The giant squid is an "eat the crew, ask questions later" kind of cephalopod


The National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration just revealed that it has captured a 20 foot giant squid off the Gulf of Mexico--the first since the 1950's. Slate Magazine now warns that Kirk Douglas might want to watch his back.

From the NOAA website

This giant squid was collected during a 60-day scientific study where scientists from NOAA’s Southeast Fisheries Science Center and the Department of the Interior’s Minerals Management Service were studying the availability and diversity of sperm whale prey. The scientists were aboard the NOAA research vessel Gordon Gunter when the squid was caught in a trawl pulled behind the research vessel at a depth of more than 1,500 feet.

"As the trawl net rose out of the water, I could see that we had something big in there…really big,” said Anthony Martinez, marine mammal scientist for NOAA's Fisheries Service and chief scientist for this research cruise. "We knew there was a remote possibility of encountering a giant squid on this cruise, but it was not something we were realistically expecting.”



The unusual find has sparked wide interest and even spawned an op ed on Slate Magazine:

The giant squid hates everything: It hates Kirk Douglas, it hates the crew of the Pequod, and it especially hates scientists who make it look stupid. If man is to live in harmony with nature we must respect nature's needs, and the needs of the giant squid are simple:

a) three (3) metric tons of small fish per week, or one (1) sperm whale;

b) if giant squid is to make more than two appearances in one day, giant squid must be supplied with a rest area equipped with Bose sound system and six large, clean towels;

c) no flash photography.

We have violated our contract with the giant squid. Will any of us ever feel safe in the water again?

There are those who fear and despise technology. And with the horrific shadows of terrifying inventions like the nuclear bomb, mustard gas, and reality television perpetually looming over humanity, who can blame them?

However, the fruits of technology are also enticing, and few are as sweet as the fact that Nintendo has finally brought about the ability for small children to experience a Cthulhu-inspired theistic apocalypse.



Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment has just released the game Scribblenauts for the Nintendo DS gaming system. Players solve puzzles and defeat foes by typing in words that come alive on the screen.

Watch Cthulhu challenge god in a blasphemous battle for cosmic supremacy in the clip below, and then go buy it for your small children.

Everyone has a vice--something you try to keep unsuccessfully from your friends. Ours here at the LNN is a preternatural hunger towards the field of oceanic cryptozoology, and we are always on the prowl for a new fix.



A bizarre image has surfaced from the shores of Panama raising new questions: Is is a sloth, a fetus of some large animal, the twisted result of some evil eugenics project by a mad scientist, an undiscovered species, or a hoax?



Watch a doe-eyed CNN anchor stammer through a confused analysis of this strange beast

From the Daily Telegraph
"The beast's hairless, rubbery body and revolting features have drawn comparisons with the Montauk Monster, the still-unidentified animal photographed on a New York beach last year.

According to reports in Panama, the teenagers spotted the creature crawling out of a cave while playing in the town of Cerro Azul north of Panama City.

They returned later to take pictures of the corpse which were then posted on the website of the Central American country's Telemetro television station. . . "

"We are like girl scouts, but instead of selling cookies, we sell insanity. And we sell it for free."

Joseph Scrimshaw is a critically acclaimed actor, an internationally produced playwright, and an independent theater director/producer. His current project with Tim Uren is the upcoming DVD entitled SpookySpookyScaryScary featuring the misadventures of two cultists named Chuck & Dexter. Mr. Scrimshaw was kind enough to stop by the LNN and tell us a bit about the film, which is set to screen at the H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival next month.
LNN: How would you describe the basic premise of your film?

JS: It's about the relationship between Chuck and Dexter--two socially awkward Lovecraft fans who convince themselves that Cthulhu actually exists and set out to form a cult and let people know the "bad word" about Cthulhu.

LNN: Is a working knowledge of Lovecaftiana required to appreciate the humor in the film?

JS: Nope. It certainly enhances it quite a bit and there are some subtler jokes that will warm the cockles of Lovecraft fans, but we set out to do a comedy that would be steeped in Cthulhu-ness but still accessible to the masses. Basically, since the film deals with Chuck and Dexter's attempts to draw other people into their Cthulhu world there was a lot of room for their twisted exposition about who Cthulhu and Lovecraft are and what they are about--so it's funny to non-Lovecraftians to get the tip of the iceberg explanation and funny to Lovecraft afficiandos to hear this complex mythology boiled down into super simple and not entirely accurate rants.

LNN: Most of the people we interview have rather pedestrian jobs and their creative, Lovecaftian output is a mere hobby. (Though perhaps "mere" is the wrong word) You, on the other hand, are a veteran actor and playwright with such titles as "Die, Clowns, Die!," "Fat Man Crying," and "Adventures in Mating" to your credit. Was SpookySpookyScaryScary really that much of a stretch for you?

JS: Doing this large of a film project was definitely a departure, since both Tim Uren and I have done much more work in theater and improv comedy, but no spending all day dressed up in weird costumes or making to do lists that include "memorize lines, practice screaming, and wipe the fake blood off the knife" is the kind of thing I do most days. By day, Mr. Uren works at Fantasy Flight Games often tinkering with Lovecraftian projects like Arkham Horror, so all pretty familiar territory for him as well.

LNN: Besides your humorous projects, you have been involved in numerous serious works as well. How does your experience in Shakespearian theater translate to playing a cultist?

JS: Most Shakespearean characters are either obsessive egomaniacs or socially awkward idiots. And that's pretty much my character in a nutshell. Also, even though the film is a bizarre, outlandish comedy--a lot of the humor comes from the relationships, so it was important to treat it with a lot of actor-ly care--finding the motivation, the right emotional note--all the things actors do all the time. Or should be doing all the time.

One of Joseph Scrimshaw's many original projects: a "Family Friendly Morality Tale": An Inconvenient Squirrel

LNN: Who is your target demographic for this project?

JS: Primarily, Lovecraft fans and the larger geek community in general. We know we already have a connection with those audiences so our hope is to start there and then take advantage of the overlap between those communities and the general independent film community and spread it out to our widest possible demographic: anyone with a good sense of humor and a few bucks to buy our DVD.

LNN: If religion is the opitate of the masses, and the internet is its methamphetamine, why on earth have you not posted your preview trailer on Youtube yet?

JS: Does that make youtube like the straight shot of Jameson's of the masses? I ask because I'm drinking Jameson's and watching our short trailer on youtube right now at this link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oASJCozH8Uc

We're also working on getting the full trailer on youtube, but for now it's available at: http://spookyspookyscaryscary.com

LNN: Tell us about Tim Uren: how did you two get this project started, and what does he bring to the table?

JS: Tim and I have been pals and comedy collaborators for many years.
We plotted out the story together and thanks to the amount of time we've worked together, it takes less rehearsal time to get nice little nuances of relationship across in individual scenes.

We developed the characters of Chuck and Dexter for a couple of short films we made with another production company in 2004 and 2005. We wanted to expand the characters and their world so we were looking for a technical crew who might want to tackle that project. Some friends of ours had formed a production company after working on another independent film called THAC0 and their experience, equipment, and availability matched ours so we all tackled it together. If you know what I mean.

LNN: While looking through your authorial blog I noticed a recurring motif featuring whiskey and the Wii. Were either of these essential items involved in the production of this project?

JS:Yes. We actually wanted to film Chuck and Dexter playing "Eternal Darkness" on the gamecube but we were worried about copyright issues.

The official Youtube teaser trailer for SpookySpookyScaryScary

LNN: What are you plans post HPLFF?

