Episode two of Halt and Catch Fire's fourth and final season ends with James' Laid playing over the characters as they move through the culmination of the episode's interactions, relationship and business shake-ups that no doubt begin to move all these people I've grown to love into position for the series' end in eight more episodes. It reminded me how long it had been since I last listened to James, and how much this song - a song I despised when it made its initial splash in the mid-90s zeitgeist - has come to mean to me since I fell in love with it in a pub in Dublin, circa 2001.
Watch:
I'm not really a Dune fan. I've never read the novels, and the 80's film adaptation is the only film directed by David Lynch I abhor - and feel fine doing so, considering Lynch petitioned to have his name removed from it. That said, I am definitely a Denis Villeneuve fan. And this looks gorgeous, so I'm in:
I'd love for Mr. Villeneuve to pattern his career after someone like Christopher Nolan - alternating big-budget, franchise, or high-end IP projects with original films, and I have a feeling that's exactly what he will do. In the meantime, I loved Blade Runner 2049, and I think I'll love this, too.
Playlist:
I don't do many shuffles, but I ended up having a pretty good one this morning on Apple Music and then translated it into a playlist on Spotify. Here it is:
From there the day's music looked like this:
Firewater - The Ponzi Scheme
Darkness Brings the Cold - Devil Swank Vol. 1
Lawnmower Deth - Billy
Iress - Prey
The Bronx - The Bronx (I)
Card:
"Quiet contemplation yields unexpected results."
I'll be looking for that today, in the (hopefully) quiet moments when contemplation often sneaks up on me.
I pulled out Firewater's classic 1998 album The Ponzi Scheme and, as usual, now find myself unable to put it away. I've posted other songs from this album here before but haven't paid tribute to others. In that interest, here's"So Long Superman," just another of my favorite songs on an album where every song is a favorite.
Read:
I finished John Ajvide Lindqvist's Handling the Undead a few days ago. Wow. Very good. Understated, powerful, and creepy as hell. Lindqvist's prose is a touch dry, but it works well as he filters between the three main groups of characters - three families - and how they react to the return of dead loved ones. Their reactions then become superimposed across a larger arena as the whole of Sweden reacts to the return of what the media dub the "Reliving," a term very much inspired by a government trying to handle a baffling and unprecedented experience. This is an undead book where the undead are, for the most part, completely unviolent, leaving the characters to deal with the psychological, emotional, and sociological ramifications of what would happen if the recently deceased returned to us.
From there I moved back into Nathan Ballingrud's debut short story collection, North American Lake Monsters. I'd been reading a story here or there over the last two weeks, just to have something to dig into that inspires me to write, and now that I'm full bore, I'm once again in Ballingrud's beautiful prose. This man is easily one of the best writers working today, no need for the genre quantifier. I simply cannot wait for this to hit Hulu next month as the new anthology show Monsterland; I'm hoping they do all nine stories. In particular, The Crevasse is one of the best shorts I've ever read, and to see it properly translated would be majestic, in the least.
Playlist:
Firewater - The Ponzi Scheme
Mastodon - Crack the Skye
Mastodon - Emperor of Sand
Perturbator - Dangerous Days
Card:
"Harmonious union of male and female energies" is a nice reminder on something I've been working on as I muster up the gumption to jump back into Shadow Play, which I continue to avoid for some reason.
Struggling a bit to get into the recent Jaye Jayle, so I ended up going back to 2018's No Trail and Other Unholy Paths. That led me to this. Very cool to see them in action.
Watch:
Finally sat down and watched Z on Shudder last night. I really liked this one. There was some great, sustained tension, and one scene in particular really affected me in a way that resonated long after.
Also, K and I had a 'nefarious mansion' doubleheader across two nights over the long weekend. We kicked it off Saturday night with this classic which I had never seen but K swears by. She's totally right, too. April Fools Day is definitely not your ordinary 80s Slasher flick. Which, of course, made me like it quite a bit.
And Sunday night it was the always amazing Clue!
Love that one, as it's got such a great cast who all turn in iconic performances.
Playlist:
Low Cut Connie - Hi Honey
Nirvana - Nevermind
Zeal and Ardor - Vigil
The Clash - London Calling
The Obsessed - Lunar Womb
Ainoma - Necropolis
Brand New - God and the Devil are Raging Inside Me
Jaye Jayle - No Trail and Other Unholy Paths
Card:
Okay, now this is getting crazy.
