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Archive for the ‘Violence’ Category

Karen Russell–“The Dredgeman’s Revelation” (New Yorker, July 26, 2010)

Posted in 20 Under 40, Canadian Music, Depression, Karen Russell, New Yorker, Stars, Violence on August 11, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: STARS-In Our Bedroom, After the War (2007).

I listened to the latest Stars release on cbcradio3 (they had been streaming it there).  I liked it but I didn’t love it.  So I went back to the predecessor to see if I still liked Stars as much as I recalled liking them.

And I do, indeed.  The vocals are split between the gorgeous, delicate Amy Millan and the earnest Torquil Campbell.

“The Night Starts Here” is a beautiful track and “Take Me to the Riot” is a stellar, catchy song with a rousing chorus.

In fact, the disc plays nicely back and forth with dancey tracks (like the discoey “My Favourite Book”) and more delicate tracks (like the delightful “Midnight Coward”.)

“The Ghost of Genova Heights” sounds not unlike Prefab Sprout (with another dioscoey sound).  While “Personal” is sad song about Personal ads (or the people in them, anyhow).  It’s the most downbeat song on the disc, and it acts as a nice breather for what’s to come.

There are a couple of simple piano songs, like “Barricade” which veers towards over the topness, but stays on the good side of it.

“Window Bird” has a great surprise twist in: after some delicate “forget, forget” whispers, a rocking bridge pushes its way in.  The disc ends with the almost closer: “Today Will Be Better I Swear,” which, with its musical diminutions would make an excellent end to the disc.  Although the closing song (the title track), makes for an excellent coda.

The Stars folk know their way around a delicate and catchy melody.  And their lyrics are strong too.  This is definitely a favorite disc of the last few years, even if, as Sarah points out, it’s not as rocking as I normally like.

I’ll probably check out The Five Ghosts, but I fear it will be hard to live up to this disc.

[READ: July 31, 2010] “The Dredgman’s Revelation”

Karen Russel is another of The New Yorker’s 20 Under 40.  And this is a story that I wouldn’t normally read.  (I don’t have much of an affinity for depression-era fiction).  So I’m glad I said I would read all of these authors, as it exposed me to something new.

This story is about Louis Thanksgiving Auschenbliss.  Louis was born in a foundling’s hospital.  The story of his birth and the origin of his name are very enjoyable.  In fact, I would have wanted to read the story more if it started with this segment, rather than the stuff about the dredgeman (although I admit that the placement works much better dramatically).

Louis was eventually adopted by the Auschenbliss family, who treated him as if he was worse than an animal.  He was forced to do chores with virtually no rest for most of his young life.  But Louis never complained, he did what he was made to do, despite the abuses.  Until he’d had enough.  And then he left.

He found work as a Dredgeman in a Florida swamp.  The Model Land Company was digging a canal, and Louis was delighted to find work, even if it was work that every other man hated.  Because of Louis’ terrible family, he felt that anything, even dredging, was better than what he had been through.  And even though the crew thought he was weird for being so happy, he felt a kind of bond with them.

And so Louis is sad when the job ends.  But he quickly finds work with another company in an even more depressing, bug infested swamp.  The people aren’t as nice, but he’s still happy.

(more…)

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Téa Obreht–”The Laugh” (The Atlantic, August 2009)

Posted in 20 Under 40, Adventure, Atlantic, Death, Rush, Téa Obreht, Violence, Yuck! on August 7, 2010| 3 Comments »

SOUNDTRACK: RUSH-The Fifth Order of Angels (bootleg from the Agora Ballroom,Cleveland, 26 August 1974) (1974).

When I was browsing the internet I found this cool blog called Up the Down Stair.  And this blog features some bootleg concert Mp3s.

When I was in college, there was an awesome used record store called The Electric Mine Shaft.  We would go there once a week or so and browse the collection.  He caried all kinds of bootleg shows.  So I have a  lot of Rush live vinyl bootlegs from over the years.  Really they were pretty much a waste of money as I didn’t (and really don’t) enjoy listening to poor quality recordings, so, yes, wasteful.

Anyhow, with the advent of the web and free MP3s, I don’t mind listening to a bootleg.  So, this one, from 1974 is pretty interesting.

