2019: February 25th

A little classic Firewater to kick off the morning. I drove in to work playing The Ponzi Scheme, the band's 1998 masterpiece, and it reminded me how much I love this album. I've always been a bit reticent when engaging with their other albums; nothing against the band or Tod A, the principal composer/arranger/lyricist who is the anchor of the group, Firewater is just one of those band's whose first album I heard made such a deep impression I've always had trouble going for anything else. That changes today, I think. I've loaded 2003's The Man on the Burning Tightrope to my Apple Music and intend on engaging with it shortly after I post this.

Congratulations to Green Book for winning best picture. I know, I know: I'm one of those people who  flap their gums about detesting the oscars and then applaud when the awards line up with my personal choices. What'dya gunna do?

Quick correction on my previous entry to these pages. In 2015, Hateful Eight was not my favorite/the best movie of the year, it was Alex Garland's Ex Machina.

Saturday night I had the guys from The Horror Vision over and we watched Philip Ridley's INSANE 1991 film The Reflecting Skin. This just hit Shudder and is a bit hard to come by, so I recommend if you have the service you watch it. Haunting, and you will never see daylight and fields of wheat look so freakin' ominous again.



The final episode of True Detective season 3 aired last night. Much like the first season, I didn't love the finale. Still, no complaints on an overall awesome season. My slight disappointment simply stems from the fact that, even more than season 1, this season set up a lot of what could have been really profound ideas and then skirted around them for a pretty convenient and simple resolution. I guess the show will never be what I want it to be, but even just these teases - when executed this well - are enough to permanently endear it to me.

Playlist from 2/23:

Beck - Odelay
Don Shirley Trio - Don Shirley
The Devil's Blood - The Thousandfold Epicenter
Godflesh - A World Lit Only By Fire
Paramore - All We Know is Falling
Ritual Howls - Into the Water
Odonis Odonis - Post Plague
The Cure - Pornography

Playlist from 2/24:

United Future Organization - Third Perspective

Card of the day:

Hmmm... poisoned waters? Overflow of emotion tainting the perfection of the Six? No idea on this one, though I'm tempted to read it as my preoccupation with a new short story idea - well, a couple of them really, hence the overflowing symbolism - interfering with my editing of the book I've promised myself will be published in April.

February 18th: Good Omens Series Title Sequence

To say I have been waiting for an adaptation of Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman's Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter Witch for a long time is an understatement. Mr. Brown and I read this back in the mid-90s and I've been a fan since (though I could definitely use a re-read). I remember Terry Gilliam was attached for a while, and Johnny Depp and Robin Williams were set to play the Angel Aziraphale and the Demon Crowley, though which was set for which I can't remember anymore. Regardless, the fact that we're finally getting Good Omens, and as a series no less, makes me very happy. The title sequence was revealed recently and watching it, I feel anticipation unlike any in a while. I just wish this could have come to fruition while Mr. Pratchett was still alive.

Playlist from 2/18 was non-existent.

The penultimate episode of True Detective, Season 3 aired last night and it was HUGE!!! I won't spoil anything here, but this season has been masterful.

Also, Episode 5 of Rick Remender's Deadly Class aired on SyFy and it pretty much left me speechless. This has been such an amazing adaptation of a comic, probably the best one I've ever seen, and all the glory is owed to Mr. Remender. In the back matter of the most recent issue of the Deadly Class comic, Remender talked on how he surrendered sleep and freedom to be the show runner on Deadly Class, and he's filled out the story in the comics with much love. Nothing has been added that doesn't expand the source material organically, and the actual ratio of straight adaptation to screen has been fantastic. Episode 5 was the Vegas episode, and the use of animation here was amazing. Reminded me of The Wall, a bit. SO freaking good.



Card of the day:

Okay, many will say I probably should remove this card from my mini Thoth deck, but I left it in and drew it, so I'm stuck interpreting it. Hmmm... I've said this before recently and not followed through, but perhaps I should pull some Crowley off the bookshelf in my room and peruse for inspiration?

2019: January 28th

It's been a while since I threw any Pigface into my daily routine. This was always among my favorite tracks from the band.

True Detective surprised the hell out of me last night. I mentioned before how Jeremy Saulnier was originally enlisted to direct the entirety of season three, then split. Daniel Sackheim was brought in for episode three, and earned an executive producer credit on the episode, if not the series (not sure). But after that, the series' IMDB page remained suspiciously devoid of a director credit for the remainder of the season. Which had me a little bit worried.

