Wilum H. Pugmire Self-Portrait1 23-Nov-2011 MrWilum’s Channel – YouTube

Wilum H. Pugmire Self-Portrait2 23-Nov-2011 MrWilum’s Channel – YouTube

I just got word today, that 60-year-old Wilum has been admitted to a Seattle Hospital due to the worsening condition of his heart disease.

It looks like his heart may be in worse shape than anyone imagined; so there is no way to tell how much time he still has left to share with us.

I spoke with him a few minutes ago by phone, and he said I could reveal that he is in the hospital; but he’s not sure when (or if) he’s going home from there.

He has no computer access in the hospital, but I hope everyone will keep him in their thoughts, prayers, emails, and blogs; and that we will all be aware of just how special a person he is, and how much he has brought to each of our lives.

Will Hart

———————————–

A Good News Update 29-November-2011

Wilum H. Pugmire Is Out of the Hospital!

Good News!

Wilum Hopfrog Pugmire is tired, and in great need of peace, quiet, a hot bath, and some home bed-rest, but he is at least well enough to return home!

I spoke with him at 10:30 a.m. this morning as he was being released from the hospital, and he asked that everyone be patient with him being pretty quiet online on Facebook, YouTube, and in Emails for awhile; while he takes care of health and family matters.

When he is up to it, he will put out a short YouTube and Facebook message for everyone, but he is not currently up to dealing with a flood of communication.

Let’s just all celebrate that he is still with us!

Will Hart
(CthulhuWho1)

Happy 121st. Birthday H. P. Lovecraft!

One year ago today, I released my reading of H. P. Lovecraft’s cosmic sonnet sequence, “Fungi from Yuggoth” as a 120th. birthday present to the old gentleman.

And now, one year later, I hold in my hands, Wilum H. Pugmire’s “Some Unknown Gulf of Night,”  published by Arcane Wisdom; a darkly beautiful, exotic, erotic, numbered collection, containing a prose poem companion for each of the sonnets in Lovecraft’s “Fungi from Yuggoth;” with strong influences of Oscar Wilde, Edgar A. Poe, Baudelaire and the Decadents too.

.                                                

I can’t help but see the publication of “Some Unknown Gulf of Night” as a wonderful 121st. birthday present to H. P. Lovecraft; and I can’t help being doubly excited by Wilum’s claim that it was his listening to my readings of Lovecraft’s sonnets, that I posted on YouTube last year, that finally inspired him to write the prose poems he had been meaning to write for a long time.

I am also extremely honored that my readings, and inspiration, have led Wilum to dedicate this book to me!

.                                  

If you are a serious fan of H. P. Lovecraft’s, “Fungi from Yuggoth,” please make every effort you can to get your hands on one of the 100 signed and numbered hardcover copies of Wilum H. Pugmire’s, “Some Unknown Gulf of Night,” from Horror Mall!

http://www.horror-mall.com/SOME-UNKNOWN-GULF-OF-NIGHT-by-W.-H.-Pugmire-Signed-Limited-Edition-p-22202.html

If you miss out on one of the limited edition hardcover copies, with the beautiful Pickmanesque wrap-around cover and interior illustrations by Matthew Jaffe, you’ll have to wait until the trade paperback copy is released sometime next year; but in any format, this volume is a must-have for fans of “Fungi from Yuggoth!”

I’m posting this message, because I truly believe this delightfully perverse 191 page volume, is THE best companion work ever written to sit side-by-side with H. P. Lovecraft’s “Fungi from Yuggoth;” and that it will be a highly prized collector’s item as the years go by.

For more on “Some Unknown Gulf of Night,” please browse through the following web sites:

http://www.youtube.com/user/MrWilum

http://lovecraftianhorror.blogspot.com/

http://lovecraftzine.wordpress.com/2011/06/30/free-audio-chapter-from-some-unknown-gulf-of-night-by-w-h-pugmire/

On a different subject: “Unknown Autograph 01″, from the autograph pages of my copy of the MythosCon Program Booklet that I published here in March, has been positively confirmed as being that of Chris Jarocha-Ernst.

Chris wrote to me to confirm this; so I only have four more names to identify!

Will Hart aka CthulhuWho1

Curator of: The Lovecraft Flickr Collections at:

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

And The CthulhuWho1 YouTube Channel at:

http://www.youtube.com/user/CthulhuWho1

Lovecraft and His Wife in Color!

No. Not Howard and Sonia; but Margaret and Danny!

I’m sorry, but I couldn’t resist that…

Charles “Danny” Lovecraft, the publisher of P’rea Press Books in Australia (http://www.preapress.com/) and his wife Margaret Barnes-Lovecraft, were on the last leg of their most recent American vacation when they stopped in Los Angeles for a few days before boarding their flight home to Australia.