Here’s what the notes from the site say:

Neil Peart had only joined the band about a month earlier and played his first gig less than two weeks prior to this concert on the 14th. It’s a great document of the early phase of the band’s career and is notable for featuring unreleased songs as well as versions of a couple tunes that had not yet seen the light of day on vinyl. “Best I Can” and “In the End” were most likely not recorded at this point and wouldn’t emerge for another six months when Fly By Night was released. “Fancy Dancer”, a take on Larry Williams’ “Bad Boy”, and “Garden Road” were never recorded to the best of my knowledge. I believe that the snippet of “Garden Road” that you hear in the Rush documentary Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage comes from this recording.

The most fascinating thing to me about it is that the guitar solos are in stereo (although this is a mono recording, so the solos disappear sometimes).  That’s fine; the weird thing is that it was actually recorded with the solos in stereo! In a live setting?  The guitars went around the room?  Cool!

So, obviously Rush around thier debut were nowhere near the prog mavens that they eventually became, but there’s something fun about these early shows when they just rocked and rocked.  (There’s even a drum solo!).  And I really like that the “Working Man” solo incorporates part of the as yet unreleased solo from “By-Tor and the Snow Dog.”

It’s available here.

[READ: July 30, 2010] “The Laugh”

Téa Obreht is one of the New Yorker‘s 20 Under 40.  They included her short story in a recent issue and I didn’t love it.  It was okay, but it wasn’t really moving.

Nevertheless, they mentioned that she had another story in The Atlantic, and I was led to believe it was her only other published story, so I decided to read it too.

And I am so glad I did!  It wasn’t a terribly exciting story (until the end!) and it wasn’t a very poweful story (until the end!) and I thought something very different would happen (and am so glad it didn’t!).  But there was a sense of danger, forboding, concern, something terrifying that worked as a low level hum through the whole story which made it very compelling.  Maybe it had something to do with the accompanying picture.  I mean, Jesus H. Christ, look at the this thing: (more…)

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Tosh.0 (2009-)

Posted in Daniel Tosh, Funny (ha ha), Humiliation, Short Films, TiVo, Tosh.0, TV 2010, Violence, Yuck! on July 31, 2010| 4 Comments »

Our friend Paula (no not that Paula, another Paula) told Sarah about this show.  And they were able to watch an episode together at a conference.  When Sarah came home, we TiVo’d a bunch of episode and we have probably not stopped laughing since.

The premise of Tosh.0 is very simple: Tosh, the host, shows clips that were posted on YouTube and then he makes fun of them.  The clips are certainly lowest common denominator (dumb people doing dumb things), and frankly, it’s not really much of a step above America’s Funniest Home Videos. However, Tosh (real name Daniel Tosh) is a snappy, witty and brutal humorist.  He says things that you only think of about the clips, and then goes one step further to say things that you can’t believe he would say out loud.

In fact, Sarah and I have often wondered if the show isn’t racist. Of course, it is.  And it’s also completely sexist.  Tosh makes many jokes about women’s inability to do things, but they are such patently ridiculous stereotypes that Sarah for one has never been offended by them.  So, we assume that people of the mocked races (which includes whites, lest we forget) are not offended either (or at least they have a good enough sense of humor to be in the audience). (more…)

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Fredy Perlman–[Week 7] Letters of Insurgents (1976)

Posted in Anarchy, Big Books, Canadian Music, Dave Bidini music, Epistolary Novel, Fredy Perlman, Funny (strange), Insurgent Summer, Marriage Trouble, Neurotics, Religion, Rheostatics, Sex, Supernatural, Technology, Violence on July 23, 2010| 2 Comments »

SOUNDTRACK: RHEOSTATICS-“Horses” (1991).

I have mentioned the Rheostatics a lot.  I’ve even talked about this song in Melville.  And yet it works so well as a companion to this book.

It starts slowly enough, a simple acoustic guitar with the lyrics:

Word came down and it crashed through my door
From the twenty-first floor
I was thinkin’ about leavin’ early for lunch
When he told me to shut off my press
His face turned green and his white shirt was wet
Like he’d just seen an accident
We threw our masks into a pile, the trucks pulled away for good

The band kicks in a slow beat  as the song builds:

A bus pulled in and I waved at it
Before I knew what it was
We ran in its tracks chasing its tires
But the gates had been riveted shut
I looked for the foreman; his number was empty
Up to Red Deer to stay
We gathered some signs and we sparked up a fire
Gordie got burned on the high-voltage wire

A quick intense bridge:

The first thing she’ll ask me is: “How did it go today?”And I’ll tell her.

