Sunday Slices – 05/19/2019

By shotgunlogic on May 19, 2019 • ( Leave a comment )

Rich and Shane share some random shit they fucking love

Sometimes on the weekends, we talk to each other via Slack off and on all day, sometimes talking business and planning strategies, sometimes just bullshitting because we are brothers from different mothers and we have a ton of common interests. And during those bullshit sessions, we often talk about things we love and we thought you might love some of them too, so here we are sharing with a few with you each week. Check back every Sunday for more Slices. Our interests are many and our lists of favorite things are boundless.

Shane’s Picks

Deathgasm – Super no-brainer of a pick for Shane here. Rich Duncan and I did a buddy watch of this one last Halloween season, live chatting as we went. And I have to say, it was one of the most raucously fucking fun times I’ve had in recent memory. It’s a balls to the wall gorefest of epic proportions–both hilarious and horrific–that had me in stitches more than a few times. And there’s one of the most memorable fight scenes I’ve ever seen in there in which our intrepid “heroes” use some very unusual weapons to defend themselves from rampaging demons. If you haven’t seen this one, you need to fix that soon.

Poems Of My Night by Cynthia Pelayo – There is so much I could say, not just about this wonderful, deliciously dark poetry collection from Raw Dog Screaming Press, but about the poet herself. She’s a super awesome person with a big heart and a beautiful mind, as is evidenced by this grouping of one-hundred-ish love songs to darkness and Jorge Borges. She’s also one of the best poets in the business when it comes to writing verse that bleeds darkness and emotion. Check out this snippet from El Borges, one of my favorites in this criminally underrated book of poetry by an equally criminally underrated poet. If you’ve not read Pelayo’s words, you’re screwing yourself. Unfuck that.

“Borges writes the night, pen listing objects of eternity
Thoughts mixed with fine ink and this is the man
Who gifts us an idea, of stretched planes, crossing into
The other, crashing ancestral heroes, and tigers made
Real for our dreams, His speech is exact, confident
Calculated, and precisely the sound that the oceans}
Make when they crash into the edges of our mind”

Wind of Change by Peter Frampton –

This iconic collection of classic rock ballads was the epitome of my youth, it and other such albums literally defining the lifestyles of an entire generation. After leaving Humble Pie–one of my favorite bands ever–in 1971, Peter Frampton released this amazing freshman debut in 1972, receiving huge accolades and high acclaim from critics and fans alike and instantly becoming one of the most popular entertainers of the era. And the funny thing about my love for this album is this: I did not love Frampton’s vocals. He later came to develop some skill in that arena, but the draw for this LP came not from the singing or the lyrics so much as it did from the artist’s smoking-fucking-hot, virtuoso guitar work. If you’re ever in the mood for some retro rock and roll relaxations, fire up a blunt, kick back and nod your head to this amazing debut from one of the kings of an entire generation.

Little Free Libraries (LFLs) – In 2009, Tod H. Bol built the first LFL, with a cool but very simple concept: take a book, leave a book. Since then it has become an international phenomenon. Now sitting at 80,000 plus, the LFL program is important and awesome in many ways. It serves to build community and draw people together; it spreads the love of literature and encourages reading; it makes free books available and visible to an audience that may not regularly read books, but are more likely to do so when they’re right there in their neighborhood, readily accessible to them. I love the free libraries for all those reasons, but even more so because I love to spread horror and criminal activities all over the neighborhood I live in, which is populated largely by the overlooked and underprivileged, a group that is more likely than any other to not read because of both accessibility and literacy issues. The LFLs serve to help alleviate both problems. I owe a debt of gratitude to my friend Laurie (@BarksBooks on Twitter, follow her) for sharing her enthusiasm for the project to such a degree that it engendered a desire and inspiration in me to get involved too. Being a reviewer affords me access to a LOT of books, many of which I don’t want, or don’t have space, to keep. It effectively kills two birds with one stone, giving me the opportunity to spread darkness and destruction throughout my neighborhood, and affording other people the opportunity to read some of the wonderful shit I get to read on a regular basis.

Killer Klowns From Outer Space – For my last slice of the week, I decided to bookend my selections with another horror comedy, one that I have been criminally negligent in not seeing before now. It was essentially an impromptu, unplanned buddy watch with Rich again, and one of the most fun fucking movies I’ve seen since the aforementioned Deathgasm. This movie has a lot going for it that was totally unexpected to me. I went into it anticipating a tongue in cheek B movie without much to show for itself, but I came out a hardcore fan for life. The practical effects are pretty stellar, even the acting is more decent than it usually is in some films, but the things that made it really resonate with me were the clowns–two of which were repurposed for Ernest: Scared Stupid–and the over the top, highly original and creative kill scenes. The imagination behind the whole movie, but particularly that aspect, make this an absolute must-see for hardcore horror fans. If you’ve not seen it yet, you need to go unfuck that soon.

