Of Waters and Zombies

After spending most of the day yesterday working on the house, it was nice to get out and head down to the MD Film Fest. I've always been underwhelmed by MD's three day event, which usually seems to rely too much on art house bullshit and experimental wanking with the odd documentary or horror flick thrown in to satisfy the curious. This year they were doing a "tribute" to area low-budget filmmaker Don Dohler, but said tribute appeared to be a single showing of one film, outdoors and a documentary made by a local film student.

Anyway, films weren't my reason for going. Atomic Books, a local indie book/comic/pop culture store that carries The Hungover Gourmet invited me down to hang at their booth in the fest's new "arts village" and sign copies of THG for lucky buyers. It turned out to be fun as some people actually did buy copies and had me sign them. I felt like such a celeb.

My signing was scheduled right before and during the festival's annual John Waters Presents screening, in which the local hero screens a favorite film of his selected just for the fest. This year it was Bobcat Goldthwait's new flick, SLEEPING DOGS LIE and the SHAKES THE CLOWN director was also joining Waters for the screening. Though I didn't get to attend the screening – I was busy dealing with my adoring public – it did my heart good that I talked to a half dozen or more teenaged kids who were there with their parents to attend the Waters event. I had to laugh because *my parents* had a bit of a coronary when a local newspaper profiled me when the first issue of Exploitation Retrospect came out and they mentioned my love for PINK FLAMINGOS, in which a fat transvestite ate dog excrement. Good times, good times.

Last but not least, I also picked up a copy of ZOMBIEMANIA: 80 MOVIES TO DIE FOR by Arnold Blumberg and Andrew Hershberger. Though both are Baltimore area residents, the book is published by Telos in the UK. The nearly 500 page work serves as a guide to the incredibly popular walking dead genre, with looks at everything from WHITE ZOMBIE and BOWERY AT MIDNIGHT to RE-ANIMATOR, THE BEYOND, NIGHT OF THE COMET, NIGHT OF THE ZOMBIES and much more. From what I've read so far the book treads that fine line between reverential and tongue-in-cheek.