Little Rare Book Room...My favorite holiday carol...

From the brilliant HP Lovecraft Society, please enjoy a favorite of mine, "Little Rare Book Room" (Lyrics by Sean Branney and Andrew Leman, based on 'Little Drummer Boy,' written in 1958 by Katherine Davis, Henry Onorati, and Harry Simeone):

Come, they called me
The special book room
The rarest books to see
Librarian's tomb
Kept under lock and key
In terrible gloom
To save man's sanity,
It's pointless, we're doomed, thoroughly doomed, utterly doomed.
Necronomicon
The first I exhumed
From the book room.

Book of Eibon
So frightfully old
Vermis Mysteriis
A sight to behold
The Monstres and Their Kynde
With edges of gold
Could make me lose my mind
All covered with mold, fungus and mold, poisonous mold.
Kitab al Azif
Its horrors untold.
Still I am bold.

King in Yellow
Left me feeling glum
The Ponape Scriptures
I'd stay away from
And then The Golden Bough
My brain had gone numb
I read them all out loud
Well that was quite dumb, terribly dumb, fatally dumb.
Freed the Great Old Ones
Mankind will succumb.
What have I done?

Put Madness where it belongs, in the curriculum:

A nice article has been posted calling for us to return to our traditional roots....

"Last month, he wanted us to change the high school's motto from 'Many Kinds of Excellence' to 'Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn,'" PTA member Cathy Perry said. "I asked if it was Latin, and he said that it was the eldritch tongue of Shub- Niggurath, the Black Goat of the Woods with a Thousand Young. I don't know from eldritch tongues, but I'm not sure that's such a good idea."

Then again, too much education can be a bad thing. As a very wise man once said, "The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents."

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies - Coming in April

Says Chronicle Books, "The Classic Regency Romance—Now with Ultraviolent Zombie Mayhem!" The publisher's blurb reads:

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies features the original text of Jane Austen's beloved novel with all-new scenes of bone-crunching zombie action. As our story opens, a mysterious plague has fallen upon the quiet English village of Meryton—and the dead are returning to life! Feisty heroine Elizabeth Bennet is determined to wipe out the zombie menace, but she's soon distracted by the arrival of the haughty and arrogant Mr. Darcy. What ensues is a delightful comedy of manners with plenty of civilized sparring between the two young lovers—and even more violent sparring on the blood-soaked battlefield as Elizabeth wages war against hordes of flesh-eating undead. Complete with 20 illustrations in the style of C. E. Brock (the original illustrator of Pride and Prejudice), this insanely funny expanded edition will introduce Jane Austen's classic novel to new legions of fans.

I don't even know where to start. As you know, Gregory Maquire started a one-man rewriting of classics in alternative voices (e.g. Wicked, A Lion Among Men, Son of a Witch, Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister, etc). What we have here appears to be a different beastie...not a well-known tale told from a different perspective...rather, a well-known tale with flesh-eating zombies thrown in. I have already ordered a copy (possibly more than one).

I predict that P&P will see a bump in sales because of this...doubly so if they make a movie of it. Oh, please let someone make a movie based on this iteration.

I also predict this is the first in a series. Perhaps next we will see Matheson's, vampires ala I Am Legend invading Holmes' London. Maybe L. Bloom (of Ulysses fame) will have to fend off a werewolf as he wanders Dublin. Or Tom Sawyer will follow one more cut-off in the cave...and in his madness, release the Old Ones upon a Twainian world. Then again, it just might be a zombie horde roaming from one classic to another.

I hope this is as clever as it seems to want to be. It could actually be good fun...it could also be very painful. I will review it when it appears... Thanks for the heads up JG.

Little Rare Book Room...a holiday favorite.

I am very pleased this year, to provide the video (audio, really) above in addition to the lyrics below.

