Did anyone else go to the H.P Lovecraft Film Festival and Cthulhu Con?
My best fiend’s short film, Footage Found, Arabi was shown Saturday and Sunday. This was the first time I’d seen it on the big screen, and it looked really good. Audience reaction was good. They laughed when they were supposed to, were offended by a line of period dialogue, and applauded at the end. People we chatted with later said they liked it.
My friend contributed to the kickstarter campaign, so he had an extra ‘V.I.P.’ pass. There was a reception on Friday, with cheeses, bread, cured meat, etc., and beer and wine. I had a local red ale that actually hit me pretty hard after not having eaten in a while, and having been doing a bit of walking and such. (I had the beer before the bread.) There was a spaghetti dinner Saturday for the 'V.I.P.'s They had spaghetti with marinara sauce, spaghetti with meat sauce, spinach lasagne, and vegan spaghetti and sauce. By the time we decided to get in line, about half of the people had gone through. When we got to the food, no one had touched the vegan offering.
Interesting guy sitting near us at another table. (Actually, there were a lot of interesting people at the H.P. Lovecraft gathering!) Black jeans, white dress shirt, dark suit jacket, long hair, trimmed beard and moustache. Reminded me of ‘Louis Cypher’ from Angel Heart. He sat and swirled his class of red wine, seeming to take it a little too seriously. I noticed he frequently raised his glass and swirled the wine. ‘Ho, ho! Look at how sophisticated I am! None of that plebeian local beer for me!’ :rolleyes:
I picked up Volume 13 of Spinechillers, readings of classic (read: public domain) stories by Lovecraft, Poe, and others, read by Doug Bradley. Mr. Bradley autographed the CD cover when I bought it. This volume contains a nearly 17-minute introduction, Number 13 by M.R. James, Tobermory by Saki, The Call of Cthulhu by H.P. Lovecraft, Masque of the Red Death by Edgar Allan Poe, Herbert West Reanimator (Part 6) by H.P. Lovecraft (read by Jeffrey Combs), and The Conqueror Worm by Edgar Allan Poe. Listened to it on the long drive home, and it got me from the Oregon/Washington border almost to the Skagit County line.
Doug Bradley spoke in the main auditorium of the Hollywood Theatre later, and there was some Q&A. Wine Douche Guy had buttonholed the first speaker after the man had left the stage, and he did the same with Bradley.
Earlier Saturday, we walked about three miles from the Hollywood area, across the Burnside bridge, and over to downtown. We rode Portland’s excellent TriMet tram back, which let us off right near a Trader Joe’s – which was fortunate, since the motel did not have coffee in the rooms or in the lobby. Got some concentrate.
Quite a fun time. Can’t wait until the next one!