Computer Blue

 

From possibly the greatest album of the 1980s. This will probably be taken down by the estate, even though I'm not trying to do anything here other than spread love for one absolutely amazing song. Listen to the keys below the surface. Also, just listen to the way this song does a complete transformation halfway through. I would be hard-pressed to think of a song that sounds more progressively 80s, and by that I mean it doesn't sound dated. Or nostalgic, exactly, but still futuristic, in the way that 80s Psyber Punk still feels futuristic, even though we've moved beyond or outright incorporated so much of its textures into the fabric of our everyday world.  

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NCBD:

HOLY SHIT! How are these covers just getting better and better? I believe this is the penultimate issue of the series, and I will most definitely be sad to see it go. I'll now follow Daniel Warren Johnson anywhere he chooses to go.

Issue #1 of Red Room has been banging around in my head for the last month, and I'm psyched to jump back into it with the second issue!

I didn't realize That Texas Blood was returning so quickly! Very cool; I loved the first arc and can't wait to jump into the second. A suitable replacement for Southern Bastards (for the moment).

The finale! I'll probably be re-reading this series start to finish now that it's done.

If that cover doesn't evoke Clive Barker, I don't know what does.

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Playlist:

Atrium Carceri - Kapnobatai

White Zombie - Astro-Creep 2000 

White Zombie - La Sexorcisto 

Not a lot of music today, as I was fully enraptured with the 22nd installment of Bret Easton Ellis's The Shards. This is not only the best thing he's written - hard for me to say that considering how much I love Lunar Park - but his readings have become wickedly engaging. The interplay between Abby Malory and young Bret blew me away.

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Card:

So, I canceled the meet-up with my old friend and postponed the posting of my nosleep serial. Lots of reasons to go ahead with both, and as this card suggests maybe I should have. The meet-up was a little outside my control, the nosleep postponement was all me second-guessing myself. Bad idea? Maybe, but I genuinely think there is something bigger the post can be than what it is. Better. I'll give it a week. Then it's on.

 

Babe, I'm Just a Spiraling Fool

 

This song will never get old. One of the first Zeppelin songs I heard, back in high school when I discovered them, and still a favorite.

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Watch:

I finally saw Kurtis David Harder's 2019 film Spiral yesterday on Shudder:

 

Really dug this one. Great flow; this film really makes you feel a mounting expectation for evil, and then delivers with a totally nihilistic ending.

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Playlist:

Pixies - Trompe le Monde

The Kills - Midnight Boom

The Black Keys - Magic Potion

Prince and the Revolution - Purple Rain

The Fixx - Reach the Beach 

Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin I 

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Card:

Continuing a return to my original Thoth Deck: 

With my Reddit Nosleep series starting today and a meet-up with an old friend wherein I may pitch a collaborative project just because I love working with the person and haven't in a looong time, I'm definitely starting some journeys.

Halloween The Kills Vs. Candyman and the Midnight Boom

How about some music from The Kills to kick off our week? Kinda fits with one of the trailers below, so why not. Also, I was inspired to dig out Midnight Boom for the first time in quite a while yesterday and it's probably not going away any time soon. The Kills been absent from my listening habits of late, time to change that. I love this album.

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Watch:

I was finally able to sit down and watch Damian McCarthy's feature film debut Caveat the other day on Shudder. WOW. If Censor is almost guaranteed to end up in my top ten of 2021, I'd say the same for this one. I absolutely loved the suspense Caveat creates and sustains with limited location and budget. I can't wait to see what McCarthy does next, especially since this will no doubt net him a bigger budget:

Also, a couple of HUGE Horror Movie trailers dropped since my last post. First up, Halloween Kills, which, as I've stated here previously, I have some reservations about, but will definitely be plopping my arse into a theatre seat opening weekend, regardless:  

 

Next, a movie I have no idea what to expect from but am pretty excited for nonetheless.

 

Finally, this isn't a movie, but I've been waiting for it for a while now:

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Playlist:

Perturbator - Lustful Sacraments

Pixies - Trompe le Monde

Pixies - Doolittle

Valkyrie - Fear

Pixies - Beneath the Eyrie

The Kills - Midnight Boom 

Low Cut Connie - Hi Honey

Zen Guerilla - Positronic Raygun

The Darts - I Like You But Not Like That

Deafheaven - 10 Years Gone

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Card:

 When things are too good to be true, we second guess them? This is (maybe) a direct commentary on my hemming and hawing about putting my first story on Nosleep. I know the story is good, however, I keep second-guessing how it will fit in with their guidelines. I'm posting the first installment Tuesday no matter what, so I guess we'll see. And with so definitive a statement, why worry?

