Nothing really seemed to be going on for Halloween so I wasn’t really planning on anything. but then joe from work told me i should come along to the parade so I might do that tomorrow. So I decided that meant I should buy a costume. I went to Target and sifted through their clearance rack and I ended up with a toddler sized Sesame Street Abby Cadabby costume…
I’ve never heard of her before but it had fairy wings. I had every intention of using the wings and throwing out the rest of the costume. But then I figured out that I could cut the top off and kind of squeeze myself into the skirt (I will probably wear jeans with it though, I’m no slut Ron!). I bought a way better wand than what came with it though. But I’m really considering wearing the hair…’cause it’s kind of funny…
I’m trying to come up with a new domain name to use for my wedding photography and such. I’m having a problem though as a) my name is kind of long and b) it’s hard to spell. I don’t want to come up with some kind of business name, I’m just going by “Valerie Bromann Photography.” vbphotography and vbphotos are already taken. I’d like to avoid using .net and such and stick with a .com. Here are a couple options I’ve come up with:
valeriebromann.com (I already own this and use it as a professional website and could just lose that and switch to this)
valeriebromannphotography.com
valbromannphotography.com
valbphotography.com
valeriebphotography.com
Any thoughts, opinions, ideas?
***
I needed to use my bakin’ apples so I made an apple tart not pie last night. I was going to take a picture of it but I forgot. I needed someone to eat my tart not pie so I brought it over to MK’s and he and Ken at it. (p.s. MK and KK really do act like a gay couple).
***
When someone who you’ve always thought of as having led one of the most interesting life’s you know tells you that he admires how you live your life it feels kind of amazing.
Despite the fact that I was pretty exhausted after the Music Box Massacre, and despite the fact that I had been awake for over 30 hours already and should have gone right to bed, when JoeJoe called and asked if I wanted to go apple picking I was so there. Of course, I should have remembered that it was JoeJoe planning something and that meant trouble.
Now, if you know Joe you know that he is a wonderful planner, very organized, good at scheduling, great at getting people to come out for stuff. But he has this little problem with weather. Like, every time we go camping it storms. His wedding fell in the middle of a snow storm. Stuff like that. So I really shouldn’t have been surprised that as soon as I picked my first apple it started to hail.
When we got there I think the lady thought we were nuts because it was pretty chilly and no one else was out there. But we forged ahead and headed out. Some of the first trees were pretty much picked dry. But further out there were some good pickings.
Joe tore off all the leaves of the ones Alina picked because he refused to pay extra for leaves. They also found some nice pumpkins, although Joe broke off the stem of the good one. I guess he has a thing for tearing off stems.
Helen and Matt were also there, Helen wanted a wagon full of apples but they just got a basket full. I picked up a stash some bakin’ apples (not bacon apples) and think I will make a tart tomorrow.
I hope this is a somewhat coherent post…I’m going on 37 hours without sleep right now…I’m pretty damn tired…and my whole night is kind of a blur of horror-filled awesomeness…
Saturday I woke up around 8:30am and headed to a wedding photography seminar. I am now apparently shooting my first wedding ever in December. Eeek! The seminar was a good overview of some things I need to start thinking about. But sometimes these seminars are annoying because the guys giving them don’t do images or a workflow that I know would be my style at all. I also determined that it is probably not a good idea for me to shoot weddings because all the happy pictures of happy couples make me cry.
Anyways, enough of that.
Afterwards I hopped in my car and headed to the Music Box for “Music Box Massacre 4!” I was so excited to go because I never got the chance to go before and I wasn’t planning on going this year because I couldn’t find anyone who wanted to/could go with me. Luckily, Chelsa swooped in and is now my new partner in crime for going to see crappy horror films.
I arrived at around 5:30. It had started at noon but my class ran till 4. The place was PACKED. By the time I got there they were already on movie number 4. Luckily the first three were older classic-type ones. I have nothing against those but I really am a fan of the so bad it’s good 80s slashers and such. I snuck in the theater during May and just sat down in the first place I saw.