My wife Jean and I drove up to Hollywood late on Friday evening (28-Jan-2011) to meet and greet Danny and Margaret on their first night in the area; and Danny and I exchanged a few collector’s items.

The books that Danny gave to me were all wonderful titles that I didn’t have in my collection yet, including:

But the truly unexpected treat that he and Margaret gave to me, was a copy of the MythosCon 2011 Program Booklet, that they had made priceless by having it signed by Fifty-One(!) of the attendees, including, Thea Alexander, Martin Andersson, Peter Atkins, Mark Boniece, Jason V. Brock, Ramsey Campbell, Peter Cannon, Matt Cardin, Dan Clore, Scott Connors, Richard Dakan, Walt DeBill, Mike Dubisch, Jason Eckhardt, Dennis Etchison, Alan Dean Foster, Terry Ganley, W. Paul Ganley, Richard Gavin, Cody Goodfellow, Ron Hilger, Chuck Hoffman, Derrick Hussey, S. T. Joshi, Allen Koszowski, Donovan Loucks, Pamela H. Loucks, Charles “Danny” Lovecraft, Margaret Barnes-Lovecraft, Steve Mariconda, Adam Niswander, William F. Nolan, John Pelan, Dorothea Nissen Phillips, Fred Phillips, Carol Price, Robert M. Price, Wilum H. Pugmire, Juha-Matti Rajala, Ann K. Schwader, Ben Schwader, Darrell Schweitzer, Donald Sidney-Fryer, Michael A. Stackpole, Simon Strantzas, Jonathan Thomas, and five others whose signatures I haven’t deciphered yet!

I’ve scanned a complete copy of the booklet to share here with everyone in a 300 d.p.i. PDF format; and I’ll be posting all of the pages in a 600 d.p.i. format later in my Lovecraftian Flickr Collections; including detailed scans of the five autographs that I’m still trying to decipher.

The MythosCon 2011 Program Booklet Jan 6-9, 2011:

MythosCon 2011 Program Booklet Jan 6-9, 2011

With the Lovecraft’s having already been to Phoenix, Sedona, Fresno, Yosemite, Sacramento, Auburn, Berkely, Pacific Grove, Carmel, Hearst Castle, and MythosCon 2011 (which I couldn’t attend this year), I wasn’t sure what I could show them in the Los Angeles area that would compare with the sights they had already seen; but I gave it my best shot!

Over the next few days, we covered many freeway and surface street miles to see numerous famous and infamous spots, far too many to cover all of them in this brief over-view; and to have several great Vegan meals that even an Omnivore like myself could enjoy.  My Vegan House in Hollywood (http://myveganhouse.com/Home.php), and the two-story Whole Foods in Pasadena (http://wholefoodsmarket.com/stores/arroyo/) were both great dining experiences!

We passed by and through many famous locations, like the 2nd. Street Tunnel in Los Angeles, which is seen in so many movies; including Bladerunner:

We saw the death sites of Janis Joplin, John Belushi, River Phoenix and others:

We saw the outside of places like The Beverly Hills Hotel:

But we found it more fun to visit the inside of the Men’s Restroom in the Will Rogers Memorial Park across the street, where George Michaels gave his private performance before his arrest. If you have a good sense of humor, you might appreciate the fact that one of Will Rogers‘ most famous quotes was, “I never met a man that I didn’t like.”:

We saw many Beverly Hills Mansions while driving through the celebrity filled neighborhood; mostly through gates, and over hedges:

We got to spend a few minutes with the legendary poet and scholar Donald Sidney-Fryer in his home in Los Angeles; but due to a scheduled tour elsewhere, we had to leave far too soon:

With reservations made weeks in advance, we were able to have a private multi-hour tour through the beautiful Virginia Robinson Estate and Gardens in Beverly Hills (http://www.seeing-stars.com/Live/RobinsonEstate.shtml, and http://www.robinsongardens.org/index.html):

Wherever we went in the Hollywood area, we could see the Hollywood Sign and the Griffith Park Observatory; which constantly reminded us of where we were:

In the North Hollywood Park, we met a Nutty Local Resident that we couldn’t resist sharing a snack with:

When we went to the historic Greystone Mansion and Park in Beverly Hills (not very well known to tourists, but a must-see sight if you are a film fan!), we got to see a television crew in action shooting an episode of NCIS (http://www.seeing-stars.com/live/Greystone.shtml, and http://www.greystonemansion.org/):

By making reservations a couple of weeks in advance, we were able to spend several hours exploring and photographing the phenomenal Greek, Roman, and Etruscan Antiquities in the stunning Roman-inspired architecture and gardens of the Getty Villa, which over-looks the Pacific Ocean in Malibu (http://www.getty.edu/visit/):

We visited several well-known movie and television stars, including Don Adams, Jack Benny, Mel Blanc, Errol Flynn, Michael Landon, Darren McGavin, Rod Steiger, Jimmy Stewart, Spencer Tracy, and even Vampira.