I have to dial back in. I did a fairly decent job tonight, hoping I can plow through after the return to work tomorrow. Back is better with some anti-inflammatory meds the doctor gave me, so that's not really an excuse right now.
New music from All Them Witches on this wonderful first day of a three-day weekend. New album Nothing As The Ideal dropped yesterday, order it HERE.
Watch:
Originally, I had no intention of watching the new Ridley Scott produced Raised By Wolves.
After Mr. Scott decided Michael Fassbender's android character David
was now the focal point of the Alien franchise - a decision that would
not have bothered me had Scott not bizarrely used it as a reason to kill ALL the Engineers off camera* - the trailer for Raised By Wolves
looked like he was now doubling down on his android fascination,
deciding to make something new and wholly apart from Alien that only
focused on those white-goo filled humanoids.
I mean, David, Bishop, Ash - the androids are all great characters, filled with weird amoral dilemmas, but they're not that cool, right? I mean, cooler than the Engineers, the god-like creators of the Xenomorph and, um, EARTH? No.
However, then I began to
think, what if Raised By Wolves does end of tying in? I've always
regretted the fact that the marketing for Prometheus gave away the
connection to Alien before the movie even opened. I mean, imagine having gone to see this new Ridley Scott Sci Fi movie in the theatre, getting to the
end, and seeing it suddenly connect as a surprise? It would have been
one of the best theatrical experiences ever! Robbed of that, what if Mr.
Scott had a new opportunity to do the same thing and took it, only this
time as a top tier HBO series?
Well, after watching the first two of the three episodes that dropped this week, I'm pretty sure Wolves will not tie in to Alien. However, it's pretty damn good. Also, it's not a Scott creation. This is the brainchild of Aaron Guzikowski, who also wrote one of my favorite films of the previous decade, the Denise Villeneuve-directed Prisoners. Keeping that in mind, after two episodes, I'm all in.
Playlist:
Zeal and Ardor - I Can't Breath (pre-release single)
Zeal and Ardor - Vigil (pre-release single)
The Smiths - Louder Than Bombs
Queens of the Stone Age - Era Vulgaris
Nirvana - Nevermind
Card:
Whenever I draw the Ace of Disks now, I draw a clarifying card, because somehow, this one has becomes slightly bent, which physically increases the chance that it is the card I will cut the deck at. I don't want to completely disregard it; also, my preference previous to beginning these daily pulls was always to do at least a three-card spread, however, as the meme goes, ain't nobody got time for that.
Four of Wands, Completion. Two solid cards, one vested in Material or Earthly matters, one in aspects of Will. What do they tell me when taken together?
As is my wont, I interpret pretty much everything in these daily draws as relating to my work as a writer. If I ever need anything outside of that, I draw separately and don't mention it here. Keeping this in mind, I believe my plan for the day should be to finish my most recent query letter on Murder Virus before I dip back into Shadow Play, and send it out. I've stalled on everything of late, mostly because I've slipped or herniated a disc in my back and am more or less in continuous pain, which has affected my mood, which in turn has made me quite lethargic. Need to get over that.
I've been meaning to post about this all week! I'm in the middle of a re-watch of the Cowboy Bebop, and on a lark - and because lately, Saturday nights after midnight I tend to go buzzed record shopping online - I looked up the constantly out of print soundtrack for Bebop and found there is a new pressing up for pre-order RIGHT BLOODY NOW!!!
I ordered mine from the evil empire HERE, but if you have another source, there may be an alternative. All that really matters is I will finally own this one. The music Composer Yoko Kanno and Seat Belts did for this series is among my most favorite music in the world. I can't wait!
Reading:
I have fallen in love with Mirka Andolfo's comic Mercy. Look at these covers!
