Visit in Night (1951) by Toshiko Okanoue.
• Rhythms of the World: Bombay and All That Jazz; a 60-minute BBC documentary featuring Trilok Gurtu, L. Shankar, Don Cherry, Alice Coltrane, Zakir Hussain and others. The quality of the full-length copy is a little rough so it’s worth noting the six-part version here.
• Adam Scovell talks to Leah Moore and John Reppion about adapting the ghost stories of MR James for the comics medium. Related: The Corner of Some Foreign Field, a short piece of folk horror written by Martin Hayes with art by Alfie Gallagher.
• Callum James on the overtly gay nature of Films and Filming magazine (1959–1990). Having seen a few copies over the years I’d always suspected this but didn’t realise it was so persistent. Related: The Boy and the Wolf by Callum James.
• At Dangerous Minds: Lucifer Rising live in concert: Bobby Beausoleil and the Freedom Orchestra perform their Kenneth Anger soundtrack, 1978.
• Simon Says: A rare cassette tape of instructions by Peter Levenda for using the Simon Necronomicon (1977) as a grimoire.
• Mixes of the week: Fact Mix 577 by Outer Space, and Incantations and Manifestations by Melmoth_The_Wanderer.
• At Dennis Cooper’s: _Black_Acrylic presents … Art Sex Music: A Cosey Fanni Tutti Day.
• Up from the Abyss: Brenda SG Walter on Rammstein, Lovecraft and Sea Zombies.
• Cinematic Alchemy: Christopher Gibbs on designing sets for Performance (1970).
• Magic carpets: the art of Faig Ahmed‘s melted and pixellated rugs.
• Drips, pop and Dollars: the music that made Ennio Morricone.
• At Bibliothèque Gay: Cocteau et quelques autres.
• “Sleepers Awake!” says Moon Wiring Club.
• Can your city change your mind?
• The Ambivalent Abyss (2001) by Lustmord | Byss And Abyss (2004) by Espers | Dark Bullet From The Abyss (2010) by Pleq
John I first discovered your work after you posted comments over at Harlan Ellison’s blog and I followed you back over here. So I hope you don’t mind if I post a link to a Kickstarter project page created to digitize Mr Ellison’s papers and manuscripts. I’m sure any contribution from your readers here will be appreciated.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1387618382/the-harlan-ellison-books-preservation-project
Interesting documentary. Whatever happened to L Shankar? I managed to see him play live with John Mclaughlin in both Shakti and the One Truth Band and he was ubiquitous there for a long with with his collaborations with other artists as well as his Indian classical playing. I saw him play classical once with Zakir Hussain at Georgia Tech University. Hussain was having technical problems so Shankar announced he would play a short favorite bhajan. He made his violin weep and sigh and sob and moan. One of the most extraordinary performances I ever witnessed.
Some fine links as always, Mr. Coulthart. Regarding PERFORMANCE, I do agree it is a rather alchemical film, and I cannot think of any other film that features a headshot that culminates in a portrait of Borges. Donald Cammell was a peerless visionary whose full potential was never quite realized. I also have a fascination with the sea, and can easily envision its rotten denizens arising from the cold waters.
I also look forward to seeing your novels in print, especially VITRIOL, as well as your illustrations to W.H. Hodgson’s THE HOUSE ON THE BORDERLAND, which are sure to capture the authentic atmosphere of cosmic horror and nihilism that pervade the work.
Stephen: Thanks, I didn’t know about the Ellison Kickstarter. I’ll spread the word.
No idea what Shankar is up to at the moment but he last released an album in 2007. I’ve got the solo album he recorded for Bill Laswell’s Axiom label in 1990, Soul Searcher, a long raga-type piece. I saw Remember Shakti play in London in 2003, a lineup that included Zakir Hussain. A great concert. Many of these musicians spend their time touring rather than recording, so it can seem as though they’ve vanished even when they remain busy.
Liam: The thing I like about Performance is the way it works on so many levels; every time you watch it some new connection seems to emerge. By coincidence, Vitriol owes a large debt to Performance since the central section of the book has some people hiding out in the house of a retired musician. I’m hoping I’ll be able to get that in print soon as well. As to Hodgson, there may be some announcements on that front next year although more than that I can’t say at the moment.