Clark Ashton Smith Book

The Siren's Call: Clark Ashton Smith's ancient worlds
A reissue of Clark Ashton Smith's weird stories show H.P. Lovecraft's influence -- but also Smith's originality.

More: http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/arts/la-caw-sirens-call29-2009nov29,0,4123201.story


The writers forming the backbone of the pulp horror magazine Weird Tales in the 1920s and 1930s haven't received nearly the mainstream scholarly attention as that of other famous literary groups ...

Very Lovecraft: Live Theater

I hope someone can see this and review it. There's nothing quite as thrilling as Live Theater - support your local arts programs!



Thanks George I. !

Open Circle Theater Presents
Madness Out of Time
Running October 9 - November 14, Thu.- Sat. @ 7:30 Sun. @ 4pm
2222 2nd Ave., Suite 222Seattle, WA 98121(206) 382-4250
(http://www.octheater.com/findingoct.asp)

Show Summary (top)
Directed by
Gary Zinter

Written by
H.P. Lovecraft

Running Dates:
October 9 - November 14, Thu.- Sat. @ 7:30 Sun. @ 4pm
Description:
H.P. Lovecraft's only novella is brought to the stage in this world-premiere adaptation by area playwrights Dustin Engstrom & Ron Sandahl.

Something is desperately wrong with Charles Dexter Ward. Always a delver into the past, his search for info about an ancestor lead ultimately to madness, horror, and perhaps the extermination of all life on the earth.

A riveting night of mystery and horror by the acknowledged master of the macabre, H. P. Lovecraft.

WHAT: Madness Out of Time
The Case of Charles Dexter Ward

Not Lovecraft - but very horrific

Every year, me and Mrs. Chris go to see Louisville's Actor's Theater's production of Dracula. It wouldn't be October without it. It is a superb world-class production and we love to see the people scream when they get into it. It's in a very small, intimate theater of about 700 people, and the actors surround you and move in and out of the aisles, and sometimes through the air.

My other favortite place is Waverly Hills, which I've written about many times.

Now, the actors of the play went out to Waverly Hills and did a trailer. It gave me goosebumps, they did such a good job.




You may now return to your regular Lovecraft blog.

:)

Pulver's "Blood": Review

On Amazon.com Wilum posted the following on Blood Will Have Its Season --

"Joe gave me this book in electric form at last year's H. P. LOVECRAFT FILM FESTIVAL -- and I read half of it, wanting to save the rest so as to read it in actual book form. Joe's readings at the Lovecraft Film Festival have left people stunned by the beauty and power of his work -- and this collection, long-overdo, is a firm and solid testimony of a writer with rare vision, dark visions laced with brutality and blood. S. T. Joshi, who is not easily pleased, has been stunned by this writer's new work. I sat next to S. T. as we listened to Joe reading last year, and S. T. murmured, "Remarkable, remarkable." I look forward to seeing Joe next month in Portland, Oregon at the next Lovecraft Film Festival, at which he and I will exchange new books of our weird fiction. If I seem to vanish during the H. P. Lovecraft Film Festival this year, you can pretty well assume that I am locked in my hotel room -- reading BLOOD WILL HAVE ITS SEASON, or cowering from the visions it has provoked. A fantastic talent of outstanding grace and power! "

Donalld M. Grant Obituary

As if the news of guitar legend Les Paul recent passing wasn’t enough to shake the music world, now the Sci-Fi, Fantasy & Horror genres have their own legendary master to bid a final farewell to Donald Metcalf Grant (April 3, 1927 - August 19, 2009) passed away early on Wednesday morning, around 5:30 AM in North Port, Florida. He is survived by his wife, Shirley, his two children, Nancy Mahoney & Douglas Grant, and his granddaughter, Ellen Mahoney.

Grant was one of the guys who stood fast in his belief of great science fiction, fantasy and horror, helping start several small press publishing companies and eventually founding the self-named Donald eventually founding the self-named Donald M. Grant Publisher, Inc. more than 45 years ago. The 82-year-old publisher was known for his printing of library and collector-quality limited editions of titles, including many by such great writers as Robert E. Howard, H.P. Lovecraft, Peter Straub, Ambrose Bierce, Stephen King, Fritz Leiber, Karl Edward Wagner, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Roger Zelazny and many others, including a brand new Ray Bradbury release. The editions aren’t inexpensive to begin with, and finding the older editions on auctions sites tend to be a bit pricey, but well worth it.