From the Scary Solstice collection (1, 2, or 3) of holiday music offered by the HP Lovecraft Society, please enjoy a favorite of mine, "Little Rare Book Room" (Lyrics by Sean Branney and Andrew Leman, based on 'Little Drummer Boy,' written in 1958 by Katherine Davis, Henry Onorati, and Harry Simeone):

Come, they called me
The special book room
The rarest books to see
Librarian's tomb
Kept under lock and key
In terrible gloom
To save man's sanity,
It's pointless, we're doomed, thoroughly doomed, utterly doomed.
Necronomicon
The first I exhumed
From the book room.

Book of Eibon
So frightfully old
Vermis Mysteriis
A sight to behold
The Monstres and Their Kynde
With edges of gold
Could make me lose my mind
All covered with mold, fungus and mold, poisonous mold.
Kitab al Azif
Its horrors untold.
Still I am bold.

King in Yellow
Left me feeling glum
The Ponape Scriptures
I'd stay away from
And then The Golden Bough
My brain had gone numb
I read them all out loud
Well that was quite dumb, terribly dumb, fatally dumb.
Freed the Great Old Ones
Mankind will succumb.
What have I done?

DFW...as the dust settles...

I really tried to avoid posting on the passing of David Foster Wallace. I have read nearly everything he ever wrote...much of his codex more than once (the bad habit of rereading is one I've never been able to quit). I spent a summer, some time ago, (re)reading Infinite Jest, Finnegans Wake, The Wasp Factory and A Void (Perec's, La Disparition as translated by Gilbert Adair, keeping the original's avoidance of the letter "e") (I was in a masochistic mood). I am fond of complex, convoluted and challenging text. It is not always rewarding...and it is often quite painful...but there is always a chance of running across *greatness*. I do not think it is possible to find *greatness* in the easy to consume.

DFW never held back from playing with his craft. There was greatness and there was crap...and one person's greatness was often another's crap and vise versa (as is often the case, The Independant declared Bank's first novel, Wasp Factory as one of the 100 great novels of the 20th century, the Economist declared the same work "Rubbish"). I just finished rereading Girl with Curious Hair (a collection of short stories, first published in 1990). I first read it...well...about 18 years ago and again around 1996 when it was reprinted. It was interesting how different my sense of the collection is now vs. my "memory" of it.

There has been much written of him since his passing, and I include a few notated links that I think are interesting...and one counterpoint:

Howling Fantods - cornerstone DFW fan site, extremely detailed listing of related articles;
McSweeney - "Timothy McSweeney is devastated and lost" - remembrances by McSweeney writers, etc. (including Dave Eggers);
Harper's Magazine - is providing every article DFW wrote for them as downloadable .pdfs (if you read nothing else, read Shipping Out);
SFGate - Mark Morford offers a personal and *very* praising recollection;
and as a counterpoint...because it is useful, sometimes, for perspective -
Hackwriters.com - agree with it or not, David Schneider's review/critique of Girl With Curious Hair (and Post-modernism) is a good read.

I hate when a great mind goes away...more so where, as here, its passing is tied so closely to that subtle line between insanity and genius. The loss here is greatest for what might have been written...what we have lost by his passing, comforted only in that we will never know what we have lost. There are so many writers who could never write another word and I, personally, would not care one whit [e.g. (and while acknowledging that the following is completely inappropriate) does the world really need another novel by Nicholas Sparks?]. Though I had not read him recently until his passing, I really can't find the construct to voice my sense of loss. I think I will just go reread some essays and short fiction and be annoyed.

Speaking of rereading, tragic writers and...well...broken minds; I am rereading a collection of H.P. Lovecraft's short fiction and had just (re)started Call of Cthulhu when I heard of DFW's passing. Its opening appears to be a fitting close:

The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the light into the peace and safety of a new dark age.

Wishing you happiness in this time of terror...or something

It has been too busy of late and I apologize for my silence, several quick posts to follow starting with:

The holiday music here is all brought courtesy of the fine folks at the H.P. Lovecraft Society. They offer not one but TWO collections of holiday music: A Very Scary Solstice and An Even Scarier Solstice. Each arrives with its own songbook, what more can one ask for. OH, I know, you can get both of them in a limited edition tentacle stocking (mine, from last year, can be seen to the right).

