I learned
several things about myself on Saturday. First is that I’m way too damn old to
get up at 5:30 in the morning to attend an event! I think that I need to get
hotel rooms from here on out. But I did get up early and head out to casa de
Wright to pick up Eric and Angie. For those of you that follow the blog these
are the fine folks that host Dead End Cinema every couple of weeks. Eric also
publishes a fanzine called Midnight Magazine. Being an independent magazine and
this being a show focused on independent filmmakers is seemed like a good fit.
After
picking them up we started out on the two-and-a-half-hour drive to Washington
PA. Early morning and a long drive. This is the second thing that I learned
about myself. I might be too old to do that sort of thing anymore. Do you see a
theme developing here yet? Along the way we stopped at the drive thru to pick
up some McDonalds. I can’t do a convention without being fortified with a
healthy breakfast! Or at least a greasy one…
We arrived
at the hotel and setup the Midnight Magazine table. For our first convention
table I thought it turned out really nice. Tried to be interesting without too
much clutter. Considering how many people stopped by and asked us what Midnight
was about I think that it worked. After getting things together and getting the
cooler with snacks setup I immediately abandoned them to stroll around the
dealer’s room before it opened to the public. Hey, I was a vendor and going to
take advantage of it!
My first
stop was to get my copy of the Barn. This movie has been getting a ton of buzz
and everyone loves it. I resisted the urge to order it off of Amazon and
instead waited until Grossfest to buy a copy. That way I could get some
autographs as well as the movie. As an added bonus I also got an autographed
mini poster. I’m glad that I waited. My other stop was to check in with my
friend Dan who has the movie hookup for that obscure out of print stuff you
might be looking for. That is why we call him out of print Dan! He had my
copies of Snake Eater III, a Lorenzo Lamas joint, and Nightwing. Nightwing is a
hard to find seventies flick that was adapted from a book that I had recently
read. If you have been reading the blog, you will remember that I’ve recently
been obsessed with paperbacks recently.
It was
time to head back to the table and promote the magazine as the doors opened and
the attendees rolled in. Though before that happened I did stop by and pick up
a DVD of Eight Bit Bloodbath. I hadn’t heard of this one before but the guys at
the table were really cool. The movie looks like it has a fun retro vibe, so I
had to get a copy. Finally, I got back to the Midnight table. For a first time
show I thought the turnout was great. As an added bonus everyone seemed to be
there to support the independent filmmakers. It made for a much different
atmosphere than many other shows I’ve gone to. People weren’t worried about
collecting autographs and just wanted to talk movies. That was a lot of fun.
After some time at the table I was ready to head back out into the dealer room.
Other than
the barn I had two movies that I wanted to grab at Grossfest. One was the
Silver Spotlight Films flick Caroushell. A killer carousel unicorn named Duke
that escapes and gets some revenge on those that have treated him poorly. Hell
yeah! While there I also picked up a couple of other DVDs including the Slasher
flick Everyone Must Die. Expect to see that one to show up in the next Slasher
marathon. Finally, I got my hands on a copy of Slaughter Drive. This was
another movie that I had targeted as something I needed to check out. It has a
cool premise that I won’t spoil here. You can expect a review to show up on my
Blog and to hit the pages of Midnight Magazine. As an added bonus I also got a
copy of Tonight You Die from Jim Roberts. I’ve been watching and enjoying his
stuff since Welcome to Deer Creek which is ten years old now. Damn I got old.
See I’m back on that again!
 |
| This is so awesome! |
Spent the
rest of the day talking to old friends, meeting new ones, and making
connections. Some of the other highlights for me were picking up a Lyle Alzado
flick from Dan called Destroyer and a Brazilian Zombie flick called Zombio 2. I
also get one of the most beautiful and quirky children’s books ever. Though it
works both for adults and kids. The art and story are amazing. It is called
Ghoul and I think everyone should pick a copy up! It is on Amazon here.
This was
something that I had been looking forward to since Tim Gross announced they
were going to do an independent convention that focused on filmmakers and other
creative people that normally get lost in the bigger cons. This is also the
first horror show that I had purchased a table for. Though some stupid life
shit happened that changed what I was going to do with my table I did end up
having a blast with Eric and Angie. We promoted the hell out of Midnight
Magazine and hopefully picked up a few customers and contributors along the
way.
After the
show was over we packed up and headed out. I did stop at Primanti Brothers for
some grub before leaving the state. I can’t go to Pennsylvania without getting
some good eats. After some tasty pizza we headed back to Ohio with me pulling
in my drive close to midnight. I was exhausted but smiling. It was a great day. Though I did have to crash all day Sunday to recover. Did I mention that I'm getting old?
To sum up
Grossfest I’d say this. We sold some Magazines and t-shirts. Personally, I got
to meet some incredibly talented filmmakers and got to hang out with some old
friends. I also got to make a couple new friends that I’m going to stay in
touch with. There is nothing better than surrounding yourself with creative and
positive human beings. Thanks to Grossfest I have a few more of those people to
chat with. To the Grossfest crew including Tim, Tom, Terrence, Tammy, and all
of the rest of yinz thanks for all of the hard work. I know that this sort of
event isn’t easy or cheap and I appreciate you spending your time and money to
make this happen. You do it again and I’ll be there.
© Copyright 2018 John Shatzer
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