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Transcend Review

I have a brand new music review up at my website!

I take a gander at the newest album from Zeena, Transcend. Check it out here!

From the Archives

I’m starting to accumulate quite the repertoire of essays, articles and podcast appearances. I’d like to make sure I spotlight these older works so they don’t fall into obscurity. Going forward I’m going to have this new section on my updates called “From the Archives” where I list out items that occurred in the same time period (last update to current update), but in prior years

This following things happened from 6/9 to 6/23:

Calls for Papers/Proposals

Here are some new pop culture CFPs that have crossed my paths. Links to these will also be in the CFP page on the navigation bar.

Queer Horror: A Companion

“To create a broad analogy, monster is to ‘normality’ as homosexual is to heterosexual” (Benshoff, 1997).

This quote, well worn within the pages of academic criticism, speaks to how the connection between queer identity and the horror genre is now so established as to become indivisible. From Frankenstein’s Creature to Dracula, the Babadook to Jennifer Check, in fiction and in film these monstrous queers “live in a world that hates them. They’ve adapted, they’ve learned to conceal themselves. They’ve survived” (Machado, 2020). Kirsty Logan, in the Foreword to It Came From the Closet, suggests that “horror [never] gives us LGBTQIA+ people accurate representation. The best we can have is a reflection: an image mirrored, turned backwards; an image in shifting water, wavering and distorted” (2023). However, in The Celluloid Closet and Beyond, the closeted monsters of the closeted text have now been routinely outed. Queer horror, too, is no longer the sole domain of monstrous metaphors, but a pluralistic space in which to thematise queer anxieties and to foreground non-hegemonic sexual identities, gender expressions and narrative approaches. Pitched as part of Peter Lang’s ‘Genre Fiction and Film Companion’ series, Queer Horror: A Companion thus seeks to collate a diverse volume showcasing how the label of ‘queer horror’ transcends the trauma of its shadowed roots into an explicit exploration, vital resuscitation, and ultimate celebration of queerness itself.

Following after New Queer Horror’s movement away from “a simplistic binarised negotiation of identification between normative (straight) protagonists and the non-normative (queer) monster” (Elliot-Smith & Browning, 2020), Queer Horror: A Companion looks to foreground explicit queer narratives (Chucky, Monstrilio) and the queer creators imbuing their works with queer sensibilities (Kyle Edward Ball, Carmen Maria Machado, Christopher Landon). Across new forms and mediums, such as video games and podcasts, queer horror moves towards intrinsically queer narratives of homophobic abuse (Femme), alienation (I Saw the TV Glow) and romance (Love Lies Bleeding). And, much as Pride has given way to Pride Progress, so too do works of queer horror emerge that centre underrepresented identities including intersex (Sorrowland), bisexuality (Jennifer’s Body), or explore unwritten narratives such as domestic abuse between partners of the same sex (In the Dream House). Queer Horror: A Companion thus seeks to channel this multiplicity into wide- reaching and inclusive analyses of the many modes and inflections that queer horror adopts today.

Suggested topics include, but are not limited to:

Queering of specific genres and sub-genres, especially those held to be traditionally exclusionary to queer narratives (e.g. Bodies Bodies Bodies and the slasher, or In the Dream House and the memoir).
Representation of non-hegemonic queer identities, including asexual, intersex, trans, non-binary and non-white narratives (e.g. the works of Jane Schoenbrun, Sayaka Murata, or Rivers Solomon).
International approaches to queer horror (e.g. Huesera: The Bone Woman, Climax, or Thelma).
Relationship between queer horror and the mainstream, in relation to cross-medium adaptation (e.g. the alterations to Bill and Frank’s relationship in The Last of Us).
Tracing the establishment, and development, of academic criticism toward queer horror (e.g. Harry M. Benshoff’s Monsters in the Closet, or Michael William Saunders’ Imps of the Perverse).
Queer horror in video games (e.g. Signalis, or The Missing: J.J. Macfield and the Island of Memories).
Queer horror’s intersections with other theoretical disciplines (e.g. Masculinity Studies and Titane or All of Us Strangers, or Critical Disability Studies and Freaks).
Performing queer horror on stage and screen (e.g. The Rocky Horror Picture Show, or Dragula).
Queer horror as a way of mapping queer history (e.g. The Picture of Dorian Gray and the Labouchere Amendment, James Whale and the Hays Code, or American Horror Story: NYC and the AIDS crisis).
Relationship between queer horror, exploitation cinema and pornography (e.g. Hellraiser, Knife +)
Heart, or the works of Billy Martin, writing as Poppy Z. Brite).
Existence, or reclamation, of tropes and stereotypes (e.g. ‘Bury Your Gays’, or queer villainy).
Classic works of queer horror (e.g. Carmilla, or Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde), or the queering of classic horror fiction (e.g. Murders in the Rue Morgue and New Murders in the Rue Morgue).
Sapphic horror narratives (e.g. Our Wives Under the Sea, or Wilder Girls).
Any forms not listed above, such as graphic novels or podcasts, or concerns such as queer aesthetics.

Finished chapters will be approximately 4000 words (exc. bibliography), adopting a primary text to discuss the broader topic of queer horror. Submissions should be accessible to new readers, while still articulating the individual elements that distinguish the chosen work.

Please submit abstracts of 300 words, alongside a short biographical note (50–100 words), to Dr Michael Wheatley at michaeldavidwheatley@gmail.com by September 30th, with chapters expected in late 2025. Criticism on sexual identities and gender expressions marginalised in academia are particularly welcome.

