By Dr. Gangrene…
The 8th annual Dr. Gangrene’s Horror Hootenanny was held Saturday October 8th 2011 at THE MUSE in Nashville, TN. This year’s event was a huge success, and a ton of fun. The Daves asked me to give a report on this year’s event, which I was happy to do!
As mentioned in our first ROCK N SHOCK story, the best items for sale in the dealer’s room this year were custom made. Of all these wonderful creations, none showed the shear genius and warped creativity of QuiET RoOM BeARs! Children afraid of the dark or the monster in their closets will have to seek alternative forms of comfort aside from clutching their Teddy Bears so far as Lee Howard is concerned. The Canadian artist not only came up with his own line of horror Teddy Bears, he’s managed to make each and every one completely unique and individually numbered….
Photo courtesy of Jim Roche
I had just seen Svengoolie the night before at Chicago’s Brookfield Zoo (see story HERE) but couldn’t pass up another chance to do so the next day at a local grocery store called Ultra Foods. My reasoning was simple; this past month I’d put in a lot of mileage to see the national host at various locations throughout the Chicagoland (and beyond) area. How could I NOT see him when he was appearing ten minutes from where I live? So, despite the fact that my Facebook friends are starting to accuse me of stalking the poor fellow, off I went!
Celebrity encounters at horror fan conventions range from warm and fan-friendly (like George Romero, Robert Englund, & Lance Henriksen) to disconnected/self-absorbed (Linda Blair & Lisa Marie). And then there’s Gary Busey…
By Richard Church~
Please grade on a curve, as I am writing this at 3AM (and I’ve been up since 6AM, yesterday), and these accounts may or may not be completely fabricated!
I’m always going to remember this week for two reasons; 1) I was somehow able to have an accident in a rental car halfway across the country and 2) I met Ormon FREAKIN’ Grimsby! I’m happy to say that latter went a long way in easing the pain of the former!
ROCK N SHOCK 2011 brought together various cast members from the 80’s slasher franchise A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET. The most noteworthy of these was Robert Englund who has appeared many times in my native Chicago at the FLASHBACK WEEKEND conventions. Despite this fact, I had never formally met him. I’m not exactly sure why that was, but I suppose it might have been that I was never a huge fan of those films. I know this is probably coming across as horror blasphemy right now but, “back in the day,” I preferred my horror deadly serious and didn’t care for the clever puns and humorous turn the series would end up taking.
