The Boogeyman

A few weeks ago, Mr. Brown asked me if I'd ever heard the Chicago band Ganser. I had not. I added a few records in Apple Music but didn't actually hit play on one until last week.

Instant adoration.

The album I'm currently obsessed with is 2018's Odd Talk, and the song on that album that gets the most play is also the first song on this live Audiotree session the band did in 2020, "Satsuma." Watching them play live is literally thrilling, especially guitarist Charlie Landsman. I love everything about this band, but I love Charlie's guitar the most, as it conjures White Lung, US Maple, Assembly Line People Program, and Erase Errata, to name a few bands I've carried on love affairs with in the past. 

Ganser is on the always fantastic Felte Records, and you can check them out on the label's site HERE or the band's Bandcamp HERE.

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Watch:

Last night K and I caught the first screening of Rob Savage's new film The Boogeyman. This is based on an adaptation of Stephen King's short story, "The Boogeyman," from his Night Shift collection. I've read the story, although I had no memory of it at the time of the screening, so I was free to judge the film simply as the film. In that context, and ultimately in any other, The Boogeyman is a damn solid monster movie. Here's the trailer:

          

What goes right with this flick? Pretty much everything. In many respects, this is a by-the-numbers Horror flick, but Savage - whose breakthrough was 2020's Host (the Zoom movie, which I love) - is showing himself to be an auteur at heart, so there are enough personal touches and 'aberrations' from the formula that while The Boogeyman feels familiar, it also feels different enough that you won't be bored. The third act really sealed the deal - it's fantastic.

Also, and this is the smallest of spoilers, if at all, but I found it very cool that actress Seylan Baxter, who played the Medium in Host appears in this film in a youtube video on Seances one of the characters watches. It's little touches like that I always appreciate in a filmmaker's work.

  

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Read:

After seeing the film The Boogeyman, I woke up this morning and re-read the story in Stephen King's Night Shift.

The story strictly follows Billings's visit to Dr. Harper's office, where he avails himself of his guilt. That's it. So the film is an adaptation and expansion of the story, and in that, it's pretty fantastic in what it accomplishes, using King's story as the seed for a larger world that's really only hinted at between the lines of the story.

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Playlist:

Radiohead - The Bends

Ganser - Odd Talk

Lustmord - Berlin

Boy Harsher - Burn it Down (single)

Boy Harsher - Careful

Code Orange - Grooming My Replacement/The Game (single)

Code Orange - Underneath

            

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Card:

From Aleister Crowley and Lady Frieda Harris's Thoth deck:

• Prince of Swords - The "Air" of Air, or doubling down on conflict

• 2 Change - The Ebb and Flow.

• Princess of Wands - Physical act or manifestation of Will

Cut and dry, once again. Of course, that's because it's all in the interpretation, and the interpretation is steeped in what's on your mind. I know exactly what's on my mind, and it's writing. Hence, why all of this week's Pulls have concerned my Art. 

I've had two decent days getting back in the saddle; nothing stellar, but that's the ebb and flow mentioned above - I have to take the good with the bad, especially when overcoming the inertia of having not written in a bit. It's easy to get discouraged, but you just have to apply your Will and fight that part of yourself that wants to be lazy, or is looking to be discouraged. Frustrations be damned, a breakthrough will come!!!

 

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2018: June 16th

I know I'm late to the game on this one, as I think Bad Witch came out over a month ago. I still dig NIN, but I haven't really been in a hurry to hear anything they've put out in a while. This is by far the most interesting track to me since Year Zero. I guess I'll finally be listening to the whole EP today.

Went into Hollywood and had a great creator meeting with Keller on T12 and our next project, which he's been outlining. I realized I've written an entire novel in just over six months. What's more, I actually did two passes on the first half. And this iteration is nearing completion. So in a week or two I had him the full T12 novel, he hands me the outline for HSL and we switch places for a while. I turn out half of HSL, he edits T12, then we swap again. T12 will definitely be finished by at least October if not earlier, and HSL will be halfway done by then. From that point he begins the third of our first batch, and we move into 2019, by the end of which we have three completed novels, the release schedule hopefully looking something like this:

October 2018 - T12 (these are all working titles, as I'd guess you would have assumed)
First quarter 2019 - HSL
Third quarter 2019 - #3

In between, I'm hoping to have a novel and another anthology. But this is all pretty ambitious, I'll admit. Still, if I get half of this done - which I will - I'll be happy.

Playlist from June 15th:

Chris Connelly - Phenobarb Bambalam
Andre Previn & London Symphony Orchestra - Samuel Barber: Adagio, Violin Concerto
David Bowie - Diamond Dogs
Run DMC - Raising Hell
Beastie Boys - Paul's Boutique (side 2)
Gang Starr - Code of the Streets (single)
The Atlas Moth - An Ache for the Distance
Dee-Lite- Sampladelic Relics & Dancefloor Oddities
Deafheaven - New Bermuda

Card for the day:

From the Grimoire: "Can indicate missing/failing to achieve a goal." - So, ah, should I take that as a direct comment on the diatribe up top?

2018: May 8th 7:09 AM

One of my favorite tracks from one of my favorite albums. Had a massive writing day yesterday, and this was there to move me in over the finish line.

If you bought my book, read my book and like my book, please leave me a review. If you didn't like my book, you should leave a review as well. I'm all about the ying and the yang.

