Well it looks like Chicago Fear Fest that is coming in April is going to be something that is a total blast. They are still taking film entrees but with who is involved it’s clearly going to be a winning combination of talent being pooled together.

Still just with it being at Muvico Theaters in Rosemont it’s going to be pretty badass all by itself.

The weekend of April 13-14, 2012, these four Titans of the Chicago Horror Community (Flashback Weekend, Horror Society, Sinister Visions, Zombie Army Productions) and Muvico Theaters are teaming up to present CHICAGO FEAR FEST, a major two day indie horror film festival. All of the festival selections will screen at Chicago’s premiere movie going experience; the Muvico Theaters Rosemont 18 located in Rosemont, IL.

CHICAGO FEAR FEST will showcase the very best in cutting edge independent horror films. The lineup will include short films, feature films, celebrity guests, panel discussions, and Q & A’s. Festival after-parties will be held in Bogart’s, a full service bar and grill located on the second floor of the Muvico Theaters Rosemont 18. This festival will be a celebration of the art of indie horror film making by encouraging and supporting independent filmmakers from around the world. CHICAGO FEAR FEST and Muvico Theaters are committed to promoting excellence in independent filmmaking by fostering a community of filmmakers and encouraging an appreciation of independent film.

End Of The Week Roundup: 8/19/11

Busy week working on wedding stuff but all kinds of fun stuff snuck in too. While we didn’t have a chance to walk our dog as much as usual we did get her an opportunity to play in a river and she had a blast. (And watching her jump against the ‘current’ so did we!) A TON of wedding stuff got taken out and we were able to spend some time in both the city and with friends. All in all, a damn good week. (By how many pictures are in this post I’m sure it’s easy to tell I found a new humorous picture site as well.)

Life

• Setup spot lights in the back so it’s easier to keep track of Ali when she’s trying to hide in the yard
• Tuesday was off for a wonderful day in Chicago, went to Lucky’s for lunch (Man v Food challenge spot)
• Ali had time to play in a river which was, absolutely hilarious
• Leah and I went out for Ramen and Sushi with Rex and Kozue

Wedding Stuff

• Wedding shower happened, holy shit gifts, Leah and all of the family had an absolute blast!
• Cake testing. So done with cake. So sick of cake. Too much cake!
• Figuring out wedding bands
• Did the engagement photo session which ended up being a blast
• Setup a block of rooms and setup booking information for the rooms on the wedding website!

Projects

• Worked a little on the new layout for the BZ
• We had someone redeem a prize on our PunchTab reward system for Buy Zombie! Win, it works

Media

• Watched Paul
• Lots of TV but not much else movie wise really

My Writing

• Submitted a piece of flash fiction, “The Full Moon” to the 31 Nights of Halloween anthology by Rain Storm Press

Q101 AND THE LOOP NO MORE?!

First off this is mainly going to be on Q101 as while I love The Loop it hasn’t had as much of an impact on my music tastes. It’s classic rock that I already had listened to by the time I found the station. Love it but not as much of an impact.

Q101 and The Loop were both purchased by Randy Michael’s Merlin Media recently. Their plan? Kill off The Loop and turn Q101 into an all news station. Thursday, tomorrow, (soon enough today) Q101 is going to have it’s last day on the air.

Not only are these Chicago’s main and only mainstream rock stations but they are also the main force behind the majority of radio sponsored bands visiting Chicago. Granted this will of course be taken up by others but this has been THE music stations that Chicago residents who have listened to rock and alternative over the past 20 years HAVE listened to. (Rock 103.5 and The Zone went away so long ago they aren’t even a footnote these days. Only this time there is no other station to truly turn to that can carry the torch.)

Q101 brought forth not just the events they sponsored but THEY are the ones that gave many bands their initial airplay – Smashing Pumpkins, Disturbed, Rise Against, and Fall Out Boy are prime examples. Chicago Alternative rock has had a lot of influence and big names come from it over the years and now the outlet they’ve made it through is going away.

Looks like XM radio may be getting my subscription after all.

