In Seattle, I have access to two pretty incredible public library systems: the Seattle Public Library system and the King County Public Library system.

I want to do my part in spreading the gospel of a well-funded library system, so, periodically, I want to share my "hauls" from the library.

Welcome to the inaugural entry of my "Library Evange-log"

---

1. *HIM* - Monkeypaw Productions

=> IMBD: *HIM*

*HIM* was a cool horror/thriller flick. I thought it was a Jordan Peele directed movie, but it was only *produced* by Peele and Monkeypaw Productions. Nevertheless, it had some really cool set design (imagine Ex Machina's isolated compound but designed for a football celebrity) and some cool VFX. One thing that got an audible "yooooooooo" out of me was this special effect where they'd show the characters in an x-ray-esque view. Really cool visual connection to the theme of football concussions and later scenes get really trippy with it.

One of my favorite parts about this movie is how much of it is tense, unsettling, and takes place in the middle of the day. It felt like there were very few scenes that relied on jump scares, dark corners, or visual uncertainty.

It's also good about being scary without being gross. As a horror fan who is also pretty squeamish, it's a bummer when a movie looks great but I know there's something my cowardly stomach just can't handle. If you're like me, rejoice! Here's one more movie to add to your queue.

2. *I Feel the Everblack Festering Within Me* - Lorna Shore

=> Wikipedia: *I Feel the Everblack Festering Within Me*

A recent and pretty popular release from symphonic deathcore juggernauts, Lorna Shore.

I *really* want to like Lorna Shore, but this is another record that doesn't do it for me. And really, I don't think it's Lorna Shore. I think it's more of a symphonic deathcore thing: I feel like the genre encourages lots of dense sonic layers, and I think it tends to muddy up clear identifiable rhythms. And I definitely think I'm a "rhythms" guy. To be clear, I'm no stranger to heavy music and that's not the problem.

Oh well, what I love about the library isn't that I *love* everything I borrow, it's that it was fun to stumble upon it and give the album a shot on a whim.

3. *H.P. Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness* - Tanabe, Gou

=> SPL page

The art is *really* cool, but also *really* hard for me to parse. It's very fine line work, lots of black and white, and the scenes are pretty detailed.

I don't think I'm quite as big an HPL fan as I'd like to be. Work inspired by HPL is often more appealing than the HPL source material is to me. But, putting it in a graphic novel definitely made it more approachable for me.

Not a huge win for me, personally, but still a fun random find.