Here’s a recap of my night. Times are based on the printed schedule, but I know they were running a bit behind, so it’s all approximate.
I didn’t catch the beginning of May, but horror films aren’t that hard to figure out. And I am almost certain I’ve seen it before but don’t remember if that is true or not. May is in love with this guy and has a doll who talks to her and a female coworker who wants to sleep with her and she kind of goes psycho. Parts of it were a bit too off the wall and melodramatic but overall it was very good. There was one scene in it where they were at the veterinary office and operating on a cat and I started feeling really light headed and faint. Great, thinks Val, first movie and I’m already sick. How am I going to survive the night? (Luckily I think it’s really only medical type things that I get really sickly over).
Before the movie I ran out and got some Raisinets. I actually was going to get pizza but the pizza line was huge and the candy line was nonexistent. I made my choice of dinner. I also managed to move down a couple rows and snag a pair of aisle seats to hold one for Chelsa who was still at work.
Midnight Meat Train was pretty good, although parts of the ending just seemed to come out of nowhere. (I hate explaining without spoiling). And I kept trying to figure out where I knew the main guy from (turns out nowhere) and where I knew the main girl from (turns out, Popular). I also kept thinking that the main guy was a photographer but his pictures were horrible and that he was shooting film and never once stopped to change a roll. It’s all in the details for me.
There were however some pretty great gore effects to this one. That was its biggest strength.
Chelsa came maybe a half hour after it started. She brought me a Coke which makes her even more awesome of a person. She asked what she had missed afterwards and the standard answer is always “A couple of people were killed.”
After the movie Clive Barker came out for a Q&A. I am happy he has opinions against the use of all this digitalized stuff going on now. I think all this newer CGI crap looks so much faker than using puppets and stuff. In my opinion.
I took a crappy picture. I swear Clive Barker and Santa Claus are in there.
Wheelchair Werewolf
So this was just a little short they showed. But it was fucking hilarious. I think it’s just a trailer for a nonexistent movie. But that was all it needed to be. I found it up on YouTube. I thought it was the funniest thing ever. Either that or sitting in a movie theater for four hours had already started messing with my head.
I normally hate it when movie theater audiences applaud at the end of a movie. But in a 24-hour horror marathon it’s kind of a given that everything possible will be applauded. For instance when Corey Feldman’s name appears in the opening credits. Or when Crispin Glover comes on the screen.
If you know me you know that Jason is my very favorite of the superslashers. He just is a lost little child who was never given a chance. And how can you not feel for him when he tilts his head at his victims like a confused little puppy dog?
Of course, it’s still awesome when you see him get his comeuppance. And this movie has one of the zaniest endings ever. Which makes it more awesome.
Did you like Lord of the Rings? Well, that doesn’t matter, but this movie was directed by Peter Jackson too. And it is way better. And has way more blood. In fact it is said to have the most blood ever used in a movie or something. And it’s awesome. (Let’s count how many times I use the word awesome in this write-up. I am way too tired to come up with a better descriptive. Who am I kidding, I never use better descriptives.)
Anyways.
Dead Alive is pretty amazingly awesome. And it’s funny. I already mentioned it has lots of blood.
It’s about a guy whose mother gets bitten by this crazy monkey thing and then she turns into a zombie and then she turns others into zombies and then everything goes wrong from there. And then they of course have to destroy all the zombies.
Let’s just say it’s awesome and you should watch it.
At this point I got popcorn and a coke because really I’d only had rasinets for dinner so far and thought I needed to balance out my meal.
This is one of the million and two takeoffs of Phantom of the Opera. Well, Phantom of the Opera meets Faust. Replace the Phantom for a scorned songwriter and Christine for a backup singer named Phoenix. And add in the devil. Throw in some seventies pop numbers and some glam rock and you’ve got yourself a movie. I actually quite enjoyed it.