According to Locus magazine, the main source of news for spec fiction, Grant’s contribution and dedication to the industry earned him 3 World Fantasy Awards in the special professional category (1976, 1980 & 1983), 1 special convention World Fantasy Award (1984) and a World Life Achievement Award (2003).

Alongside other publishers such as August Derleth, Donald Wandrei and Donald A. Wollheim, Grant helped bring what is now known as Spec Fiction out from the dying pulp magazine medium and kept it alive in books. The stories, authors and writing that we all love so much would be incomplete without Grant’s contributions.

More here ...

Ed Lee's "Trolley 1852"

I am gently holding the collector's edition of Ed Lee's Lovecraftian story: "Trolley 1852". You would either hate this with a vile venom, or adore it, depending on whether you are a purist, and whether you enjoy Lee or not.

Hoary Host of Pegana help me, I do like Lee. I suppose that says something about my dementia - that and typing nearly 2000 Lovecraft posts - but I'm half-way through, and trying not to drool on the delicately assembled pages (Bless you, Larry Roberts) and trying not to smudge Alex McVey's wondrous artwork.

More later ... Lovecraft's - um, I mean Lee's - character is watching a steamy other-worldly sex scene through a key hole.

Dreams of Madness: Real Lovecraftian Science

George Ioannidis (on facebook) found this great article and alerted me. That's his insignia, above. In the first part of the Call of Cthulhu, dreams and madness are linked. Now, real Lovecraft science delves deeper.

Thanks George!

Link

New links between lucid dreaming and psychosis could revive dream therapy in psychiatry

Similarities in brain activity during lucid dreaming and psychosis suggest that dream therapy may be useful in psychiatric treatment, a European Science Foundation (ESF) workshop has found. This is strengthened by the potential evolutionary relationship between dreams and psychosis.

Lucid dreaming - when you are aware you are dreaming - is a hybrid state between sleeping and being awake. It creates distinct patterns of electrical activity in the brain that have similarities to the patterns made by psychotic conditions such as schizophrenia. Confirming links between lucid dreaming and psychotic conditions offers potential for new therapeutic routes based on how healthy dreaming differs from the unstable states associated with neurological and psychiatric disorders.

New data affirms the connection by showing that while dreaming lucidly the brain is in a dissociated state, according to Ursula Voss from the University of Frankfurt in Germany. Dissociation involves losing conscious control over mental processes, such as logical thinking or emotional reaction. In some psychiatric conditions this state is also known to occur while people are awake.

"In the field of psychiatry, the interest in patients' dreams has progressively fallen out of both clinical practice and research. But this new work seems to show that we may be able to make comparisons between lucid dreaming and some psychiatric conditions that involve an abnormal dissociation of consciousness while awake, such as psychosis, depersonalisation and pseudoseizures." said the workshop's convenor Silvio Scarone, from the Università degli Studi di Milano in Milan, Italy.

Meanwhile, the previously discredited idea of treating some conditions with dream therapy has attracted interest from clinicians. An example is people suffering from nightmares can sometimes be treated by training them to dream lucidly so they can consciously wake up.

"On the one hand, basic dream researchers could now apply their knowledge to psychiatric patients with the aim of building a useful tool for psychiatry, reviving interest in patients' dreams," continues Scarone. "On the other hand, neuroscience investigators could explore how to extend their work to psychiatric conditions, using approaches from sleep research to interpret data from acute psychotic and dissociated states of the brain-mind."

The existence of such psychotic conditions may be rooted in the evolutionary role of dreams, where dreaming is thought to have emerged to enable early humans to rehearse responses to the many dangerous events they faced in real life. Developed by Antti Revonsuo at University of Turku in Finland, if this threat simulation theory is correct it may have origins even further back in evolution, given that other mammals such as dogs also exhibit the characteristic electrical activity of dreaming.

