Screamfest/Gay Pride

Last Sunday Greg and went to the Screamfest horror movie convention at the Wyndham hotel. I think Greg was disappointed that it wasn't bigger (it wasn't nearly as big as MegaCon) but there were some interesting people and vendors there. We didn't have to pay for tickets, we won tickets from ORock, yay!

We met and got pictures with Jane Wiedlin, from the Go-Go's. We asked her why she was at a horror convention -- she's done some sci-fi movies (and was on one season of the Surreal Life, which is kind of horrific, I guess) but never anything horror related, and she said they invited her without really explaining why, and she figured why not? She was very nice, and very tiny... I think she is even shorter than I am.

There were also lots of actors from various horror movies, which I didn't know. I am not a horror movie fan, even though I am married to a very knowledeable, expert, horror movie FREAK. :-) There were also some people in costumes... I have no idea what the costumes were, but they looked cool.

I talked to some cool people and bought some artwork and saw Patricia Quinn (Magenta from the Rocky Horror Picture Show) and met Lloyd Kaufman. He's the president of Troma, he wrote and directed a bunch of classic cult movies, such as the Toxic Avenger. We got pictures with him, too -- he asked the girl working with him to come take our picture, and it sounded like he called her Labia. When she gave me back the camera I asked her what her name was, and she said Jane. I kind of frowned, and she rolled her eyes and sighed "He calls me Labia".

We left the convention around 1, and decided to go downtown to eat lunch at Tijuana Flats and go to the library, and maybe take a walk around Lake Eola. It turned out to be Gay Pride day, and the festival was right across the street from Tijuana Flats. It was a beautiful Florida day. They had a stage set up in front of the history center, and Miss Sammy was the hostess. We walked around all the booths, I got a Gay Yellow Pages and a Cirque du Soleil enamel pin, and picked up the new Watermark.

We had the new spinach artichoke tostada at Tijuana Flats, and it was so good I couldn't shove it in fast enough. They say it's a promotional special, if they don't add it to the regular menu it'll be a crime.

We walked through the CityArts gallery and saw some wonderful artwork -- anyone who remembers the days of OVAL will be shocked to see what the space has been turned into. I saw art by a few former OVAL members, like Donna Dowless and Liz Watkins, but didn't see any by several of OVAL's best. I wonder where Cameron Moore is now?

We spent a while looking through the library and came outside just before the parade started, so we went up to the second floor of the parking garage across the street and watched from there. It was a great place to watch the parade and take pictures!

We saw Moira and Jana from the Philips Phile, and Savannah, and Billy Manes from the Weekly. Disney had several cool floats, and Cinderella's carriage with huge black horses. They handed out Mickey ears to the kids in the crowd. Universal Studios had some of their Mardi Gras performers, including the stilt walkers, and they threw beads.

There were bikers, and people who got married at the Metropolitan church, the Orlando Gay Chorus, and floats from Parliament House and Southern Nights. The one from Faces was the funniest -- they had a U-Haul with women squirting the crowd with turkey basters. (It's a famous lesbian joke: What does a lesbian bring on the second date? A U-Haul.)

Good times!