2019: June 14th - Dr. Sleep Teaser

Holy. F*&k. This, this I can't wait for. IT chapter 2 is exciting, but Doctor Sleep directed by Mike Flanagan... words can't describe my anticipation. Which is a little unnerving, because I had a lot of anticipation for Pet Sematary, too, and look how that turned out. That said, I'm still inclined to think the problem with PS was the studio not allowing Kevin Kölsch and Dennis Widmyer make the movie they wanted to make, while Flanagan has such a solid, lengthy track record at this point, I'm sure he will be able to do what he wants, just as I'm sure what he wants to do is make a great Stephen King adaptation from a great Stephen King novel.

If you haven't read Doctor Sleep, do so. Now, if you're able. It's fantastic.

And thanks to Mr. Brown, for lending me his copy back when it came out, ensuring I had a chance to read it early on.

**

Hey, hey! That new Baroness dropped today. I'll be listening to it all morning, but tell ya what - this opening track freakin' rules!



**

Playlist the last few days:

Soul Coughing - Irresistible Bliss
Deafheaven - New Bermuda
Ghost Cop - One Weird Trick
Marissa Nadler & Stephen Brodsky - Droneflower
Arthur Ahbez  Gold
King Woman - Doubt EP
Perturbator - The Uncanny Valley
Gnarls Barkley - St. Elsewhere
Gnarls Barkley - The Odd Couple
My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult - Final Blindness 7"
Finitribe - Make It Internal
Orville Peck - Pony
Helmet - Aftertaste
Deftones - Koi No Yokan
Helmet - Size Matters
Helmet - Dead to the World
Odonis Odonis - Post Plague
Spotlights - Love and Decay

**

Card of the day:

Leaving behind the symmetry of the sixes and moving into uncharted - and possibly murky - waters. I'm reading this as caution going forward with the next project, as I have less than three hours of work remaining on Shadow Play before I order the proofs. It's been a hell of a battle to finalize this, and I'm still not convinced I won't be reading it again in full when the proof arrives. Either way, my time on Ciazarn is coming back around again, but where that should feel strong, I've got two shorts hanging on as loose ends. Should I begin with those, knock them out and then dive back into the Dust Bowl? Not sure.

2019: April 7th - Droneflower

Well, I did not expect to be posting this track today. I didn't expect to even think of one of my favorite Guns and Roses songs any time soon. And 'favorite G&R song' is a somewhat exclusive label, as the band long ago irritated me to the point that I have little ability left to engage with their music in any meaningful way. It's all nostalgia, with only brief glimpses of the feelings their music - especially the epics on the two Illusions records - used to inspire in me back when I was in high school and G&R was a force to be reckoned with. It's not that the material is lacking, because songs like Estranged, Coma, and yes, even November Rain still feel epic and genuine to me. But for a band I once thought would be the 'next Rolling Stones,' G&R couldn't keep it together and ended up traveling through this timeline as a not much more than a bad joke. Nadler's upcoming collaborative album with Stephen Brodsky, out April 26th on Sacred Bones, however, is not a joke:



I can't place where I know Marrisa Nadler's name from; it doesn't matter. Between her, Chelsea Wolfe, Emma Ruth Rundle, and Myrkur, there is an amazing cabal of female artists exploring the dark and beautiful intersection of folk and black metal. It's not about sound, it's about tone and aesthetic. And Brodsky's discography is loaded with impressive projects, so I think I'll pre-order this one, which can be done HERE.

**

The Horror Vision had a group outing last Thursday and caught the first pre-screening of Kevin Kölsch and Dennis Widmyer's new iteration of the classic Stephen King novel Pet Sematary. I'm sorry to say I hated it. With a passion. And I think I have some pretty good reasons for that hate. Did my Castmates agree with me? Check out our reaction on any of the following platforms below to find out, but only if you've seen the flick; we go heavy spoilers on this one:

The Horror Vision on Apple
The Horror Vision on Spotify
The Horror Vision on Google Play
The Horror Vision Official Website

**

I leave for Spokane in a few hours, and in preparing for this trip, my main goal over the last few days has been to finish the First Reader copy of the Shadow Play Book One, so I could pass it off to Missi and NOT THINK ABOUT IT for a few weeks. I'm happy to say I accomplished my goal, even though by the end of the work - last minute touch-ups to the prose and a ton of formatting tweaks that resulted from taking the finished document out of Scrivener and into Vellum, I was spent. I raced through three hours last night and came out the other side feeling as though I'd been immersed in hard physical labor. Now? On to Ciazarn!

Ciazarn: also known as carny, is a private language employed by those who live and work in Carnival culture, meant to keep anyone outside that culture from knowing what is being said.

This is the new collaboration with Jonathan Grimm, who I'm also doing The Legend of Parish Fenn with. Fenn is a comic. Ciazarn is a short story - or perhaps eventually a series of short stories - with illustrations by Grimm. At some point I'll post an elevator pitch and sample art and I think you'll agree with me that Ciazarn is going to be awesome.

**

Playlist 4/05:

Brand New - God and the Devil are Raging Inside Me
Canadian Rifle - Peaceful Death
Canadian Rifle - Deep Ends
King Khan and the Shrines - What Is?!
Windhand - Live Elsewhere
Windhand - Grief's Infernal Flower

Playlist 4/06:

Uncle Acid  & The Deadbeats - Wasteland
Lustmord - Songs of Gods and Demons
Faith No More - Angel Dust

Card of the day:

Breakthrough. Exactly. One immediately behind me, hopefully one directly in front of me.

2019: March 23rd - Zeal & Ardor release Live in London!

I should have realized that, a few days ago when they released We Never Fall, that it would be a harbinger of the band's first live album. I can NOT wait to dig into this today.

K and I saw Jordan Peele's Us last night. Despite one of the worst crowds I've shared a theatre with in recent memory, and me being a bit too high to let all the random conversations not affect my viewing, the film is outstanding. Peele is one of the most original filmmakers out there today, and seeing him interviewed recently on both Horror Noire and Eli Roth's History of Horror, it excites me to no end that he embraces Horror as much as he does, and wants to continue to create inside the genre.

Also, that second trailer for Pet Sematary that I had been avoided was foisted on me before the movie last night, and it looks scary as hell.

Playlist from 3/22:

Talking Heads - Remain in Light
Canadian Rifle - Peaceful Death
Thought Gang - Eponymous
Stan Getz - Focus

No card today.

Pet Sematary Trailer!

Whoah. Thanks to my good friend Missi, I finally read Stephan King's Pet Sematary about five or six years ago. It immediately became my favorite non-Dark Tower King novel. It is chilling. End of story. And the scenes that brush up against the Wendigo - if that's what it is - SO spooky. So well done! The flick looks great - the directors previously did Starry Eyes, so that's a great sign in my book. Another upscale King Adaption on the heels of last year's IT. While I'll admit to a certain soft-spot for the original Pet Sematary, this looks to be a vast improvement.