LOVECRAFT, CROWLEY, OTO, KENNETH GRANT, "LUCIFER GNOSIS", UFO'S, MORE!

This guy is a religious nutbar, but around the 38 minute mark, his presentation tackles some lovely, juicy, meaty subject matter! One gets the impression that it wouldn't take much to lure Mr Schnoebelen away from Christian fundamentalism and onto a more interesting Left Hand path...

DDD SUGGESTED READING LIST ~ DEC 10, 2014

1. This article from Dangerous Minds might be the most frustrating thing I've come across today, because it's all about a "jaw-dropping" German documentary about the preeminent Luciferian/Thelemite experimental filmmaker/artist/writer of our age, Kenneth Anger. But the video that it sets up so beautifully - Kenneth Anger: Film as Magical Ritual - has been removed from Youtube, and I can't find it anywhere else, for the life of me. All I can find is this tiny excerpt:

Considering what the article has to say about this documentary, this inability to link to the film is proving frustrating in the extreme. So if any of you reading this know where I can see it, by all means contact me and let me know. I mean, if it serves as "as direct an explanation of Anger’s cinemagical modus operandi as I have ever heard him articulate anywhere", and is "a must see for anyone interested in his work and showcases the Magus of cinema at the very height of his artistic powers", then goddamnit, I wanna see it, and share it! Keep your eyes peeled for future updates.

2. While we're waiting for someone to dig up the Anger doc, why not spend some time learning about what Flavorwire considers to be the 50 Weirdest Movies Ever Made? Personally, I've seen 20, with most of the ones I've missed being from various Asian nations (Thailand, the Philippines), and some of them don't really deserve to be listed here. For instance, Zardoz, Crimewave and Boxing Helena are odd, no doubt... but among the weirdest films ever made? With such baffling offerings as Holy Motors, Amer, and Upstream Color not making the list, perhaps it is in need of a rethink. Anyway, if the films listed in Flavorwire's article aren't obscure enough for you, here's Games Radar's list of 50 Amazing Films You've Never Seen. I found a lot more strange pickings there, including a few I'd never even heard of before, much less seen. And I try to see a LOT. The lo-fi, super-hostile French anti-American 70's satire Mr. Freedom was a particularly odd revelation. You can watch the first part, below, and pick up the rest on Youtube.

3. And what better way to finish things off than by linking to an ass-load of Totally EVIL Paintings?! Many of the usual suspects - and a great many who were influenced by these usual suspects - are represented here, as there is a great focus on Lovecraftian, apocalyptic horrors. However, any such gallery that chooses to omit even a single piece by Thomas "Painter of Light" Kinkade is kind of missing the boat, if you ask me.

DDD SUGGESTED READING LIST ~ DEC 9, 2014

1. According to this eye-popping article from the Independent UK, using "magic mushrooms" can change one's personality... for the better! The article states:

The study, at Johns Hopkins University of Medicine in Baltimore, found that a single dose of psilocybin, the active ingredient in magic mushrooms, was enough to cause positive effects for up to a year. "Psilocybin can facilitate experiences that change how people perceive themselves and their environment," said Roland Griffiths, a study author and professor of psychiatry and behavioural science at Johns Hopkins. "That's unprecedented."

Users who had a "mystical experience" while taking the drug showed increases in a personality trait dubbed "openness", one of the five major traits used in psychology to describe human personality. Openness is associated with imagination, artistic appreciation, feelings, abstract ideas and general broad-mindedness. None of the other four traits – extroversion, neuroticism, agreeableness and conscientiousness – was altered.

The study further shows that those who did NOT receive a beneficial boost of openness from ingesting shrooms didn't show any negative responses, either. Not a single "bad trip", and not a single negative result throughout the study. That's a damn sight better than most pharmaceutical tests, I can assure you.

2. If you're the kind of reader who enjoys a giggle or a titter to go along with your shivers, then look no further than artist Patrick Dean's ongoing blog series featuring Underwhelming Lovecraft Monsters! The example below is just a sketch pad scan. Most of the posts involved somewhat involved, multi-paneled stories that are sure to give great delight to even the most glancing of Lovecraft fans. Enjoy! And, by all means, Bookmark it as a favorite! When I put together that Daily Dirt Diaspora Ultimate Online Comics Page (coming soon), Underwhelming Lovecraft is sure to be a member strip!