And we even had Harvey the Pooka join us in Glendale when we went to visit with Jimmy Stewart:

We paid our respects to two of the great Filmmakers, Albert “Cubby” Broccoli (the Producer of most of the James Bond films), and Walt Disney:

At the Hillside Memorial Park (Jewish Cemetery), we found an example of what inspired Leonard Nimoy to create his “Live Long and Prosper” hand-sign:

We enjoyed an all-star classic comedy tour with, Jack Benny, Milton Berle, Marty Feldman, Curly Howard, Moe Howard, Buster Keaton, Stan Laurel, and Larry Fine (although the Photo Police would not allow us to take any pictures with him!):

We got up-close and personal with the inner workings of the Warner Brothers Burbank Movie Studios by taking their VIP Tour (http://vipstudiotour.warnerbros.com/).  And we have to thank Charlie Sheen for being a no-show the week we were there (he’d been out about a week or so at that time); which made it possible for us to enter and visit his “Two and a Half Men” sound stage and sets during our tour!

And when we found Merlotte’s in the Jungle section of the Warner Bros back lot, we tried to stop for a bottle of True Blood, but they were closed for the season!

We visited numerous new and used book stores, and found the Mystery & Imagination Bookstore in Glendale to be among the best still open in the Los Angeles area (http://www.mysteryandimagination.com/):

And finally, at the end, what better last-minute souvenir or gift shop could a horror fan find in Los Angeles, than “Skeletons in the Closet,” the Gift Shop in the Los Angeles Coroner’s Office? And it is located in the old Los Angeles General Hospital building (http://www.lacoroner.com/Default.aspx). A Gift Shop at the Coroner’s Office; now that’s what I call Black Humor!

And if you are curious as to what items I just had to take home, they were the following conversation starters:

And my single favorite item, which already sparked the interest of many while I was recently on Jury Duty:

We didn’t see everything we wanted to see, but we did see more than most people will ever see in the same amount of time we had together!

Danny & Margaret, I hope this brings some fun memories back to you!

And I hope it shows a slightly different side of the Los Angeles area to everyone!

ps
No. I don’t live in Los Angeles County.
I live about 35 miles South of Los Angeles, in Orange County,
in the city of Fullerton, just North of Anaheim, the home of Disneyland;
and I can hear and feel (and sometimes see) the fireworks from there
every night.

pps

Charles “Danny” Lovecraft is not related to H. P. Lovecraft.

But he loves H. P. Lovecraft’s Prose and Poetry enough to have

had his last name legally changed to Lovecraft.

Thanks to Cheryl (ajbx10 of the Historical Lovecraft group on Yahoo), I got the link that lead me to Issue #1 of the Lovecraft eZine: “A free online magazine featuring lovecraftian horror.” Which is being published here at WordPress by Mike Davis.

If you like Lovecraftian fiction (And who reading this doesn’t?), and Free is one of your favorite words, then head over to Mike’s blog at http://lovecraftzine.wordpress.com/ and subscribe now so you won’t miss an issue.

You can also jump right into Issue #1 by going directly to http://lovecraftzine.wordpress.com/issues/issue-1-february-2011/ where you’ll find Mike’s Introduction, and the first four stories: Sledding and Starlings by Bruce L. Priddy, Rickman’s Plasma by William Meikle, The Brown Tower by John Prescott, and The Crane Horror by Bruce Durham.

You’ll also find links and more to go along with each issue.

Please support Mike and his new publication by spreading the word that there is a new Lovecraftian eZine that will be featuring four new stories each month; plus frequent blogging by Mike between each issue.

I’ve just heard from Jessie Lilley, the beautiful, intelligent, and cat-loving (there goes my heart!) Editor of Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine, that the upcoming April issue, will have quite a bit of coverage on H. P. Lovecraft and his writings, as well as the films based on his work. These articles are by Charles Coulombe, Brad Linaweaver and Ron Garmon.

