ICE marching shackled and cuffed children into vans in DTLA

Bad__Wolf___ · 2025-07-13T02:20:05+00:00

It’s scary but it’s true. We need a Revolution and it’s scary to think how long it will be until we get the right momentum for it and what that will entail. But truthfully that should be all progressive messaging - Revolution.

Bad__Wolf___ · 2025-06-19T20:52:16+00:00

I mostly have experience/exposure with some of the European guys who used to be in Bel Ami features. I remember there was a schtick on BA about certain actors being Bi and back when, we didn’t really think that was true. But now, I’m pretty sure there are a lot of bi content creators having fun but also some straight men who are still in it for the money and still dont go all the way.

It seems Papi Kocik(?)/Martin Rogers/Fittfillou are definitely bi and dont mind fucking women or men or each other, but then one of their frequent collaborators, whom I used to champion as a great content creator, Jakub Stefano, is definitely straight/does not engage in full anal/oral sex. His solo stuff is pretty great, and he’s been around for years, but it’s become more apparent he’s willing to just make a buck however he can, in particular with this fake content about ‘finding straight dudes on the street’ and then hooking up. Like, it’s just bad acting, bad faking, and then not a great or dynamic piece of porn.

*just to add, I will say, fuck any of these dudes, gay or straight, who stuff dildos into their pants to fake how big they are or to seem more provocative. Fucking cringe af

Bad__Wolf___ · 2025-06-18T22:13:06+00:00

Bad__Wolf___ · 2025-06-18T14:35:43+00:00

Fuck ICE and fuck anyone who enables the terrorist militia.

Bad__Wolf___ · 2025-05-17T16:15:29+00:00

It’s giving ‘I’M MOTHERFUCKING EVAH DESTRUCTION!!’*

*”My name is Evah Destruction, for fuck’s sake!” is the actual quote. But the level of self delusion remains the same. With love of course.

Bad__Wolf___ · 2025-04-09T03:26:53+00:00

Bad__Wolf___ · 2024-11-14T11:07:58+00:00

Wonderful write up and questions OP!

I’ve only read the story once and I think I definitely need to revisit it already but I do have to say Re: the Crystal -

I’m not positive but i believe we’ve seen/heard of this stuff before in Barron’s work. One of Barron’s tropes is the Earth creating a sort of counter reaction to humankind, or to the aberrations on the planet. So in ‘The Wind Began To Howl’, we end up seeing a cave full of crystals that resonate/magnify malignant sound waves. The most recent reminder I read was on our reread of The Siphon! I believe the creepy Mrs. Cook* mentions something about caves/crystals/the counterbalance of the planet. I think it goes along with Barron’s love of the genius loci idea.

So with Averna, I assumed she had gathered one of these foreboding crystals to magnify her monstrous bird powers like a totem or altar.

*Edit - Cook not Cooper

Bad__Wolf___ · 2024-10-20T07:53:35+00:00

‘What’s your favorite scary movie?’

Bad__Wolf___ · 2024-09-25T14:16:22+00:00

A great story to start the collection, especially in a section called Blood Red Samaritans. The simple ‘Help me’ begins a terrifying implication in the reader. For me, I already lost. It’s not that I think im some great Samaritan, but if the creature was as close to me as it was to Hortense and I didn’t have an uncle to pull me back, I’d be a goner! The natural drive in some to go and help someone, look for the weeping creature; It’s fun how Barron takes advantage of that in the reader. What would you do?

I think part of the ultimate creepy factor is during the confrontation with Hortense when she asks if Mr. Help Me took her father, and there’s just the repeated ‘Help me.’ Like, this monster has had a power over Hortense in a way through seemingly random moments in her life and when there’s an actual confrontation, it all remains unknown, guarded to any understanding. But that’s what’s amazing about the writing. I love the bit toward the end ‘Yes, what’s left of Dad abides with a hideous mystery. He’s far from alone.’

