Isolation: Day 104

Maybe the fact that I happened across this and liked it is proof I'm getting old and complacent. I don't know. I've never cared for pretty much anything about Powerman 5000 before, and I certainly wasn't expecting to dig this. But I kinda did. Are Spider and his bandmates simply latching onto the nearly omnipotent 80s/synth nostalgia that permeates our culture? Probably. Should that piss me off? Well, it would have younger me, but at this particular moment, there's a part of me - the tired, nostalgic part scared by the turns the world has taken - that's just hungry AF for more of the aesthetic from my childhood, when times were simpler and all we had to worry about was Nuclear War, AIDS, and razor blades in candy bars. Ahhhh, childhood...

New album is out on Cleopatra Records in August, HERE's the link to pre-order.


**

After looking for it off and on for the better part of twenty years, I am psyched to say I recently found a copy of Dante Tomaselli's debut film Desecration on DVD for $11.00. This one never made the jump to Blu, and previously I've seen the DVD listed for upwards of $100, so I guess this underrated Italian Director's brief time in the indie horror spotlight has faded. In re-watching Desecration's trailer for the first time in years, I can't help but wonder if this will be one that doesn't live up to the expectations I've slowly been building in my head ever since a good friend turned me onto Tomaselli's work back in 2003, with his feature Horror. While I haven't seen that one in a while, 2006's Satan's Playground remains my favorite of his films to date, and one I rewatch every few years around Halloween.



The mix of imagery employed here is so insane, I'm really hoping the plot doesn't just disintegrate into webbing to hold them all together. I guess I'll find out soon enough.

**

Playlist:

Various Artists - The Void OST
The Veils - Not Vomica
Lingua Ignota - Caligula
Helms Alee - Sleepwalking Sailors
Helms Alee - Night Terror
Helms Alee - Noctiluca
John Carpenter and Alan Howarth - Prince of Darkness OST
Jeff Grace - House of the Devil OST
Misfits - Collection Two
Ritual Howls - Rendered Armor
The Darts - I Like You But Not Like That

**

Card:

Love this card. From the Grimoire: Skill and/or Wisdom. Like yesterday, this feels appropriate. I hit one of those moments last night while reading the finished draft of the book to K where I actually made myself laugh. Always a good sign, because it doesn't happen often, so when it does, it tends to be genuine. As though I'm reading something someone else wrote.

2018: October 22nd

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds tore it up last night. The set list contained much of the standard tunes they're performing in the current incarnation, with one nice surprise of the non-album Shoot Me Down, one of my favorites from the B-Sides and Rarities Box Set released back in the early 00s. My favorite of the evening was probably From Her to Eternity. Love this new, extra cacophonous version.



Absolutely fantastic to see Warren Ellis play the flute on it live. And props to the guy in the audience wearing a perfectly fitted suit and dancing his ass off all night. Almost as much fun to watch as Old Nick.

Cigarettes After Sex opened the night, and while I'd had a bit of trouble getting into their music on the headphones at work - not the time or place when you need a tempo - I LOVED them live and intend on gorging on their music in the following nights.



Oh, and it turns out The Forum, while I still would 99 times out of a hundred skip stadium shows, really does a tip-top job with efficiency. I'd been carrying some anxiety about going to this, with the logistics of parking, seating, etc, but everything was easy peasy. The seats were fairly small and uncomfortable, but everything else was 1-2-3.

31 Days of Horror continued with Dante Tomaselli's Satan's Playground. I've been wondering for a while whatever happened to Tomaselli, who released three avant grade horror films back in the late 90s/early00s and then kind of disappeared after 2012's Torture Chamber, which I never bothered with based on the name and that era's predilection for torture porn flicks. But Desecration (which I've only seen clips of), Horror, and Satan's Playground, while having no chance of winning any acting awards, are enjoyable, unique little gems. Turns out, Tomaselli is currently working on a remake of Alice, Sweet Alice, the original having been directed by his cousin, Alfred Sole. Here's the trailer for Desecration, which is nuts:



10/01) Summer of 84
10/02) Rope
10/03) Dreams in the Witch House
10/04) Crash
10/05) The Fly
10/06) Re-animator
10/07) Night of the Demons
10/08) Species
10/09) The Roost
10/10) The Convent
10/11) Killer Klowns from Outer Space
10/12) George A. Romero's Day of the Dead
10/13) George A. Romero's Land of the Dead
10/14) The Apostle
10/15) Phantom of the Paradise
10/16) Candyman
10/17) Ghoulies
10/18) John Carpenter's Halloween

10/19) Halloween
10/20) Mandy
10/21) Satan's Playground

Playlist from yesterday was virtually non-existent, aside from Mr. Cave and the Bad Seeds live:
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - The Good Son

No card today.