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  • Nice. How's the cd?

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    • Originally posted by Andrew Monroe View Post
      I'm rereading some of Patricia Highsmith's novels. Finished People Who Knock on the Door the other day, and now it's The Glass Cell. Still my all-time favorite author. Peerless at quietly disturbing stories.
      Andrew, if you were able to watch it, what did you think of the adaptation on Hulu of her novel DEEP WATER?

      VHS will never die!

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      • Originally posted by Marshall Crist View Post
        Nice. How's the cd?
        I bought it for the Supersuckers track, which is pretty much standard Supersuckers. The rest is pretty decent stuff from bands i'm mostly unfamiliar with. There is one standout track that wound up going on my driving mix. Band called Red Five doing the Danzig song '13' that Johnny Cash recorded. They speed it up a bit more than Johhny and have a woman on vocals. There's a craptastic upload on YT that skips, but you can get the jist of it...

        https://youtu.be/C2d9eFgRkmA

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        • Originally posted by Lorne Marshall View Post

          Andrew, if you were able to watch it, what did you think of the adaptation on Hulu of her novel DEEP WATER?
          I did not get to see that, Lorne. I don't have Hulu. I saw a trailer and it looked worth watching. That novel is just below This Sweet Sickness and The Glass Cell as my favorites of hers. This one (Deep Water), builds to a deeply disturbing ending. I don't think anyone is as good as Highsmith at portraying suburban sociopaths. Her novels usually haunt me for days.
          I don't go to church. Kneeling bags my nylons.

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          • When you do eventually get the chance to watch it, you'll likely be surprised by how they changed the ending. Having read a description of the book's conclusion, I'm not sure which one is more disturbing.

            Thanks, Andrew, I appreciate your insight.
            VHS will never die!

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            • Last friday got in Do What You Want aka the Bad Religion book. So spent a good chunk of Friday evening and then Sunday sitting on the pier reading it.

              Pretty damn good. I knew most of the stuff told in the book,but got way more details than I ever had.

              Hoping they tour again and come at least 4 hours from me. Would like to see them live again before they all retire.

              Got in "This Music Leaves Stains" aka the Misfits book today.

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              • Originally posted by Newt Cox View Post
                Last friday got in Do What You Want aka the Bad Religion book. So spent a good chunk of Friday evening and then Sunday sitting on the pier reading it.

                Pretty damn good. I knew most of the stuff told in the book,but got way more details than I ever had.

                Hoping they tour again and come at least 4 hours from me. Would like to see them live again before they all retire.

                Got in "This Music Leaves Stains" aka the Misfits book today.
                I didn't mind that Bad Religion book, but I would have liked to have had Hetson in there; Hetson said that he was offered the option to contribute by their manager, but told that he wouldn't see any cash for it. He was a guest on a podcast (wish I could remember which one) where he discussed getting kicked out of the band, and it wasn't pleasant. The last time I saw them, they still had Brooks drumming, and Hetson still had a few gigs left with them. Can't say I was wild about their last album, but have definitely seen them more than any other band.

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                • Originally posted by Mark Tolch View Post

                  I didn't mind that Bad Religion book, but I would have liked to have had Hetson in there; Hetson said that he was offered the option to contribute by their manager, but told that he wouldn't see any cash for it. He was a guest on a podcast (wish I could remember which one) where he discussed getting kicked out of the band, and it wasn't pleasant. The last time I saw them, they still had Brooks drumming, and Hetson still had a few gigs left with them. Can't say I was wild about their last album, but have definitely seen them more than any other band.
                  It was a long ass time ago last time I saw them,2004 I think. The newest album isn't amazing but it also is better than Into the Unknown.

                  They are one of the few bands that I discovered in my pre teens that still puts out music and tours.

                  Band I have seen the mosst and enjoy would be Alice In Chains,saw them 5 or so times with Layne. But band I have seen the most,and not a fan of,is 3 Doors Down. Known Brad since he was a kid. And they played on the coast so much. It was like I would go hit a bar to drink and there is Brad and Todd playing. I know I have seen them at least 10 times if not more.
                  Newt Cox
                  Senior Member
                  Last edited by Newt Cox; 04-14-2022, 06:11 PM.

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                  • Originally posted by Newt Cox View Post

                    It was a long ass time ago last time I saw them,2004 I think. The newest album isn't amazing but it also is better than Into the Unknown.

