The Last Horrorshow - scattered thoughts after the fact

So that was new: so many people came out to the Horrorshow last night that they had to open up a second theatre; lucky they had the tech to project the movie onto two separate screens! Would guess this was the only time that's happened, based on the scandalously small handful of these that I have attended over the years... 

My going to the Horrorshow started over ten years ago, when I still lived in Maple Ridge -- which I did between 2009 and, roughly, 2014, moving back there from Vancouver to look after my Mom -- with a screening of Night of the Living Dead, which I had only ever seen on a small screen, up to that point.  Since my Mom died, I don't go back to that town very often -- there are as many bad memories for me as good out there, and a lot of associations I'm happy to leave in my past -- but it was kind of fun to ride out on the West Coast Express again, as I used to do regularly for a time, when I was still living there and working in Vancouver...

I came out pretty much straight after work. It wasn't the first time I'd gotten the bus from Maple Meadows to the Value Village at 207th. I was able to get an extra discount by agreeing to receive promotional emails (there's some sort of drive to collect these, for the next couple of days, if you haven't signed up yet). Got a small stack of books, a Godard movie I actually have never seen, and a Wallace Beery silent film, The Red Lily, as a gift for ARGH!!. 

The best finds at the VV were a Hard Case Crime Richard Stark novel (Lemons Never Lie, one of the Grofield spinoff novels, which are a bit more Westlakian -- punctuated with goofy humour -- than the Parker series; there's four different versions of the book, including two different Hard Case ones! I found the top one, with the Elmore Leonard blurb. I've read pretty much all the Parkers, but I don't know that I've read this: 

Also found a vintage PBO (paperback original) called Bloodroot, by Thomas Mordane, which has some wacky descriptions here. Druids in Vermont? Human sacrifice? An evil tree? Sign me up! The nice thing about Value Village (shh, don't tell them) is that the very coolest stuff they get in, they generally don't know what it is and underprice it -- they're asking $9.99 or whatever for stuff like Jordan Peterson and only $1.99 for an actual collectible (which is what I paid for this, less my buy-four-get-one-free and added 30% signup discount). It's no big deal, maybe worth $20, so it's not like Eat Them Alive or anything (which I found thrifting for $1 last year; there is currently one copy of that one on Abe, for about $500 CAD)... but I'm a sucker for this kind of thing (killer bugs are cooler than killer trees, by me, but killer trees are also pretty appealing). 

So I killed a couple of hours, grabbed a fast (pretty good) butter chicken at the Indian restaurant in the same strip mall, then set out out for the theatre at around 9pm. Turns out I would fuck up and not arrive for another hour! With my newly-full backpack, I headed first for a milkshake at the 203rd McDonald's, passing the former location of the Rogers Video where I bought my first copy of Trollhunter (I've upgraded to blu since!). Then I went to the bus stop and realized -- oh shit, this is a 701 stop, which means it's going to take me through the backass of Hammond again. I so resent that detour -- having been dragged through it so many times on bus commutes back and forth through Maple Ridge that I've probably given it a year of my life or more -- that I was not going to wait for THAT bus. I ended up actually phoning a taxi, but the driver couldn't find me, couldn't reach me (my ringer was off), and tried to call me from a private number, so I couldn't call them back... I went to the next 701 stop and realized I'd missed that bus, anyhow... so I elected to head out to the highway and catch an R3, instead, whereupon I realized that the R3 -- the new (for me, anyhow) bus that actually does an efficient beeline between Maple Ridge and Coquitlam -- didn't have a stop anywhere along that stretch of road. I had figured there'd be one as soon as I got on the highway! I started walking, cars whizzing by me, thinking, "There will be a bus stop sooner or later!" 

There was no bus stop. It was about 9:40 by the time I called Erika, to let her know that I would be late joining her in line (we were meeting at the Hollywood; she also wanted to get out and show support for Jonny!). I told her I thought I was going to have to walk it -- which I remember actually thinking was an exaggeration, when I said it. She reassured me, it was okay, the line was really long, and moving really slooowly... Ah well: I hadn't had much exercise yesterday (I think, when I finally arrived, that she calculated the distance I walked at 3.4 miles). 

Eventually a familiar set of Golden Arches appeared ahead of me on the highway. Almost there! 

The line, when I arrived just after 10 -- which is when the movie was supposed to have started -- still extended around the corner. The Fog, last month, did pretty well, but this was kinda nuts. When I arrived, Jonny's sister was doing panicked sprints up and down the line, doing a headcount, trying to calculate if they could fit everyone into two theatres. But there was only one till open at the concession, and everyone would have to be seated before they started, so the movie didn't start til after 11. 

Good thing my wife wanted to join me -- I'd never have gotten to finish the movie, otherwise!

Jonny had posters from the Rickshaw gig and old Horrorshows, which he was signing for people. I grabbed copies of The Fog and King Kong, which I actually had been to; there was no Night of the Living Dead. I grabbed a Black Christmas for my friend David M., and because I know it's Jonny's favourite Carpenter, In the Mouth of Madness. I'm pretty sure I went to one other Horrorshow, back when I lived in Maple Ridge, but I have no recollection at all what it might have been. I was happy to see Trollhunter among the posters: how could I have missed that?!

I grabbed vinyl of that Acoustic Brunch thing, too, just to have one song of Jonny's on vinyl (there was Ninjaspy and Social Outcasts vinyl, too, but he's not on those records). 

