Welcome to the Atelier
Album of the Day:
John Coltrane
A Love Supreme (1965)
A Love Supreme was released by Impulse! Records in January 1965. Referred to as the saxophonist's "definitive tone poem," it ranks among Coltrane's best-selling albums and is widely considered one of the greatest masterpieces in the history of jazz and one of the greatest albums ever made.
A Love Supreme: Pt. I - Acknowledgement
A Love Supreme: Pt. II - Resolution
A Love Supreme: Pt. III - Pursuance
A Love Supreme: Pt. IV - Psalm
Feature Presentation:
Dead Alive (Braindead)
(1992)
It all starts with a rare monkey-rat creature from Sumatra. You know, the kind of thing you’d normally see in a zoo, or maybe working out of a Taco Bell at midnight in Times Square. Anyway, this thing bites a woman named Vera, who just happens to be the world’s nosiest mother. Instead of calling her doctor, she calls it a scratch and keeps hosting tea parties. That’s when the problem begins: she dies, comes back, and suddenly dinner parties start looking like an all-you-can-eat buffet… where you are the buffet.
From there things begin to get weird, the whole neighborhood starts turning into zombies faster than a movie with furious car chases. Lionel, the son, is running around with more undead relatives than a Romeo family reunion. You’ve got priests doing kung fu on the undead, babies crawling out of soup bowls, and a lawnmower being used as a weapon of mass sanitation.
In the end, Lionel - the guy stuck in the middle of all this - finally stands up to his overbearing mother, who by this point has turned into a building-sized monster with arms big enough to slap a city bus literally tries to swallow him back into the womb. He cuts her down to size, literally, and cleans up the mess with more mop work than the New York subway system on New Year’s Day. Trust me, it’s not as fun as it sounds. In the end, he kills her, wins the girl, and survives the world’s bloodiest mop job. Moral of the story? Don’t adopt mysterious rats from Skull Island, don’t ignore your overbearing mother and always keep some gardening equipment handy.
Directed by Peter Jackson
Written by Stephen Sinclair, Fran Walsh, Peter Jackson
Staring
Timothy Balme as Lionel
Diana Peñalver as Paquita
Elizabeth Moody as Mum
Creature Double Feature:
The Fog
(1980)
It started in a small coastal town called Antonio Bay, a place so quiet that the loudest sound was the church bell - and the occasional suspiciously timed car alarm. You know, the American dream: white picket fences, a general store, and a dark curse that rises once a century in the form of glowing fog. It’s the kind of thing that doesn’t look good on a postcard. On the eve of their centennial celebration, the town discovered its founding fathers weren’t exactly candidates for sainthood. Turns out they built the place with ill-gotten gold after sinking a ship full of lepers, though I’d have recommend a bake sale. That’s when the fog rolled in and so did the problems. Not the normal kind that delays flights or ruins a good golf game, but the glowing, supernatural kind that comes with sharp-dressed ghosts carrying fishing hooks. Radios begin going haywire, fishing boats get turned into seafood platters, and a priest suddenly realizes the town’s history isn’t exactly suitable for Sunday school. Meanwhile, residents are getting picked off one by one by ghostly sailors carrying hooks - you know you’ve got trouble when even the weather report comes with a body count.
In the end, the townsfolk try to return the stolen gold, hoping the angry spirits will take it and sail off into the mist but the ghosts weren’t exactly in the mood for refunds. It’s kind of like returning a toaster after you’ve already used it for ten years. There were screams, shadows in the mist, and one very dramatic beheading. As the fog rolled back out to sea, the town breathed a sigh of relief - too soon, as it turns out. Because when the mist comes back, so do the ghosts, but not before making it perfectly clear: in Antonio Bay, the forecast is murder, with a chance of headless corpses.
Directed by John Carpenter
Written by John Carpenter & Debra Hill
Staring
Adrienne Barbeau as Stevie Wayne
Jamie Lee Curtis as Elizabeth Solley
Janet Leigh as Kathy Williams
Midnight Movie:
Orca
1977
Seizing on the success of Sea World, Orca is the touching story of a killer whale who becomes a widower after a fisherman harpoons his wife and unborn child. What follows isn’t just a marine mammal with a grudge; it’s a one-orca vendetta operation. Naturally, the whale swears revenge, which is a lot like a divorce settlement: long, drawn out, and it usually ends with someone losing their house. In this case, the house is literally burned down by a six-ton fish figured out arson faster than most people can order door dash.
