[ghostfires]

I've not seen any posts on this event, and it's coming really soon.

Spooky Empire's May-hem
May 30 - June 1
Orlando, FL


John Carpenter and a lot of the cast from Halloween will be sitting on a discussion panel Saturday, May 31. John Carpenter & Roddy Piper will sit on a panel to discuss They Live on Sunday, June 1.

I am definitely attending! Anyone else here going?


http://www.spookyempire.com/

[ninjaqutie]

Wow that looks awesome! Too far for me. I wanted to see John Carpenter at Comic Con in Philly in June, but it is during a four day music festival that I am going to. ::sigh:: Hopefully, he will come back next year because I think I am going to skip Firefly next year.

[ghostfires]

If anyone cares to see my pictures from the Spooky Empire convention, I've put some up on my Instagram...

http://instagram.com/ghostfires


I got to sit in on the Halloween Q&A panel, which was fairly cool. Really all the answers from Tommy Lee & John were very repetitive if you've watched DVD extras in the past. The more interesting answers came from PJ Soles, Nancy Loomis, Will Sandin and Charles Cyphers. Carpenter actually was kind of a dick and decided 15 minutes before the actual end time that it was time to just cut it all off, so there were no ending remarks or a close - he just stood up and said thats it and they tried to get the whole group to stand together but they wouldn't. It was very weird at the end, but oh well. I was able to get some great signatures on my Mondo reissue of Halloween jacket!

[Bub]

Very cool ghostfires!

[hncreature]

NICE ghostfires!!! I got my H35 variant signed by Nick Castle but yours is super cool with them seeming to follow a pattern - Hate to go off topic here but how does that PF-Pompeii sound? I want a vinyl copy and that is the only one out there right now at a decent price

[djinnocide]

I was actually in Orlando this weekend (I live a couple of hours south) with my wife for a thing (that turned into a record shopping trip for me) and had forgotten all about this happening until a guy at a used record store saw me browsing his soundtrack section and looking, in particular, at a copy of the Varese release of Dawn of The Dead. He confused Carpenter with Romero and thought I was looking at it with the Spooky Empire in mind.

After being made aware of it, I started seeing Ghostfire's instagram pics pop up in my feed and seeing his signed copy of the Mondo Halloween soundtrack made me really jealous. Awesome score on those signatures!

That's too bad about Carpenter acting like a weirdo, though I can't say I'm completely surprised by that. He's not known for being too hospitable to the fans. Oh well, still sounds like there was fun to be had there.

[ghostfires]

@hncreature - I listened that that 2xLP of Pompeii three times in a row the day I got it. It sounded awesome. I loved it, and a guy I worked with bought one on discogs right after he heard my copy...so I'd say go for it while you can!

@djinnocide - I wouldn't say Carpenter really acted like a weirdo...I realized after he cut the They Live panel really short...he isn't getting paid to speak at these panels, his big money is coming from $40 per signature. He would get fairly irritated if anyone tried to ask a very detailed question, he would always try to get one word or one sentence answers, and deflect the answers to someone else on the panel any chance he got. I get it - it has to be tiring hearing the same thing over and over, someone wanting him to go back and do something he cannot recreate, and movie nerds trying to get the absolute most detailed information out of him when it happened 35 years ago. I get all that. Honestly - Roddy Piper was the most entertaining out of them all - I would pay to listen to him talk about his career in wrestling and film any time! He was so open about everything, so thankful to the fans out in the audience...he was just great. I didn't realize until the panel that he didn't try out for They Live at all - John Carpenter attended a dinner with all the WWF wrestlers right after WrestleMania 3 had ended, and Piper was talking about wanting to get out of WWF and Carpenter, sitting next to him at the dinner, proposed being in They Live. Piper went to an acting school and worked his ass off to become an actual actor, which I found impressive.

I completely forgot about going to shop around Orlando for vinyl though! I can't believe I forgot. How were the shops? Any good ones you could recommend? Do you live in FL?

[Ptflea2]

As a resident here in Orlando, I've been to five or six Spooky Empire events over the years. Their October con is usually a bit better, as far as guest/ "stars" that attend. I was there two years ago when Carpenter collapsed and had to be taken to a local hospital. To the mans credit, he showed up the next day in pretty good spirits, all things considering.

I've been a convention participate in some form or fashion since the mid 90's, but have gotten less and less excited about these events over the last 10 years. The $$$ to even go to these things, naturally, keeps rising, and to get anything autographed for under $25/$20 a pop is nearly impossible.

What really is bothersome though, in my opinion, is guest charging for photographs, even when your using your camera (!), and even when you've already purchased an autograph (!!).

However, I don't regret paying $20 for a picture with Corey Haim. Sadly, he passed away about 6 months later.

[Ptflea2]

ghostfires,

If you ever come back to Orlando, look up Rock and Roll Heaven on Orange Ave. It's a bit pricey most of the time, but they have a ton. You could spend a solid day in that place.

[djinnocide]

@ghostfires Yeah, I live in FL. Sarasota, to be exact.

I'd second Ptflea2's recommendation for Rock n Roll Heaven. They really have a great selection of music there, depending on your tastes, but you're going to overpay what you would online (or even most other stores). It was my first time there, and while I was impressed with their inventory, I left empty handed. Another place worth checking out if you're up that way is Park Ave CDs. They mostly deal in new albums, but I managed to find a couple in their used section I'd been wanting. I was also pleasantly surprised to see they had a Death Waltz section and I even saw a couple of OWS releases!

[Ptflea2]

djinnocide is correct! Park Ave CDs is also a great place, even though they are not on Park Ave. anymore and are more known for their vinyl now than CDs. They are my go to spot for Death Waltz

Oh and djinnocide, was that you who grabbed the used Ghost Story? I saw that there a few weeks ago, came back yesterday to get it and now it was gone

[hncreature]

Thank you ghostfires...ordering today!

[djinnocide]

No sir, not me, though I may have if I would've seen it!

[hncreature]

[quote=21298]...but have gotten less and less excited about these events...[/quote]

I went to my first convention in Burbank for a Bruce Lee convention many years ago with my brother and after the experience I felt the same was as Ptflea2 - We obviously didn't know how it worked and my brother did the autograph and photo thing with James Hong by accident...Hong asked if he wanted an autograph and photo then asked for $50...my brother didn't have it so Hong was bummed - From that experience I knew paying $100 for Mondo's H35 Halloween variant signed by Nick Castle wasn't such a bad deal - Driving from San Diego to Pasadena...gettting in...getting the Lp...then getting it signed...I proabably saved a few dollars buying it off Ebay - Though I did miss the experience of being there which I know would have been very cool and probably worth the dough