7 Days of Badalamenti: Day 7 - Dance of the Dream Man

 

If there's a more iconic piece of music out there from the last forty years, I'm not sure what it is. Saving the greatest for last - although the show's iconic theme "falling" could be argued to hold that title - thus ends my seven-day observance/tribute to one of the greatest musicians of the twentieth century. A heart-rending loss and, if you'll indulge in a moment of maudlin sentiment, a very large reminder that as we age and move toward our own outro from this reality, the icons we encounter and make a part of our own lives will leave and force us to remember that, yes, it is all deteriorating around us. We'll always have the man's music, but knowing he is gone feels a lot like when we lost Bowie - a large chunk has disappeared and left a hole in things.

But, as Dr. Jacoby might say, we carry on. Well, Major Briggs would probably say that. Jacoby would probably recommend doing some blow.

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Watch:

After Christian Bale's performance in Amsterdam, he's back on my radar. Here's the trailer for his latest film, The Pale Blue Eye (great title!):

Not sure what to make of this yet, other than it is gorgeous. I really dug Scott Cooper's previous flick, Antlers, so while there's almost no chance this will be in a theatre anywhere near me, I will be waiting for its release on Netflix on January 6th.

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Playlist:

Angelo Badalamenti - Twin Peaks Season One OST

††† - PERMANENT.RADIANT EP

Drug Church - Tawny EP

Exhalants - Atonement

Jamie Lidell - Multiply

Small Black - Cheap Dreams

Miranda Sex Garden - Suspiria

Mastodon - Hushed and Grim

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

Understanding what I want is the only way to achieve it. Sounds like a no-brainer, however, when applied to fiction writing, I can assure you, it is not.

7 Days of Badalamenti: Day 6 - She Would Die For Love

 

"She Would Die For Love," from Julee Cruise's 1993 album The Voice of Love, produced by Angelo Badalamenti and David Lynch. The instrumental version earned considerably more momentum as the opening credit sequence soundtrack the year before in Lynch's much-maligned prequel film, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me. The the latter is the version I am more familiar, and taken, with, but both have their merits.

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Cast:

This morning The Horror Vision launches a new spin-off podcast, The Horror Vision Presents: Elements of Horror. This is a project that brings in my good friend Missi, as well as the other THV folks when they're able. My 2022 Wrapped from our hosting platform Anchor shows The Horror Vision created more content this past year than 77% of our contemporaries, and that felt good. This new show is something I'd been wanting to do for a while: a place where we could talk non-genre flicks that contain Horror Elements. And oh, what a list we have so far! The first episode is on Jim Jarmusch's beautiful, beautiful film Only Lovers Left Alive, but from here we have some films I cannot wait to talk about. Here's a small tease:

Ryan Gosling's Lost River

Nicholas Verso's Boys in Trees

Adam Rifkin's The Dark Backward

David Lynch's Lost Highway

And a whole lot more beyond those. That's just scratching the surface! The first episode is now on all streaming platforms - you can even hit play up on the little Spotify widget in the upper right-hand corner of this page. 

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Watch:

Saturday night I caught Lorcan Finnegan's new film, Nocebo:

Another solid film from Finnegan, who popped onto my radar with his Without Name. 

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Read:

I finishe Irvine Welsh's The Bedroom Secrets of the Master Chefs last night in one Heruclean jaunt of reading that lasted most of the evening and well into the small hours of the night. Just like the first time I read it, back in 2006 upon its release, I could not put those last two hundred pages down. Having only gotten back into reading Welsh after a self-imposed hiatus (his voice tends to affect my own writing, and I wanted to steer clear of that for most of the projects I've been on for the last decade), I'm temped to say this is Welsh's best behind Glue, which will most likely always remain my favorite. Secrets is fantastic though, and creates such unrelenting pathos for all the characters through rotating first-person accounts from nearly the entire cast, that when you reach the last act, well, it's fraught with tension. He sets up several really great "gotta-sees," and balances them in such an expert way that you often lose sight of one for whichever is currently "on screen," only to have Welsh juggle them in front of you again and immediately re-ignite your curiosity for what's been in the background for several chapters. 

Really great book. Now, I'm feeling that void of having just finished a great book and really wanting to jump into one of Welsh's newer books that I haven't read. Not sure that will happen before the end of the year, so I will most likely pick Will Carver's Psycopaths Anonymous back up. 

I began it directly after I finished Hinton Hollow Death Trip and quickly realized my genre interests had shifted a bit. From what I did read, there's a definite Fight Club influence here, although not in an egregious way. I loved HHDT, so I'm very much looking forward to more Carver!

