I've gotta say, 2020's Melvins album Working With God is easily my favorite of the group's since 2006's (A) Senile Animal. My go-to favorite track has pretty consistently been the album opener, a modified cover of the Beach Boys I Get Around appropriately renamed I Fuck Around. But Hot Fish is a very close second, and one I played more than once today in order to get through some monotonous paperwork.
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I've always dug the Marvel character Dane Whitman, AKA The Black Knight, so I picked up the one-shot King in Black: The Black Knight last week. Not a great story - it starts great and then quickly begins to feel editorially driven. Plus, I'm not going anywhere near a crossover of this size, so it was largely lost on me. Still, I dug enough about it that it inspired me to dig out another Marvel title that plays off the old school, pulp Weird Barbarian stuff, Jason Aaron and Mike Del Mundo's Weirdworld, from circa 2015.
I love this book for so many reasons, however, chief among them would be the use of Crystar the Crystal Warrior and some of his supporting cast (now that's a fucking PULL), and the concept of an entire forest made of Man Things.
I only have the original, post-Secret Wars five-issue run, and I know there's a second volume that followed, so I'm going to need to track that down.
Playlist:
Michael Kiwanuka - KIWANUKA
Thievery Corporation - The Mirror Conspiracy
Kate Bush - The Dreaming
The Replacements - Tim
Deftones - Covers
Selim Lemouchi and His Enemies - Earth Air Spirit Water Fire
Zeal & Ardor - Wake of a Nation EP
Suburban Living - Always Eyes
Gun N' Roses - Appetite for Destruction
Skid Row - Slave to the Grind
Bjork - Post
Tomahawk - Toxic Immobility
Fantômas - Suspended Animation
Run the Jewels - RTJ4
Flogging Molly - Float
Genghis Tron - Dream Weapon
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Change continues unabated: I type this entry on my brain new, M1 Macbook. The old one - which I've had since August of 2012 - isn't going anywhere, but it's slowing down and suffering from an erratic track pad, so this was a necessary change.
The new Tomahawk is out and it's super fun! Favorite track so far? Probably still Business Casual, but from the stuff I've only been living with for twenty-four hours, I'll point to the almost prog-rock guitar of Tattoo Zero. Meanwhile, Predators and Scavengers has an old school Jesus Lizard feel at times, and they released a video.
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Block Island Sound - which is currently streaming on Netflix - already feels like a frontrunner for movie of the year. Of course it's my way to make bold statements like that in March and April, so we'll see.
Too soon to tell or not, I fully expect the McManus Brothers' latest foray into Horror to be in my top ten at the very least. It's such an ominous film, dread dripping into all the little corners of one family's life.
"As part of Sweet Relief Musicians Fund's recent 'For The Crew' fundraising event, Hooky's son Jack teamed up with Mark Lanegan (Mark Lanegan Band/Screaming Trees), Smashing Pumpkins guitarist Jeff Schroeder and drummer Shane Graham for a special live version of the Joy Division classic 'Disorder'.
All funds raised by this event went towards supporting out of work touring crews who have been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic.
Please consider making a donation if you are able to: https://givebutter.com/FORTHECREW
If you're in the US you can also text FORTHECREW to (202) 858-1233."
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I had yesterday off, so Tuesday night K and I had a bit of a marathon. Being that it was my birthday, I wanted to reconnect with what I've come to think of my 'power movies.' There are quite a few, but here's what I went with:
Followed by:
Rounded out by my second viewing of Ryan Gosling's gorgeous directorial debut in the last two months (with a third already scheduled):
This was a great night for me; it'd been longer than I realized since my last viewing of my favorite Horror film of the 00s. Kill List I'd only seen once before but it left such a huge impression on me I'd been planning a follow-up for years. Luckily, thanks to Anthony (Butcher) from The Horror Vision, I located a B-Region BR for $5 a few months ago, so now I can watch my favorite Ben Wheatley film whenever I want. And Lost River has just become one of my all-times. I seriously think about re-watching it every day.
Every. Day.
