Ministry - New Religion

LOVING this new Ministry record. Somehow, Uncle Al almost never disappoints. This particular track, while I'm not in love with the video, is one of those Ministry songs where you can really hear the Killing Joke influence. This started back around 2003 with Animositisomina, which is interesting when you consider that Paul Raven didn't join the band until 2006's Rio Grande Blood. Not that there wasn't always a little Killing Joke DNA in Ministry, but occasionally, it really shines through.

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NCBD:

Light pull this week, but there are some goodies, so let's get into it:

A new Last Ronin series? Whoah! This slipped by my radar completely until about a week ago. Apparently, if I understand this right, this series is set a number of years after the original series and follows more grown-up versions of the four new turtles that Casey (Jr) was training. I love the Miller-esque dystopia of the first Last Ronin series, so definitely sign me up for this next round. I love to see the evolution of future worlds like this. 

Here's another one that slipped past me - David and Maria Lapham have a new series called Underheist and I missed the first issue! I'll be grabbing that as well as this week's number two. Everything the Laphams do is fantastic, so I can't wait to see what this new one has to offer.

Void Rivals returns! I honestly had only realized it must have been on hiatus - probably because I've been so preoccupied with the other Energon Universe series. I feel like this family of books is moving in to take over the fervor I've held but watched wane for the X-Books since Hickman. I don't know if my brain finds something to fill the, ahem, void, or if 

Speaking of the X-Book, I still haven't found any issues with Gerry Duggan and his X-Men. Solid, every issue. And what's this? Lockheed returns? Can't wait to see this. Where the core Fall of X books have been a mixed bag, Mr. Duggan continues to drive his RBI percentage up by turning in solid episodes of the core 'team' book in the family. Also, love seeing Kitty and Ilyana side by side with swords!

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Watch:

Recently, I was psyched to see that Shudder added the first three Coffin Joe movies to their ever-expanding roster. I am not super familiar with these, but back in 2004, my friend JFK (where are you?) mentioned these to me and I started a hunt that didn't end until I walked into either Generation Records or Village Revival Records in Greenwich Village, NY and found a copy of At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul. I picked that up and gifted it to JFK for Christmas that year, and after we watched it one night, I haven't seen a Coffin Joe flick since. Until now.

"The Brazilian Freddy Krueger" is how Coffin Joe is often described, and while there is a simple comparison there, that's a bit of a misnomer, and probably the reason I walked away from that first viewing twenty years ago less than impressed. So despite the fact that I myself have used that comparison recently, I offer here the caveat that Coffin Joe is not a supernatural being (at least not in the early flicks) and he doesn't invade his victims' dreams or materialize in gross and grandiose ways. He's a terribly evil human being, an undertaker with no empathy and a greedy soul, and he terrorizes the town in rural Brazil where he resides as a rich and powerful citizen. 

On the surface, these flicks feel a little quaint. At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul is from 1964 Brazil for god's sake, so that's to be expected. But, if you really pay attention and move past that surface layer, these are some pretty f**ked up films. What's more, let's think about that year of origin again: 1964 Brazil! These are also SO ahead of their time, even in the States, and slot in nicely with some of the other creators releasing Horror films at the time; if you google "Horror Films Released in 1964," you get a list that includes Roger Corman, William Castle, and Hershal Gordon Lewis.

Ultimately, Coffin Joe - the character created and portrayed by Brazilian cinematic jack-of-all-trades  José Mojica Marins - won't be for everybody, however, in rewatching the first film last night, I found a decidedly more cerebral and, honestly, disturbing experience than I remembered. Strip away some of the limitations of the day, some of the slightly archaic approaches to the accouterments of the Horror genre - maniacal laughter, spiders (no laughing matter for me), and female hysteria, and you have an amoral villain who commits grievous acts in the name of a rather messed up approach to child-rearing. Joe is an icon in Brazil - hence the real reason for the comparison to Mr. Kreuger - so Shudder adding these films is another way in which the service continues to promote a more well-rounded fan base for the genre. Something we're all the better for. 

