Showing posts with label 3 of Disks Work. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 3 of Disks Work. Show all posts

Friday, August 14, 2020

Isolation: Day 151

It's official! October 30th, Mr. Bungle's The Raging Wraith of the Easter Bunny is out via Patton's Ipecac Recordings. Thanks to Mr. Brown for the heads up, because I've been slammed all week and would have completely missed the chance to snag a copy of that Ruby Red 2 LP vinyl! Pre-order HERE.
While I've been a Bungle fan since Brown turned me on to their self-titled debut back in High School, and I spent a good deal of my time on Napster in the late 90s downloading bootlegs of their older, demo stuff, I never really got into the original, thrash version of the band. That said, seeing these songs a few months ago, played by musicians who are older and wiser, I became convinced if they recorded it, Easter Bunny had the potential to be one of the greatest thrash records to come out in decades. If Raping Your Mind is any intimation of what is on the rest of the record, I'm pretty sure I was correct.
Sure, I'd love another weirdo Bungle album eventually, but in the meantime, I'm welcoming this one with open arms.
**
NCBD this week was another no-go for my pull, which is fine, because I haven't picked up my books in two weeks now. One of the companies I always look forward to checking is Vault, and this week, I notice a collection for a series I'd not noticed previously. This looks pretty damn interesting, and I've ear-marked it for a little research.
This collection just came out, however, I'm going to look for the individual issues first, as I love the art and design of the originals' covers. Here's an example:
There's such a throw-back feel to this, but not like a comic, more like the old paperback books I used to read as a kid. LOVE this.

**
Playlist:
Concrete Blonde - Eponymous
Concrete Blonde - Free
X - Wild Gift
X - Los Angeles
Plimsouls - Everywhere at Once
Contours - Essential 
Carpenter Brut - Blood Machines OST
X - Under the Big Black Sun
The Birthday Party - Hee Haw
Tom Waits - Rain Dogs
Hank III - Straight to Hell
Low Cut Connie - Hi Honey
Francesco Zampaglione and Andrea Moscianese - Tulpa OST
Brainiac - Smack Bunny Baby
Vitalic - OK Cowboy
Aerosmith - Pump
Airiel - Molten Young Lovers
Moderat - II
Reverend Horton Heat - Liquor in the Front
Brainiac - Hissing Prigs in Static Couture
Afghan Whigs - Gentlemen
The Bangles - All Over the Place

**
Card:

Let's do another multi-deck spread:


For this one, I used one card from the Raven Deck, and two from my mini Thoth - both decks gifts to me from my good friend Missi, who now has my new book Murder Virus - that's the name I'm sticking with - as my first beta reader. Missi Birthday was yesterday, so there's a lot of her energy in this spread. The Tower is a toppling of old conventions, though here I don't take it as pointing to the 'Old Guard' publishing industry, but my perceptions of it. Work is the hard work and determination I need to maintain (another query sent a few days ago), and Lust is a warning about the lust of result. Those of you who know anything about Magick know lust of result is one of the major blockades to achieving one's Will.


Wednesday, July 8, 2020

Isolation: Day 117 New Exhalants!



New song from Austin's Exhalants. For my money, these guys are the closest band I know of to that old school Jesus Lizard vibe I love so much. I ordered their self-titled debut last year from bandcamp and love it, now it would seem we have a new record coming soon. Can't wait.

**

NCBD:


Didn't 22 just hit the stands last week? Looks like there was one in the queue when the Diamond hiatus happened, so we're getting an extra treat here on the backend. Very nice.


I KNEW IT! I knew that zero issue for Transformers '84 that Simon Furman and Guido Guidi did last year would lead to a series. SO excited. I don't read any other title associated with this beloved childhood franchise, but if Furman writes it, I am there! And look at that cover - does anyone ever get sick of watching Starscream and Megatron try and kill one another? I know I don't.


Love this cover too! This series continues to blow me away with its new direction, so I'm psyched to have 106 come in so close to 105.

**

Playlist:

Andrea Moscianese and Francesco Zampaglione - Tulpa OST
Iggy Pop - Lust For Life
Exhalants - Band (single)
Exhalants - Eponymous
Brainiac - Bonsai Superstar
Brainiac - Hissing Prigs in Static Couture
Perturbator - Dangerous Days
Perturbator - The Uncanny Valley
War on Women - Capture the Flag

Card:


A solid foundation of work yields results.