Fuck you Randy Michael’s Merlin media. I mean seriously guys from every rock enthusiast in Chicago just fuck each and every one of you that supported this decision and had any say in it in any way shape or form. This is your second chance in Chicago and I believe I can speak for all of us that we all hope you fail even more spectacularly than the first time.

Power Outages in Chicago, Yay!

So you may have noticed a severe lack of updates from the last 2 days. Let me assure you that it was not from a lack of trying but from a lack of having power. POWER! *laughs maniacally*

What had happened was… Tuesday night while I was sitting down in front of my laptop to actually type a post for Tuesday our power went out on us due to some kind of a severe storm going on outside that rolled in out of nowhere.

Thank you random Google image search for the picture that really did not do the storm justice as you couldn’t see the sky and there was lightning and wind that was absolutely nuts. Hell there are still a TON of areas recovering from the power outage, fortunately we aren’t one of them. We had power back on the same night/morning. However that brings us to Wednesday.

My office did not have full power, mix in the damage the storms did to stores and it was a ‘little’ busy on Thursday and doing a post here was the last thing on my mind. When I DID have time to work on posts necessities (Buy Zombie) came first. After work I did chores, worked out, and when I was getting ready to sit down and do some writing Rex showed up on my door step and dinner and drinks sounded a hell of a lot better than writing.

That’s why I fail and there have been no updates here the last 2 days. Things were going on in the tech, horror, and writing worlds. Interesting things! Just not interesting enough to surpass a full on power issue.

It has shown me that I need to either get a new laptop or a battery for the existing one. I also need to put up the dog gate so Ali can’t get in the kitchen anytime there is a storm. Some asshole leaves their dog outside during storms who barks like mad, which sets Ali off (that or their dog is loud enough to be heard from INSIDE their house, while we’re inside our house, and OVER the sound of a storm…. I’m guessing it’s outside.)

5 Great 2011 Events For Chicago Horror Fans

There is always a ton of things going on in Chicago for the horror community. Multiple groups of people are always setting up fun festivals, conventions, and events. Here’s 5 of the more interesting ones I’ve stumbled upon that’ll be coming up in the next few months! (Click on the event pictures to be taken to their respective home pages)

04/30/11 – Zombie Pub Crawl Chicago

05/13/11 – Chicago Zombie Prom

zombiearmyproductions.com/zombieprom/” target=”_blank”>

06/04,11,18,25/11 – The Art Of Mask Making

06/11/11 – Zombie March Chicago 4

08/12-14/11 – Flash Back Weekend

Aren’t you glad you don’t live in Chicago?

I absolutely am glad I don’t anymore! Dealing with that does NOT sound fun. Of course I still didn’t end up getting into work until ridiculously late in the day (though I did work from home most of the day, when I wasn’t trying and failing to dig out snow.) I won’t even go through the whole mess of the snow plow that never came to save us until we were done cleaning off the driveway, with Leah’s parent’s snowblower. (Shoveling = failing.)

Still though our ‘little’ Ali didn’t seem to mind the mess that was the outside. Let’s see how she enjoyed it with the pictures Leah grabbed shall we?

Adorable. (If only you could see her hopping through the snow. Video next time!)

Still though finally getting out meant getting into work which meant going through this door (Thanks Jerry for the pic):

Yea. That was fun. Still I did finally get in for a few hours at the end of the day and now I’m home where it’s warm and am absolutely getting away from my computer for a few hours before I work on tomorrow’s posts.

Another Year, Another Night Of Horror

It’s that time of year. With the holiday season upon is so is Terror In The Aisles. This year we have a fun little lineup including a Romero classic! While I’d love to see Day of the Dead on the big screen (I believe it’s down to Day being the only Romero zombie film I haven’t had a chance to see on the big screen yet.) I’m not overly sold on the rest of the line up this year. Still we’ll see!