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Playlist:

The Body & Dis Fig - Orchards of a Futile Heaven

Uniform & The Body - Mental Wounds Not Healing

Witchfinder - Hazy Rites

Black Sabbath - Volume IV

The Devil's Blood - The Thousandfold Epicentre

Justin Hamline - The House With Dead Leaves

Godflesh - A World Lit Only By Fire

Dio - The Last in Line

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

• XI: Justice

• Four of Wands

• VIII: Strength

Approaching a situation or decision without bias leads to empowerment. Again, another character nod to the book I'm writing. I turned in a solid hour and a half last night - actually made it out to my old coffee shop and was really able to lose myself for the duration of the session. These characters are growing in depth and complexity, and the cards are assuring me I'm on the right path.

RIP Selim Lemouchi - Eleven Years Gone

Since there was never any exact day of death released, March 1st denotes the beginning of the month when one of the most talented artists to grace the metal genre in decades left the planet for the "endless ever after," to quote the song.

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Watch:

My good friend and Horror Vision Cohost Anthony "Butcher" Guerrera tipped me off to this one, which I had heard about but ignored under the auspices that no spider Horror film could do to me what Arachnophobia does. Yeah, I know the big "A" isn't that scary, but when you feel about spiders the way I do, well, it does a good job exacerbating that fear. On Anthony's recommendation, however, I watched about half of Sting's trailer and yes, I see it now. This is a completely different kind of spider movie.

Written and directed by Kiah Roache-Turner, who also gave us a bunch of movies that I've yet to see (Wyrmwood was on Netflix forever but suffered from bad thumbnail disease, so I passed over it for years before anyone recommended it to me), this hits theatres on May 31st. I'll definitely be in a seat if Sting plays near me. 

What the hell is it about spiders that terrify me? I'm not sure. Of course, there are folks with a lot greater arachnophobia than I do; little spiders don't bother me. Well, it's not the size, it's the girth. Any spider with a meaty body, regardless of the size, is going to creep me out. Now take that girth and scale it up and... no. Let's just stop there. 

A friend once told me a story about growing up with a friend named Spider who also had a paralyzing fear of spiders. Apparently, the reason this friend achieved his moniker had to do with a story. As a child, Spider's parents built him a treehouse. One night, when he was older, he snuck up there in the middle of the night to smoke a joint. As the high settled over him in the dark, Spider realized he was glimpsing movement out of the corner of his eye. He flicked his lighter and realized the walls of the treehouse were covered in spiders. Like, hundreds upon hundreds of them. 

Spider fell out of the treehouse and broke some bones. It was, in his words, a welcome price to pay for the expedient extraction.

The treehouse was torn down a few days later.

I relate this story, which I openly admit I may have fudged a few specifics on but got the gist (the walls of spiders I could never forget or amend; I see this in a way that terrifies me, even all this time and space away from the event, only knowing it as folklore) because it speaks to the power available to a Horror movie that uses this innate terror the Arachnida instills in a certain percent of the population. The insect kingdom in general is so goddamn alien it can give me the chills, but spiders... there's just something about their shape, their textures, their limbs... I've often said that the cinematic Xenomorph is my favorite movie monster because its design is absolute nightmare fuel in my eyes. In the real world, that honor goes to spiders. The girthy ones. The hairy ones.

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Read:

I finished Mary Roach's journalistic endeavor to hold a scientific lens up to the afterlife and would wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone who is even remotely interested in a seriously skeptical but fair discussion of the many facets of spiritualism that have arisen over the course of the last two hundred years or so. Mary travels to India to talk to doctors, believers and naysayers about reincarnation, she travels to England to attend a Medium Workshop, and she travels to rural America to investigate a court case from one hundred years ago where a spirit's intervention helped decide a legal hearing. Spook is a fantastic romp through the detritus of the spirtualism movement and the scientists that have attempted to take that torch and run it through calibrated methods without bias - which she always seems to find is still present. Mary's snarky sense of humor peppers her conversational tone, so I found myself smiling a lot, and laughing quite a bit as well. Great book - Thanks Mr. Brown!

