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This entry is subtitled "Turning Point". It is rather long but I believe it will show you that haunters are the greatest people around.
Well we just got back from Great Lakes Fright Fest in Petersburg Michigan. What can I say but WOW! I was pretty excited about Hauntcon a few weeks back but this event just cemented in my head, the knowledge that all of my fellow haunters are a terrific bunch of people. We arrived at Totem Pole Camp Ground Friday evening. The camp ground was sold out and people were piggy backing the sites to get us all in. We shared a site with Scott Stoll (Stolloween) and his wonderful family. After getting the tent set up we went straight to the fun. Friday was sort of a meet and greet mixer kind of evening. I have to admit that I did drink a few "soda pops" that evening, as did Gail. I think her pop had more fizz than mine. We stayed up until two or so talking, laughing , and getting to know each other. Saturday morning after a few hours of sleep we got right into the days activities. Karen (krazykaren)and Brian Taylor did a fantastic job of organizing the event. The whole day was filled with fantastic guest speakers as well as a few make and take sessions. There were guest speakers like Crazy Bob Taylor of Haunted Hydro, Rex Hamilton a 30+ year haunt acting veteran, Corey Minion of Minions Web, Jeff Londos of Monster-tronics, Rob Johnson of Body Bag Entertainment, our very own Scott Stoll and his paper mache' techniques, and many others including Robert Beech of Unsavory Characters. Robert was gracious enough to do an additional seminar on life casting which featured him doing a casting of my face. I will write a separate blog for that experience after I get the pics organized with the wife.
There were raffles of all sorts with amazing prizes. The best of which was a casket donated by an anonymous donor. I wish I could have won that one! The prizes were amazing because of the sponsors for the event.
Anatomical Chart Company (Marilyn Lack)
Bloody Mary (Bobbie Weiner)
Beyond the Grave Productions (Brian Lashchuk)
Body Bag Entertainment
Brutal Images (Greg Hopkins)
Carrion Farm (Mouse)
Christine & Rick Comfort (Mistress Celynn)
DAFE (Rick Davis)
Defrightful Industries (Dave & Marsha Doxey)
DeWayne Dunivant & Family
Enchanted Castle Studios (Mark Kline)
Jon Elias
Freek Energy Drink
The Frighteners (Jeff & Joyce Willaert)
G.A.G. Studios
Gore Galore (Kevin Alvey)
Halloween Propmaster (Paul Ventutella)
Haunted Keepsakes (Karen Murphy)
Horror Find (Mike)
Killer Pumpkins (John Pelico)
Midwest Haunters Convention (Barry Schieferstein)
Minions Web (Corey Minion)
Mordaunte's Coffin Gems & Jewelery
Oak Island Productions (Frank Aridano)
Renee Matthews Embroidery (Ghostly Manor)
Rucker Posey
A Screaming Success Productions (Karen Murphy)
Sinister Scents (JT)
Sinister Visions (Chad Savage)
Brent Taylor
Terror Syndicate (Steve Hickman)
Unsavory Characters.biz (Robert Beech)
Virgil Music (Virgil Franklin)
Jeff Wehenkel
I mention all of these sponsors because their contributions to this event and the whole haunt industry make for a great time for all to share in.
The weekend also included a fog off contest. If you think you've seen artificial fog you are mistaken until seeing this event. I really don't know how many machines were going at once, but, DAMN!!!, I couldn't see my hand in front of my face! There was also the highlight of the weekend, a haunted house. The house was constructed by the haunters attending the weekend as a competition. Each contestant was responsible for his own room. By the time it was all done I got to walk through one of the best haunted attractions I have ever seen.
Also on the bill for the weekend was a logo design competition. The GLFF up until now had new art work every year. They decided that they needed a logo that people could identify with from year to year. So I entered and guess what? I came in second! Not bad for throwing something together in a short period of time. I won a Bart skeleton which will be a welcome part of my graveyard this year.
I also got to meet some of our Haunt Space friends at the event too. Every one we met and talked to was just incredible. Let me see.... there were many I already know but as far as new face to face encounters there was Stolloween, Bella Donna, Witchy Poo, Twisted Dimentia, and one or two others but I am drawing a blank right now.