JS: For now, we're going to work on marketing "SpookySpookyScaryScary". It'll be available for sale on ye olde internet and we'll look into sending it off to other film festivals. But Chuck and Dexter might return down the road.

Beyond that, Tim and I are onstage either together or separately pretty much all of the time that we are not drinking whiskey and playing Wii.

LNN: What do people get when they actually send in their email as the film requests? Does it involve anything that will require confession at the hands of an ordained priest?

JS: We're waiting to see what kind of responses we get and if anything goes wrong, Tim has one of those minister licenses you get out of the back of Rolling Stone magazine. That's as close to a priest as we can provide.

LNN: Is there, or are their plans for some place people can go to view or purchase the film online?

JS: There will be trailers and hopefully other digital treats available on my production company's web-site (which will be launching in early October) at jokingenvelope.com. So the DVDs will be available for purchase off that site as well as http://spookyspookyscaryscary.com.

That's the plan--hopefully, the stars will be all right.

LNN: Anythings else you want to add?

JS: Thanks so much for your interest and we hope to see you all at the Film Festival. Feel free to talk to Tim or I--we have much better social skills than our characters!

Thanks, Joseph, and best wishes at the festival!

Learn More:

-Check out the homepage for SpookySpookyScaryScary
-View a second trailer for the DVD hosted here: http://thestarsareallright.com
-Learn more about Joseph Scrimshaw and his other projects at his website here: http://josephscrimshaw.com/

Ben H. Winters is a newcomer to world of H.P. Lovecraft, yet he is already poised to go where few Lovecraftians have gone before: the New York Times bestseller's list!

We knew we were in a for a treat when we saw on his website that the "H" stands for "hydrophiliac hellspawn."

In a brilliant move of intellectual adroitness, Mr. Winter's new novel Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters brings everyone's favorite Cynical Materialist to the masses in a book by Quirk Press unleashed today to the unsuspecting world of Jane Austen book clubs.

Mr. Winters has written plays, books for children, and the popular Worst Case Survival Handbooks. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife and daughter, and he was kind enough to offer us here at the LNN an exclusive interview to coincide with the release of his novel.





LNN: You have a highly diverse resume of authorship, including children's musicals and how-to books. However, none that I could find have yet involved tentacled monstrosities. Do you think this project will alter the way that you are perceived as an author?

Winters: Inevitably. I think when a guy puts out a book with such a memorable theme (and cover!) it's going to be talked about, and remembered. Which is all to the good, as far as I'm concerned; if when I die, my tombstone reads, "He added a walking jellyfish to Sense and Sensibility", mine shall be a happy spirit.

LNN: As an English major yourself who presumably knew and respected Austen's original text long before SSSM, in your opinion, is there a line between the blasphemic desecration of a beloved classic and the loving parody of it? Where do you fall on this spectrum, and what do you have to say to the Austen purists who would criticize the project as uncouth?

Winters: Uncouth, perhaps -- desecration, never! I adore the original, as any right-thinking person does, and believe very firmly that having a bit of fun with a beloved masterpiece only reminds us of why it's a masterpiece in the first place.

LNN: How familiar were you with Lovecraft before this project, and what specifically did you do to research and thus facilitate channeling him for SSSM? Did it involve the viewing of any Stuart Gordon films?

Winters: I was passingly familiar, and I will say that immersing myself in the weird tales in preparation to write this thing was one of the great pleasures the project afforded me. I have some family members (hi, Aunt Ann!) who are Lovecraft afficianadoes, and I now proudly place myself in their ranks.

LNN: Lovecraft read and briefly wrote about Austen in his treatise "Supernatural Horror in Literature." Here he claimed that "Northanger Abbey was by no means an unmerited rebuke to a school which had sunk far toward absurdity." Is your novel also a rebuke of today's surfeited culture of superficial, pop horror?

Winters: First of all, thank you for bringing that essay to my attention -- I joked on my Facebook page that Lovecraft took Austen to the junior prom, but didn't realize he had actually engaged with her work.

I guess I've leave it to others to decide if my novel is a rebuke to today's pop-shlock horror culture, or a part of it. Or maybe both.

LNN: By conflating Lovecraft and Austen, you will inevitably introduce his fiction to an audience that likely would never have otherwise encountered him. What advice do you have for those with--shall we say--more tender sensibilities in order to successfully navigate these new more hostile waters of literature? (And by hostile I mean both literally filled with bloodthirsty, giant, mutant lobsters and intellectually via the ideological medium of cosmic horror)

Winters: Oh, I hope you're right about introducing readers to Lovecraft. I keep saying in interviews how I hope this book turns non-Austen fans into Austen fans, and I would love it if it does the same for non-Lovecraft fans. My advice would be the same as my advice for all readers, of all things, at all times: Read every book with an open mind and with as few preconceptions as possible. Few people expect to find the humor in Austen, or the clever narrative devices in Mary Shelley, or the profound (and profoundly unsettling) insights into the nature of existence in Lovecraft.

LNN: How did you hook up with Quirk Books and what kind of pitch did you have to give to sign onto a project like this? Did it involve a practical test in chanting or any occult rituals?

Winters: I've known the mad geniuses at Quirk for years; through a marvelous cosmic coincidence, my wife and I lived across the street from their Philadelphia offices the one year we lived in that city.

I do occult rituals only when I'm waiting for reviews to come out.

LNN:Tell us about the style, content, and motive behind the illustrations your book contains.

Winters: The interior illustrations are by a guy named Eugene Smith, and I think they brilliantly evoke the kind you find in those old-school, leather bound editions of classics; I'm so tickled to see the weird, warped stuff I came up with made to look so refined. He also did a map for the frontispiece, just as you might see in some old adventure story. I adore these touches, and I love that the publisher took the time and resources to make the book look so classy. The cover painting is by Lars Leetrau, and I am absolutely in love with it; it perfectly evokes the high-minded/bizarre tone of the book, and (obviously) shows off that Lovecraft influence!

LNN: What does your immediate family think of SSSM? Do you get funny looks now when you attend a family reunion, and if you have children, what do they think?

Winters: My wife likes it, and has not (as yet) requested separate bedchambers, so I think she does not fear for my sanity. My kids are not old enough for this one, and won't be for many years to come -- although my daughter (age three) has somehow decided that that's me on the cover, and says "Daddy has an octopus face!" Ah, well -- writing is a risky career.

In case you missed it, check out the book trailer

LNN: What other projects are on the horizon for you?

Winters: A children's musical, based on the book Uncle Pirate. More books in the Worst Case Scenario Survival Guide series, also from Quirk. And next year my young adult novel, The Secret Life of Ms. Finkleman, will be published by HarperCollins. No cosmic horror in that one, but then again, it's for seventh and eighth graders.

LNN: Anything else you would like to put on the record?

Winters: Thanks for the opportunity to share a bit about my process with your community. My experience has been that Lovecraft fans have vigorous imaginations and great senses of humor (hi again, Aunt Ann!), so I hope you all like it.

Buy Mr. Winter's book on Amazon here

Or read about his writing process first hand from an article on Slate here

For a good laugh also check out this lugubriously serious blog called Jane Austen Today that asks, "has Quirk Classics gone too far?" We assume the question is rhetorical.

"Lovecraft is a disease that I want to share." -WHP

The internet is abuzz with the excited chatter of fans gearing up for the H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival in October. None of these are more colorful than author Wilum Hopfrog Pugmire, whom we recently had the pleasure of corresponding with.