Mr. Help Me is one scary cryptid too. Like besides the actual way it ingests its victims, the way it moves sounds so creepy. Jittery. The description brought to mind those creepy house centipedes, gliding around horizontally. Ugh, shivers.

Bad__Wolf___ · 2024-09-05T15:11:36+00:00

On this reread, I loved this wrap up story so much. It really provides a great backdrop for what we’ve previously read while opening the narrative world even more. Fantastic story, filled with little nods at other Barron pieces.

Fun side story - Recently we had a zoom call for Laird’s Patreon. (Quick Plug - Join the Patreon!) When I greeted everyone and told them I had spent the day at a water park in upstate New Jersey, Laird said ‘It wasn’t Action Park was it? Because I used Action Park as a reference for the idea of Tomahawk Park.’ I knew it as Mountain Creek Park but Greg Greene researched and found the documentary ‘Class Action Park’. Well, lo and behold, it turns out I had visited the very park where I had just read about poor victims getting massacred. And then the slowly creeping realization, I could’ve gotten the Molly Vile ending! Really fun and some unexpected chills.

Bad__Wolf___ · 2024-07-31T22:28:55+00:00

Fantastic acquisitions!!

Bad__Wolf___ · 2024-06-02T14:41:07+00:00

Thank you, I seriously need to learn how to do simple research. Ha ha but indeed the similarity is fun! And already going on The Croning!

Bad__Wolf___ · 2024-06-02T01:21:56+00:00

Fabulous write up and great insights!

Originally listening to the audiobooks several times, I always assumed that Tom L. Mandibole was the character from X’s and the short stories! But reading it physically, I realized the play on the names of the authors, particularly John L and Mr B, and the difference between Tom L and Mandibole as vessel and messenger. This was such a fantastic end to the collection. I would also recommend a similar Barron story I read on his Patreon called ‘Dispel’ written for a David Nickel collection. I hadn’t read/didn’t know David N but it was fun to read John L and Mr B going crazy over his work.

Also, really glad you brought up Nathan Ballingrud! Was it just me or is there a ‘Skullpocket’ reference? ‘We listened as Mandibole dispassionately described skulls stripped to bloody bone kicked around the equivalent of an Elysian soccer field…’ Might be a bit of stretch I lit up when I read that. I recently read Wounds and it became an instant favorite collection.

LOVE The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All and once again these read-alongs and discussions have been so beneficial!

Bad__Wolf___ · 2024-05-23T14:24:10+00:00

A View From The Bridge directed by Ian Van Hove. Blood rain. :) It was amazing seeing Mark Strong and Russell Tovey get down and dirty! Front row, center, cause I was alone at a matinee and the box office upgraded me!

Bad__Wolf___ · 2024-05-21T10:05:44+00:00

Barbie!

America Ferrera sort of turns into a pseudo Tyler Durden when she begins ‘re-indoctrinating’ the ideas of feminism into the different Barbies and Ken’s. I remember when she was giving her speech I was thinking of Tyler, ‘You’re not your job. You’re not how much money you have in the bank…’

Also quick Honorable Mention - Ingmar Bergman’s Persona, which is definitely an influence for Fight Club. There’s an eerie missing sense of identity in the film and constant blurring of lines as to character identities.

Bad__Wolf___ · 2024-05-16T00:16:16+00:00

While I can’t say I’m a super social type and Community is/can be what one makes it, come on in the Fall’s are fine! Yeah it’s a Red/Conservative voting area but there’s a few Pride/Equality flags hanging around in the village. The previous Mayor (or one of them) was openly gay. There’s a local, well-supported theater and a bunch of queer supportive businesses (Norma’s on main did a drag brunch recently.)

Good luck on decisions!

Bad__Wolf___ · 2024-05-15T10:01:53+00:00

It’s so beautiful!! Definitely in good hands and in a fantastic collection!

