Horror Nerds Are the Coolest Nerds

I just spent two days at Texas Fearfest hanging out with some old friends and some new ones. I stuck mainly with Ryan "Abominable" Schifrin, Adam "Hatchet" Green, and my long-lost brother Joe "Wrong Turn 2" Lynch, but I also got to meet a whole bunch of horror con regulars, several of whom I know very well ... from my childhood. Those I met* include Ken Kirzinger, Kane Hodder, Richard Brooker, Stu Charno, Tony Todd, Barbara Crampton, John Gulager, Marcus Dunston, James Duval, and a whole bunch of the very cool geeks who run Dread Central.

(* "Met" means A) handshake and hello, B) lots of horror-nerd chit-chat, and/or C) beer-drinking at a nudie bar.)

Saturday afternoon was spent snagging as many video interviews as I could for FEARnet, and then at night a whole bunch of us went to a (strip) club ... and let's just say that this was the kind of establishment to which you had to bring your own alcohol. (You guys probably know what that means.) There was much drinking and reveling, and then a bunch of us went back to the hotel and got even more blitzed. Then today I sat in on some of my pals' panels, chilled out for a while, and then drove (three hours) back to Austin. The whole two days was so fun that I almost forgot about the fact the my Uncle Mickey committed suicide late last week. (Sorry to make a dramatic left turn like that, but hey, it's my blog.)

Anyway, I don't "do" horror cons very often, mainly because A) I don't collect much movie stuff, B) I've never cared about autographs, and C) I'd definitely end up going by myself because none of my friends dig the geeky stuff enough to accompany me. But seeing as I already knew Adam and Ryan and John (and my buddy Lawrence was in from Philly!) I jumped at the chance to do some work and play at the same time. I got the impression that Fearfest was a bit smaller than your more popular horror cons, but hey, it was only their first year. Based on what I saw, everyone seemed to be having a damn good time. Plus, holy crap, I got to shake hands with Joe Dante. (Thanks, Ryan!) And that kinda shit doesn't happen every day. And how often can I tell people I had drinks with three different Jason Voorheeses?