the Hounds of Tindalos by Frank Belknap Long

[@Carlos_DK]

That's a really nice rendition of Hounds, one of the best I've heard 👏 It always makes me smile to think of the unfortunate journal-writer actually spelling out his final 'aaaagh...'

[@inisipisTV]

“Look if he’s dying he wouldn’t carve ‘AAARGH…’, he would just say it!” “Well maybe he’s dictating it…”😀

[@DestinyKiller]

​@@inisipisTVi immediately thought that as well lol

[@shroomyk]

Thanks Tony! Glad you are feeling better.

[@gotredeemed]

Never do drugs on Math.

[@implodingsoftly]

Math-heads are the worst. 🤭

[@nobody8328]

I tried math, but it gives me a headache and makes me paranoid.

[@marywiegand2050]

Lmao 🤣

[@katiaplantscientist]

This reminds me of that typo in a headline that mentioned people being arrested in a MATH lab bust!

[@jeffreese1828]

NOW you're talking , Tony , this is gonna be great !! I envy anyone hearing this for the first time....enjoy ! I know this one was in the locked drawer , WASN'T IT ?!?!? 💀🎱💀

[@ClassicGhost]

I keep certain stories in that drawer, yes.

[@lesliegordon2313]

Your choice of material is impeccable. Belknap Long is now forgotten outside those familiar with Lovecraft's small circle. I take my hat off to you. We need to help some of these old masters resurface for the appreciation of modern readers - or listeners. Thank you.

[@bobsylviajr.1085]

I read the story and didn't think much of it, but your narration brought it to life! Your vocal flourishes allowed me to see the characters in my mind with clarity. I can now appreciate the story as, I think, the author intended. I also enjoyed your comments afterwards. Mind creates matter. Believing is seeing. Life is but a dream. Thank you!

[@implodingsoftly]

Horror Babble does a good reading as well. I love this story.

[@ClassicGhost]

Yes, Ian Gordon is great. He's a very generous soul too.

[@NigelJackson]

Another fine reading of another superb old story from the 'Weird Tales' era of horror pulps (I first read it in a 1970s Michel Parry anthology 'Dream Trips')...this story is probably FBL's best, love the arcane metaphysics of straight and curvilinear geometries and how Chalmers ties this into the mythos of the Fall. Time to ingest a pellet of Liao...

[@scottmiller2591]

1) HPL's pen of choice was the Waterman fountain pen. He spent an afternoon in a stationary store, one of his acolytes in tow (I want to say Samuel Loveman, but maybe it was Robert Bloch), looking and writing samples from different Waterman pens, until he found the right one. 2) Still can't believe someone would take the time to write out "Aaarrgggh."

[@ClassicGhost]

That is very useful info. My favourite pen is my little Kaweco that I got in a lovely stationery shop in Oxford. I never take it out of the house. I take my Lamy out of the house which is almost as good but I made the mistake of putting yellow ink in it. Aaaaaarrrrgggggghhhhh!

[@chrishalliday8371]

I do love this story, despite Belknap Long sending it into parody with the “aaaah!” at the end. This is a great rendition. I especially enjoyed your commentary at the end, which was a delightful unexpected bonus 😊

[@EnDungeoned]

One of favourites, but I've always wondered how the narrator got out of the door to leave the plastered up room

[@ClassicGhost]

Hey now.... I never thought of that... But it's right

[@martiwilliams4592]

Ditto this time around, Tony. Thank you!

[@terryIKE69]

Extraordinary & far out! To bring it to the modern vernacular, it's like David Foster Wallace and Hunter S. Thompson got together, indulged in their favorite substances and took a stab at creating a Lovecraftian tale. Great performance Tony, take a bow! !!

[@implodingsoftly]

💯

[@terryIKE69]

😎👍

[@martiwilliams4592]

Ditto, ditto, this time around. Masterful, Tony! Lots of thumbs up! Thank you!!!!

[@Mr_CoolGamer-]

I've listened to this 3 times now. Just fantastically narrated ❤️👍☺️

[@williamshelton4150]

I love the intro. It certainly sets the mood.

[@ClassicGhost]

Me too.

[@nancynickerson4341]

Taking an unknown drug to go back in time. Hmmm. What could possibly go wrong?!

[@mariameere5807]

I wouldn’t say no!😉🙃

[@implodingsoftly]

Everything. It would have all gone wrong anyway 😉

[@mariameere5807]

@@implodingsoftly Yes because it’s a horror story! What if it was real life!??!

[@nobody8328]

I'll take 3, please 😁

[@onepiecefan74]

Any plans to do some Robert Aickman stories?

[@ClassicGhost]

I've done The Hospice and I think I did another. Have a search. I'm old and dopey and I forget

[@janemaas4225]

Excellent story. Loved it. I always have my science classes read a science fiction story and relate it to science, this one will be added to my book list. 💜💜

[@thurayya8905]

It is very easy to chew the scenery with some of these lines, but you did beautifully. Hope you had fun with it.

[@ClassicGhost]

i did sone Clark Ashton Smith yesterday. The weird fiction genre combs the dictionary for hard-to-say words

[@franken-pattern]

Even my Birds enjoy your tender voice patterns! I haven't heard this tale yet, how lovely!