The showdown comes when man and orca face off in icy waters, each determined to prove who was truly at the top of the food chain. The fisherman discovers that revenge isn’t just a dish best served cold - it’s also slippery and wet. In the end, the orca got justice, the man got frozen, and I got seasick just writing this. The whale wins, the fisherman loses, and an important lesson is learned: never harpoon anything that can outswim, outthink, and outmaneuver you - especially if it weighs more than your car.
Directed by Michael Anderson
Written by Luciano Vincenzoni, Sergio Donati, Robert Towne
Staring
Richard Harris as Captain Nolan
Charlotte Rampling as Rachel Bedford
Will Sampson as Jacob Umilak
Drink me:
Nexus of All Realities
A spicy, sweet, effervescent and bubbly apple, coconut, ginger cocktail
coconut rum, apple liquer, lime juice, topped with ginger beer and galiano spritz, garnished with a cherry
Drink me: Thursty Thursday
Hodag
A smokey mix of cognac and botanicals with black cardamom
cognac, amaro, crème de noyaux, peychaud and orange bitters with smoked cardamom
Alchemy:
Cabot Mansion Lentil Soup
Oh… lentil soup. Yes. We love lentil soup. It’s so… grounding. You know, when you’ve spent a lot of time in hotel ballrooms and airport lounges and places where the lighting is just slightly wrong, lentil soup feels very… intentional. It’s not flashy. It’s not trying to win anything. It just is. Which I think is very brave. And nutritionally, of course, it’s excellent. Protein, fiber, a kind of moral superiority that doesn’t announce itself. You eat lentil soup and you feel like someone who votes in local elections. It’s not a soup you fall in love with immediately, but over time, you realize it’s always been there for you. Much like a very dependable, slightly dusty cardigan.
Alchemy:
Sister Encarnación Apple Nachos
Apple nachos… they are like a little blessing on a plate. Thin slices of apple, crisp and pure, like the gifts of creation itself, layered carefully so everyone may share. Then, over them, a spicy layer of horseradish cheddar cheese fall like grace, and scallions and parsley are sprinkled as though from Heaven’s own hand. It is a simple dish, yet filled with joy, because it takes something ordinary and turns it into something wonderful. They remind me of the children at the orphanage. Each apple slice alone is good, but when they are gathered together, they become something even more delightful. And just as we share food, we share love, laughter, and the spirit of togetherness with cheese.
Book of the Month:
Gotham Gazette, May 2, 2009 - Special Edition
By Vicki Vale Investigative Photojournalist at Gotham Gazette
The Night Death Claimed Gotham
GOTHAM CITY — Gotham has always been a city that lives with its dead. This week, they walked.
In an act that chilled even this reporter, death itself had come to claim Gotham as ground zero. The figure known as Black Hand desecrated the grave of Bruce Wayne, removing the skull believed to belong to Gotham’s most prominent fallen son and using it to power a device later identified as a Black Lantern battery.
What followed was not merely an attack, but a revelation. Across the universe, black rings, alien constructs fueled by death, descended upon graves, crypts, and memorials. Heroes long mourned rose again, twisted into something hollow and predatory. On Oa, the home world of the Green Lantern Corps, even the honored dead of the Lanterns returned as enemies, overwhelming their former comrades. The Guardians of the Universe, long considered untouchable, were themselves silenced and imprisoned by one of their own, a corrupted entity known as Scar.
In Gotham, Green Lantern Hal Jordan and the Flash, who himself recently returned from death, were confronted by familiar faces animated by something profoundly wrong. Martian Manhunter. Firestorm. Friends turned weapons…
Green Lantern: Blackest Night
by Geoff Johns (Author), Doug Mahnke (Illustrator), Ed Benes (Illustrator), Marcos Marz (Illustrator), Christian Alamy (Illustrator)