Researchers also looked at the idea that paranoid delusions and other hallucinatory phenomena occur when the dissociative dreaming state involving replay of threatening situations is carried through into wakefulness.

"Exposure to real threatening events supposedly activates the dream system, so that it produces simulations that are realistic rehearsals of threatening events in terms of perception and behaviour," said Scarone. "This theory works on the basis that the environment in which the human brain evolved included frequent dangerous events that posed threats to human reproduction. These would have been a serious selection pressure on ancestral human populations and would have fully activated the threat simulation mechanisms."

However, dreaming is unlikely to have evolved purely to recreate threats. It may also have a role in the learning process, according to Allan Hobson, a psychiatrist and dream researcher recently retired from Harvard University in the US. Contents are added while you are awake and integrated with the automatic program of dream consciousness during sleep. This works with observations that daytime learning is consolidated by night-time sleeping, leading to the phenomenon where people remember facts better the day after they have learnt them than at the time.

"Lovecraft's Death" Septic Flesh (2009)

OK, take a deep breath. This isn't for everyone, but if you're into "horror bands" take a ride. Chrispy does watch for everything "Lovecraft Legacy" and for good, bad, or indifferent - this be one of them. (Lyrics below)



{Yes, I listened. I got into it.}

You'll never figure them out, so here are the lyrics:

Lyrics to Lovecraft's Death :
The cold comes
The rats in the walls break
The deadly sound of silence
As time decays
You try to name the unnamable
A whispererer in darkness

Our hound smells you
The haunter of the dark
Will come to take you to our realm
Your life, your books
March in front your closing eyes
Beyond the walls of sleep

Lovecraft in the realm of the dead

Obsessed with Necronomicon
The Arab's wicked dream
You found a path to Azathoth
And walked the Dagon's realm

Your friends were haunted too
Do you remember Charles?
Or haven't you heard
The music of Erich Zann
The call of Cthulhu we disguised
With notes and raving rhythms
To spread the seed of lurking fear
Into the heart of man

Lovecraft in the realm of the dead

Your time is out you saw too much
You used the silver key
You know too well that minds like yours
Can never rest in peace

You stared at the abyss
You'll never rest in peace

You'll never rest in peace

Joe Pulver's New Book

Joe Pulver's New Book

Blood Will Have Its Season

By Joseph S. Pulver, Sr., author Nightmare's Disciple
Introduction by S. T. Joshi
Illustrated by Thomas S. Brown and Stanley C. Sargent
Hippocampus Press 2009
ISBN 978-0-9814888-8-2

The dark, forbidding alleys of ruined cityscapes; the hopeless lives of brutalized whores, amoral hit-men, and vengeful-victims of violence—these are the landscapes and characters that fill the stories, poems, and prose-poems of Joseph S. Pulver, Sr. in his first collection. And yet, there is a strange and intoxicating beauty to Pulver’s creations, for they transport the reader out of the mundane and into the unearthly by the effortless stroke of a dazzling metaphor. Many of Pulver’s stories are innovative riffs on the enigmatic mythology of The King In Yellow, pregnant with the demonic witchery of the original. With this collection, Pulver places himself in the forefront of contemporary fantasy and horror literature.

“The prose of Joe Pulver can take its place with that of the masters of our genre—Poe, Lovecraft, Campbell, Ligotti—while his imaginative reach is something uniquely his own.” –from S. T. JOSHI’S Foreword

“Each piece seethes with a sinister madness like a straitjacketed ghost forgotten in a dark and cobwebbed cell. In this innovative, hypnotic collection, Joseph S. Pulver, Sr. has proven himself to be a perversely masterful sculptor of our dreams.” – Jeffrey Thomas

“Joe Pulver is a dark star is the merciless cosmos of weird fiction. His work is as brutal as it is beautiful.” -Wilum Hopfrog Pugmire

