Musings

Black Flag's "Nervous Breakdown" is not on YouTube. It really, really should be.

I think "By The Rivers Of Babylon" is finally done and in the bag. Will post links. That one was tough. The magazine put it through four edits. But it was worth it.

I went to a hardcore show the other night at the Ash St. Saloon, and realized that I have effectively grown out of the entire cattle-hall culture of that whole scene. "We are not cool," the fake Lester Bangs tells the protag in 'Almost Famous', and that's true. Once you see the sailboat, you can't go back to the illusion.

Not that I don't still dig the music. Or go to shows. Hank Williams III rokked with an umlaut, 3 different incarnations of psycho-billy for about 17 hours straight. My favorite was the Western swing stuff (he looks so much like his Grandfather, and songs like 'Musta Been Them Pills I Took' are a fitten and proper legacy.)

But even Hellbilly and Assjack were literate forays into 80's Punk and speed-metal in ways that enhance and preserve the music that inspired them. Shelton Hank Williams is a musical preservationist. Me and my moldering mix-tape collection can't help but get behind that.

What else... Just lost the main gig, which didn't even last long enough to count as a real job, really. I'm not going to waste any more time blogging about it. Just have to tap-dance pretty fast.

Serena and I are watching our way through 'Carnivale', the all-too-short-lived HBO miniseries that reminds me of what might happen if Jeff VanderMeer wrote Tod Browning's "Freaks" with F.W. Mirnau and Jon Waters co-directing.

Oh, there are some foul moments in that show. Some golden ones, too. It is changing my prose. More about that later.

My Mercury Retrograde page is almost up, kiddies. Will pass along the link. Contract for There Was A Crooked Man #1-9 has been signed. I will post release dates and any North Coast reads (might snip some of the Lovecraftiana for HPL Fest next year, if they invite me back...)

Until next time, Ever Vigilant In The Pursuit Of Derangement,
And 164 pages into the sequel...