* (restored/expanded)
‘Extreme metal, perhaps more than any other musical genre, abides by a strict and clear visual code that conveys to listeners exactly what they’re getting into. “The genre kind of commands a particular style of logo that the listener can identify with,” says Mark Riddick, a designer and author of Logos From Hell, a 600-page book that chronicles the logos of thousands of metal bands.
‘Metal and its innumerable sub-genres have always embraced ideals like iconoclasm, pride, and independence. It’s music made by outsiders for outsiders, and its logos reflect as much. “The point of these logos is like, unless you’re in-the-know already, it’s not for you,” says Tim Butler, who designs merchandise for bands like Metallica and Slayer. “It’s to keep it sort of insular.”
‘This mindset has led to an artistic style that’s defined by visuals that are almost hostile. The identities of metal bands—black and death metal bands, in particular—tend to feature grotesque imagery and typography that swirls like branches, drips like blood, and clings like spider webs. It wasn’t always this way. If you trace the genre’s abrasive aesthetic to its roots, you’ll find your way to Black Sabbath, the British band widely regarded as the creator of heavy metal. The bubbly letterforms of the logo that appeared on the band’s eponymous debut album look more hallucinatory than creepy. It is a distant cousin to the aggressive wordmarks seen today. “Typographically, that stuff sort of starts off as psychedelic,” Butler says of early metal logos. “Later on it got more aggressive and pointy.”
‘As metal evolved into myriad subgenres, each more extreme than the last, wordmarks and branding evolved in step. “Logos just tend to get more and more extreme and as you branch out,” says Riddick. It’s reached the point that you can almost determine the style of music from the typography. Indeed, there might be no better example of typography’s multi-sensorial nature than extreme metal logos. Thrash metal bands like Metallica, Slayer, and Overkill adopted logos with straight, sharp edges to reflect the tight and controlled nature of the music. Death metal bands—which tend to focus on subjects like violence, religion, horror, and, yes, death—tend to incorporate those themes into logos that feature things like dripping blood, organs, severed limbs and skulls. The logos associated with black metal, which has its roots in deeply anti-Christian views, the occult and paganism, often are ornate, symmetrical, and derived from art nouveau’s swirling, rounded forms.
‘Christophe Szpajdel, a Belgian designer who has crafted more than 7,000 logos for bands since the 1980s, explains that, just like any other form of design, a good metal logo relies on basic principles like symmetry, visual harmony, letter height, and precision. When making a band logo, Szpajdel often works at an architect’s table, where he draws in pencil before tracing in pen. His 1991 logo for the Norwegian band Emperor is often cited as the template on which all other black metal logos are based. Its letterforms were inspired by medieval blackletter typography, but Szpajdel thinned them to create a wordmark that is so clean and simple as to be almost elegant. Asked what makes a good black metal logo, he said, “I think the lettering should be sharp, inspired by gothic/old English fonts. First and last letters should be bigger than the middle ones. Unlike most people who think a black metal logo should contain symbols like pentagrams, inverted crosses… I think this is overdone.”
‘It’s easy to forget, when met by their antagonistic form, that there is real craftsmanship behind metal logos. And that, says, Riddick, is why he dedicated an entire book to this genre of typography. “I want people to recognize this as much more than a high schooler scribbling in his notebook and calling it art,” he says. “This is legitimate serious talent. It’s a subculture that’s create a whole look and feel unlike any other. That’s a powerful thing.”’ — Elizabeth Stinson
Tutorial: Death Metal Logo
INSIDE THE WORLD OF EXTREME METAL LOGOS
Тhe Dark Lord of Logos
Unlocking The Secret Language of Metal Band Logos
Decibel’s Top 5 Death Metal Logos
Dan Capp
Schwer lesbar: Die unmöglichsten Death Metal-Logos
VISUAL DARKNESS
The Man Behind The Black/Death Metal Logo
Symmetal
Luciferium War Graphics
Japanese design site explains how death metal fans find bands based on…logos?!
Death Metal Flyer Accidentally Uses Logo Font for Show Date
ModBlackmoon
Lord of the Logos: Black Metal AF
Black & White: A Conversation With Death Metal Illustrator Mark Riddick
LOGOS FROM HELL – A COMPENDIUM OF DEATH AND BLACK METAL LOGOS DE MARK RIDDICK
The aesthetic extremism of heavy metal design
The art of Death Metal logos
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Extras
How to make that unreadable death metal logo
Time Lapse: Creating A Death Metal/Deathcore Logo
BEST BLACK METAL LOGO EVAH!
