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

NecronomiCon Providence 2013 has obviously been a huge success for all concerned, even when seen from this distance in the British Isles. Congratulations to all the organisers and helpers, and to the city of Providence for supporting the event!

* More fab videos of the discussion panels, recorded by Steve Ahlquist. Panel: “Religion, philosophy, and cosmic horror in HPL” (Sunday 2:30pm – 3:45pm, Grand Ballroom, Biltmore Hotel)…

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDqEct4UgmI&w=560&h=315]

 
Panel: “Self, gender identity, and sexuality in Lovecraft” (Sunday 1:00pm – 2:15pm, Grand Ballroom, Biltmore Hotel)… rather surprised that no-one mentioned “Hypnos”…

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGI8aAHwRgQ&w=560&h=315]

 
Steve also has a 39-minute video of the Cthulhu Prayer Breakfast on Sunday morning.

* Providence Monthly (a superficial glossy ‘lifestyle’ mag) has an article “I Am Providence, And I Am Weird” by Michael Clark, who makes some oddly disgruntled observations about the appearance of some of HPL’s fans…

“I moved to Providence eight years ago, and unfortunately I still know nothing about or nor have read anything written by one of this city’s cultural icons, HP Lovecraft, the weird fiction author. … an eclectic lot, including Goths, gay men, and what appeared to be a preponderance of spinsters … Goths, clad in black and exhibiting signs of Vitamin D deficiency, milled about …”

* Michael Umbricht’s sumptuous Powerpoint presentation is now online, “Cosmic Inspiration: Lovecraft’s Astronomical Influences”. Has many large and sharp archive pictures of the Ladd Observatory, which are nicely paired with Lovecraft’s comments on his involvement with Ladd. This Powerpoint seems to have been prepared for the Ladd Open Day during NecronomiCon…

* Lovely example of wall-title typography for the Cohen Gallery’s Ars Necronomica art exhibition, an element of NecronomiCon Providence 2013. This show will be open into September 2013. Photo: Joseph Caffentzis…

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

* Report from J.W. Ocker, author of the New England Grimpendium.

* 38 minute video of Robert M. Price‘s Cthulhu Prayer Breakfast event (Sunday morning) at NecronomiCon…

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cB58lYxqixk&w=560&h=315]

* The main art exhibitions (Providence Art Club and The Cohen Gallery at Brown) will continue to be open into September.

* More NecronomiCon event photos from various folks…

1904 boyhood astronomy journal.

Big Nazo band.

Eldritch Ball Fancy Dress party.

Convention Pass.

WaterFire event.

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

* S.T. Joshi had received the Robert Bloch Award at NecronomiCon 2013. The award was set up by the 1995 NecronomiCon committee, and was administered by the New England Lovecraft Society. Joshi once gave the award to Lovecraft scholar Dirk W. Mosig, at the NecronomiCon 1997. Below is Matthew Carter’s photo of S.T. receiving The Shining Trapezohedron from convention organiser Niels Hobbs…

* Matthew Carpenter has big photo sets of the Costume Ball at the NecronomiCon, and the Ars Necronomica art show…

* A Facebook news snippet, from NecronomiCon, to the effect that…

“the entire print run of The Crypt of Cthulhu [fanzine] will be reprinted in a series of hardback collections. These will be made from scans of the originals”

* Nazo monster seen on the water at WaterFire on Saturday night…

* The first of the written convention reports online: K.H. Vaughan, on the Saturday. Vaughan volunteered as a helper Minion.

* Sounds like the weather’s been nice. Despite a heavy rain shower just before the convention started, humidity has stayed down. SSY writes…

“this weekend in Providence there is both a Lovecraft convention and a Rocky Horror convention running at the same time, it’s also pretty cold for this time of year … Chilly enough that I want to get a jacket. August around here is usually insufferably humid…”

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

* Another super NecronomiCon 2013 video from Steve Ahlquist, 88 minutes of the panel on HPL’s Phobias: race, class, and “The Outsider” (Friday, 4:00pm – 5:15pm, Grand Ballroom, Biltmore Hotel)…

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gO5wOys7lBI&w=560&h=315]

“… analyzing Lovecraft as an individual and in the context of his society and time period. (Peter Cannon, Bob Price, Scott Connors, Lois Gresh, with Rory Raven as moderator)”

* Todd Chicoine’s compilation video of snippets from Thursday and Friday at NecronomiCon 2013… the gaming panel looks surprisingly under-attended…

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fE4veLSJ2R4&w=420&h=315]

* Wessendenwoollies’s nice unfiltered macro, showing the wrinkles on Lovecraft’s own rough sketch of the statuette in “The Call of Cthulhu”…

* Another preview of the Big Nazo creatures which will be roaming the streets tonight at WaterFire…

* Short blurb in The Providence Journal on the art shows…

“Of special note: John Coulthart’s “Cthulhoid”, a creepy digital print that suggests a kaleidoscopic version of the monster from Alien…”

* Good to see that Lovecraft’s gravestone isn’t swamped with a heap of tacky schwag…

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

* Pic of Jo Pulver, Laird Barron, and Wilum Pugmire, glimpsed on the “Writing Mythos Fiction Today” panel (Friday, 10:30am – 11:45am)…

* New 57-minute video version of the opening keynote addresses for NecronomiCon 2013, at the First Baptist Church.