                    They are one of the few bands that I discovered in my pre teens that still puts out music and tours.

                    Band I have seen the mosst and enjoy would be Alice In Chains,saw them 5 or so times with Layne. But band I have seen the most,and not a fan of,is 3 Doors Down. Known Brad since he was a kid. And they played on the coast so much. It was like I would go hit a bar to drink and there is Brad and Todd playing. I know I have seen them at least 10 times if not more.
                    I mean, since he's your buddy, I won't say that seeing 3 Doors Down 10 times or more would make me want to self-isolate for decades.

                    Did he live 3 Doors Down from you when you were kids? Is the band named after you????

                    I never got into Alice in Chains, but so many people I know love the shit out of them. I may have to revisit them.

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                    • Originally posted by Mark Tolch View Post

                      I mean, since he's your buddy, I won't say that seeing 3 Doors Down 10 times or more would make me want to self-isolate for decades.

                      Did he live 3 Doors Down from you when you were kids? Is the band named after you????

                      I never got into Alice in Chains, but so many people I know love the shit out of them. I may have to revisit them.
                      Nah more like Brad was good friends with my best friend's lil brother. And the band name came cause their drug dealer lived 3 doors down from Todd.

                      AiC was great.

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                      • I actually caught Alice in Chains twice at Hammerjack's. The first time, grunge hadn't hit yet, and 'Man in the Box' wasn't even on the radio yet. Me and Kristen went to see Extreme (Gary Charone is a hell of a frontman) and Alice was opening. The Extreme crowd was not digging it, but i was blown away. Caused me to immediately seek out Soundgarden as well. On their second album, they came around with Iggy Pop, after their set ran into their drummer at the bar and did a coupl'a shots.

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                        • I was pleasantly surprised that the 19th installment of THE YEAR’S BEST HORROR STORIES was so good (and featured no poetry). In his intro to the first tale, Wagner mentions that by mere happenstance, this edition is filled with numerous “highway stories”; I counted a total of seven. The only one of those that I liked was Richard McMahan’s “Trophies.” Besides that chronicle of a truckers’ serial killing club, I also enjoyed Conrad Hill’s “The Grief Condition,” Nina Kiriki Hoffman’s “Life Sentences,” Charles Ardai’s “A Bar Called Charley’s” (not horror, really, but quite moving), Kim Antieau’s “Great Expectations,” and Patrick McLeod’s “Identity Crisis.” Honorable Mention goes to J. L. Comeau’s “Firebird” (not about the Pontiac automobile, by the way) and Sean Brodrick’s “Lord of the Creepies.” I’m still not sure what to make of David Niall’s “A Candle in the Sun,” a quite peculiar take on the Apocryphal Gospel of Judas.

                          Mike Newland’s “Books of Blurbs, Vol. 1” falls just a few words shy of “The Boy with the Bloodstained Mouth” in #18 from being the briefest work yet. It’s not really a story, but rather a hilarious review of a faux Stephen King book that is over 4,500 pages in length, containing nothing but the words of praise from the bestselling author that have graced innumerable dust jackets through the decades. (The additional joke, of course, is that it’s just the first volume.) And special mention goes to Kim Newman’s “The Man Who Collected Barker,” which he acknowledges is a tribute to Robert Bloch’s brilliant “The Man Who Collected Poe.” (Come to think of it, it’s the sole appearance of Barker in this entire series, inexplicable considering the great stories in his BOOKS OF BLOOD, all volumes!) Newman’s version is brilliant in its own right, and frankly the finest story I’ve ever read of his.

                          By contrast, YBHS #20 is the worst volume in a long time (maybe since #13). I had already encountered six of the tales in other anthologies, and none appealed to me. There were only two in this book that I thoroughly enjoyed: Dennis Etchison’s “Call Home” and Edo van Belkom’s “Baseball Memories.” Considering how trivia-obsessed the game’s statistics keepers have become now (“the player with the most home runs hit on his birthday while at an away park”), the latter’s plot is particularly prescient. Honorable mention goes to Jeffrey Goddin’s “A Scent of Roses,” Sheila Hodgson’s “The Lodestone,” and Gregory Nicoll’s “Close to the Earth.”

