Inside the Outsider: Episode 8
Plus, Bad Religion updates and punk rock book reviews
Message from the Underworld has been temporarily co-opted by Inside the Outsider, a discussion about the HBO adaptation of Stephen King’s bestselling novel The Outsider with horror aficionado Ryan Bradford. Each week the discussion will alternate between Message from the Underworld and Ryan’s newsletter, AwkwardSD, which you should subscribe to immediately, but only if you already subscribe to Message from the Underworld.
Episode 8, “Foxhead” starts with Jack calling in a fake shooting so he can break into his apartment to get his stash of weapons and ammo. The action immediately shifts to Cecil, Tennessee, where Claude has gone to hang out with his brother Seale, another ex-con who, unlike Claude, is still battling his worst instincts. Nevertheless, Claude confides in his brother how spooked he’s been in Cherokee City. Cecil is the site of an annual festival called Cavestock presumably because of it’s many excellent caves. Whatever.
Convinced the outsider intends to target Claude next, Holly declares her intention to “isolate” Claude so that when the creature claims its next victim, Claude will have an ironclad alibi, despite what the DNA evidence might indicate. Ralph, Andy, and Yunis agree to go along. Yunis offers to call ahead so that Cecil’s finest can pick up Claude and stash him in a cell until they arrive. And that’s when things get interesting…
JR: Here’s my first question for you to chew on. We got our first look at the creature since Tamika’s dream, were you shocked when you realized it was riding in the back of the truck Jack stole from the fisherman?
RB: I was shocked, yes, because I was kinda resigned to the fact that we weren't going to have very much creature/outsider action in this show—at least until it made its full-fledged transformation into Claude. But I was very stoked about the amount of creature we got in this episode. It was scary and gross as fuck, too. The dialogue it had after it ate the hunter, spoken in the same monotone deadpan as in Jeannie's dream ("He was full of cancer") was chilling. I also seriously loved the noises of it eating. Seems like whoever was in charge of sound editing was like, "I don't care if this show's all about restraint, I'm turning the dials of the crunching, slicing and slurping up to 11."
I'm also excited that we saw how scared Jack is of it—just sheer terror from being in the outsider's presence. What about you? Shocked?
JR: I really was. We’ve talked a lot about grief on this show, and I thought the photo of the hunter’s family dangling from the rear view mirror as a solemn reminder of his actions was a nice tough. It makes Jack confront the fact that, thanks to him, a family will be in mourning. So when we go back to the photo a second time, I wasn’t prepared for the outsider to snake his hand into the front seat and say, “Give it to me,” like the cookie monster craving a snack. I just didn’t see it coming.
Another thing that caught me off guard was how funny this episode was. What did you think of the humor?
RB: Ha! You're right about the cookie monster. You're also right about the light-hearted nature of this episode, but that's a long way from saying the show was light. In fact, it's probably the most gruesome so far (especially that final shot). But I loved the humor, and its slight presence here just proves how heavy the show has been. That scene when the outsider throws that body part (?) at Jack: gold. Do you think this humor signifies anything?
JR: I think you nailed it right there. The show has been super heavy and needed some levity. Except it wasn’t possible in Cherokee City where so much chaos and carnage has unfolded. Holly and her crew of monster hunters had to get out of town for it to happen, but once they do it’s almost as if the characters can breathe easier. They tease each other and can even laugh at themselves. What a relief it was to see Ralph laugh!
There’s a scene outside Claude’s brother’s house of kids playing basketball while siblings and friends eat popsicles. It’s a short glimpse of people enjoying the evening. It seemed so incongruous in a show this dark and heavy. I think it’s a visual cue from the director that we’re in new territory that hasn’t been tainted by the outsider—yet.
The director, by the way, J.D. Dillard, made the news last week when he was linked to a Star Wars project. A pretty good week for Dillard!
RB: Hell yeah, J.D.! Well done.
JR: Did anything make you laugh out loud?