The song builds in intensity with some wild screaming guitars until finally settling down to the quiet beginning

I thought there was strength in a union
I thought there was strength in a mob
I thought the company was bluffing
When they threatened to chop us off
Ah, these guns will wilt the winter will seize
And all the bonfires will go out
The company knows when they can afford to be bold
I wish I could, I wish I could, I wish I could

All along the ringing repeated chorus: “Holy mackinaw Joe! (Holy mackinaw).”

I’m not sure if this references a specific event or not.  (Surely someone can tell me that).  But you can listen to it here.  Or, find any of the live renditions on youtube.

There’s an interview with Dave Bidini of the Rheos who tells the interviewer that he also used to do music interviews.  And once he interviewed Neil Peart who, after much chatter, asked Dave if he knew the song “Horses” by the Rheos.  Dave humbly said that he wrote it.  And Neil said that on their last tour he used to come off stage and listen to “Horses” at full blast.  (And that’s how they got Neil to play on the Rheos’ subsequent album).  Neat, huh?

[READ: Week of July 16, 2010] Letters of Insurgents [Sixth Letters]

Insurgent Summer is till moving along, but the insurgents have been quiet lately.  I hope the insanity of these letters and invocations of the devil will bring up the chatter.

Yarostan opens his letter with the most heartfelt emotions.  And yet, anyone who thought (as I did) that there might be some kind of rekindling of romance between the two will be sorely disappointed: (more…)

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Heather O Neill–“Riff-Raff” (The Walrus, July/August 2010)

Posted in Adventure, Canadian Content, Canadian Music, CBC Radio 3, Heather O'Neill, James Brown, Kid Koala, The Slew, The Walrus, Travel, Violence on June 23, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: THE SLEW “100%” (2009).

The Slew is the latest band created by DJ Kid Koala. Koala is a fantastic turntablist, and this group uses his scratching and sampling to excellent effect.  The lineup includes drums, bass, keyboards and six turntables!

It’s an insane hodge-podge of music.  And it’s very fun.  I’ve no idea how many samples are in here (James Brown seems to be all over the song) or even if any of the “riffs” in the song are original or from other records, but I enjoyed this very much.

I’ve enjoyed just about everything Kid Koala has done, and this is no exception.  I’m glad to see he’s still being so creative.

There are three five tracks available on CBC Radio 3.  And they’re all fun.

[READ: June 14, 2010] “Riff-Raff”

The protagonist of this story is a nineteen year old girl from Montreal.  She is in a horrible relationship with a boy named Leroy.  But near the end of her first year at McGill, she meets an American boy.  They hang out pretty steadily for a few weeks and, when school ends, he invites her to visit him in New Mexico.

There’s so many places this story could have gone.  I guessed a number of them, but I never would have guessed the direction it went. (more…)

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Fredy Perlman–[Week 2] Letters of Insurgents (1976)

Posted in Anarchy, Big Books, Communists, Corporate skewering, Death, Dystopia, Epistolary Novel, Fredy Perlman, Green Day, Insurgent Summer, Military, Politicians, The Clash, Unreliable narrator, Violence, Western on June 18, 2010| 5 Comments »

SOUNDTRACK: GREEN DAY-21st Century Breakdown (2009).

Like most people who like Green Day, I’ve been a fan since Dookie.  They were incredibly poppy (although they wrote great punk riffs) and they sang about weird, kind of subversive things.  And they got huge really fast.  Of course since then they have become one of the most commercially successful bands in America (including having their song picked for the ending scene of the Seinfeld montage–jeez).

And yet….

And yet, American Idiot, their previous album was one of  the most anti-establishment records of the last twenty years. (True it’s not hard to be Anti-Bush if you’re a punk band, but wow.)  And yet, it was a concept album and even a rock opera of sorts.  And it still sold millions.

And now American Idiot has been made into a freaking Broadway Musical.  And yet, how many Broadway shows (or top twenty albums for that matter) have lyrics like “The insurgency will rise when the blood’s been sacrificed.  Don’t be blinded by the lies in your eyes”

And so Green Day confounds me.  And yet, if I were younger and cared more about “keeping it real” I think they’d confuse me even more because although musically they have sold out (if you want to call it that), lyrically Billie Joe is still pretty true to his punk roots.  And, of course, even the punkest bands seem to go commercial eventually (Combat Rock anyone?)

