I’m just about to start Rebellion Against the Conspiracy Against the Human Race by Dr Raymond Thoss.
This was shared with me unexpectedly by Jon Padgett and I’m really looking forward to it based on what I know of Ligotti’s work.
Very very grateful for this and I’ve used the meta tag deliberately because this is entirely bizarre.
Although not psychedelic rock, this George Harrison-produced album was definitely trying to alter the consciousness of the listener (and reader) but I’m not sure if the pamphlet came with every copy or if some kindly owner of the original paid it forward.
I was briefly involved with the Hare Krishnas back in the 80s during my teenage years in London’s Soho.
It’s my understanding that even hearing the chants and sacred mantras was good for the spirit/soul, that the vibrations shifted you in a way that was beneficial.
So when you next see the Hare Krishnas chanting and dancing as they wend their way through your city’s streets, take a moment to think that they are trying to help you in their own unique way.
Ramsey Campbell, from Wallasey, is one of the most respected authors of his genre 🤩 After a difficult childhood trying to navigate his parents' break-up and his mum's mental health struggles, he took refuge in reading and later writing horror stories.
While he struggled to make a name for himself in the early stages of his career, it was in 1980 when he released The Parasite that things started to change.
Now decades later, at 80-years-old, he is one of the most highly acclaimed authors in the genre and has even received recognition from Academy Award winning director Guillermo Del Toro.
He told the ECHO: "My wife Jenny and I had gone away to a Greek island for our summer holiday and when we came back, we had the answering machine playing various messages. And there's a message saying, 'it's Guillermo del Toro calling you from Mexico.' And so I thought, 'Oh, yeah, yeah. Who's kidding me? Pull the other one'."
After Ramsey finally took the call, Del Toro asked permission to dramatise Ramsey's short story Down There, but it ultimately fell through. However, now more than two decades later, Ramsey said plans to dramatise the story have been rekindled and it looks like Del Toro's adaptation will make its way to Netflix.
Over on r/psychedelic rock the mods have set up a metapost that collects all week’s music recommendations and links into a single post with Spotify etc links.
Is it possible to do something similar with recommendation requests here?
I was just reading the ‘magic realism’ request post and noted 2 votes for Obscene Bird. Maybe the metapost here could tally the recommendations and put them into a header post in the comments?
It might be that this is easier for music links than it is for written recommendations but it would be a cool resource if possible
Me and the missus are down in Brighton from Manchester for a week and are off to the Koko Club at the Queens Hotel for Northern Soul Heaven.
I say this as a Londoner in Manchester for a mere 37 years, are any of our northern brethren down tonight or am I going to have to socialise with my soft southern brothers and sisters?
Part 2 of my likely intermittent review of the Ellen Datlow edited anthology Lovecraft’s Brood.
Tem’s Mr Ainsley is an exercise in what’s not said, like looking at the background of a photo instead of the thing in the spotlight.
I read this as almost a follow up to Laird Barron’s incredible Shiva Open Your Eye, which you can read for free in the link at the bottom of this post.
The story is told from the perspective of someone who doesn’t fully understand who they are and has suffered from some type of amnesia which, I think, is why it reminds me so much of the Barron’s protagonist.
I love stories of the non-human but I especially like that he is a stranger to himself as much as he would be a stranger to others.
A very cool exercise in restraint. I dig it.
https://www.nightmare-magazine.com/fiction/shiva-open-your-eye/
I’ve posted elsewhere that I am loathe to tie myself to the Amazon ecosystem but I’m wondering whether the Kindle Scribe Colorsoft is easy to sideload to using Calibre or similar?
I don’t want to purchase through Amazon and have lots of pdfs that need a big screen so I’m wondering whether the 10”+ Scribe is easy to upload pdf, cbr, cbz formats to.
I’ve just read the first story in Ellen Datlow’s terrific new anthology Lovecraft’s Brood. And wow! What a great little weird read it is.
Conrad Wilson is a new author for me and his telling of this stark little slice of English procedural/police-type tale fits really well with me being an English GenX-er.
The narrative voice makes me think of Mike Carey’s Felix Castor or his John Constantine or an English version of Michael Chabon’s God of Dark Laughter.
There’s a tradition of British/English noir though not many seem to realise it. Like Cormac McCarthy’s great American noir/weird fiction, we have the unacclaimed noir genius of Derek Raymond exemplified in his masterwork I Was Dora Suarez. I also get the same feeling off Joel Lane’s weird stories of physical and psychic English decay so Williams is in good company.
For me, Conrad Williams has echoes of this dark greatness in this short story and I’d love to read more of his work.
Like I say, this is effectively chapter 1 of Lovecraft’s Brood but crikey I’m enjoying it.
I have a lot of academic pdfs that I want to read and I also read comics.
For years I’ve struggled with kindles that have too small a screen size to comfortably read pdfs or tablets that are fine inside but pretty unusable in daylight.
The Kindle Scribe Color(soft?) looks pretty cool but I’m loathe to tie myself to the Amazon ecosystem and the reMarkable looks pretty good but feels a bit overpriced.
What are people’s thoughts on the current crop of 10”+ e-readers with colour on the market?
I’ve been watching some old Man Alive programmes on the BBC iPlayer and enjoying them immensely. They’re incredibly moving and important records of the way we were.
As someone born in the 60s who grew up in the 70s the nostalgia is immense for me.
I’d love to watch every single episode and would buy them if they were available.
Can you buy them or access them in some way as the iPlayer episodes are very few and quite limited?
My Delonghi Penguino was working fine during the last heatwave.
I’ve got it out the spare room today as we are supposed to be in the high 20s tomorrow and it won’t power on.
Had it a good few years so out of warranty and I’m getting nowhere with the Delonghi online or telephone help
Anyone had a similar problem?
I recall there’s a new Lovecraftian anthology this year edited by the superb Ellen Datlow. I think I’ve even posted about it myself last year when I heard about it.
I cannot now remember either the title or when it is published haha
Can someone remind me please?
A bit of French psych-pop-rock on this sunny day in Manchester, England.
Hard to believe it’s over 30C/90F here but this tune fits the sunshine.
Hoovering in the kitchen, I noticed Alexa had started talking to itself so switched off.
It was midway through the spiel of saying I’d made a great choice to switch to early access for Alexa+
Instructed the app to stop but it paused and then carried on with the sales talk extolling the virtues of Alexa+
Tried other verbal instructions - stop, stop talking, do not update, etc - with no result so unplugged the bloody thing.
Anyone else experiencing an unasked for ‘upgrade’?
I’m going to attempt reverting (this will be the second time).
I’ve only spent about £300 on Echo products and I’ve got a bloody good mind to bin them and just go with bluetooth speakers as apart from asking the time and the weather I only use them for music
Caught these guys playing at the Band on the Wall in Manchester supporting Johnny Echols’ Love and really enjoyed their psychpop and psych drone
Think they’re based Derby way so catch them if they’re playing. They’re really rather good
I stumbled across Hello Darkness from Boom Studios last week and there is some terrific work in this ongoing anthology series.
Big names from the medium include Garth Ennis, James Tynion IV and Brian Azzarello amongst others. Check it out. You won’t be disappointed.