They are still looking for photos and printable memorabilia to help illustrate these articles. So if you have something they might be able to use, or that they might be allowed to borrow from your archives to scan and then return, contact her at: jessielilley@famousmonsters.com

For more information on Jessie Lilley, including some great photos, please see the interviews at the following links:

http://drunkenseveredhead.blogspot.com/2010/05/b-new-famous-monsters-editor-jessie.html

http://www.fatally-yours.com/interviews/interview-with-publisher-jessie-lilley/

Several people asked for it, and it is finally a reality.

Fire up your iTunes, and click on the Advanced Menu, then the Subscribe to Podcast option, and paste in http://feeds.feedburner.com/Cthulhuwho1sBlog as the URL for the podcast.

Or, you can fire up your iTunes, go to the iTunes Store, and search for CthulhuWho1, and then click on Subscribe once it finds the CthulhuWho1′s Blog files.

Right now, the listings only goes back 55 posts; but I am working to see what I can do to get all of the mp3 files available all the time through iTunes.

Keep watching for updates here, and I’ll do my part to make this work well for everybody!

Yours Truly,

CthulhuWho1

This Is What 4o Years of Reading Lovecraft Has Done To Me!

My CthulhuWho1 Flickr Collections have been neglected while I’ve been spending so much time here in the CthulhuWho1 Blog doing readings and other things; so I’m going to take a break from doing readings, so I can spend some time adding more photos and scans to the Flickr Collections, with updates of the activities being posted here.

I’m a very large guy, but it’s still hard to be in two places at the same time; so don’t get jealous of my non-blog activities.

Trust me, if you are a Lovecraftian, you will want to see what’s coming next…

H. P. Lovecraft’s The Hound from 1922.

First published in the February 1924 issue of Weird Tales.

Read here by William Hart from the text in the 1999 Penguin Classics edition of The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories edited by S. T. Joshi; which is the same as the version that is also available on hplovecraft.com.

Please Note: In my other readings, I have tried to stay 100% true to the text, and I have almost done so here; I just couldn’t resist taking a small measure of artistic license with this tale. Purists may notice it, then again, maybe not. Those unfamiliar with the tale, will of course not notice what I have done; so it won’t matter to them. For those who know the tale, and recognize what I have done that is different; please don’t describe it in any comments you might leave. Just say, you noticed something, and liked or disliked it. If there is enough dislike, I’ll post the pure version later.

Now, with my most heart-felt dedication of this tale in its current form to Wilum H. Pugmire, because he asked for it, I happily present you with my version of H. P. Lovecraft’s wonderfully ghoulish tale, The Hound!

H. P. Lovecraft’s – The Hound (1922) – read by William Hart

And for those who want to follow along with the text, here’s a PDF copy that matches my reading:

H. P. Lovecraft’s – The Hound (1922) – as read by William Hart on 25-Dec-2010

H. P. Lovecraft’s The Hound from 1922.

First published in the February 1924 issue of Weird Tales.

Is now available on the CthulhuWho1 YouTube Channel at:

http://www.youtube.com/user/CthulhuWho1

Please Note: In my other readings, I have tried to stay 100% true to the text, and I have almost done so here; I just couldn’t resist taking a small measure of artistic license with this tale. Purists may notice it, then again, maybe not. Those unfamiliar with the tale, will of course not notice what I have done; so it won’t matter to them. For those who know the tale, and recognize what I have done that is different; please don’t describe it in any comments you might leave. Just say, you noticed something, and liked or disliked it. If there is enough dislike, I’ll post the pure version later.

The complete, twelve chapter, unabridged reading by Yours Truly, William Hart (aka CthulhuWho1); now, all in one post for easy access and downloading.

Yes, I did this reading to help promote the Guillermo del Toro, James Cameron, Universal Studios, 3D movie of, “At the Mountains of Madness.”

And, I also did this as my 2010 Christmas, or Cthulhumas present for all Lovecraftians everywhere!

Please share this with anyone you think might enjoy it.

Merry Christmas/Cthulhumas to one and all!

I hope everybody has had a great year; and that 2011 will be another amazing one for all Lovecraftians!

I happily present you now, with my faithful as possible, 270 minute (4 1/2 hour) rendition of H. P. Lovecraft’s, “At the Mountains of Madness:”

H P Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness Chapter 01 Read by William Hart

H P Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness Chapter 02 Read by William Hart

H P Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness Chapter 03 Read by William Hart

H P Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness Chapter 04 Read by William Hart

H P Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness Chapter 05 Read by William Hart

H P Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness Chapter 06 Read by William Hart

H P Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness Chapter 07 Read by William Hart

H P Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness Chapter 08 Read by William Hart

H P Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness Chapter 09 Read by William Hart

H P Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness Chapter 10 Read by William Hart

H P Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness Chapter 11 Read by William Hart

H P Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness Chapter 12 Read by William Hart

Please let me know if this reading was to your liking by way of comments.

