Comment

Comment by Dept of PMM Artists & things on January 2, 2014 at 12:43pm

The Necronomicon, or the Kitab Al-Azif, is a blasphemous tome of forbidden knowledge written by the mad Arab poet, Abdul Alhazred. It is an 800-pages grimoire coming inside of an old wooden box with some interesting woodcuts.

The terrible tome as bound in covers of dark brown human skin with the word "Necronomicon" stamped or engraved in gold leaf. The book itself is a huge folio tome with pages of cracking parchment illustrated with strange drawings and diagrams. The vellum-bound volume is written in strange script alphabet and other occultic scribbles.

The Necronomicon's spells are like sonic keys that can open portals to other dimensions where THE GREAT OLD ONES wait to take over the earth. Legend has it that some of the words can act as keys which open invisible doors, doors which cross the wall of sleep.

The book contains information about R'LYEH, the sunken city of CTHULHU in the Pacific Ocean. The R'lyehian incantations contains the real secret of eternal life, not for prolonged life and youth, but the ancient knowledge to bring the dead back to life.

And of course the book protect itself with its own power.

Soundtrack:
Abruptum - Honores Vultus Mutares
Celtic Frost - Winter (Requiem)
Abruptum - Corpus In As Trahere Abincere
Abruptum - Hostes Orco Hostium Legiones
Carpathian Forest - Lupus
Behemoth - Of My Worship
Marduk - Unclosing The Curse

Comment by Dept of PMM Artists & things on January 2, 2014 at 12:43pm

Comment by Dept of PMM Artists & things on December 20, 2013 at 11:39am

Dec 20, 1579:
John Fletcher is baptized

On this day, playwright John Fletcher is baptized in Sussex, England.

Fletcher was a prodigy who was admitted to Cambridge before he turned 12. His history is unknown between then and 1607, but after 1607 he was engaged in composing his own plays or collaborating closely with Francis Beaumont. Both men contributed prefacing verses to a 1607 version of Volpone by Ben Jonson and soon were producing their own plays for the King's Men and Blackfriars, two companies for which Shakespeare also wrote. Their most successful collaboration was Philaster.

Some of Fletcher's solo projects included The Faithful Shepherdess, The Mad Lover, Women Pleased, and Wild Goose Chase, all produced between 1608 and 1624. Fletcher's plays differ from Shakespeare's in their preference for remote, magical settings; bizarre plotlines; and occasionally inconsistent characters. In 1613, Beaumont married a rich heiress and retired from writing. Fletcher died of the plague in 1625.

Comment by Dept of PMM Artists & things on December 14, 2013 at 9:35am

Dec 14, 1640:

Aphra Behn is baptized

On this day in 1640, Aphra Behn is baptized at Harbledown, near Canterbury, England. A successful playwright and novelist, Behn has been called the first Englishwoman to make her living as a writer.

Behn's origins are unclear, but historians believe she was probably the daughter of Bartholomew Johnson and Elizabeth Denham of Harbledown. She appears to have lived in Surinam, then an English colony known as Dutch Guiana, for several years as a young woman. In the mid-1660s, she married a merchant by the last name of Behn in England who died several years later.

After her husband's death, Behn allegedly served as a secret agent in the Netherlands for Charles II of England but was not paid for her services, and was put in prison for debt when she returned to England. She began writing to support herself, and her first play, The Forced Marriage, was produced in 1671 at Lincoln's Inn Fields by the Duke's Company. The play was a hit, and Behn wrote many more successful comedies, of which 17 survive. Her most popular work, The Rover, was produced in two parts, in 1677 and 1681. She also wrote poetry prolifically. Her novel Orinooko (1688) told the story of an enslaved African prince.

Behn, a lively and charming woman, became very popular among her many friends. Although one of her plays irritated the Duke of Monmouth, the king's illegitimate son, enough to land Behn in jail briefly, she continued to write lively, satiric plays and poetry until her death in 1689. She was the first woman to be buried in Westminster Abbey in recognition of her own achievements.

Comment by Dept of PMM Artists & things on November 21, 2013 at 12:08pm

Nov 21, 1694:  Voltaire's birthday

On this day in 1694, Francois-Marie Arouet, later known as Voltaire, is born in Paris to a treasury officer and his wife.

Voltaire studied law but abandoned it to become a writer. He won success with his plays-mostly classical tragedies at first. He also wrote histories and epic poetry. His writing brought him some measure of success, and his wise investments made him wealthy in his mid-30s. However, his epic poem La Henriade, a satirical attack on politics and religion, infuriated the government and landed Voltaire in the Bastille for nearly a year in 1717.

Voltaire's time in prison failed to quench his satire. In 1726, he again displeased authorities and fled to England. He returned several years later and continued to write plays. In 1734, his Lettres Philosophiques criticized established religions and political institutions, and he was forced to flee once more. He retreated to the region of Champagne, where he lived with his mistress and patroness, Madame du Chételet. In 1750, he moved to Berlin on the invitation of Frederick II of Prussia and later settled in Switzerland, where he wrote his best-known work, Candide. He died in Paris in 1778, having returned to supervise the production of one of his plays.

Comment by miyoko canter on November 6, 2013 at 3:50pm

interesting never heard of him.

Comment by Dept of PMM Artists & things on November 6, 2013 at 2:44pm

Nov 6, 1558:
Playwright Thomas Kyd is baptized

On this day in 1558, Thomas Kyd is baptized in London. Kyd created the "revenge tragedy," a popular dramatic form that gave rise to tragedies like William Shakespeare's Hamlet.

