2020 Rundown - Part 1

Wade T's 2020 Rundown

The Root of Things– Matthew Shipp was born the day of this typing, on 12/7/1960. The first album I heard of his is called Equilibrium. Currently hearing a live rendition of another tune from another record- “Root of Things” -and it's a heavy, seeking affair. Stand up bass, drummer, Shipp on keys. Nice trio. Michael Bisio is the bass-man and the drummer is Whit Dickey. The Equilibrium album came before all this and features the great William Parker on bass duties and Khan Jamal on vibes- propulsive. Combined with a lot of more overdubs and computer action involved than on the “Root” album, undoubtedly.

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The Orange Eats Creeps –Grace Krilanovich produced this vampire book in 2010 or so, and it apparently caught fire, though I didn't hear about it until I saw a thumbs up for it in Joe Carducci's “Life Against Dementia” essay from the homonymous 2011 tome. That's okay- I'm still learning from Life Against Dementia. Each revisit grants me a new vocabulary word and another band/film/artist/philosophy/dictator to investigate. 

So a few months back I purchased The Orange Eats Creeps off of Amazon, cheap, and read GK's not-so-young adult vampire tale. Which it really may not be; the figurative and literal elements in this book are fairly hazy. The introduction by one Steven Erikson (dunno him) is generous in calling her style unique, with some comparisons to the work treaded by Celine, Henry Rollins, Exene Cervenka. It's also my first read from publisher Two Dollar Radio and, knowing myself and having visited the Two Dollar Radio headquarters this past month in Columbus recently, it'll probably be the best literary thing I'll get from them. 

Thanks for the tips, Joe! The neo-vampire-western film Near Dark was an interesting watch; it has some quirks worth investigating and was similarly juxtaposed to the themes of Orange by Joe, not Erikson- vampirism used as an allegory for rocking and rolling through a modern American landscape.

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Polanski – Osato Cooley was asking people about their favorite horror flicks- He's into B and Z grade schlock and probably some ace classics. I naturally suggested my go-to scary flick, The Tenant by Roman Polanski. I picked this film up on DVD from a Silverdale FYE in Washington State. I think I may have known a bit about the Manson-ordered murder of Sharon Tate at that time, and maybe about Roman's troubles, but at the time I was mostly curious about the premise of the film, which turns out to be one of three films by Polanski about people losing their shit in an apartment. Hence The Tenant part of a loose “Apartment Trilogy” along with Rosemary's Baby and Repulsion. 

Anyway, Osato and maybe some other horror fans are in the know now- I had to rewatch it myself. The thing about this flick is that it's made in such a way that it becomes easier to believe that the events of The Tenant are hallucinated and imagined. When I first watched The Tenant, I was on board with Roman's character, Trelkovsky, that the people in his community were no doubt demonic, and motivate him to suicide. Revisiting, it becomes more apparent that Roman's character is a liar that can't uphold values that he himself believes to be true, and that is part of his disconnect with reality. The Tenant can be a moral tale, a tough pill to swallow if you have ever felt victimized while living in an environment that's simply not suited for you. Of course the film is built in such a way that you'll feel either way depending on where and when you view it. Like Rosemary's Baby, The Tenant was adapted from a paperback novel, this one by Roland Topor. I have an original copy but still have yet to delve in.

Ask me about Fearless Vampire Killers, or Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter. More connected than you may think.

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Richard Meltzer - “Veins”

to be compared with the Blue Oyster Cult tune of the same name,

I open my eyes
From a dreamless night
With a sense of dread
You could cut with a knife
So I'm thinking that
Maybe I killed somebody
You never know - you never know when
You might have killed somebody

Veins in my eyeballs
Damage that I've done
Veins on the stairway
Veins in my skull

I visit my friend
We have a fight
I'm drinking his whiskey
I'm wanting his wife
Then the image goes black
Did I kill somebody?
'Cause there ain't no clue, there's no clue
That I killed somebody

Veins in my eardrum
Banging at my door
Veins in my brainwaves
Veins on the floor

I get the shivers
And I've got the shakes
People screaming my name
Like there's no mistake
Can't believe it's true
Did I kill somebody?
But I just don't know, I don't know
Did I kill somebody?

Veins on the sidewalk
Veins know the score
Veins in my mind, oh
Veins evermore