The weekend got off to an early start on Thursday night when Jon and I hit Street Side after dropping into Ranallis and NEO. After a few of Julies magical drinks we were whisked away by our two new friends, and beautiful southern belles Shena Shanel Sedgwick and Paige Brubeck who we met a week earlier. We got together at Shena's massive Wicker Park loft where we stayed up all night goofing off and posing for stupid photos as we listened to great tunes and enjoyed jumping back and fourth to Estelle's. Jon stayed behind and Paige and I cabbed out of their back to Lincoln Park.
On Friday it was a great thing when I got my mail. Usually when a box of porn from METRO arrives with posters I give the posters to Greg behind the counter, and I was about to with the one that accompanied the new Kelly Erickson title. But as I opened it I found it was signed, "To Alex Zander XOXOXO Your Jack Daniels Drinking Buddy, Love Kelly Erickson" It blew my mind that all of the thousands of people she met last January that she remembered me. So it made my day BIG TIME. I must have made a good impression on the lady.
We goofed off at Ranaliis for a bit Friday evening as I took calls from Record Labels regarding advertising. We made Frankenstein sounds and laughed maniacally.
Friday night was more of the usual and Matt met me at Street Side and joined us in Lincoln Park for more shenanigans. Gina picked us up in a 1977 Trans AM and took us joy riding from Logan's Square to Lincoln Park. Matt was in full HST mode as he asked Rachael, "Let me ask you a question, do you enjoy oral? " I met another cool cat who lived in Pittsburgh named Chainsaw. I over and over again said I was going to sleep and didn't till about 4.
So I got up early got some grub and prepared to meet Paige for our trip out to the Flashback Weekend Horror and Sci-Fi Convention at the Rosemont Holiday Inn. But before hand I went up to The Alley and purchased a great new Black HUSTLER T with the logo in red. Then I shot up to the red line where, right on time and in a hot black dress my new friend Paige met me and we commuted for an hour to Rosemont where Newbomb picked us up and took us to the show. Now Bob was so cool that he picked us up a $156 hotel room and a 12 pack of Amstel which was only $70 from room service so we wouldn't have to sit at the bar.
I ran into the horror regulars and hung out with Rusty Nails and J Scott of Movieside, and then Messy Stench who introduced Rusty prior to the showing of ACNE. Later on Paige and I chatted with Joe Bob Briggs George Romero, Angela Bettis, Lori Cardille, Joe Pilato, Gary Klar, Antone DiLeo, and we got photos with all of them with us. Lori played the female lead in DAY OF THE DEAD, my favorite of the trilogy due to the amount of anatomically correct gore. I told her how her father Bill Cardille aka Chilly Billy of CHILLER THEATRE fame was a huge influence on me and how I watched him every Saturday night as a kid into the very early morning hours.
I grabbed Gary Klar in the hall and said, "That's okay, cause everyone knows, throwbacks all got big dicks!" One of his lines from DAY... Surprisingly he got a kick out of it and we talked off and on for an extended period of time. After that we weaseled our way downstairs into the VIP room and chatted and got pix with George Romero and I talked with Joe Pilato and he actually asked me if I ever drank at Chiefs in Pittsburgh which to this day is my favorite Steel City watering hole.
I stopped Angela Bettis from the film MAY and got a photo with her. She was so tiny. A little bitty bit of a girl. She was pretty buzzed on wine but very nice.
The last thing we did was at the Drive In and I put Joe Bob Briggs on the horn with J-SIN and when he gave it back, Jason said, "You're killing me." The next day I would do the same with Romero,
We had a lot of fun and I think Paige enjoyed it as much as I did being that all we did was mingle with the stars who were their to meet and greet their fans. As is go t late we split and I was looking forward to the next day which proved to be a true riot in every sense of the phrase.
Jon and I braved the heat and the Brookfield Zoo express in order to get to the Sunday and final day of the event. We got there about 12 noon and immediately needed a refreshment and some grub. It was quite a slow day and we spent most of the time walking around making Frankenstein noises. I stopped by Brinke Stevens table and we caught up. We hadn't seen each other in about 8 years so we had a lot to talk about. She still looks great. Later on we went over to the Embassy Suites and had some Makers and Coke and a huge platter of appetizers and we went back to the hotel grabbed some friends from the show and went into the hotel bar.
At one table it ended up being me, Jon, Rusty Nails, J, Marcos and some other people, then we got with George Romero and his crew and had a bunch of laughs. We were loud and goofy. And it was so much fun, SO MUCH. Then we hooked up with Bill Mosley, Sid Haig, Irwin Keyes who were all in House Of A Thousand Corpses. We grabbed some hilarious photos and made more Frankenstein sounds and the evening ended when I felt brave enough to approach the hottest girl at the bar. She had been sitting in a tight black dress alone and watching us. I talked to her for about 2 minutes, introduced her to George, took her photo with Irwin Keyes and me and within the first five minutes of meeting her she had wrapped her little body around me and stuck her tongue down my throat. Nobody could understand why I didn't stay with her. She was from the east coast and staying at the Holiday and I left with the boys. But that's what I did. Oh well there's always next year.
All I know is I wish that Shena wasn't in Florida and her and Paige could have joined us at this show because the finale was a fucking BLAST. And as we walked out and said our goodbyes to our favorite film makers and stars, George let out a Frankenstein roar that fucking floored us.
There are a lot of photos that will be posted very soon, so be on the look out. PAIGE IF YOU'RE READING THIS, PLEASE EMAIL YOUR PIX TO ME SWEETIE!
That was my wacky weekend at the Flashback Weekend Horror and Sci-Fi Convention. Sorry Jason that you couldn't make it, but I'll see you soon and it better before MINISTRY comes to town. Newbomb thanks for the room and the beer. And thanks to the fine people who put on the fabulous show and for putting me on your VIP list. And to everyone else we bumped into if you're reading this THANKS for kicking our asses!
XXX - AZ
Posted by Alex Zander at August 2, 2004 02:20 PM