Rebuild of Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 (2021)

Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time (2021)

Dirs. Hideaki Anno / Kazuya Tsurumaki / Katsuichi Nakayama / Mahiro Maeda

Given my feelings about part three — and that in the lengthy interim between it and part four Anno had helped make what I consider to be the worst live action Japanese-language Godzilla movie since the Showa Era lost its way — I didn't feel the pang of the nine-year wait that happened, but I sympathise with anyone that did.

Evangelion: 4.0 You Can (Not) be Fucking Serious, as it'll forever be known to me hereafter, has some stunning animation, but is less successful in other ways. It has the dubious honour of being the least engaging anime movie that I watched in 2022.

The frantic aerial battle that fills a large chunk of the opening was off-putting to me, but I can see how it could be considered impressive by others, in how it resembled some kind of futuristic fighter plane conflict. In retrospect, when paired with what follows, it plays a successful part in conveying how important the role of contrast is to the whole.

Rebuild of Evangelion: 3.33 (2012)

Evangelion: 3.33 You Can (Not) Redo (2012)

Dirs. Hideaki Anno / Mahiro Maeda / Kazuya Tsurumaki

Parts 1.11 and 2.22 stayed recognisably close to the original NGE TV Series plot, but part 3.33 spirals off to places new. There are big changes and most of them aren't good.

Firstly, none of what's teased in 2.22's post-credit preview is actually in the third film. Instead, it's set a significant number of years after, which could be as jarring for the viewer as it is for one of the characters.

In retrospect, it's helpful to accept that what was teased did actually happen, albeit offscreen. Mercifully, the implied level of 'fan service' is largely absent, besides some cheap low angle female pudenda shots.

A dramatic space-set action scene opens proceedings, and is quickly followed by some tedious Anno dialogue; as someone who prefers to watch anime subbed, it felt more pronounced than it might otherwise have seemed.

Alan Moore and Tim Perkins: Snakes and Ladders (2003)

Alan Moore and Tim Perkins:
Snakes and Ladders (2003)

With spoken word performances it's natural to give your full attention to the work upon first listen, but I feel there's a different, no less valid, appreciation attained from repeated listens; as with Snakes and Ladders.

When the listener's mind drifts or loses focus, or when the words lose their distinctiveness and become hypnotic triggers, there's a semi-unconscious feeling that what's being spoken is deeply poignant, magickal and filled with enduring mystery.

Eventually, stand out words will inevitably draw one back in, but the musings birthed in the interim will hopefully have served their purpose.

Like a rhetorician, Moore never falters, letting up only when a change of pace suits the telling. In those instances the music of Tim Perkins takes centre stage whilst never betraying its primary supporting role of providing an aural chalice within which the words reverberate.

Diabolos Rising: Blood, Vampirism, Sadism (1996)

Diabolos Rising: Blood, Vampirism, Sadism (1996)

Dir. David Palser

Within a larger framework of esoteric and religious imagery cut together at seizure-inducing levels, an attempt was made to give each song its own aura. It doesn't always work but was a commendable idea.

The first is the least interesting unless you have strong feelings about Mika Luttinen's moustache.

The video for Ilsa is as you'd expect.

There's one that reminded me of Hellraiser III (1992).

The most unusual is perhaps the gothic period piece that never quite manages to convince; wedged between the sensory overload like it is means it feels like a visitor who arrived at the party a few decades too early.

The final entry had the potential to end with something visually hypnotic and emotionally lasting, but they chose not to go that route. It's as if they'd simply run out of ideas by that stage. Nevertheless, regardless of highs and lows and missed opportunities, that it exists at all is something to be praised.

The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1793)

The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1793)

Author: William Blake | Page Count: approx 48

"As the air to a bird or the sea to a fish, so is contempt to the contemptible."

Marriage… is William Blake’s romantic (in the poetic sense) and satiric attack on orthodox religious beliefs presented as a kind of biblical passage, with a socio-political and historical binding holding it together. It describes the poet’s visit to Hell and the knowledge and assumptions he receives whilst there.

It's a short book but one of the most complex pieces of literature I've ever read. I've read it three or four times a year for about five years now and I still feel like I've barely scratched the surface of its esoteric, complex and iconoclastic mysteries. That's why I love it.

