Five shows and four years after the first one, we’re home from Texas Frightmare Weekend 2013. Since it’s been a while, it was time for a change for this year’s show. New banner, new backgrounds, new plant species…it’s hard to believe that all of this started a half-decade ago, and with so little in the way of selection.
As always, Frightmare is one of the two big regular Triffid Ranch shows (the other is FenCon in October), and it just keeps getting bigger. Since the convention outgrew its previous hotel and moved to DFW Airport, its proximity to the airport terminals means that it gets a whole slew of enthusiasts of the dark and disturbing. In the first day alone, I chatted with horror enthusiasts from Poland, Russia, and South Africa, and that’s not even going into the number of Canadians who came down for the festivities. (And yes, I carried purple pitcher plants [Sarracenia purpurea] for a reason, seeing as how at least two former Newfoundland residents commented “Ah, a little piece of home.”) This meant a lot of conversations about local plants, and all we needed were a few New Zealanders and Argentineans to make things complete. They showed up on Saturday.
Expect a lot more about Frightmare over the next few days, but let’s just start with the new background banner, with many thanks to Dallas artist Larry Carey. Now to get this rendered with a 3-D printer and cast in resin, just as a background for a few carnivorous plant arrangements. I mean, anybody can do Maya bas-reliefs, right?
