Metal Mondays

Weekly Newsletter: 7.17.2023

July 17, 2023

While I work on a post that’s been kicking around in my head for the better part of a decade, I figured this would be a nice place to put my current obsessions and activities.

Run or hide but here it comes…

Current YT obsession:

There’s something beautiful about stumbling upon a channel that connects with me on such a deep level. I have no idea what program these are running in, I’m not sure there is really any purpose to them at all but they all take me back to playing with G.I.Joes as a kid. There are some scenarios that I don’t think I’ll enjoy from the description but I end up like them the most. Goes to show that -as a consumer- I don’t always know what I want and great creators tell folks what they want.

Also, "Airbus A-400M with two EBRC Jaguar inside" is a just a sentence that tickles my brain in just the right way.

Reading?

After recently finishing James Ellroy’s Underworld USA trilogy I really needed to read something lighter: Warhammer 40k.

If you are unfamiliar with Warhammer 40k my quick pitch is “Fascist Catholics in space.” If you need more here is the monolog printed at the beginning of each book:

It is the 41st Millennium. For more than a hundred centuries The Emperor has sat immobile on the Golden Throne of Earth. He is the Master of Mankind by the will of the gods, and master of a million worlds by the might of his inexhaustible armies. He is a rotting carcass writhing invisibly with power from the Dark Age of Technology. He is the Carrion Lord of the Imperium for whom a thousand souls are sacrificed every day, so that he may never truly die.

Yet even in his deathless state, the Emperor continues his eternal vigilance. Mighty battlefleets cross the daemon-infested miasma of the Warp, the only route between distant stars, their way lit by the Astronomican, the psychic manifestation of the Emperor's will. Vast armies give battle in his name on uncounted worlds. Greatest amongst his soldiers are the Adeptus Astartes, the Space Marines, bio-engineered super-warriors. Their comrades in arms are legion: the Imperial Guard and countless planetary defence forces, the ever vigilant Inquisition and the tech-priests of the Adeptus Mechanicus to name only a few. But for all their multitudes, they are barely enough to hold off the ever-present threat from aliens, heretics, mutants - and worse.

To be a man in such times is to be one amongst untold billions. It is to live in the cruelest and most bloody regime imaginable. These are the tales of those times. Forget the power of technology and science, for so much has been forgotten, never to be re-learned. Forget the promise of progress and understanding, for in the grim dark future there is only war. There is no peace amongst the stars, only an eternity of carnage and slaughter, and the laughter of thirsting gods.

Yeah, this is where the term “Grimdark” comes from.

Anyway, I love the universe and the GamesWorkshop company has a very loose take on lore: “Everything is cannon, not everything is true.” This allows for authors, game writers and tabletop players to really go ham and not be held back by “Official Cannon.” If you’re interested I suggest you go to any (literally any) used bookstore and pick up an omnibus that looks cool. You’ll know after the first few chapters if you want to stick with the “there are no good guys” universe.

Currently one book into The Soul Drinkers Omnibus, it’s fun, dark and easy to read.

Podding?

I am currently revisiting my favorite episodes of the podcast 372 Pages We’ll Never Get Back. The podcast started with Mike Nelson (Of MST3K fame) and Connor Lastowka (RiffTrax) reading Ready Player One, the infamously bad book that got rave reviews and topped bestsellers charts for months.

Needless to say they rip it apart.

The podcast is currently up to 25 books (One of which yours truly suggested and donated) and if you just want to dip your toe in I must recommend the Trucking Through Time episodes.

Watching?

My partner and I have been burning (pun intended) through the Hellraiser movies and some of them are way better than I remember.

Hellraiser 3: Hell on Earth is what really took me by surprise. It really ups the camp of the series and also has the most likely cast to turn you into a bisexual since The Mummy 1999.

They’re all streaming on HBO (Or Max or whatever) but I can only recommend the first four. The rest are direct-to-video movies that feel more like Silent Hill fan-fiction than Hellraiser.

VideoGamez

Currently back on my Metal Gear Solid V bull-shit. I have played this game 5 or 6 times since its release in 2015. A great game and a pinnacle of the series from a gameplay and certainly from a story perspective.

And every time I play I have to watch this excellent analysis:

Anything else?

I am 10 years sober today. It blows my mind how different my life is and I am in complete gratitude for EVERYONE who has passed through my life.

So there you have it, my first weekly update! Can I keep the momentum going? Keep reading to find out!