I'm the White Rabbit

 

From their 1990 MASTERPIECE, Confessions of a Knife. I've probably posted this one half a dozen times here before, and I'll probably do so again. Doesn't matter - classic track from a classic album, and a staple of my October listening.

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31 Days of Halloween:

I totally missed the fact that Creepshow was returning to Shudder for a fourth season this October, so when I saw it drop this past Friday, 10/13, though I was busy watching Never Hike Alone 2, I made a note to try to get to at least one episode over the weekend. Sunday night I did, and in typical Creepshow fashion, the first episode was pretty damn great. The opening segment "Twenty Minutes with Cassandra," written by Jamie Flanagan and directed by Greg Nicotero is everything about this show that is great. I loved that they leaned into humorous but not comedic territory, and what I mean by that is the humor comes from the characters in relation to the situation, not simply the characters or the situation. This one stars Samantha Sloyan and Ruth Codd, both of whom I knew from Mike Flanagan's previous work (Writer Jamie is his brother). The second segment "Smile" was also good; however, "Cassandra" really stole the show here. I'm hoping the rest of the season will stand as strong. 

1) When Evil Lurks/VHS 85/Adam Chaplin

2) Tales From the Crypt Ssn 1, Ep 6 "Collection Complete"

3) VHS

4) All You Need is Death

5) Slashers (2001)

6) The Beyond/Phenomena

7) The Convent

8) Evil Dead 2

9) The Autopsy of Jane Doe

10) Totally Killer

11) Ritual (Joko Anwar)/The Final Terror/Grave Robbers

12) Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (w/Joe Bob)

13) Never Hike Alone/Never Hike in the Snow/Never Hike Alone 2

14) Puppetman

15) Creepshow Season 4 Episode 1

16) Return of the Living Dead

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Playlist:

Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - Blood Lust

Ennio Morricone - John Carpenter's The Thing OST

Type O Negative - Origin of the Feces

Zeal and Ardor - Eponymous

Halloween Spotify Playlist

My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult - Confessions of a Knife

Misfits - American Psycho

Type O Negative - Dead Again

Sleep Token - Sundowning

The Damned - Evil Spirits

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Card:

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

• Four of Swords 

• I: The Magician

• IV: The Emperor

Lots of Fours in my vocabulary of late, which tends to indicate Stability first and foremost. I read this one as a reminder to keep one eye on the structure of the life we've built out over the previous year. I harbor a lot of plans, as does K, and often pretty easy to look right past what you have. The Skill and Wisdom of the Magus (Magician) tempered by the structure of linear thinking (my read on The Emperor in this particular instance) is a great structure for moving forward. 

The Days of Swine and Roses

 

I'm sure I've posted this particular MLWTTKK track here before, but it bears repeating. So much awesomeness. 

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31 Days of Halloween:

10/1 - Trick 'r Treat

10/2 - Barbarian

10/3 - Hellraiser ('84)

10/4 - Phenomena

10/5 - Hellraiser (2022)

10/6 - The Dark Backward

10/7 - Sick/The Beyond

10/8 - Werewolf By Night

10/9 - Something in the Dirt

10/10 - Let the Right One In Episode 1/Lux Aeterna

10/11 - My Best Friend's Exorcism/Grimcutty

10/12 - Smile

10/13 - Monstrous/VHS (Amateur Night segment)

10/14 - Halloween Kills

10/15 - Halloween Ends/Ed Wood/Plan 9 From Outer Space

10/16 - Spider Baby/101 Scariest Horror Movie Moments/Night's End/Behemoth

10/17 - Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon

10/18 - Random Acts of Violence/Two Witches/Let the Right One In Episode 2

10/19 - 976-EVIL

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Read:

After finishing Spider-Man: Kraven's Last Hunt on Friday, I surprised myself by digging out Todd McFarlane's sequel, the first five issues of his short-lived fourth Spider-Man series first launched in 1990 at the height of the artist frenzy that led McFarlane, Leifeld and a bunch of other in-demand zeitgeist artists to split off from Marvel and start Image Comics. 