Playlist:
Deafheaven - Ordinary Corrupt Human Love
Cocksure - TVMALSV
Etta James - Eponymous
Tennis System - Technicolour Blind
The Dead Milkmen - Welcome to the End of the World
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Abbatoir Blues
The Besnard Lakes - The Besnard Lakes are the Last of the Great Thunderstorm Warnings
Genghis Tron - Dream Weapon
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I felt honored and ecstatic to do my first birthday pull from Missi's Raven Deck. I wasn't disappointed, either:
The presence of Boaz and Joachim are very positively charged images for me, one of the reasons this might be my favorite card from this deck. Plus, I've always considered a strong, mythical female presence as the closest thing to a supreme power in the cosmos of my life. Here, flanked by Soloman's pillars and a weird forest-derived rendition of the Tree of Life, I see nothing but the actualization of the processes I have put into place over the last several years.
My good friend Mr. Grez recently introduced me to Maldita Vecindad y Los Hijos del Quinto Patio, or from what I'm seeing, more commonly shortened simply to Maldita Vecindad. This band is fantastic; they kind of run all over the place, but for an elevator pitch I might simply go with - from the few songs I know so far - Los Amigos Invisibles meets the Blue Meanies. Check this song out, which in particular was the impetus for me pulling out the Meanies late last week.
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It's been difficult to log anything in this particular segment of late because I've literally been drowning in the written word (a nice way to go, eh?). From the early 90s Fantaco Night of the Living Dead graphic novel adaptation series (thanks, Butcher!), to Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials series, to weekly issues of the monthly series I follow, to the last-minute Bernie Wrightson/Kelley Jones re-reads I flew through over the weekend as prep for Chris Saunders and I sitting down with Jones to discuss Wrightson on the newest episode of A Most Horrible Library, I've been in and out of so many continuities lately that my heads started to spin a bit.
But something I've casually commented on over the last month or so that's percolating into a full-on reread is the old Hellblazer series.
Although I was already in the middle of a slow crawl through Jamie Delano and John Ridgway's original arc collected in Original Sins, I went and reread perhaps Constantine's most iconic arc, the Garth Ennis and Will Simpson's Dangerous Habits. This was seasonal reading - the story I went to over a few pints of Guinness on St. Paddys last week. I finished it last night, and really felt a different aspect of the story resonate with me this time, and that's John's relationship with Matt.
This relationship is extremely poignant in the Constantine evolution because it's one of (if not the first) time in the series that we see John make a new friend, and how because of how he's let down or betrayed so many of his other, old school friends, we see what Matt's friendship means to him, how he comes down on himself in such a brutal fashion when he gets a new lease on life and realizes he may have forgotten about Matt. This B-story is honestly more emotionally fulfilling than the iconic (and still awesome) Constantine cheats the Devil one in the foreground, and it's something that I don't really think made as big an impact on me back in the day as it does now.
From here, I'm going to continue through Original Sins, however, a full-on Ennis/Dillon reread is imminent at this point, now that my appetite for Ennis' particular take on the character has been reawakened.
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Patreon is a slippery slope. I launched one for The Horror Vision recently, mostly because last year, I found out there is another guy out there using our podcast name. We've had the name (and the .com) since October 2018; he started his almost a full year later. He also very obviously realized there was already a podcast with the same name when he went to buy the website and saw ours (his website is a derivation). At any rate, I don't really bear this person any ill will, however, I find it a little perplexing and frustrating that he wouldn't just, you know, come up with another name. So, after discovering all this, I immediately went and branded everything I could think of with our name, Patreon being one of the big ones.
But do we, The Horror Vision, as a podcast, do anything that warrants someone paying to support us on this platform? At the moment, no. I'm slowly working on getting some things off the ground that will make me better about occupying this space - the Patreon exclusive Podcast Elements of Horror is coming SOON - but in the meantime, I just feel weird about even having it. I mean, I don't even totally understand Patreon. Or, at least I didn't until I subscribed to Jeremy Haun's.