“In an earlier day I feel sure Joe Pulver would have been arrested for writing some of the stuff in this collection. Maybe he will be yet! In any case, I cannot shake the feeling that his stories are all well described by analogy to "The Colour out of Space" in that the descent of some elder, outer entity acts as seed producing, from the dark mulch of Joe's subconscious, a luxurious growth of beautiful and at the same time poisonous blooms. One knows one ought to flee but cannot resist hanging around to savor the corruption! And how can he write, with such intricate delicacy, thunderous prose that fairly rips up the pages it is printed on? I wish I knew!” -Robert M. Price

“Pulver challenges his readers with amazingly bizarre and intriguing
versatility as he masterfully and engagingly explores worlds of
beautifully mournful fantastic prose, invokes hellish realms of
relentless violence, conjures wild homages to his many heroes, and
tinkers with conceptual formatting.” -Stan Sargent

“BLOOD WILL HAVE ITS SEASON teeters between lyrical tranquility and unchecked brutality. Joe Pulver's style is sometimes jarring, sometimes lulling -- but deceptively so. BLOOD is a rough ride. It's not for children or old prudes.” -Mark Rainey

Joseph S. Pulver, Sr. is the acclaimed author of the Lovecraftian novel Nightmare’s Disciple and the author of many short stories that have appeared in magazines and anthologies. He has received several Honorable Mentions in Datlow’s and Windling’s The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror.

http://www.hippocampuspress.com/other/blood-will-have-its-season.html

Joe Pulver on MySpace
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=147195846

Joe Pulver on Facebook
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/profile.php?id=1741550948&ref=profile

Joe Pulver on The Haunt
http://www.horror-mall.com/haunt/jpulver

The Solar Eclipse: 21 July 2009

I think Lovecraft would first be thrilled at our ability to see astronomical events, appalled that superstition still reigns, and would find some way to admix these two world views into a weird story of some sort. He often did. One can here him "tsk" at the "grandmothers" and their "superstitions".



TAREGNA, India – The longest solar eclipse of the 21st century created near darkness soon after dawn in a swath of India stretching from the west coast to the northern plains where millions gathered in the open to watch.

But millions more shuttered themselves in, gripped by fearful myths in a country that abounds in Hindu mythology-based superstitions and fables, one of which says an eclipse is caused when a dragon-demon swallows the sun.

At its peak, the eclipse lasted 6 minutes and 39 seconds in other parts of Asia.

It is the longest such eclipse since July 11, 1991, when a total eclipse lasting 6 minutes, 53 seconds was visible from Hawaii to South America. There will not be a longer eclipse than Wednesday's until 2132.

But millions across India were shunning the sight and planned to stay indoors.

Even in regions where the eclipse was not visible, pregnant women were advised to stay indoors in curtained rooms over a belief that the sun's invisible rays would harm the fetus and the baby would be born with disfigurations, birthmarks or a congenital defect.

Krati Jain, a software professional in New Delhi, said she planned to take a day off from work Wednesday to avoid what she called "any ill effects of the eclipse on my baby."

"My mother and aunts have called and told me stay in a darkened room with the curtains closed, lie in bed and chant prayers," said Jain, 24, who is expecting her first child.

In the northern Indian state of Punjab, authorities ordered schools to begin an hour late to prevent children from venturing out and gazing at the sun.

John C Lewis' Note to Chrispy

John and I correspond a lot. Through my blog you know a lot of how I feel about Lovecraft, but I like to allow other people to express their opinions, too. Many do so in the "Inner Sanctum" of Chrispy's Lovecraft Group, but sometimes on the public page, too. This post generated a great deal of debate on The Haunt, and notably by Larry Roberts. Debate is good. Most controversial may be the term and use of "God" with Lovecraft. Im sure John will read your comments when you post them. :)

John's sincere expressions are listed below.
_____
Hello Chris:

I'd like to thank you in advance for posting this where others will see it. I've liked Lovecraft for many years and have actually created a few stories that are "Lovecraftian" in nature. My novel "Pillars of Fire" is definite Lovecraftian but is all my own. I'll have to post a pic of one of my creations for the story. It's a real cool, but completely alien, creature.

_____


What Makes A Lovecraftian Story
By: John C. Lewis

Greetings from the South.

