CINEMA WASTELAND REPORT APRIL 2018

The lovely Martha Waltz along with two of our offspring, Daniel and Dandelion, headed down to Ohio for our twice a year journey to the best of all conventions...CINEMA WASTELAND! The journey was uneventful which is always nice. I made many breakfast sandwiches to fortify our trip and we took enough snacks to feed a third world country for a month.  There was only one cancellation Belinda Balinski (sp) had the flu. They had a card out to send to her so I signed that. Two epic panels were the Dee Wallace panel which I did capture on video and will post on the YouTube soon. Later we talked to her and I mentioned that she was in the comic book The Howling:Revenge of the Werewolf Queen and I made her laugh. We went to Ground Zero to see if they had a copy, but they didn't. Funny thing is the owner didn't even know about it so he ordered a copy for himself.
Then the gentlemen of Horror High did a magnificent panel they are Pat Cardi, Terry Carter and Austin Stoker. Also on video headed up as fast as my crappy wifi will allow. I think I'll post links here as they get put up.
The Hardcore Wrestling Hour brought the bittersweet news of Toby Klein's retirement from the business, but the matches were gruesome as Hell. All we have come to expect from the one and only Pete Chiarella.
Caught some classic B&W Disney in the morning on Saturday.
Chatted with Tom Sullivan and gave him a copy of Divine Exploitation. He gave me a cool Necronomicon notebook and Martha Immediately snatched that up.
Saw many friends; Mike Watt, Amy Lynn Best, Bill Zebub (More on him later) Matthew Skelley, Gary Kent (More on him in a minute), the guy who sells t shirts that I never remember his name, Henrique Couto, Troma Dan, Gonzo, Pete Chiarella, The Splattertude gang, Gunga Jim, Ken Kish and people who I have probably forgotten. 
Love and Other Stunts is a documentary about Gary Kent the world's nicest stuntman. It is an epic film and I encourage everyone to go see it. Having Gary there with it made it super special and I did get a copy of that along with the soundtrack where Gary sings on two of the songs.
The epic news that J.R. Bookwalter is releasing Robot Ninja on BluRay made me super happy.
I did get a copy of Sadist of Notre Dame from Severin and it is such a great print with some super extras on it. Now if we could get Robert Monell and Stephen Thrower to agree on where the interiors of the cathedral were shot then we would be in business. 
We went to our favorite restaurant The Olympia for food and I tried the Belgian Waffle ice cream. It was awesome.
I tried watching The Wild Women of Wongo with Gunga Jim, but the print was bad and I have a great print of it so it made my eyes hurt to watch.
A Ghastlee Ghoul's Night At The Movies was great. Great music. Lots of laughs and I won a couple of prizes. Also, I don't know what PJ Soles eye looks like so I botched an answer. There was a young kid there named Jared that was as smart as a whip and did great. He can be the new trivia guy. I'm retired.
Martha and I watched Chanber of Horrors with the Fear Flasher and Horror Horn gimmicks. It was excellent. I've seen it before. We laughed every time it went off because nothing gross happened any of the times it went off. I was surprised to see a Tony Curtis cameo in the film.
The the midnight showing of Exploitation by Bill Zebub. Nathan Rumler was there so he lost his pants pretty early on. It's kind of a Wasteland tradition. I already have the three and a half hour version of the film so this one went pretty quick except that I was tired. 2 AM is Waaaayyyyyy past this old farts bed time. Another winner for Bill Zebub.
On Sunday we went around and said our goodbyes. Martha bought some things from Cathy, another Wasteland tradition for the Waltz Family. She has the coolest stuff.
Then off to Kalamazoo for the final tradition of Wasteland...White Castle! I tried one of their crab cake sliders. I would get one again, but with no sauce.
Didn't care for the sauce.
Now for the long six month wait for the October show.

LOVE AND OTHER STUNTS 2018

Forever and a day ago a Yahoo Group decided to attend a Midwest convention called Cinema Wasteland. I went and it was literally a life changing experience for me. That many people that knew stuff that I knew. I had found my tribe and Ken Kish is my Patronus. Years later after I had developed a wonderful friendship with the only and only Pete Chiarella he mentioned that stunt man Gary Kent was coming to Wasteland. I had seen most of the movies he worked on so I was super excited that he was coming. He wrote an autobiography Shadows and Light that he sold out when he appeared at Wasteland. I had to buy one online and I devoured it. One of the best books about Hollywood and the independent film movement.
Jump ahead to this year and Cinema Wasteland 2018 and I was so happy that Gary Kent was going to be there with director Joe O'Connell. Together they had made a documentary chronicling Gary's life.
I knew I needed to watch that. I got lucky that they were selling copies of the film and the soundtrack that Gary sings on as well. They even threw in a cool t shirt and I finally got Gary to sign my copy of Shadows and Light.
If you've read the book it gives you every facet of Gary's life. The documentary managed to expound on that by showing us where Gary had been. How he came through life to be one of the most fearless stunt men in the history of film. It has great parts, sad parts and when you come through to the other end you have been exposed to the life and times of Gary Kent. Probably one of the best documentaries about a single person I have ever seen. Hats off to Director Joe O'Connell for giving us a love letter to a man that manages to touch anyone's heart that he comes in contact with. I hope for a DVD release with an abundance of extras. Maybe a commentary by these two men that have managed to create such a wonderful film.
Honestly, The movie showed at 10:45PM, we had driven four hours to get there and it was way past my bedtime and I could have watched another hour without a problem.
If the film comes to your area and you have any interest in film of any kind you must go see this movie. If not, wait for the release and treat yourself to an amazing film.