The Feature Film Lineup

• 7:30 – Trailer Trash (Vintage Horror/Crazy Trailers & Short Films)
• 8pm – Day of the Dead (25th Anniversary of the Romero classic!) with Lori Cardille (Sarah) & Gary Klar (Steele) in Person!!!
• 10pm – Black Death (U.S. Premiere of Medieval Madness)
• Midnight – If A Tree Falls (U.S. Premiere of Canadian Exploitation Shocker) With Special Guests: Philip Carrer – Director, Ryan Barrett – Actor, Chad Archibald – Producer

Short Films Lineup

• Blood Kin by Del Harvey
• Born On A Day The Sun Didn’t Rise – by Black Moth Super Rainbow (Music Video)
• Sawnnimon Toast – A Saw Holiday Short parody by Zoran Gvojic & Lowcarbcomedy.com Crew

Bonus: FREE AUTOGRAPHS & PHOTOS with all special guests!

For more information you can head to the Terror In The Aisles 7 Official Page as well as purchase tickets at Brown Paper Tickets!

Death Scribe 2010 Date, Location, Lineup, And Fun Bonus!

So for those of you in Chicago that follow the blog or a few of the writers out there you may remember that I mentioned Death Scribe 2010 was taking submissions. Win. Well submission time is long over now and the time is at hand for the actual show!

Deathscribe 2010 will be on Monday December 6th at 8pm! It’s going to be at Mayne Stage which I’ve never been to so while I’m excited about the possibility of a new spot I’m a bit weary on getting into the citty at 8pm on a weeknight in December. We’ll see. I REALLY want to go but I’m just not sure if I’ll be able to.

At any rate…

Deathscribe 2010 Lineup

• HATTER, by Newt Calkins, directed by Greg Kolack
• TAPE DECK, by Liz Siedt, directed by Bob Fisher
• MONITOR SPECTARE, by Jude Mire, directed by Lance Baker
• THE D’ARQUE HOUSE, by Christopher Hainsworth, directed by Nic Dimond
• THE CHANGE IN BUCKETT COUNTY, by David Schmidt, directed by Carolyn Klein.

Deathscribe 2010 Festival Jury

• Jay Bonansinga – Author/Filmmaker (“The Black Mariah”/”City of Men”)
• Kate Buddeke – Actor (American Theater Company ensemble member)
• Dave Dorman – Illustrator (Star Wars/Batman/Indiana Jones/Aliens)
• Don Hall – Director/Actor (WNEP Theatre co-founder)
• Susan Messing – Director/Actor/Comedian (Annoyance Theatre ensamble member)
• Scott Tallarida – Musician/Sound Designer, owner of BINGE Studio (WildClaw Artistic Associate)

Location

Mayne Stage
1328 W. Morse
Chicago, IL 60626

Fun Little Bonus

Well I had such a blast last year that I wrote a review of Deathscribe 2009. It really was a good time and I’m hoping to be able to make this years. So what’s the bonus?

On the Deathscribe 2010 Sponsor Page they posted a list of reviews of the 2009 show. When I saw that I stumbled across:

Yes my review was quoted. Always sweet when that happens.

You can buy tickets at Mayne Stage’s Website

In Chicago on October 9th? Music Box Massacre 6!

Not being in Chicago I will ‘probably’ not be attending this. Sorry ladies and gentlemen it’s hard enough to get out to Chicago for any events let alone 24 hours of an event!

On Oct 9, 2010 – Noon ‘til Noon you will have the following films showed to drive you mad with delightful terror!

• Phantom of the Opera
• The Raven
• The Wolf Man
• Psycho
• Killer Klowns From Outer Space
• Rabid
• Pet Sematary
• The Funhouse
• Theater of Blood
• The House By The Cemetery
• Fright Night

On top of this there will also be a slew of guests, prizes(none announced so this is a guess), dealers, an auction, and more!

You can find out more about the event on The Music Box Massacre 6 Facebook Page or The Music Box Massacre 6 Official Page!

Death Scribe 2010 Is Taking Submissions

The Third Annual International Festival of Radio Horror Plays

The submission window for DEATHSCRIBE 2010 is officially open. The first two years of our celebrated International Festival of Radio Horror went from amazing to incredible; we can’t wait to see what kind of crazed and creepy hits our doorstep this year.

Deadline for submissions is October 1, 2010.

Remember, DEATHSCRIBE is all about you! What freaks you out — is it bugs? Ghosts? Serial killers? The past? The future? Death itself? How about life itself?