I have long admired the works of Howard Phillips Lovecraft. The mastery of his "world weaving" has left a lasting impression upon me. Interestingly, his style has had an impact on many others as well for though he has been gone for over sixty years his work continues to grow in popularity to this day. The mysterious world he has created within the fabric of our own has been an inspiration to many writers who continually add to the "mythos" he has left behind. Quite often the question is asked; What makes a story Lovecraftian? Lovecraftian literature and what constitutes it is a very interesting subject indeed. So let's get all the disclaimers out of the way before I give you my take on what makes a Lovecraftian story. First of all I am no expert on Howard and to date I have only read about a third of what he has written. I read a new piece every few weeks so that I always have something to look forward to. I have read his treatise on supernatural horror in literature which was fascinating and have read lots of articles about the man, his life, and his works. I have followed the progression of his rise to stardom since the late sixties so I feel as though I know him. Now, with all that said, here we go;

I believe Lovecraft to be somewhat of a fantasy writer though a darker form of fantasy with Science Fictional elements. Sure he wrote his share of purely horrific stories but in essence, I see a large block of his work as gaslight fantasy with an otherworldly, supernatural twist (ah, maybe I've coined a new category of horrific fiction, maybe not).

What makes Lovecraftian stories unique is that they are steeped in realism. Not the realism that you and I see in our mundane day-to-day existence, but the realism of the world around us. We look out into our front yards and see a tree growing. If it blocks our view it is cut to the ground. Lovecraft could feel the essence of the tree as it beckoned him to stare out the window for that daily visit. Lovecraft would shift his position from one side to the other to see that which lay in the distance yet leaving the tree to forever guide his sight to the wonders beyond. As the tree grows we worry about it shedding leaves all over the place thus becoming a chore to get out there and clean it all up (What a Pain). Not Lovecraft, to him, watching that tree continually sprouting newer vegetation outside the window opens a new page to it's life and how it grows from a mere sapling to a mighty tree, full of a sentient life of it's own. He further connects with that tree as it sends it's tangle of tendrilly roots through the soil to seek the nutrients needed in order to sustain life. Similarly, man obtains a house, then a fence to be followed by a car and a job to earn the money to buy the trappings he needs for survival. In comparison, bringing subconscious attention to the life of a tree, on nature's terms, renders it full of intrigue, mystery, commensul relationships, times of hardship, and eventually, death. An unknown everyday fact that both fascinates and drags the reader in.

This is what makes the essence of a story Lovecraftian. The ability to see both the forest and the trees and, in turn, releasing the reader into that knowledge base. In essence, one could say of Lovecraft, "He saw the world as it really was, not as we created it." That's what makes a story Lovecraftian, creation of a whole new world within the fabric of the one we live in. Like a brood parasite, he leads us to consider the extension of the reality of this world, our world. I don't know how many people I've met that believe the Necronomicon is a real book, not just a tome created for Howard's mythos. That is the power his words wield..

Another thing he does is create legends for us to believe in. Though fantastical in nature, we still have that nagging tingle in our spine, wondering what is real, what is not. In many parts of the world the stuff of legend is considered reality. Who's to say. We all live on the same planet but our sphere of influence is different. One man's trash, An other's treasure. In his stories, Creatures of legend become creatures of fact, some even the stuff of nightmares. Man crawled from the seas millions of years ago yet before us the old ones arrived, creating this reality that we call our own. Now...they want it back.

The other thing that Lovecraft saw different was the universe. While we see the sun and moon, the stars are but lights in the sky, whereas Lovecraft envisions a vast oasis of life-bearing stars, and, the face of God. I'm convinced that in his wanderings in the dreamlands he came face-to-face with the essence that is God. Such a thing could have motivated him to create otherworldly beings that stretch the fabric of reality to it's utmost endurance. I wrote a book I hope to get published some day that is rife with Lovecraftian reality. In one section I have a character that is confronted by the group. The character is asked if she is who she appears to be or is she something entirely different. Angel says to them, 'Those who seek the truth shall never be blinded by darkness. You must unquestionably trust your faith, for to reveal it's mystery, is to destroy it's existence." Howard never reveals the mystery. Therefore, we believe, and try to reproduce that. John Carpenter saw that with "Out of The Mouth Of Madness." He gets it. He is in on the secret. Like any good magician Lovecraft kept the secrets to his worlds inside.