Mr. Pugmire has recently turned his creative output towards a prolific Youtube channel in which he analyzes popular culture and seeks to help promote the upcoming HPL Film Festival. We asked him a few questions about his life, his work, and the festival. He was generous enough to respond to us with a multi-segmented video interview.

For three decades, Mr. Pugmire's Lovecraftian fiction and poetry has appeared in numerous horror anthologies and in Weird Tales Magazine. He has also published collections of his work in volumes such as Sesqua Valley and Other Haunts and The Fungal Stain and Other Dreams.

For those unfamiliar with Mr. Pugmire's vivid persona, the interview may initially come as somewhat of a shock, but this, we think, makes it all the more appealing, and we are thrilled for his candidness.

Sit back and enjoy a wholly unique interview from a Lovecraft veteran.


















To learn more about W.H. Pugmire, check out another great interview with him here

or purchase his books on Amazon through this link

From the publishers that brought the world the international bestseller Pride and Prejudice and Zombies comes another twist on a beloved classic. Brooklyn's Ben H. Winter's new novel is entitled Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters, and it hits shelves in four days finally asking the question we have all been pondering for years:

"What if (H.P.) Lovecraft and Austen sat down and wrote a book together — it’s just preposterous, but what would happen?"



From the book description on Amazon.com:

From the publisher of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies comes a new tale of romance, heartbreak, and tentacled mayhem. Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters expands the original text of the beloved Jane Austen novel with all-new scenes of giant lobsters, rampaging octopi, two-headed sea serpents, and other biological monstrosities. As our story opens, the Dashwood sisters are evicted from their childhood home and sent to live on a mysterious island full of savage creatures and dark secrets. While sensible Elinor falls in love with Edward Ferrars, her romantic sister Marianne is courted by both the handsome Willoughby and the hideous man-monster Colonel Brandon. Can the Dashwood sisters triumph over meddlesome matriarchs and unscrupulous rogues to find true love? Or will they fall prey to the tentacles that are forever snapping at their heels? This masterful portrait of Regency England blends Jane Austen’s biting social commentary with ultraviolent depictions of sea monsters biting. It’s survival of the fittest—and only the swiftest swimmers will find true love!

Yes, it's for real. No, you haven't died and gone to heaven. Yes, we also wish we had thought of this first.

In an interview (which you can read here) Winters explains how he strove to incorporate a Lovecrafitian vocabulary into Austen's world with spectacular results.

“I’m a big believer in actually picking up a thesaurus rather than using Thesaurus.com or online reference sources,” he said. “I find the experience, as a writer, of digging up words in the old books is so satisfying. For example, what word would Austen have used to describe the layer of gooey flesh on the underside of a man-eating snail?” After digging around, he found “mucocutaneous.”

Mr. Winters, you sir, are a hero.



Preorder the book here: http://www.amazon.com/Sense-Sensibility-Monsters-Jane-Austen/dp/1594744424

Will Hart is an actor, photographer, and attendee of the famed H. P. Lovecraft Centennial Celebration in Providence in August of 1990. After hundreds of hours of work, Mr. Hart has recently released an incredible digital collection of over 800 pictures documenting the historic event. His project is entitled "Lovecraft’s Providence, From A Different Angle: Providence & Beyond at the Time of HPL’s Centennial," which can now be viewed for free at the following website:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cthulhuwho1/

We asked Mr. Hart to share with us a little about his collection, his pilgrimage to Providence, and his life.



LNN: Tell us a little about yourself in general.

WEH: I'm a married, 56 year-old life-long collector of Science Fiction, Horror, Escapist, Adult, Fantasy, History (mostly Roman) entertainment of all kinds; with a very strong emphasis on Literature and Movies. Besides all of the traditional ways of enjoying these areas, I've also moved heavily into the electronic world of E-Books, Audio Books, XviD Movies and Television Shows; any format of these items that will allow them to be played in my home theater (10' 16:9 wide-screen format system with 7.1 dual-subwoofer surround sound cranked to commercial theater level), or on something as small as one of my 3" portable media players. I've been an extra and an actor in movies, television, and commercials (mostly in the early 90's, and good luck finding me!), and have spent most of the last 17 years working in Environment, Safety & Health for a major U.S. company; which has just notified me that I'll be "free" to go back to the Screen Actors' Guild (S.A.G.), and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (A.F.T.R.A.), or whatever else I would like to do, after October 16th., when I, and several of my co-workers in Southern California, find ourselves being "affected" by a company (or as they say, enterprise) wide lay-off. And I'm going to take advantage of this "free" time to get back to doing the things I want to do for now.

At some point in the very early 70's, I picked up a paperback copy of an H. P. Lovecraft collection (probably, "The Tomb & Other Tales") from a spinning display rack in a Thrifty Mart supermarket in Anaheim, California, and found myself enjoying it enough that I had to search for more of the same. It wasn't long before I ran out of available books in the local stores, and clerks began offering to "special order" books for me from their catalogs. This was a new experience for me, and the 8-16 weeks it sometimes took to get the books was maddening! Once I got into the mode of ordering these hard to find books, i.e., Arkham House books and others, I began writing to all of the publishers to find out about more of the same; and I also expanded my searches into the greater Los Angeles stores. It was actually in Hollywood, where I ran into my first Lovecraftian Amateur Press works; and that started me on the trail that lead me to eventually become a member of the Esoteric Order of Dagon Amateur Press Association as one of its official 39 members for a while in the late 70's through the early 80's. My publication was called, "Eldritch Leanings"; and would contain minor thoughts, movie and book reviews, pictures, a little bit of artwork (mostly the cover), and began as a Xeroxed production, then switched to mimeographed, and finally to high-quality printing before I gave it up due to time constraints and embarrassment over how poor my offerings were compared to the scholarly works of others like S. T. Joshi. My leaving left an opening for a much better contributor to join the group, and I felt good about that.

In 1977, while I was still in the E.O.D., I contributed a little money to the funds that were being collected to put a headstone on H. P. Lovecraft's grave (as well as his mother's too); and I will always feel great about being even a very small part of that project. But I will always feel guilty over having not put any money into the H. P. Lovecraft Memorial Plaque collection being taken up by Jon Cooke, Will Murray, and S. T. Joshi in 1990; even though they managed to collect thousands more than was required to put the plaque up. My guilty feelings about this may have something to do with my now trying to put the long-term display of pictures on Flickr for everyone to enjoy.

As a die-hard Lovecraft fan at that time (and still one in 2009), I knew that the 100th. anniversary of Lovecraft's birth was going to be on 20-August-1990, and I knew that plans were being made by the same group collecting money for the plaque (under the name "Friends of Lovecraft") to have a celebration in Providence to commemorate this event, and I was not going to miss it for anything. I'm not sure now, but saving money for the trip may have also contributed to my not sending money for the plaque.

LNN: Did I understand you correctly that these are from 1990? How and why did you decide to digitize them and post them online now?

WEH: Yes, the pictures are from 1990; as I'll explain in more detail while answering several of your questions. I used film cameras for the first 40 or so years of my life, and took thousands of pictures of people, places, and events (over 2400 in just one of my trips to Italy alone!); but after I switched to digital cameras a few years ago, I put most of my equipment and negatives away in storage. Until late in 2007 when I finally bought a decent 3600 d.p.i. (dots per inch) film scanner (a PrimeFilm 3650U with Digital ICE technology), and I started looking through my negatives to see what would make interesting digital pictures. And as you can tell from what you are now reading, my 1990 Providence trip pictures became prime candidates for scanning.

This collection now contains about 800 digital pictures, even though I didn’t take that many. The reason the number has grown is simple. Once I had digital data, I was able to look through all of the pictures for possible pictures-within-pictures to save as separate “Detail” files.

