#necronomnomnom

I was in a mood to get some cookbooks and other books about food (and medicine) during a trip to HPB. Plus a Douglas Coupland novel I found at the Goodwill next door to the HPB. I didn't have that title of his, and I generally like his books.

I have already taken a pic of Necronomnomnom, but now I also have the Lovecraft Cocktails book to go with it.

"Bodies in the library" has got to be the most oddly specific collection of short stories I have in my collection. All of the books in this pic (below) are published by Flame Tree.

These two and the bee journal are also published by Flame Tree.

Then I found these at a little pop-up book stall just outside Buzz Mill coffeehouse. All of the titles on the red books I already had, but the little set is cute... and $20 is not bad for a set of six books. The other three books I definitely didn't have: the Hitchcock selection (a collection of short stories from various authors, hand-picked by Hitchcock), a collection of Kafka, and the Fred Mustard Stewart book.

LOOK AT THIS. LOOK. THOSE ARE STEEL STACKS THAT HAVE BEEN TURNED INTO A PUBLIC PERFORMANCE VENUE AND PARK.

YOU CAN WALK UP THERE. THERE’S LIKE A HIGHLINE TRAIL WITH GARDENS OF NATIVE PLANTS. GUYS. LOOK.

YOU WANT YOUR POST-APOCALYPTIC INDUSTRIAL EPHEMERA BEING TAKEN OVER BY NATURE BECAUSE BOY HOWDY IS IT EVERYWHERE IT IS SO DAMN PRETTY

THIS IS THE MOST APPROPRIATE STEAMPUNK CONVENTION VENUE I’VE EVER SEEN. BETHLEHEM I ALREADY KNEW YOU HAD A CRAZY GOOD ARTS SCENE BUT HECK

THESE ARE THE BIKE RACKS.

So yeah, I kind of want to live in Bethlehem now. I only ever visited it the one time for Musikfest, which was amazing, but I never got to really see the sights and I had no idea there was a whole steel mill campus that had been repurposed into convention halls and concert venues and jungle gyms and the local PBS station center. Just holy heck, wow. Gosh. I took so many pictures of the scenery that I forgot to take many pictures of the convention.

Here’s a cool landboat.

heheheheheheheheheheheheheh

Batman? Steampunk Batman? There was a steampunk Deadpool wandering around, but I didn’t get a picture of him.

Anyway, the venue was A++++ and the convention was like....C+. Slightly better than average, but not super amazing. Not really a convention, actually. I mean, it was a free science-and-art event for the community! There were panels on game design and making Rube Goldberg machines and stuff. I’m angry at me that I missed Coveilance belly-dancing, they were always at the Steampunk World’s Fair and I love those guys. I also didn’t get cosplay’d up, I couldn’t find my brown pants and I don’t really have a lot of hot-weather-appropriate steampunk wear, anyways. If they do this next year, though, I’ll see if I can make something. 

Also, lookit this thing I got

It’s a cookbook. It’s called the Necronomnomnom. (I got the deluxe version with the fancy cover, you can preorder the regular version here) It’s not by the people who did the Necro-nom-nom-nomicon, but they did contribute two recipes for it.  They had only just printed it and we were able to get the very first copies. Look at what the inside looks like.

LOOK AT THAT! Every page is like that! They’re all real recipes, and they all look pretty good, but they definitely have a creepy edge to them.  All the recipes are written like they’re rituals to summon eldritch beings or gain knowledge that will probably make you go insane. I love it.

But the best part? The best part was what the artist left me when I asked him to personalize it. I could tell he was drawing something, and it was taking a little longer than I thought, but I wasn’t going to rush him or anything, I doodle at the speed of approximately one millimeter per minute, I have no grounds to judge.  But then he gave the book back to me.