RB: Since this series has been so somber and heavy, I got a kick out of two conversations, which seem kind of subversive in the whole context of the show. The first one that I'm thinking of is Ralph telling Holly about playing a record for his mother on her death bed, and then hearing the same song 15 years later. Afterwards, he's like, "so what do you make of that?" Holly, blank-faced, says, "I think it's a coincidence," and they both kind of break down laughing. I couldn't help but join them because it's funny that Ralph's attempt at an olive branch—i.e. indulging Holly's steadfast belief in the unbelievable—is shot down so quickly. But it also subverts the audience's expectation that Holly's some mystical, know-all savant (and I'm pretty sure that I've fallen into this line of thinking in past write-ups).
The second conversation that made me laugh is between Yunis and Andy, also about Holly. Yunis gravely ribs Andy about Holly's powers of perception, telling Andy that she can predict who's going to die. He really gets Andy going for a while before admitting that it's bullshit and they both crack up. I just like how both of these stories and the reactions are good reminders that even though they're dealing with something non-human, they still haven't lost their sense of humanity, and by extension, their human proclivity to be dicks.
Sorry to keep turning the questions back at you, but what made you LOL?
JR: I loved the business with Claude and his brother Seale at the jailhouse. Seale comes on like Barney Badass and gets tased for his trouble. (By the way, did you know the Taser has a literary origin? It's an acronym for Thomas A. Swift's Electric Rifle, named after the tenth novel in the Tom Swift series of boys adventure books. Go figure.) Seale says to the white cop "You Forrest Gump ass looking Pine Top motherfucker" and the black cop tells him "If you really wanted to piss my man here off what you should have called him was mother fucking Barney Fife." To which the white cop adds, "Yeah, because I see Forrest Gump as a kinda role model." That's a long joke, and it only works if the actors can pull it off in the midst of a tense action sequence. That's great television.
But I also like that scene because it's a really good example of a person in recovery. Hollywood and television often deal with recovering alcoholics as being one tense situation away from a relapse. Claude isn't perfect, far from it, but he's made progress. He knows he'll get better results with the cops by being personable and polite. Seale is like the old Claude, full of unresolved rage and resentments.
While we were texting after the show, you suggested the humor represents the calm before the storm. Ralph's long exposition about Jack's sharpshooting skills doesn't bode well for the squad, does it?
RB: No, it doesn't. People are going to die. Having read the book, I have suspicions about who, but we're also so off course from the book that it could be anybody. But here was a good scene where Ralph is explaining Jack's sharpshooting skills to Holly. He lays out Jack's military history, and but before he gets to the part about Jack's psych evaluation, Holly says, "I don't want to know." There's a beat, and Ralph says, "Yeah." I just hate exposition scenes, but that was a nice little example of how things can go without saying.
Speaking of show vs. book, I really like Claude's brother. In the book, Claude leaves Cherokee City to live with his mom, who's a typical Stephen King caricature of cornball virtue—a crabby old woman with a heart of gold. I was actually kind of dreading when she would show up, but replacing her with a volatile, ex-convict brother works much better. Like you said, he serves counterpoint to Claude's progress, and I feel that helps develop Claude's character.
JR: Claude's mother was the worst! I'm so glad they replaced her with Seale. It just now occurred to me that Seale is kind of like the Hyde to Claude's Jekyll. It's going to be interesting if Seale plays a role in outing the outsider. If someone is going to be able to spot a doppelgänger, you would think it would be his own brother, right?
RB: Interesting that you bring up recovery, because you've been sober for... ten years now? How do you think recovery factors into this show? Is any of it poignant to you, apart from being a character trait for Claude? Seems it played a large part in this episode.
JR: Yep, 11 years this month. I don't think sobriety is factoring into the show all that much—at least not as much as it did in the book. It's funny, I'd never heard of that MUST/CAN'T deal that Claude has tattooed on his fingers as a reminder of his nature. It's also been downplayed in the show to some degree, though that's the title of the last episode.
Speaking of deviations from the book, the whole failed abduction sequence at Cavestock was pretty great, no?
Do either of these look like a deer to you?
RB: Oh man, I am so curious about the world of Cavestock. What a festival! I bet The Gathering of the Juggalos is just down the road from Cavestock.
But yeah, that whole scene was pretty great: the set design, the eerie carnival setting, everyone's creepy animal costume. So good. Animal masks in films, shows, and books are kind of my catnip, and I've been anticipating this scene ever since we saw the clips from "What to expect in The Outsider" a few episodes back. It didn't disappoint. The outsider's deer mask was great, and we got a little peek at its different eyes behind the mask—a nice, subtle make up effect.
