Father Geek here... fully recovered from this weekend's "BUTT-NUMB-A-THON: THE EXTENDED VERSION". Yep, this year was a longer fest because we offically added a Friday night catered welcoming party at PEDAZO CHUNK, the DVD shop owned by Harry's sister (sister_satan) and her husband (Lobo). The shop has a 30 seat (couches & over stuffed chairs) screening room with increadible sound and a 15' X 9' screen, plus a 25' X 50'tree shrouded deck overhanging the babbling Bowden creek 20+ feet below. Sooo as a last minute thought we put together a welcoming party for our out of town early attendees and the work staff of the fest, close to 100 guests consumed free kegs of Shiner Bok and feasted on wonderful Thai, Indian and Greek finger food catered by the wife of the site's newest fulltime employee (tech & business end).There was a giant full sheet, made from scratch, German Choc. cake(it was a B-Day party, too) and bowls of nuts and candies. The party started at 5pm. It was great meeting and talking with the BNATers in this format, because once the films start rolling there just isn't much time. Hanging with writer-producer Robert Weinbach was a gas. His tales of working with the legendary Jack Cardiff, or with Boris Karloff on CAULDRON OF BLOOD were cool as can be, annnd the personal stories of adventures with real live sideshow freaks like Popeye Ingram, Pretzel Boy, Alligator Girl and Frog Boy were simply ouistanding... never to be forgotten tales... just imagine sitting around smoking doobies with that group, well, Bob did!

Director Eli Roth presented Harry with a B-Day gift... a life mask of Bruce Campbell made for "Army of Darkness" by KNB, and a bottle of "Mary-Kate & Ashley eau de toilette en vaporisateur" A group of LA geeks gave him a framed 14" X 20" color shot of Harry holding a brace of electric Fly Swatters in front of the Alamo from BNAT #1. In all, over the weekend Harry would receive about 3 dozen gifts, every thing from hand drawn cards and hand made scarves to DVDs like "The Stone Roses" 2 disc set, "Johnny Firecloud" (a Dave Friedman epic), and the complete collection of "Emily Hagins' Movies." There were boxes of candy, action figures, nodders and books (a couple being Peter Haining's beautiful "American Pulp Magazines" and from the St. Paul library a withdrawn copy of "On The Other Hand" a bio by Fay Wray) Then there was the 16mm Films... first was the classic cartoon feature "HOPPITY GOES TO TOWN", then a silent short from Czechoslovakia by Borivoj & Karel Zeman called "Christmas Dream" aka "Vanocni Sen", annnnnd then the John Saxon sci-fi Epic adventure, the Badess of the Bad, "THE BEES." Well enough of what Harry got... Thanx to all, and on to what BNAT 6 attendees received...

There were about 250 geeks present this year and each and every one received a stuffed to the gills giant goodie bag on entry... 1st off everyone got a copy of The BUTT-NUMB-A-THON photo annual annnnd an outstanding book "LORD OF THE RINGS: WEAPONS AND WARFARE". Everyone got the offical festival T-Shirt plus at least 4 other T's from a group including; EXORIST 4, SLEEPY HOLLOW, ESCAPE FROM LA, WILLARD, HOUSE OF 1000 CORPSES, SHAFT, CAT WOMAN, THE RELIC, FESTIVAL EXPRESS, and others. Most got ball caps from either CATWOMAN, EXORCIST:THE BEGINNING, or POLAR EXPRESS. Everyone got a CD from MOTORCYCLE DIARIES and most got another from a group that included JAY & SILENT BOB STRIKE BACK, SLIPPING DOWN LIFE, TEACHING MRS TINGLE, THE QUIET AMERICAN, IRIS, GODZILLA (the original expanded version), MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE, ORANGE COUNTY, and others. And 25 found the soundtrack to NAQOYQATSI autographed by Philip Glass in their bag. There were EXORCIST backpacks, books of matches and coasters from SHAUN OF THE DEAD's Winchester Tavern, one lucky bag held a Cricket bat from that flick. Others found SOUTH PARK underwear, CAT WOMAN jewelery, THE RING 2 jewelery, Giant squeezy Sperm from SEED OF CHUCKY, lifesize WILLARD rats, EXORCIST shot glasses, SCHOOL OF ROCK shot glasses, SHARK TALE raincoats, a STAR TREK electronic device, SKY CAPTIAN comic books and collector cards, TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE evidence bags, a CHRISTMAS WITH THE KRANKS activity book, STAR WARS toys, annnd stickers from the likes of BLADE 3, ITALIAN JOB, SAW, and DANNY DECKCHAIR. There were many more items sent to the fest from companys like WARNER BROTHERS, SONY, NEW LINE, and MIRAMAX, buuuuuut it didn't end with the bags... Right before the screening of the gritty crime flick LAYER CAKE the Alamo waitstaff passed out free birthday cake to all...

After the last film played we gave away some deluxe geek toys as doorprizes... Calling out seat numbers Capone, Quint, and myself (Father Geek) gifted a dozen 18" sideshow Lon Chaney PHANTOM OF THE OPERA figures, and another 12 LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT Chaney figures. There were 12 18" cussing FULL METAL JACKET DI figures and a like number of GET SMART dolls given away. Then we raised the bar to a new level and presented 12 lucky ticket holders large STORMTROOPER bust sculptures from Gentle Giant, annnnnd to cap off the doorprizes we passed out 8 deluxe GG bust sculptures... their outstanding chrome plated T-850 Battle Damaged TERMINATOR limited edition figure. Buuuuuut the stuff just wouldn't end...

As fest attendees filed out onto the street in front of the Alamo they were given a roll of 8 27"X 40" offical one-sheet movie posters. Everyone received a beautiful rolled poster from TEAM AMERICA, LEMONY SNICKET, BLADE 3, MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE, SAW, and SKY CAPTAIN(a mix of the advance Robot style and the General release "Faces" style). The other 2 posters they got came from a pool that included FINDING NEVERLAND, HALLOWEEN RESURRECTION, SHAUN OF THE DEAD, HUMAN STAIN, WHEN WILL I BE LOVED, LIFE AQUATIC, DIRTY PRETTY THINGS, A DIRTY SHAME, SLEEPY HOLLOW, and Argentina's great VALENTIN, among others. Annnnnd a few very lucky geeks (approx 25-30) found themselves in possession of Cast Autographed one-sheets to BAD SANTA, or CONFESSIONS OF A DANGEROUS MIND, or BOTH... too cool, posters signed by Billy Bob Thornton, Bernie Mac, Tony Cox, Brett Kelly annnnd Drew Barrymore, Sam Rockwell, Chuck Barris, and George Clooney.

Not too shabby... an opening party with free beer and food, 24+ hours of great film, some cool film-pro guests to mix with, a room full of film geeks from across the planet(the Phillipines, Canada, Saudi Arabia, England, Mexico, India, Scotland, and even one from somewhere under the North Atlantic), annnnd a HUGE pile of cool stuff that would cost you the better part of a month's pay on E-bay. Well, that's it from ol' Father Geek... have a happy holiday season.