And once I had converted all of these to a digital format, cleaned them up, color corrected them, and resized them (hundreds of hours of work), it only made sense to try and share them with “Friends of Lovecraft” everywhere, in any way I could, as my early gift for the upcoming 20th. Anniversary of the Centennial in 2010 (not that I know of any official activities to mark twenty years since the Centennial).

I explained most of this elsewhere lately, but it's true that I've always felt that pictures are a moment frozen in time; and you can never "own" that moment. You can only try to freeze it by recording it through your camera's lens, so you can savor it for as long as you like; and hopefully share that moment with others.

I’m giving everyone my permission to do what they want with these pictures. All I ask is that they give me a photo credit if they use any of them; and drop me an email letter, or send me a copy of whatever they use them in for my collection if they can.

LNN: Tell us about the festival: what sorts of things happened, what were your impressions of it, and what made you decide to attend?

WEH: The H. P. Lovecraft Centennial Celebration was held Friday, 17-August-1990, through Monday, 20-August-1990, at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island; with most of the activities in the Salomon Center and the John Hay Library. The Avon Theater on Thayer Street also hosted the premiere showing of "H. P. Lovecraft's Bride of the Re-Animator" on Friday and Saturday nights. There were Panels (see below), Short Films, a Film Festival, Items for Sale (including piles of Necronomicon Press items!), First Day Commemorative Envelopes (every day), an Exhibition of Lovecraft’s Original Documents, an Art Exhibit of Works inspired by the writings of H. P. Lovecraft, Dining, Tours, Talks, Socializing, Unveiling of the H. P. Lovecraft Memorial Plaque on Sunday, and the Official Dedication of the H. P. Lovecraft Memorial Plaque on Monday. As a true Lovecraft fan at that time, I HAD to attend. I wasn't a published author, or one of the scholars who spoke on one of the panels, and I didn't have a degree to impress anyone with; I was just one of the fans that had to be there to honor H. P. Lovecraft. It was the single most important H. P. Lovecraft event that had taken place up until then, and probably since then too; so anyone who was truly a hard-core Lovecraft fan would have done whatever they could to be there for that event. And a great time was had by all. I got to see old friends (like Donald R. Burleson), make new friends for the long weekend; and I got to find out how intense it can be when you get that many people focused on H. P. Lovecraft at the same time. An unforgettable time. Only slightly documented by my pictures; because I had to choose between being out shooting, or in watching and listening. There needed to be three of me to take everything in.

The panels at The H. P. Lovecraft Centennial Celebration included:

Saturday:

9:45-11:15 a.m. Lovecraft and New England: Barton St. Armand, Donald R. Burleson, Will Murray, Henry L. P. Beckwith, Jr., and Jason Eckhardt as the Moderator.

11:30 a.m.-1:00 p.m. Lovecraft’s Life & Times: Harry Brobst, Kenneth W. Faig, Eileen McNamara, David E. Schultz, and Marc A. Michaud as the Moderator.

2:30-4:00 p.m. Lovecraft’s Style & Imagery: Norman L. Gayford, John McInnis, R. Boerem, Robert H. Waugh, and Steven J. Mariconda as the Moderator.

8:00 p.m.-? Craft of the Horror Writer: Les Daniels, Fred Chappell, Stefan Dziemianowicz, Frank Belknap Long, and Robert M. Price as the Moderator.

Sunday:

9:30-11:00 a.m. Lovecraft’s Place in World Literature: Maurice Levy, Gilles Menegaldo, Kaliju Kirde, Giuseppe Lippi, and Paul Buhle as the Moderator.

11:15 a.m.-1:00 p.m. A Reassessment of Lovecraft’s Legacy: Donald R. Burleson, Paul Buhle, Robert M. Price, Peter Cannon, and S. T. Joshi as the Moderator.

Please note: I apologize for any names that are wrong from the panels due to last minute substitutions; I am quoting mostly from the original schedule.

LNN: The title of your collection is "Lovecraft's Providence, From a Different Angle." What significance does this title have to you, especially considering the medium is located on a website where its casual observers might not have ever heard of HPL? Tell me about your "angle."

WEH: The Actual title of the collection is (see the cover shot there, which is the very first image), "Lovecraft's Providence, From a Different Angle: Providence & Beyond at the Time of HPL’s Centennial, 1990"

I describe this further as, "A visual record of the trip taken to Providence, Rhode Island, and beyond by William E. Hart (Will Hart) at the time of the H. P. Lovecraft Centennial Celebration, Thursday, August 16th., 1990 through Wednesday, August 22nd., 1990; With side trips to Plymouth, Cambridge, and Boston, Massachusetts."

As to, “A Different Angle,” That’s the best way to explain what you’ll see I was looking for when I originally shot these pictures just for my own personal collection. I had seen many pictures of Lovecraft related sites prior to my trip, but I wanted to see and photograph what I had NOT seen. Expecting this to be the only trip I would ever get to make to Providence, I wanted to have photographic coverage of the places or things I personally found of interest, from as many angles as possible, so I could really enjoy the memories triggered by looking at the pictures as the years went by. That's why you'll see that I tried to (wherever possible) shoot everything from all sides. I wanted to see the front, back, sides, rear, and tops in some cases (by shooting from high-altitude vantage points). I even made a point of shooting out in all directions from Prospect Terrace, as well as into Prospect terrace. I even got into buildings, like the List Art Building, in an attempt to see what the viewing angle would have been like from Lovecraft's final home (when it stood at 66 College Street, before being moved in 1959 to make way for the List Art Building). I hung out of windows downtown to recreate shooting angles from old postcards showing where the "Old Brick Row" used to be. And I shot every direction that I could from the roof of 1 Financial Plaza (don't even think about asking to do this in our post 9-11 world), at every zoom setting from near to far that my camera could handle.

During my stay in Providence, I would shoot a couple of rolls, and then have those developed and printed as 4” X 6” prints so I could see if the shots came out O.K.; and also to remind myself of what I had already covered, or still needed to cover while I had time. And then I would go back out and try to fill in as many of the blanks on my visual wish-list as possible.

My number one location guide was Henry L. P. Beckwith, Jr.’s incredible 1979 first printing of “Lovecraft’s Providence & Adjacent Parts”; which gave me more places to see than I could possibly have made it to in the time I had available. And I would like to submit any of my pictures that relate to locations he described as my visual companions and tributes to his book.

And my second most-used guide book (or in this case booklet), was Jason C. Eckhardt’s marvelous “Off The Ancient Track” in its May 1990 Second Revised Printing. In particular, I would never have made the run to Cambridge to see the Widener Library, or to Boston to see Copp’s Hill Burying Ground and the North End “Pickman’s Model” sites without his guidance. And any pictures I took in those locations are also a tribute to him, and everyone who helped with his booklet.

And my last guide of note, for inspiration, was Philip A. Shreffler’ s 1977 edition of “The H.P. Lovecraft Companion” with its beautiful black & white plates. I know I was thinking of these when I visited 65 Prospect Street, St. John’s on Federal Hill (gone but not forgotten), and the Salem Witch House (which I arrived at after dark when it was too late to take any pictures on my way back from Boston). And, Philip can consider my pictures of 65 Prospect, and St. John’s as an attempt to rise to his standards too.