3. Read this detailed overview of the Cicada 3301 online mystery that baffled the net's best code-breakers for the better part of a year. Then read this detailed overview of one group's collective attempts at solving that mystery. Then read this gripping account of Joel Eriksson, who "solved" Cicada 3301... but not really. Although I do appreciate his guesstimate about who might be behind the now annual hacker's delight puzzle game:

"It is most likely an underground organization, not related to any government or intelligence agency," he says. "Based on the references in their challenges—the Agrippa poem by William Gibson, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell by William Blake, The Book of The Law by Aleister Crowley — and their constant references to prime numbers and the like, they are likely intellectual, anti-establishment, ideologically driven and they seem to be valuing logical/analytical thinking highly. They seem to share a lot of ideology with the cryptoanarchy movement, and old-school hackers."

Personally, although I find the references kind of interesting - and in hindsight, I would have easily guessed the answer to the first clue right away - "a book dictated to a beast?" Nigga please - the whole enterprise strikes me as a huge waste of time. But then again, what isn't these days? Still worth a read, that's for sure.

POP OCCULTURE: TRUE DETECTIVE'S LOVECRAFT FETISH

True Detective is currently the only must-watch show on commercial television for the paraculturally-inclined viewer, and this io9.com think piece by novelist Michael Hughes does a decent job of explaining why that is, exactly...

The King in Yellow is a fictional play within a collection of short stories - a metafictional dramatic work that brings despair, depravity, and insanity to anyone who reads it or sees it performed. Robert Chambers inserts only a few selected scenes from the play into his story collection, and all of them are from the first act. This act, we are told, is a bit of a honeypot, luring readers into the cursed text. If they read even the first few words of Act II they are driven insane by the revelation of horrible, decadent, incomprehensible truths about the universe. Anyone familiar with Lovecraft's "cosmic horrors" should see the thematic similarity. For his unfortunate protagonists, the ultimate truths of the universe are too much for their overloaded minds to handle. It should not be surprising that Lovecraft incorporated Chambers's The King in Yellow into his overarching Cthulhu mythos, embellishing the elements of the story and adding the fictitious play to his growing bookshelf of equally fictional mythos tomes.

Hughes' article was written after only two episodes of True Detective had aired. We are currently five episodes into the show's eight episode lifespan, and the Easter eggs for fans of dark fiction and apocalyptic nihilism just keep on coming. Everything from Se7en and Nine Inch Nails to Twin Peaks and Pink Floyd gets either name-checked or visually referenced, here, with yer old pal Jerky finding references to even more obscure cultural artifacts, such as dark fantasy author Thomas Ligotti's non-fiction philosophical treatise The Conspiracy Against the Human Race, and paracultural superstar Alan Moore's little-read black and white Lovecraftian police procedural comic The Courtyard, which features a detective not unlike True Detective's Cohle, played with remarkable morbidity by Matthew McConnaughey. And if the denouement of that particularly nasty piece of work has played any role in determining the ultimate outcome of events in True Detective... well, God help the American viewing public, because they ain't seen nothin' yet.

CHARLES FORT MAKES CAMEO IN LATEST LOVECRAFT SOCIETY MOVIE!

The H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society - the same team of pro-ams who produced the excellent Call of Cthulhu "silent film" a few years back - have struck again! This time, they've adapted the H.P.'s classic tale, The Whisperer in Darkness. And guess who makes a guest cameo in the preview? None other than Charles Fort, himself! The film-makers seem to have cast him as a 1930's version of Art Bell or George Nouri. Okay, so Fort doesn't actually appear Lovecraft's original story, but that's a minor issue. Lovecraft and Fort are two of the key personalities for understanding the Apocalyptic Age in which we are currently embroiled, so I'm willing to give the HPLHS a pass on this one. Besides, if the movie is half as good as Call was, I'm more than willing to part with a few sheckles in support of the cause...