I offer, for your holiday pleasure, the lyrics of my personal favorite, the "Little Rare Book Room" (Lyrics by Sean Branney and Andrew Leman, based on 'Little Drummer Boy,' written in 1958 by Katherine Davis, Henry Onorati, and Harry Simeone):

Come, they called me
The special book room
The rarest books to see
Librarian's tomb
Kept under lock and key
In terrible gloom
To save man's sanity,
It's pointless, we're doomed, thoroughly doomed, utterly doomed.
Necronomicon
The first I exhumed
From the book room.

Book of Eibon
So frightfully old
Vermis Mysteriis
A sight to behold
The Monstres and Their Kynde
With edges of gold
Could make me lose my mind
All covered with mold, fungus and mold, poisonous mold.
Kitab al Azif
Its horrors untold.
Still I am bold.

King in Yellow
Left me feeling glum
The Ponape Scriptures
I'd stay away from
And then The Golden Bough
My brain had gone numb
I read them all out loud
Well that was quite dumb, terribly dumb, fatally dumb.
Freed the Great Old Ones
Mankind will succumb.
What have I done?

I know, I know, I posted the lyrics last year too...so what. It is great. I am going caroling in my neighborhood singing nothing but the Little Rare Book Room. Enough of this "good will to men" and "season of joy" blatherings...

HPLS has many other lovely holiday gifts, I highly recommend the Bibliophile t-shirt (no small praise as I tend to avoid t-shirts as much as possible). As I am on a bit of a Cthulhu run, I will also give a plug for a personal favorite of mine, Baby's First Mythos (I occasionally give this at holidays...and at every baby shower).

Happy Death Day to HP Lovecraft.

I am a Lovecraft fan. Lovecraft, who died unexpectedly, early and, most unfortunately, never knowing the power of what he created, died effectively penniless and convinced he was a failure. His first book (A Shunned House) had been printed, but not published when he died. As a result, though there are MANY letters by him (he was a prolific letter writer, as many as 20 letters a day) there is only ONE copy of an inscribed book...a set of loose signatures of Shunned House (shown here).

I will not rant about HPL (others do it so well). I will simply state that he died far too young (46) and thank him for creating a genre. I can not recommend reading his cannon highly enough (or early enough, I give Baby's First Mythos as shower gifts (thanks Nate)). I'll leave you to reflect on his passing with the opening paragraph of "The Call of Cthulu".

The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the deadly light into the peace and safety of a new dark age.

One of the all time great opening lines (and paragraphs)

I have been rereading the Lovecraft canon and just absorbed Call of Cthulhu. I realized two things: first off, it has one of the truly great opening sentences and/or first full paragraphs; secondly, for better or worse, I realized I know it from memory:

The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the light into the peace and safety of a dark new age.

I'm thinking of doing a broadside of this with a local letterpress artist, with a nice graphic of some sort. We shall see. Feel free to post your favorite below.

Little Rare Book Room: A quick song for your post-holiday/bibliophilic pleasure

A personal favorite of mine from my recently chatted about Scary Solstice collection, please enjoy "Little Rare Book Room" (Lyrics by Sean Branney and Andrew Leman, based on 'Little Drummer Boy,' written in 1958 by Katherine Davis, Henry Onorati, and Harry Simeone):

Come, they called me
The special book room
The rarest books to see
Librarian's tomb
Kept under lock and key
In terrible gloom
To save man's sanity,
It's pointless, we're doomed, thoroughly doomed, utterly doomed.
Necronomicon
The first I exhumed
From the book room.

Book of Eibon
So frightfully old
Vermis Mysteriis
A sight to behold
The Monstres and Their Kynde
With edges of gold
Could make me lose my mind
All covered with mold, fungus and mold, poisonous mold.
Kitab al Azif
Its horrors untold.
Still I am bold.