BLACKMETALIZER: An interactive generative Black Metal logo generator
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Interview w/ a Creator
from UniteAsia
Always great to get behind the headspace of designers for some of your favorite artwork and logos. Today we spend some time with our friend Kiryu out of Zhuhai, China as he talks to us about his process of designing metal AF logos. The dude is busy as hell because besides designing logos, he actually sings in a HUGE number of insane metal bands.
Hey bro! How’s it going? Can you give everyone a little background of yourself?
I’ve probably been designing for my band since 2013, maybe earlier. I started designing for a lot of metalcore bands because here in China there are so many metalcore bands. Slowly I started designing for a wider ranger of bands from black metal or death metal, to thrash and progressive. While designing I also play in bands like Obsoletenova and Dehumanizing Itatrain Worship, drawing my own band’s logo because it’s a lot of fun!
What inspired you to start making logos?
The biggest reason I wanted to start making logos was simply because logos super cool! Hahahaha…For a long time I was just a regular guy that spent hours and hours looking for new music. While looking for new music I also naturally started checking out logo designs by a variety of bands. I realized that the logos I liked the most are deathcore bands, because they look super cool. Hahahaha…
What was the first logo you designed?
It was so long ago that I don’t remember. I don’t even have the logo anymore honestly. But early on, I painted for my band Dehumanizing Itatrain Worship.
Can you take us through a typical process of creating? If a client approaches you how do you get started?
Most of the time I just let the band first describe their ideas and I listen and take time to understand what they’re looking for. It is very helpful for the band to show some references of what they like.
Once that has happened how long before they get to see a first draft?
Maybe within a week.
Wow! That’s fast! And how many times will you allow the band to ask for edits and changes?
I have no problem revising drafts according to their ideas, but if the original requirements AND the draft are completely changed or the whole idea has been thrown out all together, than I only allow this to happen three times.
Is their a particular band you are surprised has approached you to create a logo?
That should be the Agonal Breathing logo that I finished working on most recently.
When you’re designing for slam bands what are the elements you must retain?
Must be sick.
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Show
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p.s. Hey. ** James Bennett, Hi. Thanks. Lyle’s, even the name itself has a certain fanciness about it. Sorry for my eyes seeing quotes where there are none. My bad. As someone with lifelong occasional lower back flare ups of a most disabling nature, I feel you. Back in the day, I did quite like White’s ‘Nocturnes for the King of Naples’, yeah. I don’t have a lot of confidence that I would like it as much now however. At the time, so-called gay lit was in its infancy, and White’s novel was unusually artful for gay lit at the time, which I appreciated and might have over-appreciated. If you read it, I would be very interested to see how it seems to you. I’m fine. This week is going to be heavily involved in readying our film, as I think the World Premiere will be announced this weekend, and there’s a lot to do to be ready for that. How about you? Ciao to you! xo. ** Misanthrope, There are all sorts of substances that could’ve been blended into his fentanyl. I wish I could do something to help. I hope he wakes up in time. ** Steeqhen, Hard to imagine you spending even a couple of days much less a summer just partying and playing video games. I only ever have stress dreams when I remember them, which is odd because I don’t feel particularly stressed when I’m awake, but then I guess that answers the question. ** Sypha, Haha, yes, that was a bit rude of your subconscious. I wish dream expert/anaylist Bernard Welt was around to interpret that one. ** Dominik, Hi!!! My total pleasure, as always. There is a video of ‘Figurante’ doing its thing online, but I didn’t use it, I think because there was awful music playing the background or something. But if you search, you might find it. Better than nothing? Oh, wow, you are up to a lot. Hermit Hour looks really interesting. When will you launch it? Thinking it’s okay if I share the link? Hope so. Everyone, the mighty Dominik, perhaps best known thus far as the mastermind behind the crucial lit/art zine SCAB, is launching a super interesting seeming new project, and here’s the link to its initial website. That’s so cool and admirable and smart and everything else! And a new SCAB coming! I’m so glad I asked! I’m