I love nerdfests. Lucky for me Southern California has a whole lot of them.
Since I won't be making it to Comicon in San Diego this year I went with a couple friends to Monsterpalooza. What's Monsterpalooza you ask? Well, it's a gathering for all those employed by and fans of the monster industry. I'm not talking sweet computer graphic monsters or anything either. I'm talking about oldskool puppets and makeup! I'm a child of the 80s when they had finally gotten good at it and will always be a fan. I'll never forget reading The Relic in 1995 by Douglas J. Preston and Lincoln Child and thinking it would make an awesome movie in the Alien costume/makeup sort of sense. Flash forward to 1997 and I witnessed an abortion of a great piece of monster literature in film. Rather than focus on the costumes and puppets they decided to use their budget on CG that just wasn't there yet. At least Tom Sizemore got to make a million dollars.
Anyway, Mosterpalooza was only $20 and with free reentry you could leave and go to the adjacent hotel bar (or your car) for drinks. Something about warm whiskey just makes monsters better.
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