A track I heard last week at my Horror Vision cohost Ray L's first Cineray of the pre-COVID era. This is a very '2000s' track for me, however, it's been cool to reintegrate some of that vibe over the last few years, kicking off with my rewatch of Veronica Mars, a show I first watched and fell in love with back during my first year or two after moving to California, when the 2000-ness of everything was at full height.
READ:
I finished re-reading Phillip Pullman's The Subtle Knife this past Sunday, and I have to say, reading these first two books in the His Dark Materials series I originally read in the early 2000s has highlighted just what a faithful adaptation of the BBC ONE/HBO's series is.
Whatever I imagined the characters to look like previously is gone, and the cast of the show has now fully inhabited the imaginary world I'm experiencing as I read. These are tomes, and I've been pretty slow in re-reading, however, only one book left before I can begin the newest entry in the saga, 2017's The Book of Dust, which my A Most Horrible Library cohost Chris Saunders gifted me a few months back.
Most interesting to me is how, whoever my favorite character may have been during my first read, it is now Lee Scoresby by a longshot, all because of actor Lin-Manual Miranda's portrayal of the aeronaut. Interesting, because during the first season, he was the one casting choice I felt did not fit the character. Now, as I read, I see Mr. Miranda, and it's very cool.
Playlist:
Trackademicks - 7th Heaven EP
ACDC - Highway to Hell
Perturbator - Lustful Sacraments
Dance With the Dead - B-Sides: Vol. 1
The Gutter Twins - Saturnalia
Card:
There is a common goal I share right now with my better half. It's a huge idea that will ultimately change our lives forever. More later.
This hit yesterday, but I've been writing and scheduling these posts at least a day ahead to try and regain some sense of consistency. Wednesday was already a pretty good morning when Mr. Brown text me that Deafheaven dropped a new track and announced an album. As you can imagine, I FLEW to pre-order Infinite GraniteHERE, then spent a good amount of time listening to "Great Mass of Color "over and over. So good. I guess all the black metal blow-hards can shut the fuck up, since the band has obviously now embraced integrating so many other elements. That's what the best of any genre does - refuses to be limited by the tropes of their chosen peers.
Infinite Granite lands August 20 on Sargent House.
Watch:
Well, Marvel's Loki started last night, and after watching it, all I can say is... loved it. Not really sure where this is going, except I'm thinking we might be meeting a certain purple time traveler by the end of this series. Which would be pretty f*&kin' cool.
One of the things that put me in the mood for this series was listening to the Marvel's Pull List podcast that dropped yesterday. I've become quite a fan of both this and the This Week in Marvel 'cast, and on this week's Pull List they interviewed Al Ewing, a writer whose name I've been seeing on the solicitations for a lot of Marvel books of the last few years, but who I haven't really read outside of an aborted attempt at Immortal Hulk (not the book's fault; I plan to get to this eventually, especially now that it's ending). Anyway, the interview kind of primed me for Loki because apparently, Al wrote a series called Loki: Agent of Asgard that I very vaguely remember seeing on the shelves back circa 2014, and he spoke at length about what an attachment he has to the character, and how he kind of ushered in a more 'fixed' take on the character. Really interesting stuff, so I just may read this series, too.
Playlist:
Deafheaven - Great Mass of Color (pre-release single)
Deafheaven - Ordinary Corrupt Human Love
Entropy - Liminal
Principles of Geometry - Lazare (Tommy, you are SO right on this one)
Blanck Mass - Animated Violence Mild
NIN - Ghosts I-IV
John Carpenter - Lost Themes III: Alive After Death
Run the Jewels - RTJ4
Card:
After drawing The Devil two days in a row, my good friend Missi - who made the Raven Deck - suggested that perhaps I needed to "turn the volume down on the real world a bit."
Well Missi, I would say Your creation agrees with you. Here's me turning down the volume on the real world for a bit.
