eldritchhobbit

Happy 450th birthday to the Bard himself, William Shakespeare!



And in other news...

* Would you like to see Adagio Teas offer fandom tea blends for Bodie, Doyle, and Cowley of The Professionals? If so, please vote for The Professionals here.

* Do you want to see H.P. Lovecraft's Dream Cycle adapted into a dark fantasy film? Check out this Indiegogo campaign (with three enticing teaser trailers) for The Dreamlands.

* This year, May 13 will be one of my favorite holidays: New Tori Amos Album Day! Very exciting.

* All 36 hours of interactive lecture from my Spring 2014 class for the Mythgard Institute, "The Gothic Tradition," are now available for download here as a "course pack."


Cowards die many times before their deaths;
The valiant never taste of death but once.
Of all the wonders that I yet have heard,
It seems to me most strange that men should fear;
Seeing that death, a necessary end,
Will come when it will come.
- Shakespeare's Julius Caesar

Two cheers and one moment of silence...

Cheer #1. Guess who's playing for the NCAA Division II national championship this upcoming Saturday? We are! Go Lenoir-Rhyne University Bears!



Cheer #2. Dreams in the Witch House: A Lovecraftian Rock Opera is fantastic. I've come to expect nothing less from the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society, but even so, it exceeds my hopes. Consider it a "must listen" for fans of H.P. Lovecraft's work.

And a Moment of Silence:
R.I.P., Peter O'Toole (2 August, 1932–14 December, 2013). He was one of the true greats. My favorite film of all time, in fact, centers on his brilliant performance.



What we do in dungeons needs the shades of day. I stole the candles from the chapel. Jesus won't begrudge them and the chaplain works for me.
- Henry II (Peter O'Toole) in The Lion in Winter

My heart goes out to everyone touched by the tragedy in Boston.

A few notes for today:
* My latest "Looking Back on Genre History" segment (which is the first in a multi-part exploration of Star Trek's long-term and uneasy relationship with Native America) is now up on StarShipSofa here. If you listen, I hope you enjoy!

* It looks like my family in Oklahoma is set (see No. 1) and so are we (see No. 5): Best Parks in the United States for Hiding During the Zombie Apocalypse.

* On Saturday we saw a stunning performance of Carl Orff's Carmina Burana (the piano-percussion version) by the Lenoir-Rhyne University A Capella Choir and College Singers. In case it's not on your "Most Frequently Played" list in iTunes, Carmina Burana is a musical setting of texts by students and clerics from a 13th century manuscript discovered in a Benedictine monastery in Bavaria. The libretto includes songs of love, of spring, of the tavern, and of fortune, some of which are quite irreverent, satirical, and risqué! I'm not a fan of spring or summer - in fact, I'm planning soon to disappear indoors and not come out again until sometime around late September - but the saucy and stirring performance put a dent even in my hum-buggery for the night. "O Fortuna" rocked!

* I love the new trailer for The Hunger Games: Catching Fire.

It's a Giveaway! And EVERYBODY WINS!

Yesterday I posted about some of the music I like most at Halloween time. I saved the best for last, however. I'm a recent convert to the wonderful Paranormal Modern Folk stylings of Jonah Knight, who writes and sings songs about ghosts, monsters, superheroes and steampunk with a literary edge. He says, "I feel inspired equally by Lovecraft, Twin Peaks, and Scooby Doo." Here he is in - where else? - a graveyard:



I had the good fortune to attend a concert of his earlier this year, and then I immediately bought his album The Exploration of Dangerous Places; songs such as "Sleepy Little Creepy Little Town" and "Deep Under Ground" instantly became favorites. Since then, his The Age of Steam: Strange Machines has become my go-to CD. The song "?" follows me around daily like a rather disquieting ghost.

I couldn't be happier that his new album, Another Creepy Christmas, offers dark and haunting reinterpretations of classic Christmas tunes. At last, a Christmas album perfect for Halloween! What could be better?

I'll tell you what! A GIVEAWAY!!! And Everybody Wins!!!
__________________________________________________________________
Here's What To Do:
1. Visit Jonah Knight on Spotify (it's free!) and listen to his songs.

2. Comment here (at my LiveJournal) with a snippet of a lyric (paraphrasing is fine) that you find to be influenced by H.P. Lovecraft. Include your email address with your reply. All replies will remain screened so only I can see them.

3. Everyone who replies with the above will be emailed three free song downloads from Jonah's new album! One randomly chosen winner will also receive the physical CD of Another Creepy Christmas. I'll get in touch with the winner for his/her snailmail address.

(Psst! If you go to Jonah Knight's website and enter your email and zip under "Free Ghosts," you'll get yet another free download!)