Now, I've moved on to another book Mr. Brown lent me: Jason Heller's Taft 2012. This one's been sitting on my shelf or in various packing boxes for years, so that I had forgot about it. 

About halfway through, the premise here is the book is set in a slightly alternate timeline where William Howard Taft disappeared the day his successor Woodrow Wilson was to take the presidential torch from him, then wakes up in 2011 as if not a day has gone by. The novel's charm so far really comes from reflecting on the fact that, for someone who was considered almost a presidential albatross in his day, in ours Taft appears almost Christ-like in his earnestness, strength of character, and honesty. As you can imagine, this gives author Heller room to play with how our world of today (well, of 13 years ago) to someone from one hundred years prior. And his characterization of Taft's interpretation of our social ills and foibles is both hysterical and cutting. We don't see the depth of the bullshit we wade through on a daily basis, because as the level rises, we acclimate to it as the norm.

I don't need to finish this one to recommend it. And yeah, I'd kind of like Will Taft to reappear and steer for a while. 

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Playlist:

Julee Cruise - Floating into the Night

David Lynch & Alan R. Splet - Eraserhead OST

Calderum - Mystical Fortress of Iberian Lands

Genghis Tron - Dream Weapon

Ministry - HopiumfortheMasses

Mannequin Pussy - I Got Heaven

Oranssi Pazuzu - Live at Roadburn 2017

Sisters of Mercy - Floodland

Blackbraid - Blackbraid II

Stephen Sanchez - Angel Face

Prince - Purple Rain

The Fixx - Reach the Beach

Raspberry Bulbs - Before the Age of Mirrors

Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine - White People and the Damage Done

Tangerine Dream - Sorcerer OST

Ministry - Psalm 69

Double Life - Indifferent Stars

The Damned - Evil Spirits

Ozzy Osbourne - Diary of a Madman

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

• Queen of Cups

• Nine of Wands

• Five of Pentacles

Emotional connection reachds a climax, leads to conflict. Pretty sure this is a nod toward two characters' relationship in the novel I'm working on. Things have stalled a bit of late, as I recently began starting work two hours later and this cuts into my evening writing time. I'd been meaning to phase out my mindset of having to drive to a coffee shop to write anyway, so this was a boon. However, it's taken me some time to integrate a new writing schedule that I can actually adhere to. I spent a nice chunk of time this past Saturday afternoon, and during that session, the relationship between my main character and a love interest really began to blossom, so this is a welcome sign post on the the route forward. 

Abby Sage - The Rot

 

Abby Sage just climbed a little bit higher in my esteem when I saw the thumbnail for this one. WTF? Hot on the heels of seeing Robert Morgan, this grabbed me. Sage's predilection for larger-than-life, terrifying dolls and her generally dour delivery add a spot of Thomas Ligotti to her unique brand of smoky pop that seems to have more in common with the quaalude lounge life of the late 60s/70s than any modern female singer beyond maybe Beth Gibbons. 

I'm really loving seeing where Abby Sage's career has gone and look forward to seeing just how far it will go. I think far. 

The Rot is the title track from Ms. Sage's debut album, which you can link to HERE.

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Watch:

Despite the initial anticipation the trailer for Ryan Stevens Harris' Moon Garden created in me when it first dropped a little over a year ago, I totally forgot about this one. Imagine my excitement when I found out the film had finally dropped on Shudder earlier this week:

Reading over that post I made last February (linked in the text above), I am happy to see that all my initial expectations were not only met but totally blown away. Moon Garden is definitely a throwback to films like The Neverending Story and Labyrinth, but also an exciting visual amalgamation of a lot of fantasy ideas that really only get cross-bred in novels because of the less than 1:1 ratio that accompanies attempting to bring the dark, effervescent folds of the imagination into the visual form. Guess what? Somehow Harris does it; I feel like this is possibly the most "pure imagination translation" I've ever seen. It's just... so much, and all of it works together to create an experience that is both harrowing and life-affirming. Can't recommend this one enough. 