good, just crazy busy and a bit nervous trying to get the film finished and ready to be launched. That’s pretty much my life right now. Pearl Jam, those guys! Hm, how about … Whatcha need is Motherly love, Motherly love, Forget about the brotherly and other-ly love, Motherly love is just the thing for you, You know your Mothers’ gonna love ya till ya don’t know what to do, G. ** _Black_Acrylic, Yes, how in the world did I miss finding good old ‘Felix’. ** James, Very nice, intricate review there. You ever had any longings to write reviews, of music or films or books or whatever? When I have something IRL I have to do in the late mornings, I’m usually in a rush with the p.s. If not, not so much. I like doing interviews. I like talking with people, and, in interviews, I don’t have to worry about having nothing to say because they steer the conversation. I think they’re fun and an honor. The only Sondheim I know well are ‘Sweeney Todd’ and ‘Sunday in the Park with George’, but I like them. An ex-boyfriend of mine starred in the original, flop Broadway production of ‘Merrily We Roll Along’. Spring is borderline sprung. I think either do croptops pretty soon or reject them because croptops on guys older than maybe mid-20s is pretty embarrassing. Next stint of daylight, here we come! ** Steve, Ah, cool, your reviews! Everyone, Steve has written about the queer contingent of films at the recently concluded film festival Slamdance right here if you’re interested. I knew Dean Johnson socially. We talked a fair amount. We were in the same general scene in the early 80s. Obviously so sorry that ridding you of your malady is proving to be so complicated. Oh, Steve, you listen to a lot of music, and two hours of music every two weeks is not that much. Two hours tend to fly by, and it doesn’t take that many songs/tracks to fill it up. ** Adem Berbic, I’ve always found Firefox woefully inadequate. I saw an email from you upon awakening, and I will open it and download what’s in it straight away. Thanks, thanks! ** Justin D, Glad you dug the skeletons. ‘The Color of Pomegranates’ is singular. Maybe if Kenneth Anger had been a whole lot less hyper and more religious, but even then. Enjoy the storming. It’s just leisurely gray and somewhere between moist and not here. Nothing to celebrate. ** HaRpEr, Hi. Yeah, Schulyer can be such a curative. I’m assuming you’re happy about the classes ending, right? Nothing melancholy thereby? I don’t think I understand the concept behind the sanctity of the dead. Or at least not the sanctity of the skeletons. That seems like the life begins at conception argument. I don’t know. I do want to go to London in time to see the Leigh Bowery show if possible, so I’ll not those recommendations, thanks. ** Nicholas., Time’s weird. I’m just getting our film ready. Not remotely as interesting as your instagram film screening activities. Just working here in the dark and private. Dinner? Not sure yet. I’d like to eat at a restaurant, but I think my friends are busy, and I don’t do restaurants alone. Or I don’t like to. I also don’t like riding buses alone. Weird. Well, have an eventful week then. ** Bill, Hi. Wait, what’s the submission? It has a trailer? What is it? ** Niresh Swamy, Hi, Niresh. Great to meet you, and thanks a lot for coming in. Well, if you’re okay with reading ‘The Sluts’ in pdf form or online, You can read ‘The Sluts’ online or download it at Scribd here. You can download it for free at z-lib (you have to join the site, but it’s free, and it’s a great site) here. It’s usually available/free at internet archive.org, but it doesn’t seem to be available right now here. Do those help? Thanks for wanting to read it. How are you, what are you doing? ** ellie, Hi! How are you? Great to get the chance to see you. Oh, I find it hard to believe that your head is ever boring, I must say. Cool, thanks for the link up. Everyone, I strongly suggest you hit this link and read the latest writings by the great ellie on their also beautiful looking tumblr. I do indeed like that skeleton. It looks so chill but kind of also hysterical, but then I guess skeletons always look they’re feeling hysteria. Take care, pal. ** Joe, Hi, Joe! Oh, wow, thanks! I’ll go look for your email. ** nat, Howdy. Congrats on the breakthrough on your writing thing. What broke you through, or can you even tell? Split pea soup is one of the wonders of the world maybe. Slurp. ** Dan Carroll, Aw, thanks a lot. They’re kind of really involving in a great way to make too. Gotta love Matmos. I’m gonna go find ‘for Felix’ and think cinematically. ‘I’m really just trying to do more fag shit’ is a fine sentence, so maybe just lay it on him? At your discretion, of course. ** Right. I decided to remount this old galerie show from years back, and hopefully you understand why and do not find yourself in disagreement with my decision. See you tomorrow.