Of all the Green Day CD’s I think I like this least.  And yet I really applaud them for writing an album that so easily translates to Broadway (not an easy feat in itself) (this disc would make better Broadway than American Idiot).  I think I dislike this disc not because it’s so unpunk, but because I think musically it’s really obvious (and although I like musicals, I prefer classic musicals to contemporary ones).  And yet, most of Green Day’s music is pretty obvious.  I guess I prefer my obvious music to have a harder egde.

And yet Act III is full of some really great aggressive punk songs: “Horseshoes and Handgrenades” is just fantastic.  And in Act II, “Peacemaker has a great construction, all spaghetti Western and whatnot.  And in the first act, the title song has multiple parts that all work well together.  It’s a pretty sophisticated song.  And who can fault Billie Joe for expanding his songwriting skills?  Like the Tin Pan Alleyesque opening of “¿Viva La Gloria? (Little Girl).”

In interviews, Billie Joe comes across as a maturing artist who is influenced by more diverse styles of music.  I always wonder what the other two guys think.  Should your name still be Tre Cool if you’re no longer writing songs about getting high and masturbating?

And yet…and yet…ad astra.

[READ: Week of June 18, 2010] Letters of Insurgents [Second Letters]

There’s been a lot of discussion over at Insurgent Summer (and here) about the first week’s reading.  Very exciting!  And with so much revealed and so many accusations flying this week, no doubt more will continue.

Many people have been wondering exactly what Yarostan could have meant in first letter when he said he barely remembered Sophia.  When he replies in this letter, he claims that “I now remember you as if I had been with you only yesterday” (29).  There are two ways to take this: first, as a positive; however, it can also be read as the way I take it: Oh, RIGHT, you’re THAT person, still.  And this is pretty well confirmed by the second paragraph: “I admit that I once shared the illusion your letter celebrates” (29). (more…)

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Herman Melville–Moby-Dick [Week 4] (1851)

Posted in 19th Century, Adventure, Barenaked Ladies, Big Books, Canadian Music, Death, Demons, Fishing, Herman Melville, Infinite Zombies, Moby, Neil Peart, Paul Quarrington, Rheostatics, The Beatles, The Replacements, Violence, Whale Music, Whales, Yuck! on June 14, 2010| 7 Comments »

SOUNDTRACK: RHEOSTATICS-Whale Music (1992).

The Rheostatics are from Etobicoke Canada.  Their second album was called Melville (named after a town in Saskatchewan, but it has a whale on the cover so…).  Their third album (this one) is called Whale Music (inspired by the novel by Paul Quarrington).  When they made a film of Whale Music, the Rheostatics were asked to make the soundtrack for it, which they released as Whale Music.  So, the band have 2 albums called Whale Music and one called Melville.  Perfect soundtrack to Moby-Dick.

The album is chock full of all kinds of music: country tracks, folky tracks, metal tracks, and hooks galore.  And it’s all wrapped up in the oddity that is the Rheostatics.  This album features guest spots by the Barenaked Ladies and Neil Peart as well as horns, strings, spoken word parts, and “power tools”.

“Self Serve Gas Station” is a great opening.  It begins with swirling guitars and a beautiful solo (Rheostatics guitar lines sound so elemental as to seem like they’ve always been around).  But just as the vocals begin, the song becomes a sort of country track: a folkie song about adolescnece.  But it returns to a good rocking (and falsetto fueled) rock track.

“California Dreamline” is a wonderfully weird track, with more gorgeous guitar melodies.  It also has a disjointed section with squealing guitars.   While “Rain, Rain, Rain” opens with a lengthy percussion section (played by Neil Peart of Rush) with a weird time signature.  It’s a fun singalong.  “Queer” meanwhile has some great chugga guitars that turn into a rocking tale of an ostracized brother (and features the great line: “But I wish you were there to see it/When I scored a hat-trick on the team/That called you a fucking queer.”

“King of the Past” is another great track, with a wondrous string sound near the end.  It’s a gorgeous song with (again) different sections conveying shanties and jigs (and you can dance to it).  Like Moby from last week, Rheostatics, also bust out a fast metal track, but this one works well: “RDA (Rock Death America)” has a major hook and name checks everyone from The Beatles to The Replacements.