I mentioned this one yesterday and then had to hear it. The whole record is just tough-as-nails bass playing by one of the masters. Hit play and prepare to bang your head.
NCBD:
First - the pre-orders for Behemoth Comics's Turbo Kid Prequel series is up! Go HERE if you are interested. Look at these tasty f*&king covers!
Next, here's this week's haul:
You see why I jones when a week goes by without an issue of Amazing Spider-man at this point, right? 67 just hit last week and here we are again!
Loving this series, especially as we continue to climb the tiers of antagonists who Geiger will no doubt eventually have to square off against.
One more issue to round out a very dark but somehow also extremely pleasant surrealist take on death.
Watching Peter Parker slowly become Venom is creepy and fun as hell.
I just can't say enough good things about this book.
Playlist:
QOTSA - Rated R
Firewater - The Ponzi Scheme
Ghost - Infestissumam
Sampa the Great - The Return
Dance With the Dead - B-Sides: Vol. 1
The Foundations - Baby, Now That I've Found You (single)
The Foundations - Build Me Up Buttercup (single)
Blur - Parklife
Iggy Pop - Lust for Life
Entropy - Liminal
Card:
Two days in a row, eh? Okay, I'm assuming someone is trying to tell me something I am not listening to. Time to take off the blinders and pay attention.
Heaps of praise to Mr. Brown for introducing me to Lindsey Buckingham's 2008 solo album Gift of Screws, an album I am fairly certain would never have wound up on my radar without the guidance from my friend. This is one for the ages - as Brown stated in a text recently, the whole thing really highlights his guitar playing, an aspect that often gets pushed to the background in Fleetwood Mac. Opener Great Day has some truly fantastic finger-picking, and most of the tracks - especially "Did You Miss Me" above - would have made stand out singles for the radio, if there was an outlet in the major markets for guys like Buckingham, who are more often than not relegated to the 'was in a classic rock band' category. Reminds me a bit of the first time I heard John Paul Jones' record Zooma.
Watch:
I haven't watched Richard Kelley's The Box since it was in theatres in 2009. After that viewing, I left scratching my head even harder than I did after my first viewing of his Southland Tales. Do I like either of those movies as much as I do Donnie Darko? Not at all - in fact, I don't even know if I can say I actually like either. Well, Southland grew on me, and despite the fact that it's a fractured mess, I like enough of it to say, "Yes." The Box though... after this second viewing I'm less convinced I like it than if I had just left things at the one viewing eleven years ago. That said, it's a conversation piece for sure, and pretty damned engaging, so this isn't a dis, just a renewal of the hesitancy I reserve for everything Kelley did after DD.
The actual viewing of this film leaves me a bit baffled and I think it's because in some way I do not possess the technical vocabulary to describe, Kelley filmed this to look like a tv show from the 50s and seeing it packaged with the expectations of a big-budget (well, not that big) Hollywood movie creates a kind of cognitive dissonance that makes it hard for me to reconcile. Also, there's an element of the film that involves people becoming transmitters for alien intelligence, and I think Kelley brilliantly worked this into the fabric of the film itself, into performances, camera angles, and dialogue, so that many scenes are just jarring enough to create a disconnect with the viewer.
I don't know. I'm not getting rid of my DVD copy of The Box or anything, but it may be another eleven years before I watch it again.
Playlist:
Perturbator - Lustful Sacraments
Run the Jewels - RTJ4
El P - I'll Sleep When You're Dead
QOTSA - Rated R
Lindsey Buckingham - Gift of Screws
Lard - Pure Chewing Satisfaction
Lustmord - Heresy
Slayer - Show No Mercy
Small Black - Cheap Dreams
Card:
New ideas can free you from yourself. This is something I'm always glad to be reminded of because another side of the Devil is obsession or narrowing of vision, which is essentially anathema of a writer.
