Friday, October 5, 2007 Eerie Horror Fest aims to frighten By Matt Schwahenhauer assistant student life Mita! ;870 , c,11) Board up Nour windows, stock up on silver bul lets. and make sure von have garlic handy, because the 2007 Eerie Horror Fest is creeping close! The festival will bring enough horror related vendors. presenters. video games, movies and art from Oct. 10-14 to scare just ahout anyone. This year marks the fourth time for the festival since its inception in Oct. of 2004. Each year. hundreds c films are submittal to th festival. and the hest are pre sented. An awards CCFCIIIOII' is held at the end of the lest Val to honor the hest entrie For the past lour years. thoL sands of people have mac their v, av to the Ei Pla \ house and the A‘ alo Hotel to see all the films an vendors. Kicking the e\ enl off 0 Wednesday. Oct. I() will he party and movie screenin with actre Adrienn Barbeau. hest known for he roles in The I E.vcap from New Yiwk. and Swam, Thing. Thursday. Oct. 1 1. the beginning of the film le tival portion of Eerie Hoff° Fest. with film screenings CONTRIBUTED PHOTO .11ace Stone will be imm 1 : 30 P.m. 1 " 8 : 30 P.m. The 4th annual Horrorfest begins Oct. 10. there each day of the event at the Erie Playhouse. The night will also feature special guest James Duvall of Donnie hark() along with a film screening. Punk rock hand The Misfits will he performing an after hours party at the Cell Block. On Friday Oct. 12. the festival will host the World Premiere of The Beast In Me and the Pennsylvania premiere of Chasing Darkness. At 9 p.m., special guest Dee Wallace Stone s ill be making an appear ance at the festival, along with a screening of her classic film. CO°. Films will be showing at the Erie Playhouse on Friday from 1:30 p.m. until 2:15 a.m. Saturday Oct. I 3 is the big day for the festival. Jason Mewes of Clerks. Dogma, and Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back fame he appearing at the festival, and there will also he a screening of his new film ,Vetherbeast Incorporated. Saturday is also the night that the festival has its awards ceremonies, gis ing out such awards as "Best Feature - "Best Short" and "Best Student Film". Films will he Top 5 TV dads By Andy McLachlan 5. Homer Simpson 4. Danny Tanner 3. Philip Drummond 2. Jason Seaver 1. Philip Banks Magical comedian entertains families on campus By Sam Levine staff writer sjls 122 psu.edu Light-hearted comedian Brian Kaufman stopped by Penn State Behrend's Bruno's café last weekend to entertain students and visiting family members of all ages with his unique mixture of stand up come dy and uncanny magical illusions. Being as modest as possible, Kaufman started the show with music, and introduced himself as, "the best [comedian] within your price range." Then Kaufman ate a balloon and applauded him self, urging the audience to join along. Many times during his set, Kaufman would cue the audience when to clap for him and even laugh, "I eat a bal loon and you people just stare," Kaufman mocked humorously. With a range of bona fine magical acts to mock illusionist comedy. Kaufman presents a comedy act that is very original to say the very least. He emits a good personality on the stage, joking along with the audience as he goes. Kaufman is able to combine egotism with humility exceptionally well. From eating balloons to picking cards, Kaufman's act sounds better suited to a cheap magician who performs in a never-ending cycle for children's birthday parties, and sadly, without the jokes, that's probably all Kaufman's set would end up being. The majority of the magical acts themselves were not overly original, many of them being rather sim ple card tricks. Many tricks were not overly amus ing for college students, however many were very r' J ~ r 1 ri_DEI IT Li showing from noon until 2:3oam. Sunday Oct. 14 is the last day of Eerie Horror Fest, which will feature all of the Local and Student Films from 3:30 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. Among them, Dead 17, directed by Behrend professor Mark Steensland, who is also the Vice President of the festival. Sunday night also holds the Special Presentations, Encores, and Best of the Fest. For many people, Eerie Horror Fest is their only chance to see many of the films that are playing there. There are no other local venues that will be screening most of the films at the festival, and it arc screening their movies. Some of the other big names that are appearing include Tom Savini (Grindhouse, Dawn of the Dead), Joe Pilato (Day of the Dead, Pulp Fiction), and Michael Berryman (The Hills Have Eyes 1 & 2, The Devil's Rejects) just to name a few. One all day pass for the event is $22 ($11.50 on Sunday), which gets you admission to all film screenings and expo events. For individual film block screenings, it is $4 for screenings before 6:00 p.m., and $5 after. For an all access pass which grants you access to all film screenings and expo events every day of the festival, it is $75, which also includes VIP seating and a free T shirt. Horror fans are not going to want to miss Eerie Horror Fest. For film times, presenters, vendors and a detailed pricing list for Eerie Horror fest, check out www.eeriehorrorfilmfestival.com. entertaining to the little kids in the audience. A few of these meager tricks came and went with disap- pointment It would be unwise to get the impression that Kaufman was bad by any means he however shows a sense of inexperience. A few bits, which were very elaborate acts took place, one in particular in which Kaufman took a random audience member watch only to make it disappear and re-appear inside a sealed can of corn which in turn was locked inside a wooden box that had been out of sight the entire act. Then he reverted to an example of his mock illusion, where he listened to a tape player feeding him instructions on how to make a yellow bandana disappear. Turns out he accidentally got the word mixed up with banana instead. Don't worry, he made the banana disappear anyway. Kaufman's show was clean, G-rated material for the most part. College students will probably not go for Kaufman's child-friendly