I subtitled this entry "Turning Point" because this was the weekend that I decided that I will always be part of the active haunt community no matter what else happens in my life. I dove right into the experience and enjoyed every bit of it,(except packing the car). I felt welcomed by all, and to prove it, within the first five minutes of setting up camp I was handed a beer by Todd of Scream Line Studios and Rotting Flesh Radio. He was walking by and saw that I looked thirsty. I never felt so welcome amongst a group of new faces in my whole life. Like Haunt Space's founder Pete says, Haunters are the greatest bunch of people he knows. I concur in that statement! I look forward to the day I get to meet more of you wonderful people.
May you all be blessed by what ever means you believe in and sleep sound in the knowledge that you will always have friends in the haunt industry, including me.
Happy Haunting
Wally(Grim Daddy)Wojciechowski
- Mood:
impressed
Here is her address:
Wendy Wojciechowski
General Delivery
One Cedar Point Drive
Sandusky, OH 44870-5259
Thank you my friends,
Wally
- Mood:
sad
Hauntcon is now over and I must say that I was exhausted by the end of the weekend. I was able to purchase my first Bucky and four bag of bones. I also got myself some art work and t-shirts. As a volunteer I quickly learned that not all volunteers are willing to do a stitch of extra work. Gail and I ended up doing extra because people turned up missing at times. I don't mind too much, but I was also trying to establish some new acquaintances. I am trying to become more involved in the haunt industry and I figured this was a way to do some serious networking. It did pay off, but I'll get to that in a few.
First let me tell you about all of the wonderful people I got to meet. These are my personal heroes and industry celebrities that I admire. Not all are considered celebs by the general public, but for me they are. This is in no particular order. Jonathan Johnson of Rotting Flesh Radio is one heck of a hard working and dedicated individual. I spent much time with him and he is truly informed and well versed on the Haunt Industry. You all should really check his pod casts out at rottingfleshradio.com .
Jen Sharlow of Scream Queen Marketing is definitely a hotty. Don't get me wrong though she is highly intelligent and any conversation with her is most assuredly a lesson in marketing strategy. I did get a picture though.
Edward Douglas of Midnight Syndicate. Wow! He is one of the most humble people that I have ever met. He took the time to tell me about his music, his upcoming projects, and most importantly his dreams and ambitions. I am a fan for life!
Tim Turner of theghoulishgallery.com/ was most definitely one of the most interesting persons that I spoke with over the weekend. His commitment to the haunt industry is unwaivering and his administering of the Isabella Awards is proof of that commitment.
Tom Straub was sharing a booth with Tim Turner. He is a photo haunt artist. Gail and I purchased two of his pieces that featured a ghostly image of an elephant. I think we'll be seeing more of him in the future. myspace.com/hauntedart
Chad Savage of sinistervisions.com is extremely talented and if you haven't checked out his site, you need to. He is very approachable and will talk to you about most anything of interest. His art is outstanding and I purchased one of his prints which he signed for me. He was also promoting spookybuttons.com for a friend of his.
I also got to meet the Pickles. They own the show and publish Haunted Attraction Magazine. They are very nice people although they did keep me busy working security at the costume ball Saturday night.
Now finally let me tell you about Rob Johnson of Body Bag Entertainment. Bodybagging.com . He is my home town hero from right here in Garden City Michigan. He is a make up artist extrordinaire. As well as a fantastic business man. He is in the Motor City Haunt Club as well as a local hearse club. He is a very humble man yet he is not afraid to call it like he sees it. He has asked me to come on board with his crew to be his make up model and public relations guy, as well as his apprentice. I have graciously accepted and I am looking forward to attending the conventions with his crew to promote his products as a zombie. I must admit that I fear he just wants to use my van; just kidding. He has experience in not only make up but in haunted house production, so I will be paying close attention. I hope to have a long and profitable relationship with Body Bag Entertainment.
