B-Fest

[AndyC]

Just got home from Chicago yesterday evening, and I must say, it's good to be back in familiar territory, where I know what's around every corner, and money isn't all the same colour. It was about an eight-hour drive back to our little corner of Ontario.

B-Fest was quite an experience, and an endurance test as well. It wasn't quite what I expected, but most of the surprises were pleasant. We were there at 6 o'clock for the beginning, thoroughly enjoyed The Crawling Eye, Gymkata and Hardware Wars, endured the atrocious Message From Space, and really got a kick out of the traditional midnight show of Plan 9.

The antics on stage were great, and a few people were getting off some pretty good comments. The only downside was three idiots who came in during Gymkata, sat down behind us, and didn't shut up after that. I mean, heckling is part of the fun, but these guys were just plain rude. Their comments were repetitive, not particularly relevant and always shouted directly at the back of my head, accompanied by phoney maniacal laughter. Basically, they just kept shouting stuff at the screen, and about one line in twenty was funny. We couldn't hear anything but them. They didn't even seem to enjoy the movies, or really pay attention. We went back and leaned against the back wall for Plan 9, so we could enjoy it.

After that, we went back to our motel for some sleep, picked up some more sandwiches, pastry, drinks, etc., and came back in time to catch part of The Corpse Grinders. The three stooges had lost interest by that time, we reclaimed our seats from the night before, and the rest of B-Fest was pretty peaceful.

I think my girlfriend liked Saturday's lineup the best. Breakin' was a total 80s flashback for both of us. As Lori hadn't yet seen Battlefield Earth, she found it quite surprising that it is still possible to make a movie that bad in this day and age. Tarantula was fun, but we were pretty weary by the end of The Mummy. Hammer films can be pretty slow, as can Mummy films. This one was also pretty short on mystery or suspense. I have to admit, as much as we enjoyed Godzilla 2000, we were glad when it was over. By that time, we'd been there for about 17 of the 24 hours, and were extremely glad we hadn't tried to sleep in our seats the night before. That was actually Lori's first Godzilla film as well (poor deprived dear) and her reaction was "you got me to name a cute little puppy after that thing?" I suppose I'll have to show her one of the cute Godzilla movies some time.

I was glad to be able to put faces to a few of the names at some of the web sites. During the breakfast break, I introduced myself to Andrew (it was fairly easy to spot a marine in that crowd), and he introduced a few other people.

As a whole, the trip to Chicago was pretty good as well. During our five-day stay, we saw the Adler Planetarium, the Shedd Aquarium, the Field Museum (was that the one in The Relic?), the Sears Tower, the Lincoln Park Zoo, the Woodfield Mall, and Superdawg (where the dogs were great, but the cashier was surly as hell). We tried a few other restaurants as well.

We really lucked out, having a stretch of spring-like weather that lasted from the day we drove down to the day we drove back.

I'm not sure whether I'll go back next year (I'm thinking about it), but I'm glad I went.

[Flangepart]

Man....i envy you. Hey, how are the pups doing, by the way? Dang, i wish someone could wire up the Cabal, so we could get some audio on what had to ba one weird, wild verbal ride. Ya' know...an audio care package for those of us who can't afford to go. B-fest.....B-fest....i want be fest!.....maby next year? (Wimper)

[AndyC]

The pups were picked up the week before we went to Chicago, and adopted from another location. The only one we've heard anything definite about was Manda (now named Aurora), whose new owners emailed Lori. Sounds like she went to a good family. I assume the others are probably being renamed by their new owners as well, but for a few weeks, they were the little Kaiju. Tokyo (the mother) might possibly keep her name, since she answers to it, but she might be impossible to adopt. Imagine a pshycho dog that is very friendly and obedient, but when left alone, can destroy a steel cage, fold a metal bowl in half with her teeth, open doors, jump over fences, rip off collars and wreck rooms. She was the biggest monster of the bunch. Even if someone wants her and can handle her, Tokie will escape eventually.

I guess we'll probably never know exactly what happened to most of them, but hopefully the pups have all gone to good homes.

[big franks]

AndyC,
  Let me just say that I am impressed... 24 hours of B-Movies... several friends and myself will get together whenever everyone is in town, and take about 12 hours just for B Movies... which is quite fun if I say so myself, because we don't get bothered by 3 guys like you say, but non the less we don't get to watch the B movies in a theatre. 24 hours... and your girlfriend sat through the movies with you?... she's a keeper... and I agree Battlefield Earth is by far the worst movie ever... Lori hasn't missed anything by not watching it... and well that about it.

[Scott]

Yes, big franks is definately correct about your girlfriend being a real keeper and also about Battlefield Earth Andy.

By the way how did you like THE CORPSE GRINDERS? I was thinking about purchasing the DVD, but they want $19.99 for it. Is it worth it? The title caught my eye many times, but the price turned me away.