Friday, September 20, 2019

M83 - DSVII - Feelings



M83's new album Digital Shades Vol. II dropped today. It's gorgeous, and coincidentally makes a perfect soundtrack to my re-read of Rick Remender and Matteo Scalera's Black Science. I'm eleven issues in and th Telepathic Millipede death cult is one of the awesomest/creepiest lifeforms I've seen in a SciFi/Fantasy story like this. Check that - there are no SciFit/Fantasy stories like this. Pure, unraveling, multi-dimensional madness, and I'm loving it, especially with this lush, analog soundtrack. I fell out with M83 after HUWD, and I still want a non-instrumental record from them again, but in the meantime, DSVII is fantastic.

**

Larry Fessenden's modern take on Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is fantastic, and if you're in Hollywood and get a chance to see that - or any of the other goodies playing there - you should definitely drop in at Arena Cinelounge. Fantastic venue for short run/obscure flicks. I posted the trailer for Depraved yesterday, so today, here's a super cool behind the scenes shot I found online, along with a LINK to a cool article by Fessenden on why he makes movies.


For my money, Mr. Fessenden is the closest thing to a John Carpenter-level talent who isn't wearing his JC influence on his sleeve (not always a bad thing, the point here is LF is as original in his approach now as JC was to his back in the day), toiling away in partial obscurity, making original, solid flicks that are as interesting to the philosophical mind as they are to the eye. Support this man's work!

My full, short review of Depraved is up on Letterbxd HERE.

**

Playlist from 9/19:

Tomahawk - Eponymous
Pixies - Beneath the Eyrie
Sleep - Sleep's Holy Mountain
Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - Mind Control
Rob Zombie - Hellbilly Deluxe

**

Card of the day:


Wow, talk about the cards talking directly, clearly, right to me! Two days of the 4 of Disks, Power while I recharge my mental and physical batteries, directly followed by the 3 of Disks, Work, telling me to get my ass back in gear and get to work. Time to wrap Black Science for the day and head out to write!





Wednesday, October 31, 2018

2018: October 31st - Happy Halloween!!!



I figured this would be appropriate.

31 Days of Horror's penultimate evening yielded two movies. The first, Trick r' Treat, which is always a viewing standard for the season. I almost passed it over last night, lured by ideas of exploring something new on VOD. After about three minutes though, I was all in. LOVE this film. My favorite segments would be the Bus in the Quarry and little Red Riding Hood. An autumnal cinematic institution I will never doubt again.

The second movie was 1931's Dracula, directed by Tod Browning and starring the inimitable Bela Lugosi. Had to get in at least one Universal Monster.

"I never drink....... wine."



Classic. The sets on the old Universal monster flicks are indelibly seared into my soul from watching them so much as a kid. It wasn't until K and I got together and she revived my love of those original horror franchises that I revisited them. Last year we did Frankenstein (still my fav) and The Creature from the Black Lagoon, this year Dracula.

31 Days of Horror

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
10/22) Flatliners
10/23) Jacob's Ladder
10/24) Halloween III: Season of the Witch
10/25) Ghost Stories
10/26) John Carpenter's The Fog
10/27) Suspiria (2018)
10/28) Suspiria (1977)
10/29) Beetlejuice/Pyewacket
10/30) Trick r' Treat/Dracula (1931)

You know how sometime in the 00s someone put out a DVD with logs burning in a fireplace, a kind of background mood-setter for Christmas? Well, Shudder has the Halloween equivalent: The Ghoul Log, one hour and three minutes of this:


So awesome! They added in night sounds (owls hooting and wind and stuff), and it's real-time, that is to say the camera is rolling, capture every flicker of the candle's flame. Once again, kudos Shudder!

Big plans for tonight, as I am off work tomorrow.  If it's foggy again like it's been the last few nights, I might just go for a midnight stroll in costume.

