This week's Buzz will be a little different.  Instead of my usual rants on everything from world events to stupid bands and why people who won't go the speed limit on the interstate ticks me off, I am taking a "journalistic" approach.  Yep, yours truly is donning the reporter's hat this week...well actually an Atlanta Falcons hat...and is here to report the events taking place at the Nashville Airport Marriot.  So what's the event?  None other then the Full Moon Tattoo and HORROR CONVENTION!!!!  Now I'm someone who doesn't have a tattoo nor cares about ever getting one...but if you have one that's cool...I personally don't dig them on myself...so I won't be reporting anything about that side of the convention unless something happens that merits a story.  Instead, I'll be giving you a daily account of what transpires.  This is taking place on today, tomorrow and Sunday...three days of horror for a low price of $25...can't beat that!  There's also several well-known horror movie icons who will be present as well.  But instead of listing who all is there, experience this event as I am.  Come now with me as we take a look at the first day.

First off, I asked for Friday off from work to attend this, and of course there was the usual mocking and ridiculing of a grown man such as myself attending this and actually being excited about going.  Hey, it's not my fault if these dudes I work with are gonna be stuck going to buy new curtains all weekend with their wives while I'm doing something this cool...but if in belittling me about this helps them feel better about the loss of freedom in their lives then so be it...I'm a big boy...I can handle it...hahahaha.  Granted I know I'm one of the biggest dorks in the world when it comes to stuff like this.  Thursday night I felt like a kid on Christmas Eve looking forward to this thing.  So to get in the mood for this, I was gonna watch the original "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" last night, but band rehearsal went a little late and stuff so I waited until this morning.  Yep, nothing quite like starting off the day with a hearty meal and "Texas Chainsaw Massacre".  The event started today at one o'clock and I was there probably about 12:45...us geeks have to get there early...hahaha.  I pay my $25 bucks and get my three day pass and walk in.  If ever there was a time and place I wish I had thousands of dollars to spend on the most frivolous items...today was the day.  Everywhere I turned there were posters, DVD's, figures from movies, t-shirts.....wow.  I was shaking by now.  I had to literally fight the urge to run to the ATM in the lobby of the hotel and pull out my life savings.  Thankfully when I walked in, this dude had some free stuff and I got a "Dawn of the Dead" movie poster, so that helped take the edge off my craving.  So there I am walking around looking at stuff and I overhear someone say "the talent won't be here until about 3".  Ok, so now I had 2 hours to kill before anyone showed up to sign autographs...hey no problem at all.  I walk around one set of tables and see this dude setting out photos on a table and I recognized him immediately, but it didn't really register that it was him.  I sat there in awe for a moment as the actor that played what is probably my favorite character in a horror movie was a mere few feet away...Ed Neal...the guy who played the hitch-hiker in the original "Texas Chainsaw Massacre".  Like I said, the thing had just started so not a whole lot of people were around...and nobody was at his table.  So I decided to go up and say hi...you know...play it cool and not seem like some idiot fanboy like I usually do and talk a million miles an hour.  I go up and introduce myself and he goes "man, love the Motorhead shirt".  Now instantly this would be my cue to launch into full on geekdom...you know we both share an interest so I would go on and on about Motorhead and try to seem all cool to where he'd want to be my friend and bring up some new horror movie he was gonna work on and ask me to be in it because I'm so cool when in reality I'm a babbling idiot...but it didn't happen.  I actually sat there for several minutes talking about the movie and stuff with him.  It was as if I was a normal human being able to carry on a conversation with someone...I couldn't believe it, I mean this was the hitch-hiker I was talking to.  He was even quoting some of the lines from the movie which was a little freaky actually hearing them from the guy that did it.  Anyway, we're talking and someone walks up by my side and Ed goes "hey man...how are you?  Great to see you!" and stuff...I turn and it's Gunnar friggin Hansen...the original Leatherface!!!!  I say hello to him as well, and the three of us are actually talking about the movie now!!!  It was unreal.  I asked them to sign my movie poster which I brought with me.  Ed signed with "Hey Bo!  Do you like head cheese?" which is a play off a line from the movie, and Gunnar signed "Bo...you're dead meat".  Wow!!!  The first thing I did when I got home tonight was stick it back in it's poster frame and hang it up in my living room.  So after that, I was glad I brought my digital camera and asked this woman who was standing right there if she would take our picture.  She obliged.