But speaking of the world of magic, one must realize that Lovecraft lived in a world very different from the one we frequent. His was fraught with the likes of people like Regardie, Crowley, Blackwood, and the occult lodges made popular at the turn of the century. The Order of the Golden Dawn and other groups all bent on magically manipulating our world into one to suite themselves. He lived in a world where many people believed in the mysterious land of the Hollow Earth with access at the poles when holes would appear large enough to swallow up entire ships. His was a world full of mystery and wonder and Charles Fortean discoveries of things unknown to us but real on some plane of existence here on Earth. These were the lines of reality from which he drew his fantastical vision of the Earth we live on and the stars that haunt our skies.

You want to know what a Lovecraftian story is, that is your answer. It is the real world, the world of wonder and imagination and natural energies., not this concrete shell of death, pestilence and artificial nutrition. A world you, and I can visit. Just follow the sounds of the Wendigo, the light of the will-o-wisp traverse through the misty moors surrounding the town of Drossligoth, and beyond to the city of Zadnikur.

John (aka, the "Creature")

Now the Minions of Cthulhu Attack San Diego!

{Thanks to Vampduster on this one!}

Just when you thought it was safe … giant squid terrorise Californian coast
Divers spooked by tales of assaults as swarms of aggressive jumbo flying squid invade the shallows off San Diego
Associated Press in San Diego
Friday 17 July 2009 15.25 BST

Jumbo flying squid have invaded the shallow waters off San Diego, California, spooking scuba divers and beachgoers after washing up dead on the beaches.

The carnivorous cephalopods, which weigh up to 45kg (100lb), came up from the depths last week, with swarms of them roughing up unsuspecting divers. Some reported tentacles enveloping their masks and yanking at their cameras and gear.

Stories of close encounters with the squid have chased many divers out of the water and created a whirlwind of excitement among those torn between their personal safety and the once-in-a-lifetime chance to swim with the deep-sea giants.

The so-called Humboldt squid, named after the current in the eastern Pacific, have been known to attack humans and are nicknamed "red devils" for their rust-red colouring and mean streak. Divers wanting to observe the creatures often bait the water, use a metal viewing cage or wear chainmail to avoid being lashed by the creature's tentacles.

The squid, which is most commonly found in deep water from California to the bottom of south America, hunts in schools of up to 1,200 individuals, can swim up to 15 mph and can skim over the water to escape predators.

"I wouldn't go into the water with them for the same reason I wouldn't walk into a pride of lions on the Serengeti," said Mike Bear, a local diver. "For all I know, I'm missing the experience of a lifetime."

The squid are too deep to bother swimmers and surfers, but many experienced divers say they are staying out of the surf until the sea creatures move on.

Roger Uzun, a veteran scuba diver and amateur underwater videographer, swam with a swarm of the creatures for about 20 minutes and said they appeared more curious than aggressive. The animals taste with their tentacles, he said, and seemed to be touching him and his wet suit to determine if he was edible.

Ed Lee Lovecraftian Manuscript

Recently seen at auction:
ONE OF A KIND HAND-CORRECTED MANUSCRIPT

TROLLEY NO. 1852 by Edward Lee

DESCRIPTION: A signed, hand-corrected manuscript of the hardcore Lovecraftian horror novella, TROLLEY NO. 1852, by Edward Lee. The manuscript contains hand-written corrections by the author and his proof-readers.

-Also included is a signed certification by the author attesting that this is the only manuscript printout of the novel that exists, and that no others will be created and/or sold.

-The author will inscribe the manuscript for the Buyer if the Buyer so desires.

-The Author will include the Buyer’s name in the Acknowledgments of a future novel or novella, if the Buyer so desires.

Another HPL-allusion Comic

OK before we get back into pure (and some might say dry) history of HPL, let's divert briefly to comics. As a kid, I grew up in the Silver Age and recall vividly getting my first Fantastic Four magazines and reading about a new chemist-student-character named Spiderman. Now, we see HPL becoming more comic centered.