“Legal Age Life at Variety Store” is a great folky singalong (and features the piercing harmonies of Martin Tielli).  “What’s Going On Around Here?” is the most traditional song of the bunch, a poppy little ditty which avoids complacency with a rocking coda.

“Shaved Head” is a moody piece, wonderful for its roller coaster sensibilities, which is followed by the beautiful Tim Vesely sung ballad “Palomar.”  This track is followed by the humorous (but serious) shouted-word piece “Guns” which also features Neil Peart.

“Sickening Song” is an accordion based shanty song.  Followed by another pretty, poppy-sounding track, “Soul Glue.”  Drummer Dave Clark sings “Beerbash,” an upbeat song.  And tye final track is the epic, “Dope Fiends and Boozehounds.”  It opens with a beautiful acoustic intro and a wonderfully catchy wheedling guitar solo.  It ends delightfully: “Where the dope fiends laugh And say it’s too soon, They all go home and listen to
The Dark Side of the Moon.”

I had been listening to the band live a lot recently, and they play these songs a lot.  So it was quite a treat to go back and hear the original with all its full instrumentation.

[READ: Week of June 14, 2010] Moby-Dick [Chapters 62-86]

I never thought I’d ever say this, but I really enjoyed Moby-Dick this week.  So far, these twentysome chapters have been my favorite (even the gruesome whale sections), there weren’t any chapters that I thought really dragged.  So, good for me!

This week’s read begins with Ishmael stating that harpooners should not have to paddle and then be expected to harpoon as well.  They should save their strength for that last, all important act.  And that seems logical to me, although one also expects that the harpooners would feel kind of bad while everyone else is paddling. (more…)

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Fredy Perlman–[Week 1] Letters of Insurgents (1976)

Posted in Anarchy, Big Books, Consumerism, Corporate skewering, Death, Epistolary Novel, Foreign Books, Fredy Perlman, Insurgent Summer, Prison, Stereolab, Violence on June 11, 2010| 5 Comments »

SOUNDTRACK: STEREOLAB-Transient Random Noise Bursts with Announcements (1993).

Stereolab are a bizarre band.  They make bubbly electronic music, with all sorts of bleeps and whirls and buzzes.  They even describe their music as space age pop.   Their album cover art is overexposed or simply silk screened.  (This is a hi-fi needle getting dropped on an LP).  The back cover looks like it’s a hi-fi test record.

This disc is a bit less electronic than future releases.  It’s more guitar drone (appropriate circa 1991, frankly).  When the songs start, Latetia Sadler’s voice is angelic and beautiful.  Delicate and sweet.  And you sort of realize that you don’t quite understand what she’s singing.  Because the song is in French!  No kidding.

And then you get to “Jenny Ondioline.” It’s 18 minutes of droning guitars and noises.  It has several parts (the song actually stops at one point and at another it plays a sample from “Channel Recognition Phasing and Balance.”  And if you listen carefully to the lyric, you’ll hear:

I don’t care if the fascists have to win
I don’t care democracy’s being fucked
I don’t care socialism’s full of sin
The immutable system is so corrupt
What is exciting is the triumph as the new nation.

A little later on the disc, on “Crest,” there’s more subversive songwriting.

If there’s been a way to build it
There’ll be a way to destroy it
Things are not all that out of control.

This is all done by those sweet, yet alien-sounding vocals.  When she’s not singing in French, Sadler sings in a fascinatingly broken English, emPHAsizing the wrong sylLABes.

Although I think my favorite moment comes in “Golden Ball” when the CD skips like a vinyl record.  It’s surreal.  Electropop and Marxism: perfect together.

[READ: Week of June 11, 2010] Letters of Insurgents [First Letters]

And so begins Insurgent Summer.

This is the first week of my second Summer Reading Book series.  I’d never heard of this book before getting the invitation to read.  But when the book was described as 800+ pages of letters between insurgents, well, how could I pass that up?

And that is indeed what you get here: Yarostan (Vochek) has not spoken to Sophia (Nachalo) in twenty years.  And he writes to her to her because she had written to him twelve years earlier (when he was in prison).  He writes back to bring her up to date on his life and to find out what’s going on with her. (more…)

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Terry Moore–Echo #21 & #22 (2010)

Posted in Death, End of the World, Graphic Novel, Mad Scientists, Technology, Terry Moore, The Prodigy, The Shining, Violence on June 8, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: THE PRODIGY-Experience (1993).