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Playlist:

Zombi - Shape Shift

Type O Negative - Life Is Killing Me

Lustmord - Dark Matter

Beach House - Depression Cherry

Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures

Rodney Crowell - Christmas Everywhere

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

More on the money front, which has been an open loop for a while. I need to square this CC bill soon, before the no-interest period runs out, but hidden costs continue to keep the balance level. This is nothing dire, but it would definitely be nice to be at 0 by year's end. 

7 Days of Badalamenti: Day 5: Blue Velvet

 

The first non-Twin Peaks David Lynch film I watched, way back when Twin Peaks the original series had only recently ended and sent me into an obsessive flurry for more of his work, was 1986's Pacific Northwest Small Town Noir Blue Velvet. I wasn't sure what I was in for, but Angelo Badalamenti's grand opening credits theme immediately told me it would be more greatness. 

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Watch:

Last week, I watched Travis Stevens' new film A Wounded Fawn. Then I watched it again. Then I watched it again.

 

I am nothing shy of completely blown away. Everything about this one is fantastic; sure, there will be cries of "elevated horror" but f*ck that; if you read these pages you know I like my Bill Lustig as much as I do my A24. There is such a staunch tone to this film, from Ksusha Genenfeld's camera work to VAAAL's enigmatic but resonating score, that A Wounded Fawn instantly became my favorite of Travis Steven's films - no easy task considering how much I dug last year's Jakob's Wife. 

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Playlist:

Jim Williams - Possessor OST

Zombi - Shape Shift

Lustmord - Dark Matter

Metallica - Lux Æterna (pre-release single)

Carpenter Brut - Leather Terror

In Slaughter Natives - Plague Walk My Earth (single)

In Slaughter Natives - Ventre

Type O Negative - Bloody Kisses (digipak)

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

Pretty blunt - transformation through the sacrifice of earthly matters; in other words, a direct answer to an anxiety loop open in my mind: Knuckle the f*ck down and pay off the credit card before the no-interest period expires early next year.

7 Days of Badalamenti - Day 4: Meatloaf Mambo!

 

From Bob Balaban's 1989 surrealistic WTF Horror/Comedy Parents. Badalamenti is not the main composer on this one; that's Jonathan Elias. However, he does contribute two stunning tracks that totally help make the aural signature of the film.

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Watch:

Two nights ago I watched Eric Pennycoff's new film The Leech on Arrow Video's streaming service. This immediately jumped into my top ten films of the year. Not in my top ten Horror films, because The Leech isn't really a Horror movie, despite containing definite elements of the genre. 

Graham Skipper, Jeremy Gardner and Taylor Zaudtke Gardner all turn in outstanding performances in what I was happy to discover is a completely batshit crazy film about religion and the secrets its practice sometimes hides for people. I loved everything about this one and can't recommend it enough.

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Playlist:

Angelo Badalamenti - Dark Water OST

Public Memory - Veil of Counsel

James Luckett - May OST

Lustmord - Dark Matter

White Lung - Premonition

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

In order to attain emotional the fulfillment I seek, I have to put in the work and be prepared to undergo a transformation. This is pretty vague, or at least my reading it. As usual when I garner a head-scratcher, I chalk it up as something to watch for in my interactions throughout the day.

7 Days of Badalamenti - Day 3: Booth and the Bad Angel

 

From Booth and the Bad Angel, 1996's collaboration with James lead singer Tim Booth. The entire record is fantastic - this is one I ordered around the time it came out and didn't quite 'get' for a few years. But I was a Badalamenti completist, or at least as a pre-internet kid with limited funds could be at the time. I chose this particular track because, although I've never actually been able to confirm it, I believe it is the only song on the album that Badalamnenti contributes vocals to. 

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Watch:

Upcoming Horror flick Thorns looks like it's either going to be a fantastic Hellraiser-in-space riff on Event Horizon or a clumsy mess. 

Kinda difficult to tell from the trailer, right? I mean, there's plenty that looks cool from a distance, obscured by the quick cuts of the trailer's edit, but will those effects look cheesy in a more sustained experience? Only time will tell. I can say that I'm in need of an Event Horizon viewing. It's been over a decade, largely because the last time I watched the film, I found it to be a bit underwhelming when compared to the revelatory first viewing I had, many moons ago. Some films just live better in our memories.

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Read:

After finishing Night of the Demon last week, I dialed it back to a previous intention and began re-reading Irvine Welsh's The Bedroom Secrets of the Master Chefs. I haven't read this since it first came out in 2006, within a few months of my moving to L.A. I remember finishing it the night before getting on a plane to fly back to Chicago for a visit. 