JR: I'm pretty sure it's a foxhead, not a deerhead. That's why this episode is called "Foxhead." And you call yourself an animal mask aficionado!
RB: Oh duh. Deer, fox, what's the difference?
JR: One is clever; the other is dinner.
RB: I was just focused on the outsider eating that deer at the end. Would you go Cavestock? Have you been to anything like Cavestock?
JR: If Cavestock had drugs and loud music, like Desolation Center, then I would go. Otherwise, no. I've never even been to a renaissance fair. Or is it faire? I don't fucking know.
Do What You Want Updates
This week I’m reviewing the photo inserts for Do What You Want. That’s the section of the book with the glossy pages for all the photographs. Because Bad Religion is special, they will have two sixteen-page inserts that track their history in photos from 1980 to the present day. (The photo above, from the Brooks Wackerman era, didn’t make the cut.)
Bad Religion has released the dates for their spring tour with Alkaline Trio from March 24 to April 19. While I can’t say anything publicly yet, I can tell you there is a very cool Do What You Want-related giveaway in the works. Details will be revealed when details can be revealed.
The news also broke that Bad Religion will be participating in the Flogging Molly’s annual four-day Salty Dog Cruise in November. I’ve never gone on a cruise that wasn’t associated with the U.S. Navy. Assuming we haven’t been wiped out by the coronavirus by then, I might have to reconsider.
If you haven’t done so already, please pre-order Do What You Want. Your early support makes a huge difference.
Double Nickels on the Dime by Michael T. Fournier
If you’re like me, you probably have a handful of square-shaped books from the 33 1/3 series on your shelf. I tend to like the concept of these more than the execution. It turns out writing a book length record review is a lot harder than it looks, but I keep buying them. This one sat on my shelf at least a decade before I cracked it open, and it did not disappoint. Fournier is a novelist, book reviewer, and contributor to Razorcake, so we have a lot in common.
Fournier took on a daunting subject because not only is Double Nickels on the Dime a double album, the Minutemen were famous for writing extremely short songs. Hence, there are 45 songs on the album.
The Minutemen are, of course, the legendary three-piece punk band from San Pedro, California. They operated from 1980 until late 1985 when the band’s vocalist, D. Boon, was killed in a car accident, which effectively ended the band.
Double Nickels on the Dime gatefold with art from Raymond Pettibon
I love that instead of going on and on about what the songs mean to him, Fournier, who lives in New England, bought himself a plane ticket and went to San Pedro where he talked at great length to former Minutemen songwriter and bass player Mike Watt . In the course of that discussion they went through all 45 songs. Now that’s how you write a book-length album review!
Fournier breaks down the album’s unusual structure and uncovers all kinds of interesting information about what was going on behind the scenes during the writing of the songs. The Minutemen never wanted to repeat themselves, and so they hit up their friends and peers in the scene for lyrics. For instance, I never knew that Henry Rollins and Chuck Dukowski wrote lyrics for some of these songs. There’s even a song penned by the band’s first vocalist, back when they went by the name the Reactionaries.
I loved learning that Hermosa Beach weirdo Raymond Pettibon turned Mike Watt and D. Boon on to all kinds of writers, including Umberto Eco, Wittgenstein, and James Joyce, whose masterwork Ulysses was a major influence on the album. There’s even a song called June 16th, the day on which Ulysses is set. But it’s also Raymond Pettibon’s birthday, so who knows?
The only aspect of the book I wasn’t too keen on were the instrument-by-instrument descriptions of what the music sounds like. All rock writers fall into this trap, and it can be hard to know how much is enough. For me, less is more. Nevertheless, it’s an engaging and informative read.
Do you have a favorite book in this series? If so, what is it?
Henry and Joe
Planet Joe by Joe Cole
It’s been a long time since I read a book that made me depressed, but Planet Joe did the trick.