All in all the weekend was a hit for me and Gail. I apologize to any one whom I forgot to mention. There was so many things and people to see that I had to walk the floor several times to take it all in. If you have never attended a haunt convention you should set aside the time and money to do it soon. I believe the next one is the Midwest Haunters Convention and Rob said we are going. How cool is that?!!!
Thank you for taking the time to read this my friends,
Wally
AKA: Grim Daddy
It is a piece of property that is about seven square miles. Garden City is six square miles. This image is only a portion of the property. The buildings are about 1,000 feet long each and any where from 50 to 100 feet tall. all single story. They have cranes that can lift 80 tons like it is a feather. Magnets that can lift a semi-truck off the ground. It is dirty, hot, and smells in some places. It is a homeland security protected site and I get to play in it. I get to drive 80 foot boom lifts to mount the equipment and cabling, and drive right into the buildings to park and work. I have a shit load of over time and have no life for now. It's all good though, I may actually be able to catch up on my bills for the first time in years. I have started losing weight and damn it, I need to lose more than a couple of pounds. So for now that is all I have to say except, I hope all my friends are doing well and I hope to see you all soon.Later,
Wally
198 Days until Halloween</font></font>
- Mood:
tired
I am 44 years old I have way to many health issues to be out in the new construction field again. My hours will change and I won't be able to do the things I love any more. I will be "the old guy" on the job sites now and have to deal with being told I am to slow. I will be driving ridiculous distances to get to a job I don't like any more and work overtime hours that take me away from my family and friends. If there are any horror stories to be told, this one is mine.
Wally
- Mood: rejected
Gail just signed up with a LJ acct. and would like to start adding friends. If you would like to include her on your friends list please invite her. Her ID is Grimmommy. Thank you my friends.
Wally
231 days till Halloween
- Mood: chipper
I'm in line at the airport with a friend, hoping our flight out of Chicago isn't cancelled.
Bored, she reads a sign on the counter aloud. "Do not joke about having unapproved things in your luggage. You WILL be taken seriously." She glances over at me and wonders aloud about people that would joke about having explosives in their luggage.
I, on the other hand, have to try to not giggle, because the sign sorta makes me want to tempt Fate.
And, lo! The brat god Loki perks up his ears, says, 'Oh, really...?', and rubs his hands together gleefully.
Earlier, someone had given me a gift at TransWorld for my boss. Not thinking, I had dropped it into my obnoxious green pilot case and not bothered to check my luggage because - hey - I don't have anything in there that the TSA has said you can't have in your carry-on luggage.
My friend is craving a cigarette, and so we agree to meet up later at our boarding gate, and I move on ahead to go through security.
"SHOES!" a security guard bellows at me.
"Oops! Sorry!" I drop them onto the conveyor belt, walk through the metal detector thingla, and stand next to the belt hoping my flight's not too badly delayed.
And then I hear it.
"Is that a....HEAD???"
Uh-oh...
"Ma'am! Is THIS your suitcase?"
"Yup."
"Is there a HEAD in your suitcase?"
"Yes."
"Is it REAL???" The female security guard looking at the scanner is freaking the heck out.
I am too busy censoring my reactions to reply at first. One gentleman calmly asks, "Is it made of metal?"
"Um. I'm really not sure. It's a prop."
Several guards pull the suitcase off to the side and open it. And there, nestled amidst catalogs, magazines, and black satin is the item in question: a rather grisly, juicy-looking decapitated head.
"C'mon," I laugh. "You know this is the high point of your day."
A Kodak moment, if there ever was one.
One fellow pulls a water bottle out from under the magazines. "You can't bring this into the airport."
"Oh, geez! I forgot that was in there. I'm sorry."
The guards are still staring at the head.
"It's a gift for my boss," I explain.
"It's your BOSS?!??!" Miss Hysterical Guard looks like she's going to pass out.
"No no no..it's a gift. I was at TransWorld, the Halloween convention at the Rosemont. Ya know..happens every year..?"
The guard that had asked what the head was made of nods. Everyone else is still wigging the frig out. One guard starts to close my suitcase, then stops and looks at a guard that has just shown up to witness the freak show. "Dude, this is, like, my uncle's head," he improvises, and slowly reveals the head.