Now available in North America 
The illegibility of black metal band names has long been a topic of joking amongst my friends. I’ve apparently been ‘shunned’ according to a friend, and I’m ‘not normal’ according to my family, so I might belong to some kind of ‘outsider’ label, but metal isn’t quite my thing. Kind of funny that people want to have violent-looking or scary fonts. Like, it’s a font. What I need to see is a band name in Wingdings. Szpajdel is the perfect name for someone who makes these kinds of drawings. What would be cute is cutesy content written in this kind of font. I love ridiculous band names. Dehumanizing Itatrain Worship, like, jeez. A mouthful. I do love when the font is just completely fucking unreadable. Like just utterly. Meaningless-looking squiggles. Funny to imagine someone announcing a lineup and being like ‘And next up! Uh…’ as they squint at the band logo, unable to read it. But like anything of any ‘kind’ they do start to feel a bit same-y. They start to look like those silly cheap temporary tattoos. I am no contemplating the nature of lower-back tattoos. Trashy chic. Trachic.
Hi Den. Thanks for your considering my review nice, cursory and brief though it was. I like talking about things I like and why I like them, and doing the same for things I dislike, but I more often than not sum things up in a reductivist judgement, i.e., ‘good,’ ‘shit,’ ‘meh.’ The only time I’ve written a review of anything, hm, I gave writing reviews of albums in a tiny notebook yearrrrs ago in secondary, which I’d cringe to look on now. And I wrote a review or two as part of my GCSE English Language work. And I used to do book ‘reviews’ in my reading journals. But while I’m a fan of people having opinions (I’m so progressive) I don’t feel like mine are well-worded enough to be their own thing to be inflicted upon the public outside of short little comments or posts here and there. How do you feel about reviewing things?
My late mornings tend to be when not much is going on. On Mondays history is over by then, on Tuesdays (today!) I’m lounging at home contemplating lunch, on Wednesday geography is over by then, and on Thursdays and Fridays I’m wrapping up study at home before going in for college. I am a big fan of the comfort and joy that having totally free time allows for typing out long things.
I’ve had few interviews in my life. I’ve never enjoyed them. Having others steer a conversation can be helpful, but I find I tend to be the one doing that when talking to others. Talking to people is something whose likeability of course varies. But fun they’re fun for you, duh. I don’t feel honoured much, which makes sense because I’m not really out here doing much honourable stuff.
The Sondheim I know best is Company. It’s my favourite of his, so far. It’s really rather very cool that an ex of yours was in the original Merrily, woah. I do not know anyone who’s been of such note. You seem to have bumped into a few people who have done funky stuff like that.
It looks quite spring-y out there, today. Very sunny, but also quite cloudy. The sun’s been shining through the living room windows which spreads slight rainbows across the room. Man, even my furniture and laptop are gay.
Croptop caution noted. They’re not my thing, I don’t think. Though if I ever get in the mood for some ill-judged bacchanal when I’m a bit older I might just wear one for the frisson of such risqué clothing, by my prudish standards.
Lunch, soonish, then English. I have an email to respond to. I am thinking about editing some old writing so if I put it out there it’ll be less painful for me. I would *not* be surprised if I get rained on today. May Paris be ready for you!
Hi!!
I was just thinking about this the other day! I saw a sticker advertising what I assumed was a band, but I couldn’t decipher their name. Very informative, this post. Thank you!
I did look around for videos after finishing yesterday’s post and found one of “Figurante” on YouTube. The editing is quite dramatic, but ultimately, it’s very satisfying.
Ah, thank you so, so much for the Hermit Hour shoutout! I’m officially launching it next month (which means I’ll start promoting it here and there), but the website is already up, so, technically, the project is alive. Thank you, really! I’m super excited about it, to be honest!
And I’m also super, super excited about “Room Temperature”! Maybe very soon now, I’m guessing! Do you still have a lot to work on the film itself, or are you mostly busy with everything surrounding its launch?
I knew I recognized these lyrics, but in the end, I had to ask Google about the song. My father is a Frank Zappa fan, and he used to listen to him a lot when I was growing up. I love you so much, can’t count all the ways, I’ve died for you girl and all they can say is, “He’s not your kind,” Od. (It feels supremely weird to send you lyrics that address “you” as “girl.” 😀 )
Dennis, That’s what I’ve tried to tell him. Seems a lot of street fentanyl now has tranq in it, an animal tranquilizer. People are losing limbs and dying from it.
