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/

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.

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/

If you have anything you would like to share, please email philipkdickfestival[at]gmail[dot]com. Feel free to send photos, links, videos, write ups or anything else you think other fans would like to see. For photo and videos, I would like to be able to write a caption of some sort to provide context for the images so if you can provide a description or a few words, that would be great.

You also may be able to post items to the festival’s Facebook page timeline or tag the festival’s page in photos. I’m not an expert on Facebook so if you’re feeling adventurous, give it a shot and if it doesn’t work, I can remove any errors.

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.