St. Patricks Day, With Segue.

My St. Patrick's day celebrations involved fun and frivolity, but nary a drop of alcohol. This means that along with being a bit lamer than I was before, snakes will now find my blood tasty and irresistible for the rest of the year.

In my defense, most of my time was spent in Chicago, and getting a green beer there requires a person to achieve three tests of strength, along with the test of waiting in line for a long, long time. Seeing as how the other people with me had already gone through that paticular hell last year, they weren't too keen on trying it again a second time.

Instead, we wandered around, until we ended up in the expensive resturant part of town. Each one was more expensive than the last, until going back to a Brazillian steak house seemed like a reasonable expense, all things considered. And then we saw a menu with affordable prices. We ran inside, not thinking of what the name Graze could mean.

To our horror, we discovered we had wandered into a concept restaurant. The waitress explained that each person should buy two or three tiny plates of food, and share them with the group. Suddenly, the reasonable prices we had combined into a new and more powerful form. But we had already sat ourselves down, so the hell with it. Besides, it wasn't like I was spending all that money on myself. No, I was sharing with my friends.

In Graze's defense, the tiny plates were loaded to the edge with food, and almost everything we ordered ranged from "really good" to "damn good." My only suggestion would be to stay away from the fried Calamari. I can't remember what it tasted like, but it was bland. Much like Fashion Bomb.

I've seen Fashion Bomb twice now, both times as the first (or second) band to enter the stage. The last time was at Fangoria's Weekend Of Horrors, a few weeks ago. The time before... I can't remember. But I can't remember a lot about them. What do they sound like? Well, every song is in the same key. I remember that much, because Trelbee would lean over to me at the beginning of every song, and whisper "In the lovely key of 'D'." I think the lyrics were different for each song. I'm almost positive of that.

Afterwards, Voltaire played, and I'll talk more about that at a later date. He deserves a post of his own, after all. Then, there was the exotic horror dancing.

I've seen two different troupes perform at two different horror conventions, and both have the same weakness: The stage is not very high off of the ground, and everyone will be standing up once the girls get on the stage. And since they do a lot of their synchronized gyrating on the ground... well, you're not going to be seeing a lot. But if you like not seeing things, perhaps this is the show for you.

Other Fangoria notes:

1- The director of Wrong Turn 2 is overjoyed about his good fortune. He speaks of a great underground movement to continue the Wrong Turn franchise, and his desire to expand and enhance it's mythos.

2- Jeffrey Combs is fairly adroit at walking the tightrope of being mostly honest with his fans, while not offending them by explaining how very sick he is of horror movies. This is opposed to when he talks about his work in Star Trek, where he played five (or so) different characters, and would leap at the chance to play five more. Also, he is willing to answer the question "Why don't you work with the top directors?" without resorting to profanity, which is more than I could do.
(That answer was: "They haven't called. Plus, I've worked with Peter Jackson, and he counts as a top director.")

3- Doug Bradley really enjoys playing as Pinhead, and gives out a really good Q&A session. Want to know about his role in The Killer Tongue? He'll tell you. Want to know about going to the bathroom in the Pinhead Costume? He'll tell you that too. Want to tell him about how he gave you nightmares as a child? He'll say "Yes!" and pump his fist in the air.