There’s actually a treatment protocol now that can get people off fentanyl in a few days without withdrawals. I’ve discussed it with him, but he’s not interested.
He was on a tear again last night. It’s just insane. Something’s gotta be done. Ugh.
Maybe I don’t quite get why the show was remounted but I still greatly enjoy the logos here.
Word is the new Black Metal is known as Dungeon Synth, a genre founded by “controversial” BM progenitor Varg Vikernes. There was a dedicated festival opened here in the UK last week. I’m into DS and this music was featured on my radio show Play Therapy last year quite a bit. Seems to me a lot more sonically innovative than previous Hard Rock-based styles.
Den Dude — Dang, many of these are visual palindromes! Sending you FOKA play folder soon for anniversary post. Also soon: a mooovie assignment. You seen Thomas Moore’s new book thing yet? Looks fancy rad intense. more stuff is happening… but I don’t know what it is. Yours, Mister Jones
Hey Dennis,
Great read today! It’s interesting to know how these logos developed over time, especially how it’s easy to forget the intentionality behind them. Whilst a bit overdone or oversaturated (especially as someone not interested in metal), I’ve always been into the art of those logos, and I’m kicking myself for not actually realizing that their indecipherability is intentional for only those in the know to know!!
Haha I can be very lazy/relaxed, in fact I think I’ve only become this overachieving hardworking guy in the past year or so; I was coasting through secondary school and whilst I did study and work for my final exams to get into college, it was because I forced myself to do so, before that I didn’t even go to school on a regular basis. But I really enjoy what I’m doing, and I’m committed to making something of myself now.
Had another dissertation meeting and she was fairly impressed with my intro and where I intend to go with it. I was talking to people today who only started working on their dissertation in the last month and got good grades, so I’m not as worried about timing now. I’m even trying to allow myself to have days off that aren’t just recuperating but going out and socializing!
Exciting to hear about the RT announcements coming soon!! I hope I can find a way to attend some screening somewhere.
I released a new single today, “Ice Fishing (naviarhaiku581)”: https://callinamagician.bandcamp.com/track/ice-fishing-naviarhaiku581. It was written for Naviar Records’ challenge to write a song inspired by a haiku. I tried to capture the mood of a chilly lake in winter.
If I DJ’d a radio show now, I’d be coughing my way through it, so I need to wait till I feel better before I approach the station.
I’m heading up to Lincoln Center to see Frederick Wiseman’s BLIND this afternoon.
NTS put out a first-rate compilation of dungeon synth.
PS: Have you heard of Tony Morris? He’s a 72-year-old Scottish man making 1-minute minimal electronic pop songs with spoken vocals. I learned about him yesterday, and was taken with his latest album, released last December. He posts these brief songs to his Instagram page regularly.
*Poof* Omg I actually love dinner alone I eat really fast and get impatient after eating so restaurants are hard for me I hate waiting can’t you tell lol. Now movies alone a miracle from god honestly an empty theater and just you and the screen a rare gift. I get the busses tho moving in cars makes me so serene and sleepy so I sort of need a buddy on the bus to rest my huge head on or I get a stiff neck my mother knows not to sit next to me on a bus cause I will lean my adult huge head on her omg in nye as a kid I was famous for sleeping on strangers and most would let me I was a really cute kid I guess! Screening is continuing and I switched from exposition dump to just straight up naked idolatry cam boy fantasy to get my digital exhibition edge . OMFG there’s this cam boy I discovered and im literally like I can never see you live I will pay for your rent in one stream he has a fuck machine set up to his tips and literally just gets cyberfucked all stream its insane im scrubbing the internet for any and all recording of his streams its crazy. Your movie is actually getting screened while im shaking ass and posting music videos and the occasional Gen V clip on instagram to one guy so let’s talk that. What are you excited for seeing it all played on the screen in front of an audience or the screening party after with all the new and old indie darlings? My votes watching it like a viewer instead of the creator should be nice for you! alright ill be back whats your favorite fruit ttylxox.
Dennis,
My back is feeling better today thankfully. I will report back on “Nocturnes…” at some point in the future. Very excited to hear where the RT premiere will be! And my fingers are extremely crossed for a London screening too. Bon courage for the final preparations.
