The ghoul goes west, part se7en.

I was born and raised in the San Fernando Valley.

Living as I do now in the Ozarks, among its beautiful scenery in every vivid season of the year, I sometimes forget that beautiful scenery and gorgeous days can happen just as often here.

Take this morning.

So gorgeous that I ended up spending most of it driving around Burbank with Henner the Henchman, looking at what an amazingly near-perfect town Burbank is for the serious horror and Hallowe'en lover.

Stores like Hallowe'en Town make life worthwhile. While visiting there this morning, I had to snap a picture for my brother Chris (and only he will truly know why I did so I'm pretty much posting it just for him):

Now, where were we? Oh right, MONSTERPALOOZA began tonight!

This is Gina, a Staff volunteer for the show who has a crush on me, I'm pretty sure.

And this is The Museum. Right, you can read it yourself.

Joe Moe added some pictures and magazines, strewn about the avocado green 

carpet just as they always were at the ol' Ackermansion.

Our Hero is now flanked to his right by some superb busts created

by the talented Darren Roberts. An honor for me.

And then, just behind and to the right of Uncle Forry, is a remarkably neat thing to be right next to...

A reproduction of the bedroom set from The Exorcist (1973), to be completed tomorrow 

with a life-sized figure of Linda Blair as Regan created by the legend himself,

the Oscar-winning pioneer, Dick Smith. Again, what an honor.

Actually I think this is the version where she's possessed by bubble wrap, called Hell's A-Poppin'. 

At any rate I know Regan will be here tomorrow because of this note:

I'm very observant.

Directly across from the Forrest Ackerman set is a set of figures from the incomparable Mike Hill, the best of which is this stunning Elsa Lanchester as The Bride of Frankenstein:

I'm in love. I keep trying to figure out how to take her home. In fact Henner even proposed to her:

She just kept staring across to Uncle Forry -- I'm pretty sure she has a crush on him.

But onto the important part... he's working exactly as advertised! Whoo-hoooo!

Eliot told me that Rick Baker got to view Uncle Forry (apparently I was attending a special event on the other side of the property and couldn't witness it myself, con-freaking-sarnit!) and "seemed to enjoy the hell out of 'im."

I did get this blurry (it's dark in there!) but cool shot -- the grey-haired gentleman you see in the center of the image, enjoying my handiwork, is Bela Lugosi, Jr.! He was giggling and smiling the whole time!

Another great moment for me was meeting the well-known and highly respected author and historian David J. Skal (The Monster Show, Dark Carnival, numerous DVD supplements for classic genre films), and his telling me "God, it's just him (Forry)! Glad to see someone at least as demented as I am!"... he's a really nice fellow:

I got to meet and discuss and joke and critique and generally be a big Monster Geek all day and night, and other than changing 9V batteries for the candle by Uncle Forry, he needed no further maintenance.

I sincerely hope that's how it goes tomorrow.

Which comes early.

Big doin's are a-happenin' in Burbank... and are we ever having an incredible time.

But I think I need to take a bit of a rest, so maybzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz*

(Ssssshhhhh! Dumdumshrekpeeps...)