Excerpt: First off, how can you NOT love a comic called Atomic Robo and the Shadow Beyond Time? Everything you need to know about this comic is sitting right there in the title. It’s got robots, horror, and just the right about of humor. Of course, the book itself is pretty good too, which is a good thing because people generally buy a comic for more than just its title. ... In this one, we follow Atomic Robo in 1920’s New York as he has to stop a Lovecraftian monster who has taken over the body of the actual H.P. Lovecraft.

more here, click.

Chris Landreth Mentions HPL

Audio feed of Fangoria's Blood Spattered Blog mentioning a new Lovecraft animated film. 7:15 into the interview it's mentioned for a minute or so. The interview cuts off abruptly for some reason at the end.

Craig Ferguson 6/1/09-E Late Late Show Guillermo del Toro: HPL Fans.

Craig Ferguson does his schtick and mentions HPL (though their mutual memories are not overly precise). FYI, I think they are recollecting (incorrectly) and conflating The Thing at the Top of the Stairs, (pm) Now We Are Sick, ed. Neil Gaiman & Stephen Jones, DreamHaven 1991 - with The Lurker at the Threshhold (Derleth) - with The Thing on the Doorstep (HPL 1933). It's television.

Lovecraft and James Bond?

From Things that Don’t Go Away - The Summer Reading List by Sarah Zettel, this review: The Jennifer Morgue by Charlie Stross. Confession: I haven’t finished this one yet, but the beginning definitely made me sit up and take notice. The series itself is in a universe where James Bond meets HP Lovecraft (which you’ve got to love right there), but on the whole the writing is better and smoother than Ian Fleming or Lovecraft ever actually managed. I’d been hearing about these and picked this one up because I liked the title, and then read the opening, which was an utterly enthralling scene about deep sea drilling. If an author can pull that off, they are definitely worth a read.
I know very little else about this book, but HPL and James Bond? Not since C J Henderson's coupling of Kolchak and Cthulhu has there been something so intriguing.

Up Close and Personal with a "Colour Out of Space"

Yow!!
_____

Boy Hit by Meteorite
SPACE.com Space.com Staff
Fri Jun 12, 9:45 am ET

_____

A 14-year old German boy was hit in the hand by a pea-sized meteorite that scared the bejeezus out of him and left a scar.

"When it hit me it knocked me flying and then was still going fast enough to bury itself into the road," Gerrit Blank said in a newspaper account. Astronomers have analyzed the object and conclude it was indeed a natural object from space, The Telegraph reports.

Most meteors vaporize in the atmosphere, creating "shooting stars," and never reach the ground. The few that do are typically made mostly of metals. Stony space rocks, even if they are big as a car, will usually break apart or explode as they crash through the atmosphere.

There are a handful of reports of homes and cars being struck by meteorites, and many cases of space rocks streaking to the surface and being found later.

But human strikes are rare. There are no known instances of humans being killed by space rocks.

According to SPACE.com article on the topic a few years, back:

• On November 30, 1954, Alabama housewife Ann Hodges was taking a nap on her couch when she was awakened by a 3-pound (1.4-kilogram) meteor that crashed through the roof of her house, bounced off a piece of furniture and struck her in the hip, causing a large bruise.
  
• On October 9, 1992, a large fireball was seen streaking over the eastern United States, finally exploding into many pieces. In Peekskill, New York, one of the pieces struck a Chevrolet automobile owned by Michelle Knapp. Knapp was not in the car at the time.
  
• On June 21, 1994, Jose Martin of Spain was driving with his wife near Madrid when a 3-pound (1.4-kilogram) meteor crashed through his windshield, bent the steering wheel and ended up in the back seat.
  
• In 2004, a 2,000-pound space rock bigger than a refrigerator exploded in the late-night sky over Chicago, producing a large flash and a sound resembling a detonation that woke people up. Fragments rained down on that wild Chicago night, and many were collected by residents in a northern suburb.
  

-What would Lovecraft Have Said??

_____

Click image to expand.

Innsmouthian Embryos?