I have no idea what any of this could be like for Jonny. Like, on the one hand, this is a LOT OF LOVE AND SUPPORT and on the other hand it is also A LOT TO TAKE IN when you're also dealing with cancer and communicating with people through text (I think I did see him actually talking to a few people, last night, so I guess he still can, but mostly he rests his vocal cords, which sounds like a wise idea). The Gofundme is now over its $50,000 goal. Reports are that over $20,000 more was raised at the Rickshaw in terms of both donations and merch sales. I would guess there was another $5000 taken in yesterday? Bear in mind that the last time I saw Jonny play LanaLou's, about a year ago, before he got cancer, there were maybe 20 people in the room (the video has had 12 views, as of this writing, while a Still Spirits clip from the same time period has 43). I would guess that last night's attendance was maybe 10 times larger than the very largest of Horrorshows past. Where are all these people coming from?!

It actually reminds me a bit of the time that Lemmy joked with me when I asked him about a lyric on the title track of the Sam Gopal album he did -- the first album where he sang and played songs he wrote, pre-Hawkwind. Bearing in mind, Jonny is STILL WITH US, and let's hope he stays with us for a long time, but the line goes, "if you like me when I'm living/ you're gonna love me when I'm dead." "Because," as Lemmy explained it, backstage at the Vogue, "people get better when they’re dead! I mean, Buddy Holly and Randy Rhoads -- they acquired much more dexterity on the guitar when they were dead. Nobody seemed to notice it before..."

I mean, I'm joking here -- and I think Lemmy was, too, because he would have known as well as any of us that people loved both Buddy Holly and Randy Rhoads when they were around (just maybe not in such numbers).  I wonder, though -- being more of an asshole than Jonny, I guess -- if the thought has crossed his mind that it would have been nice to have this many people out on ANY OTHER OCCASION he was involved in? Is part of him, like, retroactively jealous, or something? (Is there even a word for that emotion?). I wouldn't blame him, if so!

(And I mean, I sure wish I'd come out to more of these, back when I actually lived out there. Fifteen years, and I only went to four or possibly five of these? Where's that time machine at -- I want a do-over!). 

All the same, it's great that the situation has captured people's attention and that so many people are getting out to show the love. 

Sometime soon, I expect, you will see photos on social media of Jonny striking a pose in front of the audience at the Hollywood. It happens that he went front-and-centre for this, which meant that he was standing in front of me and my wife. I strained my neck to peek over his shoulder and get in the camera, but here's Erika, and note: THIS WAS *NOT* THE FIRST TIME SHE'D COME OUT TO SOMETHING JONNY DID. She'd seen him at a couple of Adstocks, back when I was living in Maple Ridge and she was coming out to visit me! 

Of course, Carrie was great -- though I find I enjoy most in the film the buildup to her lashing out, when things seem to be going so well for her; DePalma's epic climax, which I think is the draw for a lot of people -- and may have been once, for me, too, seems a bit too-too on the horror-movie side of things, now, like he doesn't know how to have blood and fire and violence and still keep a tragic tone, and the scenes with Carrie and her Mom at the end don't ring nearly as true as, basically, anything else in the film (her Mom STABS her? And why the hell does the house collapse, even? Carrie doesn't seem to be willing it...). But it's still a classic tale of a misfit's revenge, a theme I definitely resonated with when I read the novel as a teenager. King has pulled Rage, his school shooter novel, from publication, but there are similarities, which run through other works, other characters of his, like Harold Emery Lauder in The Stand. Carrie -- the character or the movie -- is maybe the most tragic of all of them. I kind of want to see the remake now, to see how they handle things?

Jonny's prepared speech, which was read for him before the film started, is the same as he posted on Facebook. I'm cutting and pasting it here because Facebook is kind of ephemeral, who knows if this will be easy to find in the future: 

TONIGHT!

It's the end of an era.

I've had the pleasure of sharing my favorite films of all time with a smattering of creeps, ghouls and fellow fear friends for the past 15 years, and tonight we get to gather once more inside the comforting crypt of the Hollywood 3 for one last time, to celebrate the simple pleasure of a horror movie with friends.

I can't truly express what being able to do these nights had meant to be over the years. There's some ephemeral quality to doing a thing like this; here one second and gone the next, existing only in that moment, that means more to me than most of you will ever truly know.

It's why I seek out live experiences. Why I go to shows, see a play, or catch a film on opening night.

These are moments in time that will only ever exist once, never to be repeated.

And while, yes, there is always another show, and you can pull up these films in the comfort of your living room the simple tap of a button, that doesn't really capture the moment in the same way.

You weren't there, you're not a part of it. You missed the energy in the room, the spark of life in a shared experience.

Those moments mean more to me than anything I've ever known, and being able to do it again, one last time, is bittersweet; but it also feels right.

To end my horror hosting career with the film that launched my favorite author, from minor literary failure to a household name and enduring horror icon, is full circle in a way that is almost to perfect to plan.

That's because I didn't.

It just worked out that way.

I didn't know when I selected this film that the theater would be shutting, I didn't know that it would be the last title I ever got to screen.

The fact that in the 15 years I've been doing this that I never screened such an obviously iconic choice is also interesting.

It's like it was waiting.

Life's funny like that.

See you tonight.

Come watch a horror movie with me.

I guarantee it's still the best $10 you can spend in this town on a Friday night.

I promise.

It was nearly 2am when people filtered out. I would guess that there were still people at the theatre, posing for selfies with Jonny, getting things signed, and talking about horror movies and punk rock, by the time my wife and I were back here in bed. 

Would sure be nice if some Vancouver movie theatre stepped up and offered Jonny another chance to do this in front of an audience, but then again, maybe he's ready to take a break? This has been a pretty momentous week. 

Thanks for your generosity, Jon. See you again sometime.