Wilum was a friend, a hero, a poet and a punk.
Wilum was a friend, hero, and author of weird fiction.
Wilum appears as the composite character: Wilum Pugglestein in Pink Umbrellas Love Rainydaze. He worked at the Cyclops Cafe. He wrote cover stories for The Rocket magazine like this 1992 feature of 7 Year Bitch, a post-punk band.
Wilum passed away in 2019. He left a vlog treasure trove of mad Lovecraftian-inspired tales on youtube. I love the idea of him alive and well somewhere in the ether. He reads books to us like a goth-drag librarian from another dimension of time and space that only he could have imagined into this reality.
I loved his brave fashion choices, and once shared a seat on the Metro bus with him in 1995. He “wrecked” or disrupted the bus in a matter of seconds by simply entering the space. He wore a black vinyl mini skirt with fishnet stockings and combat boots. It was summer so he had no jacket and wore a shredded black T-shirt with a tank top under it. He usually wore a hat, makeup, lipstick, and lots of weird goth jewelry.
This day, he was on his way to wash dishes at the Cyclops Cafe in Seattle’s Belltown, and we had a wonderful chat about a three-page article I’d written about (Trans) human rights for Wire magazine.
Wilum was a leading expert on the works of H.P. Lovecraft and wrote many weird stories with Victorian-era themes in strange lands. He was the one who first coined the phrase “punk poet” to describe himself.
It was everywhere.
It was free.
Pink Umbrellas Love Rainydaze 