Meeting Bruce Campbell: Life at Monster Mania Conn

[mdnitemarv]

OK, I got my fun.

I missed out on a birthday party for someone I know at work, but Friday night I just didn't much feel like going out and was happy getting some stuff done at home.

Saturday was all kinds of nuts. Monster Mania was cool, even though it was in CT. I had no idea that many nerds were here, but I saw them. Oh, I saw them. And smelled them. And it reminded me that while I'm a big geek, I look put together in the real world. And I really lucked out in finding Rosemary so that I am dating a good-looking, grown-up geek; they're hard to find!

Meeting Bruce Campbell was cool. I heard that at the real Monster Mania in Cherry Hill, NJ, the line was outside the hotel and onto Route 70. After waiting in line for an hour or so, Tish and I got into the little room where he sat, signing away. Talked with him for a few minutes, and I got a photo signed for Rosemary.

"Say hi to your gal," Bruce said. "Your gal-pal." That's right, Rosemary, Bruce says hi.

Click to view

He has a firm handshake, as expected. He wasn't doing posed photos, so that's why the shots look all "documentary-style." And Tish didn't get her boob signed. Oh well.

I had the most fun at Monster Mania watching Tish reconnect with her horror movie roots, talking to guys and finding her classic movies such as "The Frozen Dead." And the Q&A with Sid Haig was hilarious, enlightening and funny. Wonderful man.

We were in the main room for a hot minute. This show was big because it had reunions of the casts from the first "A Nightmare on Elm Street" and "The Evil Dead." Derek Mears, the new Jason, was a HUGE, powerful-looking sort. Saw Heather Langenkamp, who still looks pretty much the same, just mid-40s, though I didn't get to tell her how much I used to watch "Just the Ten of Us" (with it's quintessentially '80s opening sequence). Charles Fleischer and Chris Sarandon are not aging well. I missed Ricou Browning, who played the Creature from the Black Lagoon,and we missed Robert Englund, but that's OK. I was there really to see Bruce, and I got what I came for. Tish and I bagged on the rest of the day after seeing Sid Haig, even though we wanted to see the Q&A's with the "Evil Dead" girls and Bruce Campbell. We were hungry and tired from standing in line, so we had a lovely sushi dinner in Southington.

I gawked at a lot of cool stuff at the dealer tables. This one guy, Frankie, was crazy - shaved head, swilling a can of Bud. He had all kinds of stuff: Conan's helmet, Captain America's shield, a Batman katana sword, Link's sword from "Legend of Zelda."

But I seriously considered buying the freaking Sword of Omens from "Thundercats" that he had. Lion-O's sword, just chillin'! Holy shit!* I also looked hard at a Freddy Kreuger glove that really worked, with real, fucking sharp knives. But then I figured, what would I have these things for? Yes, this nerd's gone practical. But I could have made one kick-ass Lion-O costume.

Otherwise, I felt inundated with stuff. Lots of cool things to look at and think about, but so little I really wanted to own. Yeah, it's gotten to this point. Even the belts made of bullets could make me bite, nor the cool T-shirts and everything. Bought some magnets for the fridge in the new place, and a cameo pin for Rosemary.

But Frankie did say he would send me some batarangs when he gets his next shipment. Those I totally will buy.

*Did anyone else ever pick up on the Freudian messages at work in "Thundercats"? Lion-O was this man-child with this powerful magic sword handed down to him. His father's ghost would guide him and warn him not to lose the sword, and another crusty old man kept trying to steal it. The sword was magic, granting him ESP and shit. And whenever he was in trouble, he'd fling it around, and it grew and grew until it shot out a signal for his friends to help him. Yeah.