Hey,
everybody and welcome to my recap of Days of the Dead 2013 in
Atlanta. It was… a convention. There were a lot of things that
sucked. Right now I feel like the Sheraton kind of pissed all over
it, but I think I’ll determine who the responsible parties are as I
write this. It was mostly
the Sheraton’s fault; but maybe not all. Heck, it was partly even
my fault just because of the work funk I’m in right now.
I’ll
get that out of the way since you do need to understand my
perspective going into this thing and understand that at least a
portion of my negativity was built in.
Work sucks fucking balls right now. Almost every shift I have worked since the beginning of the year has had some problem. Like any other job, mine has factors that are beyond my control. Sometimes they don’t affect me, sometimes they do. And sometimes they fuck me right in the ass. And since the beginning of the year my ass has been mighty sore. Almost every day there is some new problem that I have to deal with that not only causes twice as much work and stress, but also greatly reduces the amount of time I have to write. As much as I dislike my job, I haven’t actually been this stressed by it in a few years. I’m tired all the time, I dread going in, and in general I’m just not as awesome as I should be. It’s to the point where I don’t even have an idea of how much of this I am going to be able to write today and tomorrow. I’m just going to do what I can and parse it up into posts through Thursday or Friday depending on how much there is. I can’t do my usual conscious division of days or whatever.
With
all of that you’d think a weekend at a horror con would be just
what the doctor ordered, but I didn’t even have time to get myself
mentally psyched up for the thing. I finished my costume the night
before – something I don’t ever do. Granted, it ended up being my
favorite one that I’ve made; but it could have been even better. I
just didn’t have the time or energy to devote to it. Same with the
con. I just didn’t plan at all compared to how good I’ve been
about con prep for the past several years. I forgot every single
thing I had for the famous people to sign – the Machete figure, my
House of 1000 Corpses
and Devil’s Rejects
posters, and a couple of other things. Of course, this also saved me
a lot of money, so maybe it’s not so bad.
But
I went in lower than I normally do. Don’t; get me wrong – I was
still excited and still looking forward to the weekend, but my energy
level just isn’t what it normally is. So keep that in mind if I
sound too critical or grumpy throughout this thing.
Also,
the Sheraton was apparently responsible for a lot of dickery. From
what I understand they were tremendously difficult for the con and
the vendors to deal with and were almost constantly changing
conditions, times, and other factors that you simply can’t mess
around with at such an event. Just to be clear, every interaction I
had with the actual staff of the Sheraton was nothing short of
fantastic. I’ll get into some of those later. I also heard of and
witnessed some things that were inexcusable and I’ll get into those
as well. I feel comfortable speaking about the things the Sheraton
did wrong because they were clearly in evidence. The things I heard
from others lined up with what I was seeing around the con. For a
hotel that has been a host for the madness that is Dragon*Con for the
past several years, the Sheraton handled the comparatively small Days
of the Dead in a manner that was shockingly inept.
Like
I said – I’ll get to all of that. For now, let’s start at the
beginning.
DAY
1
We
had planned on going to the pre-party at The Earl, but it didn’t
happen for a lot of reasons. We had to get Lil’ Troublemaker off to
school the next morning, I hadn’t packed or finished my costume, we
would have to drive downtown and spend money and drive back home, and
I just plain didn’t feel like it. Plus, it was the last few hours I
would get to spend with my son before we left for the weekend.
Unpreparedness aside, I’m fine with the fact that we missed
Thursday night. And so is Ari Lehman – we talked to him on Friday
and he gave me a pass.
The
costume was fun to make. I say this because the last time I made an
actual costume it was months of torture. This time all I had to do
was alter a mask and age some coveralls.
The
mask was one I had bought on clearance from Party City years ago. I
think I paid five bucks for it, if that. It was a full head mask that
looked like a bunch of faces sewn together. It was a really fantastic
piece for something store-bought, which is why I held onto it for so
many years. I just never wore it for anything because it was so hot.
The thing extended all the way down my neck and was just not pleasant
to wear. I am not claustrophobic but that thing was stifling. I say
that as somebody who routinely wears tight-fitting wrestling masks
for hours at a time.
So
anyway, I cut out around the shapes on the front portion of the mask
to make something akin to what Kane wears (sorry I didn’t get a
picture of the whole thing, I didn’t think about it until just
now):
Now,
that looks pretty creepy, but I had more in mind. I had a very
specific vision in my head for what Phantom Murdermaker was going to
look like. After all, I have a certain luchadork look to maintain. So
after a little paint and some stitching I ended up with something
that looked exactly
like what I had pictured in my mind:
This
does not ever happen for me. I can’t even tell you how satisfying
it was to strap this thing on for the first time and see what it
looked like. More often than not when I visualize something –
whether it’s a drawing or a costume or a video or whatever – it
simply doesn’t work out. Whether it’s beyond my skills or my
willingness to invest; things either don’t match up with my vision
or just don’t get done. This did. It was perfect.
Mrs.
Troublemaker gets credit for the straps and the alligator clips. We
were in Home Depot trying to figure out how to strap this thing to my
noggin and she saw those black rubber straps. She also suggested
suspender clips, which made me think of alligator clips and how
creepy that might look. The stitching was the last thing. The
original mask had lines that suggested the pieces of flesh were sewn
together, but no actual stitching. I had to fix that. I wasn’t sure
exactly what to use, but I came across something called “cord” in
an arts and crafts place and it was perfect – very similar in
appearance to what they use to stitch up wounds.
The
coveralls came from Sears and were almost exactly what I wanted. I
did my best to make them look worn with sandpaper and my trusty
Dremel. I wish I had the time to do more, but at least they didn’t
look brand new. I also sent out a call to my wrestler buddies on
Facebook asking about athletic tape. I wasn’t about to shave my
arms but also didn’t particularly want to have the hair ripped out.
The tape served two purposes – first it added to the
monster/slasher/wrestler vibe I was going for and second it would
cover my tattoos, which I felt undermined the scariness of the
costume. I got lots of suggestions, but ended up using regular
athletic tape. I did one layer with the sticky side facing out, then
went back down and covered it with another layer facing the other
way. It worked perfectly and gave my wrists the support they needed
to strangle bitches:
After
I got my costume together I packed while watching The
IT Crowd. This took a long
time because I hadn’t given a single thought to what I was wearing
other than my costume and also because The
IT Crowd is very funny and
I kept stopping to watch it. But I did eventually finish and when I
laid down I fell asleep almost immediately.
Come back tomorrow for part two - The Moon Shines Like BLOOD!
-Phantom
The general consensus on the con is making me feel a little better I couldn't make it.
ReplyDeleteThe Sheraton pretty much ruined it for me.
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