My unofficial round-up of NecronomiCon Providence 2013 news and links…

* The convention’s All-Weekend Pass ticket-sales have now ended, at least online. With just 9 general weekend Pass tickets left unsold. Which will doubtless be snapped up on the door. Nicely judged — Full House!

* S.T. Joshi is now in Providence and in residence at the Biltmore Hotel.

* The Providence Phoenix wakes up to NecronomiCon, with a pretty good report: “Have you met H.P.? — NecronomiCon Providence resurrects Lovecraft” accompanied by sidebar “From Dam Nor to T’yog”.

* News that a new corrected edition of a 68-page booklet will be available this weekend…

“WaterFire Providence is re-publishing, H.P. Lovecraft: New England Decadent by Professor Emeritus Barton Levi St. Armand. First published in 1979, the book, which examines the history of Lovecraft scholarship and his roots in the decadent movement of 19th Century [Britain and] Europe, has been corrected and re-released for NecronomiCon Providence 2013. Copies will be available digitally and in hard copy on Amazon beginning on 24th August 2013 [actually already listed at $16.65 on Amazon USA], as well as for sale at WaterFire Providence and NecronomiCon events”

The 1979 first editions of H.P. Lovecraft: New England Decadent now go for silly prices. S.T. Joshi, in A Subtler Magick, called it a… “Provocative study of the influence of Puritanism and the French Decadent movement upon Lovecraft. Perhaps overstates its case…”. If it’s a reprint of the 1975 journal article then it also has “close studies” of “The Music of Erich Zann” and “The Horror at Red Hook”. Looks well worth getting, and — although a little over-priced for a booklet — presumably the sales benefit the city’s WaterFire fund?

* A free Steampunk-themed performance-art / gallery show has popped up in Providence this weekend, running alongside NecronomiCon…

“Steampunk art in the Old Stone Bank [in Providence] on Saturday 24th August 2013 from 2 p.m. to midnight, and Sunday 25th August from noon to 8 p.m. Performance artists, circus acts, and musicians from across the U.S. will perform. Free and open to the public.”

* The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets (a Lovecraftian band) are practicing their Cthulhu worshiping skillz already, at rehearsals for Saturday night. See the band live and free on the WaterFire outdoor stage, Saturday 24th August 2013 at 10pm…

* Found a cool c.1930s photo-postcard of the Biltmore, with twin RKO-style ‘Radio Age’ masts on the roof…

* Lovecraft’s map of his study “WALL PLAN OF GRANDPA THEOBALD’S STUDY”, drawn on Biltmore Hotel headed paper, 2nd May 1924…