How many times can I say "wow"?  Well....WOW!!!!  It was beyond awesome not only meeting these guys but actually talking to them.  Now, I did almost commit a slight faux pas.  As I was talking to Ed, I was curious about something.  In TCM there was a character named Franklin who was quite annoying...and I believe he was supposed to act that way...but every time I watch the movie it strikes me that he might be that way in real life.  so I said "Hey I've got one question about the guy that played Franklin" because I wanted to know if he was that annoying in real life....watch the movie and you'll see what I mean.  Ed goes "oh man, it's a shame isn't it?  That's the third cast member that died of cancer".  Ooops.  Boy did I almost screw up.  So how did I recover?  I said "yeah...someone told me that but I wasn't sure...that's horrible man".  I felt like such a jackass and made a mental note - "nothing positive to say then shut up"...hahahaha.  One other funny tidbit was after a crowd got there, Ed Neal was showing someone TCM posters and joking about how great they would look in a living room...and how nothing says "home" like a TCM movie poster and stuff...meanwhile at my house I have this poster hanging in my living room.

After meeting these guys I needed to calm down.  I went outside for a smoke and waited on The Bro...you remember him from the old TNA days right?  He pulled up a little after two and I relayed my talks with the guys from TCM and how we're all big buddies now and everything to make him jealous.  We go back in and he gets in line to meet Ed Neal and Gunnar also, and that's when Sid Haig showed up.  Yes, Captain Spaulding himself from "House of 1,000 Corpses" and the soon to be released instant classic "The Devil's Rejects".  So Bro meets my TCM buddies and we go over to where Sid Haig was.  We're in line and he had the coolest Captain Spaulding t-shirts to buy, so of course I got one.  Now when I say "line" I don't mean hundreds of people...it was still pretty early and not a ton of people were there yet...maybe like 10 others in line.  It was now my turn to meet this guy who is an absolute show stealer in "House of 1,000 Corpses".  I get up there and hand him the DVD cover to get signed and he asks me if I want it personalized with a line from the movie.  The first thing that came to mind was "Well....shit the bed!!!".  Now if you don't remember that from the movie there's a good reason...it's not in it.  If you own the DVD and watch the menu...he comes from around the corner and says that and I always found it quite funny.  I turned to Bro and said "man...I'm drawing a blank...the only thing I can think of is..." and then we kind of said it at the same time..."shit the bed".  So, my DVD cover is now signed with "Bo - Well shit the bed!!!....Sid Haig".  Now if you're not familiar with that saying, it basically means "well look at what we have here" or something else pertaining to a surprise.  After the autograph I asked if I could get a photo, and he was more then happy to oblige.  A very cool dude he is.

While I'm in line for Sid Haig, another person shows up...but not just any person...Bill Moseley!  He's the dude that played Choptop in "Texas Chainsaw II" and also Otis in "House of 1,000 Corpses" and the soon to be released instant classic "The Devil's Rejects".  I call it that because it's the sequel to Corpses, and the trailers I've seen have a stronger effect on me then Viagra ever could.  I move a few feet over to his table and he's just finished getting set up.  He looks over and I stick my hand out and introduce myself.  He shakes my hand and says it's nice to meet me....yeah...Bill Moseley said it was nice to meet ME.  Granted when people say that it's a pleasantry...but we actually started talking about "The Devil's Rejects" and he was telling me how nervous he is about it and stuff, and that he's going with the cast Tuesday to watch another screener of it.  I was like "dude, if the trailers are any indication about this film I can't imagine it being anything short of a classic"...and I meant it.  so I ask him to sign my Corpses DVD cover that Sid Haig had just signed and he reads Sid's quote on it.  He turns to Sid and goes "Shit the bed???  You signed someone's cover with Shit the BED???" while he was laughing.  Sid laughed as well.  After that we all decided to become lifelong friends and go out for a drink...eh...not really.  Anyway, I was going to ask Bill to sign it with a movie quote from TCM II, but before I could he signs it with "To Bo - Run Rabbit Run!!" which is a line for Corpses.  And of course I asked for a photo.

