There were several delays keeping me from leaving, including everything from rain, my sister having to come to the house to pick something up, to my father leaving the garage door open and it's inability to close all the way when we pressed the button... fucking piece of shit(the garage door, not my father). We finally hit the road a little after 3pm. The roads were a bit flooded from the massive downpour earlier, but it thankfully cleared up.

The crowd at ISV when Lloyd first arrived.

However, our directions (provided by Yahoo! Maps and Mapquest) weren't as clear. Once we made it into Pennsylvania and had to find street names, we were totally fucked. I can't count how many times we had to stop for directions and how many times people honked at us, causing my mother to nearly break down. I nearly lost it when she threatened to drag someone from their car and kick their ass. Fortunately, the windows were down, because I really don't see my mother able to do so.

Once we finally made it there, I had to run up the road and get some film for my camera and in doing so, learned my mother does not understand how to be a pedestrian. Maybe it's just because I'm used to randomly running across traffic to cross the road when I go out on the town. I actually did do that there and some guy in a convertible harassed me for it. Just goes to show you what the real differences between West Virginia and Pennsylvania is: less drivers that are total assholes.

Okay, since I'm sure those previous rants aren't really something you want to be reading, I'll get to the event. When I made it to Incredibly Strange Video, I rejoiced at the fellow Tromites there ready to meet Lloyd and had to keep myself from drooling at the amazing collection of videos and DVDs this place had. It's a cult movie fan's dream, folks. They even had Battle Royale t-shirts! It was like I went to Heaven. Until I realized I was totally broke then it was Hell.

Lloyd reading to the crowd from my copy of Make Your Own Damn Movie.

Well, after standing in line and seeing just how many people knew about my website, Lloyd finally showed up. I was so fucking stoked. Once I finally got up there, I introduced myself and thankfully Lloyd knew who I was and shook my hand. I mentioned working on the new tromamovies.com and the night before, the head webmaster had told me to ask for some free stuff. I told him that and Lloyd replied "Yeah right!" and mentioned how the store was selling Troma DVDs and he couldn't take away from their business, which I was totally cool with. He then told me "But I can offer you some free fellatio, I have very sweet lips." I swear to god, my mother did not know what fellatio was. I chose not to tell her either.

Now on to the shit I got signed: my Citizen Toxie DVD("To Justin. Thanks for helping Chris Lanphear"), Tromeo and Juliet DVD ("To Justin. Toxie Loves You"), Lloyd's book Make Your Own Damn Movie ("I hope your movies are better than Troma" I didn't see it until the ride home, but when I did, I nearly lost it. It leads me to wonder if he was referring to me constantly plugging my filmmaking group IWC Films or the fact that it was a book on filmmaking. Let's hope both.), a flier for the event, and a "30 Years Of Reel Independence" poster, which didn't get signed for some reason. Lloyd also read the first line from MY copy of Make Your Own Damn Movie to the crowd, which I kind of felt a bit giddy about.

I'd like to use this paragraph to apologize to my mother. I drug her to a Troma event, not letting her even know what she was getting into. While Incredibly Strange Video's TV set played trailers of Troma films, she caught a glance and seemed appalled. I heard about it on the way home too. I seriously think she thinks Lloyd is a pornographer that's corrupting my mind, which is probably half true, but, oh well. Let me mention one more story about my mother's neurotic driving: she went down the wrong ramp on the way home and, no lie, BACKED ALL THE WAY BACK UP. I don't know how many laws that's breaking, but it was incredibly funny.

Unfortunately, I didn't get to stick around and hang out, because my mother was angry about the drive and when she found out what Troma really was. I did run back up and talk to some filmmakers that Lloyd was supporting. The film was titled Meat For Satan's Icebox and I contacted them about doing an interview. They thought I was from PA and were wanting me to meet up with them and Lloyd on Sunday, but that was sadly out of the question. Oh well, I'll still ended up interviewing them.