Black Sabbath is one of those old 60s Boris Karloff flicks. Meaning it was slower and subtler (something most modern things don’t do) which in theory is good, but at 4am it means it starts putting you to sleep. This is when I need blood and guts and hoards of screaming naked chicks to keep you awake! Not thoughtful, well-construed story telling!
So I didn’t fall asleep, but I definitely felt myself nodding off and having to catch myself. Honestly I would have taken a nap, but Pieces was next and I love that movie and was determined to not accidentally sleep though it.
Pieces is an awesome movie that fits perfectly into my fav genre of so bad its good 80s slashers. The beginning is just the perfect scene where a little boy puts together a naked lady puzzle, is caught by his mom, and then the kid brutally massacres her. It’s one of those feel good moments that has you scream and laugh at the same time. Then you fast forward 40 years and someone is killing naked school girls. But who could it be?
Near the beginning I was starting to nod off a bit but by the end I’d hit my second wind for the night and was feeling fine.
This was, well, basically worthy of direct to video (or more likely free comcast on demand selection). It had Robert Englund in it. That was a plus. But there was really nothing special and it wasn’t that exciting of a movie. And the main character was pretty inconsistent. But it was busy enough to keep me awake.
If you don’t know the exorcist, well, where the heck have you been? Spinning heads, shaking beds, throwing up pea soup? It’s a classic and really well made and just the way to start a brand new day :-)
By this time I wasn’t really tired at all anymore, but became aware that I had become completely unaware of the concept of time. I knew that it was 9:30 but I didn’t think of 9:30 as being “morning” and “bright.” I was still stuck on it being the night before.
Also by this time (actually by midnight) the whole theatre went from being standing room only to half empty. Lame. I mean, I paid $27 (although no one ever ever checked for my ticket) and I was getting the bang for my buck!
It was an amazing night of old favorites and new favorites and new not so favorites of movies. The good thing about horror is that even the bad ones are worth seeing once and sometimes the bad ones are so incredibly bad that it makes them the best.
I was anticipating another pretty boring Friday. Same ole Friday morning web meeting. Same ole hectic schedule of sending out eblasts. Leftover pasta for lunch…
But then my sister sent me an email to say that she heard Pat Bertoletti on the radio this morning saying something about an eating contest at the Thompson Center today. Which just so happens to be a whole five-minute walk from my office. So I looked it up and sure enough, Jimmy Johns was hosting the “Freaky Fast 500″ at noon. It was an amateur relay with teams from area business such as the White Sox and the Chicago Sky facing off in a Big Wheel Race/Sandwich-Eating Contest…and Pat Bertoletti and Tim Brown would be there to judge! Sweet.
So I told my boss that the big project I’d been working on all week would have to wait another hour because I was going out for lunch…
The contest was super fun! Tim and Pat came onstage and Tim demonstrated the dunking method. Too bad no one seemed to listen. The way the contest worked was that each team member (all costumed up) had to ride their big wheel across the plaza, turn around and come back, and then eat a sandwich. Once they ate the sandwich the next person could go. Repeat.
Unfortunately from the angle of the contest I got a good view of the biking but not so good of a view of the eating. But I can tell you this: they were sloooow. Granted, we found out a few months ago that those darn Jimmy Johns are crazy hard to eat. But I still think Pat and Tim could have eaten about 20 a piece in the time it took these guys to eat one.
In the end it seemed that the Zombies (AKA Chicago Sky) had won but shortly after the White Sox Players (AKA the White Sox employees, not the most original costume choice) finished up, and there was some talk of foul play amongst the Sky.
And then they announced that the White Sox were the winners! Good thing they won something this year :-)
Afterwards I went and said hi to Pat and Tim. Pat gave me his Jimmy Johns vest. Don’t know what exactly I will do with it. It has some nice deep sandwich-shaped pockets though that would be excellent for holding camera lenses. If I wanted to walk around plastered in Jimmy Johns logos.
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