Convention De-Brief

Wow guys. Just wow.

I had the most amazing weekend (and it’s not even over! Yay three-day weekends!) Work has been incredibly stressful as is my raging case of senioritis (I am in my last year of a four-year graduate program). Add running a household full of kids to the mix and things haven’t exactly been relaxing.

But the last few days have been a rare exception. After work Friday I went straight to my boyfriends house (let’s give him a name, shall we? Let’s call him Michael…cause that’s his name). We spent the night eating terrible snack food and watching Key and Peele sketches on Youtube. It was exactly what I needed to get into the laid-back mindset I wanted.

We hit the con at about 11:00am. Of course the first thing we did was look at the program and plan our day according to times, events, and room numbers cause we’re deeply organized. After only a few minutes of being on the floor, Michael noticed Tony Todd’s booth. I freaked. FA-REEKED. I turned into a 12 year old girl at a Backstreet Boys concert (shut, up I am old). We had to do a partial walk of the floor before I had the courage to approach the booth; I knew it was the perfect (and I later learned, only) time to get my cross-stitch signed but my brain would not let me calm down. After about 10 minutes, Michael convinced us that we needed to just go for it. We got in line and I rode an emotional roller coaster for about 5 minutes. When we finally got to the front, I think I kept it together ok. Mr. Todd shook our hands, was very polite and I gave him my cross-stitch. To my shock and awe, he complimented the piece and asked if he could post it on his social media. Let me repeat that again for those of you who fainted at the idea: TONY TODD, BRILLIANT ACTOR AND HORROR ICON, LIKED THE CROSS-STITCH MICHAEL MADE SO MUCH THAT HE DECIDED TO SHARE IT ON HIS SOCIAL MEDIA

The moment I almost fainted.

I think it’s safe to say, this was the highlight of Crypticon.

My signed frame. Michael’s exact words as he was taking this picture: “I can’t take this picture, you look insane.” I tried to tone it down, with little success.

After this we walked the floor a little more and saw some really cool booths (as well as some amazing cosplay, which I was too shy and introverted to ask for pictures of). Michael was looking for a specific item (imp skull) and luckily found it pretty quickly. I wasn’t looking to buy a souvenir, but while we were absentmindedly looking, I saw a time turner like the one Hermione carries in The Prisoner of Azkaban and I knew I had to buy it. Is it weird to go to a horror convention and buy a Harry Potter item? Do not care. It’s all fandom.

The necklace I am going to wear until I die.

After lunch we headed to some panels. As you know from my last post, we had them all planned out but somehow we only made it to the Tony Todd one (on accident) and the Women of Horror: Past, Present, and Future. They were both excellent. Instead of going to back-to-back panels for four hours, we decided to see one of the movies showing after our photo-op. We chose Skyquake, a pretty well produced movie that would have been really great if it  weren’t for the plot that tried to do way too much. At that point, I had developed a splitting headache so we decided to call it a day. We didn’t make it to Prom of the Dead, but went home and watched Evil Dead (2013 remake) and ate orange sherbet (and Ibuprofen for me) instead. It was a pretty fucking magical day.

We capped off the incredible two days with brunch at Julia’s cafe in Wallingford with a friend. I tried eggs Benedict for the first time and Michael and our friend talked about Star Wars 1/3 of the time. It was perfect.

I was pretty sad when I had to go back home; as a semi-long distance couple with full-time jobs (us) and kids (me), Michael and I don’t get huge amounts of time together and that bums me out. But I couldn’t have asked for a better Crypticon experience or a better partner to experience it with.

Perfection.

 

Crypticon Seattle 2016

Crypticon Pre-gaming

It’s that time of year again, friends! Horror fans in PNW gather to geek out at Crypticon. This is only my second year going; last year I went alone and had a blast, but kind of just wondered around overloaded and confused, wishing I was dressed cooler and that I had someone eat lunch with, not unlike high school. Since this was not only my first horror con but my first con period, I don’t think I consumed the full offerings of Crypticon.

Luckily I won’t be alone this year and my planning compulsion means we won’t go in dazed and unsure of where to start (plus I have an amazing Evil Dead themed T-shirt to wear, as shown in the sloppy-as-fuck photo above). If that weren’t enough, Tony Todd of Candyman fame will be there. I have no shame in admitting I have been fangirling hard since they announced he would be at the con (I think “shrill, high-pitched shriek” adequately describes it).I recently re-watched Candyman at an event called SHRIEK: A Women of Horror Film & Discussion Class, where horror fans meet once a month at Scarecrow Video to watch and dissect some movies with a feminist perspective. I knew I loved this movie, but the discussion really highlighted why; there are so many complexities to the film that delve into race, class, gender, and even mental illness. It’s also scary as hell, thanks in large part to Tony Todd. When I was younger, the thing that frightened me so much about the character was how understated he seemed to be; he didn’t look like a cartoon monster, he looked like a man (minus the bloody hook, of course). But when he unleashes his power, power that comes directly from those who believe in him, power that he will do unimaginable things to sustain, onto Helen and those around her the results are beyond horrifying. Todd plays this with amazing poise and grace.

I am going to try my damndest to avoid word vomiting these thoughts when the time comes to meet Tony Todd; I’d like to keep a thin veneer of calm when I meet one of my favorite horror actors of all time. So when we take a picture with him and ask him with a shaky voice to please sign this Candyman-themed cross-stitch my boyfriend made, thank you, I will only be screaming on the inside.  

My exceptionally talented boyfriend made this cross-stitch for Tony Todd to sign. Amazing.  

Our plan of attack aside from Tony Todd hysteria is panels. This was what 99% of what I did last year and this year there looks to be some AMAZING panels. We’ve made a list of which ones we’re most excited to see (and the times they’re starting, because duh):

2:00pm – Women in Horror: Past, Present, and Future

3:00pm – Best Remakes and Sequels

3:00pm – Real Life Serial Killers

4:00pm – Gender and Transgender in Horror

5:00pm – The Unflinching Eye: An Objective Look at Morbid Curiosity 

5:00pm-Black Representation in Horror

6:00pm – Long Lost Occult Horror

6:00pm – Revenge Horror

7:00pm – Ask the Embalmer

7:00pm – Found Footage: So Over of Evolving Art Form?

8:00pm – Horror’s Top Females

9:00pm – Satanic Panic

11:00pm – TV Horror Past and Present

Midnight – True Tales of Murder

Obviously, there are some really tough choices in store for us; I love remakes and true crime equally! How can I possibly choose?! I am very pleased that a few of these panels have a queer or feminist skew to them. I can’t say for sure if they had similar panels last year but we will not be missing these! I really enjoyed the Best Remakes panel last year; as someone who loves remakes, I was very pleased that there was an offering that looked at remakes with a perspective other than “REMAKES SUCK 4EVER!!!!” Of course there were some attendees who brought that mentality into the panel, but the discussions were very balanced. This year, my boyfriend and I are also going to Prom of the Dead, an after party of sorts. I didn’t go to that last year (cause alone) so I am really excited about that. Crypticon is a three-day event, but we’re only going Saturday.  I am sure I’ll write a ridiculously long post about every detail of tomorrow so stay tuned for that!