Xo
J
Hey. In James McCourt’s ‘Queer Street’ which I read recently he wrote in one part that it is a probable phenomenon that a reader who has never read James Schuyler will suddenly dry up and die, as if deprived of water or sunlight. ‘The Morning of the Poem’ is definitely one of my five favourite poems of all time, somewhere around there. ‘A Season in Hell’ is probably my favourite poem, if that counts as just one poem, which I suppose it does. After that there are too many for me to successfully nail down – and several I’m surely forgetting.
Also, yes, interesting about the sanctity of the dead question. I was reading about the controversy surrounding this new posthumous Joan Didion book which is, I think, completely comprised of notes to her therapist. I guess if her family is involved there’s kind of a grey area. Personally, when I’m dead they can publish my toilet paper for all I care.
No, I’m not sad that my college years are coming to an end, not at all. Certain things are sort of melancholy, like how I start thinking about how I didn’t make any really close friends, and I seriously can’t see myself staying in contact with anyone, and as always I regret nervousness preventing me from talking to people who I thought were cool. That is one of my major worries I guess, that I’ll never find my tribe. Probably best not to think about it and it will just happen if I manage to explore every terrain on offer to me. But that’s about it in regards to my university experience, I’m glad to get out so that I can actually do stuff.
I started reading ‘The Writing of the Disaster’ today. I read for almost two hours and made a miniature chunk in the relatively small tome. I really like the fragmentary form. ‘The Space of Literature’ sometimes felt like wading through a pool of molasses (in an invigorating way), so I really like that approach. As a reader you definitely have to find your own individual route through Blanchot, which makes him fascinating to read.
I recognised the quote ‘Keep watching over absent meaning’ as being the epigraph for ‘Period’, I believe. Wonderful quote.
Cher ami:
(Sometimes when I think of your name I think of the young man, very cute in a Quartier Latin way, who came up to you in a Metro car we were on and inquired, “Aixcuse me boht –Arre yo Denneez Coopairr?” That’s how I say your name in my head.)
I don’t follow very heavy metal much though I’m aware of the calligraphic thing, but I DO love skeleton art. I expect you know that Tibetan Buddhist art has a lot of skeletons, which are there to remind us what we are under the facade of selfhood. The skeletons are one thing I love about Mexico. We liked Mexico City so much we’re going to hang out in Oaxaca a bit in November. But the big scene for me now is Canada: I learned, against my expectation, that I probably can get Canadian citizenship; in fact, I may be technically a citizen, I just haven’t got documentation. (My parents were both Canadian, and came to the US in 1947; my mother didn’t get US citizenship until 1968, at a ceremony presided over by Vice-President Hubert Humphrey. I was born a little bit before 1968.) Don’t think we’re relocating but it can’t hurt to have the passport. And I do love Québec.
Anyway, I did see the dreams here but last night I was in a weird state. I fasted 40 hours from Sunday night to this morning in advance of a colonoscopy today. But the anesthesia has worn off and I’m kind of myself. I don’t think Steeqhen or Syoha asked for any dream insights, but since you kinda did–calling me up by wishing like I’m the dream genie–I’d like to say: I actually abide by a professional ethics requirement that I can’t tell someone I know what their dream “means”; I wouldn’t want to anyway. But:
I think dreams are thinking in particularly visual and metaphorical terms in the absence of reality-testing; that is, the thing that tells us, that makes no sense, or that wouldn’t work, is turned off.
So if i had the gay pride/party dream, I’d be asking myself, Do I feel like joining the gay throng is the liquidation of individual personality–like those people “die” when they join the undifferentiated mob. I’d prefer to be in the bog, down in the physical body and not in the abstractions of “identity.” That’s where the creative and interesting stuff happens. That’s were I’d find the interesting material that I collage together into a constantly refreshed life, instead of solidifying into something that doesn’t change, I believe dreams are collage work done with the contents of the mind as they find associative patterns, so I’d think that as often happens, the dreamwork is representing itself in the dream.
Note; I was asked to contribute a poem to a Pride anthology and I wrote about just this: putting faith in a concept like Pride vs living in the flux of thoughts and sensations.
And then I think if I had a dream where I passed Dennis without picking him up, I’d think of two different things. 1. Maybe at this point the dream considers bringing in what Dennis stands for to me (I can’t write it here because it would embarrass him, even though he’s used to praise), and decides it’s an option that’s not right for now.2. But the feeling that it was rude suggests instead that I feel I missed an opportunity–I could have availed myself of the cool stuff that Dennis could share with me but — here’s the point — I’m driving, I have a destination and a schedule and I’m unwilling to give them up, even if I suspect getting Dennis into my car would be a happier result.
