And now it's all over...the horror convention that has taken up my last three days is done and tomorrow I enter back in the day to day tasks of work and stuff.  But what a weekend it was!  Now I know originally I said I would do daily updates, but considering that yesterday didn't hold a lot of fanfare as far as meeting people and stuff went, plus I got a little involved in something else Saturday night after the convention was over, I figured I would just give one big write-up on days 2 and 3.  Was it as eventful as the first day?  Nah...but that doesn't mean it was boring by any means.  So as Anthrax plays in the background, allow me to walk you through the rest of the horror convention (I know tattoos were part of it also, but like I said that doesn't interest me).

Day 2 was movie day for me.  There were several films that were going to be shown, and because I had already got my autographs the day before and bought everything I wanted, or so I thought, I spent most of my time in the theater room.  First up to start my day was a documentary called "Fans And Freaks" and I was kinda looking forward to it.  I'm somewhat of a documentary junkie because nothing is quite as interesting as real stories of actual people...and given the premise of this one I thought it would be pretty interesting..."thought" being the key word.  Eh...it had it's moments but overall it was quite disheveled with a lack of focus to it.  It chronicled various people starting with a comic book store owner, and then worked it's way into various clubs and conventions like Star Trek clubs, Anime clubs, etc...and told stories of the types of people into it all.  Now for me it didn't hit on the horror stuff enough because I couldn't care less about anime and Star Trek...I never liked Star Trek nor do I ever plan on liking it.  However, there was one part of this film that really disturbed me.  Now I may have some terminology all wrong here, but there's this group of people called "Furries" that go to various Furry conventions.  So what does a Furry do?  Well, the appear to dress up as their favorite furry animal and dance around to crappy music.  Honestly it was one of the most bizarre things I have ever seen.  There were dudes who were like "well I'm a lion...I was born as a Leo and always felt like I had qualities of a Lion..."...what the heck???  I swear, sometimes when I think I'm a little weird it's comforting to know there are people out there who make my quirks seem insanely normal.  There were people in this thing dressed as bears, lions, foxes...you name it.  What they SHOULD use these Furry conventions for is a way to get all these people in one room and then round them up and have them committed.  It's insane.  Anyway, the rest of the thing kind of sucked, but the bad part about these screenings is that the people who made the film are in there and you almost feel obligated to say something to them after it's over.  I asked the dude about the Furry people and he was telling me that it's actually a pretty popular thing...in other words there's more nutjobs in this world then I thought...hahahaha.  The next movie had a little time before it started, so I go out for a smoke and Jason goes off to "the room"...that was where all the stuff to buy was and had the same allure as the sweet song of a siren luring wayward ships into the rocks.  T-shirts, DVD's, posters, you name it.  I had to stay out of it because of all the money I spent the previous day...even though there was one more thing I really wanted.  Anyway, I go smoke and walk back into the theater room.  The dude who had put on the whole convention was in there loading the next movie called "Bedlam".  We talked for a minute and he went ahead and started it and told me it only lasted like 45 minutes so they were gonna show it a couple of times.  Now...after the pure crap I had sat through the night before and the other one earlier, this was a breath of fresh air.  It actually appeared to be somewhat professionally done.  I'm th only one in there watching this thing and finally Jason showed back up...the man who has no concept of time...hahahaha.  He comes in and sits down with a plate of food from a vendor in the lobby and is all ready to start the movie...which started about 42 minutes earlier.  He asked me something which I couldn't hear, and I told him the movie only had a minute or so left.  Then the credits started, but it looked like the credits you would see at the start of a movie where it shows the actor and then freezes and shows their name....so he's thinking it's just starting...and then the rest of the credits roll.  He's like "what the hell?" and I told him it was short and he missed it.  He thought I had told him a minute before to hold on a sec...not that the movie had about a minute left.  Anyway, while we're waiting for them to restart it he finished eating and is like "eh...I don't feel like sitting here anymore" so plan B went into effect.  Nothing was going to be going on for a couple of hours unless you wanted a tattoo...so we go back to his place about 10 minutes away and watched a DVD he bought - "The Undead".  It's an Australian zombie movie that comes to America this summer...but there was a dude at the show who had all sorts of stuff before it's supposed to come out if you know what I mean.  I grab some food and head back to his place...watched the movie which was pretty kickass...and then we headed back to check out the next indie film called "Skarecrow".  While we were waiting I was debating the one other thing I wanted to buy.  And after mulling it over for a few I said "screw it" and told The Bro and Jason to watch my chair as I went for the one other object I truly wanted from this thing.  This dude had a movie poster I knew would multiply the coolness factor of my house quite a bit...so I forked over the cash and will now have the following radiating cool from my wall -

This poster will be hanging by my Snake Plissken "Escape From LA" poster and also the various framed pics of Elvis in my hallway...basically the "hallway of cool" which sets a good tone for chicks going back to my bedroom....ummmm......yeah right.   Anyway, the theater was pretty full so I figured this one might be pretty good.  Was it?  Ummmm....no.  Again the acting was pretty lame which always makes any movie look cheap.  I don't get it...is it really that hard to act?  I've done much better jobs in my crappy camcorder movies.  After that one, we were supposed to be treated to a screening of the original "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" hosted by the cast...but for whatever reasons it didn't happen...things were running late and stuff...so I called it a night.  After all, it's not like I've never seen the movie and plus on Friday I got to talk to my new best friends Ed Neal and Gunnar Hansen all about the movie...so it wasn't that big of a deal.  Day two was in the books...and day three looked to be pretty cool with the events on the schedule.

