Thursday, October 31, 2013

Return of the Ghooric Zone!

Given that it is Hallowe'en, this seems like an appropriate moment to resurrect - or should I say reanimate - Whispers from the Ghooric Zone. Indeed, this has been my plan for sometime and is, in part, a reactive response to a number of significant changes that have impacted upon my personal life over the past few years. Needless to say, being a typical Brit, this is not the kind of thing I'm prone to talk about in public (in fact, I'm likely to unfriend you on Facebook if you start bawling about how hard life is treating you...). In any case, this has led to a re-assessment of my 'creative' output (or lack thereof) over the past few years, a failing I mean to rectify. So, alongside this blog, I anticipate launching two additional blogs in the coming weeks, dedicated to a couple of fun personal projects. Ghooric Zone will continue to cover all things weird and Lovecraftian, hopefully maintaining regular updates of at least one substantive post per week. For now, I draw your attention to the upcoming relaunch of Jeremy Dyson (of The League of Gentlemen fame) and Andy Nyman's Ghost Stories, probably the best piece of theatrical horror I have ever seen (thrice - once during its original run at the Hammersmith Lyric, and twice during its West End run). It will be moving to the Arts Theatre in Leicester Square, London, from February next year - it looks like tickets are already for sale. In the meantime, check out Dyson's The Haunted Book, which I thought was excellent (although beware that this has a very non-traditional ending). There's a very creepy piece of viral marketing for the book (filmed at Leeds Central Library - one of my stamping grounds of old) here. Finally, I will be attending (and giving a paper - on weird occultures and 'Lovecraftiuan modernity') the conference at the Institute of English Studies on 'The Weird' next Friday. That's it for now, and happy Hallowe'en.