Miscellaneous Tidbits

Happy Birthday to Me

June 20th was my birthday! I took Thursday and Friday off work to have a nice four day birthday weekend. Michele had lots of plans for me.

On Thursday we went to Imperial Outpost Games and played T.I.M.E. Stories while eating sandwiches from Goodcents. Michele and I like board games, but we don’t get to play them often in our home become 1) we lack a large table and 2) we have a certain cat who NEEDS to be involved, which includes knocking pieces around and laying in the center of the board. So, it was nice going to an outside venue to play.

We got our butts kicked on T.I.M.E. Stories. Fucking dude who wanted a plunger and distracted us with his dancing, causing us to lose five turns. WTF buddy.

On Friday we did a tour of the Arizona Biltmore, an art deco hotel from the 1920s. It was amazing! The tour was super fun, we got to see lots of original rooms, furnishings, etc. of the hotel and learn about its rich history. Nothing brought up about ghosts though.

The Biltmore is also the birthplace of the original Tequila Sunrise. Not the 1970s one made with 90% orange juice created during the disco and cocaine era, but this one was created 30 years prior and uses tequila, lime, soda water, and creme de cassis. So, of course, I had to have one! It’s not often you get to experience cocktail history.

As a present to myself, I got this amazing statue from Sideshow Collectables. It’s from their PulpVixens line. The set is called Dr. Sin, but the protagonist here is Agent Ursula. This statue has everything I love: beautiful pinup, spy-fi, Lovecraftian horror, and pulp adventure. I love it!

Time to invest in a legit display cabinet!

Beating Hearts & Battle-Axes Kickstarter

There’s a brand new sword and sorcery Kickstarter I want to signal boost, and it’s for Beating Hearts & Battle-Axes. Check it out on Backerkit.

In 2023 multimedia and multidiscipinary artist Zeena unveiled her newest musical endeavor, Transcend, at the Movement of the Triangle series exhibit at the Snow Gallery in New York City. Though the exhibit took place last June, Zeena’s music was preserved as a digital-only album published via Bandcamp.

In the 80s and early 90s Zeena made gothic and death rock music while part of Radio Werewolf. Years later she would begin releasing her own music while exploring different genres. In 2020 Zeena realized her debut solo endeavor, Bring Me The Head Of F. W. Murnau, which was part silent film score, a hint of experimental-industrial, and a large dose of field recordings. Concurrently, Zeena explored a spiritual angle through her music, which listeners got to preview with her live performance of “Sethian Dream Oracle” that was released on the John Murphy tribute compilation All My Sins Remembered in 2016. Transcend can be thought of as the next canonical entry in Zeena’s spiritual music output.

Transcend balances two genres – new age and ambient – though neither in an expected fashion. Ambient music, in the Cryo Chamber vein, can conjure up images of deep space, forgotten cities, desolate alien landscapes, and so on, with an emphasis on droning and emptiness. It can certainly be a lonely genre. Transcend has some of these aspects of “alone-ness” yet it is hardly lonely. The album places an emphasis on the self, but acts as a companion in the process – a guide. The listener’s journey with Transcend may be as an individual, but the album provides a presence, ensuring the listener is not by themselves. Transcend also invites internal exploration, which is the opposite of other ambient varieties that prompt external exploration.

Transcend contains three tracks: “Ascent,” “Parting Clouds,” and “Gone Beyond.” The track list may be small but the runtime is substantial, coming in at over fifty minutes of music. If one takes the names of the three titles along with the album name, visuals of climbing a mountain are conjured up. Going a step further and bringing in an element of a silent film score (as Zeena had done with the aforementioned Bring Me The Head Of F. W. Murnau), transforms the listening experience into an aural version of a bergfilm. Transcend is a three act mountain film without the visuals, yet rife with both movement yet contemplation, depicting the overcoming of obstances, be them physical or psychic.

Act one, “Ascent,” is the initial mountain climb. The ambiance has a calming “awww” to it, but slowly as the song progresses, a breathing pattern begins to emerge, before becoming dominate over halfway through the song. The song’s breathing has two functions: to invite the listener to partake in breathing exercises, but also to convey the sense of exertion as one climbs the album’s metaphorical mountain.

Act two, “Parting Clouds,” is the resting song. The listener is sitting on an outcropping, seeing the land through wispy clouds, taking in the imagery and a respite on their journey. There is the simile of a string instrument that flutters in the song, adding an essence of alpine folk. The final act, “Gone Beyond,” is a mirror of “Ascent,” with the heavy breathing surfacing again like a train starting to gain momentum. Though the song is the album’s last, it is the next step in the listener’s journey as they resume their quest up the mountain, into the sky, and beyond.

The cover art of Transcend is a part of a larger piece titled Ladders that was created by Zeena. The imagery of the ladders, of course, invokes the feeling of going “up,” which ties into the theme of the album. However, the shadow play of the ladders, that they all appear to be going in different directions, with one even bent, generates a German Expressionist cinema vibe to the piece (Cabinet of Dr. Caligari-esque). Such evocations can be found a-plenty in Zeena’s prior album, Bring Me The Head of F. W. Murnau, which also tie into the bergfilm vibes of the album as well.

In Oh, the Places You’ll Go! Dr. Seuss quips “You’re off to great places, today is your day! Your mountain is waiting, so get on your way!” Though the passage is whimiscal, its text is certainly appropriate for Zeena’s Transcend. There is a concept to conquer, be it a literal or metaphoric mountain – or something else, for the betterment of the self. Transcend is the soundtrack for that journey, with a great place (spiritually, mentally, or something else), waiting at the summit.

If you want to learn more about Transcend or the other music works of Zeena check out the links below.