A strange novel that has Welsh's unique flourish that makes his take on anything supernatural not only realistic but unique beyond anything I've seen in any other authors' work. Now that I think about it, I suppose the same way Spanish Authors tend to have a certain recognizable tone for works of Magical Realism - informed by location, religion, cultural distinctions and peccadilloes, the same would hold true for Scottish Authors. The idea that Welsh's work tips at times into its own version of Magical Realism actually makes a lot of sense. Either way, this is a weird one, mixing Welsh 

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Playlist:

SQÜRL and Jozef Van Wissem - Only Lovers Left Alive OST (Detroit Side)

Zeal and Ardor - Eponymous

Public Memory - Veil of Counsel

VAAAL - A Wounded Fawn OST

Angelo Badalamenti - Twin Peaks Season One OST

Angelo Badalamenti and Tim Booth - Booth and the Bad Angel

Deafheaven - Infinite Granite

Godflesh - Messiah

Ifernach - Capitulation of All Life

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

Mixing in some of the dark thoughts I shy away from may help to fully realize an intellectual conundrum that has been causing me great pain. ie the unfinished short story I've been writing and re-writing off and on for going on four years. 

7 Days of Badalamenti: Day 2 - Who Will Take My Dreams Away

 

For Day Two, I wanted to go with my favorite track from The City of Lost Children OST that Badalamenti did for Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet's hauntingly GORGEOUS film from 1995. 

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Watch:

A few months back, I read some advance praise for Writer/Director Paul Owens' first feature film, Landlocked. Finally, a trailer has landed:

Owens apparently built this narrative around old home movies, a fantastic idea that, in the wrong hands, would no doubt go horribly wrong. If this trailer and Fango's praise are any indications, here the execution meets the concept.

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Playlist:

Type O Negative - Life Is Killing Me

Colors of the Dark Podcast Episode 49

Zeal and Ardor - Firewake (single)

Carpenter Brut - Leather Terror

The Mysterines - Reeling

H6LLB6ND6R - Side A

Beach House - Once Twice Melody

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

Hot take on all these Cups? Don't let my emotions get the better of me. 

7 Days of Angelo Badalamenti Starts Now!

 

Well, it goes without saying that I'm doing a "Seven Days of Angelo Badalamenti" in honor of his passing. Let's start here, a video my good friend Jacob sent me yesterday to mark the man's exit through the big, red curtains. 

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NCBD:

What an irregularly slow NCBD. If I hadn't picked up some new titles, I'd be spending almost no $$$ this week. Can't have that, apparently...

I was hesitant going into Dark Web, but this Zeb Wells Event is so dripping with original Inferno vibes that I can't help but love it. 

Yeah, like I said above. I love it so much, double-dosing this week.

And, speaking of Events (fuck!), all this pre-emptive conjecture for the upcoming Sins of Sinister has me so fascinated with the idea that there are numerous Sinister clones running around the Marvel Universe that I'm now fascinated by this Mother Righteous characters and reading Legion of X. Damn again!

Ah! I can't love this horror show more. 

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Watch:

Speaking of Twin Peaks, Butcher from the Horror Vision has mentioned Steven C. Miller's The Aggression Scale several times, but this past weekend, as we recorded The Horror Vision episode on Joe Begos' Christmas Bloody Christmas, I finally cued the film up and when I saw the cast not only included three Twin Peaks Alumni - Ray Wise, Dana Ashbrook, and Derek Mears, but Jacob "Solomon" Reynolds from Harmony Korine's Gummo, well, there was no way I wasn't watching it right away. 

I was not disappointed.

This movie is brutal in the most enjoyable way because it's the bad guys that get f*cked up the most, and it's fun watching it. 

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Playlist:

Zeal & Ardor - Eponymous

Knorkator - Widerstand ist zwecklos

Ifernach - Capitulation of All Life

Lustmord - Dark Matter

Deth Crux - Bloody Christmas

Greg Puciato - Mirrorcell

The Notorious B.I.G. - Ten Crack Commandments (single)

††† - PERMANENT.RADIANT EP

SQÜRL and Jozef Van Wissem - Only Lovers Left Alive OST

Pop Will Eat Itself - Cure for Sanity

Neurosis - Given to the Rising

Isis - Panopticon

Made Out of Babies - The Ruiner

Rein - Reincarnated

Battle Tapes - Sweatshop Boys EP

Battle Tapes - In Too Deep EP

Battle Tapes - Polygon

Final Light - Eponymous

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

Collaboration has been coming up a lot, so I need to re-focus on something I've been struggling to maintain. A big writing project that I make headway in and then have to set aside to tool around with short stories I am submitting to various publication markets. The trick here is to make more time and use it wisely, something I'm not always good at doing.