Saturday, August 7, 2010

Check that one off the bucket list!

Well today was one of my favorite "horror" moments of my life.  I just had the honor of meeting Mr. George A. Romero and Mr. Tom Savini themselves!  To honor the tattoo shop that is Romero's Tattoos the shop had the two gentleman as special guests.  Driving there I thought to myself, "This place is going to be a fucking madhouse".  It wasn't.  There were probably only about 20 people or so there, maybe because today was also the "Steel City Con" or maybe it was just that time of the year for the family vacation, or maybe because the this event was publicized only through facebook I believe.  Anyways it was so much better than meeting someone at a convention where there are 1000's of fans, it's hot, you always feel rushed, you ghouls all know the feeling I'm sure.  No, this was at a little tattoo shop and it had such a nice relaxed atmosphere to it that I couldn't have asked for more.  I'd like to thank Romero's Tattoos for sponsoring the event and also the Monroeville Zombies for helping out too.  What a great event you people put together!  Thank you!  When my wife and I entered we were about third in line and once we were the next in line to meet Mr. Romero I started to get a little nervous and couldn't really think of anything to say.  All I managed to get out was "Hello, how are you today?" haha  But I have to honestly say that of all the celebrities I've ever met George was the nicest.  He honestly treated us like royalty, thanking us, and thanking the gentleman in front of us who was in the armed forces, it was very nice to see a celebrity act this way.  Once he signed my "Dawn of the Dead Ultimate Edition" he asked us if we wanted a picture.  So my wife and I plunked down on a couch next to the man and I won't speak for my wife but as you can see in the photo below I was just mystified, I was actually just chillin' on a couch with George Romero, are you kidding me?  After that I stood up and thanked him again, he shook my hand and we exchanged pleasantries for a minute and then I moved on to let the other fans have a turn as well.  After this I started wondering where Tom Savini was and out from the back where they do the actual tattoos walks Mr. Savini.  I stood next to him listening to him and Mr. Romero exchange some humor about Tom getting some tattoo work done today.  After that Mr. Savini picks up the George Romero puppet you'll see in the pictures below and starts messing around with his son by using the puppet.  He looks over at George and says "I'll do the puppet, you do the voice" and he makes the puppet say hello to his son, then George, from across the room, yells "Hello" it was hilarious and at the same time touching to watch these gods of horror show their human sides.  Though Tom's little boy might not have had the same idea of what was going on as we all did, everybody loved it.  I then shook Tom's hand, and thanked him.  Again Tom was also very polite and was talking with all the fans outside, signing posters and what not.  By the time I got around to him signing my little treasure he was ready to get his tattoo finished so I didn't bother him with the autograph thing.  All in all this was a wonderful morning spent with my wife, some very nice fans, and some very nice celebrities.  As Emily and I were driving away we were talking about how nice it was to see some celebrities that actually had the most genuine human qualities as that is not always the case.  So again thank you from the bottom of my heart Mr. George A. Romero and thank you as well Mr. Tom Savini, you absolutely made a fan's day!
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The sign outside of Romero's Tattoo & Body Piercings, awesome logo huh?
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One of Monroeville Zombies' advertisement cards, this is an amazing zombie museum located at Time & Space toy store in the Monroeville Mall (pictures forthcoming)
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This was the Romero puppet that Tom Savini was using to tease his son with
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The newest addition to my own horror museum
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A close up
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Does anybody disagree about "Dawn of the Dead" Ultimate Edition being one of the finest horror special editions out there? Four discs (U.S. Theatrical Version with the Goblin soundtrack, Extended Version, The European Version edited by Dario Argento [Next on my bucket list of people to meet], and a whole DVD devoted to documentaries) amazing packaging, amazing information booklet, comic included, what else could a fan want? This thing is a beast!
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Mr. George A. Romero, my wife, and myself. All I can say is wow!

7 comments :

Sharon Day said...

Okay, yeah, that should just trump anything on the bucket list. Lucky, lucky, lucky!!! I figured Romero would be a fun guy to just hang out with. He's just a regular person and not pretentious at all. That comes across. Man, I think I would have gotten a kiss on the lips, myself, but I think if you asked him for one...it might have been rather awkward, huh? Now, after saying that, the word verification was "horin" hmm...

Chris 'Frog Queen' Davis said...

Very, very cool!

Cheers!

Melissa Helwig said...

That's awesome! And I tagged you in the latest blog meme. Check it out here: http://littlemisszombie.blogspot.com/2010/08/images-of-werewolf-transformations.html

Sam Hain said...

Very nice man! I'm totally envious of your DVD. :(

Jeremy [Retro] said...

i too give you this...

i made you something and a meme mention...
http://izombielover.blogspot.com/2010/08/give-me-cheese.html

jeremy
izombie

The Artful Gypsy aka Wendy the Very Good Witch said...

Great pic of you guys! And what luck to be able to meet them in a relaxed kind of way where you could really enjoy yourself. And cool new addition to the horror museum too!

Unknown said...

You lucky thing!! I am very envious of you two, but glad you were able to have such a great experience. Did I miss it, did you get a tattoo or just the dvd?