* 70-minute video version of the “HPL’s Providence and Arkham” discussion panel (Friday, 2:30pm – 3:45pm Friday: Garden Room, Biltmore)…

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4nb_27aGNU&w=560&h=315]

“Few writers have as strong a sense of place as Lovecraft. His often quoted remark, “I am Providence” shows this. Many of Lovecraft’s places are based on real towns and areas. We look at the influence of Providence on Lovecraft’s work, as well as the imaginary locales he created. (S.T. Joshi, Will Murray, Steve Mariconda, Faye Ringel, Caitlin Kiernan + Donovan Loucks as moderator).”

S.T. Joshi throws out a couple of stumpers during this panel discussion…

i) Why did Lovecraft use “100 Prospect St.” as the address of Ward’s house in “Dexter Ward” (1927) — when the actual house is clearly, according to Joshi and others, based on 140 Prospect Street. (140 Prospect was apparently a house that Lovecraft could glimpse from his study windows, at that time?)

Henry Samuel Sprague (1847-1929) was resident at 100 Prospect St. in 1919 (Who’s who at New Port gives his Providence address alongside his 1919 holiday address). But modern architectural research shows Sprague was at 100 Prospect St. from c.1902 to c.1929. Sprague was also listed as a member of the Rhode Island Historical Society in 1920 and 1928. Henry was listed as in charge of “Hay and Grain” at the Providence Chamber of Commerce (Chamber magazine, November 1919) as he was “in the grain business”. He had the wholesale grain business from his Connecticut family, Sprague Flour & Grain: “their mills being the largest in this city [Providence], and perhaps in the state”, the works site being “The Columbia Elevator and Grain Mills” and its associated rail yards. By the time Lovecraft was writing “Dexter Ward”, Henry Samuel Sprague had very probably retired — since he was then nearing age 80.

Henry S. Sprague appears to have been closely connected to a John L. Sprague who had graduated from Cornell in 1918, and who was receiving mail at 100 Prospect St in 1921 (Cornell Alumni News, May 1921). John was either Henry’s son or a ward. The Cornell graduation date would make John L. Sprague approx. the same age as Dexter Ward (Ward born 1902). John L. Sprague was seemingly the namesake of an older man in the same family who died in 1917. Could Lovecraft have known the young John L. Sprague and his father Henry, perhaps via his research for “Dexter Ward” at the Rhode Island Historical Society, and for that reason felt able to use 100 Prospect St. as Ward’s address?

ii) Joshi said something I didn’t quite catch and can’t find again on the video. Something about there not being an actual post of Semitic Languages in Brown University. Presumably this was a reference to… “George Gammell Angell, Professor Emeritus of Semitic Languages in Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island.” (“The Call of Cthulhu”).

The nearest match seems to be a Henry Thatcher Fowler, professor of Biblical literature and history at Brown from 1901-1934, a specialist on early Judaism (Origin and Growth of the Hebrew Religion, 1916). His assistant professor at the time of “Cthulhu” was Millar Burrows, who was at Brown from 1925-1934 and who was later famous for the Dead Sea Scrolls.

iii) Joshi also mused during the panel on how to pronounce “Dunwich”. I can confirm that the British pronunciation is (and would have been) “Dunn-itch”, as Joshi suggests, with a silent “w”. As someone from the British Midlands I can also confirm that Warwick is not pronounced War-wick but “Warr-ick”, as the second “w” is silent. Greenwich has another silent “w”, and is pronounced “Grrenn-itch”. Although there are some places suggested as models for Lovecraft towns, such as Oakham, which consciously shunned the British pronunciation.

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

* Registration opened this morning and the NecronomiCon weekend is now officially underway. Here’s video of S.T. Joshi’s speech to the city at the First Baptist Church…

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3-hBz0x7k4&w=560&h=315]

S.T. was preceded by the official church historian Dr. Stanley Lemons, giving details of Lovecraft and his connection with the church [video].

* The bronze bust is unveiled and in place…

Iz guarded by Ulthar Kittee Patrol…

* Rhode Island Public Radio has a short interview on NecronomiCon.

* A Lead Editorial on Lovecraft, today in The Providence Journal.

* A short video on the origins on “The Call of Lovecraft” augmented reality app, which is debuting at NecronomiCon…

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i32eCiE6dCI&w=420&h=315]

* The H.P. Lovecraft Literary Podcast guys are now in Providence.

* The Arab Times, and The Bangkok Post (Thailand), have both picked up the Associated Press news story on NecronomiCon.

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

* Online now: the official NecronomiCon Sales Room Vendors list, plus a map of the vendor tables.

* Also the official final WaterFire schedule for Saturday.

* The Providence Journal‘s architecture specialist David Brussat has a short column “Lovecraft’s Providence, real and unreal”. With a neat cartoon by Chris Schweizer…

* The website for The Call of Lovecraft augmented-reality walking-tour app is now fully live…

* 1,000 copies of the new The Cthulhu Commune fanzine are being hefted to NecronomiCon for free distribution. The editor writes that a free PDF of the zine should also be available online, after the convention…

* The Miskatonic River Press guys may be a little late in arriving at NecronomiCon, as they have to wait at home for a last-minute order of print books to arrive.

* The city’s H.P. Lovecraft Memorial Square sign is officially up…

* Strange-looking folk already wandering the streets of Providence…

* A “suspicious” Lovecraft fanboy has been turned back at the border.

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…