Censor

 

Oh, 1990s music videos - so very easy to spot even if you don't know the song. I've had this one in my head for about a week, and it's nice to be kind of obsessed with the Pixies again! I read something recently that posited that, with Kim Deal's reduced input on Trompe le Monde, it's essentially pretty close to a solo Frank Black album, and thinking about that while spinning through it multiple times over the last few days, yeah. I can totally see that. Really matches up to that first Frank Black solo era (in my thinking, that's Frank Black - Eponymous up to and including Cult of Ray).

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Watch:

 

Censor dropped recently and I finally had a chance to watch it last night. Wow. I am so impressed with this flick, the feature-length debut by Writer/Director Prano Baily-Bond. Visually, this one has such a distinctive look, largely because of the lighting. Censor takes place in the 80s - during the Video Nasties era to be specific - but the film doesn't play up the 80s-ness that a lot of other films would. Instead, it lives and breathes in the textures of analog, and nowhere is that more apparent than in the set design and approach to the lighting. There are also ongoing tweaks to the aspect ratio, which sneaks up on you at strange moments and really adds to the otherworldly feel Baily-Bond executes in every single shot. At no time does this film rest on the laurels it establishes simply via subject matter. And Raised By Wolves's Niamh Algar kills it in the lead.

Also, goddamn Michael Smiley is fantastic in EVERYTHING.

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Playlist:

Steve Moore - VSW OST

Vaguess - Bodhi Collection

Pixies - Beneath the Eyrie

Pixies - Trompe le Monde

Various - Playlist to Joe Begos's Bliss

Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers - Moanin' 

Charles Mingus - Blues & Roots (Mono)

Diatribe - Odite sermonis EP

Sunken - Livslede

Bells Into Machine - Eponymous

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Card:

Well, The Moon card literally lept out of the deck at me when I went to do my pull, so I guess I'm misunderstanding or missing something. I have to say, I feel perpetually overwhelmed by Tarot lately. 

Ordinary Fascist

 

A little Bells Into Machines to start our Wednesday. If you're unfamiliar or haven't heard their 2018 Eponymous full-length, I cannot recommend it enough. I kind of forgot about this one after hearing it initially around the time of its release, almost like it made a lackluster impression on me. After digging it back out earlier in the week, I can't stop listening to it. 

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NCBD:

Seriously, I don't know how this many issues of ASM in such a short succession isn't getting on my nerves, but there's such a big picture going on at the moment, I just want to read a new one every damn week, and Marvel is pretty much accommodating me.

Finally! Home Sick Pilots returns with a new arc. Love this book; its weird mash-up of Horror tropes and Mech fiction is so unique and darn right amazing to take in at the eyes.

The climax of what is undoubtedly the best mini-series of 2021, and I absolutely MUST have this cover!

Not 100% certain I'm going to dig this book, but I'll give it a shot. We must be in the golden age of Comic Book Cover art, 'cause here's another great one.

I feel like TMNT must be bi-weekly at this point, because I just read 117 like a week ago.

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Playlist:

Bells Into Machines - Eponymous

Anthrax - I'm The Man EP

Perturbator - Lustful Sacraments

Vreid -  Wild North West

Tennis System - Technicolor Blind

Steve Moore - VFW OST

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Card:

 

Two separate but easily juxtaposed events that directly preceded my pull last night caused me to have a breakthrough. I now believe I know what the Devil/Wheel cycle I've been caught in for the last week or so was trying to tell me, and I drew IV: The Emperor with that query in mind - am I correct in this revelation?

I'd say this means yes. 

These Arms Are Snakes

 

In honor of the fact that These Arms Are Snakes has once again reunited for a show (Seatle, WA). Hopefully, there's new music coming, miss these guys.

