Month: October 2019

Here’s a small clip of one of the most incredible night’s of my life: a live performance on Halloween by myself, Mark Hosler, Buddy Runyan and the folks from Monster Planet. As a fan of Negativland, who was only ever able to see them once, and who had been inspired by them and their radio show my entire adult life, the idea that I could meet them was one thing. But playing a series of shows with Mark, leading up to this night, felt like it was solidifying in me this new path, that I could no longer say no, that I would have to follow my muse, wherever it would take me.

Thank you, Mark & David! I hope you know how much this night meant to me, and how I think about this more often than I probably should. Keep up the amazing work! Thank you!

I got a new job, to help pick up a few extra checks here and there. The hours are a little lame, and occasionally I have to deal with some really old jerks who are just trying to ruin a good time. Anyway, my first gig is helping clean up the Graveyard Bar this evening. I’ve heard there’s a lot of activity at night. See you there!

And, coming soon on the program: something Creepy this way comes… The Ether Creeps take over Mid-Valley Mutations! They promise this one will be memorable, as they’re gonna call in and, in their words, “give you a show you won’t soon forget! Hahahhahahah!” Not sure what that could mean, but expect choice music, selected by the creeps themselves. On November 8th, at 10 PM, sharp!

Car Tune Reviews: this is a four way split with Skin Beetles, Dental Work, The Ether Creeps and Deejay Embryonicpetitsac. The best way to listen to this disc is to drink too much coffee too late in the day, and then you have to pace and wait until it’s time to go to work, after the sun goes down. So, you put this on and you start driving, but part way through, you realize you don’t feel like going to work. So you burn a j in a parking lot, and break your promise to not eat a burger anymore and get one anyway, eat it, and drive home slowly, so by the time the last Ether Creeps tune kicks in, guilt, shame, joy and exhaustion all overtake you so you want to listen to it all again while driving around the block, so you can try and make sense of that Dental Work track.

In all the years that I have known Colin, our friendship was a little one sided. So it felt important to finally hang out with him where he had to do zero driving. Which was very cool, and we had fun. But I was not prepared for driving around Eugene by myself, with time on my hands to think about the past, the present, and the future, all rolled into one.

These photos are from last summer, when we had a Cathead camping trip, and were leisurely driving back from the farm through Eugene. But driving past these same landmarks today filled me with more emotions than I could imagine it would, and it was all I could do to keep going.

But why? What would I get from stopping, from lingering, from snapping photos and trying to suss out if this place was where I fought with so-and-so, or if that weird apartment complex was the location of some shitty house where we had endless parties that meant the world to me.

There’s some part of me that can’t help but feed this nostalgia in some way. I realize now that I should probably forge some new memories around these places, because the urge to dive into the old ones is a little strong these days.

Still, there was a funnier outcome to all of this: I actually know Eugene, bizarrely, better than Salem. However, I do seem to want to take routes that are better for walking, than for driving. Eugene, in spite of all the changes, is also very similar to what it once was.

The grid, anyway, doesn’t change.

Food for thought…

> First trip entirely on I-5 (Salem to Eugene, using the rest area.)
> First trip with a good portion at night.
> First time interacting with a deer in a car. (The deer was walking in my lane toward me. I slowed down, and stopped. The deer barely noticed me. I honked. The deer freaked out, as if it had just seen me, and leapt off the road.)
> First time playing punk music in a REALLY long time.
> Looks like I’m joining two more bands?

Life is sometimes charmed, with no explanation how or why or what led to this. I wonder how all of this looks from the outside? Because from this point of view, it seems crazy.

Tonight’s program is gonna be a doozy, and I can’t wait to bring it to you! Brian Magill is joining me in the studio, for an evening of radio you won’t want to miss. First, he and I will be doing our best to recreate his old program, “Another Green World,” infamous for Halloween shows like the one we’re doing tonight! Then, Fervent Torpor, Brian’s Electronic Project, will be performing live! And we’ll be taking calls and telling more ghost stories between all the madness! Call in! Tell us about your unexplained, or spooky encounters! It’s the show you won’t want to miss! Our Penultimate Halloween Spook-tacular is on, tonight!

Guys, I meme it: Here’s all 11 minutes of my Mini-Mutations performance this year from NorCal NoiseFest. If this goes viral then the piece has fulfilled it’s purpose. “Reddit? Plum Posted it, too!” Thanks a million Lob Instagon for hosting an excellent fest, and for letting me perform my mutations for three years in a row now. “You can meme like this, or…”

Can A Horror Movie Hang Entirely on It’s Charm?

A few things come to mind when you sit down to watch “The House on Haunted Hill.” First, it is very easy to find. This sixty year old horror movie is streaming for free on a few services, but certainly you can pay for it, if you’d like.

Second: Hey, isn’t that the Ennis House, that Art Deco place in Griffith Park? And, as if that weren’t enough, the two male leads are Vincent Price & Elisha Cook Jr. (mis-credited as his father), two incredible hams that are associated with horror, noir, and over-the-top performances? If nothing else, this should be fun.