Sky 'rains tadpoles' over Japan
The sky has been raining tadpoles over a coastal region in Japan, according to reports
_____

By Danielle Demetriou in Tokyo
Published: 5:36AM BST 10 Jun 2009
_____



Residents, officials and scientists have been baffled by the apparent downpour of tadpoles in central Japan's Ishikawa Prefecture. Clouds of dead tadpoles appear to have fallen from the sky in a series of episodes in a number of cities in the region since the start of the month.

In one incident, a 55-year-old man who was caught in a tadpole downpour described hearing a strange sound in the parking lot of a civic centre in the city of Nanao. Upon further exploration, he found more than 100 dead tadpoles covering the windshields of cars in an area measuring 10 square metres. Dead tadpole downpours were also reported by local officials 48 hours later in the city of Hakusan in the same prefecture.

Scientists have widely attributed the surreal raining of animals to strong winds, storms and water sprouts sucking up creatures before depositing them further inland. However, this explanation has not satisfied meteorologists in the Ishikawa region.

Officials at Kanazawa Local Meteorological Observatory told local media that they were unsure how the tadpoles had arrived as there had been no reports of strong winds at the time.

Another scientific explanation for raining animals relates to birds carrying the small creatures before dropping them as they fly overland. However, dismissing this theory, a researcher at the Yamashina Institute for Ornithology in Abiko told Kyodo news: "Crows eat tadpoles but if these were spat out (by the birds), a wider area should have been covered."

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Deep in a secluded laboratory, heinous minions with batrachian faces hunched over flashing screens and turned dials with webbed hands.

"Our plan has begun. The Ishikawa Prefecture has been infected. Shall we proceed to the enxt level?"

The lead scientist's tongue lolled for a moment, then nodded approval.

"Pro-c-c-c-eed." The repulsive thing lisped.

:)

Betelgeuse & Lovecraft (Real Life Lovecraftian Science)

(Above) Constellation containing Betegeuse.
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(Above) Image of the Red Star
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“Good luck with Hastur—but don’t use any word sounding like ‘Betelgeuse’ to represent a primal name of that distant sun (or to represent the name used by the denizens of any of its hypothetical planets) since this name is an Arabic product of the Middle Ages, and signifies ‘the armpit (or shoulder) of the giant (or central one)’—Ibn at Jauzah—Orion having been known as Al Jauzah to the astronomers of the Saracenic Caliphate—who did so much to advance the science.” (to August Derleth, 30 January 1933)
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Chrispy does not typically follow the intricacies of the modern Mythos games, but in this case it's notable to know that: The ancient battleground in which the Elder Gods and the Great Old Ones fought their apocalyptic and unfathomable war, the system of Betelgeuse – rendered “Glyu-Uho” in Naacal – contains innumerable worlds pocked with the scabrous remnants of ancient and often non-Euclidean cities scarred with the uncanny wounds of primordial conflict. The principle inhabited world of the Betelgeuse System is Yarnak, a shattered world rebuilt by initially optimistic if perhaps foolhardy settlers. /// August Derleth and Mark Schorer’s “The Lair of the Star-Spawn” (published in the February 1932 issue of Weird Tales) mentions the “Great Old Ones” - but as the beings from Betelgeuse and Rigel who imprisoned Cthulhu and his kindred!

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11 June 2009

Bye-bye, Betelgeuse?

The nearby, well-known and very bright star may soon explode in a supernova, according to data released by U.C. Berkeley researchers Tuesday.

The red giant Betelgeuse, once so large it would reach out to Jupiter's orbit if placed in our own solar system, has shrunk by 15 percent over the past decade in a half, although it's just as bright as it's ever been.

"To see this change is very striking," said retired Berkeley physics professor Charles Townes, who won the 1964 Nobel Prize for inventing the laser. "We will be watching it carefully over the next few years to see if it will keep contracting or will go back up in size."

Betelgeuse, whose name derives from Arabic, is easily visible in the constellation Orion. It gave Michael Keaton's character his name in the movie "Beetlejuice" and was the home system of Galactic President Zaphod Beeblebrox in "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy."