And the smiles keep coming. Oh, they keep coming. In fact, about the only bad attitude at the whole show, seen from my side of the vendor’s booth, came from a Dallas Observer Street Team writer who wandered around with a curled lip as if someone had stapled a small turd under her nose. Everyone else with the Street Team was having a blast, but she obviously wanted to be back in Uptown or Highland Park with the other Beautiful People. Her MO was to walk up to vendors, sneer “So why is this so special?”, and wander off bored as soon as anyone tried to answer her question. Either she’s trying to fill the niche left emptied by former Observer writer Robert Wilonsky, or she’s gunning for an editorial position at D magazine. Even so, even she couldn’t ruin the mood.
On that subject, Texas Frightmare Weekend is becoming quite the media event as well. Lots of photographers and reporters, with regular photo slideshows on a lot of local media Web sites, and precious little interest in the sort of “Look at the freaks” coverage you used to see from our local newspaper whenever a convention was in town. (I don’t miss that, and I definitely don’t miss one certain reporter who would demand freebies and special access in exchange for coverage of a convention, who would then slam the convention because he got everything he demanded. I suspect he really, really misses the Nineties and his long-dead control over local media coverage.) Combine them with the various touring podcasters, and some of the conversations were as bizarre as anything in the movies, films, and books being celebrated at Frightmare. It almost, almost, makes me nostalgic for my days in journalism.
