A happy accident that while looking up music by another band, I stumbled upon a Daily Bandcamp article by Jordan Reyes spotlighting Ritual Chair's music. The name caught my attention, but the music is what caught my breath. I started with 2017's Pain and Decay, and quickly found I could not work my way away from Ritual Chair's bandcamp. Each successive piece I listened to helped grow a seed of horror and anxiety inside me, which is a good thing when you see where Hailey Magdeleno's music comes from, what motivates it, and where the proceeds go. By the time I arrived at this piece, which incorporates what the artist describes as a "random tape called Africa Praise 1" - which appears to actually be released as a different project by the same creator - I feel like I should have been ready for the harrowing funnel of sound that enveloped me, but I was not. This made for a distinctly unique listening experience, one I will probably attempt to recreate down the line, but will most likely fail.
Another thing that absolutely blew me away, and seemed like the best example of an artist giving a well-deserved 'Fuck you' to a deserving party who has thus far escaped the maximum desecration he deserves, is Ritual Chair has a release titled "Brock Turner."
The album art is his smug, cunt face, and the description is a terse indictment of his failed humanity. Mr. Turner deserves far worse than having an album named after him, but it's my long-held belief that sound and idea, when sculpted from outrage, anger, and frustration, can act as a kind of Sword of Will. Perhaps if enough of us listen to and talk about this recording, it will gain the power to steal his breath while he sleeps, leaving only a lifeless shell in his place.
One can hope. In the interim, all proceeds from this, and quite a few of Ritual Chair's other releases, go to The House of Ruth.
I have become a HUGE fan of the AMC show Halt and Catch Fire. K had watched it previously, and both her and Mr. Brown recommended it to me on more than one occasion. Two weeks ago we started the now-completed show - at four seasons, ten episodes a season, I had a sense going into it that the story had been crafted in a tight, no-BS manner, and so far that's exactly what I feel I've gotten out of the first two seasons, the second of which we completed a few nights ago.
Following a small Texas tech company in the early 80s, Halt and Catch Fire uses an imaginary company called Cardiff electronics - based on Compaq computers, if what I've read is accurate - as they clone the IBM desktop BIOS and strike out to make the world's first portable computer. "At a feather-lite fifteen pounds, you can take the Giant anywhere," the sales pitch eventually goes.
The interesting thing about the show is how, by the end of season one, we're done with Cardiff and personal computing and onto the proliferation of online games and chat. Interesting, too, is how the show keeps the core five characters growing in different directions yet still realistically intertwined; this show is no slouch - the writing is fantastic. As are the performances, set design (so much nostalgia), and the theme song! Created by Trentmøller, I had so hoped the theme was a shortened version of a longer song. Nope. Short and sweet and leaves me wanting more every damn time I hear it, this is another of those show intros that I would never dream of skipping, even in the height of a binge.
**
Read:
I swam a bit after finishing Matt Ruff's Lovecraft Country; there are so many damn books I want to read right now, that I became paralyzed by the prospect of actually choosing one. I ended up going with a short-story collection/novel combo.
First up, Nathan Ballingrud's debut short story collection, North American Lake Monsters.
I've been wanting to read this since I first read The Visible Filth in 2015, but I'm often a 'saver' - that is to say, I purposefully hold out on reading books by favorite authors so I have something to look forward to. With Babak Anvari's adaptation of the stories as a new HULU original Horror Anthology show set to premiere in October, I figured I should probably get on this one, which was published in 2013 by Small Beer Press.
One story in, the majestic You Go Where It Takes You, I'm even further convinced that Ballingrud is one of the greatest living Horror authors the world has, and I find myself even more excited by the prospect of watching Anvari's interpretation of more of his world (2019's Wounds - which I wouldn't shut up about last year - was Anvari's first work with Ballingrud's material, adapting The Visible Filth, still one of my top five favorite books ever).
Next up, John Ajvide Lindqvist's Handling The Undead.
This is a loaner from my Horror Vision co-host Anthony. Lindqvist is best known for his 2004 debut Vampire novel Let the Right One In - which I have not read - and I am going into Handling.. totally blind to his style or anything about the plot, other than, working backward from the title, this will most likely be Lindqvist's unique take on the Zombie genre, an area I don't normally care all that much for, but which lately I seem to keep finding really interesting derivations of. Hopefully this continues that course.
