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

* Important PDF downloads now available from the official NecronomiCon Providence website. The official maps, and the final at-a-glance schedule.

* I guess most attendees have harnessed the night-gaunts, and are in flight now. Follow the Blue Moon, guys! According to Space.com the night of August 20th is not only a full moon in Providence — but also officially a Blue Moon. This “once in a blue moon” moon will be in its prime fullness in the USA in the early hours of Wednesday morning. Should also look nearly-full over the weekend, for added spectral ambiance.

* NecronomiCon 2013 story in The Japan Times, but it’s merely publishing the Associated Press story.

* To be seen on Google Street View, just a few steps across the small Park that’s opposite the Biltmore Hotel, is the main entrance of the old Union Station. Once almost burned down, Union Station is now the smart HQ of the Rhode Island Foundation and apparently also houses the city’s public radio station. But in Lovecraft’s time it was… “the main terminal of the Providence train station, a role it fulfilled for 88 years, from 1898 to 1986″…

So this site was where Lovecraft fatefully mislaid the story “Under the Pyramids” when setting off for his honeymoon: “MANUSCRIPT — Lost, title of story, ‘Under the Pyramids,’ Sunday afternoon, in or about Union Station. Finder please send to H.P. Lovecraft …”. It was also the site of his triumphant return home from the Pest Zone in 1926: “HOME—UNION STATION—PROVIDENCE!” (Selected Letters II: pp.46-47). In Lovecraft’s time it had a covered extension (seen in the photograph above).

* Providence Journal architecture critic David Brussat writes that he has a forthcoming…

“column on Thursday, which deals with the intersection of Lovecraft and Providence”

* Photo from the street window of the Providence Art Club, by early-bird attendee Philip Eil…

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

* NecronomiCon Providence 2013 organiser Neils Hobbs has published a new last-minute official newsletter for attendees, with lots of finalised events information and important updates.

* Caitlin R. Kiernan reports from Providence on your chances of dipping with the deep ones…

“Summer seems to be making a last stand here in Providence. It’s a bit more summery out there than the Curse of Green Autumn. We’re aiming for the beach on Wednesday, one last chance to swim, probably. Though the sea will be freezing.”

* Wilum Pugmire plans to fly into Boston on Wednesday. He has a new blog post that details his plans and schedule for the convention.

* The NecronomiCon art shows are already open now, but the first official convention time-limited event is today, 20th August 2013…

“THE CALL OF CTHULHU screens with a couple of surprise shorts, at 7pm at the Black Box Theater, 95 Empire Street, Providence”

* The city’s big free Waterfire event will have tentacles, courtesy of the BiB Nazo workshops…

* The Associated Press news report on NecronomiCon has been picked up by newspapers all over America. Even the Mormons of Salt Lake City are hearing about it. Praise be!

* Buzzing Insectoid Wings of Blood-Sucking Death Alert: relax, Providence mosquitoes are disease-free according to the latest official tests. You can leave the pump-action DDT sprayer out of your travel bag 🙂

* “You’ve arrived on a rather special night. It’s one of the master’s affairs”: The Rocky Horror Picture Show Convention is a fan convention happening in Providence on the same days as NecronomiCon, presumably to unofficially segway with all the cool NecronomiCon public film screenings…

“Some 300 devotees of the 1970s cult classic are expected to descend on Providence Thursday for a four-day Rocky Horror bash that includes a showing of the film, panel discussions, a costume contest and a late-night “Time Warp” dance party lasting into the wee hours.”

Rather than post NecronomiCon Providence 2013 online items individually, I’ll be (unofficially) collecting them under “Update” posts…

* An Associated Press wire story on Necronomicon Providence 2013 has been picked up by The Washington Post [non-paywall alt version]. Gets it broadly right, and has quotes from Joshi…

“I think we’re finally getting to the era where horror fiction can be looked at more than just something to scare you,” (Joshi)

* The Providence Journal has a nice informative article too.

* Tickets still selling fast, but currently only 13 x one-day tickets still left for the Saturday.

* S.T. Joshi is reportedly heading to Boston today (Sunday), and then will be in Providence on Wednesday. He’s rumoured to be in the market for a bright yellow fireman’s raincoat for the Fancy Dress Party, so he can be “The King in Yellow” 🙂

Only 22 days to go before NecronomiCon Providence 2013. It’s super to see that Lovecraftians can fill four (or is it five now?) hotels, and that the con tickets have sold strongly. There are still a few tickets left though. I can’t be there, but I plan to provide a daily digest posting — of Web links to news items, online photo/videos, and any reports from the convention.

The Brown University Library’s Lovecraft collection will apparently be closed during NecronomiCon Providence 2013, but Brown has just announced…

“a two-part exhibit this summer in partnership with the Providence Athenaeum … “The Shadow Over College Street: H.P. Lovecraft in Providence,” will be on exhibit 19th August through 22nd September in the Philbrick Rare Book Room of the Providence Athenaeum [251 Benefit St., and] a smaller satellite exhibit will be on view in the lobby of the John D. Rockeller, Jr. Library [10 Prospect St., their main arts and humanities student library] from 19th August through 24th October. … Both parts of the exhibit feature materials from the John Hay Library [at Brown]. Explores Lovecraft’s youth in Providence and the city’s role in shaping his career as a master craftsman of weird fiction.”

More possible stop-offs in New York, for those set to head for NecronomiCon Providence 2013 in August 2013…

* Nicholas Roerich Museum New York, 150 paintings on show from one of Lovecraft’s favorite artists. Free.

* A Beautiful Way to Go: New York’s Green-Wood Cemetery, a history exhibition at the Museum of the City of New York. Aka Greenwood Cemetery, a feast of neo-Gothic architecture and carving. Lovecraft visited this cemetery on a night walk with Sonia and others while in New York. Lovecraft’s story “The Horror at Red Hook” buried Robert Suydam there.

* The New York Historical Society has Swing Time: Reginald Marsh and Thirties New York, which looks like it should provide a fine insight into the seedier and more grotesque sides of the city in the 1930s.

* Journey To The Stars, the planetarium show at the American Natural History Museum. Tickets needed.

* The New York Public Library has The ABC of It: why children’s books matter, 250 items curated by children’s book expert Leonard S. Marcus. May interest some, as it might skew toward the fantastical elements in children’s books.

Already mentioned here: Divine Felines: Cats of Ancient Egypt at the Brooklyn Museum.