Vulpine at the Movies: Bliss and Prey

Ok, Friday night horror movie night has been quality new scares.

Bliss - I'd make a joke about the anti-twilight, but this is more 3- Days of Night + punk art and more drugs then three hair metal bands reduced down to their essential saltes. Exceedingly gory, mondo demented, good soundtrack if you like punk/metal, and it's got surprises for you. FYI, lots of strobe effects, take into account when viewing. 5 out of 5 bloody snacks.

Prey - Troubled teen on a 'deserted' island tries to learn about himself, finds cute fellow teen, and a monster in the jungle. Kind of predictable, but the lead teen plays it well, just enough awkward to see, yes I'm a teen, but still sympathetic and interesting. The fact he goes from well, me in the woods to Rambo/The Guy in Predator in 2 lessons and about 40 hours in the jungle is a bit over the top, but history is full of people doing amazing things to impress someone they find cute. 3.5 out of 5 bad travel decisions.

And on that note, I'm off to read. Found a 'new' (to me) author "In the vein of M.R. James" so I'm off to creepy stuff found by antiquarians. Night all.

A Whole Bunch of Random

I've been random the last few days. So I've posted some odd stuff on Facebook. Some of it needs to be posted here as well.

Lovecraftian:
"We got the gills that give the thrills!" aka the New Esoteric Order of Dagon motto.

A new term for my clinical depression:
Oh, while listening to M.R. James' 'Count Magnus' while driving yesterday, came up with a good euphemism for 'being diagnosed (again) with depression'. 'Taking the Black Pilgrimage to Chorazin.' Seems fitting, since I came back with a follower that will never leave. Luckily (?) it rarely sucks the faces off of people. So I may start calling my swings as 'my minion from Chorazin.' Better than a black dog. I like dogs.

(don't worry, this isn't a cry for help or anything, just a random bit of brain foo. Change what you call a thing, and you change how you react. Words have power, and weird words make me feel 'better')

For those who are curious, you can find the story at the following link Text of Count Magnus

and if you just want a summary, check out The Wikipedia page on the story.

How M.R. James described me right before my Dad was born:
One more M.R. James bit. From the intro to 'A Neighbour's Landmark'. Sound like anyone you may know ? *wink*

"Those who spend the greater part of their time in reading or writing books are, of course, apt to take rather particular notice of accumulations of books when they come across them. They will not pass a stall, a shop, or even a bedroom-shelf without reading some title, and if they find themselves in an unfamiliar library, no host need trouble himself further about their entertainment. The putting of dispersed sets of volumes together, or the turning right way up on those which the dusting housemaid has left in an apoplectic condition, appeals to them as one of the lesser Works of Mercy."

It's been an odd morning, but all things considered I'm doing ok I think. Ciao.

A Year of Lovecraft

It's definitely been a Lovecraftian year. Tons of new books, audio and art. Also the Cage/Stanley adaptation of 'The Colour Out of Space', and not 1 but 2 Lovecraftian conventions for me. Yep, I've decided to go to Portland for the HP Lovecraft Film Festival this year. I managed a decent costing flight, and a cheap hotel stay for a Thurs-Sunday visit. So I get to see my Innsmouth West pals, visit certain favorite bookstores, and get a second dose of Mythos Community. It shall be glorious.

Besides the Portland trip, the local film festival is doing a showing of Re-Animator as well, which I may attend. Plus there's my spawning day in a little over a month, which should count as pretty Lovecraftian. Plus, I have some friends who've mostly convinced me that I want to go camping in later October. (yes, you can start gasping in surprise now...) And while camping isn't what I'd call directly Lovecraftian, you all know I'll make it at least a little Mythos-y. Maybe I should go look for a Cthulhu flag or banner?

After that the year winds down into Cthulhumas, then 2020 starts with hopefully a nice upgrade to the cult lair/library. I'm kind of thinking I won't be doing much traveling next year. The move and furnishing upgrades I'm thinking will eat a good chuck of funds, as well as PTO. But we'll see, for all I know I'll swing a good bonus again and that will cover the move, but I'm not counting on it til it's in my hot little tentacles. And who knows what else may come up. I'm a nut for planning and plotting in advance, but other than moving I have to leave 2020 as a series of question marks, at least for now.

So that's my thoughts on the subject. As with everything, this is subject to change. For now, I'm trying to avoid the siren song of book hunting, and/or the urge to order in a carb heavy pizza or Chinese food. Two doctor visits this week, one for my diabetes/blood pressure meds, and one with my hematologist to discuss the quality of my blood. Should be fine, if a little stressful. Catch you all later.

Starry Wisdom Pilgrimage: 2019

Got back from Providence on Tuesday. I had an amazing time. There were some hiccups (avoid LaGuardia like the plague, and ye gods was the weather warmer than I'd have hoped, and humid), but besides that pretty much everything else was aces.

