Podsothoth: A Lovecraft Book Club Huge Success, LLC

In which Claire and Tod talk about HP Lovecraft's "The Music of Erich Zann," first published in the March, 1922 issue of The National Amateur, and available at hplovecraft.com. As this is a horror podcast, please know that this episode may not be for everyone. This story, in particular, features some poorly pronounced French, a number of awkward social encounters, some disturbing and dangerous architecture, descriptions of fantastic otherworldly musical elements and the implied posthumous playing of the same.

The video for Sparks's Edith Piaf (Said It Better Than Me) looks like the  Rue d'Auseil, to me.

Read up on Pittsburgh's crazy city steps situation. 15 miles of steps!

One drop in the episode comes from this amazing compilation of every time the word "cook" is spoken in Breaking Bad.

Tod and Claire totally forgot to talk about, at length, the whole spectral music movement in contemporary classical. Go listen to to some,  and then read up on Kaija Saariaho. She was a genius.

Also, the abyss, in this story, is really just the horror of neighborhood gentrification.
Support the Show.
Like the show? Say so with money! Or just hang out with us on Mastodon, at @podsothoth@defcon.social. Or email us at hideous@podsothoth.club. Best thing? Rate us (positively!) in your favorite podcast app. That helps other people find the show!

In which Tod reads HP Lovecraft's The Music of Erich Zann, first published in the March, 1922 issue of The National Amateur, and first read by Tod on April 13, 2024.

As this is a horror podcast, please know that this episode may not be for everyone. This story, in particular, features some poorly pronounced French, a number of awkward social encounters, some disturbing and dangerous architecture, descriptions of fantastic otherworldly musical elements, the implied, posthumous playing of the same, and the real otherworldly compositions of Kaija Saariaho, performed here by Jakob Koranyi on the ambiance track. Definitely check out her life and work, as it gets much, much weirder than what was used in this episode.


Support the Show.
Like the show? Say so with money! Or just hang out with us on Mastodon, at @podsothoth@defcon.social. Or email us at hideous@podsothoth.club. Best thing? Rate us (positively!) in your favorite podcast app. That helps other people find the show!

In which Tod and Claire discuss The Descendant, by HP Lovecraft, first published in the winter 1938 issue of Leaves. We also talk about Charles Fort and the Fortean Times, kind of a lot.

Links to things mentioned in the show include Angela Collier's "physics crackpots: a theory" and https://hplovecraft.com. We also talked about NecronomiCON Providence, which I hope you go to in mid-August.

Please be aware, this is a horror podcast, so it might not be for everyone. Notably, this story fragment touches on the troubling topics of the ravages of age and dementia, the Roman empire and medieval England, the dreaded Necronomicon, 90's-era Satanism, and a nihilistic longing to escape the natural world. If these topics are likely to trouble you, you are urged to skip this episode.

Editor's note: At about 12m30s, Tod states that Rats in the Walls was written in 1929. That is incorrect. Rats in the Walls was published in 1924, two years before this was written, which implies that maybe this actually was intended as a sequel (but with different names and not really a sequel). In other words, Claire was right and Tod was wrong. That's fine.
Support the Show.
Like the show? Say so with money! Or just hang out with us on Mastodon, at @podsothoth@defcon.social. Or email us at hideous@podsothoth.club. Best thing? Rate us (positively!) in your favorite podcast app. That helps other people find the show!

In which Tod reads HP Lovecraft's The Descendant, first published in the winter 1938 issue of "Leaves," and first read by Tod on February 25, 2024.

Please be aware, this is a horror podcast, so it might not be for everyone. Notably, this story fragment touches on the troubling topics of the ravages of age and dementia, the Roman empire and medieval England, the dreaded Necronomicon, 90's-era Satanism, and a nihilistic longing to escape the natural world. If these topics are likely to trouble you, you are urged to skip this episode.

Background ambience in the episode is Hidden Used Book Store ASMR, on YouTube.


Support the Show.
Like the show? Say so with money! Or just hang out with us on Mastodon, at @podsothoth@defcon.social. Or email us at hideous@podsothoth.club. Best thing? Rate us (positively!) in your favorite podcast app. That helps other people find the show!

In which Claire and Tod discuss the Rats in the Walls. Note we spend the first quarter talking about racism in literature sooooooooo there's that.

Here's the Javascript to change the cats name, do with it what thou wilt: https://gist.github.com/todb/35aa059ef2a94cb86a2db63e5121ddeb

And here's Jason Buck's Linktree, if you get a chance to see him, he's real good, even though we make just a little bit of fun: https://linktr.ee/jasonbuckstoryteller/

Okay I gotta pick Claire up from the airport like, right now.

In the meantime, feel free to drop us a line!

Email: hideous@podsothoth.club
Mastodon: @podsothoth@defcon.social
Twitter: nah
Facebook: idk, Claire runs that, but if you search "Podsothoth" I'm sure you'll find it.



Support the Show.
Like the show? Say so with money! Or just hang out with us on Mastodon, at @podsothoth@defcon.social. Or email us at hideous@podsothoth.club. Best thing? Rate us (positively!) in your favorite podcast app. That helps other people find the show!

In which Tod reads for you The Rats in the Walls by HP Lovecraft, first published in the March 1924 issue of Weird Tales. Please note, this is a horror podcast, so this episode might not be for everyone. This story contains depictions of cult worship, mispronunciations of various Anatolian and Roman deities, the American Civil War and the Great War, ancient and medieval architecture, Piltdown Man, The Marquis de Sade, surprise cannibalism, and of course, swarms and swarms of rats. If such things are likely to bother you unduly, you are encouraged to skip this episode.

That said, the offensive cat name has been altered for this reading. My cat's name is Mephistopheles, so now he's in the story. He's also a black cat in real life.

The intro and outro bits were recorded without a proper microphone, oops, and sound a little weird. Maybe I'll re-record those when I get back home.

The ambiance is Haunted Catacomb Ambiance. There's some squeaky, scurrying rat noises in there. That might bug you.
Support the Show.
Like the show? Say so with money! Or just hang out with us on Mastodon, at @podsothoth@defcon.social. Or email us at hideous@podsothoth.club. Best thing? Rate us (positively!) in your favorite podcast app. That helps other people find the show!