Philip K. Dick Fan Site

A new issue of PKD Otaku has been published. You can view it here: PKD Otaku Issue 28 or view past issues.

Please be patient after clicking on the link for this issue. The file is large and requires more time to download. An alternative would be to save the file to your computer and read the issue from there.

This issue of PKD Otaku holds special significance because of two related reasons. First, the issue is entirely devoted to the life and recent death of Paul Williams and second, the issue was published on May 19th, 2013 which would have been Paul Williams 65th birthday. This beloved man definitely will be missed.

I recently received an email from the filmmakers and promoters of Radio Free Albemuth with some great news and with an appeal for help from the movie’s fans (including anyone who hasn’t been able to see it yet but wants to like me). Here is what they wrote:

Radio Free Albemuth Release Plan (We need your help)

For Radio Free Albemuth Fans

Two Big News Items to Share!

RADIO FREE ALBEMUTH AT LINCOLN CENTER JUNE 4, 2013

Radio Free Albemuth has been selected to screen at Lincoln Center Film Society as part of their curated, prestigious ‘Indie Night’ Film Series on June 4. They are flying writer/director John Alan Simon in for conversation after the screening to be interviewed by producer Christin Vachon. If you are in New York City, we would love to see you there.

KICKSTARTING INTO THEATRICAL AND DIGITAL RELEASE

Even more important news – We are launching our Kickstarter campaign this weekend for RFA distribution.

It has been a long and winding road but we are finally ready to bring Radio Free Albemuth to the general public.

While we’ve had great receptions at every screening and special events we’ve played around the world, it’s became clear to us that if we want to release this film properly we would have to pursue the Hybrid distribution model – engineering the modest theatrical component ourselves for the publicity and reviews to maximize the digital release.

The Kickstarter campaign will raise the funds to play Radio Free Albemuth in theaters around the country and to release it on DVD and Digitally so that audiences can have the chance to see this film that’s already received glowing advance review from Variety and the PKD fan/sci-fi community.

Grass roots efforts like this depend on support from friends and fans of the film — especially early on in the campaign.

Tell your friends, family, and coworkers. Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

We simply can’t reach our goal without your support in the outreach effort. Even to simply tell 5 friends about this film with an email link will make a big difference.

There will be cool rewards at every pledge level!

Any help blogging or promoting the campaign is much appreciated! If you have any suggestions and/or connections for places to reach out to PLEASE let us know.

Whatever you do is appreciated. You’ve helped make this moment possible. You’ll be the first to know when the campaign is launched!

We believe in the power of Philip K Dick’s story and we think this has the ability to connect with both the loyal faithful reader and sci-fi fans as well those previously unaware of his work.

Thank you for all the love and support! We know we have the best fans out there!
Sincerely yours,

The Radio Free Albemuth Team
John Alan Simon
Chip Rosenbloom
Stephen Nemeth
Elizabeth Karr

David Hyde has written/compiled a Philip K. Dick reference that astounded me. An Index to the Selected Letters of Philip K. Dick: 1974 was recently published and the book doesn’t only contain an index of topics and what letters they appear in. The reference work also includes a summary and discussion of the content of the letters written by David Hyde so if you don’t own a copy of the 1974 letters, you can still understand what Philip K. Dick wrote about and experienced in 1974, a pivotal year for Dick and for scholars.

The book is available now as a trade paperback or in Kindle format.

I just heard the news that Paul Williams has died last night, March 27, 2013. I knew Paul through his association with promoting the works of Philip K. Dick. Even though I never talked with him in person or met him, I feel a sort of kinship with him. I am very sorry to hear of his passing and offer my condolences to Cindy Lee Berryhill (http://cindyleeberryhill.blogspot.com/) and the others close to him.

I first heard of Paul when he was the executor of the Philip K. Dick Estate and when the Philip K. Dick Newsletter was being published. I mailed him my scraped together $75 (I was a college student at the time with little spare money.) and I received all the back issues of the newsletter just a few months (newsletter issues) before he decided to stop publishing it. Those issues have been unstapled and archived in a binder in Mylar plastic pages. The cassette tape has been transferred to a digital copy because I no longer have a cassette player but I still have kept that tape. Those newsletters are one of my most prized possessions especially since that they are essentially out of print right now. I have also carefully digitized every page to insure that I will always be able to read them.

Even more prized is my signed copy of “Only Apparently Real: The World of Philip K. Dick” that I also scratched the money to mail Paul, himself, and he mailed me a copy that he had beautifully signed. That book was my first reference work on the life and writings of Philip K. Dick and the first one I read. I still keep it in a special location on my bookshelf.

