So I was at work today and I was thinking about the state of my life until post-Thanksgiving.  So here's why I love/hate this time of year:

1)  Because I can't resist a good sale, I've bought 23 dvds or dvd sets since the beginning of the month, ONLINE ALONE.  (The prices...the prices....were amazing....)

2)  I know theres gonna be an in-store sale a coming too, but I cant tell when, and it's pissing me off because I want it to be a big Dimension Extreme sale.  But who knows.  There may be no sale...which would suck.

3)  The main reason I wrote this:  Check this out.  This is my life up until Thanksgiving, keeping in mind I work 830-430 at least every week:

Weekend of October 17-19:  I'm going to see The Toxic Avenger:  The Musical in New Brunswick on the Saturday Night among other thing

Weekend of October 24-26:  Chiller Theatre.  So I'll be there, and at least on Friday, a friend will be tagging along.

Weekend of October 31- Nov. 2:  It's Halloween.  I don't know what I'm doing, but itll be something.  I'll prolly see Saw V and Haunting of Molly Hartley.  And I usually host a minor horror fest somewhere.  Dunno.

Weekend of November 7-9:  On November 7, "REPO!  The Genetic Opera" premieres...in EIGHT THEATERS around the country.  Luckily for me, ONES IN NYC!  *thumbs up*

Weekend of November 14-16:  Sawmania.  I'll be there Saturday and Sunday.

Weekend of November 21-23:  ummm...I dunno yet.  SOMETHING will come up though.  It always does.

Tuesday November 25:  Not horror-related, but FAMILY GUY SINGS at Carnegie Hall, NYC.  Then the next day, I drive 4 and a half hours to go home, and on Black Friday, I probably buy a new laptop.

So....if I somehow SURVIVE these next few weeks without a Scanners-esque head explosion...wow.

So I only did Saturday of Sawmania for many reasons.  One was that I've done a lot of conventions this year (Thisll make 7 I think), another was that I was tired from work.  So I hoped to be able to get this whole thing done in one day.  Oh how right I was.  I've never been able to be done with a convention faster than this one and probably couldve been done even faster had an unforseen holdup not happened.  So, by virtue of having a silver pass, I got into the convention an hour early (at 9).  However, I had a feeling itd be crowded, what with it being in Manhattan.  So I hopped a train in at about 714 (later than I wanted), and got there at 830(also later than I wanted.   I was planning on 7). 

I get in line to get in to the show just before they take all the silver and gold people to the side for early entry.  And that was how, inadvertently, I jumped half the line.  I tried to let everyone in front of me, but when you get a crowd of 20-30 rushing you, its hard to get everyone in front.  This is blvd, the Soho nightclub where the convention was held.  By virtue of the fact that the club is way on the Southside of Manhattan, it was raining, and the economy sucks.......

There was no one there (for a convention..there were people but the turnout was sad).  The first photo is of the line for Tobin Bell.  There wasn't one.  For a good 20 minutes.  I was no. 2 in line.  People came down the stairs to the room in the second photo where he was signing soon, but in total I waited (once he was there) 0 minutes for a Tobin Bell autograph.  That's unheard of.  (The guy in front of me thought hed be selling 8X10s and taking money down there, thus I took his place.)  The nightclub has this kinda postmodern industrial style to it...every room was kinda darkened and had red lighting...very appropriate for a Saw convention.  They also had the saw movies playing on flatscreens and the soundtrack going over loudspeakers.  After about 20 minutes...

TOBIN BELL:

Tobin was great.  He wasn't taking pics with people because of time constraints (I wanna think the people doing the show put them on him since there were so few people there for a convention on a Saturday it was sad).  I asked him if he ever thought that the role would become what it became at the beginning, to which he said they really had no clue even as they made Saw 2 and now he finds it fun!  After that I headed upstairs and got a second autograph ticket to go with the one I'd bought in advance for....

SHAWNEE SMITH:

Shawnee was super nice.  Total wait:  10 minutes.  (again, unheard of.)  I mentioned how I was able to write about the arc her character takes from Saw 1-3 in my thesis (haven't reached that part in serializing yet).  I also feel I should mention her current reality show, Scream Queens, on VH1 (where they look for an actress for Saw VI), and that she has a band called Smith & Pyle alongside fellow actress Missi Pyle.  Here's their myspace and website.  Have a look...it's kinda a country-folk-southern rock thing.  Pretty good music I think.  After that I headed to see...