Playlist from 10/30:

Nine Inch Nails - Pretty Hate Machine
Type O Negative - Bloody Kisses (digipak)
Siouxsie and the Banshees - 
Fantômas - Director's Cut
Sisters of Mercy - First and Last and Always
Sisters of Mercy - Floodland
Windhand - Eternal Return
Ritual Howls - Their Body
Ritual Howls - Into the Water

Card of the day:


Success from hard work. Good to hear. I've been reinvigorated of late in streamlining Shadow Play Book #1: Kim & Jessie. Things felt a little strained yesterday, but I kind of squandered my inspiration, applying it later in the day than I should have. I won't make that mistake today.

One last video, my favorite Halloween song, which I probably post every year. It's worth the reiteration:



Happy Halloween everyone!!!


Saturday, July 28, 2018

2018: July 28th



I listened to True Widow's AVVOLGERE all the way through several times yesterday while in the midst of an outstanding writing session. Many props to Keller, who I met with on Thursday and who gave me invaluable notes on T12, which he is currently editing. Super charged by that, I sat in my writing nook for a straight two hours in the late morning/early afternoon yesterday and really made progress on Please Believe Me. I know it was two hours because one of the things Keller recommended to help me was a time tracker app that I downloaded and used for the first time. ATracker Pro should be good for me, as previously I've tended to either write for a nebulous two-three hours, or, as was the case during the T12 sprint, by word count; Scrivener has a Project Target feature that allows you to input a due-by date and a desired end word count, and then calculates a daily word goal based on that. I dig this function, as it inspires me to write everyday (thought I don't really need external incentive any more) so the daily targets stay relatively low, however it can create scenarios where you end up consciously or unconsciously word-stuffing, just to make the daily requirement. This is then felt during the editing process. I don't know that I ever consciously word stuffed on T12, however, on days when I would write and edit at the same time, I'd build up a daily count and then anything I would remove would be subtracted from that. Thus, there were a few occasions where I would write, let's say 2K words, edit out a large swathe of material further on, and be back to near zero again. THAT can be a morale killer.

Playlist yesterday:

True Widow - AVVOLGERE
The Veils - Total Depravity
The Misfits - Collection Two
Ministry - Dark Side of the Spoon
Deafheaven - Ordinary Corrupt Human Love
Drab Majesty - The Demonstration

Card of the day:


From the Grimoire: "Attainment/Success through Effort. Result from hard work. Solid foundation. Balance." - Fitting, based on the topic of today's entry, eh?

Thursday, July 5, 2018

2018: July 5th

In light of recent news, let's have some Them Are Us Too, shall we?



I finally saw A Cure For Wellness. Visually I dug it, and three-quarters of the way through I was still more or less smitten. The last third, where Gore Verbinski couldn't quite decide how he wanted to end the film, just that he absolutely had to wedge in a series of scenes that all felt as though they ended the movie, really toppled the film under the weight of lofty ambitions. A Cure For Wellness just falls apart at the end, and it's a shame. Worth a watch for sure, but even at $9.99 I have buyer's remorse that I picked up the Blu Ray. #firstworldproblems for sure.


Also watched the 1986 Transformers animated movie - the ONLY Transformers movie in my book - for the first time in probably fifteen years. Still pretty damn awesome, and the soundtrack actually bothers me less today. All the ambient/synth-based stuff is great. The hair metal not so much, but again, it doesn't quite bother me as much now as it did fifteen years ago.



The new Drinking, Fighting, F*&king, and Crying is up HERE.

Playlist from 7/04/18:

Sinoia Caves - Beyond the Black Rainbow OST
Joseph Loduca - Evil Dead 2 OST
John Carpenter - Lost Themes

Card of the day:


Balance. Also, results from hard work or actualization from an idea. This is good; working on a new short story.

Monday, May 21, 2018

2018: May 21st

Woke up with this one in my head:



I still haven't checked out anything beyond their 2011 debut, but Torches has never failed me. Every song is fantastic. I put this on the headphones yesterday when I rang out to grab some groceries, and it completely lightened my mood (spent the entire day finishing the edit on the previous DwC, only to have the Media Encoder fail to render it properly. That's about two hours down the drain and the knowledge that I have to fuck around with it more today).

Playlist from yesterday:

Helmet - Betty
Foster the People - Torches
Urge Overkill - Saturation
The Veils - Time Stays, We Go

Card of the day:


From the Grimoire: "Roll up your sleeves. Take care of what you have been procrastinating. Clear out what has stood in your way." Message received.Writing will be painful but exhilarating today.