After many years of thinking of Paul Williams as mainly the Philip K. Dick Estate’s executor, I looked into what he had also accomplished in his life and I was amazed at what he had started, especially in Rock journalism (Crawdaddy!) and where he had been and what he’d seen. Things that I’d read about and he was there in person. I also saw that he wrote many books and after reading about his most famous ones on his site http://www.paulwilliams.com/, I purchased from ebay a used copy of Das Energi and read it in a few short hours but I was enthralled with the simplicity and the genius in that book about how to live a more happy and fulfilled life.

Hearing of his passing, I was disappointed with myself that I didn’t post the invitation to his celebratory party in a timely manner. I have been chronically behind on posted news and updates to the Philip K. Dick Fan Site and the Philip K. Dick Festival page (The festival was created in his honor and helps/hopes to raise money on his behalf.) So I will post the beautiful email invite that I received eleven days ago that I wish I had posted before the event.

There are also pictures from the event posted here:

http://cindyleeberryhill.blogspot.com/2013/03/paul-williamscrawdaddy-day-boo-hooray.html

I know that there are many more people who were closer to Paul Williams and I know that their grief can’t compare to mine but I am saddened at the loss of such a great mind, probably more saddened than when I read about his accident several years ago. I will work to keep his spirit and passion in the things that I do and I hope I can continue at least a tiny bit of his accomplishments by promoting the work and scholarship of Philip K. Dick.

Here are some media links to the news of Paul William’s passing that are just coming online:

http://www.billboard.com/biz/articles/news/global/1554929/paul-williams-crawdaddy-founder-a-godfather-of-rock-criticism-and

http://io9.com/r-i-p-paul-williams-pioneering-music-journalist-and-p-461838276

http://totaldickhead.blogspot.com/2013/03/paul-williams-1948-2013.html

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/paul-williams-rock-criticism-pioneer-dead-at-64-20130328

http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2013/mar/28/paul-williams-dies/

http://www.tinymixtapes.com/news/rip-paul-williams-founder-of-influential-rock-crit-magazine-crawdaddy

http://www.locusmag.com/News/2013/03/paul-williams-1948-2013/

http://www.spin.com/articles/paul-williams-crawdaddy-rock-journalist-dead-obituary

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/rock-journalist-paul-s-williams-crawdaddy-431624

http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/sns-rt-us-media-paulwilliams-obitbre92r158-20130328,0,3056893.story

http://www.cnn.com/2013/03/28/showbiz/paul-williams-obit/

http://hisvorpal.wordpress.com/2013/03/28/paul-williams-is-dead-at-64/

A new issue of PKD Otaku has been published. You can view it here: PKD Otaku Issue 27 or view past issues.

Please be patient after clicking on the link for this issue. The file is large and requires more time to download. An alternative would be to save the file to your computer and read the issue from there.

Philip K. Dick obituary in the New York Times
(Original Link: Philip K. Dick obituary in the New York Times, The New York Times, March 3, 1982)

DIED. Philip K. Dick, 53, prolific, sometimes visionary science-fiction writer, whose multilayered stories probed the discrepancies between illusion and reality; of a stroke; in Santa Ana, Calif. The characters in his 50 novels (Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said) were often ordinary people trapped in extraordinary circumstances whose distorted perceptions prevented them from realizing their own dilemmas. The task of the science-fiction writer, said Dick, “is creating multiverses, rather than a universe.”
Source: Time Magazine: March 15, 1092, p. 92.

Philip K. Dick, 54, award-winning author of 35 science-fiction novels and six short-story collections; of complications following a stroke, in Santa Ana, Calif., March 2. Dick, whose works are distinguished by deftly crafted, believable characters trapped in an uncertain world, won the 1962 Hugo Award – voted on by American scifi fans – for his novel “The Man in the High Castle.”
Source: Newsweek: March 15, 1982, p. 87.

The dates and location have been announced for the 2014 Philip K. Dick Festival. For details, please visit http://www.philipkdickfestival.com/ and as more information becomes available, it will be posted there.

Thanks to totaldickhead.blogspot.com for two posts from attendees of the Dortmund University Philip K. Dick conference.

Umberto Rossi Reflects on Dortmund PKD Conference (with pics!)

Erik Davis Recalls Dortmund PKD Conference, Totally

Conference Information

Worlds Out of Joint: Re-Imagining Philip K. Dick

An International Conference from November 15-18, 2012 at TU Dortmund University, Germany

Website: http://philipkdickconferencedortmund.com/