The 2010 Chicago Horror Film Festival is shaping up to be an amazing event!  Hosting the event is Chicago’s very own Master Ron Fitzgerald on Saturday & Sunday!  Mr Willy will grace the stage on Friday with gory thirst for the dark arts!  35 Awesome horror films will show over the 3 day festival!  Saturday is “Zombie Day”!  Come dressed in your Zombie best!  Saturday evening will also feature a exclusive screening of the film “I Hunt Ghosts”, just before the ghost hunters in the film (George Hawrylenko & Willy Adkins) offer you to take part in an investigation / haunted tour at the Portage Theater that night!  Voltaire will be performing on Friday Night!  And The Festivals of Fright team will be presenting awards as well!  Lots of fun (if scary is fun) stuff ahead!  Join us this weekend for Babes, Booze & Blood!

www.ChicagoHorrorFest.com

www.FestivalsOfFright.com

www.SpookShowEntertainment.com

Over the last couple years I have seen numbers at my music / charity events decline… I have been booking some amazing artists like Bloodstream Parade, Dies Mali and even Marazene before the passing of our good friend Kristov…  For some reason, the people haven’t been there… Posters, paid advertising on facebook, myspace, handbills and even on air radio interviews haven’t seemed to help much… Regardless, I have kept pushing on…

I pushed myself to keep producing the best music festivals I could, even when I was quite literally homeless, without work and struggling…

I have also been pushing extremely hard to keep some kind of metal / dark arts scene alive in the west suburbs and Dekalb area…  And then it hit me, quite literally…  I physically got jumped by members of a band I have booked and promoted repeatedly.  (no worries folks, I walked away just fine)… Some people had offered to “go beat the hell out of those talentless, immature little assholes”… I got a little chuckle and replied “No, thats ok… immature they very much are, but they will learn how bad they fucked up eventually”…   but what hit me (other then a very week right fist) was the fact that my hard work seems to go unappreciated… Why push for a metal / dark arts scene when this is all I get in return…  I am just finding less and less reason to keep trying…

Twisted Wish Productions is something that I have prided myself on for half a decade now.  I know what it is like to face cancer, to be without food, to be without a place to call home, to be hospitalized and to have a newborn in an incubator with a high risk of dieing… For all of these reasons I felt that TWP was my way to help promote the arts while at the same time helping others with several of the issues I have encountered in my life, and several other issues that are equally as hard if not even harder.  But I keep finding myself asking, is it really worth all of the effort that I personally put into each of these events if I’m only able to give a hundred dollars to the charity I aim to benefit?  Should I save myself the months of work involved in producing each and every one of these events and simply help those I want to help by opening my wallet and paying the same amount?  These are all things that have been running through my head a lot as of late… I have held off writing this for a good 3 weeks now….

So, the conclusion… I am going to concentrate more on my paranormal / ghost hunting events and endeavors.  They just seem to be more worth while to me and people seem to appreciate the work that I do in the field.  Does this mean I won’t be doing any more music events at all?  No, most definitely not… but they will be very very minimal…  The quote “less is more” comes to mind… I will continue to produce my Spook Show event every year and maybe the Holiday Healing event I’ve done the last 2 years at The House Cafe…  That is assuming people will be attending… Yes, even my annual Spook Show has been in question for me…

I have an annual event called The Twisted Wish Summer Sizzle, that my good friend Jason Sullivan use to produce with me every year.  The Summer Sizzle has been scheduled for July 31st (the day after my 30th birthday) this year at The House Cafe in Dekalb.  I have been working hard on this event over the last month and will keep this event this year.  Panda Gail is traveling from Louisville KY to perform at this event and Steve Diess is also booked.  I am in talks with a few other groups for the event as well, but will save names until I have a solid confirmation…  Regardless, this will be the very last Twisted Wish Summer Sizzle event and I hope you will all come show your support one last time…

The Twisted Wish Spook Show has not yet been officially scheduled yet.  I’m still trying to decide what venue I want to work with on this event.  But I will be booking it sometime very soon.  Some details are in place already… One part of the event will be me conducting a gothic wedding ceremony as “Mr Willy”… No, this isn’t a fake wedding, it is very much real (I am an ordained minister for those who didn’t know)… And I also plan to put up my very first Mr. Willy hat for auction…  I am also calling the 2010 Spook Show a decision making event… This event has been my pride and joy for 5 years straight… If no support is shown, then I will officially put it to sleep that evening.  If the community don’t come to show its support at the Spook Show Event, that sometime before the close of the event I will be on stage thanking those in attendance for attending the very last Twisted Wish Spook Show Event…

It brings me to tears to write this very long blog… but I would rather be spending more time with my 2 beautiful girls, my fiancee and family if all of my hard work, time and effort is just to go unrecognized yet again.

With all of this said, I want to thank the fallowing for all of their outstanding support and extra efforts over the years:

Dixie Belle, Bethany Madison, Mom, Dad, Mikka, Jason Sullivan, Kordyla, Zocko, Demetra Dokos, Nikk Skum, Dietrich, Kristov (RIP my friend), Marazene, Broken Vegas, Dies Mali, Wolf, Bloodstream Parade, Brian Leh, Art of the Flesh, ShaNIN, Panda Gail, Kitty Mortland, Zachary Harris, Steve Diess, Renee Nanzer, Patrick @ The Rock Barn, Matthew & Jan, and of course The House Cafe.

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]]> http://www.mrwillyslair.com/2010/04/23/music-of-horror-kick-off-party/feed/ 0 http://www.mrwillyslair.com/2010/03/08/first-day-of-work-and-hosting-open-mic/ http://www.mrwillyslair.com/2010/03/08/first-day-of-work-and-hosting-open-mic/#comments Tue, 09 Mar 2010 05:56:32 +0000 MrWilly http://www.mrwillyslair.com/?p=104 So I had orientation for my new “day job” today at Exel (2nd largest company in the world).  I am pretty excited about having a “normal” job again.  For someone in the media as much as I am, or “Local Celebrity” as several people have called me, I’m sure not rich!  lol  So, its going to be comforting to have a job to cover the bills again.  I will be working nights, and I suppose that is okay for awhile.  Over time I hope to make my way to a first shift position, but as they say, “get in where you fit in”.

My decision to take on this new position has caused me to cancel over a dozen photo shoots and work on rebooking with those people, and I want to thank everyone for having patients with me as I make this new transition.

After work I had a meeting with a seamstress and designer.  My “Mr Willy” character is going to be taking on a couple new looks!  For those who don’t know much about “Mr. Willy”, he has 2 different styles… One is a vintage and somewhat formally dressed goth romantic and the other style is industrial.  After the meeting, I’m very anxious to see the ideas for the new Mr Willy wardrobe come together.  The new industrial look will be coming soon, and the new romantic will debut at The Indy Horror Film Festival most likely.  Stay tuned for details to come!

Open Mic Monday Night has been quite busy this evening.  It is currently broadcasting live on Limitless Radio with me as your host of course!  Be sure to check it out!  And for those of you wondering, I will still be hosting open mic every Monday even with the new job.  So come out and support the awesome independent artists!

Happy Monday Everyone!

~ W

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