Joe Cole kept a journal of his stint as a roadie for Black Flag’s last tour in 1986 and the Rollins Band’s first tour in 1987. Rollins published these diaries as Planet Joe after Cole was killed during a botched robbery in 1991. I read Get in the Van by Rollins earlier this year, and was struck by the narrow focus of Rollins’ diaries. I naively believed reading another voice would enlarge my impression of Black Flag’s last, longest, and ill-fated nationwide tour.
Unfortunately, Cole shares Rollins’ self-absorption and his nihilistic disregard of others. In entry after entry, Cole’s mood swings from excruciating self-deprecation to narcissistic self-regard. Basically, from “I am shit” to “I am God,” and I’m not exaggerating. Cole apparently suffered from undiagnosed depression that caused him to retreat into himself, which is a hard thing to do when you’re sharing a van with a dozen other people.
One of Cole’s outlets was LSD and holy shit did this kid take a lot of acid. Some of his accounts are extraordinary. For instance, can you imagine being pulled over by the police, not once but twice, while driving a truck loaded with gear over the Rocky Mountains while frying on acid? Well, you don’t have to because Joe Cole tells you all about it. Not surprisingly, some of Cole’s worst depressive episodes occurred after these acid trips when he was worn out, over-tired, and his serotonin all but spent.
I wanted to feel bad for the kid, but his honesty made that difficult. He was happiest when “scamming on” (Black Flag parlance for “hooking up with”) young women who came to the show in search of cheap thrills. Cole would frequently ejaculate prematurely and didn’t seem particularly interested in his partner’s pleasure, so even this pursuit of pleasure was painful to read.
Cole displays a knack for recording the names of the clubs the bands played in, but mostly he made the members of Black Flag seem even more unlikable than Rollins does in his diaries, which is really saying something. The only person who comes off as a sympathetic character is Dave Markey of the zine We Got Power and drummer for Painted Willie, who recorded the tour for his documentary, Reality 86’d.
Normally, I’d only recommend Planet Joe for Black Flag obsessives. But, like Get in the Van, there’s so much more to the story. Joe Cole and Henry Rollins were best of friends. They lived together in Venice Beach. Henry was with him when Cole was killed, a murder that remains unsolved. After his passing, Sonic Youth wrote songs about Cole. I’m not going to mention his famous father because fame doesn’t validate a life. It’s a real tragedy that Cole’s life was cut short, but it’s a shame the mark he made with Planet Joe is so bleak.
Lit Picks for February 27-March 4
Here are my recommendations for literary events in Southern California this week.
Thursday February 27 at 7pm (SD)
Writer’s Symposium by the Sea wraps up in Brown Chapel at Point Loma Nazarene University with a conversation between by Dean Nelson and novelist Alice Walker. This event is sponsored by Warwick’s Books and tickets are required.
Plan B (LA)
A Night of L.A. Noir unfolds at Chevalier’s Books when Sam Wasson, author of The Big Goodbye: Chinatown and the Last Years of Hollywood, and Graham Moore, author of the novel The Holdout, discuss their books at 7pm.
Friday February 28 at 7pm (LA)
2018 NEA Fellow Amanda Goldblatt will discuss her debut novel, Hard Mouth, with Katya Apekina at Book Soup.
Saturday February 29 at 7pm (SD)
Jake Anderson will discuss his book Gone at Midnight: The Mysterious Death of Elisa Lam at Mysterious Galaxy. If you were on the Internet in 2013, you probably saw the strange video footage of Vancouver student Elisa Lam at the Cecil Hotel in downtown L.A. It’s a rich subject for a book and has received a starred review from Publisher’s Weekly.
Sunday March 1 at 1pm (SD)
Come to Verbatim Books for A Celebration of Rays, a panel discussion of Ray Bradbury and Ray Harryhausen sponsored by the San Diego Comic Fest and Horrible Imaginings Film Festival. Then head over to the Digital Gym at 4pm for a screening of The Beast from 10,000 Fathoms.
Monday March 2 at 7pm (SD)
It’s the first Monday of the month and that means Verbatim Poets Society open mic hosted by Beat Poet Laureate Chris Vannoy. All proceeds will be donated to Bards Against Hunger.
Tuesday March 3 at 7:30pm (LA)
Erin Khar will discuss her addiction memoir Strung Out: One Last Hit and Other Lies That Nearly Killed Me with self-help guru Jen Pastiloff at Skylight Books.