As far as the Flickr web site being an obscure place for Lovecraft pictures, where most people might not be familiar with him; you might be surprised. Within 24 hours of my starting to upload the first roll of digitized pictures to Flickr, without my making any effort to publicize the fact I was doing it, Google was already "finding" my pictures when I did a "Lovecraft" + "Providence" search of the web. I wasn't looking for my pictures, I was just looking for some details that I was missing from my notes, and I started seeing results from Google that started with "R_", that each of my picture's file names began with; and was shocked to find that people were already being directed to my pictures. Just for fun, while typing these words (9:15 a.m., 26-August-2009), I paused, went to Google, and searched the web for "Lovecraft Providence Centennial" (without the quotation marks); care to guess what came up first? The answer is... "Collection: Lovecraft's Providence, From A Different Angle".

I choose Flickr as the repository of my images, because of the convenience for me, and the easy world-wide access to the full resolution pictures for anyone that might be interested too. This is a "Pro" account, meaning that the picture sizes and quantities are not limited; and as long as I pay the $24.95 per year, these files will be there 24 hours per day, 365 days per year. The account is currently paid for through August 2011; and I plan to extend it as long as there is activity at the site. And if I die in the meantime, and it drops back to being a free account, which will limit the picture sizes, and also limit the access to only the last 200 pictures uploaded, anyone can "Gift" a Pro account status to the account, and everything (800+ pictures) will still be there, and in full sizes for another year. If I'm dead, and no one is interested, the pictures will just sit there until needed by someone else in the future who is willing to spring for the upgrade.

LNN: How does Lovecraft fit into your life (besides compelling you to take pilgrimages to the East Coast)?

WEH: H. P. Lovecraft, as an area of interest, fascination, and study, is still one of my favorite topics because of the many different and ever expanding facets of Life related to him, his works, and his inspiration.

I've been a Lovecraft fan/collector for the better part of 40 years; from young and lean, too old and fat. And I’m still collecting files and books (like the upcoming two volume set of H. P. Lovecraft & Robert E. Howard letters from Hippocampus Press). I usually don't know anyone in my everyday life that is aware of H. P. Lovecraft; and when I do finally meet someone that has as much interest as I do, I usually end up thinking, "This person is really strange!" While I'm sure they are thinking along the lines of, "This guy really gives me the creeps!"

Maybe it’s just "The Innsmouth Look!"

or perhaps it's the strange "Colour Out of Space" (Lovecraft's British spelling) that's makes us all glow in a strange unearthly way.

What's really strange about sharing common interests, is that no matter how focused the interest is, "Lovecraft" for example, which seems on the surface rather specific, among living breathing people, breaks down into some of the following categories for each individual's personal areas of interest: Fiction, Non-Fiction, Letters, Poetry, Movies (Studio, Independent, Amateur, features, shorts), Philosophy, Science, Race/Racism, Religion (or lack of), Cthulhu Mythos/Non-Mythos, Gaming, Music, History, Providence, New England, Weird Tales, Other Writers (Howard, Smith, etc.), Research, Studies, Writing, Reading, Watching, Art, Images, Internet, Sex Shops (!), Costumes, Goth Life-Styles, Ghouls, Dagon, Photography, Yog-Sothoth, Cthulhu, The Occult, Satanism, The Never-Ending Versions of The Necronomicon, E-Books, Audio Books, Language, Hitler, Sexuality, Cats, The North End of Boston, Copp's Hill Burying Ground, Pickman, Harvard, Reality, Astronomy, Swan Point Cemetery, Comics/Comix, Anime, Collecting, Listening, Talking, Performing, and more!

And after you find out how little two Lovecraftians actually have in common, all of their other life differences come crashing in; and the gamers go off to play their favorite games, the readers go off to read their favorite books, the movie fans go off to watch their favorite movies, the smokers go hang out to smoke, the religious go off to church, the drinkers go off to drink, the Vegans walk away from the Carnivores in disgust, those with kids go home to free up the babysitter, the young music lovers go party with others their own age, the singles head for their favorite pick-up spot, the married couples return to their safe havens, and the old go back to their quieter spaces to think about what they've just heard and seen.

All of which still fascinates me.

LNN: Any future Lovecraft-inspired plans you would like to share?

WEH: Yes. My ongoing expansion of the titles, descriptions & trivia, street-by-street sets, and mapping of the images that I have uploaded to Flickr; so this collection will stand for a long time to come as a visual and historical reference work. And this entire collection will also be put on DVD-R's once it is finalized; with copies going to the John Hay Library of Brown University in Providence, as well as other groups or organizations that might like copies. I'm also working through every social-networking system I can access to spread the word about these pictures; with the hopes that people who see them will also spread the word that they are available. I want these pictures to be around long after I am gone!

LNN: Anything else you would like to put on the record?

WEH: I'd like to hear/read from anyone else that attended the H. P. Lovecraft Centennial Celebration; especially Will Murray, Jon B. Cooke, S. T. Joshi, and the rest of the "Friends of Lovecraft".

Anyone can reach me at "willhart at roadrunner dot com".

I've had really good communication with the John Hay Library, and the Providence Library, indicating they believe the pictures will also be useful to many in Providence; and that's all I can ask for.

Plus, I have reason to believe that Leigh Blackmore (see F_34), the Australian fan who traveled farther than anyone else to attend the celebration, not only took a similar number of pictures to mine, but has near future plans to digitize his, and put them out for public viewing too! His email to me recently was a real treat, because I remembered his being the long-distance traveler, but I didn't have an email address for him until he saw one of my many notices going around about the pictures.

A trivia question: Does anyone else have a CTHULHU license plate?

LNN: The idea has occured to me, but I think actually securing one might jeopardize my marriage, so I have had to pass for the time being!

Reber Clark is a freelance composer who has written and arranged music for hundreds of jazz charts, theater works, variety shows and studio projects. He was a speaker at the United States national ASBDA convention on procedures for commissioning a new work, and he has fulfilled numerous commissions for college, university, high school, and middle school bands. His latest project is entitled Lovecraft Paragraphs. We asked Mr. Clark to tell us the details.



LNN: First off, tell us a little about yourself in general.

RC: I am a composer working in wind ensemble music for almost thirty years. I am a long time Lovecraft reader and he holds a very special place in my life. Because of my music, I've traveled to many places worldwide and have had many fantastic experiences - especially throughout Europe (France and Ireland in particular). I have been married for thirty years and have two daughters and two cats. I was born in Des Moines, Iowa and grew up in Little Rock, Arkansas. I have resided in Oklahoma and now Illinois. I work from home in suburban Chicago and can usually be found there when not somewhere far afield.

LNN: How did you discover Lovecraft, and how does he now influence and inform the composition work that you do?

RC: Like many Lovecraft readers I discovered him in high school. Where the first book came from I can't recall specifically. I trolled the bookshops regularly and probably picked up one of the Ballantine editions, probably “The Tomb” - the one with the head bulging with red bats - and got hooked. That was 1971 or so, and my interest and love of his work has never waned. I was extremely excited when Arkham House re-published his complete works and quickly snagged a complete set as they were released. I have been a lifelong fan of his stories, but not so much a fan of what people have done with (and to) them. I am consistently disappointed with the movies "based" on his work.

As far as influencing my music - he doesn't influence it much, apart from a world-view (cosmos-view) that I can draw on from time to time.

LNN: Tell us about The Lovecraft Paragraphs? What can we expect at its premier, and what is your intent with the project?