Blake reverses the traditional standings of good and evil and the beauty and hideousness of Heaven and Hell, blurring the line between what is perceived good and proper and what is believed to be controlling and bad for the individual. It’s the poet-prophet ideal in its most scathing and reverential form, told from a number of perspectives and in more than one voice. He references Dante and even playfully(?) mocks Milton.

Songs of Innocence and of Experience (1789-94)

Songs of Innocence and of Experience:

Shewing the Two Contrary States of the Human Soul (1789-94)

Author: William Blake  |  Page Count: approx 50 

"Love seeketh not itself to please, nor for itself hath any care, but for another gives its ease, and builds a Heaven in Hell's despair."

The book, as it’s collected here, was originally written in two parts: Songs of Innocence was published in 1789, with Songs of Experience following in full five years later. The first part is closely tied with the conventions of Romanticism; the second is dependent upon the same but for very different reasons.

It’s unknown if Blake always planned to have Experience follow Innocence or if it was a result of Innocence failing to sufficiently shake the system as much as he'd hoped it would, heightening his need to push further buttons. Either way, the two books work in tandem to express an opposition to each other and to cement an idea.

H.R. Giger Tarot (2000)

H.R. Giger Tarot (2000)

aka: Baphomet: The Tarot of the Underworld

Author: Akron  |  Illustrator: H.R. Giger  |  Page Count: 223

It's the usual type of bundled Tarot package, which means it’s a book giving details of readings and spreads and a deck with which to use.

The individual cards are beautifully presented, large format but totally impractical for use; nor is it a full deck, it’s just the Major Arcana.

Worse, some of them have been changed. The Hanged Man is now The Hanged Woman, to better represent the painting Akron has chosen, and Temperance has become Alchemy.

It doesn't really matter because they weren't painted to commission; like I said, they were simply chosen, the paintings existed before the book was conceived and therefore lack the traditional imagery or symbolism that a serious practitioner of the art might prefer.

Dust Devil: The Director’s Cut (1993)

Dust Devil: The Director’s Cut (1993)

Dir. Richard Stanley

Dust Devil is an amazing film hampered only by acting that at times is worse than a British soap opera. But if you can overlook that aspect of it, then you're in for a real treat that's equal parts artistic and engaging, beautiful and grim, resembling something birthed from the unholy union of a Clive Barker short and a Ray Bradbury nightmare.

An imaginative and expressively seductive use of filters and lighting imbue it with a reality that I imagine a drug-induced spirit journey would be like.

The dusty environment, with its orange hues like a mix of amber and blood, is the perfect setting. The entire film was shot on location in Namibia and even though it’s set in South Africa it feels like a Western put through an Australian blender. Weird, I know.

Sorcery and Religion in Ancient Scandinavia (2011)

Sorcery and Religion in Ancient Scandinavia (2011)

Author: Varg Vikernes | Page Count: 128

'[T]he newborn was given the dead person's name and regarded as the same person as the one in the grave.'

Varg Vikernes' personal interpretation of the myths and folklore of his homeland is a short but insightful work.

Its relevance goes beyond just Scandinavia because at heart most creation myths share a common origin and what's true for one is very possibly true for another, so even if you're not of Scandinavian origin there's likely much within its pages to interest a student of lore.

The reason the kinds of stories and legends cited have remained in the human consciousness for centuries is because they've been adapted and changed to fit the society and the times. That change keeps them alive but can warp the original intent and bury the ideas within under so much symbolism that it's impossible for the uneducated mind to see beyond the obvious.

The Book of Lies: Liber CCCXXXIII (1912)

The Book of Lies: Liber CCCXXXIII (1912)

Author: Frater Perdurabo (Aleister Crowley)  |  Page Count: 200

'The more necessary anything appears to my mind, the more certain it is that I only assert a limitation.'

To give it its full title, 'The Book of Lies: Which is also Falsely Called BREAKS. The Wanderings or Falsifications of the One Thought of Frater Perdurabo, which Thought is itself Untrue. Liber CCCXXXIII', is perhaps the most accessible of Crowley's published works relating to magick.

The deeper, hidden meanings relating to his magickal philosophies are there to be deciphered and will, no doubt, be recognisable to members of the A∴A∴ and O.T.O., but there's enough disclosure in the footnote commentaries (added later but included in most current editions) to explain certain things to the uninitiated, to enable even a complete newcomer to follow many of the Qabalistic threads and understand that within the work structure is as important as content.