Now, this is nothing against Jonathan Grimm, whose Patreon I subbed to some time ago. John's one of my favorite artists working today, a frequent collaborator, and one of my best friends, so it's different. But Jeremy is someone who I met as a fan, and, I think, hit it off with over the course of a podcast interview so that, while I don't know that we're 'friends' exactly yet, we're friendly. And Jeremy's mind, the narrative work he creates, it just has me. The Red Mother was a unique and completely enthralling experience to read; having the opportunity to pick Jeremy's brain about it (and a hundred other things) was a pleasure and one that made me think I would absolutely benefit from supporting him on the Patreon platform. Turns out, I was right.
Just the Haunthology stuff alone fills my heart with the jet-black glee I love so much. Jeremy's is a narrative with ongoing, far-reaching continuity, and that's my favorite thing. Literally. The video above should help demonstrate that. I guess this is probably coming off as a sales pitch for Jeremy's Patreon, and I guess to some degree it is, because I just spent a wonderful hour immersing myself in it and feel completely elated, the way I do when I sit down and read a full arc by David Lapham, or a Hellblazer trade, or watch a great movie. And those are always going to be the things I want to tell other people about on here, because I like to spread the word. Works for the creator, works for the consumer. Literally, win-win.
Playlist:
Drab Majesty - Modern Mirror
Genghis Tron - Board Up the House
Pailhead - Singles
Primitive Man - Immersion
Steve Moore - The Mind's Eye OST
Sunn O))) - Kanon
Steve Moore - VFW OST
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I have always loved the colors in this card. The rocky, pixelated backdrop and the emerald symmetry of the image in the foreground work together so well to create this feeling of order over chaos, which of course, is the nature of a truce.
This is the truce within myself that I have to navigate in the midst of the, frankly, insane workload I've created in my life. It's a constant energy drain to dodge and weave between projects, but there's no other way I can do things at this point. I believe it's how I've stayed sane during this trying time.
A little Blue Meanies is like a double shot of espresso this early in the morning.
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I saw a handful of flicks this weekend, however, this is the most intriguing thing I've watched in some time.
For our anniversary last month, I signed her up for Christine McConnell's Patreon. I enjoy Ms. McConnell's content, however, K is a super fan. This video, which is not a Patreon exclusive but one of McConnell's public offerings, is absolutely insane, as we watch her recreate the color of one-hundred-year-old wallpaper by sight, then physically recreate the areas of the paper that were damaged beyond repair.
Playlist:
Human Impact - EP01
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - From Her to Eternity
Suburban Living - Always Eyes
M83 - Saturdays = Youth
Maldita Vecindad - Lo Essencial
Blue Meanies - Full Throttle
Pigface - Live 2019
The Dead Milkmen - Welcome to the End of the World EP
John Carpenter - Lost Themes III: Alive After Death
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Transitions. Completely appropriate, as I was forced to order a new Mac Book today due to the failing health of the one I'm typing this truncated recording on now. These entries may be short or nonexistent after this until early April, while I wait for my new machine to arrive.
A new Human Impact EP dropped last Friday and I totally missed it. Last year's eponymous album from these guys was kind of the soundtrack to the apocalypse, so this comes with mixed feelings. Either way, if shit goes pear-shaped again, at least it'll have another great OST.
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April 16th can't get here fast enough. Why?
I'll see anything even remotely associated with Larry Fessenden regardless, but it's always great when he spends more time on screen. Here, he's leading man opposite Barbara Crampton? In what looks like a fantastic modern vampire movie, no less. Count me in.
Playlist:
Pilotpriest - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
Godflesh - Pure
Arab Strap - As Days Get Dark
Suburban Living - How to be Human
Pigface - Live 2019 (vinyl, 231 of 1000)
Huey Lewis and the News - Weather
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I read this as "letting go," which is especially pertinent to my day job at the moment. Being made salary means I'm taking a pay cut if I continue to work the extra hours I am essentially taking a pay cut, so I have to learn to let certain things go. I have a good team that works for me, and what this ultimately means is I will have a lot more time to write. Win Win, as long as I can let go.