LOVING the new album from James Kent, AKA Perturbator. Apparently, there are those out there who find his new direction uncool, but I say you can't make the same album over and over forever. Here's a current favorite selection.
Watch:
Well, after hating part two, I went into The Conjuring 3: The Devil Made Me Do It with probably as low of expectations as possible. Turns out, I dug it. Not as good as the first, and Hollywood Horror is almost always going to take a backseat to the indie stuff, but this one was good. The lighting and camera work especially stand out, and I really dig Vera Farmiga in everything, even if these movies are starting to treat her a bit like Jean Grey with her psychic ability.
You can hear more of my thoughts on The Conjuring 3, as well as that of my cohosts, on the newest episode of The Horror Vision.
Interesting side note, I wandered into the Comic Bug this afternoon and found out this had come out:
Two stories, both cool. The second a stand-alone and penned by Scott Snyder, the first the opening installment in a larger tale. The Warrens are not on hand, but I'm assuming they will be eventually.
Playlist:
Perturbator
Lindsey Buckingham - Gift of Screws EP
Harakiri for the Sky - Maere
Blur - Parklife
QOTSA - ... Like Clockwork
QOTSA - Villains
Goatsnake - Black Age Blues
Various - Twin Peaks: Music from the Limited Event Series
Calexico - The Black Light
Card:
Yes, this is exactly the right card at the moment. Solitary introspection that nearly drives me mad.
FUCK YES! I'm a little late with this one, as I've been so preoccupied with the new Perturbator that I forgot Z&A dropped a new track and announced an album coming out sometime in early 2022. I think; I swear I saw a February date when I first went to this song, but I can't find that any longer, so maybe I'm wrong and we'll get the album sooner. That would be fantastic!
INTERVIEW:
Super psyched that my cohost on A Most Horrible Library, Chris Saunders and I got to interview comics legend Glenn Fabry this past week. Check out the episode on Spotify, Apple Music, any other pod-platform, or just right here on youtube:
If you're unfamiliar with Glenn, he's best known as the man who did every single cover for Garth Ennis and Steve Dillion's Preacher, still my all-time favorite comic. To say this was an honor would be an understatement indeed.
While talking to Glenn, we found out he has a Big Cartel shop, and I had to throw up a link. Glenn doesn't make royalties on almost anything he did cover-wise, so he's not exactly sitting on top of the world like Mr. Ennis is (deservedly so, but still). I picked up a couple awesome prints from Glenn's shop, and wanted to spread the word.
Glenn's Big Cartel is HERE, and his Creature From the Black Lagoon is NO JOKE.
NCBD:
Seriously, I think there was like a week this month without a Spider-man book and I felt the void! What has become of me?
And I guess because we had a week off, two spidey books this week!
Wrapping up what has been a fantastic series that truly is unlike anything else I've ever read. The solicitation logline, "Breaking Bad meets The Sandman" isn't exactly right, but it gets you in the ballpark, and I'd never take issue with such an over-the-top comparison because it did its job - it convinced me to take a chance that I do not regret.
Somehow I missed issue three of Dead Dog's Bite, so I'll be holding off reading this until I can pick that up, too.
YES! Issue 45 was my favorite comic of the year so far, so I can't wait to see what else the 90s has in store for Marcus and crew.
Cool series, but another one that I hiccuped and missed a few issues of. I'll remedy that by next week though. So glad to be reading some Larry Hama again.
This book continues to impress me, despite its over-the-top, almost classic Image feel.
Playlist:
Perturbator - Lustful Sacraments
David Bowie - Hunky Dory
Harakiri for the Sky - III: Trauma
Silent - Modern Hate
Siouxsie and the Banshees - Tinderbox
Zeal and Ardor - Run (Single)
Zeal and Ardor - Stranger Fruit
Card:
Super appropriate - Opportunites revolving past me in several areas, leaving me dizzy, uncertain and confused. Fighting to stand atop my decision and look at it all with a meticulous and discerning eye.