"So it's NOT real?" I'm asked again. "Is it wet? What is it made of? What's it for?"
"It's for a haunted house. It's latex, I think." Someone mumbles another question about what it's made of, and I lose control of my speech filter - not to mention my sanity and my memory of the sign saying Taunt Not Security - for a second.
"Do you want to LICK my skull?"
(No, I have no idea why I said that.)
(But if that's not proof that I should not speak in public AND that I need a nanny? I don't know what is.)
As one, the guards all stare at me. They carefully zip my suitcase shut. I reach over and pull the suitcase over to me. No one protests or has any other questions.
...Actually, the silence was kinda deafening as I walked away.
Go figure.
So.
Um.
Yeah.
Bottles of water in your carry-on luggage? Bad.
Decapitated heads? Ok.
- Mood: amused
but I feel it needs to be passed around A LOT MORE. . .
Andy Rooney said on "60 Minutes" a few weeks back:
I don't think being a minority makes you a victim of anything except numbers. The only things I can think of that are truly discriminatory are things like the United Negro College Fund, Jet Magazine, Black Entertainment Television, and Miss Black America. Try to have things like the United Caucasian College Fund, Cloud Magazine, White Entertainment Television, or Miss White America; and see what happens...Jesse Jackson will be knocking down your door.
Guns do not make you a killer. I think killing makes you a killer. You can kill someone with a baseball bat or a car, but no one is trying to ban you from driving to the ball game.
I believe they are called the Boy Scouts for a reason, that is why there are no girls allowed. Girls belong in the Girl Scouts! ARE YOU LISTENING MARTHA BURKE?
I think that if you feel homosexuality is wrong, it is not a phobia, it is an opinion.
I have the right "NOT" to be tolerant of others because they are different, weird, or tick me off.
When 70% of the people who get arrested are black, in cities where 70% of the population is black, that is not racial profiling, it is the Law of Probability.
I believe that if you are selling me a milkshake, a pack of cigarettes, a newspaper or a hotel room, you must do it in English! As a matter of fact, if you want to be an American citizen, you should have to speak English!
My father and grandfather didn't die in vain so you can leave the countries you were born in to come over and disrespect ours.
I think the police should have every right to shoot your sorry ass if you threaten them after they tell you to stop. If you can't understand the word "freeze" or "stop" in English, see the above lines.
I don't think just because you were not born in this country, you are qualified for any special loan programs, government sponsored bank loans or tax breaks, etc., so you can open a hotel, coffee shop, trinket store, or any other business.
We did not go to the aid of certain foreign countries and risk our lives in wars to defend their freedoms, so that decades later they could come over here and tell us our constitution is a living document; and open to their interpretations.
I don't hate the rich I don't pity the poor.
I know pro wrestling is fake, but so are movies and television. That doesn't stop you from watching them.
I think Bill Gates has every right to keep every penny he made and continue to make more. If it ticks you off, go and invent the next operating system that's better, and put your name on the building.
It doesn't take a whole village to raise a child right, but it does take a parent to stand up to the kid; and smack their little behinds when necessary, and say "NO!"
I think tattoos and piercing are fine if you want them, but please don't pretend they are a political statement. And, please, stay home until that new lip ring heals. I don't want to look at your ugly infected mouth as you serve me French fries!
I am sick of "Political Correctness." I know a lot of black people, and not a single one of them was born in Africa; so how can they be "African-Americans"? Besides, Africa is a continent. I don't go around saying I am a European-American because my great, great, great, great, great, great grandfather was from Europe. I am proud to be from America and nowhere else
And if you don't like my point of view, tough...
I PLEDGE ALLEGIANCE TO THE FLAG, OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, AND TO THE REPUBLIC, FOR WHICH IT STANDS, ONE NATION UNDER GOD, INDIVISIBLE, WITH LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL!
I was asked to send this on if I agree or delete if I don't. It is said that 86% of Americans believe in God. Therefore I have a very hard time understanding why there is such a problem in having "In God We Trust" on our money and having "God" in the Pledge of Allegiance. Why don't we just tell the 14% to Shut Up and BE QUIET!!!