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Watch:

Evil came back in a BIG way this past Sunday. I'll spare you my annoyance at having to sub to yet another streamer, this time Paramount +, because as it happened, I got two months for .99. Plus, honestly, this show is so freaking great, I would totally pay whatever the usual price is. Here's the trailer for season two:

While we were on Paramount, I remembered another show I'd been curious about, Strange Angel lived there. This one came out a few years ago, did two seasons and I'm not sure if it wrapped up or was canceled. I also wasn't sure I'd dig it, but Strange Angel is about Rocket Propulsion Engineer Jack Parsons, one of the men who designed the propulsion that put us on the moon. Parsons was also hand-picked by Aleister Crowley to run the California chapter of his occult organization.

 

From what I've seen so far I'm intrigued, even if the show appears to be "Hollywooding" up Crowley's organization as animal/virgin sacrifices, which of course they were not. The show is based on the book of the same name by George Pendle, which I didn't read, although starting around 2002 I read probably just about everything else I could find about Parsons, whose mix of military and the Occult absolutely fascinated me for a time. Still does, really, which is why I'm going to - for now at least - continue with the show.

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Playlist:

Entropy - Liminal

Deftones - Gore

Celtric Frost - To Mega Therion

Chris Isaak - Heart Shaped World

Numenorean - Adore

Lustmord - Heresy

These Arms Are Snakes - Easter 

Tape Waves - Bright

Cathedral Bells - Ether

Bells Into Machines - Eponymous

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Card:

 

Missi is going to laugh at me, but I still can't figure out what I'm not letting go of! I shuffled the HELL out of the deck for this draw, and as the saying, such is Ka.

Up All Night (Reading Comics)

 

I broke out El-P's 2007 I'll Sleep When You're Dead recently and found myself unable to get this particular song out of my head. I love where this man has gone with his craft, both as an artist and producer, since I found this album in a thrift store circa 2010 and was immediately hooked by the Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me sample that opens it.

 

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READ:

I've read quite a few comics recently that surprised the hell out of me. Here's a rundown:

I mentioned wanting to read this after hearing writer Al Ewing interviewed on Marvel's Pull List Podcast, so I found it on Kindle and dug in. What a pleasant surprise! This almost feels like Neil Gaiman's Sandman at times, the way the story weaves through different iterations and incarnations of classic Folklore characters and situations. There's a charming complexity in Loki: AOA, which is part heist film, part fantasy, and part straight-up classic Marvel Super-Hero. Also, I'm really loving the art by Lee Garbett, who if this is any indication, is a criminally underrated illustrator.

If you want to know more, there's a great review of the Last Days chapter of the Loki saga over on Slings and Arrows HERE.

Next up, Venom 200 did some things I never would have seen coming from a mile away:

I won't spoil anything here, I'd rather just post more of this awesome cover art, however, let me just say that I've always had a bit of an issue with Brock as a 'good guy' character based on his early, heinous crimes after acquiring the symbiote. In fact, after buying and getting rid of the first issue of the original Venom series (Lethal Protector? How lame) (but if I'd held onto it despite my ire, I could sell that issue for a pretty f*&king penny today) in short order, I did not read another Venom book until a friend turned me onto Rick Remender's run, which eschewed Brock for Flash Thompson. I still feel that was the pinnacle for the character as a hero, instead of a villain.

That said, Venom 200 alleviated most of my "Brock issues," and ultimately changed the course of the character (hopefully) for all time. Because of this, and because the aforementioned Mr. Ewing is taking over the book from departing rock star Donny Cates, I'll probably stick around for a while. 

Finally, I picked up Planet-Size X-Men purely as an investment. I have NO intention of reading any X-books despite this purchase, but I did read and kind of marvel at the direction the franchise has taken. But I am SO tired of these characters, regardless of this drastic new direction, so while I enjoyed reading this simply for big picture reasons, this is where I leave you, oh brotherhood of dreary mutants. 

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Playlist:

Slope - Street Heat

Turnstile - Nonstop Feeling

Nick Mason and Rick Fenn - White of the Eye OST

The Jon Spender Blues Explosion - Now I Got Worry

Lustmord - Heresy

Various - Twin Peaks (Music From the Limited Event Series)

John Carpenter - Lost Themes III: Alive After Death 

Pixies - Trump le Monde

 

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Card:

 Okay, I really have no idea what the hell I'm NOT seeing here, but the cycle remains.