Full confession - I am not familiar with Azam Ali's music at all. My good friend Dennis sent me this video a few weeks back and it just got lost in the shuffle of the day-to-day. I realized my negligence this morning and fired "Tender Violet" up and was pretty much completely blown away.
Link to the full youtube video in the playlist below.
Last night K and I went to see Tilman Singer's new film, Cuckoo.
The night before, I finally watched Singer's first film, 2018's Luz. Having now seen both in tight succession, I can say I will follow this man wherever he goes from here out.
There's definitely something about Singer's work that gives me a hint of Nicolas Winding Refn, but it's just a hint, a sort of Hauntology flavor that doesn't overpower everything else like the current crop of films I would describe using the same reference does. In Singer's work, there's just as much classic Horror and, after seeing Cuckoo I have to say it, 80s action mixed in. What that more subtle predilection for hazy, contemplative tempos and outdated locations/set design does for the film is anchor the story and characters in a recognizable, relatable world, even as the plot and FX push the film into some super bizarre territory. And Cuckoo is bizarre, make no mistake about it. Luz is, too, but in a much smaller way. Cuckoo is, well, a bit cuckoo.
Singer brings along several repeat collaborators, chief among them Production Designer Dario Mendez Acosta, Cinematographer Paul Faltz, and composer Simon Waskow. Waskow's work, in particular, has begun to greatly interest me; the Luz score is something to behold and has made it into regular, daily rotation.Cuckoo's score will no doubt follow.
I wasn't expecting to pick up the first issue of Spider-Man: Black Suit and Blood this past week, but dammit do I love Black Suit Spidey, so yeah, I did.
I've enjoyed all of the Marvel "Black, White and Blood" books I've picked up since they started the series a few years back, and especially when I saw J. M. Dematteis' name on this one, I just couldn't pass it up. There are four stories included of varying lengths. Here's what I thought of each.
1) Losing Face - J.M. DeMatteis/Elena Casagrande
A fantasticstory that spins off of a minor event at the beginning of DeMatteis' seminal Spider-Man Story Kraven's Last Hunt, which admittedly is getting a bit saturated with continuity spin-offs and references of late, however, this was tight and really sweet.
2) Inside the House - Alyssa Wong/Fran Galán
A quick little "It's coming from inside the house" type story set during the end of Peter's relationship with the symbiote. Very cool.
3) Dysmorphia - Dustin Nguyen
Very short but effective exploration of the inherent body horror in the human/symbiote bonding.
4) Fade to Black - J. Michael Straczynski/Sumit Kumar/Craig Yeung/Dono Sánchez-Almara
I know JMS has one of the historic runs with Spidey, but I've never read any of it, so I wasn't sure how this would play out for me. Happy to report, I really dug it. A kind of current continuity reassessment of Peter's time with the b
Overall, a great issue that has me pulling out my Spidey short box to dig back into some old Black Suit issues. Can't wait for issue two on September 11!
Glen Danzig - Black Aria
Vitriol - Eponymous
Deftones - Diamond Eyes
Danzig - Thrall/Demonsweat Live
Danzig - Danzig 4
Earth - Primitive and Deadly
Windhand - Grief's Infernal Flower
Deftones - Ohms
Jerry Cantrell - Villified (pre-release single)
Frank Black - Teenager of the Year
QOTSA - Villains
QOTSA - Lullabies to Paralyze
Azam Ali - Live at Paste Studio NYC live from The Manhattan Center
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Abbatoir Blues
Deftones - Koi No Yokan
From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buyHERE. Also, starting today for the next 30, Grimm's Kickstarter for the Hand of Doom Tarot Art Book is up. Check it outHERE.
• Two of Wands
• Four of Cups
• Five of Wands
Two of Wands tends to suggest avoiding a single-minded Willful push. In other words, there may be more ways to get what you want than the one you're focusing on. Four of Cups in emotional stability, so moving from middle to left I'm getting a "Don't make decisions based on emotion." The five of Wands, then, is a break in emotional stability. This shores up the idea that a big, premeditated decision made in an overly emotional state can be as destructive as not making a decision. More sometimes. Now, what this applies to in my own life at the moment... nope. Never mind. It's work. Loud and clear.