I was up a little late Saturday night and was feeling quite tired because of it...but it was worth it.  So I roll out of bed and race around to get ready because I HAD to be there by 12:00.  Why?  It was the panel discussion for "The Devil's Rejects" consisting of Bill Moselely, Ken Foree and Sid Haig...who were also my new best friends as the pics from Friday showed.  I knew that thing was gonna be crowded so I had to get there before it started at 12:30.  Of course it being a nice day on a weekend...people are out just joyriding going to buy new curtains and crap...they didn't understand the gravity of the situation at all and would NOT get out of my way!  I just couldn't believe with that panel discussion going on that anyone else in the city of Nashville would be doing anything but attending...oh well...their loss.  I get there and race into the theater room and the Bro and his cuz are in there along with a smattering of people and I planted myself on the front row for this.  I was even wearing my new Captain Spaulding "House of 1,000 Corpses" t-shirt just to show the cast what a real geek I am.  Jason soon shows up and then people are just filing in...the room gets pretty packed.  After a few, the cast comes in and the thing rocks.  They spent an hour talking about the new movie coming out this summer and answered a bunch of questions about this movie and the previous "House of 1,000 Corpses"...they were all very cool which makes me want to support the movie even that much more.

It was one of the quickest hours of my life...and the guys were all very careful not to give anything away on the new movie.  I for one will actually be there opening night for this which is something I NEVER do...I can't wait to see this thing.  They discussed all sorts of stuff about it and talked about how cool it is to work with Rob Zombie.  I'm just sitting there the whole time as the ultimate fanboy on the edge of my seat hanging on their every word.  I might as well have been sitting cross-legged on the floor with my fists resting under my chin grinning.  So that lasted about an hour and I'm now ready to throw old people out of my way in the ticket line so I can buy a ticket to this movie in July.  Oh, the dumbest thing was people were actually asking ok questions, but when Dr. Gangreen )the moderator) said there was time for one more someone actually asked "how do you guys like Nashville?".  That's about as dumb as a genie giving you three wishes and on one of them you wish for a glass of water because you're a little thirsty.  After that it was smoke break time and up next was the Scream Queens discussion panel.  The room wasn't as full for this one, and was only really going to consist of three people, one of which was running late due to all the autograph requests in the other room.  Honestly I had no clue who the two girls were that came in there to start things off.  So when they came in they were like "well we can go ahead and start if anyone has any questions".  No one said a word...so me feeling uncomfortable because I was right up front asked the two of them "what new projects do you have coming out?"...as if I was some lifelong fan who knew all their work.  It broke the ice at least and they talked about the stuff they were doing now...and then Sally (Marilyn Burns) from the original "Texas Chainsaw" came in.

After she got in there, more questions started coming up, and then Lloyd Kauffman who heads Troma films, makers of "The Toxic Avenger" and stuff like that, showed up.  Once he got in there the discussion really opened up.  Lloyd was moderating so he threw out a lot of questions to get things flowing.

This wasn't as cool as the previous panel, but it was still pretty interesting.  We got to hear more stories about Texas Chainsaw and stuff which I'm always up for.  However, one thing REALLY bothered me...and Jason...and Bro.  Lloyd mentioned to Marilyn about the remake of Texas Chainsaw and how much it sucked and she agreed and said Jessica Biel was bad in it and blah blah blah.  I'm sorry...that movie kicked ass.  Oh, when he said that people started applauding and some yahoo yelled out "it was like MTV made it".  Dude...what friggin movie were you watching???  I love the original...and I will say the remake rocked!  It wasn't insulting to the original, it didn't have the rocking soundtrack by the latest nu-metal bands and there was no Burger King promotional tie-in...it was a great film and I don't give a crap what anyone says.  It was like everyone was just kissing dude's ass to look all "in the know" or whatever.  He then goes on to say how great the new "Dawn of the Dead" was and how it can stand as it's own movie.  Sorry man...I mean I LOVE the new DOTD, but as far as standing apart from the original, TCM wins by a LONGSHOT.  Plus, if anyone was to tell R. Lee Ermey that the new TCM sucked he'd probably waste them anyway (dude who played Sherrif Hoyt) so there!  this was the only time I got to experience these people acting like "elitists" or whatever...as in "real" horror movie fans would HATE the new TCM...screw them...it kicked ass.  Other then that though, we heard stories of the girls working on movies and how they get roughed up sometimes and stuff like that....it was all pretty interesting but nowhere near as cool as the previous panel.  After that it was over...all over...I mean the thing was going on until about 6, but no events were planned.  Jason did get to meet Marilyn Chambers and get a photo with her...so he was pretty thrilled with that.  She was many a young boys fantasy back in the day.

Well....that was pretty much it...and I know tomorrow I'll remember something else I wanted to add in this.  And tomorrow it's also time to back to work and hear about everyone's weekend where they put new carpet in or may have rented a movie if they felt adventurous...and no one will understand just how cool the last three days were.  I got to meet icons...stars of movies I cherish beyond belief.  I was surrounded with all things cool in horror movies and it was worth every penny...and believe me many a penny was spent.  It was just an unreal weekend being a part of all that and meeting these people.  and now I have the memories...the Texas Chainsaw poster autographed and in my living room, the Bullitt poster in my hallway, the autographed DVD covers, the pictures, all of it.  I was glad there was a good turnout so hopefully they'll do it again.  Yes, the memories will last a lifetime.  From Friday at 11:00 AM to about Sunday at 4 PM, it will all be one long and fantastic memory.  Until next time...I'm out.