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Playlist:

John Carpenter - Lost Themes II

Witchfinder - Forgotten Mansion

Witchfinder - Hazy Rites

Blut Aus Nord - The Work Which Transforms God

Jim Williams - Possessor OST

Dean Hurley - The Library of the Occult: Flower

The Devil's Blood - The Thousandfold Epicentre

Justin Hamline - The House With Dead Leaves

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Card:

A quick one-card pull for the weekend:

Six of Cups: Pleasure. Emotional Balance. I think this is something I've been having issues with, especially on the weekend. There are a lot of 'existential stressors' pressing in on me of late, no one's fault but my own mind. Still, that doesn't change the fact that they affect my weekends the most - the time when I have the most time to sit and think. A nice reminder then, to fill the well and keep the perspective balanced. Not easy to do in 2024, but it is possible if you actively manage the shit you're putting in your head. 

Witchfinder - Approaching

 

Let's start Wednesday with some heavy slabs of pot-choked doom. The opening track from Witchfinder's 2022 album Forgotten Mansion. This one plods with a satisfying heft until it breaks out and starts to chase you, Clément's voice haunting the darkening skies behind you as you try to get away...

Love this f**king band.

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NCBD:

Another week brings another NCBD. Let's get into this week's pull list:

Loving these Energon Universe books, and especially love seeing the evolution of Cobra from the ground up as a merger between Cobra Commander and his, eh, backers, and Destro's MARS, which has a considerably heavier hand in this from the beginning. 

One more issue after this and Newburn concludes. Man, I do not think things are going to go well for almost anyone in the cast. 

Jeff Lemire and Gabriel H. Walta's Phantom Road just gets weirder by the issue. Let's see where we go this month. 

Another book I retained absolutely zero from after reading the first issue. I think my fascination with the X-Books that began near the end of Hickman's run is coming to an end. We'll always have the highlights of this era.

Garth Ennis and Jacen Burrows' The Ribbon Queen comes to an end. Thus far I only have half of these in my possession, but those are four of the bloodiest, most compelling Horror comics I've read in years. I won't have the remainder of the series in my hand until early April. Can't wait to read the entire series straight through from beginning to end.

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Watch:

I only had to watch 17 seconds of this trailer to know I'm in:

In theatres May 3rd, from Writer/Director Jane Schoenbrun, whose previous film We're All Going to the World's Fair has been on my list for some time. 

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Playlist:

Witchfinder - Forgotten Mansion

Judas Priest - Invincible Shield (pre-release singles)

Slayer - South of Heaven

Double Life - Indifferent Stars

Vince Pope - True Detective: Night Country OST

Justin Hamline - The House With Dead Leaves

Various - Return of the Living Dead OST

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

• Ace of Swords

• Six of Swords

• V: The Hierophant

Swift decisiveness will balance a shaky situation and provide guidance.

Judas Priest - The Serpent and the King

 

Wow. This ROCKS! Kind of splits the difference between the "Delivering the Goods" and "All Guns Blazing" eras. New album Invincible Shield out March 8th; pre-order HERE.

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Watch:

When we drove into Nashville to catch TENET this past Saturday, I was overjoyed to see that Regal Opry Mills also had Stopmotion, a film I had no idea I would be able to see on the big screen. Last night, K and I drove back and watched Robert Morgan's GROTESQUE masterpiece Stopmotion!

K was not a fan, but I loved this one. The pacing is plodding and deliberate, much like the creations that slowly enact the terrible fate that eventually we grow to dread will fall upon our protagonist, so I'm pretty certain that's going to ostracize some folks; for me, it only added dread. I keep using that word, but I'm thinking that's possibly the best descriptor for this one, because it's filled with it. 

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Read:

Not so much read as stare in awe. I wasn't aware of this until this morning:

The painted packaging art from the old ARAH line is in my blood. The Joe, Transformers and, to a lesser degree, MOTU artwork was instrumental in my brain becoming what it is - whether that's good or bad remains open to debate. But I'd say some of the more spacey, cosmic images planted the seed as to why I can sit and listen to Blut Aus Nord's "Elevation," the final Memoria Vetusta II: Dialogue with the Stars and 'go someplace' far away inside my head. That's a bit of an oblique attempt at describing so abstract a concept, but there's something about this art that just burns as the purest fuel for my imagination.