First non-travel day was driving from Queens to New Haven for a museum exhibition on Mesopotamia. Added bonus, free museum day when I got there. So I got my cuneiform on. Then I drove a little further to Niantic, home of 'The Book Barn', a bookstore with 3 locations in this one small town. Sunday I continued on to Rhode Island, first stopping at Point Judith which is the furthest south you can get on Rhode Island, and where I visited last year in the winter. This time I got to go into the ocean. Not just up to my knees like I did in Gloucester, but full immersion. It felt so damn good. This Innsmouth boy definitely needs to get his carcass into the ocean on a regular basis. I did manage to make it back down to the same beach later in the week due to severe salt water cravings. *grin* After the beach I headed up to Providence, where I stayed at the Old Court Bed and Breakfast, a 19th century building on College Hill, I'd found it last visit while walking around. So this year I stayed there for the first half of my time in Providence. Snazzy period room, pretty comfy. Other than it's a 3rd floor walk up...well I've needed more exercise. *laugh* I spent 3 nights there, while wandering around Providence and nearby.

Went down to Newport by ferry, then took an Unplanned Schooner Sail, which reminded me how much I like being on the water. Weird day on the water, big fog bank rolled in and it seemed like we were in the plot of a horror movie. Also was a more "active" cruise, than the one in Gloucester last year, not sure if it was a stronger wind, or the bay was rougher or *shrug* Was fun, especially when the ship heeled over while running with the wind, that was a rush! After the cruise, I managed to walk to the Newport Tower, a local 'mystery'. It's one of those things that comes up as proof that the Irish or Templars or whatever made it to America prior to Columbus. It looks pretty surreal to be in the middle of a New England park, something that looks like it's from the medieval era. But it's probably just some kind of folly or mundane structure. Or it's used by cultists to conjure Yog-Sothoth...who knows.

Wednesday I switched hotels, going to the Providence Biltmore (it's been renamed to The Graduate Providence, but no one seems to want to use that name). One of the two hotels that the 'con was going to be at. The 'con started for me on Thursday, with a secret event that I am unable to speak of *wink*. Friday-Sunday was a few panels, some more interesting than others, a few readings which were much more interesting. I also spent a lot of time in the vendors area, because there was probably a dozen folks or more in there I knew either from the HPL Film Festival, or from online. Bought a bunch of nifty things, and had to convince myself to not try to come home with everything that caught my eye. I went to the Art Show at the Providence Art Club on Saturday, which was probably very wise of me, as there were several pieces of art on the wall I would have come home with. Hopefully I can find prints of them vs the originals.

I did have some anxiety/stress/lack of tentacle moments. But like the HPLFF it was no big thing for me to sit down and people watch/read, or go back to my room for a recharge. But I didn't do it as much as I thought I would. I even managed to go to an after hours event that was multiple levels of anxiety inducing. (A. hugely crowded, B. Claustrophobic, C. Performing in public). Specifically, being part of the Innsmouth Sea Shanty Sing Along. And since I knew most of the songs already, I sang loudly so people could hear/learn the lyrics. I think the last time I sang out loud, leading other people was a pagan event in 2000-2001. Luckily sea shanties don't require a lot of vocal talent, just volume. I was joking after the event that I expected my limbic system to spontaneously combust when it realized what I'd been doing.

I got a few new signatures in my copy of 'Shadow Over Innsmouth', met a bunch of folks. One of the high points was getting to meet Pete Rawlik, who I've been online pals with for years. Great guy and author, and a really personable guy. Who is a fount of Lovecraftian/weird/pulp/etc trivia. I caught part of his trivia contest before the sing along, and out of the 6-7 questions I heard, I got two right. So if you ever think 'Boy Vulpine knows a lot of Lovecraft' I but an acolyte. (And the guy who has won the thing 3 Necronomicons in a row is even more eldritch, Pete at least has his library when he's writing these things, the winner had the answers in his brain case). I also got to see two Dark Adventure Radio Theatre performances by the HPLHS, which as a card carrying member I of course had to lend my support (and ears). Special parts, I'd never heard one of the plays (the latest one 'Mad Science), and that they only had 3 guys doing the voices, where usually at live shows they have 6-7 and someone working sound effects. Watching them switch voice, accent, gender and mannerisms back and forth to cover all the voices was astounding.

The 'con ended Sunday. I didn't fly out til Tuesday, I spent Monday day shipping out the 25 pounds or so of books I bought that I felt I could let out of my hands. Then I mostly just hermitted and read. Then it was time to fly back. Which was...a mess. Weather and timing caused my flight to be delayed 3 times. Luckily Logan airport is fairly comfortable. Speaking of books, I managed to read 15 during my 11 day vacation. Pretty good, especially since I didn't just spend all my time reading. Here's the list.

  • Smoke and Dagger - Douglas Wynne
  • Killer Lake - David Eventon
  • The Lost Husband - Willie Meikle
  • 24 Hours in Ancient Egypt - Donald P Ryan
  • Secret Bloody London - John Pullen
  • Starry Wisdom - Peter Levenda
  • Library of the Lost: In Search of Forgotten Authors - Roger Dobson
  • The Weird of Hali: Red Hook - John Michael Greer
  • From Hell - Greig Beck Author
  • The Cold - Rich Hawkins
  • The Copycat Murders - Willie Meikle
  • Dark Wisdom - Gary Myers
  • Grey Magic - Gary Myers
  • Corpsepaint - David Peak
  • Demiurge - Michael Shea

    So now I'm back in DFW, and I want to go back to Providence already. Good food, really nice people, history on the half shell, and books everywhere. In fact, there's a fountain outside the Providence Athenaeum, which legend has that if you drink from the fountain you are destined to return to Providence...

    I took a total of 5 drinks while there *wink*