Rich’s Picks

Intruders

If there is one thing we love almost as much as books here at Ink Heist, it’s movies. Shane and I watch a ridiculous amount of them in any given week and frequently trade recommendations back and forth. If you’re anything like us, chances are you’ve exhausted most of the well-known genre films on the various streaming platforms. Which means scrolling through a sea of independent films hoping to find a lesser-known gems. That’s exactly how we found Intruders. The plot is fairly simple: An agoraphobic woman is home alone when three intruders break into her home. When they realize she won’t attempt to escape, they think this job will be easy. That is until Anna starts to turn the tables. That’s not really a spoiler as it’s available in the official synopsis for the film. Even knowing that Anna will begin to fight back, nothing could’ve prepared me for the twists found throughout. It’s not without its flaws, but if you’re looking for a good indie film to take a chance on, Intruders is definitely worth a watch. Normally I would share a trailer, but trust me, DO NOT WATCH IT. I don’t know why film companies feel the need to spoil their own movies in trailers, but that definitely happens here. Go into this one without watching the trailer and I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

Matt Serafini Rites of Extinction

I recently finished up Matt Serafini’s latest release Rites of Extinction, and wow, talk about a crazy, exhilarating read. This was my first experience with Serafini’s work and it definitely won’t be my last. Rites of Extinction follows private investigator Rebecca Daniels as she heads to the small town of Bright Fork, New Hampshire in her quest for revenge to punish the man responsible for her daughter’s murder. Nothing about Rites of Extinction is as it appears at first glance, and Serafini puts a fresh twist on familiar genre tropes in a brutal story that offers plenty of surprises and cringe-inducing scenes. By the way, if you aren’t reading the books Grindhouse Press releases, you’re missing out. I’ve read a few of them so far and they have been nothing less than stellar. Combining original stories with killer design, Grindhouse Press is easily one of my favorite independent publishers.

John Kenn Mortensen Sticky Monsters

I know next to nothing about art, but I had to include this book on my list. I vaguely remember seeing pictures of Mortensen’s drawings circulating the internet a few years back and I was immediately captivated by his stunning drawings. His work depicts creepy monsters and other ghastly images drawn using only post-it notes and pen. Mortensen’s art is intricately detailed and is reminiscent of the great Edward Gorey. I recently acquired a copy of his book Sticky Monsters and it is well worth the purchase for fans of all things spooky. It’s my dream to one day to commission his work for a project, I absolutely love his drawings and I have a feeling you will too. Check out some of his work over on his Instagram

Final Guys Podcast

Now well into 100 episodes, Final Guys is an incredibly entertaining horror movie podcast from three lifelong fanatics of the genre – Jack Campisi and horror authors Hunter Shea and Jason Brant. I’m a huge fan of Jack and Hunter’s Monster Men podcast, so when I heard about Final Guys, I tuned in for the very first episode and I’ve been hooked ever since . While they offer up an in-depth and informative review of the week’s featured movie, they also give viewers a treasure trove of recommendations that I know have introduced me to some great new discoveries. The banter between them is often hilarious and watching the latest episode is usually the highlight of my week. They livestream on Youtube every Tuesday at 8, but you can watch all of their episodes any time. They also have some excellent book reviews on their website.

Fugazi

When it comes to my favorite band of all-time, there is a clear-cut favorite, and that band is Washington D.C.’s Fugazi. That’s one of the reasons I’m recommending the band itself and not any particular album or song, because doing so would be damn near impossible. When I first discovered this band sometime in high school, my life was changed forever. Fugazi’s music spoke to me like no other band had before and so much of their approach to music and self-reliance inspired me in my own creative pursuits. There is something special about an underground band that not only created mind-blowing music that sounded like nothing else at the time, but also blazed their own trail and achieved massive success while doing so. They released their own albums via Dischord and Repeater sold about 300,000 copies a few months before Nevermind took over the airwaves. That’s one hell of an achievement for an underground band pre-Nirvana. Fugazi toured their asses off, made sure their shows were all ages and just put everything they had into their music and live performances. I wasn’t lucky enough to be able to see them live, but I have seen their documentary Instrument, and holy shit, those performances were some of the greatest I’ve ever seen. Guy Picciotto is like a man possessed on the stage and one of the greatest frontmen to ever come out of the punk scene. I chose two songs – “Glue Man” and “Shut The Door” – because both of these videos show Fugazi at their best. I don’t care what anyone says, Fugazi is one of the best American bands of all-time.