Little is known about Kyd's childhood, but scholars believe he was educated at the Merchant Taylor's School in London and raised to be a scrivener, a professional trained to draw up contracts and other business documents. In 1592, The Spanish Tragedie, sometimes called Hieronomo, was entered in the Stationer's Register (licensing the publication of the work). The play, about a father who seeks revenge for his son's murder, became the most popular play in England during its day.

In May 1593, Kyd was arrested on suspicion of treason because heretical documents had allegedly been found in his room. Under torture, Kyd claimed the letters belonged to his former roommate, fellow playwright Christopher Marlowe, who was subsequently arrested. Marlowe bailed out of jail but died 10 days later in a bar brawl. Kyd died penniless the following year.

Comment by Dept of PMM Artists & things on October 9, 2013 at 9:24am

Oct 9, 1547:
Miguel de Cervantes is baptized

On this day in 1547, Miguel de Cervantes is baptized in Alcala de Heraves, Spain, a university town near Madrid. Cervantes, the fourth son of a deaf apothecary, studied with Madrid humanist Juan Lopez before traveling to Rome, where he worked for a future cardinal in the late 1560s. He enlisted in the Spanish fleet to fight against the Turks, and his left hand was maimed at the Battle of Lepanto in 1571. He was later stationed at Palermo and Naples.

While returning to Madrid in 1575, Cervantes was captured by Barbary pirates and held captive in Algiers. Cervantes was ransomed after five years of captivity and returned to Madrid, where he began writing. Although his records indicate he wrote 20 to 30 plays, only two survive. In 1585, he published a romance. During this time, he married a woman 18 years his junior and had an illegitimate daughter, whom he raised in his household. He worked as a tax collector and as a requisitioner of supplies for the navy, but was jailed for irregularities in his accounting. Some historians believe he conceived the idea for Don Quixote while in jail.

In 1604, Cervantes received license to print Don Quixote. Although the book began as a satire of chivalric epics, it was far more complex than a simple satire. The book blended traditional genres to create a sad portrait of a penniless man striving to live by the ideas of the past. The book was a huge success and brought Cervantes literary respect and position but did not generate much money. He wrote drama and short stories until a phony sequel to his first novel, penned by another writer, prompted him to write Don Quixote, Part II in 1615. He died the following year.

Comment by Dept of PMM Artists & things on September 30, 2013 at 9:31am

ep 29, 1547:

Miguel de Cervantes is born

Miguel de Cervantes, author of Don Quixote, is born this day near Madrid.

Cervantes led an adventurous life and achieved much popular success, but he nevertheless struggled financially throughout his life. Little is know about his childhood, except that he was a favorite student of Madrid humanist Juan Lopez, and that his father was an apothecary.

In 1569, Cervantes was living in Rome and working for a future cardinal. Shortly thereafter, he enlisted in the Spanish fleet to fight against the Turks. At the Battle of Lepanto in 1571, he took three bullets and suffered permanent damage to his left hand. Later, he was stationed at Palermo and Naples. On the way home to Madrid in 1575, he and his brother Roderigo were captured by Barbary pirates and held captive in Algiers. Cervantes was ransomed after five years of captivity and returned to Madrid, where he began writing. Although his records indicate he wrote 20 to 30 plays, only two survive. In 1585, he published a romance. During this time, he married a woman 18 years younger than he was and had an illegitimate daughter, whom he raised in his household. He worked as a tax collector and as a requisitioner of supplies for the navy, but was jailed for irregularities in his accounting. Some historians believe he formulated the idea for Don Quixote while in jail.

In 1604, he received the license to publish Don Quixote. Although the book began as a satire of chivalric epics, it was far more complex than a simple satire. The book blended traditional genres to create a sad portrait of a penniless man striving to live by the ideals of the past. The book was a huge success and brought Cervantes literary respect and position, but did not generate much money. He wrote dramas and short stories until a phony sequel, penned by another writer, prompted him to write Don Quixote, Part II in 1615. He died the following year.

Comment by Dept of PMM Artists & things on September 23, 2013 at 9:30am

On this 22nd Sept. in 1598, playwright Ben Jonson is indicted for manslaughter after a duel.

Jonson's father, a clergyman, died before Jonson was born, and he was raised by his mother and stepfather, a master bricklayer at Westminster. Jonson attended Westminster school, where he was educated by great classical scholars. He tried his hand at bricklaying, then joined the army and traveled to Flanders, where he killed a man in single combat.

Back in England by 1594, he became an actor and playwright. In the fall of 1598, he killed another actor in a duel and was arrested. He was very nearly hanged, but his ability to read and write saved him. He claimed "benefit of clergy," which allowed him to be sentenced by the lenient ecclesiastical courts.

Jonson was also jailed twice for his writing and viewed with some suspicion for his conversion to Catholicism. However, he became a successful playwright with his comedy Every Man in His Humor, which was performed in 1598 by the Lord Chamberlain's Men, featuring William

Shakespeare in a leading role. After several less successful plays, he again scored a hit with Volpone (performed in 1605 or 1606), a comedy about a wealthy Venetian who falsely informs several greedy relations and associates that each is sole heir.

In 1605, Jonson wrote the first of his many masques, a popular form of court entertainment involving elaborate and elegant spectacle. He won favor at court and in 1616 was given a royal pension, becoming England's first unofficial poet laureate. Jonson was friends with William Shakespeare, John Donne, Francis Bacon, tutor to the son of Sir Walter Raleigh, and acquainted

with most of the important court figures of 17th-century England. His poetry was much admired by younger writers, including Robert Herrick and Thomas Carew, who called themselves "sons of Ben." Known for his clever remarks and witty verbal battles at pubs like the Mermaid Tavern, Jonson was as famous in his time as Shakespeare. He died in 1637.

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