After Bro got a chance to meet Bill Moseley, we went out to our cars to drop some stuff off because we were tired of carrying things that had already been signed.  After I had another smoke to calm myself down we went back in.  Bro decided he wanted a Captain Spaulding shirt, so we go back over to his table.  While we're standing there in line (and the line had grown by now), in walks the last autograph I really wanted.  None other then Ken Foree!!! Ok, if the name doesn't ring a bell, he's best known as Peter from the original "Dawn of the Dead"...and was even in the remake as the TV preacher for a bit.  He was also in "Texas Chainsaw Massacre III" (which is very under-rated...it rocks) and is also in the soon to be released instant classic "The Devil's Rejects".  Anyone who has read the Buzz for a while knows that "Dawn of the Dead" is one of my favorite movies of all time...so meeting him was just beyond awesome...as if meeting the other dudes wasn't.  First off, he was a lot bigger then I thought...I mean he looks like he could be a starting linebacker in the NFL.  He gets in and starts setting up his table with various 8x10's and stuff and is like "hey guys how is everyone doing?" and no one is sure how to respond.  I mean seriously...this guy starred in the premiere zombie movie of all time...who are we to be conversing with him?  We are mere serfs...meant to till the land in his presence.  Ok, maybe not that drastic but you get the idea.  Because we were waiting in line for Bro to buy a Captain Spaulding t-shirt, it worked out to where I was first in line for an autograph.  I handed him my Dawn of the Dead DVD cover that was sent to me by totalnonstop.com poster "Grabber" which he got at a horror convention in Pittsburgh and had special effects guru Tom Savini autograph it for me.  I handed it to Ken Foree and he goes "man...this is so typical...Tom taking up ALL the room on this" while laughing.  He was like "I don't know how many times I've told Tom not to take up the whole head when signing these"...but he found the room to sign it, and of course I asked for a photo so here you go -

So that was it for autographs for today....and I can't complain at all...more people over the next two days will be there.  After all this, me and Bro went to Jack in the Box to grab some food and went back for a 7 o'clock showing of a new indie film that was done locally called "Demon Sight".  We get back right before 7, go to the theater room and "Toxic Avenger 4" is still showing, but I figure it's gonna end soon....it doesn't.  For whatever reason it started late.  Oh man did it suck...I don't like any of the Troma films at all...they TRY to be corny and it really turns me off.  Finally about 8:30 the movie starts....and I left about 45 minutes later and came home for the night.  It was that bad.  As an aside...I just took a break for a moment and ate a couple of slices of cheese...man that can hit the spot sometimes.  Oh that movie...jeez I have never in my life seen that cheap of a movie outside of my own camcorder productions I've done.  The acting was beyond horrendous...the story was VERY lame...and the quality was hideous.  Before it went on, the guy who did it was saying how they were shopping it for someone to distribute right now.  Yeah...I have this feeling the dude will be saying the same thing years from now.  I couldn't finish it...that's how bad it was.  And that's what I have to look forward to the rest of the weekend...indie horror films.  I'll take the chance though because there may be that diamond in the rough...you know?  And don't worry...I'll report it here.

Well that was day one.  It was unbelievable getting to meet dudes that starred in what are literally my favorite horror movies of all time.  Here's what struck me though...all these guys were WAY cool....and not in a fake "i gotta be nice at these events" kind of way.  When I was talking with Ed Neal, he was saying how he does these shows sometimes and people who starred in movies don't want to show up because they take this attitude like "it's sooo beneath them".  He said "why wouldn't you want to come to something like this where the people who care enough about the movie want to come meet you after all these years?".  And he was so right.  The coolest "big time" celebrity I think I ever met was Burt Reynolds...he was beyond cool when I met him....but these guys really seemed to truly appreciate the fact that anyone wanted to come say "hello" or get an autograph...and you could tell by the way they would just talk to people when they were signing stuff.  It wasn't an assembly line where things are signed and you're pushed aside...these guys would answer questions....want to know your name...and really showed interest when people would want to talk about the movies they were in.  Remember last week when I wrote about seeing Danzig?  Glenn Danzig is one of the most talented singers I've ever heard...yet he chose to go the route of punk and then the dark hard rock stuff he does.  He could have easily gone a different route and probably made a TON of money...but he did what he wanted to do.  I see these guys I met today who are incredible actors yet never got the big Hollywood payday because of the types of movies they do...and it makes me admire their talent that much more.  How Ed Neal didn't get bigger gigs based off his performance in TCM is beyond me...and then the other guys just all have that "it" factor you know?  Ok, before I get started on a big tangent here, I better stop...hahahaha.  It's getting late and I have day number two tomorrow.  And what will day number two hold for your truly?  I guess we'll have to wait and see....