[@ClassicGhost]

What kind of birds?

[@BertieShaul-mn4qc]

Thank you Tony, I really enjoyed this story!

[@Josephinejefferies]

Enjoyed this. Yet another weird and wonderful story.

[@andreamontgomery5431]

Thank you Toni for all the time you put in to entertain us. Enjoy your stories so much!

[@ClassicGhost]

You are so welcome

[@marilynmills2273]

Brilliant, I loved the wail at the end. Thank you for another superb reading

[@ClassicGhost]

As you heard, I was in two minds about the wail. But I'm glad I did it

[@marilynmills2273]

So am I,it was very well done 👍

[@donaldmccleary9015]

Great story. This is one of the best renditions out there! Keep up the good work! It's a timeless classic! Thanks for doing this. Great job! Like the comment on Fortean Times. I subscribed to that magazine for years.

[@thewildbirds6070]

That was exceptional Tony. I love how these stories open worlds of other authors to me, and have a pretty encyclopedic (cyclopean?) knowledge of the genre. Thanks T

[@zettaichan]

A few minutes in, I realized I've encountered this story before, but I decided to stick with it. The story itself doesn't do a lot for me, so the performance was the draw here, and the increasingly wild overacting really made this a fun listen! I don't know accents, but whatever accent you chose for the drug-tripping friend was amazing... was that RP? It made him sound like a hilariously posh dilettante to me... I may be projecting. Thank you for making this guy's bad drug trip sound so entertaining. This was a great time. While I'm at it I'll tag on a suggestion for Edith Wharton's The House of the Dead Hand. There's only one neglected reading of it on KZbin, probably because it's not spooky until the very very end. But there's an overbearing professor character you'd turn into something special, I'm sure, and I thought the end was striking. Anyway, here's a vote for that one if you ever want to do another Wharton story. Thanks again for making fifty minutes fly by.

[@marywiegand2050]

Yes please do!!! 🙏😘

[@ClassicGhost]

I will put it in my spreadsheet. I always love doing Wharton. Glad you enjoyed the overracting. Yes, that was my attempt at RP.

[@09purpledyer]

I really loved your commentary and ramblings, especially about the dog and cat and having Covid. Thanks

[@ClassicGhost]

:) glad!

[@implodingsoftly]

I am dying for this. One of my FAVORITE stories by the most excellent narrator. Thank you! The only other thing that could make me feel even more excited is if you ever read The House On The Borderland by William Hope Hodgson.

[@ClassicGhost]

I would like to do it. It's long though. Doesn't mean I won't. Just not yet.

[@mariameere5807]

Fantastic job as usual Tony! You did a great job with Dracula! So much better than the film! Really and truly honestly! I recommend this channel to everybody I know and to a lot of people that I don’t really know on KZbin! I think I should get commission! Seriously I have this interview on the 5th of May and I am expecting to get a good result on this venture financially and if it all comes off I will finally be able to help this channel financially! God knows you deserve it! 🦋💎🦋

[@jeffreese1828]

@Maria Meere. We have to stop meeting like this ! 😉🎱😉

[@mariameere5807]

@@jeffreese1828 🫣🥹😉😊😂😇🫠

[@ClassicGhost]

Thank you Maria. Glad you liked Dracula too.

[@stardust949]

I really appreciate you and your choices of stories---because this is not a genre I would read just on my own. What makes it work for me are your comments afterwards. Mostly, the entire Cthulhu Thing just makes me massively roll my eyes and clamp my mouth shut (yeah, I hate it). Actually, listening to this author's similar style story makes me know my own good sense is accurate and that my prejudice is entirely justified! LOL! I say this with a smile---live and let live. Thanks as always, Tony---and I hope by now you and Shiela are entirely better from your illness.

[@ClassicGhost]

We are both now well and spent the last four days in a damp wood trance drumming.

[@sugarfalls1]

This is a wild story! Seriously spooky! Wow, Frank was born the same year as my grandfather but he didn't live nearly as long as Frank. My grandfather died in his early 70s. Great story! My grandfather was a science teacher and a Principal at a Junior H.S. When he retired, he bought a house a block from the beach in New Jersey with his wife, my grandmother. He had mercury, I remember going up in the attic with my brothers and sister and seeing it. He was a very nice man. Too bad I was a little girl when he died. I miss my Grampy! His father immigrated from England with his wife who was Irish, oddly enough. He was a very warm and friendly man who read stories like Where the Wild Things are to me. I was his youngest grandchild.

[@Mr_CoolGamer-]

Just, amazingly read ❤️

[@thisisdavid2]

so well done, again :)

[@BertieShaul-mn4qc]

Halpin is actually an Irish Name...Great Story! I love Frank Belknap Long's work especially his Cthulhu Mythos stories.