Note: It is very important to me, that I have tried to stay true to every word, comma, pause, sentence, and paragraph of Lovecraft’s writing; so please let me know if you find any errors in these readings that will need to be corrected in a later revision.

Here’s the full text that I used in pdf format, based upon the version at http://www.hplovecraft.com, which matches very well with the Penguin Classics annotated version:

H. P. Lovecraft’s – At the Mountains of Madness

ps
This post of all twelve files is also a test of something wonderful coming this way, very soon… Can you say, “Podcast?”

Yes, I’m also adding these readings to YouTube to help promote the Guillermo del Toro, James Cameron, Universal Studios, 3D movie of, “At the Mountains of Madness.”

Chapter Twelve, the final chapter of “At the mountains of Madness,” has now joined Chapters 01-11 on YouTube!

http://www.youtube.com/user/CthulhuWho1

Check all of them out, and let me know what you think of this idea for getting Lovecraft’s unabridged works to a more video oriented crowd over at YouTube; and also as a way to bring some of them back here to discover more Lovecraftian items and links.

I hope this is a worthy Christmas gift to all Lovecraftians; or being the Atheist Heathen that I am, a worthy Cthulhumas gift!

The weather fought me, with rain, wind, and power outages, but in the end, the Elder Ones prevailed (or maybe it was the Shoggoths), and I was able to complete the reading before December 25th.!

Now, can some of you hold-outs that didn’t want to start listening until the reading was done, give a little feedback?

Yes, I’m doing this reading to help promote the Guillermo del Toro, James Cameron, Universal Studios, 3D movie of, “At the Mountains of Madness.”

At long last, my reading of H. P. Lovecraft’s, “At the Mountains of Madness” is now complete, with the posting today of Chapter 12, the final chapter; especially for those who wanted this complete reading as their Christmas present from me…

Merry Christmas to one and all! Or should that be Merry Cthulhumas coming from such an Atheist heathen as myself?

Oh well, call it what you will. I just hope everybody has had a great year; and that 2011 will be another amazing one for all Lovecraftians!

And now, here is the final chapter of, “At the Mountains of Madness,” Chapter 12:

H P Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness Chapter 12 Read by William Hart

Please let me know if this reading is to your liking by way of comments.

It is very important to me, that I have tried to stay true to every word, comma, pause, sentence, and paragraph of Lovecraft’s writing; so please let me know if you find any errors in these readings that will need to be corrected in a later revision.

Yes, I’m also adding these readings to YouTube to help promote the Guillermo del Toro, James Cameron, Universal Studios, 3D movie of, “At the Mountains of Madness.”

Chapter Eleven of “At the mountains of Madness,” has now joined Chapters 01-10 on YouTube!

http://www.youtube.com/user/CthulhuWho1

Check all of them out, and let me know what you think of this idea for getting Lovecraft’s unabridged works to a more video oriented crowd over at YouTube; and also as a way to bring some of them back here to discover more Lovecraftian items and links.

O.K. I’ll get back to my work on Chapter Twelve.

Stay tuned… The end of this journey is near!

Yes, I’m doing this reading to help promote the Guillermo del Toro, James Cameron, Universal Studios, 3D movie of, “At the Mountains of Madness.”

Over the next couple of days, I’ll be posting the twelth and final chapter of H. P. Lovecraft’s, “At the Mountains of Madness;” for those who want this complete reading as their Christmas present from me…

I’m pushing forward now to finish this story before the 25th, so keep checking back here.

Eleven chapters (roughly 95%) down, with one more (roughly 5%) to go, and the story will be complete!

And now, here is the very crucial Chapter Eleven:

H P Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness Chapter 11 Read by William Hart

Please let me know if this reading is to your liking by way of comments.

Chapter Twelve will be here very soon.

If you hear any rain deep in the background of the final three chapters, please blame Mother Nature for trying to keep me from finishing as soon as I wanted to!

Yes, I’m also adding these readings to YouTube to help promote the Guillermo del Toro, James Cameron, Universal Studios, 3D movie of, “At the Mountains of Madness.”

Chapter Ten of “At the mountains of Madness,” has now joined Chapters 01-09 on YouTube!

http://www.youtube.com/user/CthulhuWho1

Check all of them out, and let me know what you think of this idea for getting Lovecraft’s unabridged works to a more video oriented crowd over at YouTube; and also as a way to bring some of them back here to discover more Lovecraftian items and links.

O.K. I’ll get back to my work on Chapter Eleven.

Stay tuned…