Conan Red Nails = tsr The Lost City

1. Conanin Red Nails  

 Really?! I don’t recall the multiple factions living underground in the Conan book… gotta reread. 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HqL0xYYwYx0

Lichhouse says Moldvay (of B/X fame) wrote The tsr “The Lost City”… you know the one w the golden mask priest-mage(?) and purple cover. 

2. Conan story of “The slithering Shadow” aka “Xuthal of the Dusk”. Also ties into the module “the lost city”. 

Ray H stop motion - art of monster faces

 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zgUk5QIB-ug

The Thumbnail I want. 

And to practice drawing. 

Notice the attention to the nose and mouth regarding the attitude and vibe. 

Medusa the sneer. 

The cyclops has a large nose, distinctive. 

The Kraken, a small nose but that big almost beaklike upper lip… sort of lije a kappa maybe. 

Griffe = Claw, Griffin must get its name from that

If griffe means claw in French, then it sure seems like griffin comes from that. 

 From Wordsmith:

griffonage

PRONUNCIATION:

(grif-uh-NAHZH)

 

MEANING:

noun: Careless or illegible handwriting; scrawl.

 

ETYMOLOGY:

From French griffonner (to scribble or scrawl), from griffe (claw). Earliest documented use: 1832.

 

NOTES:

English calls an indecipherable scrawl chicken scratch, and French clearly agrees: griffonage comes from griffe (claw). Medical schools probably require doctors to take a solemn oath to maintain a prescribed level of griffonage on every prescription.

Game book covers

 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=OSsFKJjA70o&t=238s

At time 3:50

Lotsa Lone Wolf covers. Looks fun. Some blaxk and white art too inside. 

The Pixies - Some top songs, some trivia

 Great concert, great song set,  from recent - https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=THD_uxZOpoM&t=3283s&pp=2AHTGZACAQ%3D%3D&ra=m

Dave Grohl of foo fighters and nirvana talking real good about The Pixies… Surfer Rosa a perfect album  and he is serious- https://m.youtube.com/shorts/1eqTITSYCSA

Trivia - Frank Black’s real name is Charles?!?!??

The Pixies are super flipping good. Love 'em. Love the weird merging of surf rock and whatever the heck it is that is their music. Some say punk... I guess yeah a little bit, but so much more. So very 1990's alt rock. Was the Brit snobbery around music, but friendly to US Alt rock, was that all part of it or just my personal bias view? Those Brits, they hated "heavy metal" or whatever they were calling all hard music... UNLESS it had a bunch of weird alt-rockness to it, then they loved it. Like The Pixies, The Breeders, Nirvana, etc. Hey you kids know about the hidden track on the Nevermind Album, right? The Brits didn't know till I showed 'em. :) So I say. 

I like this trivia about Cactus, via Rolling Stone Mag: https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/readers-poll-the-10-best-pixies-songs-10588/9-cactus-228419/

• ‘Cactus’
• Black Francis tackled topics that few songwriters dared to go anywhere near, including incst, mutilation, Hebrew numerology, STDs, alien abduction and sxual perversion. "Cactus" is about a guy in prison asking his girlfriend to "bloody your hand on a cactus tree/ Wipe it on a dress and send it to me." Oddly enough, it's one of the sweeter tunes on Surfer Rosa and the closest thing they really had to a love song. David Bowie covered the song on his 2002 LP Heathen. 

• ‘Gouge Away’
• Is about Samson and Delilah. The hair being cut and all that. 

• 'Here comes your Man"
• Written when Francis was 15 they say. Redone later. Awesome song. 

• ‘Wave of Mutilation’

• The ... 1980s, ... stories about Japanese salarymen su-c-ding themselves and their families ...driving off piers "into the OooOcean" b/c "failed" in business. Francis wrote "Wave of Mutilation" about it they say. Freaky. 
• The slower version "UK" version, is supposedly played in concerts along with the original. Hmmph, wouldn'ta thought. 

• 'Debaser' - was about that nearly 100 year old French movie Un Chien Andalou where the opening scene is slicing someone's eye open (I think really a cow eye). Gross. And Francis wrote a song about it... it "debased the movie lalala standards stuff". And they played video clips during tours 2009-2011, so I guess it's true. Yikes. 

• 'Where is my mind' is about Francis going scuba diving in the Carrib' b4 forming the band. Fish "chased him around" and freaked him out they say. Kinda funny. But yeah, hearing this on the Fight Club helped bring it back... I remember hearing it on college radio a little before along with a few of their other songs here and there. 

• 'Hey' - was some popular 2005 era youtube vid made by some random young chicks. It's about bible stuff and whores. Weird. Can't even find it on youtube. 
• But I did find this acoustic where, shock I had forgotten, the twin chick Kim Deal rejoined for a bit b4 hers and Francis's egos musta clashed too much and she left again (or something): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSQXU8bHFVo&pp=ygUPcGl4aWVzIGhleSAyMDA1
• HOLD UP, Wikiped saves me on the info, Deal stayed with 'em for a good while. Says: 
•  leading to a 2004 reunion and sold-out world tours. Deal left in 2012, and was replaced with Kim Shattuck for their 2013 tour. She was later replaced with Paz Lenchantin, who became a full member in 2016
• I coulda swore Francis and Deal were too at odds to stick together that long, but hey, they did it, cool. 