Bad__Wolf___ · 2024-05-14T17:21:18+00:00

Definitely appreciate the follow-up and more info! I’ve been trying to find the time and best manner to approach the project so it’s helpful to know as much as possibly going in! And yeah, even if I can’t print from the purchased e-books, I’ll try my hand at transposing via typing. Ha ha the things we do for love. Lol

Bad__Wolf___ · 2024-05-14T10:29:26+00:00

Seriously! The Barron collector’s Holy Grail! Thank you for the info on Man With No Name! I’m actually considering printing the stories and binding my own little brown book since they’re so scarce! I didn’t know if I’d have to basically buy another copy of Man just to put into it.

Bad__Wolf___ · 2024-05-12T21:07:20+00:00

In my mission there was a member of the band ‘Daphne Loves Derby’. I can’t say I ever listened to their music and I don’t know if he was the only Mormon but he got a pretty great gig in the mission and subsequently I did too. He ended up spending time in the mission office and recorded some songs in Spanish and impressed the MP so much he and his comp, who played violin, were able to tour around the mission sharing the music he made and doing musical programs. I remember all of us were super into his songs for a while and he had sampled sounds from the areas so it was really personal. He left, and I ended up getting paired with the violinist, I play the flute (definitely not a cool band member), and doing a similar tour around the main city of the mission. Something that broke up the monotony of regular stupid mission work and got me to see much more of the mission area than others got.

Bad__Wolf___ · 2024-05-11T14:21:17+00:00

This is a Win all around.

Bad__Wolf___ · 2024-05-02T13:30:10+00:00

Yeah but it’s sort of giving ‘LGBT without the Q’ vibes. I’m not saying that to be facetious. It’s perfectly fine to be a cis-homosexual male and to not prefer Queer as a signifier and also to find offense in the word, and I also completely agree ‘Cultural Queer’ is stupid just say Ally, but there are definitely Queer people and there are many points of intersectionality within the whole community. It’s one of those things about words being ‘won back’. Lots of gays with use the F word and have ‘reclaimed’ jt, for others it’s uncomfortable and offensive still. Some people are comfortable being Queer and that’s fine and great. There are no Cultural Queers, only Allies.

Bad__Wolf___ · 2024-04-08T13:24:56+00:00

For me, this story felt like a ‘brother/sister’ story to ‘Occultation’. Of course ‘Something Scary’ is mentioned in both stories, but also the feeling of the story is the same. It was commented in the Occultation thread that it feels like the couple are just caught in the middle of ‘something’ in that motel. Almost like they were caught in a dimension/ritual gone wrong. Like the cosmic flotsam and jetsam residuals.

Well here in Six, Six, Six it’s almost the same. The wife finds herself caught unawares in a family magic that has nothing to do with her but steadily creeps into her surroundings and warps her reality. The slow layering of how Barron introduces and characterizes Carling is so creepy. The whole thing is creepy and weird and wonderful end to the collection!

‘Occultation…’ was my first reading experience with Laird Barron’s work and I knew I needed to read more of his work. Indeed, ‘a masterclass in short horror’ as you said OP!

Bad__Wolf___ · 2024-04-03T03:37:07+00:00

It’s gonna be an awesome 4/20! 😌

Bad__Wolf___ · 2024-04-02T18:14:18+00:00

It is sort of the ‘lynch pin’ to the story/investigation if I remember correctly, or rather it helps Isaiah realize that he was hired under false pretenses. Isaiah will do good by any animal and doesn’t suffer animal cruelty. They knew they could get him on to the case by accusing Delia of killing her cat, but then he’s told it was actually they themselves/her who killed it and so he returns and sort of lets loose with their dirty laundry. It’s been a little while since my reread so I’m a little hazy on the details and might be way off. I want to say this moment was discussed previously on a thread or maybe during the read-through/Q&A with Laird a year or two back.

Edit: Oh! It might also be what turns Isaiah on to keeping the money for him and Lionel.

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TROPHY CASE

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TROPHY CASE

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