This omnibus is a pretty good chunk of change, but watching this video, I'm blown away by the work the fine folks at 3D Joes did for it, so it's definitely worth the price tag. I'm not 100% certain I'm going to spend the money on this, simply because I'm trying to save at the moment. That said, HERE is the link to do so.

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Playlist:

Marilyn Manson - We Are Chaos

Moderat - II

Moderat - III

High On Fire - Burning Down (pre-release single)

High On Fire - Electric Messiah

Pearl Jam - Dark Matter (pre-release single)

Pearl Jam - Vs.

High On Fire - Luminiferous

John Carpenter - Lost Themes II

Blut Aus Nord - Memoria Vetusta II: Dialogue with the Stars

Shadow Show - Fantasy Now

Fever Ray - Eponymous

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

• Ace of Swords

• O: The Fool

• Queen of Cups

A breakthrough of Will is the impetus for a new journey into emotional canals neglected.

What's that, a poem? Hahaha. No, but it's an attempt at stream-of-consciousness interpretation I've fallen out of habit on. You see, I've come to rely on my various notes and texts concerning the Tarot so much, my brain draws blanks when faced with just cards. Trying to get that muscle back.

So what the hell does that mean? I think it's a reference to a friend who needs kindness and a journey into deeper friendship that looms on the horizon. Always help a brother - or sister - out when they are in need.

Erosion Cylce

While you listen to the wonderful opening track from Erosion Cycle's 2015 Maladies - available on their Bandcamp HERE - follow the logic of how I re-discovered this artist I first connected with about a decade ago. It's a weird and winding road.

I began Sunday morning in a manner I try not to begin any morning; I picked up my phone. Sunday's go one of two ways: I either barely touch the damnable device all day and reach for a book instead, or I feel the need to read the latest Orbital Operations from Warren Ellis the moment I open my eyes. Yesterday proved a case of the latter. From that OO email, I redirected to Ellis' Ltd site (his daily notebook, which I often pick at during the week via the RSS reader Feedly). The article that caught my eye is titled "Cory Doctorow Blogging Style." One of the things I love about Warren Ellis, besides pretty much everything he writes, is how he serves as a hub for access to so many other writers. I share Mr. Ellis' fascination with hearing what writers have to say about their Process, and although I am familiar with Mr. Doctorow in name and reputation alone, a glimpse into his blogging style held a strong pull for me. Blogging continues to be a passion of mine, and in an age where it seems to have largely lapsed as a relevant cultural format, I find inspiration and solace in other people's versions of it. Especially someone as prolific as Cory Doctorow. 

In familiarizing myself with Doctorow's Pluralistic, I began to lurk about, reading various thoughts and articles from the site's four-year history. That's when I hit on the "Enshittification" piece and, subsequently, THIS PIECE Electronic Frontier Foundation published as a five-part article on the cunning (and ruthless) manner in which social media companies basically capture an artist's followers and then ransom them back to them. I finally get it. For anyone else who feels as though their posts are the equivalent of hollering into a cyclone, here, then, is the answer. 

When I used to add links to these daily posts on social media, at the very least I'd get some interaction from friends and followers. Then, for years FB began to classify any link to my blog as "inappropriate or harmful," based on, I finally deduced, the link to one of my previous musical project's names. This, as well as a growing general disdain, led me to all but stop using FB and eventually deactivate the page for a number of months. Later, when I re-engaged, the idea to link this Blogspot page to the URL www.shawncbaker.com solved the censoring problem. However, now I had next to no engagement for the posts whatsoever. 

Zero engagement can be tough when you've previously enjoyed a livelier go. I write here for my own benefit primarily, however, those years of having others chime in on my thoughts/work had created a sometimes reciprocal relationship with interaction. It's the same with all the podcast projects I do - it's nice to know someone other than myself is listening.

So now I understand. I've known since the Muskrat took over the bird page and made it x that my posts were being squashed in order to persuade me to pay for that blue checkmark. Not doing that. Hell, I'd love to actually drop my account there altogether. That said, like FB, it is the only avenue of "direct" connection I have with some folks, so I keep it regardless of how my steeping resentment prompts me to avoid actually posting on it for large swathes of time. 