This giveaway is open through October 30th. Please spread the word to anyone who might be interested. Thanks!
__________________________________________________________________

And now, in honor of Jonah Knight's Lovecraftian awesomeness, here's the man himself...

Text of the Day: "The Unnamable" by H.P. Lovecraft (1890-1937)

Excerpt: We were sitting on a dilapidated seventeenth-century tomb in the late afternoon of an autumn day at the old burying ground in Arkham, and speculating about the unnamable. Looking toward the giant willow in the cemetery, whose trunk had nearly engulfed an ancient, illegible slab, I had made a fantastic remark about the spectral and unmentionable nourishment which the colossal roots must be sucking from that hoary, charnel earth; when my friend chided me for such nonsense and told me that since no interments had occurred there for over a century, nothing could possibly exist to nourish the tree in other than an ordinary manner. Besides, he added, my constant talk about "unnamable" and "unmentionable" things was a very puerile device, quite in keeping with my lowly standing as an author. I was too fond of ending my stories with sights or sounds which paralyzed my heroes' faculties and left them without courage, words, or associations to tell what they had experienced. We know things, he said, only through our five senses or our intuitions; wherefore it is quite impossible to refer to any object or spectacle which cannot be clearly depicted by the solid definitions of fact or the correct doctrines of theology - preferably those of the Congregationalist, with whatever modifications tradition and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle may supply.

Read the Complete Story: Here

I'm up to my eyeballs in work, but there are so many geeky reasons to smile at the moment, I just had to share the happiness...

* Yesterday was one of my favorite personal holidays, made all the more enjoyable because I never know the exact day it will occur. It was the first Starbucks pumpkin latte of the season. Autumn is on its gorgeous way! Come soon, dear fall!

* Today is the seventy-sixth birthday of the late, great Buddy Holly. Here, enjoy a song on me...

* Tonight, while lecturing on Edgar Allan Poe and his C. Auguste Dupin, I'll get to point out one of my happiest geek-girl moments of this year: spotting the apt genre tribute Moffat-n-Gatiss worked into the Sherlock episode "A Scandal in Belgravia." Whose portrait hangs on Sherlock's bedroom wall? Edgar Allan Poe's, fittingly enough. (Screencap or it didn't happen.)

* Tomorrow, Rupert Graves guest stars on Doctor Who. Enough said.

* Sunday, I'm to be interviewed by the kind folks at the MuggleNet Academia podcast. This will be difficult to do if I spontaneously combust the night before thanks to the Graves-on-Who goodness, so I'll try to keep it together. It won't be easy, though, I suspect.


“It is simple enough as you explain it,” I said, smiling. “You remind me of Edgar Allan Poe’s Dupin. I had no idea that such individuals did exist outside of stories.”
- Watson to Holmes, Arthur Conan Doyle, A Study in Scarlet

Many thanks to everyone who took part in my poll on the "Vampire Novel of the Century." The poll is still open, if anyone else would like to take part.


In other news...

* As of the time I'm posting this, there are only three tickets left for my Sherlock and Science Fiction web lecture/Q&A on February 18. Thanks to everyone who has helped spread the word about this event.

* I have an update about Star Trek and History, the collection edited by Nancy Reagin that will include my essay "If This Is the (Final) Frontier, Where Are the Natives?" Wiley Blackwell has slated it for April 8, 2013 publication, just ahead of the expected May 2013 release date of the new Star Trek film. Huzzah!

* R.I.P., Etta James, January 25, 1938 – January 20, 2012. I was listening to her haunting cover of "Somewhere" only hours before I learned of her death. *moment of silence*

* Neil Gaiman's Sherlockian story "The Case of Death and Honey" (from A Study in Sherlock) has been nominated for an Edgar Award. (So, too, has an episode of the amazing Justified.)

* Previously I posted that China Glaze was releasing a new nail lacquer set in honor of The Hunger Games. Here is new information and detailed pictures of "Colours from the Capitol: The Hunger Games Collection."

* Lastly, my sweetheart gave me my Valentine's present early, a wonderful little netbook to make all my travels this spring/summer/fall far easier. (While I like tablets, they're not terribly useful/efficient for my purposes.) I just got a new "skin" to personalize it, and I'm quite tickled with what I found. To me, it looks like a cross between Conan Doyle's Dr. John Watson, looking off into the distance, and a refugee from H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds, contemplating the Martians.




The official description is as follows: "A lone figure decked out in suit and bowler hat, is drawn to a mysterious, almost alien structure in the distance as a flock of silhouetted birds keeps watch, flying overhead, in this faded black and white grayscale design." I love it!

I'm off to Portland, Maine for the next several days to participate in a scholarly colloquium on "Freedom, Empire, and Conflict in Two Greek Wars" (to the tune of Herodotus and Thucydides). But never fear! The countdown shall continue without interruption. And speaking of the countdown...


