The weather is so terrible that it’s looked like the dead of night outside my windows since this morning and the thunder is stressing Harley out so bad she’s hiding in her crate chewing on her dog bed.
Accurate representation of how I feel. Image by the incomparable Allie Brosh.
Contently
I’m experimenting with a new online portfolio powered by Contently. So far, the clips that it has generated have a lot of duplicates and pieces missing, and I have to go back and do a lot of organizing by hand. However, I like the layout and a lot of folks have spoken positively about getting work via the platform, so we’ll see how this works!
Album Reviews
A pair of my reviews went up on Exclaim today: Winter Kills by DevilDriver “has a slamming, slavering rapacity that seldom permits a moment’s respite,” and Peace by Vista Chino, formerly Kyuss Lives!, is “defined a by a sense of organic complexity, which sometimes opens into a thick network of sonic fractals.”
Two Beautiful Short Films About Death
I’ve been reading a lot about death lately; it’s weirdly comforting, to spend time exploring all the ways we can leave the world, while I’m still finding myself regularly dragged into a deep and sucking grief. One of the few things that keeps me from drowning in it, like Artax in the Swamp of Sadness, is spending time thinking about the way life ends, turning it over and over in my mind. I heal like an oyster, turning pain over and over in my mind until it becomes a pearl, and this time is no different.
Recently I stumbled on two short films, both about death, that are completely beautiful for totally different reasons. First, there is Cargo, which was a finalist at Tropfest Australia 2013. A father, whose wife has already become a zombie and who finds himself bitten and turning, tries to save his infant daughter before losing himself completely.
Then, for something completely different, there is Deathinger, wherein the children of various gods/spirits of death attend reaper school.
Deathigner from Deathigner on Vimeo.
I home the reaper knits me a hat to keep my head warm when I leave this world.
