format, the first two because they're grandfathered in and I love them. Even Gideon Falls may fall off, as with this week's issue the story opens up considerably wider and I feel like it might be losing me. I'm getting a Lost vibe, and as much as I enjoyed watching that series as it aired, it's something I never need or want to be reminded of again.
We'll see.
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Playlist from 6/19:
Blur - Eponymous
Blur - The Best Of
Arctic Monkeys - Tranquility Base Hotel and Casino
Arab Strap - The Red Thread
Chelsea Wolfe - Hiss Spun
Blur - 13
Zen Guerilla - Positronic Raygun
Dead Kennedys - Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables
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Card of the day:
From the Grimoire: "A positive result dependent on the actions of the Querent." I'm taking this and yesterday's Breakthrough as directly referencing the completion of the book. Next, I have a small 'marketing' plan I intend to follow through on, so hoping the good tidings will flow directly into that.
Holy cow. I don't post in five days and everyone drops something new. What do I start with? Doesn't matter; what a great problem to have!
Chelsea Wolfe announced a new album and tour dates after dropping a new song. As always, Ms. Wolfe has kind of become the dark queen of my heart. I love the fluidity of her aesthetic, the fact that it meshes fine in shades of Desert acoustic, or lavish, droney Doom. Here's the album trailer:
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Shadow Play Book One: Kim & Jessie is completed! I've ordered a few proofs of the paperback, and once I go through that and confirm everything is tip top, it will be available on Amazon, at The Comic Bug, and hopefully, shortly in Barnes & Noble and any other store that will carry me! Gotta start looking into getting into the Baker & Taylor system. It's all so exciting! What's even more exciting, though, is the cover art, courtesy of my good friend Jonathan Grimm:
Grimm is an amazing artist - he really hit the "Paperbacks from Hell" aesthetic without even being asked to. And folks, he is for hire! Contact him HERE for all your freelance needs. Seriously, he does it all.
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South Park Season 19 is probably one of the most intelligent examples of social commentary ever. A joy, start to finish. I can't believe this show can continue to remain this relevant. Kudos the Parker and Stone.
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Two episodes left on Doom Patrol Season One, which I'm now comfortable saying is my favorite comic book adaptation ever. Yep. Ever. I also began re-reading the Grant Morrison/Richard Case run from the late 80s/early 90s that a lot of this show is pulled from. I can't say I'd forgotten how brilliant the book is, but I had forgotten major arcs, so it's cool to revisit. And Branden Fraiser's Cliff Steele is awesome for many reason, but in particular, he reminds me SO MUCH of my good friend Mike Shin that it's uncanny. Speaking of Cliff, one of my favorite Cliff moments occurs at the tail end of the following clip:
Look at that gator jump!
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Playlist from the last few days includes but probably wasn't limited to:
Henry Mancini - Charade OST
The Doors - Waiting for the Sun
Orville Peck - Pony
Spotlights - Love and Decay
Deftones - Gore
Alice in Chains - Eponymous
Cold Cave - Cherish the Light Years
Blur - 13
Blur - Eponymous
Blur - The Best of
Various - A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night OST
Marvin Gaye - What's Going On
The Temptations - Psychedelic Shack
The Knife - Silent Shout
Holy. F*&k. This, this I can't wait for. IT chapter 2 is exciting, but Doctor Sleep directed by Mike Flanagan... words can't describe my anticipation. Which is a little unnerving, because I had a lot of anticipation for Pet Sematary, too, and look how that turned out. That said, I'm still inclined to think the problem with PS was the studio not allowing Kevin Kölsch and Dennis Widmyer make the movie they wanted to make, while Flanagan has such a solid, lengthy track record at this point, I'm sure he will be able to do what he wants, just as I'm sure what he wants to do is make a great Stephen King adaptation from a great Stephen King novel.
If you haven't read Doctor Sleep, do so. Now, if you're able. It's fantastic.
And thanks to Mr. Brown, for lending me his copy back when it came out, ensuring I had a chance to read it early on.
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Hey, hey! That new Baroness dropped today. I'll be listening to it all morning, but tell ya what - this opening track freakin' rules!
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Playlist the last few days:
Soul Coughing - Irresistible Bliss
Deafheaven - New Bermuda
Ghost Cop - One Weird Trick
Marissa Nadler & Stephen Brodsky - Droneflower
Arthur Ahbez Gold
King Woman - Doubt EP
Perturbator - The Uncanny Valley
Gnarls Barkley - St. Elsewhere
Gnarls Barkley - The Odd Couple
My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult - Final Blindness 7"
Finitribe - Make It Internal
Orville Peck - Pony
Helmet - Aftertaste
Deftones - Koi No Yokan
Helmet - Size Matters
Helmet - Dead to the World
Odonis Odonis - Post Plague
Spotlights - Love and Decay
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Card of the day:
Leaving behind the symmetry of the sixes and moving into uncharted - and possibly murky - waters. I'm reading this as caution going forward with the next project, as I have less than three hours of work remaining on Shadow Play before I order the proofs. It's been a hell of a battle to finalize this, and I'm still not convinced I won't be reading it again in full when the proof arrives. Either way, my time on Ciazarn is coming back around again, but where that should feel strong, I've got two shorts hanging on as loose ends. Should I begin with those, knock them out and then dive back into the Dust Bowl? Not sure.
Very cool video. That image at 1:15 is creepy as hell. I'd forgotten about this record, so thank you Sargent House for dropping this and reminding me!
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Not a big day for NCBD today, but that's good. Fits with my existential crisis regarding stuff from earlier in the week. I am, however, really looking forward to the new issue of Gunning for Hits:
The back-matter in this book alone is worth the cost of the individual issues, as loaded into the music business both past and present as it is. Absolutely worth your time if you're a music fan.
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Playlist from 6/11:
Gnarls Barkley - St. Elsewhere
Jamiroquai - Return of the Space Cowboy
Orville Peck - Pony
St. Elsewhere - The Odd Couple
Spotlights - Love and Decay
Ghost Cop - One Weird Trick
Perturbator - The Uncanny Valley
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Card of the day:
I will be on the look out, as something I have planned is going to fall flat on its face. Being that I woke up at 2:00 AM this morning, I'd say that's my plans to work on the final edit later this afternoon. Not a total loss, as I used that extra time between waking so early and leaving for work to fix a particularly perplexing chapter.
