Man, was the weather in Los Angeles this weekend perfect, or what? Although a teensy bit late in the season, this would have been a great time to hit up the California Poppy Reserve out in Antelope Valley. According to their website the flowers are finally starting to fade. Thankfully I made my annual pilgrimage in mid-March, and it was as glorious as I’ve ever seen it in my years of enjoying the trails there. So… how did I spend this lovely weekend, you ask? I went on a nice long run on Saturday morning. Then Adam, Genna and I spent the day at Monsterpalooza. I guess I wasted a lot of that beautiful weather by being indoors. Oh well. Today was a great day to be out and about as well. I brunched in the open air before heading home to bottle the beer I brewed just about a month ago. I’ll post all about that in a week or two when I sample the first bottle(s).
Most of my best observations of Monsterpalooza occurred on Snapchat, but I managed to save some pictures so I could post here. These will give you a very simplistic overview of the spectacle that is a horror movie convention. So many costumes. So many creepy dudes. So much cleavage.
You know your day is going to get off to a weird start when you park about a half-mile from the convention center, right next to a car that had it’s own animal security system installed on the roof!
If I was out at a bar and saw a girl wearing this I would immediately approach her and ask if we could make a baby. Even if she was with a guy. Even if she was with a guy who was wearing a matching suit. Hell, I might ask her to make a baby even if I was already at the bar with another girl!
Adam is ALL IN when it comes to bootleg DVDs of out-of-print horror movies, so we spent a lot of time at this one booth pouring over their selection. Of course they had all the Guinea Pig movies. And of course Adam happened to be wearing the Guinea Pig shirt I found for him online. Cue long conversation between Adam and the guy selling the DVDs. Genna and I were more into the paperweights and jewelry made out of real spiders and scorpions and bats.
The original unrated version of Murder Set Pieces is pretty hard to find ($80 on eBay). So when I saw it on sale for $2.95 it was really hard to decide whether I wanted that or the collector’s edition of The Sixth Sense.
…Kidding.
These horror baby dolls were just the cutest. Far too expensive, though.
I’m gonna be honest I have no idea what Court Of The Dead is. I just wanted to sound like I belonged at Monsterpalooza so I was walking around saying shit like this as loud as I possibly could, just to earn some street cred with the local horror buffs.
Adam stopped to pose for photos with any weird figurine or made-up actor or movie prop he came across. When I saw this little guy I said aloud, “He looks like how I feel inside!” and demanded a photo of us. As soon as I saw the results I become very upset. Jesus. Look at the bags under my eyes. I really think this heartbreak insomnia thing is slowly killing me.
Okay, that’s all I’ve got until Genna sends over whatever photos she took on her fancy professional camera. Everything else is lost to the annals…wherever dead Snapchats go. Probably some pervert’s hard drive somewhere in “Silicon Beach” or whatever they’re calling Venice this days.
Now here’s your Sunday Mix Tape, with some fun little notations to tell you what you’re listening to because I’ve got Homeland on in the background and only ever half pay attention to what’s happening on that show.
RULES for uninitiated noobs: I give birth to a weekly Mix Tape to be deposited on your iPhone or iPod or iBrain or whatever the industry is currently pushing on you. Sometimes there will be themes that link all the songs together, other times I’ll just throw songs at a wall (not literally – iPhones are expensive!) and see what sticks. This week features a lot of songs from albums that have either recently been released, or are due to come out in the near future. Except for the Portishead and Broadcast tracks, which are included because I found myself listening to both of these records this week. The goal of this endeavor, as always, is to pique your interest in these artists so you’ll support the artists and buy their albums.
Sunday Mix Tape – Number 408
Our Song(s)
01. Melody’s Echo Chamber – Cross My Heart – Can you believe it’s been FIVE YEARS since the last album from Melody Prochet? I loved that record. It might have been #74 on my top albums of the year list, but it came out towards the end of the year so I didn’t spend enough time with it between September and December. Since then it’s probably one of the five albums from that year I’ve listened to the most. So fucking good. So excited for Bon Voyage, which is out soon.
02. Ride – Charm Assault
03. Portishead – All Mine – If I had to rank the Portishead albums they’d probably be Dummy first, then Third, and the self-titled one would be last. But the self-titled one includes couple of the group’s best songs (“Cowboys” and “All Mine”) so it’s a required listen for me every few months. [buy this album]
04. Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell – I’m Movin’ – There are a couple bands — and Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell is one (King Gizzard And The Lizard Wizard is another) — that I feel like I should enjoy way more than I do. They’ve got great songs here and there, but when I sit down to listen to one of their records and at some point I get bored and take it off and put something else on. If the whole Keep It Greasy album sounded this good, it’d be one of the best releases of 2017. [buy this album]
05. Ulver – So Falls The World
06. Simon Doom – I Feel Unloved – My buddy Brandon used play drums in a band called Apse, who I loooooooved. Since they disbanded he’s played around with a bunch of different folks. Last time he was out here visiting he let me know he was playing in a band called Simon Doom. A week or two ago he sent me a link to a Noisey article featuring one of their songs. If “I Feel Unloved” is any indication of how the entirety of Babyman is going to sound once its released next month…might I drop a “It’ll be the soundtrack to your summer!” cliche? Oh, I might.
07. Pharmakon – Nakedness Of Need – Is she coming to LA again soon? That show with her and Haxan Cloak in the church basement in Highland Park was mind-blowing. [buy this album]
08. Broadcast – The Book Lovers
09. Lana Del Rey – Love
10. Jefre Cantu-Ledesma – A Song Of Summer