Shape your fear into a ten-minute radio play and send it to the Daemon. If it freaks us out too, perhaps you’ll see it performed live at this year’s DEATHSCRIBE showcase event.

We had nearly a hundred submissions last year. We hope to see at least that many this year, between now and midnight of October 1st. And we hope to see your name in that list of submissions. Submit here – deathscribe2010@gmail.com

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES FOR DEATHSCRIBE 2010

We are looking for 10-minute radio scripts that are genuinely scary, imaginative, chilling, intelligent, suspenseful, horrific or downright grotesque. We put no restrictions on contestants as to content or tone, but keep in mind that we are a Horror Theatre. We take our horror seriously, and so should you.

Submission Rules

Scripts must be ready to produce – all sound and music cues included. Details on format can be found below. Please be aware that these scripts, if chosen, will be performed by no more than 6 actors, therefore if you have more characters it will require double casting by the director of the piece.

5 scripts will be selected from all submissions. After being selected, there will be an opportunity for the authors to refine and tighten these scripts if deemed necessary in collaboration with WildClaw Theatre Company.

These scripts will be rehearsed and presented as an evening of Live Radio Drama with Foley sound and recorded for a future WildClaw Blood Radio Podcast.

Deadline for submissions is October 1, 2010.

WildClaw Theatre company members will then make the selections to be performed during the festival. The selections will be “blind.” The title page should include the title of the script, names of all authors, and the name, address, phone, fax and email address of the corresponding author. The subsequent pages should include only the manuscript title and page number and NO identifying personal information (name, address, email, etc.) or it will be disqualified.

There will be a “Best of the Fest” award, with the winner chosen by a celebrity panel of judges on the night of performance.

By submitting to WildClaw’s Deathscribe Radio Horror Festival, you are stating that the script is your own work and has not been produced or commissioned for pay by other theatre groups. Plays which have been produced professionally are not acceptable. Audio plays that have received college/university productions only will be accepted.

By submitting your play and upon acceptance to WildClaw’s Deathscribe Radio Horror Festival, you are granting WildClaw the exclusive, non-binding rights to make copies of your work in all media – including print, digital, film, video, audio, or other Internet formats – used to promote the Festival. WildClaw Theatre will have the right to produce the selected scripts for the WildClaw Theatre Deathscribe Horror Radio Festival, including broadcast and/or webcast of the festival; however, WildClaw Theatre makes no commitment to produce any script. The author retains all other rights to his or her work.

Instructions To Submit

To submit electronically, please make sure your script is formatted correctly according to the guidelines (see below) and you may submit your script as an attachment, preferably a PDF or MS word file, to deathscribe2010@gmail.com.

To submit a hard copy through the mail, please send 2 typed copies of your script to:
WildClaw Theatre Deathscribe
312 N. May, Suite 3L
Chicago, Il 60607

If you would like your script returned to you in the event that your script is not chosen, please include a self-addressed stamped envelope. Please make sure there is enough postage to get the script back to you. If we do not receive such an envelope, we will discard the manuscript.

Guidelines

• Scripts must be no more than ten minutes in length. This includes all sound effects, transitions and dialogue. the ENTIRE performance should only last 10 minutes. (And no shorter than 7 minutes. Please read it aloud at home before submitting to check the running time.)
• All submission files must be in PDF format. If you don’t have PDF, then only MS Word please. All scripts must have a title page with all contact information. Submissions must be in a standard font and no less than 12 point.
• DO NOT submit full-length plays for consideration. They will be discarded.
• Please refer to BBC Writers Room’s Script Smart site (not affiliated with the WildClaw Deathscribe Radio Play Festival) for script format and samples at http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/scriptsmart/
• Scripts should follow the radio drama format.
• Writers will be notified by email if their script(s) get selected. Please make sure your packet contains – all contact information – on the cover letter that presents your script(s) for consideration for “WildClaw Theatre’s Deathscribe Horror Radio Festival.”
• WildClaw Theatre’s Deathscribe Horror Radio Festival will take place in the winter of 2010.
• Deadline for submissions is October 1, 2010

Please contact Daemon of WildClaw with questions at deathscribe2010@gmail.com

You can read the official post on Wild Claw Theatre