Hello True Believers!

Welcome back to The Good News! We can’t wait for our show on 1/10/26 with Gila Teen and Reposer at the Black Buzzard!

But until then, let's get on with the good news!

Something fun to get lost in this week:

Why did Denver get northern lights last week? Apparently because there were three "coronal mass ejections, or CMEs — massive bursts of solar material ejected from the sun"! I personally had no idea that the northern lights could appear so far down south as my home town, but I wish I had because we were watching movies while everyone else in Denver saw the sky explode haha. Sadly we were too late on Tuesday, and there was too much light pollution on Wednesday, so we missed out then too, but there were some amazing pics from our community. Better luck next time!

A nice thing to listen to this week:

Late of the Pier - Fantasy Black Channel (2008)

Another late 2000’s album that passed me by until recently, this is an amazing hidden gem. I was tickled to lear they were big fans of The Prodigy, and I swear I can hear the influence, but that’s likely just my Prodigy-addled brain. It was heralded as one of the best British records in 2008 because of its eclectic sound, and for me I can hear more than a fair amount of their contemporaries, Test Icicle’s, Does It Offend You, Yeah?, Klaxxons, but I’m sort of always searching for stuff that was like that, but that I haven’t heard, so this is hitting just right.  

Terrific thing to watch:

The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964)

A well known and classic go-to for filmmies who want to show off their deep well of knowledge (thank the stars that is becoming less of a thing because all these movies are just out there for anyone to discover now), this movie is more than just one to get under your belt to round out your Letterboxd. Gorgeous is a given, it’s a confounding asymmetrical musical that, if you can jive with it, will carry you along a fairly standard love story that’s just enough off kilter that it won’t feel as rote as that might sound. It’s really not that much more complicated! Everyone’s firing on all cylinders, and it’s unlike anything you’ve seen. Unless, of course, you’ve seen this already ;). 

A good read:

There is no Antimemetic Division - qntm

This book has haunted me for a few years now. A buddy of mine suggested it, and a sorta snubbed it because it was effectively just a compilation of SCP entries/short stories (if you would like to learn more about SCP, look here or play Control).  Then I found a YouTube channel where a fella was reading the short stories with an atmospheric backing track. I still can’t figure out if he put this together before the book or compiled them in order after the book, or did them all after the book as an unofficial audiobook or what, but I listened to the first three before realizing they were all connected (I listen to audiobooks while walking the pup so I’m never as invested as I could be). From there I started again, and got to like story 6 or 7 before dropping off for some reason. Then I would remember a few months later that I’d dropped off, and start back up at the beginning. Well I’ve still never finished, and an official “first” edition has finally dropped, and it consumes a little of my thoughts any moment I’m not reading it. There are a few live action adaptations of them too, if that's more your speed. Dive in at your own risk…

And finally, our weekly pic of the pup, Apollo:

Be nice to each other, and we'll see you next week!

Best,

Luke