Playlist from 5/07:

The Birthday Party - Mutiny/The Bad Seed
Cocksure - K.K.E.P.
Mastodon - Emperor of Sand
Boy Harsher - Yr Body is Nothing
Jesus Lizard - Shot
Deftones - Koi No Yokan
David Lynch & John Neff - Bluebob

Card of the day:

Always a pleasure to see this, one of my favorite cards.

2018: February 25th 9:11 AM

No music in my head this morning and I'm enjoying the quiet by sprinting through a couple chapters from this very enjoyable romp through 70s and 80s paperback horror:

I've mentioned Paperbacks from Hell here before, I think, but as I've moved into the last third of Thomas Ligotti's first two volumes of short fiction I wanted to take a break and chew through something fun. This is it. Highly recommended.

Yesterday was insanely productive. My own first Horror Anthology will most likely be hitting print and digital in April. Titled A Collection of Desires after one of the stories in the book, it's seven tales of modern terror. I hope you'll give it a try.

Playlist from yesterday:

Grimes - Visions
Black Sabbath - Eponymous
Disasterpeace - It Follows OST
Anthrax - Worship Music
Prince & 3RDEYEGIRL - PLECTRUMELECTRUM

Watched the first episode of AHS My Roanoke Nightmare. While I loved Hotel and Murderhouse, I've largely avoided or been disappointed by a lot of AHS. This one already has me.

Card of the day:

One of my favorite cards in the deck, both visually and philosophically. From the Grimoire:

"Will synchronized with the imagination. Dreams become reality. Areas of life coming together, falling into place."

All good signs for the endeavors I am currently undertaking, all of which pertain to my writing, or Art.

Can't leave you without a song. This is as relevant as it is awesome:

2018: January 28th 9:59 AM

"Juanita and Juan, very clever with maracas, making their fortunes selling secondhand tobaccos. Juan dances at Chicos and when the client's are evicted, he empties the ashtrays and pockets all that he's collected."



Beginning my musical day with Brian Eno's Here Come the Warm Jets. It feels like a warm blanket after the night we had. Surprise party for Keller went off without a hitch. Drinks were consumed - a lot of drinks. There was plenty of Sierra Nevada and Guinness going around, as well as a bottle of Basil Hayden - which is, thus far, the bourbon that has made me rethink Bourbon, which I normally turn my nose up to. And a bottle of Port Dundas, which was fantastic. Because of the party, the playlist was alllll over the place, but a snapshot of the entire day looks something like this:

Converse - The Dusk in Us
Revolting Cocks - Big Sexy Land
Algiers - The Underside of Power
Au Pairs - Sense and Sensuality
David Bowie - Diamond Dogs
Grimes - Art Angels
Black Francis - Bluefinger

Moved into the writing portion of my night, a brainstorm session with Keller to iron out some big picture problems with the structure of our story. Switched sonic gears to Reznor and Ross's OST for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. From there I segued into Sleigh Bells - Treatment, the opening track of which we're using as a soundtrack to a scene in our story we refer to as, "The Sleigh Bells Massacre".



No, its not a Christmas story.

The timing was impeccable - K showed up right as the song went nuts and charged through the door with many of our friends behind her. Keller was stunned. From there, all musical bets were off. I can tell you we indulged in some John Spencer Blues Explosion, Def Leppard, The Knife, Was (Not Was), Morris Day and The Time, Prince, then bafflingly I see New Edition and Bell Biv Devoe on my "recently played".

Huh. Never underestimate the nostalgic power of whiskey + friends.

Going to go to breakfast and then lick my wounds. Planning on watching Spike Jonze and Charlie Kaufman's Adaptation today, which I just received from Amazon and haven't seen since the theatrical run. I'll never forget walking out of that Orland Park cinema with Brown in 2002 and saying, "Well, I've never said it before and I'll probably never say it again, but Nicholas Cage deserved TWO fucking Oscars for that one."



Of course Cage didn't get it. We'll see how bad the oscars fuck it up this year - I usually just scoff at their sad attempts to 'reward' artistic merit, which I do not believe has anything to do with the oscar's agenda at all. This year the Golden Globes - an awards institution I normally pay less attention to than the oscars - really felt like they hit it on the nose, so I'll probably be more apt to talk about that show when in need of an industry awards reference, if ever.

2018: January 22nd - 5:46 PM

Almost 12 hours since this morning's post. I just arrived at my writing spot, acquired more caffeine and am about to dig into the pure bliss of continuing work on a dream project, a kind of "what could be" for an iconic horror franchise that will probably never see the light of day. Or who knows? Between my writing partner and myself we have a few connections and an inimitable gift of salesmanship in certain situations.

As usual, digging into my favorite (and most played) writing music of all time:



Have an excellent night. I know I will.

Swans - The World Looks Red/The World Looks Black

My morning, perfectly encapsulated.

Skinny Puppy Live Footage 1986

Currently going through a Skinny Puppy thing, so yeah, it's been a bit dark of late. Bearing this in mind I sat down to hammer a newer chapter of the book into shape with Too Dark Park as the soundtrack and Last Rites close at hand. This particular part of the book is pretty dark, the darkest segment I've written for the project thus far. SP seemed like the right vehicle to help inspire the tone.

Chapter finished I rewarded myself by scouting around online for this home video I remember from high school. It was a live concert, late 80's/early 90's. Ogre was tearing apart a stuffed dog in front of the microphone. I spent some time looking for this video tonight but have absolutely NO idea what it was named, or if it was maybe even a bootleg. In the absence of that which I sought, this does quite nicely.