But that’s just me and might not apply to the dreamers at all.
Speaking of interviews: I have a couple on Zoom this week. In June I’ll do online talks on Winsor McCay and his Dreams of the Rarebit Fiend comic; on A Midsummer Night’s Dream; and on dreaming and creativity generally; and they have me do these little PR videos. The talks are at an online conference but the recordings of them go online as part of an educational program about dreams.
Yep, the dream business does keep me busy. If anybody wants to try out an online dream sharing group, I do one 2nd and 4th Wednesday of each month, 8 pm Eastern US time–one tomorrow–so write me at [email protected]. (I may have to leave gmail for the same reasons everyone else does. This country is going down the tollet. That, by the way, is a great metaphor to have appear in a dream.)
I’m not going to start on Sondheim, because it’s a lot, but I know who was in the original Merrily and now I wonder . . . We saw the recent staging and Daniel Radcliffe was pretty fantastic. We once saw a new, frequently revised Sondheim show in DC at the back of the house and there was this guy muttering but often shouting, “Fuck!” “Shit!” “Goddammit.” There were some missed cues, lighting and curtain mishaps, and it was Sondheim right behind us agonizing over each one.
Also btw Baudelaire’s translations of Poe’s poetry are great but I think Poe was a great supergenius but with like Whitman a weakness for sentimentalty in the poetry. For myself though: hard to think of a writer whose prose I read with greater pleasure.I used to love walking by the Edgar Allan Poë primary school in Paris. Which I miss.
Oh wow, interesting stuff. Very Rorschach blot testy, so all my answers being along the lines of “Prostitute Disfigurment” and “Impulsive Evisceration” indicate a very diseased mind, I’m sure. I’ve probably mentioned this lots, but I really love when information is contained within an image/text but is so unbelievably mannered/idiosyncratic that it’s unreadable, but sort of theoretically accessible, but only through a huge amount of work.
On that note, I’ve been on a sort of re-creating videogame photos kick. I assume you’ve played Breath of the Wild, so I’m sure you’ll remember what I mean when I mention the, like, photography puzzles you have to do, where you need to find the sites where photographs were taken, stuff like that. I just found out Elden Ring is the same, so I’ve been doing an equivalent activity there – but given that it’s a more “grown-up” game, and because it has so many repeated features in the landscape (like, every tree/mountain/church is copied over and over), the puzzles are head-achingly frustrating, in a very fun way.
The wobbly fridge is sort of impossible to prop up, unfortunately. It’s just got a sort of spongy/elastic leg, so any attempt to prop it up always ends up making it shake about as much as it was before, if that makes sense. Other than that, I’ve been doing excellent, my dissertation is going A-okay, thank you very much! Love from here.
Deathcore is truly the worst metal subgenre to my ears. I already don’t like metalcore (other than Cave In, Car Bomb, Dillinger Escape Plan, and others that play to the indie crowd) or death metal (unless mixed with doom, black, or gothic), so deathcore is pretty nails on a chalkboard to me. It’s what I imagine Guitar Center sounding like on Black Friday.
I like this Vampillia logo but the legible text beneath spoils the joke a bit: https://www.spirit-of-metal.com/les%20goupes/V/Vampillia/pics/1052678_logo.jpg
I actually like Lifelover’s very legible lowercase logo best of any BM logo because it’s both iconic and fits their sound, which is almost more goth rock or something than BM.
Do you know this film Possum from 2018? I watched it last night. The director is an actor who is really only in comedy things usually but I like him in anything I’ve seen him in. It has parallels to Jerk, it’s about an eccentric loner who is trying to dispose of a very Quay Brothers looking marionette that, in the “twist” is actually the body of a teenage boy. It’s also a British thing so of course it’s carrying forward some incest molestation trauma. It’s not bad at all but definitely not quite good enough to recommend, which is a shame because there are some cool things about it. It’s filmed to look like it could be an episode of Play for Today, even using Radiophonic Workshop music in the score. Sadly, though it’s more like “damn, this guy has seen some cool stuff” rather than “this guy makes his own cool stuff”. One thing that puts me over the edge in terms of cliches is doing a nursery rhyme as childhood trauma symbolism, it’s a nitpick but it’s super dumb, it never works for me.