King in Yellow
Left me feeling glum
The Ponape Scriptures
I'd stay away from
And then The Golden Bough
My brain had gone numb
I read them all out loud
Well that was quite dumb, terribly dumb, fatally dumb.
Freed the Great Old Ones
Mankind will succumb.
What have I done?

For better or worse, I have listened to this so much over the last few days that I can not sing it all from memory...and have been...over and over and over.

Chaos reigns...or creeps...for the last week or so

Sorry for the delay in posts...several in the pipeline but things have been insane. The holiday was great fun. My boys and my new nephew (happily at the "eat, sleep, wail" stage of existence) where highly entertaining. People ate WAY too much (xmas eve dinner was our "traditional" lobster dinner (I love living in Maine) and xmas dinner was an even more traditional roast beef and Yorkshire pudding, et al, event) and great fun was had by all.

My family has a long-standing tradition to over-indulge the whims and fancies of all involved at pretty much all gift giving holidays (and there are MANY, if you take the right approach (Bloomsday, for example)). This year was heavy on Cthulhu and friends. I received a wonderful gift from a client, a copy of Baby's First Mythos by C.J. and Erica Henderson...he had the Henderson's inscribe it and include and *wonderful* color sketch of Cthulhu draped over a cityscape and thinking, "Hmmmmm, city" (think, "hmmmmmm, chocolate"). Everyone should have clients who get them wonderful books.

I also received two pairs of bookish gargoyles from my wonderfully crazed father. Mom did her part, too. She discovered the wonders of the H.P. Lovecraft Society. As a result I found, lurking under the tree, the CD, DVD *and* script for A Shoggoth on the Roof (a slight adaptation of Fiddler on the Roof). Even better (and more in keeping with the holiday) was the exceptional "Unbearably Scary Solstice" collection...this included A Very Scary Solstice and An Even Scarier Solstice, complete with song books and all contained in a handmade "tentacle" stocking. I can not recommend these albums highly enough. Lyrics to some will likely follow. Finally, a great t-shirt with Cthulhu reading a book (undoubtedly the Necronomicon) with "Bibliophile" beneath.

I, of course, need about 3-4 days to recover from this "holiday". Sad...so very sad.

whatever happened to flogging dead horses...

Vintage photo of the day brought to you by, I'm not making this up, the Sheboygan Press (I admit, I thought Sheboygan was some of those fanciful places like Oz, Narnia or R'lyeh). It is unclear *why* there is a man, in a tophat, sitting on a dead horse...but sometimes you have to just enjoy an image for the image's sake.

Truer words have not been spoken...

The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the deadly light into the peace and safety of a new dark age.
[Lovecraft, H.P., The Call of Cthulhu]

What a great opening paragraph...what a great summary of our place in the universe. I genuinely love Lovecraft (though that he passed away barely older than I, already having left the body of work in his name leaves me feeling...well...unworthy). Remember, Cthulhu 2008, why choose the lesser evil.

Wiiiiiii meet Weeeeee

I admit that I have a weakness for wasting time now and again with video games of various flavors. [And to grant a bookish theme to this post, there should really be a *good* (there have been some very bad) game built around the Cthulhu mythos]. Every time anyone mentions Nintendo's new "Wii", I can't help but think of this VERY bizarre...and strangely addictive...flash bit called, WEEEEEE!!!!

First of May and Skullcrusher Island

WARNING: not suitable for office play (don't say I didn't warn you).

I have talked about Jonathan Coulton before, he is a Yale alum, coder of complex databases and generally brilliant and charming man about town. He is also an absolutely wonderful, if slightly off kilter, singer/songwriter. Do not miss Mandelbrot Set (free download at the link above...or pretty much any other.

Mike Booth, famous in some circles (all right, small, strange circles) for making videos using the World of Warcraft graphics engine, has made two videos of two of Jonathan's songs, First of May and Skullcrusher Mountain (which played at my wedding reception). I hope you enjoy them as much as I did. [N.B. I'll admit the bookish connection is thin, but I've read the plot of Skullcrusher Mountain in several books...and First of May, for that matter...see, it all works.]

