On June 7th Manson attended the taping of the MTV Movie Awards show (McGowan was a nominee for "Jawbreaker") and dropped a few hints about his next plans: "I've just finished working on my script for my film," Manson said, "but that's still top secret at this moment. But that's what I'm dedicating all my time to. I am interested in doing anything that's actually acting, 'cause people always want me to play myself."

This was "Holy Wood: In the Shadow of the Valley of Death", which has at various times been announced as a movie, a coffee-table book, a novel, the next album, and all or some combination of these. Apparently Manson's magnum opus, it was once rumored to have legendary surrealist filmmaker Alexandro Jodorowsky ("Santa Sangre", "El Topo") as its director. On July 15th, "Variety", the classic Hollywood news source, reported that the project had apparently been given a green light by New Line Cinema, with Manson to both star and write the soundtrack. "Variety" reports that Manson was co-writing with Robert Parigi (whose production credits include the TV series "Profiler" and "Tales From the Crypt"), and that it would "incorporate some high-concept visual images with the corresponding soundtrack music, a la Pink Floyd's 'The Wall'."

The rest of the summer was quiet: reports of European rock festival gigs during July and a Japanese tour starting in August proved unfounded, and the band's only activity was to record a cover of the AC/DC classic "Highway To Hell" for the soundtrack to the KISS fan movie "Detroit Rock City". Manson, reportedly in a state of reclusive shock following the response to Columbine, holed up at home, working on his script and book, songwriting, and posting volumes to the band's bulletin board. Some of these were total stunners:

July 28, 1999

Subject: TOMORROW...AT LAST WE MEET AGAIN

Hello from the depths of Holy Wood...
My fantastic band and I are busy composing music to usher in the Age of Horus.

The hate furnaces have been ignited once again, and it's good to see the world still despises us. We are censored and stopped at every turn. We are sabotaged, we are smeared with false press. This right here, you and I is the only thing that is real. Your support and dedication has made us survive this and we have returned to kick ass and take names. We will see the inauguration of a new worm.

In the name of
JEHOVAH
LUCIFER
SATAN
and THEIR UNION
THROUGH THE MAGICIAN, JESUS CHRIST

MARILYN MANSON

(This unusual phrase - "Jesus the magician" - led us to the writings of the controversial theology scholar Morton Smith, and we encourage you to read him too. His essential thesis is that Jesus was practicing a secret baptismal ritual that put the baptized in literal spiritual union with himself, and that his practices were much more in league with those of the many traveling pagan magicians, mystics and healers of his day than with any notion of a unique and divine "son of God". "The Secret Gospel" and "Jesus The Magician" are both available in paperback)

Author: [omega symbol]
Subject: A THANK YOU

I want to thank the old fans, the new ones and the unsure ones for all tuning in to our conference.

The heart of true magic is in the words, behind the words, believing that there really are no words.

Abracadabra translated literally means, "I will create as I speak." We are all that's left. Those that don't believe, don't believe themselves. Now is not the time to be afraid...be happy that there is a union, that anyone who wants IT can have IT.

knowing IT is all you need.

You are the best and most gifted fans, and I hope that each one of you gets the world's attention, you deserve it.

Again Thank You,
MARILYN MANSON

August 16, 1999
Author: [omega symbol]
Subject: this is the end, my only friends

I have something special planned for the release of GOD IS IN THE TV, to reward those Los Angeles fans for their missed show. The video will contain all the behind the scenes I can offer, the things that the record company will censor will be available here! Coma White is at MTV, I don't know if they will play it because of the subject matter, but it will appear in it's entirety on GOD IS IN THE TV. Also set for release is Astonishing Panorama of the End Times, which states "VIOLENCE FOR THE PEOPLE, GIVE THE KIDS WHAT THEY NEED." I imagine it will be censored to say "milk and cookies for the kids" by the fascists.

The live album is also finished and I hope to share that with you as well, it covers all of our albums and some extra unreleased items. I am writing to you from Kern's Gate and from Death Valley the birthplace of our new album.

Details to follow. With the shedding of skin we have discarded our Mechanical Animal clothes, costumes stage items, etc. This will be available for auction and a portion of the proceeds will go to charity.

I love you all in the only true sense of the word.

In the Name of Jehovah, Lucifer, Satan

and their union through Christ and JFK

Nov 8 1999
Subject: TO THE ONES LISTENING

I am in the process of fulfilling my promise to revamp the site.
include art of mine and others.
record a new album.
make a movie.
spend time in Death Valley.

hopefully the live album will keep you company in the meantime.

we should prepare to fight for our freedoms that are quickly slipping.

not just censorship.
thought.
soul.

watch a film by Bunuel called Viridiana, it's one of my favorites. it was banned and caused a riot in its time. So did Fando and Lis by Jodorowsky.

sadly, it is up to us to keep little brother (ourselves) from taking away our right to think and dream.

the bible and shakespeare, although beautiful in their descriptions, couldn't be more violent than any pitiful rock album or movie of our time.

I wish you all luck in this dying world and my album is my testimony. The world has disappointed me now more than ever and I thank them for giving me the hatred to create this destructive force of music I will let loose next year.

