Category Archives: Lovecraftian arts

Event: Walking in Providence

28 Sunday Apr 2019

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Walking in Providence. Booking now. Free.

On 4th and 5th May 2019, staff and students at the John Nicholas Brown Center for Public Humanities and Cultural Heritage at Brown University will lead an arduous, 2-day, 20-mile collaborative walk through all 25 of Providence’s neighborhoods, in which the “route” is mapped by strangers in the street.

How does it work? The walkers will meet once on 1st May, to pick the locations throughout the city that they would like to hit over the two days. On Saturday, 4th May, the group will set out and will ask passers-by for the best route to their location based on specific questions, like “What is the route that bypasses particular places that have meaning to you or your community?” or “What is the ugliest route we can take and why is it so ugly?” The walk will be shaped by people in the streets — some may even join in for part or all of the day. The route, generative questions and some information about each route-giver will be recorded, and a map will be produced at the end of the weekend.

New book: The H. P. Lovecraft Cat Book

28 Sunday Apr 2019

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The H. P. Lovecraft Cat Book now has a Necronomicon Press pre-order page, a cover and TOC, and a release-date of 20th May 2019 for the paper editions. The hardback first edition is limited to 100 copies.

“assembled by S. T. Joshi … lavishly illustrated by Jason C. Eckhardt” in pen and ink.

I’m assuming that “The Cats of New York”, listed in the TOC, might be something drawn from the letters? Or perhaps a scholarly essay from Joshi on the cat-encounters? We also get an “Extracts from Letters” section, although at present it’s unknown how completist this is.

Weird Tales, 1929 issues

24 Wednesday Apr 2019

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New on Archive.org…

* Weird Tales, January 1929. “The Silver Key” by H.P. Lovecraft, and “Skulls in the Stars” (Solomon Kane) by Robert. E. Howard.

* Weird Tales, November 1929. Lovecraft’s revision tale “The Curse of Yig”, with Zealia Brown Reed. Also “Skull-face” (part two) by Robert E. Howard.

“HPL ghostwrote “The Curse of Yig” (WT, November 1929) in 1928 from a plot synopsis and a questionnaire pertaining to the Oklahoma setting for the story” — Lovecraft Encyclopaedia.

“… it can hardly be doubted that the story as we have it is almost entirely the work of Lovecraft except for the bare nucleus of the plot.” — Joshi, I Am Providence.

“… if you want to see a new story which is practically mine, read “The Curse of Yig”” — letter from Lovecraft.

Omen Exitio

22 Monday Apr 2019

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Each month it seems a tidal-wave of ‘inspired by Lovecraft’ games surges past, heading on into oblivion. I don’t usually pay attention to them. But it seems worth noting the new Omen Exitio. It’s a ‘visual novel’ from Italy, and has high design-values and some minimal solo-play game elements…

“inspired by the [‘choose your own adventure’] gamebooks of the ’80s and ’90s”

The game elements are stats-gaining, not point-and-click puzzles, it seems.

Looks fun, though it needs Windows / Steam and is not for the Amazon Kindle.

Talking of the Kindle, the makers of the award-winning 80 Days are prepping their new game. It’s a science-fiction adventure in space, featuring lost races, linguistics and archaeology. Probably mid 2019. (Update: it’s out now, and is sadly not for the Kindle as their last game was).

Michael J. Evans and “The Music of Erich Zann”

15 Monday Apr 2019

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Noted from 2016, Michael J. Evans and “The Music of Erich Zann”. An album-length classical music interpretation of Lovecraft’s “Erich Zann” by Michael Evans and the Sirius Quartet. There’s an interview and links…

Q: This piece also includes some pretty wild effects and manipulation from the players. Do they relate to the narrative of the story in any way?

A: Absolutely! They all do. In general, when composing, I try to only use effects if they have a purpose or meaning. In this piece, there is the sound of creaking stairs, a squeaky door, and a ton of effects representing the things that are entering from another dimension. There are also air sounds, microtonal passages, and harmonics. These are all enhanced by the use of electronic effects, and they can all be performed live.

Reviewed by the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society in 2017…

The Sirius Quartet, it can determined right away, is an excellent group of musicians and a great choice for the performing ensemble.

YouTube sample and Amazon samples.

Weird Tales from 1925

13 Saturday Apr 2019

Posted by in Historical context, Lovecraftian arts, Odd scratchings

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New on Archive.org this week, scans of 1925 Weird Tales editions not previously present there…

Weird Tales, February 1925.

“The Statement of Randolph Carter” by H.P. Lovecraft.

Weird Tales, May 1925.

“The Music of Erich Zann” by H.P. Lovecraft.

Weird Tales, July 1925.

“The Unnamable” by H.P. Lovecraft.
“Spear and Fang” by Robert E. Howard.

Weird Tales, August 1925.

“The Temple” by H.P. Lovecraft. With a fairly good header illustration.

Answering the Call of Cthulhu

06 Saturday Apr 2019

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The new podcast Hypnogoria #110 is “Answering the Call of Cthulhu“. The second half of this is an excellent and clear examination of the recent £20 Call of Cthulhu Starter Set from Chaosium, with the box and the basics of the game explained for utter clueless newbies by a solo presenter who’s an experienced keeper (game master). He also makes some useful basic distinctions which clearly explain why Call of Cthulhu is different from the bulk of heroic fantasy RPGs.

Those delving into the game, and perhaps short of cash after forking out £20 for the Set, will also want to know that there’s a free Quickstart Rules PDF on the Chaosium site. I had repeated problems getting this to download, and couldn’t get it to complete the download even with a VPN. Apparently the PDF is the 2013 version, and the 2016 Quickstart print edition ($s) was “Revised”.