[@shelleymarquis2887]

I'm so glad I'm not the only one who speaks stream of consciousness, ALL the time! I also go around the world getting to the point and relate seemingly unrelated events. If my listeners wait, they'll be rewarded. All my my stories have a point. I can't help if they don't know how to throw a big loop. My memory is episodic rather than date linear. I remember the unboring parts and change my stories to suit my audience. I get nagged sometimes to write them down. I'm a story teller not a writer. I tell of my adventures for my enjoyment. If I wrote them down, they'd cease to live and stop being fun. For me. 😏 I'm insanely self centered to the point of telling stories to people who were there, too. When I get called on my rudeness, I remind folks they don't have to listen and I don't tell them how to remember and relate. I'm loving terse, cogent stories followed by ragged, wandering insight with quite a personal touch. I wonder if I was born this way, did too much meth and psychedelics, drank too long, took a few too many shots to the head or what? All the etoh/drugs are gone 40 yrs. I suspect 20 yrs of working at MH caused the real damage.😉 My old running buddy died of hiv on Tuesday. Yes, we shared needles. I didn't get it, genetic immunity, got the HepC. So far no problem. He used to tell me life is for those who can say, "Next!" He was so right by me. Thanks. Say, you're a terrific therapist!

[@ClassicGhost]

I like the way you describe things. Episodic rather than linear. I may put that in my journal to mull over. And the ragged commentary is a nice description too. For what it’s worth I think job were probably born like that . Mind you there is always epigenetic influence of nurture

[@shelleymarquis2887]

@@ClassicGhost you're welcome. Enjoy episodic memory. I never see the time go by. Nice side effect.

[@martiwilliams4592]

Wow! Really truly WEIRD! Science turned on its snobby head and given a much deserved shake. "Reality is Not What It Seems" says quantum gravity physicst. Now I believe him. Take that, Einstein!!!Thumbs up, Tony! Love your expression--howl away

[@annabellreads]

Congratulations on another fantastic classic ghost story reading, Tony! Speaking of this story and computer games, have you ever played SOMA, by Frictional Games? I'm not sure what your favored genre of game is, but unless you really despise the 'walking simulator' narrative-driven stuff I have a feeling you'd enjoy it (it's ~$5 US on Steam right now, usually on MS GamePass, etc). There are a few distinct similar narrative threads in both that game and this story -- in some ways, your Darkworlds series too. There are some jumpscares in SOMA, but the thing to be most wary of is the long-ranging existential crisis. It was released 5 or 6 years ago but still lives rent-free in my head. Not to be the devil on your shoulder urging you to get into more video games, or anything.

[@c.djinmyr]

I quite enjoyed the extea sound effects, i think they added well to the dramatization

[@hillaryclinton1232]

@5:20 the protagonist is describing the Akashic records! I have been able to access these Akashit records since I was a teenager 1950's by Eating Belladonna [in Asmadrour Cigarettes sold for Asthmatics, no tobacco, just Dried Belladonna] In the religion of theosophy and the philosophical school called anthroposophy, the Akashic records are a compendium of all universal events, thoughts, words, emotions and intent ever to have occurred in the past, present, or future in terms of all entities and life forms, not just human

[@ClassicGhost]

Hilary, I saw this yesterday and was going to reply then I went out. Eating Belladonna is not to be recommended, I would imagine. Is it like a big library? I need some tips for the racing next month and do you have anything from the Library of Alexandria in there?

[@MartiWilliams-r2z]

Truly, truly WEIRD. Over the top is mildly put. You get us through safely, but I worry. There is always a first time... :0) !

[@martas9283]

I love Crabbies Alcoholic Gingerbeer too! Best ginger beer in the world

[@AnnyMacToo]

Just read "Caterpillar " by E.F. Benson. Great story!

[@martiwilliams4592]

[@applewagon253]

This is the STRANGEST comparison to make, but I just listened to the Nilsen Tapes (mass murderer- very nasty business) and forgive an ignorant American for saying so, but for some reason his accent reminded me of Tony’s! Sorry Tony 🙀🙈 p.s. I’ve been listening on KZbin and Spotify to boost your numbers. Hope it’s working!

[@ClassicGhost]

Well... I think Dennis Nielsen was a Londoner. But I may be wrong. Yes, please keep boosting !! Not that Spotify pay me anything but that's another story still

[@Bad_Grandpa92]

🌟 the hounds of tindalis now know your location 🌟

[@thehorrorist3471]

Did he actually write "AAAAAHHHHH!"?

[@ClassicGhost]

he didn’t. that’s why i did it

[@senacht]

Minor point; It’s Hounds of Tindalos, not ‘Tindalis.’ Great reading either way! Well done. :-)

[@ClassicGhost]

Thank you.

[@richardstrachmesserschmiti4979]

I believe it

[@maunderjape8365]

The dao is all and all is dao.

[@ClassicGhost]

I'm with you.

[@buzzhawk]

Poor Jordan Peterson...

[@soundsilence2604]

Truly weird story. I was certain Chalmers suffered a bad trip then madness, but the slime...

[@ClassicGhost]

It was the ergot that did it.

[@robertwalker-smith2739]

The narrator may be one of the first trip-sitters in fiction. Not one of the most helpful ones, though.

[@JennyLane8666]

That was fantastic!! Thank you Tony!

[@ClassicGhost]

My pleasure!