Sincerely with love and I am
the third and final Beast,
Marilyn Manson

(This sudden flurry of references to Jesus prompted some anxious spook to post worriedly to the board inquiring whether Manson had got religion on us. His response:)

Nov 8 1999
Subject: manson a christian?

don't be alarmed.
I have no desire to buy into the slavery of modern Christianity.
I am seaking a greater explanation.
I can't wait to share it with you.
from Death Valley
Marilyn Manson

Announced in September: the November release of the long-awaited home video compliation, "God Is In The TV", a most welcome release to those of us who had spent the last four years dubbing off our well-worn copies of "Lunchbox" and "Get Your Gunn" for more recent arrivals to the family. This much-needed collection of all the band's videos plus live performance footage was just the thing for Joe Lieberman's Hanukkah stocking. Also announced was the live album "The Last Tour on Earth", presumably an attempt to salvage what little could be saved of the 1999 tour.

On October 11th the "Coma White" video debuted, to the offense of many, despite Manson's attempts to stave off the brickbats by explaining himself in advance. In attempt to nip any potential boycotts and/or cries of insensitivity in the bud (but they came anyway...) Manson noted that the clip, in which he and McGowan re-enact the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, had been shot in February, well before the July plane crash that claimed the life of John F. Kennedy Jr. "Over six months ago," he wrote, "I filmed a video for the song 'Coma White,' in which I enact the 'Journey of Death.' This is a pageant where I used the assassination of JFK as a metaphor for America's obsession and worship of violence. ... This short film clip is inspired by my script 'Holywood' and it is in no way a mockery. In fact, it is a tribute to men like Jesus Christ and JFK who have died at the hands of mankind's unquenchable thirst for violence." Manson also noted that the round-the-clock feeding of the media on JFK Jr.'s death further proved his earlier point re: Columbine.

On November 11th, Manson performed at the MTV Europe Video Music Awards, turning heads with his all-over black body makeup which reminded fans of the pig-riding episode from "Sweet Dreams". Though the show was held in Dublin, Ireland, Manson admitted to MTV News' John Norris that travel had been far from the norm for him in the wake of the awkward end to the Rock Is Dead tour. (This visit to Ireland gave him a chance to actually meet with director Jodorowsky, which may have been a major inducement.)

"I was kind of shell-shocked," Manson said,"because it was hard, for a while, to leave and to go anywhere. Because when I was wrapped up in the post-apocalypse of Columbine, and getting blamed for everything that was violent in the world, it was almost like a sick joke. You know, someone would ask me for money on the street, and I'd go to give them a dollar, and they'd see it was me and they'd say, 'Oh, I don't want your money.'"

BTW: He's since expanded on that, telling Alternative Press that "I didn't physically leave my house for three months and one reason why I didn't leave was, I genuinely believed that there was a realistic possibility that I could be poisoned in a restaurant, or shot in a Mark David Chapman style. I felt it, felt the stare - it was real. Death was waiting at my door. I really thought so." (The threat, the AP article says, wreaked havoc on his relationship with McGowan.) Manson also told the magazine that he had had real doubts over whether "people [are] understanding what I'm trying to say? Am I even gonna be allowed to say it? Because I definitely had every single door shut in my face [after Columbine], more than most people would imagine. At the time that it was happening, there were not a lot of people who stood behind me." The faithful would be rewarded, he promised, and the rest, well...

In November, as promised, the "Last Tour" and "God Is In The TV" release. Award for nicest packaging of any MM release to date goes to the all-in-one boxed set, whose box was printed to look like a battered, leather-bound Bible, and which included a poster along with the video and CD.

Finally came the December website announcement of the new album and the new incarnation, then called "In The Shadow Of The Valley Of Death". Manson explained that the new album is meant to be the last part of the three-part musical story or "tryptych" [from the Greek triptychos, "threefold"; defined as "a tableau of three hinged or folded panels bearing a religious story in painting, used as an alterpiece"] that started with 1996's "Antichrist Superstar" and continued on 1998's "Mechanical Animals."

"This is the final piece of a triptych that I began with 'Antichrist Superstar,'" Manson said. "The character of Omega [from 'Mechanical Animals'] has been disposed of, as he was a ruse to lure the commercial mall-goers into the web of destruction that I've always planned since the beginning." Manson stated that henceforth he would be represented not by the Omega symbol but by the alchemical symbol for mercury. "The [mercury] symbol is most commonly used in alchemy," Manson said. "It represents both the androgyne and the prima materia, which has been associated with Adam [Kadmon], the first man. And all of these things are major influences into the writing of the new album." The new material was also inspired - as we already knew - by slain President John F. Kennedy, the Bible, and his involvement with the long-established High Ceremonial magickal lodge known as Ordo Templi Orientis - "Order of the Eastern Temple" - best known for its advancement of the work of master mage Aleister Crowley.

"This is a soundtrack for a world that is being sold to kids," he wrote of the record, "and then being destroyed by them. But maybe that's exactly what it deserves." In the meantime, the website would be his only contact with humanity.

And that's where he delivered this little Christmas card:

12/25/99

HOPE YOUR CELEBRATING JESUS' BIRTHDAY

Away in a manger, no crib for his bed, The little Lord Jesus laid down his sweet head. The stars in the bright sky looked down where he lay, The little Lord Jesus asleep on the hay.

The cattle are lowing, the baby awakes, but little Lord Jesus no crying he makes. I love thee, Lord Jesus! Look down from the sky, And stay by my side until morning is nigh.

SEASON'S GREETINGS FROM MARILYN MANSON

...go back to Angelynx Archive Manson page.
...go back to Part 2.
...go back to Part 1.
...go ALL the way back to Coyote's Spookhouse.