What a Whirlwind Weekend it has Been!

This past weekend has been simply ass-crackers crazy!  It was a cornucopia of ups and downs.  Here's the rank and file of what went on....

The Good:

• I took last Friday afternoon off and went to a cigar shop and enjoyed a nice modero and beer while watching a documentary on the sinking of the Lusitania on the military channel on the big screen TV they have in their lounge area.  Very soothing.
• We got to two haunted attractions on Friday night (see reviews below) even after running incredibly late.
• Enjoyed a really good dinner with friends beforehand.
• I got to see the Brewers actually win a playoff game live.
• I go to enjoy a good hot dog, a couple of brewskies, a ton of peanuts and a nice fine cigar while tailgating before the game.
• Officer Rusty from the Fond du Lac Sherif's department is not at all a hard ass and pretty easy going guy when giving you a ticket.
• I got to experience my first ever Packer game on hallowed ground, Lambeau Field, in a luxury box with lots of good food and drinks.
• The festival atmosphere that the area around Lambeau has is quite addictive and wonderful.  It's like it's own little Packer village where a wondering adventurer can trade in his +2 sword of green and gold and with some gold coins can get a +8 sword of Titletown Awesomeness! (That's gamer speak, folks)

The Bad:

• One of our friends didn't make it to the haunts due to rear ending a car and totaling hers in the process.
• We were incredibly late getting to the haunts since my friend Roberto DelAmorte was supposed to have the satellite TV installer come mid-afternoon to instal the new hook up.  But the installer, who spoke broken English, didn't show up until 5 pm that evening.  We didn't get out of the house until 7:30 PM and we had to trek about 35 minutes away for the diner!
• Had one headlight out and had a nail in my tire that had to be taken care of before going to Green bay.  After all, I didn't want to get a traffic violation!
• The Brewers lost the next playoff game the next day, blowing their chances to proceed any further in the series.  End of season.  Done.
• The speeding ticket I got on the way to Green Bay to see the game ($230 and 4 points).  Ewwwwwouch!
• The Packers losing the game I went to.
• The Packer traffic that went from Green Bay all the way to Oshkosh while trying to get back home.  It added at least 2 more hours tot he already 2 hour travel time.
• The torrential downpour on the same trip back home from Green Bay.

The Ugly:

• The "bathroom break" I had the day after indulging in too many peanuts.   Ewwwwouch!

So, yep, we had our inaugural visits to a couple of Haunted Attractions this Halloween season.  After the craziness of getting to the restaurant that evening, I had little hope that there would be time to visit any.  But, since one of our faves was literally right down the road, we gave it a go.  Sure enough, the haunt was still open....

Terror On Rural Street - I've said it time and time again, this is one of my favorite haunts to go to every year.  Last year it blew us away.  This year had some nice features as well.  The facade/queue area was completely revamped from last year.  It had a creepy old house facade that was surrounded by swampy, wooded area.  It also had a gated area where you could actually see people going through a part of the haunt.  Very clever!  The actors were pretty good, yet not quite as enthused as last year.  They also brought a lot of the effects from lastyear  back, but redecorated it to try and spice it up.  Though I was far more impressed with last year's show, this year still packs a creepy punch.

When we left Terror we looked at the time and saw that it was 10:30 PM.  There was noway we were going to get to another haunt.  But we said, "To frack with reality!" and decided to make a quick trip up the highway to see if we could get into....

The Hartford JC's Haunted House - These people were selling their last tickets to us.  So we lucked out there.  We also lucked out in the fact that this Haunt rocked our asses!!!  Years past I'd always felt that this haunt was pretty good, but no knock out of the park.  And it sure didn't start out that way.  The beginning walk through the outdoor wooded area was marred by some teenage boys portraying the spooks.  They certainly had the schtick down good, but the immaturity really shined through as they decided that the pass word to let us through to the haunted house portion of the attraction would be the "80's disease"... Aids.  If they wanted to be politically incorrect and edgy, the word "boobies" would have worked just as well.  Grow some pubes, you half wits!  But, things started to look way up once we got into the house itself.  These guys took detail to a whole new level!  Every inch of that house was decorated in pure spookiness!  There were also a tone of very well placed effects that had me jump more than a few times.  They also had some pretty nifty animatronic effects!  After leaving the haunt we decided that this one even beat out Terror on Rural street.  Not a very easy task to accomplish, I must say.  I will giver Terror some slack as it was their first night of the season.

A good spooky time was had by all!

Lets move on to some spooky movie reviews...

American Psycho - If you want to see the current Dark Knight, Christian Bale, play a role that lofted him into the A-list and you have an innate hatred toward the yuppies of the '80's, you may want to get a glance at this gem.  A wall street pretty boy who is as shallow and stuck up as can be has a secret life as a serial killer.  Odd premise for a film, but oddly enough it really worked for me.  Bale captures the greedy, I, Me Mine generation of the '80's perfectly.  It is probably the darkest comedy satire ever made.  You may not feel that it is comedic, but in a sick way, the whole thing is a parody of yuppiedom of a time past but an attitude that still exists today.  It is fun to watch bale hack and slash other yuppies while listening to the likes of Huey Lewis and the News.  If you like your comedy so dark and dry that it out ranks your favorite merlot, you have to check this one out. (view trailer HERE!)

George A. Romero's Diary of the Dead - This is a bit of a departure from Romero's last zombiefest.  The last one, Land of the Dead, had a boatload of Hollywood backing.  This one is definitely done on the down low in both scope and production value.  Instead of focusing on your typical fun zombie trappings, Romero makes this more of a trimmed down drama.  Gone is the bombastic, almost comedic, fun filled craziness.  In it's place are whiney, annoying characters that are always moping or arguing with each-other while trying to put together a Blair Witch type documentary as the world goes into hell in a hand-basket.  It also ends on a complete cliff hanger that makes you wonder if it was intentional or they just ran out of money (rumor has it, a sequel is being shot right now).  Certainly not one of Romero's best zombie flicks, but still worth watching if you're a die hard Romero/zombie film fan. (view trailer HERE!)

The Deaths of Ian Stone - It was quite hard to figure out just what the frell was going on at first.  But, as the story moved on, all was explained.  It deals with kind of a very dark vision of reincarnation and the nasties who may be controlling Ian's constant deaths.  Not a very frightening or spooky horror movie, it still had an intriguing story.  Worth the rental, but certainly not a classic.

Ok, kids.  I'm gunna grab some grub and a beer.  I hope to be back here at weeks end.  Please make sure you do something spooky this week.

Zangz.