The Onyx Glossary: July 2019

Thursday, July 4, 2019

2019 Reading List Monthly Update: June

Books read in June of 2019:
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"After the Banquet" (Yukio Mishima) 6-7-19
"The Dreams of Cardinal Vittorini & Other Strange Stories" (Reggie Oliver) 6-9-19
"A Little White Book of Screams and Whispers" (Thomas Ligotti) 6-10-19
"Stranger Things: Worlds Turned Upside Down" (Gina McIntyre) 6-14-19
"Rum Punch" (Elmore Leonard) 6-15-19 *
"Watching the Wheels" (Simon Morris) 6-18-19
"Prince Zaleski" (M.P. Shiel) 6-23-19
"Clark" (Brendan Connell) 6-28-19 -
2019 Reading List Total:
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1. "The Paintings of William Blake" (Raymond Lister) 1-1-19
2. "Fascination" (Kevin Killian) 1-10-19
3. "Neo-Decadent Manifesto of Women's Fashion" (Justin Isis) 1-11-19
4. "Halyartes and Other Poems in Prose" (Éphraïm Mikhaël) 1-12-19
5. "In the Stillness of Marble" (Teresa Wilms Montt) 1-13-19
6. "Harlem Smoke" (James Champagne) 1-18-19 *
7. "The Shadow" (Maurice Level) 1-20-19
8. "Batman: A Death in the Family" (Jim Starlin/Marv Wolfman) +
9. "Death Mort Tod: A European Book of the Dead" (Steve Finbow/Karolina Urbaniak) 1-26-19
10. "Of Kings and Things" (Count Stanislaus Eric Stenbock/ed. David Tibet) 1-27-19
11. "Batman: Sword of Azrael" (Dennis O'Neil) 1-30-19
12. "The Rita: Anatomical Charisma" (Sam McKinlay/Gabrielle Losoncy) 2-1-19
13. "Sea of Love" (Simon Morris) 2-3-19
14. "Inside the Castle" (Josiah Morgan) 2-4-19
15. "War with the Newts" (Karel Čapek) 2-5-19
16. "Granite City Blues" (Josh Peterson) 2-8-19
17. "Bloom" (Kevin Panetta/Savanna Ganucheau) 2-8-19
18. "The Metapheromenoi" (Brendan Connell) 2-10-19
19. "Batman: Prelude to Knightfall" (Chuck Dixon/Doug Moench) 2-13-19
20. "Tosh: Growing up in Wallace Berman's World" (Tosh Berman) 2-24-19
21. "The Ballet of Dr. Caligari and Madder Mysteries" (Reggie Oliver) 2-26-19
22. "Negrophobia: An Urban Parable" (Darius James) 2-27-19
23. "The Secret History of Twin Peaks" (Mark Frost) 3-7-19
24. "This Planet is Doomed: the Science Fiction Poetry of Sun Ra" (Sun Ra) 3-8-19
25. "Batman: Knightfall Volume 1" (Doug Moench/Chuck Dixon) 3-13-19
26. "Four Circles" (Meg McCarville) 3-16-19
27. "The Purple Cloud" (M.P. Shiel) 3-24-19
28. "Death in Midsummer" (Yukio Mishima) 4-2-19
29. "Faustina and Other Stories" (Renée Vivien and Helène de Zuylen de Nyevelt) 4-3-19
30. "The Invention of Dreams" (Tom Champagne) 4-7-19
31. "Batman: Knightfall Volume 2" (Chuck Dixon/Doug Moench/Alan Grant) 4-9-19
32. "Some Pink Star" (Sophie Essex) 4-16-19
33. "The Man Who Murdered His Muse" (James Champagne) 4-17-19 *
34. "The Pale Ape and Other Pulses" (M.P. Shiel) 4-18-19
35. "Third Instar" (David Gullen) 4-20-19
36. "Smashed" (Junji Ito) 4-21-19
37. "The War Within" (Stephen R. Donaldson) 4-25-19
38. "The Life of Tomorrow" (Fillia) 4-25-19
39. "Love, Sleep & Dreams" (Count Stenbock) 4-26-19
40. "Flying Saucers: A Modern Myth of Things Seen in the Skies" (C.G. Jung) 4-27-19
41. "Amico Di Sandro" (Baron Corvo) 4-30-19
42. "Star" (Yukio Mishima) 5-2-19
43. "White" (Bret Easton Ellis) 5-3-19
44. "Plan for the Abduction of J.G. Ballard" (Jeremy Reed/Audrey Szasz) 5-7-19
45. "Myrtle, Rue & Cypress" (Count Stenbock) 5-8-19
46. "The Call: Art and Speculative Literature" (editor: Ben Robinson) 5-18-19
47. "The Holy Bible" (David Evans) 5-19-19
48. "Mademoiselle de Maupin" (Théophile Gautier) 5-21-19
49. "Cari Mora" (Thomas Harris) 5-26-19
50. "Heliogabalus or, the Crowned Anarchist" (Antonin Artaud) 5-27-19
51. "Haunted Girlfriend" (James Nulick) 5-30-19
52. "Elsewhere and Other Stories" (G. Albert Aurier) 5-31-19
53. "After the Banquet" (Yukio Mishima) 6-7-19
54. "The Dreams of Cardinal Vittorini & Other Strange Stories" (Reggie Oliver) 6-9-19
55. "A Little White Book of Screams and Whispers" (Thomas Ligotti) 6-10-19
56. "Stranger Things: Worlds Turned Upside Down" (Gina McIntyre) 6-14-19
57. "Rum Punch" (Elmore Leonard) 6-15-19 *
58. "Watching the Wheels" (Simon Morris) 6-18-19
59. "Prince Zaleski" (M.P. Shiel) 6-23-19
60. "Clark" (Brendan Connell) 6-28-19