- Mood:
irritated
I finally have a quiet day alone and I thought it would never come. Last week the boys were home for the winter break and yesterday kyle was running a fever again. I will be celebrating 20 years of marriage to Gail tomorrow, Wednesday February 28th. She is taking the day off from work so we can spend the day together. We will probably go see a movie and eat out for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I hope to get some shopping in too. I got her a really cool gift. It is something she has always wanted but we couldn't afford. I found a great deal on a version of it online and I can't wait to see her reaction. I will tell you about it after she gets it.
So the whole week we were off I get two visitors, and they were boyfriend girlfriend. Nobody else came to share some friendship with me. You meanies!!! I know when I am not loved. I think I'll crawl in a hole and die. When the guilt gets so bad you can't stand it you can all come begging for forgiveness.
I do accept bribes though!! That's right for the one easy payment of only $99.95 you can buy my friendship back! But Wait!
There's more! Act now and you not only get my friendship, you also get my undying and heart felt gratitude; complete with photographs. Also just released is this coupon offer. Include this code # WWisGD1123 and I will send you not one but two lifetimes worth of friendship plus a bonus Halloween mask. So hurry! This is a limited time offer.
Offer not valid in Utah. Applicable taxes where required. This offer is for inspirational purposes only and becomes more valuable in Hawaii.
Grim Daddy is a strange individual but is completely harmless unless you threaten his family. This disclaimer has not been reviewed by any lawyers because Wally hates lawyers. Love and kindness is all I claim to offer to all my friends and family. There is no expiration on true friendship. Offer void if you don't speak English.
245 Days until Halloween and the 1990 Crown Victoria is up for sale call for details.(734) 421-6251
- Mood:
creative
Wally is happier now!
Time to start thinking about Halloween soon!
- Mood: good
Ouch, it hurts!
I have taken two 750 vicodins and it still freakin hurts!
I am gonna go to bed.
Love to all my friends,
Wally
aka: Grim Daddy
258 days till Halloween
- Location:Lost in pain
- Mood: uncomfortable
- Mood: angry
because they chase you around to get you to pay them back. Then they can't even take the funds out on the day you tell them to. They fucked me again. Now I have to pay for my scripts after surgery with spare change. CHASE FINANCIAL LLC. YOU CAN SUCK MY LEFT NUT!
- Mood: pissed off
Love you guys
Wally
261 Days till Halloween
- Mood: restless
After the meeting more of our members showed up to walk through Dr. Phobias, a year round haunted attraction in the mall. Now, I realize that most of us while attending haunts are on the look out for new ideas, but when you put an entire group of us together.... well! We were told all the usual rules and then as a plus were told we could take a bit longer to observe the individual rooms. To save you all from a detailed description, let me say this. The group I went through kept moving pretty good. We all liked what we saw, especially the old school areas of the haunt, you know, scares not gore. Now, I can't say that for some of the other groups from our club, I swear they must have been conducting interviews with the cast. The guy who set the trip up even admitted that it took longer than he anticipated. Which was a shame because, had we finished sooner we could have gone as a group to see The Messengers. Oh well. I do believe some of the group did go to a later showing but I had to get home for dinner. So I drove home in a freaking mini blizzard that slowed the freeway to 30mph. As a result a 35 to 40 minute drive took an hour and fifteen.
All in all it was a fun day even though I was suffering from a nagging headache most of the day.
That's about it for now,
Wally
Enough said!
- Mood: sarcastic
I have all the answers and if you suck up to me I might give you the ones you can't get. Have fun and enjoy the music. You can listen to the songs as you solve. The songs kind of give you hints too.
Later,
Grim Daddy
johnnyhollow.com/
- Music:Johnny Hollow
Wally
- Mood:
blah
281 Days until Halloween,
Grim Daddy
- Mood: chipper
Later,
Wally
PS: At least I took my shower already.
It's Chaos I tell ya, complete and utter chaos!!!!
- Mood:
surprised