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.




They have a new thematic album available for preorder, The Dark Tower. This is the "trailer" music video. Enjoy!

Text of the Day: Today's text is "The Lady Witch" by Jane Francesca Agnes, Lady Wilde (1821-1896).

Excerpt:
About a hundred years ago there lived a woman in Joyce's Country, of whom all the neighbours were afraid, for she had always plenty of money, though no one knew how she came by it; and the best of eating and drinking went on at her house, chiefly at night -- meat and fowls and Spanish wines in plenty for all corners. And when people asked how it all came, she laughed and said, "I have paid for it," but would tell them no more.

So the word went through the country that she had sold herself to the Evil One, and could have everything she wanted by merely wishing and willing, and because of her riches they called her "The Lady Witch."

Read the complete story.

I was raised with a deep and abiding love for Buddy Holly, one of the great fathers of rock-n-roll, the man who brought rhythm-and-blues to white audiences, country-western to black audiences, and helped create the vibrant fusion of rockabilly that gave birth to modern rock.

He is my father's favorite musician, and by the time I was in kindergarten, I could sing his entire discography from memory. I still can. He recorded music for only two years. He died at the age of 22. His influence, however, is alive and well.

Today Buddy Holly would have turned 75. Today he receives a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.


I'd like to share one of my personal favorites with you in honor of this day, a song written by Buddy Holly, with vocals and acoustic guitar by him, recorded at home in his apartment the month before his tragic plane crash. Here's "Learning the Game":

And here's another favorite (also on YouTube): "Well... All Right."

* From today's LA Times: "Buddy Holly's 75th on Wednesday? That'll be the day."
* From LubbockOnline: "Holly's star on Hollywood Walk of Fame leads to Music Box concert."
* "Buddy Holly: 75 and Timeless"

"I'm not trying to stump anybody... it's the beauty of the language that I'm interested in."
- Buddy Holly

Happy birthday to lexie_marie! May you have a wonderful day and many more to come.


I have some links to share ...

* From Booklist Online: "Core Collection: Dystopian Fiction for Youth." Booklist notes some forthcoming sequels of which I was unaware, and so I've updated my list of YA dystopias accordingly. (Thanks to sunnysky.)

* Also from Booklist Online: "Top 10 SF/Fantasy for Youth: 2009."

* Paul Kincaid has an in-depth and thought-provoking review of The Seven Beauties of Science Fiction by
Istvan Csicsery-Ronay, Jr. at SFSite here.

* The incomparable Ursula K. Le Guin once again defends the genre: "Calling Utopia a Utopia": "Editors, critics, and others who use it not as a description but as a negative judgment are wrong to do so. And they do wrong. They are gravely unjust both to the science fiction of literary value that they refuse to admit is literature, and the science fiction of literary value they refuse to admit is science fiction."

* Yesterday marked the return of that irregularly-occurring and much-loved holiday I have celebrated since 1994, new Tori Amos album day. I've been listening to Abnormally Attracted to Sin constantly, and thus far, "Curtain Call," "Welcome to England," and "500 Miles" are my very first loves, but the album is extremely strong from start to finish. Here is the remarkable "Curtain Call":

"Stories walk the truth into existence."
- from Floodland by Marcus Sedgwick

I have some personal news to share...

* New today: I just gave an interview to Talking With Tim, in which I discuss several of my recent book projects, including The Magic Goblet, Past Watchful Dragons: Fantasy and Faith in the World of C.S. Lewis, and Tecumseh: A Biography, as well as my upcoming appearances and other subjects. You can read it here.


* I will be taking part in the Voices Film Series for the Hickory, NC community, a project that is co-sponsored by Lenoir-Rhyne College and the Women's Resource Center in Hickory. This program, which is free and open to the public, will take place on the evenings of February 27 and 28, 2008, and will focus on Native America. We will be showing two Native-produced films over two nights: first the award-winning 2006 film Four Sheets to the Wind, and next the award-winning 2006 documentary Trail of Tears: Cherokee Legacy paired with comments and a book signing (of The Trail of Tears and Indian Removal) by yours truly. I hope those who are interested will visit here to learn more. We would love to have you join us for these two evenings!


In other news...

* Kristin Thompson, author of The Frodo Franchise: The Lord of the Rings and Modern Hollywood, now has a blog on the subject here. (It's syndicated for LJ at frodo_franchise.)

* The London cast recording of The Lord of the Rings: The Musical soundtrack is now available for preorder. So, too, is the Official Stage Companion. Read more here.

* The Wizard Rock EP of the Month Club is coming back for 2008 in order to raise funds for charity. Members will receive an exclusive CD from a different Harry Potter-themed wizard rock band each month. Learn more here.


"Science fiction is the mythology of a scientific age."
John C. Wright, quoted in this interview