                          I took a break from being too negative this time (although, believe me, there’s plenty of bad stuff in this latest pair in the series). Let me just state that the newest offenders (which I’ve cited in previous entries) have given me an unexpected appreciation for writers for which I previously did not feel much of that, like Charlies L. Grant, Etchison, Wagner himself, and even RC. I do have some anthologies from Grant and Wagner that I probably should reread, as it might be interesting to see if I would better “appreciate” them now.
                          VHS will never die!

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                          • Sometimes when I mention my favorite writers, I’ll include Ray Bradbury along with Robert Bloch and Richard Matheson. However, when I do, I’m thinking only of his horror and sci-fi stuff: “The Small Assassin,” “The October Game,” “A Sound of Thunder,” “The Crowd,” “The Messiah,” “The Screaming Woman,” “Mars is Heaven!” and the beautifully sad “Kaleidoscope,” to name just a few. I’m decidedly not referring to the treacly fantasy works Bradbury is also famous for. Well, since I hadn’t read it before, I didn’t realize that was the majority of the contents of QUICKER THAN THE EYE (1996). Nonetheless, I was able to manage a smile or two while reading some of the less-syrupy stuff, like “The Very Gentle Murders,” “At the End of the Ninth Year,” “Last Rites,” and “Remember Sascha?” There were even a couple of full-fledged horror offerings, to make me grin ear-to-ear: “Free Dirt” and especially “Dorian in Excelsus” (imagine Oscar Wilde’s greatest literary creation as a fable about a gooey beast straight outta Lovecraft, able to preserve the youth of multiple Dorians who reciprocally provide him with sacrifices of their fellow man).

                            I had pulled this from the to-read bookcase because I thought it was a novel, then when I learned it wasn’t, I discovered I don’t have too many left in that bookcase that are. I’m trying to do something about that by reading the Groovy Age of Horror and Too Much Horror Fiction blogs from start to finish (itself a major undertaking), and I’m getting lots of ideas on what to seek out.

                            (Note to self: Going forward, refrain from mentioning that a selection is from the “to-read” bookcase - there’s too much of it - and instead only indicate when the book is something previously read. Got that, self?)
                            VHS will never die!

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                            • Originally posted by Spaghetti Monkey View Post
                              I actually caught Alice in Chains twice at Hammerjack's. The first time, grunge hadn't hit yet, and 'Man in the Box' wasn't even on the radio yet. Me and Kristen went to see Extreme (Gary Charone is a hell of a frontman) and Alice was opening. The Extreme crowd was not digging it, but i was blown away. Caused me to immediately seek out Soundgarden as well. On their second album, they came around with Iggy Pop, after their set ran into their drummer at the bar and did a coupl'a shots.
                              Super jealous always wanted to see Extreme with Charone live.

                              Finished the Misfits book the other day. Was nice out internet at home was out. So sat on the pier listening to music,mostly 80s movie soundtracks and read the last half.

                              Started that Phantasm exhumed book earlier today. Gonna try to get a pile of books done while it is still nice outside.

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                              • I had bumped up the Cornell Woolrich collection NIGHT & FEAR to the top of the queue, to read alongside the final pair of YEAR’S BEST HORROR STORIES. I finished this first, will write about the others next week.

                                Although crime suspense is not typically a genre I spend much time on (I’m certain I acquired this through Edward R. Hamilton eons ago because it was heavily discounted), I enjoyed these stories immensely. The only two that slightly let me down were about midway through and in succession, “Endicott’s Girl” and “Detective William Brown.” Not because I didn’t like either of them, but because they were so good, some plot contrivances appearing near the end of each somewhat detracted from their overall effectiveness. Otherwise, the book was really great. Gritty, oftentimes tasteless (but excusable considering that period’s cultural norms), and never, ever boring. Even the work that finishes the book - despite taking place entirely in one hotel room over a few hours - has no static moments. “New York Blues” is an especially downbeat yet gripping tale of a man hiding out after committing a murder, waiting in sweat-soaked apprehension to be apprehended, for justice to close in on him. Might have been the inspiration for the name of the book itself.

                                As a side note, as fate would have it, there’s a collection being released in October called BLACK IS THE NIGHT: STORIES INSPIRED BY CORNELL WOOLRICH, which I’m giving serious consideration to pre-ordering.
                                VHS will never die!

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