**
Playlist:
The Cure - Standing on the Beach
David Bowie - Lodger
Rezz - Mass Manipulation
Deftones - Ohms (pre-release single)
Santogold - Eponymous
Deftones - Diamond Eyes
Skywave - Killerrockandroll
A Place to Bury Strangers - Exploding Head
Thou - Heathen
Deftones - Gore
Midnight Danger - Chapter 2: Endless Nightmare
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Blood Sugar Sex Magik
**
Card:
Back to my original, full-size Thoth deck for today's pull:
Keeping me on course. Reading You Go Where it Takes You this morning, I feel the urge to work on one of several short stories I have sitting around. Maybe late tonight; for today's writing session - which I've already budgeted out to be fairly lengthy - it's back to what I have to complete next, Shadow Play Book Two: The Absence of Light, which means I have to finish the outline for Book Three, the title of which I am not yet ready to reveal, but which fills me with unholy glee!
Musically speaking, I can't imagine better news than the imminent arrival of a new Deftones record, in just barely a month, at that. Even the way the band announced Ohms - out September 25th - is a work of art. Apparently, the Deftones put coordinates on their twitter feed, and one fan drove to those coordinates and saw a roadside billboard add for the album. Pretty cool, no? Normally, I hold off on listening to single songs more than once before an album this important to me drops, but I just mainlined this one about five times in a row and it has me rabid for the entire album. Pre-order Ohms HERE.
**
I ended up making it into the comic shop yesterday to pick up my books, and let me tell you, I had quite a haul. I've barely even cracked into the stack, however, of the two books I have read, one gave me ultimate happiness. This is going to be something only diehard fans of the old Marvel Comics Transformers series will be able to understand, but in Simon Furman and Guido Guidi's Transformers '84: Secrets and Lies issue 2 - which serves as a prequel to the Marvel series and thus, put events before the Ark's fateful crash landing into prehistoric Earth, we had a hell of a call back to the original series. Furman and Guidi show us Lord Straxus moving into Darkmount for the first time and discovering his newly appointed Decepticon outpost has its own Smelting Pool. This draws on one of my favorite comics EVER - the seminal Transformers #17, written by original Transformers scribe Bob Budiansky, with art by Don Perlin and Keith Willaims, published by Marvel Comics in 1986.
Issue 17 was such an eye-opener for me. I'd originally preferred the Transformers cartoon continuity to the Marvel comic, which I did not buy every month and which often seemed to run contrary to some of the big, cosmic ideas the show went for after the 1984 theatrical movie. That was until I read issues 17 and 18, which showed us what was going on back on Cybertron, and what was happening was Lord Straxus feeding Autobots to his smelting pool! These issues were populated with characters that were not in the cartoon or toy line, and this really fed my imagination, to the point that I tried to make a Lord Straxus and some of the other characters out of Legos so I could incorporate them into my own ongoing continuity which I had devised in my play sessions with the figures.
Transformers '84 has been full of nods to the original Marvel series, which Furman took over from Budiansky about halfway through the original run and really made his own up until it ended somewhat unexpectedly with issue 80 in 1991. Several years ago, Furman and Guidi came back for a new series that continued the original continuity, Transformers: Regeneration One, which was one of the books I could not stop talking about during its two-year run. '84 is definitely a worthy successor (or predecessor, being that it's a prequel).
**
Playlist:
The Cure - Standing on the Beach
Thou - Summit
Thou - Heathen
Santogold - Eponymous
Low Cut Connie - Hi Honey
**
Card:
More Disks, which makes perfect sense, as K and I have begun hatching a plan that involves a large sum of money.
I love EVERY song on Hangman's Noose, The Thirsty Crows' debut album on Batcave Records (order HERE). But after living with it almost two years now, I have to say, I think this is my favorite song on the album.
Although that may change again. The whole thing is just so damn great.
**
I've been meaning to post this trailer for Netflix's upcoming The Devil All the Time. I never made it around to reading Donald Ray Pollock's 2011 novel of the same name, but it's been on my radar for a while (so I have no excuse other than the to-read list is large enough to put that island of plastic refuse in the Pacific look like it's no bigger than a bottle cap).
The movie adaptation, directed by Antonio Campos and starring, well, pretty much everybody, looks riveting and moody. The trailer oozes Southern Gothic suspense, and Robert Pattinson looks downright foreboding in his role as what appears to be a charlatan preacher. Mr. Pattinson really has turned out to be quite an actor.