flair. Kaufman is a comedian better suited for the whole family, since his comedy is rarely related to things a general col lege student is interested in. His show never stopped parents from getting into the fun, or finding it enjoyable, and it shouldn't really stop older kids either. Needless to say, Brian Kaufman is not only a promising young comedian; he is a very promising illusionist as well. An exclusive combination of comedy and magic was something very refreshing and a highly original take on stand-up comedy, however that's not too say that there aren't parts of the act that need polishing up. uld be some time until y are distributed for e. A film nominated for ;t feature at last year's ,tival called Ghost 'ensures was recently ked up for airing by the Fi Channel etween film screen- s, attendees to the festi- can make their way er to the Avalon Hotel check out the vendors t will be attending the this year. pearing will be Cinema steland, GMD Films, dnight Syndicate and ny more. Also, many .cial guests will be re signing autographs. on Mewes and Dee New litera Tucker Max is at the forefront of the new literary genre. fratire By Scott R. Muska student life editor srmsoB2o psu.edu "My name is Tucker Max, and I am an asshole" reads the opening line of the synopsis for I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell, Max's first hook. It's stat ed plainly on the back of the paperback edition so that a possible reader can estimate what they may be getting themselves into if they purchase it. In all likelihood, however, they have no idea. Max is one of the catalysts for an up and coming literary genre that has been dubbed "fratire". "Fratire" is a wordplay on the terms fraternity and satire, and it was given to this type of work because the labeled writers seemingly speak and behave like stereotypical "frat boys" in their comedic novels, essays, and stories. Max was unhappy about this labeling and verbalized his dissatisfaction when he was informed by the writer of a piece on him and his colleagues of the intended name he had selected. "Holy Jesus, that is awful," he said. "First off, I wasn't in a fraternity. Neither was Maddox. In fact, none of the writers you are profiling in your article was in a frat. Please, call it anything else." He then suggested a non-publishable term that rhymes with "chick lit." The article went on to be published in The New York Times and Max's idea was not printed. the term "fratire" was solidified. The article contained information about Max himself: a writer named Maddox, who wrote The Alphabet of Manliness: and Frank Kelly Rich, the editor of Modern Drunkard Magazine. Many of the authors that have been lumped into this new genre are masters at pushing the envelope as far as it can possibly go, and Max may be the most adept at it. His books and website consist of short stories and essays (all of which he insists are true, and some of them have Emerging Fratirists and their publications TUcker Max: Writes short stories and essays concerning excessive drunkeness, women and extremely uncommon events that he experiences with his abnormal friends. Drunlumurusrex: Writes a blog that is composed mainly of rants pwlar culture. He also records his visits to various colleges and experiences. their parties. Frank Kelly Rich: Not to be confused with the New York Times political opinion columnist, Rich is the Editor and most prolific writer for The Modern Drunkard Magazine. He writes mainly about, of course, getting drunk. www.moderndrunkardmagazine.com Maddox: A belligerent writer who became famous for his best boo'The Alphabet of Manliness. He also maintains a web site nal of random rants and stories. www.thebestpageintheuniverse.com The Pbat Free: A group of writers that maintain a website of comedic essays, stories, cartoons and false advertisements. www.thephatphree.com Neil Strauss: A former reporter for the New York Times who is a Sell:iirodidmed "Pick-Up Artist" has published a book on that —loollol' The Game. He also runs a website that is designed loti s lOodifmen how to pick up women. ' www.stylelife.com _FL enre attracts colle even been proven through various photos and videos) than profile the events of his life, a life that is riddled with drunkenness, promiscuity, gut wrenching wit and extreme obnoxiousness. In essence, Max is what many men envision themselves as in their vision of utopia: he does not care at all about what others think of him. he has shunned what society feels is right. he's slept with an inordinate amount of women, he spends a great deal of his time drunk in bars and his joh is to write about these experiences. The rest of the writers in this new genre follow suit, writing about whatever they want in whichev er way they feel like, without any kind of censor ship, which is why these hooks and websites have become so popular. The type of things that they speak so openly about and the issues that they address are deemed inappropriate for even cable tel evision. and they present their topics in a way that almost always forces a laugh from the reader. This is extremely important in a society that has become dominated by the television, especially among the youth. teenagers and college students. These writers, however immoral or how far they fall from traditional literature, are getting children, especially males, to read more often. These "fratirists" have--especially Max been denounced by advocates of the traditional literary world as well as by people that just plain resent their behavior. There is even a blog vvebsite that's sole purpose is to make Max look had, in a slightly more vulgar terminology. Whether he or any of his col leagues are morally repugnant or not can be argued extensively, but what cannot is that these men are having a substantial impact on the revival of a liter ary world that is slowly but surely declining into nothingness. Max has a new hook. titled Assholes Finish First comine. out in mid-November. www.tuckermax.com www.drunkasaurasrex.com The Behrend Beacon I e males CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
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