Art is not usually the factor that pulls me into a new book, but it convinced me to pick up the first issue of this one a few months back. Well, more than a few. I let the rest slide, but recently made it back into Atomic Basement Comics - I'm lucky enough to have two comic shops I love near me, it's just the Bug is literally walking distance from my crib, so my pull at Atomic sat lonesome since this whole Pandemic began. Anyway, I picked up my stash and there they were - four more issues of Mercy. It's not just the art - this one is a sly, period piece horror story that reminds me more than a little of Mike Mignola and Troy Nixey's Jenny Finn or even Joe Hill/Laura Marks/Kelley Jones' recent book Daphne Byrne. Polite society in what I think is late 1800s Washington state, with a tentacled monster(s) preying on lords, ladies, and orphans alike! Can't recommend this one enough.
Playlist:
Earth - Primitive and Deadly
Rezz - Mass Manipulation
Sam Ewing - The Shed OST
Windhand/Satan's Satyrs - Split
Wolves in the Throne Room - Two Hunters
Agalloch - Marrow of the Spirit
Me and That Man - New Man, New Songs, Same Shit, Vol. 1
Tennis System - Technicolor Blind
Card:
Persistent, eh? Persistent creativity perhaps? While it's true my creative impulse has lately been curbed by persistent back pain, I had a good little session on Shadow Play Book Two this past Wednesday, enough to get me stoked for the possibility of a deep-dive on this upcoming holiday weekend that begins, well, today!
A couple weeks ago, my good friend Jacob sent me a link to a band called Skywave's album killerrockandroll on Apple Music. It took me until late last week to get around to it, and when I did, my first reaction was apprehension. I liked Skywave quite a bit, but they sounded an awful lot much like A Place to Bury Strangers, and because of that I had mixed feelings. I mean, it even sounded like Oliver Ackermann singing. A lot. I did some quick research and learned there was a good reason the two bands sounded so much alike: Skywave was Ackermann's precursor to APTBS, disbanding around 2003.
As a sound, killerrockandroll definitely scratches the APTBS itch, which is great, because ever since Exploding Head, I've been less than impressed with most of what Strangers release, so now I have a new place to go when I wear Head out and feel like something more.
Watch:
Last week was fairly unproductive, writing-wise. I had a major breakthrough early one morning on my way to work, but after that, the days just took too much out of me. I have developed some kind of chronic, insanely painful back pain that manifests as sharp, horrible spasms when I do things like, well, move. It's not constant, but walking on eggshells and the fact that this hasn't gone away in almost a month has me more than a little afraid and totally exhausted mentally. Every day last week I came home, stared longingly at the spot at the kitchen table where I write during the afternoon, and then collapsed onto the sectional instead. As is my habit on afternoons such as this, I threw on a few movies, mostly conking out before they even began. Most were utterly forgettable. One was great, one good.
First, the great one: Director George Popov's The Droving. I loved it.
This one fits into a subgenre I've kind of created in my head, "British Occult," and shares that tag with films like Colm McCarthy's Outcast, Julian Richards' Darklands, and Ben Wheatley's Kill List. The Droving follows Martin, an ex-military interrogator, home from the desert and looking for his sister, who has disappeared. I have a brief review up on my Horror Amino profile, as well as on my Letterbxd page. Needless to say, I really dug this film, and plan on going back and watching Popov's first film Hex, which stars much of the same cast as this one, and is currently included with Amazon Prime.
Next, the good one was Director Dan Bush's The Dark Red. Here's the trailer:
This one took a while to win me over. Being distributed by Dark Sky Films I should have given it the benefit of the doubt from the start, but I found it on Prime and, honestly, the movie algorithm they use has started to make their 'Recommends' list look like the ass end of the Horror Section you'd see at Hollywood video back in the early 2000s, when a ton of cheaply made crap horror flix began to fill out the shelves of the Horror section (Dark Night of the Scarecrow anyone? How about Alien vs. Hunter?). Anway, The Dark Red is pretty solid. The tone switches in the third act, and even though it's a bit jarring, that final act really turns everything that came before on its head. Which turns out to be both good for the viewer and the excitement factor in the flick, a little bad if you're really paying attention. Full disclosure, I nodded off a bit, so my issues may be mine, and I can't help wonder if I'd seen this under better circumstances, if it would have totally wowed me. One thing is for sure, the actor Bernard Setaro Clark blew me away with his supporting performance, and I'd definitely like to see more of him.
Playlist:
Deftones - Diamond Eyes
A Place to Bury Strangers - Exploding Head
Santogold - Eponymous
Emma Ruth Rundle and Thou - Ancestral Recall (pre-release single)