**
Playlist:
The Thirsty Crows - Hangman's Noose
Santogold - Eponymous
Portico - Living Fields
The Plimsouls - Everywhere at Once
Atrium Carceri - Kapnobatai
Le Butcherettes - A Raw Youth
The Cramps - RockinnReelinInAucklandNewZealandXXX
The Cure - Pornography
Converge - The Dusk in Us
Emma Ruth Rundle and Thou - Ancestral Recall (pre-release single)
Thou - Summit
**
Card:
to my original Thoth deck, where I find the Princess of Disks waiting
for me. My day may be a dragging, uphill trek through mundane, everyday
tasks.
One aspect of this card that always strikes me is the way the rock outcropping the Princess stands behind resembles both an altar - for tribute and focus - as well as a goat turning to look behind it. Also, the branches from the trees in the immediate background look not just they belong to the forest, but also to the the Princess and her altar-goat, too. This populates the card with nothing but Earth-bound textures, a key tip-off that this is one of the purest cards in the suite of Disks, from which not a lot of emotion, logic, or Will creeps through, suggesting labor. Which is exactly where I'm at in my process of re-entering the world of Kim and Jessie.
Yes please! Emma Ruth Rundle and Thou have a collaborative album coming from Sacred Bones, dropping on - how perfect - October 30th. You can pre-order May Our Chambers Be FullHERE.
**
NCBD today. It's been a few weeks since I've been in to collect my books, so I'm really going to try and make it in today.
First up is the second issue of Aftershock's Dead Day. It's been a minute since issue #1, so I'll no doubt re-read that first. As I'm sure I've said here a thousand times, I'm generally pretty exhausted with the Zombie genre, however, every once in a while something new comes along that gives it a fresh spin. This book appears to be doing just that.
Gideon Falls #24 - speaking of re-reading older issues, I really need to find the time to go back and start Gideon Falls over from the beginning. I'm keeping up with the story month to month just fine, however, I'd really like to experience everything thus far in a tight burst; this book is so freakin' out there, I really want to let its odd narrative wash over me and see what more I get out of it.
The second issue of Simon Furman and Guido Guidi's newest chapter in the Transformers original comic Universe that started in the 80s at Marvel hit the stands today, and already has me panting - look at that cover! Shockwave vs. Grimlock? I don't geek out over much that holds this beloved brand's name anymore, but these guys are definitely my window into that world.
Holy cow! Dorthia from Windhand has a new band with Gina Gleason from Baroness? Count me in!
**
I was pleasantly surprised by not one but two movies yesterday. First up, We Summon the Darkness, which I'd originally blogged about my plans to rent a few months back when it first premiered on VOD. That never ended up happening, and the flick fell off my radar until Jonathan Grimm alerted me to the fact that it hit Netflix recently.
This flick is 100% worth your time. I loved it; yes I saw a big WTF moment coming a mile away, but I think the filmmakers knew most folks would and added an extra little twist that I did not. Plus, who cares about twists when the characters, setting, mood, and overall layout of the film is this fun. We Summon the Darkness is a really good time that doesn't take itself too serious and knows how to get down and dirty in the mud and blood with Satan!
Next up, Host on Shudder. This is a 56 minute flick that was filmed during COVID shelter-in-place on Zoom.
Yes, that's right. On Zoom. I know what you're thinking; stop thinking it. This one's scary as hell and quite a good time.
Granted, I watched Host in my ideal setting: alone, stoned, with all the lights off and totally focused on the film. It's 56 minute runtime helped in that, because these days an uninterrupted movie is almost an impossibility.
**
Playlist:
Santogold - Eponymous
Perturbator - Dangerous Days
JK Flesh - Depersonalization
X- Under the Big Black Sun
X - Los Angeles
Dead Swords - Enders
Iress - Prey
Iress - Flaw (pre-release singles)
Card:
Back to the Raven Deck for this morning's Pull:
Old rules reassessed and rewritten? Or get off your lazy ass? I did a fair amount of work getting back into the sequels for Shadow Play over this past weekend. Not a lot of writing; mostly digging in and re-reading the bible for the series, plus the copious amount of notes I have on it. Feels good. That said, the Tower pops up to remind me that although I told myself I would send a query letter a day, it's been at least three days since I actually have, so I need to get back on that ASAP.
This one takes me places. Far off places, that sift and swirl with dark but life-affirming energies. I have a feeling I will be hanging out with this band for a large part of the week while writing. Fabulous stuff. Pre-order upcoming album Flaw HERE.