Before Prodigy sang “Smack My Bitch Up” and Keith Flint had devil horns and pierced everything, Prodigy were a dancey techno act. This was their first album, and allmusic calls it “One of the few noncompilation rave albums of any worth.”  High praise indeed.

I love that this disc still has the price sticker on it and that I can see that I bought it some time around May 1993 from Ralph’s Record City in Scranton (RIP).

I popped this on because I was listening to Moby and it reminded me of this early 90s dance disc.  Sarah said that it made her want to work faster (some of the beats are crazy fast).  As with most dance records, this one works for dancing and for background music.  But it does have some standout tracks.

“Hyperspeed” which has more than a few words as lyrics is super catchy, as is “Fire” which samples “I am the god of hell fire!”  What I’m learning here is that you pretty much need some kind of words for a song to be more interesting than 4/4 beats at breakneck speed.

The best track on the disc is “Out of Space” which opens up with some twinkly keyboards before the drums kick in.  But rather than just a straight heavy beat, the song slows down (with a great “boing”) into a sort of reggae vibe.

The album is full of sped up vocals (who even knows what the originals sound like).  As well as crazy fast dance songs.  It even features a “live” track.  I’m not a huge fan of dancey techno music, although I know it has its place and some of it is quite good.  This disc is definitely better than most, although I much prefer when they get into their darker stuff starting with their next disc.

[READ: June 7, 2010] Echo #21 & #22

One of the difficult things about writing sequential comics (as if I know from experience) is that each issue needs a certain arc which propels the main story but which is also satisfying in itself.  And so the story arcs in these two issues are very exciting in themselves but serve as something of a detour from the main story.

And that’s all well and good.  But it’s so frustrating when you’re only getting single issues!  The story is so good, and you get to the end of the book and ack, six weeks before the next panel! (more…)

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Ross Campbell–Wet Moon 5: Where All Stars Fail to Burn (2009)

Posted in Canadian Music, Death, Drinking, Fears, Friday the 13th, Fucked Up, Ongoing, Oni Press, Pregnancy, Punks, Racism, Ross Campbell, Sex, Threats, Universities, Violence, Wikipedia, Yuck! on June 2, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: FUCKED UP-Couple Tracks: Singles 2002-2009 (2010).

I knew of Fucked Up from a cover shoot on Chart Magazine. Clearly, they are aiming for major pop success and massive radio airplay.

Their live shows sounded amazing.  And, of course, everything about them seemed unpredictably wonderful.

This is a collection of singles (although not singles in the “pop chart” sense).  Fucked Up released more singles than anything else.  In fact their discography is borderline impossible to keep straight, they have so many small releases on so many small labels.

There is definite growth over these two discs (maybe not maturity, but growth).  The first track, “No Pasaran” is an ugly shouty noisy mess (pretty much straight hardcore). Over the course of these singles, Pink Eyes, the singer, refines his voice and he sounds a bit like Dicky Barrett of the Mighty Mighty Bosstones (still rough, but more melodic).  The music on the other hand pretty well stays in the hardcore mold.  But by the end (and it is most notable on disc two) the band’s energies branch out into guitar riffs and notable melodies.

The rest of the band includes Concentration Camp and 10,000 Marbles on Guitars, Mr Jo on Drums and Mustard Gas on Bass.

This collection of singles includes most of their shorter tracks (since they were on 7″ vinyl).  But on their 2006 release Hidden World (which I have not heard), most of the songs are over 5 minutes, with one reaching 9.  So they’re even fucked up by hardcore standards.  Cool.

This collection is definitely not for everyone, but it’s worth checking out if you like your core hard and weird.

[READ: May 27, 2010] Wet Moon 5

Holy cow!  This book ends on an amazing cliffhanger!  Beloved Trilby is put in mortal danger, and from what we see, I can’t imagine how she’ll survive.  Gasp!

By this time, Campbell is well on his way to a long, twisted epic series.  One only wonders how long he has this story arc planned out.  It seemed so simple at first: a buncha goth girls hanging around a college, with the worst thing that happens is someone puts up a flier about you or your cat goes missing.

Now the stakes are higher.  I’m not entirely sure that I like the path that this story is following.  I mean, don’t get me wrong it is super exciting.  I just don’t want Wet Moon to turn into Friday the 13th or some other kind of “crime & superhero” story.  What happens to Trilby is pretty intense.  I just hope it won’t destroy all of the characters. (more…)

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