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*= book I have read at least once in the past
+= book I have read before, but not this reprint/edition/translation

Currently Reading:

"Graves" (Quentin S. Crisp)

Monday, July 1, 2019

RIP Cooper (2002-2019)

It is with great sadness that I report the death of one of our beloved longtime family cats, Cooper, who was put to sleep this afternoon, at the age of roughly 17 and a half. Diagnosed with some type of cancer a number of weeks ago, there wasn’t much that could be done at his age and in his condition, so we tried to make his last few weeks as comfortable as could be. As I’ve been very close to him for years now, this was a somewhat devastating loss, as you can imagine, yet there is also relief that his suffering is over... my last words to him as he was being put to sleep were, I believe, “We all love you.”

We first got Cooper in late September 2002, a few weeks after the passing of one of our other beloved family cats, Rusty. At the time, I was still in college, which is a good indication of how long we had Cooper. He was around 6-9 months old when we got him, and initially was quite scrawny, but in his elder years he became something of a shy, meek and friendly gentle giant (his meowing was always very quiet, almost more like a squeaking)... though these last few months his weight dropped quite dramatically due to his illness, to the extent that towards the end he only weighed a little over 10 pounds.

Some of his nicknames included (but were not limited to) The Badger, the Ring-tailed Ocelot (on account of the stripes on his tail), Skeezis, Sméagol, Whilliker Whiskers, Prof. Plum, the Maine Coon (as it was suspected he had some Maine Coon genes in him), Cooper Kid, and, back when he used to be much heavier, the Big Bopper, the Really Big Bopper, Alfred Hitchcat, and Samwell Tarly. He enjoyed tearing up the red felt chair in the den, devouring plants and flowers, and, though not a lap cat, appreciated being petted, especially beneath the chin and on the sides (when he was petted, he would often “knead” the air with his claws). Sometimes he would give me little “love nips” on the arm as well.

In his latter years, Cooper would begin to spend more and more time in the family den. I would usually visit him there each night for a few minutes, after my shower: one thing he liked to do often was flop down on the ground in front of the desk and have his side/under his chin petted. Towards the end he stopped doing that because it had probably become too painful for him to move... yet last night, when I went to check on him before going to bed, he did this again, if only for a few minutes. I prefer to interpret this as his way of saying goodbye to me, even if it were unconscious on his part, and I’m grateful I got to do it one last time.

Although Cooper never really bonded all that much with our other cat Amber (the two WOULD sometimes share a bed or a couch, always on opposite ends, however), he was very close to one of our other cats, Chandler, who sadly passed away a number of years ago at a very young age (back in March 2007). In some ways the two were like brothers, and Cooper became a somewhat different cat in temperament after Chandler was gone. I like to think that their spirits are reunited, now that Cooper has passed beyond the Great, Bloody and Bruised Veil of This World (to reference the title of one of my favorite Current 93 songs). He leaves behind a “brother” (Griffin the dog) and a “sister” (Amber the cat). RIP Cooper... you will be missed!

Most of these pictures were taken by me, though a few were also taken by various family members. I’ll probably share a few more sporadically over the coming months.