And it is exactly that fun quality that holds together this Castle Picture for the wonderfully brief 75 minutes of screen time, which is probably as much time as any film like this should demand of your attention. That isn’t to say that it’s bad, or even hard to watch. It is a black and white film, and the pacing is, what modern audiences would probably describe as, plodding, if not downright slow.

The set-up is almost formulaic, and the cast know it. They’re all mugging and over-reacting as if their paychecks, and not the story, depends on it. And while the house is recognizable, the lack-luster sets – where the entirety of the film takes place – don’t match the exterior house shown, or even each other when you go room-to-room. There’s a medieval basement, but contemporary rooms on the first floor. And upstairs looks like a victorian home, all of which is to say: not at all the actual Ennis house, and certainly the space inside the “haunted house” does not conform to any sense or logic.

The story, what exists outside of the initial conceit that these folks are staying in a haunted house for a $10,000 payoff, is practically non-existent. At the outset Vincent and his wife hate each other, and want to kill each other. After a number of interactions that seem ghostly but can be explained easily, they finally have it out. Yes, there’s a little subplot, that the wife was in league with one of the other guests… but it barely impacts the story, and more to the point, only highlights the Scooby Doo nature of what’s going on. The atmosphere, style, and form of “The House on Haunted Hill” is so Scooby Doo that it is hard to imagine that this wan’t the inspiration for the show.

If you strip away all of these problems and shortcomings, what do you have left that is compelling, or even worth spending time with? In a word: Charisma. Elisha Cook Jr. is such a Noir staple, and can play a haunted a tortured man in such an exaggerated way, that almost half the film is being carried by his mugging and facial takes. Theoretically a “drunk,” we only see him have (at most) a cocktail and a half. And yet, his behavior is that of a disturbed, out of touch maniac, on the verge of a psychotic break, who goes on and on about the horrors that have happened in this house, theoretically to him, though who could act like this if that was really the case? His presentation is comical, it is so over the top, which is absolutely compelling.

In a way, Elisha is attempting to keep up with Vincent, as much riding on his name recognition and reputation as he is on his lanky movements and tone of voice. Vincent certainly has the effect of coloring all his past work with the reputation he had just prior to his death. In 1959, he was known for his noir and horror movie appearances, certainly, but he was also a dramatic actor, and well known for playing “The Saint” on the radio (a well-mannered and sophisticated “playboy detective”). He also had as many comedic chops as anyone else. In 1959, he was a well-rounded actor at the peak of his powers and still gathering a reputation, unlike the horror icon he would be seen as in the years to come.

Between these two actors, there’s almost not enough room for the women to shriek and scream in terror, but the film still shoehorns in a few good ones. The “smoking acid pit” seen in the beginning does “go off” in the last act, drawing the story to a close with a great skeleton gag that is not exactly scary, but after a hour of so of the kinds of gags this film uses, is a perfect way to close things out.

In much of the same meta-textual way that the film opens, it concludes, more a mood piece than an actual story, and one could accidentally try and derive deeper meaning if one has too much free time. But what becomes incredibly obvious as “The House on Haunted Hill” wraps up is that the film itself is denying any deeper meaning. It presents itself as a creepy walk through a haunted house, complete with staged scares, explicable but momentarily shocking scenes, and a lot of unnecessary sound FXs.

It never claims to be a deep examination of fear. It has a few moments that will bring you a smile if you are willing to give it a shot, and a few familiar places and faces to add to the ride.

What else do you want from a holiday film, anyway? Blood dripping from the ceiling?

Well, it’s got that, too. Twice, even!

If you missed Friday’s program, it is now available via podcast! Just in time for the holiday season, we have Obadiah Baird, editor of The Audient Void: A Journal of Weird Fiction and Dark Fantasy come in to talk about Weird Fiction & poetry, choosing what goes into each issue, and talk about the punk rock roots that inspire his work. And then we get quite literary, with Obadiah reading poetry selections by KA Opperman, Clark Ashton Smith & Lovecraft himself, while I read seasonally appropriate Richard Brautigan bits, and in hour two, Nathan Carson & Erin Jane Laroue – Music bring us a CHILLING tale by Ambrose Bierce. All that, and Halloween music! Click through to see the entire show! It’s all part of our Annual Spook-tacular, and there’s still two more weeks to go! Enjoy!
https://midvalleymutations.com/2019/10/18/something-written-this-way-comes-ghost-stories-2019-part-3/

It was excellent seeing punk legends Mark Sten & John Shirley play at The Lovecraft Bar tonight! John has been kind to me both times I met him, and gave me different CDs of his work both times! What a cool dude. Didn’t get to hassle Mark with all the millions of questions I have about his incredible book, which I love, and I used to listen to those Sado-Nation tunes all the time when I first moved to Portland. I will forever feel more at home at an old punk’s show any day of the week, and partying with The Screamin’ Geezers is my idea of an excellent night. Thanks Kat & Obadiah for the idea, and Marla for handling the driving! What a night…