Anyway, by the time I finished reading all those articles by Cory Doctorow, I A) felt physically gross from staring at my phone for so long, despite the intellectual gymnastics my choice of reading promoted, and B) I ended up falling down a rabbit hole and pruning my follows on x (yeah, I don't understand how staring at a largely vapid social media feed fed to me by an algorithm that devalues me at every turn could prompt more time spent on said platform, but that's an avenue of insidiousness perhaps best left deconstructed by someone who earns their dimes in a field of psychological study). It was while doing this that I stumbled across Erosion Cycle for the first time in literally probably ten years, and fell in love as soon as I hit "Play."

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Watch:

TENET absolutely blew my mind.

I am SO happy I waited four years for a chance to have my inaugural viewing of this film (because there will be oh so many more) on an IMAX screen. 

For comparison's sake, I'll say this: Christopher Nolan is the exact opposite of Nicolas Winding Refn. Refn makes beautiful images that he strings together with concepts so foul he basically dares you to continue watching. This is not a negative criticism, and also not exactly accurately applied to Refn's MO until he became a box office draw. Only God Forgives, Too Old to Die Young, Neon Demon - all of these followed the breakout success of Drive and all of them, in some way or another, attempt to punish the viewer's revelry for their imagery with themes, characters and situations that are psychologically grotesque. We see examples of this in but not limited to Martin's high school GF or, hell, episode five of TO2DY; Gordon's request near the beginning of Only God Forgives and Julian's relationship with his mother, or pretty much all of the themes in Neon Demon. 

Christopher Nolan, on the other hand, takes such care and pride in his work as a cinematic creator, that he develops stories that require multiple viewings to fully grasp. If you make a beautiful movie that everyone understands outright, they may return to it from time to time, but not nearly as much as if you challenge the audience's intellect; in this way, Nolan creates a compulsion to return to his films to "figure them out." I was halfway through TENET and already planning my next viewing.

Brilliant.

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Cast:

The new episode of The Horror Vision Presents: Elements of Horror is up on all podcast platforms and with a swanky video on youtube. Full-Spoiler discussion on Gerald Kargl's 1983 "Video Nasty" Angst. I've been putting more and more work into these, and that's definitely starting to pay off:

Also, the recent episode of Drinking with Comics - now an "only YouTube" show, where Mike Shinabargar and I talk in-depth about Robert Kirkman's Energon Universe, especially what he and Joshua Willamson are doing with GIJOE:

I had a lot of fun doing both of these, which is really what it's all about. 

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Playlist:

High on Fire - Electric Messiah

Justin Hamline - The House With Dead Leaves

Jim Williams - Possessor OST

Emilie Levienaise-Farrouch - Censor OST

The Devil's Blood - The Thousandfold Epicentre

The Bronx - (I)

Blut Aus Nord - Memoria Vetusta II: Dialogue with the Stars

Chelsea Wolfe - She Reaches Out to She Reaches Out to She

Amigo the Devil - Yours Until the War is Over

Stephen Sanchez - Angel Face

Ozzy Osbourne - No More Tears

John Carpenter - Lost Themes II

Erosion Cycle - Maladies

Amigo the Devil - Everything Is Fine

Jerry Cantrell - Brighten

Nobuhiko Morino - Verses OST

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

• Page of Wands

• IX: The Hermit

• Six of Pentacles

Page of Wands, the Earth of Fire; Tempering the Will to Earthly Concerns. The Hermit is, in my experience, often an indication to regroup and lay low. Finally, the Six of Pentacles can indicate the Balance of those Earthly Concerns, so I'm reading this the same way I've been reading a lot of these of late - take a respite, regroup and save, then redirect my Will. Several "Earthly" concerns I could align this with, but I'm wondering if this is a direct response to something I've been thinking about just before breaking out the cards. The idea that I consulted them without consciously realizing that's what I was doing is a little too good to pass up. 

Happy Twin Peaks Day!!!