"Torment" is a thinly written and now artistically dated sequel to Kraven's final story, wherein a villain named Calypso uses Voodoo to control Dr. Kurt Connors' deadly reptilian alter-ego The Lizard to attack Spider-Man. It's not terrible, but it's kinda close to terrible, especially the way Todd makes every issue start with narration that leads into the phrase "Rise Above it all" on the opening credits-splash. By issue two this gimmick felt forced, by issue five I could barely keep my eyes from rolling out of their sockets. Not to be a dick; this was McFarlane's first job as a writer, and I think that shows and was done better than a lot of first-time writers would have done. What doesn't help things is how busy his art is. Yes, it's awesome in terms of style, ideas and proportions, but there's just so much going on with each page that often, I just read the words and flipped to the next page instead of giving myself a headache trying to ascertain just what impossible contortion Spidey or the Lizard were in as they fought across a good half the pages in the overall arc. 

The first two arcs in this series had a huge impact on me when they first came out, however, for the most part, they have not aged well. That said, it's been at least 30 years since I've read these, so I figured why not? I'll probably go directly into the Wendigo/Wolverine storyline that follows Torment in issues 6-10. that was my favorite. I'll report back if that one holds up better.

 

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Playlist:

Various - Every Day (Is Halloween) Chicago Industrial Playlist

Carpenter Brut - Leather Terror

Sisters of Mercy - Floodland

Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures

Here Lies Lucy - Heaven or HLL EP

Fantômas - The Director's Cut

The Soft Moon - Exister

The Cure - Pornography

London After Midnight - Kiss (Club Mix) single

Carpenter Brut - Blood Machines OST

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Card:

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

Loud and clear. I have already realized that I've constructed a bit of a creative trap for myself lately, and a lot of it has to do with what these cards are very visually, on-the-nose saying: I'm drinking too much and it's tying my hands on my creative pursuits. I need to chill and get back into the routine I had going in September: Wake up by 8:00 AM so I can punch-out by 4:30 PM, then head out and spend at least an hour-and-a-half writing.

11 Days 'till Halloween

 

Time to break out the MLWTTKK. While Confessions of a Knife is my go-to from them, the first album is pretty rad as well, and nothing on it lights my fire like this track.

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31 Days of Halloween:

1) Tales of Halloween: Sweet Tooth/The Wolf Man (1941)

2) From Beyond/Monsterland: Port Fourchon, Louisiana/Tales of Halloween: The Night Billy Raised Hell/Tales of Halloween: Trick

3) Mulholland Drive/Creepshow (1982): The Crate

4) Waxwork

5) Synchronic/Bad Hair

6) Dolls

7) Lovecraft Country Ep. 8/Tales of Halloween: The Weak and the Wicken/Tales of Halloween: The Grim Grinning Ghost

8) 976-Evil

9) Repo! The Genetic Opera

10) Firestarter/George A. Romero's Bruiser

11) The Haunting of Bly Manor episodes 1 & 2/Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2

12) The Haunting of Bly Manor episodes 3, 4, and 5/House of 1000 Corpses

13) Masque of the Red Death/Creepshow (2019) Episode 7/Creepshow (1982)

14) The Haunting of Bly Manor episodes 6 and 7

15) The Haunting of Bly Manor episodes 8 and 9/Roseanne (88) season 2 and 3 Halloween Episodes

16) The Mortuary Collection/Roseanne (88) season 4 Halloween Episode

17) Ginger Snaps Back: The Beginning

18) Lovecraft Country episode 9/The Haunting/Roseanne (88) season 5 Halloween Episode

19) Lovecraft Country episode 10/Tales From the Crypt season 1 ep. 5 Love Come Hack to Me

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Playlist:

My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult - Confessions of a Knife

Fields of the Nephilim - Elizium

Geraldine Fibbers - Butch

Naked Raygun - Basement Screams

Mrs. Piss - Self-Surgery

Type O Negative - Dead Again

Type O Negative - Origin of the Feces

Alice in Chains - Dirt

My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult - I see Good Spirits, I See Bad

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Card:

More inspiration, most likely from a larger-than-life source.

My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult - A Daisy Chain for Satan (Acid & Flowers Mix)

There's a bunch of homemade "drug" videos for this on the youtubes, but really, nothing you can put visually to this does the hellish sonic landscape that they create with the music on this one justice.

This came out of nowhere, not even sure what the impetus for this is, but apparently the flavor of this Saturday night is the taste of metal filings - Industrial mix.