RC: Well, the title is just Lovecraft Paragraphs (no "the"). It really is a
"fan" piece. Most of the references, visual, audio etc, will be familiar to
Lovecraft readers and not so much to non-aficionados. I hope people enjoy it
and that it helps these paragraphs stick in the mind. The movie opens with
the Joyce Carol Oates quote:

"There is a melancholy, operatic grandeur in Lovecraft's most passionate
work. . . a curious elegiac poetry of unspeakable loss, of adolescent despair,
and an existential loneliness so pervasive that it lingers in the reader's
memory, like a dream, long after the rudiments of Lovecraftian plot have
faded."

and that is really what the movie is about - how those paragraphs stick with
you even after the plot details have become hazy.

LNN: Who else is involved in this and how did you come up with the idea?

RC: This is from the press blurb for the movie:

" ‘for in its cryptical arabesques there may stand symbolised all the aims
and mysteries of a blindly impersonal cosmos.'
- Howard Phillips Lovecraft, The Silver Key

With this statement the project which became Lovecraft Paragraphs was
launched. Searching for a way to make Lovecraft's prose accessible by ear,
yet remaining somewhat internal and eerily impersonal, was the first hurdle.
The problem, it seems to me, with most Lovecraft readings is that the reader
inevitably (however unintentionally) inserts their own personality into the
material. There are very few voice artists who can pull it off convincingly.
This usually renders Lovecraft's unique inner voice impotent and creates an
unintended atmosphere of intimacy which saps the cold stark strength from
Lovecraft's work.

'I like a tale to be told as directly and impersonally as possible, from an
angle of utter and absolute detachment.'
- Howard Phillips Lovecraft, In a letter to Frank Belknap Long, August 2
1925

Diligent searching for an answer to this problem resulted in the discovery
of a set of synthesized voices that sounded very real, yet with quirks and
qualities that helped the listener to suspect their impersonality. This
somewhat disquieting effect is the key which, I hope, sets the readings of
Lovecraft's prose in this movie apart."

I would add that the most convincing reader I have heard is Andrew Leman
from the H. P. Lovecraft Historical Society - he has it down perfectly, in my
opinion, but unfortunately he was not involved with this production.

I really wore all of the hats producing this thing, mainly because I'm a
cheap bastard, but also it helped me learn many aspects of production with
which I is was unfamiliar.

LNN: Have there been any other Lovecraft-themed projects you have worked on?

RC: I did a work for choir and percussion ensemble entitled Dark Feasts. It included Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard and Arthur Machen quotes. It was commissioned and performed by the University Singers of Indiana/Purdue University in Fort Wayne, Indiana under the direction of Dr. Paul Meers, who now resides and teaches voice in Beirut, Lebanon at the University of Beirut.

I have done other, solely musical, works that touch on some darker themes – Troll Witch Dances, for concert band, based on the work of Welsh artist Brian Froud, Wizard's Glass and Tree Cathedral, for unaccompanied solo clarinet, based on Druidic lore and practices, but not any other specific Lovecraftian material. I have sketched together video segments for Lovecraft's The Cats of Ulthar and know how I am going to do it as a movie if I get the chance (or make the chance!).



LNN: As a freelance composer who has been commissioned to write for many
different groups, including High Schools, do you ever worry that a project
like Lovecraft Paragraphs might be misunderstood by potential customers?
Or, conversely, does it make the students love you?

RC: This is an interesting question that I have actually asked myself. Some of
my very first commissions were from Catholic schools in Rhode Island - and
being a Lovecraft fan I was very excited to be working with and traveling to
Providence and its environs. I was able to explore Providence and many of
the towns surrounding it and up to the border with Massachusetts many times.
I can see why Lovecraft loved the place and why certain things may have
influenced his writing and world-view. I really liked (and continue to like)
Rhode Island although I regret I haven't yet visited Swan Point Cemetery
where Lovecraft is buried.

So I would mention my love of his work to the people I was working with
there and would get a wide range of reactions from "Who?" to "Oh yeah, he
wrote some really weird stuff, didn't he?" I would say yes, but then I would
mention the beauty in his writing as well, with which most were unfamiliar.
I mean, the sunset glories that he could spin were fucking incredible.
Providence at sunset is amazing to look at. Many of the houses are built on
the western side of a rise and are set off beautifully in the sunset. It
must have been mythic to grow up with.

Much of my music writing has been dealing with subjects that consider life
and death. A lot of it has been fun as well. But Philip Jose Farmer once
said somewhere that the reason he wrote his stories about our origins and
where we are going (the Riverworld series et al) is that these are the
important questions and the subjects worth writing about - who are we?
Where are we going? What are we doing? Before we do anything else these are the big questions that should be asked.

Life has its darkness as well as its light. There are things "out there"
that will eat you alive if you're not vigilant. This is just as important a
message as friendship and love. It cannot be ignored. I agree with Guillermo
del Toro about the latest wave of "romantic" vampire movies. They're crap.
Vampires are mean bastards who will eat you and your soul alive. These are
the monsters I grew up with and these are the way I see them. Mean MF'ers.
Believe me, they're out there!

I was raised in the Episcopal church. I believe that because of that
background the terror of losing one's mind, soul, whatever in Lovecraft's
stories to an impersonal cosmic entity or influence is heightened.

I am asked to write music for religious schools quite often and I try to be
practical about it. What gets lost sometimes in contemporary religious
teaching, Christian or not, is that there is some mean stuff in the universe
and it will eat you! So when I write from a religious point of view I try to
impart a feeling for these big questions - mainly that the questions are BIG
and that the sentimentality that many people attach to some of this stuff is
just not helpful.

The great Irish writer James Joyce said that sentimentality is unearned
emotion. I think that is true. It's a short cut that keeps the real
experience at arm's length. Carl Jung said that sentimentality is a
superstructure covering brutality. I think that to a large extent that is
true as well. I strive in my music to make sure that any emotions arrived at
by the listener make sense and are not shortcuts. Sometimes I succeed,
sometimes not.

As far as being misunderstood - people make snap judgments quite often. If
they would talk to one another they may find out that they are more in
agreement than not. So I do take time to talk to people who hire me to make
sure they understand where I'm coming from and that I can usually work
within their system.

Geez. I can be long-winded! Sorry!

LNN: What are your goals for Lovecraft Paragraphs post release?

RC: I would love for anyone who wants music for their Lovecraft production to
contact me. If anyone likes the movie and would like to distribute it, that
would be great! My main goal, however, was to submit it to the H. P.
Lovecraft Film Festival in Portland, Oregon and have it accepted and shown.
I won't hear until after September 1st if it will be selected or not. But
that was my main goal.

It is a work of love for the material. I mean money is fine (I don't reject
it!), but money ruins many Lovecraft presentations. I suppose love does too!
But not as often.

LNN: Would you consider Lovecraft Paragraphs to be an oratorio, or is
there a better term? How does this particular medium influence the delivery
of the content, the audience's experience, and message of the text?

RC: Whoa. Big question. The movie isn't a musical work, so I wouldn't give it a
musical form-name. I am striving to present these disjointed paragraphs in a
loose narrative form in an interesting way. Hopefully Lovecraft fans will
bring their own associations to the experience and it will be interesting to
hear what the reactions are.

LNN: Tell us about composing for a Lovecraft-inspired piece. How do you get in
the mind sight to tap into the dark mood and atmosphere a project like this
engenders?

RC: The stories. Man, he is good for building that atmosphere. I can totally
identify with cosmic forces just coming to nail mankind. Somehow it's easy
for me. This may sound hokey but I can have such visions of light in my
imagination and these inform many of the brighter and more positive writings
that I do, but there has to be a balance, and I can get so dark. I think this
is my Welsh and Czech blood coming through that I can live there as well.
The dark and the light complement and balance each other. I can understand
why the Yin/Yang thing could be so attractive. I try to hold myself apart as
an observer however. The writer on mythological principles, Joseph Campbell,
has been indispensible for me in this regard. Many people know him for his
outlining of the Hero path, but there is a lot more going on in Campbell
than just that. He is worth reading.

