I am often guilty of over preparing and this time it was a mistake. I made sure I had every battery for every electronic device charged, all of my charging cables packed, sharpies, a notepad, my tablet, an extra digital camera, and even a nice HD Sony camcorder. I packed it all nicely in a small shoulder back and let the wife hang on to it since it could easily double as a purse to be carried around at Days of the Dead Indy. I myself carried my Canon backpack with the 60D DSLR and lens and such in it. All was well until we let our guard down and enjoyed ourselves at the Dear God No showing. We became caught up in the moment and the bag was gone never to be seen from again. I hate to start off the recap of an amazingly great horror show with a downer but it really did overshadow the whole event for my wife and myself. Her wallet, make-up, $150ish in cash, my tablet, HD camcorder, and her cell phone were gone and whomever took the bag had no intentions of ever giving it back. Live and learn that all people are scum, even those that share similar interests as yourself.
With that off my chest I must say we had a wonderful time Friday and we met a lot of awesome people, some I would even call friends at this point. The whole entire crew from Dear God No (James Bickert, Rachelle Lynn, Nick Hood, and Nik Morgan) were awesome and they really seemed like a group of old friends. In about two sentences I went from gushing fan boy to just one of the guys with them. Once they figured out how to double-click the laptop we watched the screener and it was amazing watching Dear God No with the creators and actors of it. Kinda a surreal experience I have never had before and may never again. I also should note that I got about a 45 minute interview with them that I will be sharing on the Traumatic Cinematic podcast very soon along with a few other things.
I was a bit nervous Friday to ask the “famous people” like Tom Savini and Bill Moseley for a photo and when I noticed that Savini would take a picture with you with a purchase I decided to pick up a Blue-Ray of Dawn of the Dead for $20. Now I know a lot of people love getting autographs but I honestly could care less about a persons signature. If I really wanted a scribbled name I could just buy that on Ebay right? What I find to be the most awesome is getting a picture with the person which shows that not only did I meet them but I might have goosed them right when the picture was taken :0. Savini cost me $20 and I quickly figured out that I couldn’t do that to many times at this show. It was worth it though and I will have the picture forever!
Another interesting experience was I crashed the Medium Bus podcast (which was set up at a table for people to walk up and record) and rubbed my special brand of nutsack all over their show. It has been a long time since I have been on someone else’s show and it felt good knowing I was not going to have to edit it 
. They all seemed like great guys but part of me figures there are some women (maybe a man or two) tied up in their cellar. Hopefully I can work with these guys again in the future and I tried talking them into going to ComicCon Chicago. Only time will tell (as long as I don’t end up in their cellar.)
Over time I have made numerous contacts and acquaintances online but I honestly can’t name any that I have met in real life. This changed this weekend and I finally met a Twitter pal (@GreyMatterSplat.) I showered him with hugs and attention and he promised me interviews with Sammy Terry and creator of the movie Slice (Terence Muncy) all of which fell through do to missing Saturday on account of dealing with the loss of the camera bag. Regardless it was nice meeting him and I hope to work with him on something in the future. He was lucky enough to receive 3 MANLY hugs from myself and should cherish each and every one of them!
I should also mention that on Friday I attended a costume contest hosted by a man named WickerBeard. I would say there was a rather nice turn out for the contest and I think everyone enjoyed themselves. The amount of work most these people put into creating their costumes is really amazing and they really add a lot of eye candy at these shows. It doesn’t matter if someone is a super hero or covered in blood it is all amazing to me. I feel like I got a great pictures of everyone in the contest and you can see them all in the Days of the Dead photo gallery. Great job organizing the event Wicker Beard and thank you for being a cool guy! Also thank you to everyone in costume at the show.
As I am writing this all sorts of other people are coming to mind that we met and really liked but I can’t remember their names. The ones I do remember is Jill Sixx Gevargizian (whom I met on Facebook and is a cool person) and Laurence R. Harvey (actor from Human Centipede 2.) We watched the Dear God No showing with both these great people and really enjoyed meeting them. Also at the Dear God No showing was creator of Girls and Corpses Robert Steven Rhine and he seemed like someone I should have spent more time talking to. There is actually a lot of people I would have had more time to hang out with but time flew by.
Well that covers most of Friday and if there is anything else I think of I will include it in my recap of Sunday… I could go into my wife throwing chairs at the screen in the movie room after realizing the bag was gone or her threatening to kill EVERYONE in the hotel but I think that is best kept to the people who witnessed it hahaha.
