When a Plan Falls Apart
Mar. 12th, 2018 08:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
vovatThis past weekend was the Monster-Mania Convention in Cherry Hill, and it did not go that well this time. The vendor and autograph tables took up so much room that they couldn't do the question-and-answer panels in the usual place. According to their Facebook page, the hotel originally suggested doing them in a tent, but the fire marshal nixed that at the last minute. I'm not sure why they didn't have that sorted out a long time ago, but I also don't know who dropped the ball, or whether the fire marshal just changed his mind. They ended up canceling all but the last two panels. That DID mean we could sleep later, though. According to online comments, the crowds were so big that they eventually stopped selling tickets and only let in people who'd already paid a few at a time. The latter had ended by the time we got there, but there was still a cop telling us we couldn't line up for the evening panels after one of the volunteers said we should. There were several comments to the effect that they needed to move to a bigger venue, which the organizers don't want to do. The thing is, there were a few other times it was really crowded, but from my limited perspective, it doesn't necessarily get bigger every time. There are also sometimes crowds for one particular guest. If anything, maybe they shouldn't have as many guests who are known to draw huge crowds at the same convention. It might also help to limit the number of guests who have nothing to do with horror. This time they had Richard Dreyfuss and Kathleen Turner, and I'm not sure why. A Facebook comment said something about Dreyfuss yelling stuff about Nazis, but apparently it wasn't PRO-Nazi, which is a relief. From what I was able to gather, it was anti-Trump, which really doesn't seem like it would be that controversial; but I suppose not all conservatives are of the type who think horror movies are an affront to God. And I think Kane Hodder accidentally cut someone with a machete he thought was a prop, but turned out to be real. Anyway, the first panel we attended was with John Carpenter, and the second with different people who'd played Jason Voorhees.
Carpenter mentioned how he made They Live largely in response to Reagan being elected, but later realized he wasn't the worst possible president. The Jason panel had Kane, Steve Dash, Ted White, Tom Morga, C.J. Graham, and Ken Kirzinger.
They told stories about how they got into stunt work, and Steve goaded people a lot. Someone in the audience tried to stir up trouble by asking about Kane not being in Freddy vs. Jason, which is known to have pissed him off, but they kept it civil and Kane admitted that things like that can happen in the business, and it's not like he would have thought Ken would turn down the part after being offered it.
We were supposed to take the bus back to New York yesterday, but we switch buses in Philadelphia, and we eventually learned the buses weren't running normally because of the St. Patrick's Day parade (not sure why that isn't next weekend), but not until after I asked a second bus driver about it, and it was too late to get the terminal in time. So I drove up, which is easier in some ways, but not so much in terms of finding a place to park. And I'm not sure when I'll be able to bring it back down to New Jersey; we weren't planning on going back there until Easter, but that's a long time to be moving the car around Brooklyn to avoid getting tickets. So I guess you could say the theme of the weekend was being screwed over by last-minute changes. I'm going to see Neil Innes with the Fake Rutles tomorrow, and Beth and I are attending Kevin Geeks Out on Thursday, so let's hope those go off without a hitch.
Carpenter mentioned how he made They Live largely in response to Reagan being elected, but later realized he wasn't the worst possible president. The Jason panel had Kane, Steve Dash, Ted White, Tom Morga, C.J. Graham, and Ken Kirzinger.
They told stories about how they got into stunt work, and Steve goaded people a lot. Someone in the audience tried to stir up trouble by asking about Kane not being in Freddy vs. Jason, which is known to have pissed him off, but they kept it civil and Kane admitted that things like that can happen in the business, and it's not like he would have thought Ken would turn down the part after being offered it.
We were supposed to take the bus back to New York yesterday, but we switch buses in Philadelphia, and we eventually learned the buses weren't running normally because of the St. Patrick's Day parade (not sure why that isn't next weekend), but not until after I asked a second bus driver about it, and it was too late to get the terminal in time. So I drove up, which is easier in some ways, but not so much in terms of finding a place to park. And I'm not sure when I'll be able to bring it back down to New Jersey; we weren't planning on going back there until Easter, but that's a long time to be moving the car around Brooklyn to avoid getting tickets. So I guess you could say the theme of the weekend was being screwed over by last-minute changes. I'm going to see Neil Innes with the Fake Rutles tomorrow, and Beth and I are attending Kevin Geeks Out on Thursday, so let's hope those go off without a hitch.