Additionally I just love the atmosphere Lovecraft creates. I am right there
under the pyramids or descending the seven hundred steps to the Gates of
Deeper Slumber. I know I could score a film of The Dream Quest of Unknown
Kadath. I know exactly how things would look and how they should be
approached. It is so clear to me.



LNN: What does your family think of your project? Are you the kind of father that
gives your daughters plush Cthulhu dolls?

RC: I thought the family thing would be more sensitive than it has been. My wife Lee Ann has been (as Ken Hite states about his own wife) a "Lovecraft skeptic," but she has been so supportive of all my endeavors that I couldn't do what I'm doing without her. My daughters' reactions have ranged from "that's weird" to "that's cool." They have strong reactions to the images I am using in this movie.

If they were younger, there are many scenes I would not expose them to. The
one daughter is twenty-four and is pursuing a career in stage management.
She has had many insights on production that I had no idea about. Her
dramatic insights are particularly valuable. Also, if I was to do a live
action piece (Cats of Ulthar?) she has a talent pool of actors and artists
that I could draw from. The other daughter is eighteen and just starting
college this fall. She has very strong reactions and very clear opinions
about her reactions to the music and the visuals. Her insight is always
helpful.

I have seen the plush Cthulhus and think they're great fun. But as we all
know in our heart of hearts, Cthulhu is going to rise and wipe us all out!
He's not cute and cuddly so I've avoided that whole approach. I really enjoy
Lovecraft more when taking him seriously. Having said that I just recently
watch the Chuck and Dexter "SpookySpookyScaryScary" video that's online and
laughed my ass off! I also like the Spanish comic strip "Young Lovecraft"
and of course the "Unspeakable Vault of Doom" comics. I was never a graphic
novel or comic book fan, especially of Lovecraft presentations - I like my
own imagination and movies better. But those strips are a hoot.

LNN: As a composer, tell me about the hubris it would take to attempt to write up
a score for "The Music of Eric Zann." Would you ever consider trying, and
if so, how would you go about even starting?

RC: I think if The Music of Eric Zann was approached too realistically (maybe literally is a better word) it might ruin it. Hubris, as you state. Ya know. And this might be a sensitive topic: reading the bible as prose gets people into trouble all the time. They get stuck thinking of this stuff as reality instead of as a representation. Of course much of it is reality and history but much of it is language that points beyond itself - like poetry. Music is also a language that points to things beyond itself. It's said that the best things can't be talked about because no tongue can describe it and we're stuck with language that can only be a descriptive referral to thethings that refer to this ineffableness (is that a word?) If one reads Lovecraft as strict prose the same mistakes can occur. But if you read his "prose" as poetry many things open up and point beyond the literal to his dreamworld (or other places and things) and how it functions. I think Zann can be approached in this way. I would probably "ground" the audience in tonal conventional music sounds during the real-world part of Zann and move them into atonal "out-there" sounds when that window opens (if I am recalling the story correctly). I have written pieces like this for wind ensemble - grounding the audience in the familiar and then launching them into a world of cosmically un-sure footing. I bring them back at the end but they usually feel that they've "been somewhere" instead of just enjoying a nice little piece. At least that is what I have attempted to do and have been successful mostly.

Writing music for Zann would be like Lovecraft's writing - how do you
describe the indescribable? You let the audience do the work in their own
imagination by providing the groundwork for them to do so. I would imagine
that this is much easier in music than it is using visuals.

Another approach might be to not use music at all in the movie until the
music scene - and then make it so cosmically overwhelming that the contrast
would blow the audience away. Sort of like when Dorothy opens up her black
and white front door in The Wizard of Oz - a blast of color and light, but
musically.

LNN: With potentially two mainstream Lovecraft project on the table over the next
few years (Del Toro's "At the Mountains of Madness" and Howard's The Strange
Adventures of HPL"), what sorts of considerations and advice do you have for
the composer who ends up scoring them?

RC: I would hope they would have done their homework and not only read the
stories but all related materials as well. I think a solid prerequisite
would be for them to be a lover of Lovecraft's work and have clear ideas and
solid approaches to the material - yet remain open to the director and the
music supervisor. The gravity of a cosmic approach is essential. They should
be able to clearly demonstrate their ideas quickly and efficiently and
change things as needed. I would love to score either of these movies
-especially "Mountains," but my big dream is to score "The Dream Quest of
Unknown Kadath" - that would be an amazing project.

LNN: Anything else you would like to add?

RC: I was fortunate enough to contribute some croakings to the H. P. Lovecraft
Historical Society's audio production of The Shadow Over Innsmouth for
their Dark Adventure Radio Theater. These guys, Andrew Leman and Sean
Branney, really have the tone down and produce great stuff. Their The Call
of Cthulhu silent movie was absolutely an inspired work and the composers
who worked on it, especially Troy Sterling Nies provided outstanding music.
I would love to work on any project that these guys produce.

I think we may be entering a new era of Lovecraft media production now that
inexpensive HD cameras and desktop video editing are becoming more
widespread. But no matter what the tools are, what is needed is a clear
vision. Stuart Gordon's Dagon came very close, AM1200 was an amazing,
well-crafted and high production value approach to cosmic horror, and many
of the shorts with Lovecraftian themes have presented amazing experiences. I
am hoping that the era of schlock Lovecraft is dead or dying (except for the
fun stuff!) and that we will soon see some amazing and cosmic things coming
from young (or not so young) directors and creators.

Visit Reber Clark's website to learn more about his composition:
http://home.comcast.net/~reberclark/index.html

*Update: On 8/9/09 Mr. Clark contacted us and was pleased to announce his official acceptance at the HPL Film Festival. Congrats!*

There are quite a few web-based, Lovecraftian homages, but few have received such an immediate, powerful response as one the one we are about to explore. Cultivating humor, wit, and delightfully twisted pop culture innuendo, Calls for Cthulhu is a lovingly parodic entry in the canon of cosmic horror that has something for everyone.

We are pleased to publish our recent interview with Brand Gamblin, the writer and director of this popular web series.



LNN: Tell us about yourself in general.

BG: For the last decade, I've been a video game computer programmer. I've
worked for Microprose, Acclaim, and Firaxis. I worked on ten games,
and shipped seven. Now I'm doing interface work in Flash for a network
security company. Big fan of sci-fi and fantasy, as is probably
obvious.

LNN: Tell us about your original intentions for CFC. Did you have big plans
right from the start?

BG: C4C started out as a one-off joke. I mentioned at lunch one day that
it would be fun to put the puppet behind a desk, Larry King style, and
have him answer questions. As soon as I said it would be Calls to
Cthulhu, instead of Call of Cthulhu, one of my coworkers dropped his
fork. He just stared at me, saying, "We have to do this."
So, we made the video, put it up online as a joke, but for the joke
to work, we had to have a phone number/e-mail address. Even though it
was a one-off joke, people started writing in with questions. Some of
the questions were really good, so we decided to make another one. Now
we've got more than ten done, and I guess the joke is becoming
something real, huh?

LNN: How did your interest in Lovecraft's fiction begin?

BG: I'd read most of Lovecraft's work before I ever picked up the puppet,
but I certainly wasn't well versed in it. It was just one of those
names you try and read, like Poe or Dickens or Wells. In fact, when I
started the show, I didn't really know much more about Cthulhu than
that he was "ultimate evil." However, since starting the show, I've
been challenged by so many true Lovecraft scholars, I've had to go
back and re-read everything, taking notes and reading scholarly works
based on his stuff.