BEVERLEY MITCHELL:

Total wait:  0 minutes (I said this was crazy easy.)  Beverley and I talked about the fact that her character's name (Laura) isn't really mentioned in Saw 2.  Like the victims are less the focus than Jigsaw and his philosophy on life.  She said she actually had to talk to the directors and writers because she had a feeling she'd need to know it for press things and conventions, etc.  She was great, energetic and seemed to be happy to be there and meet the people.  Then I headed back out front for:

COSTAS MANDYLOR:

This photo was at a terrible angle.  Total wait....wait for it....0 minutes.  Costas was a great guy...this photo's at kinda an awful angle because he's a huge guy and also the guy taking the photo was tall so I'm looking up at the camera.  I've heard rumors about him getting a bit tipsy at the party the night before.  He seems kinda like a guy who's glad he's got this guaranteed 4 picture deal the film gave him.  He was basically the host of everything from a tattoo contest to the parties each day.  So at this point...it's 1030.  I've done these 4 people in 1 hour.  Have I made it clear how INSANELY fast that is?  That left one other person:

BETSY RUSSELL:

Total wait...2 hours 40 minutes.  But I'm not mad about that (truth be told, I was mostly mad I forgot to bring Everything's Eventual...though I finished that this morning.)  Her flight had gotten screwed up so she had to catch a red eye and they let her actually get sleep which was nice of them.  She didn't get there till 1230, when she went to do the Q&A that was going on.  I have no report on that because I was in too good a spot in line for her.  I was on a couch and I was not gonna give that up when the line went crazy long.  I spent the two hours watching cartoons and Mythbusters on my Ipod.  And watching the guy next to me play Castlevania on his DS.  All and all, everyone was great and it was a good little convention.

There were problems though.  False advertising for one.  Betsy Russell being delayed so badly not withstanding, then there was the Scream Queens people (who I didn't care about) who rumor has it were supposed to be there at 430.  I was gone by 130.  Then there was the egregious error of the Saw Bathroom.  All the info said "Get your photo taken in the saw bathroom."  What they mean is:  HEY we've got a green screen.  Lie down, and we'll photoshop you into a photo of the bathroom badly.  That'll be 10 bucks.  (Um...no.)  They had a bunch of supposed contests they were going to do and trivia games...that didn't happen.  So while the celebs were nice, it wasn't much more than that.  Except for....

SAW PROPS:

I kinda tried to pick the best of the best of what I got.  There were a lot of tapes and a few other random things but at least I tried to go recognizable with what I presented here.  In picture order, you can see:  Release button from Saw 4, Saw from Saw, Syringes from the syringe pit in Saw 2, the one and only reverse bear trap from Saw, Jigsaw's blood soaked pillowcase and hair from Saw 3, a key used in the tunnel trap in Saw 5, Jill's keys from Saw 5, Jigsaw's syringe from Saw 5, a prosthetic appliance used in the pendulum trap from Saw 5, Jigsaw's last will and testament from Saw 5, Strahm's key from Saw 4, Jill's dress after the events of Saw 4, Dr. Gordon's foot, a fatman prosthetic I don't remember, Billy the Puppet (the icon), the trap Strahm ends up in at the beginning of Saw 5, and the chair and prosthetic "corpse" of the chain man from Saw 3.  (Phew)

And thus, after that, I headed out.  I was not about to wander around doing nothing for hours to go to the (rumor has it) ridiculously overpriced bar at the after party.  I was home by 430.  It was a very good convention for what it was and I'm thankful that I finally got to meet all these people (particularly Bell and Smith (who cancelled from two separate shows I was gonna go to.)  And thus I have no conventions...for about 4 months.  Before Monstermania with its Tobe Hooper and Fairuza Balk (sweeeet) and a massive Friday the 13th series reunion in March.  They may never do this one again since it was such low turnout, but I'm glad I was there for it when it happened if this was the only time and it was money well spent.

Until next time this is Crypticpsych with a final thought:  If you're going to hold your convention about the industrial gritty styled Saw movies at a trendy nightclub dimly lit and with an industrial architectural style with Saw music playing and Saw on tv screens, then....

FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, TAKE DOWN THE FREAKING DISCO BALLS!