Well, that worry proved unfounded. Creator Nic Pizzolatto stepped in for episode four in what I believe was his directorial debut, and he absolutely KILLED it. Best episode of the season so far, and such a great installment that I'm fairly certain I now feel completely confident the show is back on track after that disappointing second season. Such restraint on that ending, which made it absolutely EPIC. I'm loving the cast, especially Mahershala Ali, Carmen Ejogo, and Stephen Dorff. Oh and this guy. I totally feel for this guy, even while retaining my suspicions as well:

Playlist from 1/27:

Shane Carruth - Upstream Color OST
The Dillinger Escape Plan - Calculating Infinity
Boy Harsher - Lesser Man
Algiers - Eponymous
Pastor T.L. Barrett and the Youth for Christ Choir - Like a Ship (Without a Sail)
James Brown - Hell

Card of the day:

Lots of Swords lately, all lining up with my edgy mood. Currently, I have massive Cognitive Dissonance, but actually took the first step in (hopefully) fixing that last night. Because it is kinda ruining me in some regards right now. I've been volatile in my daily life, and that's not good.

2019: January 14th

There's a new Jozef Van Wissem and Jim Jarmusch album set to drop on February 8th via Sacred Bones Records, and so far it has my favorite album title in quite some time. You can pre-order An Attempt to Draw Aside the Veil HERE.

Rounding the final lap on Nick Cave's And the Ass Saw the Angel, which I absolutely love. And interestingly enough, Cave's take on a gorgeous baroque, inbred Southern Gothic aesthetic hit a nice harmonic node with my impromptu re-watch of True Detective Season 1, as well as last night's True Detective Season 3, which takes place in Arkansas in 1980, 1990, and 2015 and has a similar tone.

Thus far, Season 3 follows Detectives Wayne Hays as played by Mahershala Ali, as he tries to solve an unsolvable case over the course of three decades. Two episodes in and I'm digging it; I find it a little bit of a lack of confidence that the show went back to the 'deposition and interview' mechanism that worked so well in Season 1, but hey, to climb out of the swamp of Season 2, do what works. With Jeremy Saulnier's episodes now under the belt and his leave approaching, next week's episode is helmed by Daniel Sackheim and then I guess HBO will announce directors as the episodes come up? I'm struggling not to take that as a bad sign, but for right now, doubts or not, the cinematography, acting, and atmosphere are so fucking tight and thick, I'm sticking.

I had actually planned at the last minute to do a new weekly wrap up show, a la my Evolution of the Arm series I did for Twin Peaks: The Return, however there really isn't a lot of 'mystery' to discuss yet. The one thing I'm wondering is, if this season drifts at all into Weird Fiction territory like the first season did, maybe the book we see in missing boy Will Purcell's bedroom while Hays is searching it for clues might come into play. The book is The Forests of Long, and anyone who knows Lovecraft mythos knows Leng as location of the infamous Plateau of Leng. I did a perfunctory search for the book online and couldn't find anything, making me think it was a prop deliberately constructed for the show, which means it is potentially important in some way. I doubt this is where the show is going, but you never know. If David Milch convinced Nick Pizzalato to stick with what made Season One iconic, we may brush up against some Weird after all.

Playlist from yesterday was non-existent.

Card of the day:

Sturdy. Is today that day? Maybe...

2019: January 13th

Previously, I'd not been much of a fan of Baroness. Yesterday though, Mr. Brown mentioned The Purple Album to me, and after spending a couple go-rounds with it on my iPod, I have to say, I really dig this album. This song, in particular.

New episode of The Horror Vision just went up:
Apple Podcasts
Spotify
Google Play
The Horror Vision.com

True Detective Season Three starts tonight. I'm going to watch it, but I am going to keep my expectations waaaaaay low. Based on the fact that, although Jeremy Saulnier was originally attached to direct the entire season - much like Cary Fukunaga did season one - but ended up only doing the first two, I'm hesitant to expect much beyond those first two episodes. Season Two is a catastrophe, and begins with Justin Lin directing the first two episodes - which were pretty good - and then has a different director for almost every remaining episode of the season, and the story crumbles. Season Three's IMDB shows Saulnier for the first two, and Daniel Sackheim for episode three, and then there is no director listed for the remainder of the season. That 'play-the-cards-close-to-your-chest' technique makes me think this will also end up being an unwatchable mess, but hopefully not.



Playlist from 1/12:

Baroness - Purple
The Black Angels - Death Song
David Bowie - Aladdin Sane
The Dillinger Escape Plan - Option Paralysis
John Carpenter & Alan Howarth - Big Trouble in Little China OST
Windhand - Eternal Return
Jóhann Jóhannsson - Mandy OST
Goblin - Dawn of the Dead OST

Card of the day:

Breakthrough!

True Detective Season 3 Trailer

The fact that Jeremy Saulnier walked from directing the entire thing is troublesome. I won't make a judgement yet, but let's just say I'm skeptical.