25 Days Until Halloween

[eldritchhobbit]

I'm feeling rather Lovecraftian today.

One of my favorite groups to listen to during the Halloween season is Nox Arcana. Whether you want music inspired by the Grimm Brothers, Edgar Allan Poe, and H.P. Lovecraft, or music inspired by pirates, vampires, and haunted houses, their albums are a perfect backdrop to October. You can listen to many of their songs at their website.



Let's take in a music video for the song "Hidden Horrors" from the album Blackthorn Asylum by Nox Arcana. Can you spot all of the references to H.P. Lovecraft?

Text of the Day: In keeping with today's theme, here's the Lovecraft-inspired short story "I Cthulhu or What's A Tentacle-Faced Thing Like Me Doing In A Sunken City Like This (Latitude 47° 9' S, Longitude 126° 43' W)?" by Neil Gaiman (1960-present).

Teaser:
Cthulhu, they call me. Great Cthulhu.

Nobody can pronounce it right.

Are you writing this down? Every word? Good. Where shall I start -- mm?

Very well, then. The beginning. Write this down, Whateley.

I was spawned uncounted aeons ago, in the dark mists of Khhaa'yngnaiih (no, of course I don't know how to spell it. Write it as it sounds), of nameless nightmare parents, under a gibbous moon. It wasn't the moon of this planet, of course, it was a real moon. On some nights it filled over half the sky and as it rose you could watch the crimson blood drip and trickle down its bloated face, staining it red, until at its height it bathed the swamps and towers in a gory dead red light.

Those were the days.

Read the complete short story here.

Comments

[tiny-antares.livejournal.com]

LOL Neil. Love him. <3

I always get Nox Arcana and Midnight Syndicate mixed up. And if you toss plain old Arcana and ES Posthumus into the mix and add a dash of Dead Can Dance, my brain kind of short circuits, and I end up craving twinkies and fresh brains.

[eldritchhobbit.livejournal.com]

Me too!

Mmmm, what a lovely musical mix that is. *pulls out some Dead Can Dance* We're definitely on the same wavelength, my friend.

Fresh brains.... braaaiiinnns...

[time-shark.livejournal.com]

What an awesome start to the morning! Thank you.

[eldritchhobbit.livejournal.com]

My pleasure! I'm so glad you liked it.

[reynardine.livejournal.com]

I adore Lovecraft! The way he was able to present the atmosphere of his stories is still scary. Some of his prose seems a bit overwrought today, but I find it charming.

[eldritchhobbit.livejournal.com]

Your icon has officially made my day. Seriously, it's all kinds of wonderful.

I adore Lovecraft, too. So much!

(In fact, I tried to work out why, exactly, here.)

[tudorpumpkin.livejournal.com]

I do like it when the Lovecraft and Gaiman universes overlap. Thank you for brightening my day with this.

[eldritchhobbit.livejournal.com]

I do, too! "A Study in Emerald" and "Shoggoth's Old Peculiar" are two more of my special favorites.

My pleasure. I'm so glad you liked it!

[gilda-elise.livejournal.com]

Ooh, what a spooky clip. BUt I love Nox Arcana and look forward to playing them all this month (and at Christmas, too, oddly enough.)

[eldritchhobbit.livejournal.com]

Oooh, I like Nox Arcana at Christmas, too! I'm so glad I'm not the only one. :) I especially like Winter's Knight in December.