========================Some from random folks=====

kingclover

1. Alec Eiffel
2. Spin off groups
1. Tipp City – The Amps
2. Dedicated- The Amps
   I Am Decided – The Amps
   Pacer – Amps

Others

1. Broken Face
2. Catfish Kate
3. Crackity Jones 
4. Mr. Jeeves.
5. 
   

========================Let's try the blogsphere for more info, ah ha=============

This one https://albumreviews.blog/10-best-pixies-songs/

Allow me to quote: 

The Pixies reunited in 2004, but didn’t record a new album until Deal’s departure from the band in 2013. I’ve omitted the band’s newer material from this list. Re-listening to these songs, it’s noticeable that Deal is involved in most of their best moments. Her bass playing and backing vocals often provide the group’s pop sensibilities, and it doesn’t feel like the Pixies without her as a foil. All the same, Black Francis is a fascinating front-man. His lyrics are often eccentric, about subjects like science fiction and abstract movies, but his impassioned vocals still express inner turmoil.

Now that is interesting. So Deal did not help make a new album when they reunited, ... very interesting. There have been some good songs since Deal, so I can't fully agree here, but certainly they had a TON of good old songs. 

Songs:

• U-Mass, related to the university of Massachusetts, where some of them dropped out. 
• Planet of Sound.
• River Euphrates, OK, not familiar at all. Gonna try it out. 
• And the usuals:
• Debaser
• Monkey gone to heaven
• where is my mind
• gigantic
• bone machine 
• dig for fire
• i bleed

Influences: Yeah I've heard this, the fellow says:

"Cool – thanks for listening! There are a few different elements in there. Black Francis didn’t discover punk until he was in his late teens, and there’s unlikely stuff in there like surf guitar and early CCM [Christian Rock...] musician Larry Norman [he released over 100 albums, what]."

Artist - Noriyoshi Ohrai

 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rinuKjbFX1Q&pp=0gcJCRoMAYcqIYzv

Some specifically inspiring great stuff about 75% thru. But it’s all great/excellent.

Peter Cullen voice samples

 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=10G_GPIqb88&t=313s

The Crow - Soundtrack info

 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=OM716yfDtuw&t=331s

Pretty great info. 

• I didn't know the NIN song was a cover of a Joy Division song. 
• Comments say The Cure started doing "Burn" live since 2016ish. 
• Way more tidbits

Dreamscape - 80s flick w Dennis Quaid

 Not bad. Skimming thru beginning. Overall, not a super movie, but it's a fun cult movie to watch for the creepy dream sequences. Even the beginning has the atomic bomb and lady running... was this before the Terminator [2] fence scene or what? 

• Snakeman, great. Oh check it, later in the movie he gets a new face (when the villain uses that form or something). 
• The bad guy is the dude from The Crow movie. He’s a great villain (pict below). David Patrick Kelly
• Some Freddy Krueger vibes here, fingernails into knives. 
• I loved the crooked stairs thing, felt very dreamlike. They had rooms with skewed angles and stuff in the kid's dream, it was good. 
• Has the two super solid older actor guys. The one from Dune 1984 movie, Max Von Sydow. And the guy, Christopher Plummer,  who is always the boss villain in movies. Kate Capshaw the eternal 1980s lady. Dennis Quaid of course. 

This blog has great picts and info: http://reflectionsonfilmandtelevision.blogspot.com/2014/03/the-films-of-1984-dreamscape-1984.html

Music - A Flock of Seagulls- Man Made (The Matrix movie style warning)

 Man Made

A Flock of Seagulls

Man made machines make music for the man 
Now machines make music while the man makes plans 
A second generation, a generation lost 
While the man prepares for the holocaust

Man made machines to control the days 
Now machines control while the man obeys 
A second generation, a generation lost 
While machines prepare for the holocaust

Esper pts. out the Black Dragon, Shadowmire

 https://m.youtube.com/shorts/Vcj8xAGP5Rk

• Sounds great. From 4e D&D. Black dragon.
• Witchlight fens is the area. 
• Has fake water lairs in the swamp, even fake treasure . Can make/use illusion copies of self. Some other magic.
• Had a power (before 5e's legendary actions/resists things) that allows an extra action/or cancel a bad thing happening to it once per round. 

B movie - strange invaders (1983)

 strange invaders

I halfway am enjoying it. The first half is an interesting small town study from 1983ish. It’s an homage to 1950s scifi alien b movies.

Main actor guy is always likeable. He was in American Graffiti. And the lady tabloid lady is that ole 1980s incarnation for any movie. She was in a lot back then.  

Early on, main guy was super awkward with his dog. Too strict. Leash too tight. Okd doggie didn’t mind. 

Nearing end. Spoiler, is the daughter half alien or what. 

Guess the music theft

 Scary how these ai songs mostly sound good  . Berka 1337 is the dude  on yt. 

• This is Nickelback and ? Candlebox/Matchbox twenty or something. Then the singer changes at the end to a chick.  https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KmhSz_T4gUk
• Thais one is a combo of Ramstein and Kmfdm and some v diff simger sometimes, also like that Brit band MESH (similar to  depeche mode) ? https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Xn-dzSA_iRQ
• This one is something I cant put my finger on. Singing is may Elastica or No Doubt(not right but right era): https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BOaeVH5i6DE