I know, I’m super late in posting this, but late is better than never, especially when the Elder Gods are concerned.
I love Providence anyway, it’s such a quirky little city. I’m always finding strange things just walking around – like random marble heads in the public gardens/parks and sweet little memorials jammed into literal holes in the wall. None of this has anything to do with the film festival, I just love it and had to take a few photos.
We had come hoping to see some shorts but they were only showing them in the morning and we got there too late. We asked for a day pass and were told it was over $100 per person and we both swallowed hard. We saved up for this, sure, but not like that. So we used all our ‘extra’ funds set aside for food and T-shirts and whatnot and just bought a ticket. I felt kind of bad because we did go around to see all the vendors selling things anyway but it was just window shopping, which isn’t in and of itself a bad thing, I just like to buy little things here and there as encouragement to the artists and writers who come to these things because I want to support what they are doing. Sigh.
We still managed to watch The Stone Tape Theory which is the little television short that the stone tape theory came from. It was peak 70’s. Everyone dressed in brown, a very confusing nonsensical series of starting sequences that didn’t tie into anything, and heaps and heaps of misogyny. But once it got going it was actually a fun little story with a satisfying ending (unlike that beginning, seriously wtf was that about?)
From here we checked out the cute little bookstore in America’s oldest mall which exists almost entirely for the weird folk that come to these H P Lovecraft events. And then a gallery! Which was tiny but sweet and had this large and intriguing Cthulhu statue that had a qr code asking what we thought about it. I wrote in I wanted to know what it was made of as a mixed media artist myself. I don’t know if that was answered. I never check my email. It’s a problem and I should but when I see the “unread” number hit the thousands I get too overwhelmed to want to bother. It can’t just be me.
We also found a few new historical markers walking around including a plaque to Christiana Carteaux Bannister who was apparently a force to be reckoned with having a successful hair styling business that helped fund the Civil War’s all black 54th Regiment and founded the Home for Aged Colored Women. Very cool. And another marker told the story of how it wasn’t just Boston throwing tea into the harbor. Providence was burning theirs in a big ol’ bonfire. Weeeee historically satisfying arsonry!
Our next adventure was to attend a panel of manga writers, artists, and translators who were working with H P Lovecraft stories. I’m going to admit right here I know shit-all about manga but this panel was really interesting to me and kind of funny. Of course the illustrator and writer were Japanese and the translators? The one whose job it was to translate texts in Japan was an Gen X American expat with some severe opinions on Dragon Balls. And the translator for the speech? That was some poor college student who had eight days notice before this gig. He struggled. But he tried so hard! And it was actually kind of sweet. I learned that manga started after WWII when a series of British expats settled in Japan, wrote their own comics, and then locals took notice and decided comic books were kind of neat and they should make it into their own art form. And then many decades later here we were in Providence Rhode Island talking to manga creators who were translating H P Lovecraft into Japanese for their own reasons. I love this absolute train wreck of cultures coming together to create… well, something so unique. And the artist cracked me up too. His expression the whole time was one of “How did I end up here? Why are these Americans so interested in what I’m doing? I’m just a guy at a desk job.” The only time he became particularly animated was when we asked what he’d be working on next. ZOMBIE MAN!! Apparently zombies aren’t a thing in Japan (which… have you seen all their scary ghost creatures and folklore, how did they miss zombies??) I absolutely adore attending weird panels that I may or may not know anything about. You learn so much from them!
From here we ended the day with the biggest highlight for most here, a live performance of radio theater which was so packed we had to sit on the floor. This was a dubious challenge for me since I was in an arm sling at the time due to a dislocated shoulder and have bad knees which make it somewhat impossible to get up. I did OK though. Didn’t cause an accidental scene. This time. The show was adorable as it always is and the audience was super happy to participate in making background noises when prompted whereas I enjoyed the bullshit ads they put between scenes for “splinter free toilet paper.” My inner twelve year old thought that was peak comedy. Annnnd my inner twelve year old also died of nostalgia when I got to take one of those strawberry suckers from one of the game room tables earlier that day. You know the ones your grandmother probably always had, penny candies I guess, with a hard shell and some sort of cream filling? Brought me right back! And the people playing games were.. hardcore into those games. Sadly, I’m not a gamer so all I can do is point childishly at the Lovecraftian Monopoly board and squeal, “Monopoly!” Because I know something.
So that was our adventures. It was a really nice day out. We saw some cool things, learned some stuff, and stayed well hydrated due to a reusable water bottle and a crap ton of water coolers and free water refill stations spread everywhere. I really liked that part as someone who is constantly overheating, especially in the summer. I was a little more confused why the local theater has a vending machine with Plan B in it but you do you Providence!
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