Victoria’s Solstice Cafe was the scene of an unholy revel last night (Friday, August 20) in honour of Howard Phillips Lovecraft’s 12oth birthday. Under a monstrous tentacled effigy with glowing light bulb eyes, a horde of shambling forms howled “Ia, Cthulhu fhtagn!” Impresario and mc Skawt Chonzz (a fun guy from Yuggoth) introduced a legion of poets, musicians and other performers who declaimed shocking poetry and chanted eldritch prose to the frenzied audience. The thin whining of an accursed flute (actually a tin whistle) was heard, but I missed the rattle of obscene crotala.
The birthday cake was intended to look like the Necronomicon. It was certainly hard to read in the uncertain light, and was anyway devoured in short order. Costumes featured lots of tentacles, but Obed Marsh was there too, and Shub-Niggurath (“the Black Goat of the woods with a thousand young”), and a light-up version of Herbert West (not really!) There was a lively trivia contest and the evening wound up with a showing of David Prior’s short film AM1200, in which a man on the run ends up in a very strange place, doing unspeakable things.
Highlights for me were a reading of HPL’s “Nyarlathotep” by a sexy-voiced fellow, a plaintive song of a Cthulhu-worshipper performed by the multi-talented Mr. Chonzz with guitar accompaniment, and the film, which is truly creepy.
I don’t know what HPL would have made of this birthday party. He would definitely have approved of the fact that no alcohol was served; the proceedings were fueled by organic coffee and tea and the inherent enthusiasm of the participants. But HPL wasn’t really a party animal, and I found myself thinking a couple of times that it all might have been too much for him, and in the end he would have run shrieking into the night.
Audrey Driscoll's Blog 
Great 120th Birthday Presents to/from H. P. Lovecraft!
Happy 120th. Birthday H.P.L.!
Freebies released in celebration of H. P. Lovecraft’s 120th. birthday on 20-August-2010, and to stir up excitement for the possible making of the Universal Studios 3D version of “At the Mountains of Madness” by Guillermo del Toro and James Cameron; and as a celebration by Will Hart of the 20th. anniversary of his being at Lovecraft’s grave-side on his 100th. birthday.
Released during the last few hours in MP3 Format on:
http://cthulhuwho1.com
(The audio companion to the CthulhuWho1 Flickr collections.)
“Fungi from Yuggoth”
H. P. Lovecraft’s complete 36 sonnet set; in an all-new recording by William (Will) Hart; in single file, and multiple file versions. A dark poetry reading if there ever was one…
“What If H. P. Lovecraft Had Lived Into The 1960’s?”
A 163 minute panel recording in six parts, of Professor Dirk W. Mosig, Professor Donald R. Burleson, J. Vernon Shea, Fritz Leiber, Jr., and S.T. Joshi at the 36th World Science Fiction Convention in Phoenix in 1978. A must-have for Lovecraftians!
Plus, behind the scenes recordings including a live reading by Don Burleson of his darkly funny, “The Last Supper.”
And more audio goodies too!
And there are now over 1200 Lovecraft, Cthulhu, and Providence related images for the taking at the CthulhuWho1 Flickr page at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cthulhuwho1/collections/
(The image companion site to the http://cthulhuwho1.com audio site.)
All of the above items (and more to come) were created in honor of H. P. Lovecraft; but since he’s not here with us, it’s up to you, and everyone you can share them with to enjoy them!
Will Hart
aka CthulhuWho1
aka California Cthulhu
willhart-at-roadrunner-dot-com
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