LNN: H.P. Lovecraft had a great sense of humor, but he was also known to
take his work very seriously. They weren't merely stories for him but
a method of addressing and exploring many of the difficult
philosophical questions he faced. Despite its overt silliness, CFC
often shows a greater awareness and interest in philosophy, religion,
and ethics. How does CFC reflect your personal beliefs and reactions
to American culture?

BG: From the beginning, the basic joke behind C4C has been that Cthulhu
has a human side to him, while still being a horrible, rampaging
monster. Everything from the fight he has with his rapid-fire round to
the way he browbeats his underling, Tim, is all planned to make him
sound just a little more petty, a little more realistic, and a little
more human.

If Lovecraft had a single message, it would be that man is
insignificant and impotent when compared to the vast, shocking power
of the cosmos. If I had a single message, it would be that the vast,
shocking cosmos still has a human side to it.

Lovecraft never meant for Cthulhu to be a god. At least, not the way
we think of the Judeo-Christian God. So part of the joke behind C4C is
that if Cthulhu were a real god, all the others had to be real, too.
Odin, Ra, and my favorite, Xenu. In that context, Cthulhu does upset
devout believers, but only the ones who consider theirs to be the only
possible answer. I've received quite a few letters from angry
believers, who want Cthulhu to admit he is not the real god, and I've
had to fight the impulse to go on the show and say, "You know you're
talking to a puppet, right? You know this isn't real, right?"

LNN: When you aren't making videos, what do you do for fun that doesn't
involved cyclopean horrors?

BG: As it happens, I'm currently producing a podcast novel called
"Tumbler." Last year, I wrote a book about a young girl who gets a job
mining in the asteroid belt. It was heavily inspired by Robert A.
Heinlein's juvenile fiction, and features adventure, danger, and
excitement in the deep dark of space.

This year, I'm releasing the book in episodes, as a free audiobook.
Once the show is finished, I'm going to try to get it published.
Also, I've been working on writing a video game for the Android
operating system. It may be Cthulhu-based, if I can get the design
right.

LNN: Do your friends, family, and coworkers know that you play with
handpuppets? What do they think?

BG: My very close friends and immediate family know about it, and they
generally love it. My extended family doesn't quite understand (how do
you explain a plush Cthulhu to your grandmother?) but they try to
support me in it. My co-workers, if they know about it at all, think
it's just kinda weird.

LNN: Sorry to hear about the Parsec awards. How did Cthulhu take it?

BG: I had a lot of fun with the Parsec awards. Honestly, I don't think I
would have had as much fun if I'd won. I should point out that I knew
Earl Newton from before the Parsecs. We were already friends, and he
had a much more professional show, with a cast and scripts and special
effects and everything. Once we found out that we'd lost to Earl and
his eminently qualified TV show "Stranger Things," I tried to figure
out how Cthulhu would take it. The most obvious answer would be that
he just didn't care. After all, why would an ancient amoral
human-devouring creature care about winning a silly award?
But that's taking the easy way out, and it didn't really fit the
Cthulhu character I'd been building. Like I said before, I was trying
to make him as human as possible. So, in this case, I wanted to be
jealous. I wanted him to be petty and angry. So I made him rail and
cry against the unfairness of it all.

After that, it became a running gag that Cthulhu was going to swallow
Earl's soul. I was lucky enough to realize that goal at this past
Balticon, but that story will have to wait until our next episode.

LNN: Which leads me to my next question: tell us about the Balticon sex
scandal. What, why, and how?

BG: Yeah. Heh. The Parsec was given out at DragonCon, and Earl wasn't
able to be there that year, so even though he won it, he hadn't
actually received the trophy. And everybody knew about Cthulhu's
jealous hatred of "Stranger Things." So, the night before they were
actually going to present the award to Earl, I was approached by
Podcasting's Rich Sigfrit, who whispered to me, "I've got the trophy.
We're going to give it to him tomorrow. It'd be a shame if something
were to. . . happen to it." So we went back to his hotel room, and
made a couple of videos of Cthulhu stealing the trophy, as a kind of
joke to play on Earl. But then, once we were done, Rich and I both
said, "It's just not right. It's not enough." So instead, we made a
short video of Cthulhu defiling the Parsec, as a better gag to play on
Earl.

Warning: NSFW!

But then I made a mistake. I was carrying the video on my phone, and
I thought it was so funny, I showed it to a friend. He thought it was
hilarious, so he showed it to someone else. Then they had to show it
to someone else, and before I knew it, people were coming up to me,
asking if I had the hidden Cthulhu Sex Video.

It went viral faster than I'd expected, and before long I was getting
e-mailed requests from people in the UK and New Zealand. So, I figured
I could distribute it better by putting the video on YouTube.
Then Cory Doctorow found out, and the video found it's way to
BoingBoing, where thousands of people were suddenly watching my hand
puppet have unnatural relations with an inanimate object. So that's my
fifteen minutes of fame. :)

LNN: Will we ever be able to see Cthulhu do street interviews like Triumph
the Insult Comic Dog?

BG: I've wanted to do that for a while, but I keep thinking that it
doesn't really work, with the mythos and all. It's hard to fit the
man-on-the-street interview in with a monster who is supposed to be 50
feet tall. Last year, they held the national "My Little Pony"
convention in my town, and I wanted desperately to have Cthulhu show
up and do the whole Triumph act with them, but it just didn't work
from a story standpoint.

I have thought about buying one of the "Chibithulhu" dolls, hollowing
it out, and making it into a puppet. That way, I could do a "baby
Cthulhu interviews" thing with it.

LNN: What is the current status and what are your plans for CFC in the
future? More DVDs?

BG: I'm not entirely sure. I've had a few ideas for another episode, but
I think interest is dying down. People don't send in e-mails as much
as they used to, and I'm working on other projects at the same time. I
may just make this an annual show, and only bring it out at Balticon.
But who knows? There may be a resurgence of interest, more good
questions, a movie deal . . . the world's a crazy place.

LNN: Tell me about your relationship with Scientology. How did Cthulhu's
beef with Xenu begin?

BG: I don't have any direct experience with scientology, but I've read a
lot about their procedures and ethics. I've read up on Xenu and the
nuclear bomb laden volcanoes. I know my way around Thetan levels. So
when I started thinking that I should have another god come on the
show, I wanted to pick the most ridiculous one possible. And Xenu's
story is, let's face it, pretty freaking ridiculous.

So then I started reading more about him, and the more I read, the
more angry I got. He was betrayed and trapped under the Earth, held in
place by a force field with an eternal battery. It was such an obvious
rip-off of Cthulhu's situation, I felt like I just had to say
something. It was no longer enough to just make Xenu look silly, now I
had to make him look utterly ridiculous, while still pointing out how
his whole existence was stolen from a penny dreadful author. So I did
to Xenu the same thing that I'd done to Cthulhu, I made him an
exaggerated version of humanity. I made him petty, weak, and silly.
And because of that, he was beloved by many watchers, and became a
sidekick to Cthulhu, like Ed MacMahon to Johnny Carson.

LNN: Anything else you would like to put on the record?

BG: Well, I'd just like to thank you for the opportunity to tell people
about the show. It's been great fun for me the entire way. This is
really more fun than a guy with a puppet deserves to have.


Check out Brand Gamblin's great site Calls for Cthulhu at the following link:
http://www.callsforcthulhu.com/