The Carol of the Old Ones...

As many may know, I have a weakness for H.P. Lovecraft. As the holiday season is fast approaching, I wanted to point out that there are alternatives to Pat Boone and Rockin' Around the xmas Tree.
The H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society (HPLHS) produced a wonderful album some time ago titled A Very Scary Solstice. Among many cheery holiday tunes is one of our family favorites, The Carol of the Old Ones (available for free download...or stream).

This year, they have released a NEW album, An Even Scarier Solstice. This includes 30 NEW songs...better singers, better production value...could it be better, I think not. There is a sample track available, Blue Solstice. If it is indicative of the album as a whole, we will have a new favorite around the house this year. Lyrics are as follows:

I'll have a blue solstice, Cthulhu.
I'll be so blue thinking what you'll do.
Sacrifices of red on the blue open sea
Won't mean a thing until you're here with me.

Until your blue nightmares awke me,
And all my blue angels forsake me,
You'll be down in your tomb, in cyclopean gloom
And I'll have a blue, blue blue blue solstice.

(spoken) Oh Cthulhu, baby, c'mon up out of that tomb. I can't stop thinking about your huge flabby claws, them little wings of yours, that grotesque scaly body, and them big ol' tentacles wrapped around me. Oh darlin', I can't go on without you.

You'll be down in your tomb in cyclopean gloom
And I'll have a blue, blue blue blue solstice.

ID and FSM

Well, I lied. I am posting one last entry (today) that involves ID…though of a slightly different tone and tenor. I have recently found a religion that meshes well with my world view, mores and general sense of the universe and, interestingly, they are becoming a major force in the ID debate. If you have not had the opportunity to learn and explore the theology, please take some time, with an open mind, to read and contemplate His Noodly Goodness. The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster received a reasonable amount of publicity after they sent an open letter to the Kansas School Board (and the boards of other areas that have “endorsed” ID) requesting equal treatment for their beliefs and creation theory (which involves midgets and pirates). I excerpt some of that open letter here:

I am writing you with much concern after having read of your hearing to decide whether the alternative theory of Intelligent Design should be taught along with the theory of Evolution. I think we can all agree that it is important for students to hear multiple viewpoints so they can choose for themselves the theory that makes the most sense to them. I am concerned, however, that students will only hear one theory of Intelligent Design.



Let us remember that there are multiple theories of Intelligent Design. I and many others around the world are of the strong belief that the universe was created by a Flying Spaghetti Monster. It was He who created all that we see and all that we feel. We feel strongly that the overwhelming scientific evidence pointing towards evolutionary processes is nothing but a coincidence, put in place by Him.



It is for this reason that I’m writing you today, to formally request that this alternative theory be taught in your schools, along with the other two theories. In fact, I will go so far as to say, if you do not agree to do this, we will be forced to proceed with legal action. I’m sure you see where we are coming from. If the Intelligent Design theory is not based on faith, but instead another scientific theory, as is claimed, then you must also allow our theory to be taught, as it is also based on science, not on faith.
…
I think we can all look forward to the time when these three theories are given equal time in our science classrooms across the country, and eventually the world; One third time for Intelligent Design, one third time for Flying Spaghetti Monsterism, and one third time for logical conjecture based on overwhelming observable evidence.

It is well worth noting that “The Gosple of the Flying Spaghetti Monster” is being published February 14, 2006. All praise His Noodly Goodness.

This touch of the surreal aside, I think it is worth thinking about (and being frightened by) a recent report by the National Academy of Science in which they find that there is a waning interesting in math and science, that several “developing” countries are producing more PhDs than the US, that many of the PhDs the US is producing are going to foreign nationals who then take those degrees (and brain power) back to their countries of origin and that, basically, we are in a really bad way on the education front (N.B. this is a wildly generalized summary). It is, I think, a sad commentary that instead of striving to rebuild/evolve or science and math programs at the HS level, our focus is on the debate as to whether we should bring mythology back into the classroom. Then again, perhaps we should just ask WWFSMD?