On rattles and twigs and maybe holly sticks all bound up in ropes and ceremoniously destroyed

[sovay]

I am home from NecronomiCon Providence. I hope to write out a real con report before I forget the details, but not right now.

All panels present and correct, including the one I thought I moderated badly; I was asked after that one if I taught for a living (not for years and not in the sense they were asking) and my impostor syndrome was confused. I probably short-circuited my own reading, but again, I sold a copy of Ghost Signs (2014) afterward, so it cannot have been a disaster. All program items in which I was involved were a lot of fun, including the podcast on which I had not originally been scheduled to appear. The Lovecraftian erotica was amazing.

People kept handing me things. A lime-green rubber tentacle, a bandanna for the Lovecraft Readathon, a CD of Bohren & der Club of Gore's Black Earth (2002), a first edition of C.L. Moore's Doomsday Morning (1957), DVDs of The Bat (1959) with Vincent Price and Agnes Moorehead and The Lodger (1944) with Laird Cregar, a fictitious vintage program for the HPLHS' The Call of Cthulhu (2005 1927), Andrew M. Reichert's Weird Luck Tales: Monsters (2017). I got the souvenir book as part of being on programming, ditto the lapel pin with its emblem of the leaf-eyed pyramid like something out of Gravity Falls. I bought the Dwight Frye cards, the Lovecraftian postcards, the Miskatonic University T-shirt with an Art Nouveau design instead of the usual university seal, Silvia Moreno-Garcia and Paula R. Stiles' She Walks in Shadows (2015). I bought a birch-veneer screen print of two witch's cats by Liv Rainey-Smith as a present for my brother and his wife. I think I just picked up the fake vintage newspaper because of its headline "Has Science Gone Mad?!", but its supposed date is my birthday, forty-five years before I was born.

There was not enough seeing of people, but what there was was good. Late last night, I wrote three-quarters of a post on Penda's Fen (1974) that I did not manage to finish before having to check out this morning, so either I will finish it later tonight or I will sleep. Or both.

I am exhausted. Various parts of my body think I was trying to kill them and are now attempting to return the favor. It was worth the early mornings.

Comments

[moon_custafer]

I may need to see The Bat someday, because I recently found out that in addition to Price and Moorehead it also has Gavin Gordon, many years after his cameo as Lord Byron in the prologue to Bride of Frankenstein. I also learned that he is rumoured to have been Edward Everett Horton's partner, which sounds rather endearing.

I like the Art-Nouveau Miskatonic design -- I've always rather liked the statement in The Thing on the Doorstep about how satanism and worse, Cthulhu-worship were prevalent among the "fast set" at the university. I suppose that's the trope of "everything I disapprove of is done simultaneously by the same people," but I kind of like the idea of the bad kids of Arkham meeting to drink bootleg gin, shimmy to jazz recordings, and worship eldridge horrors.

[sovay]

Gavin Gordon, many years after his cameo as Lord Byron in the prologue to Bride of Frankenstein. I also learned that he is rumoured to have been Edward Everett Horton's partner, which sounds rather endearing.

Oh, my God, I had forgotten he was in Bride of Frankenstein. I associate him with Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933), where he doesn't get nearly as many chances to roll an R like a Ruffles commercial. As far as I've read, he was definitely Edward Everett Horton's partner.

I suppose that's the trope of "everything I disapprove of is done simultaneously by the same people," but I kind of like the idea of the bad kids of Arkham meeting to drink bootleg gin, shimmy to jazz recordings, and worship eldridge horrors.

I really have not seen enough eldritch summoning scenes with jazz soundtracks.

[gwynnega]

That sounds like a great weekend. I'd never heard of The Bat, but I love the idea of Vincent Price and Agnes Moorehead in a film together.

[sovay]

That sounds like a great weekend.

It was exhausting to the point I don't even want to leave my house today (aside from stepping out to view the eclipse later this afternoon), but it was worth it.

I'd never heard of The Bat, but I love the idea of Vincent Price and Agnes Moorehead in a film together.

I had actually just heard of it for the first time a few weeks ago when I read about the original Broadway play! So this is very good timing.

[edit] Look at this photograph! It's of Avery Hopwood, who co-wrote The Bat with Mary Roberts Rinehart, and Rosa Rolanda, whom he was not really engaged to:



It was taken in 1924 and I'm pretty sure they both have the sun in their eyes and Rolanda is making a Good Decision Cat face; it just makes me very happy.

[gwynnega]

That is a wonderful photograph.

[thisbluespirit]

I'm glad it all went well!

[sovay]

I'm glad it all went well!

Thank you!