CatBusRuss had to do a lot of work to make sure it was still prom season. With horror features from the old Podbean feed, he prefers to save them for October, but with the day that will be the most like teen-comedies being near, it felt right to take the piss out of the event(s) he never attended with zombie comedy "Dance of the Dead" from 2008. He is joined by Mitchell Whitt of the now defunct "Morbidly Macabre Podcast".

This is what "Evil Dead" meets "American Pie" would look like. It checks off everything you want from a great zombie feature (Our host is partial to the gutbuster.) and provides fun nerds trying to save the day or just seem normal for one day. (One might think, this is what would happen to "The Monster Squad".) The humor is not insulting or overly juvenile. We all knew the archetypes from our days in high school, so it has a pretty authentic feel.

It is not "Shaun of the Dead" or "Zombieland", but that maybe because it does not have the budget or even a wide release. If only the executive producers would not have wasted their money with middling sequels to "30 Days of Night" and "The Grudge", we can only imagine what this project could have been.

It is about 3:45 am on Stacia Hardin's Birthday. She happens to share that day with one of the most important days in the whole of nerdom, May the Fourth Be with You. The last time CatBusRuss saw her, she was playing nurse as his right wrist had just been surgically repaired, feeding him chocolate pie and giving him a comfort plush Ewok. Damn she was a truly a great person to let our host know that today was the day to release "Star Wars: The Last Jedi" panel from Indiana Comic Con 2025 on the "I Dig Crazy Flicks" podcast feed.

It was an honor for Russ to even be invited on this panel. The man who pitched the panel was Bryan Young, an award-winning writer and filmmaker who sports a "Revenge of the Sith" t-shirt on his Wikipedia page. Joining the two were Darby Harn, sci-fi/fantasy author of books like "Stargun Messenger" and Emmy award-winning, Scripps New Correspondent and "Star Wars" expert Clayton Sandell. Our podcast host just did his best to be the voice of the everyday fan in a round table with people who have made a living from their expertise. Was he able to hang with them as they discussed one of the best "Star Wars" features, regardless of what the Internet says? Listen and judge.

The "Young Frankenstein" panel at Indiana Comic Con was another, "Let's see who volunteers," experience for CatBusRuss. Fortunately, he could not have asked for a better co-panelist than the Disney Imagineers' official magician/mentalist, Paul Draper. Would either of them claim to be experts about Mel Brook's film? No. But a pro-wrestler and Vegas entertainer surely would provide the audience an amusing show.

The performer who had recently appeared with Shaq and Sir Charles on "Inside the NBA" must of gained some play-by-play skill from the crew as he posed the questions and CatBus gave the analysis. They had a great crowd to interact with who seemed to have ball just wanting to express their love for the feature. Everyone left with new insights about this Gene Wilder classic and similar movies like "Putney Swope" that would be worth their time. If Russ can make it to ATL Comic Con, he would love to share the stage with Paul once again.

It is only appropriate that this #RewindWednesday podcast falls on the same week as Ebertfest in Champaign, IL. CatBusRuss was not going to try and manage two events to get time off for in a month, so the least he can do is try to give the "I Dig Crazy Flicks" listener a taste of what the festival is like.

Back in 2022, CatBusRuss was able to attend the Terry Zwigoff and Thora Birch hosted screening of "Ghost World" a feature that our host has a friendship that played out a lot like that of the characters in this adaptation of Daniel Clowes comic book. He and she would argue about who was Enid (Birch) and who was Rebecca (Scarlett Johansson), but the two were aspiring to be Seymour (Steve Buscemi).

It gets pretty personal since Russ is just expressing his thoughts about the film, so to lighten things up, you can listen to him and his big sister, ThePoeticCritic, try not to be too down on the summer box office of 2022.

CatBusRuss and ThePoeticCritic definitely had two different experiences at 2025's Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo. Our host's big sister was allowed to attend all three days while he just got frustrated with ReedPop entering the realm of gouging nerds. But, the two do have different personalities, so perhaps we will discover the common ground that still makes the C2E2 worthwhile.

Russ is more about panels and presentations while ThePoeticCritic just likes the community cons provide. In other words, we do not get the details on the "Robocop Reunion" panel with Peter Weller and Nancy Allen or the Jon Boyega panel that she attended. This episode's guest could really care less about the "Starship Reunion" panel the CatBus checked out.

If only ReedPop had accommodated to those spending the most money, instead they overloaded the second day with the celebrities resulting in a sell out for that day only. ThePoeticCritic says fire codes, but McCormick Place is a huge complex where traffic constantly goes in and out. You cannot stop people from going to train stations, so why here?

Con talk might not be your thing. It may not be ThePoeticCritic's thing since the conversation is broken up twice. If you are listening to "Ninety For Chill: The Podcast" for the movies, CatBusRuss continues is annual trek through the alphabet of sub 100 minute movies with "Civil War" and "The Dogs of War". He thought the title of this episode would be better served by putting these classic wartime movies ahead of the con, but that takes away from the main conversation. But surely, ThePoeticCritic is more than willing to put Christopher Walken ahead of herself in terms of billing.

CatBusRuss survived the blood loss, his social inadequacies, and the poor scheduling by ReedPop, and came out with quite a rewarding day at C2E2 2025. The new tattoo that is sure to upset the customers that mock him for wearing a face covering was the priciest investment. Outside of that, only spending a $110 at the con and $140 at New Japan Windy City Riot for collectables makes it seem like he won the day. On top of that, he was able to watch a good Netflix Original movie, "Extinction" to warm up for the con that decided to deprive most of its attendees "Here and Back Again: The Lord of the Rings Reunion". Screw you if you think we are all going to whip out our phones and pay $6 to stream it.

CatBusRuss and ThePoeticCritic are a bout to hit the road once again to make their annual pilgrimage to McCormick Place for the Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo b.k.a. C2E2. Thus, there is a lot of preparation needed for this trip, even if our host is getting locked out of the overloaded celebrity line up on Saturday. Despite the frustration, Russ wants to still get in the mood for the show and give the audience a paywall-free version of the first C2E2 he reviewed on "Ninety For Chill", 2022.

Was it better than Fan Expo Chicago 2022? Who did he come to see? Did he do much to promote the NinetyForChill: The #Podcast? Cosplay's premier "Captain N: The Gamemaster" may finally be getting the nerd recognition he deserves. Or is he still pumped from the Danhausen photo op?

C2E2 2022: Calls for ”Life Force” & Ideal Cosplay - August 5, 2022

Cool Movies Darth sums up the first day of this year’s Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo. He attended the Channel Awesome & Nerds Know panel sandwich and offended Twitter with his takes on proper cosplay etiquette.

C2E2 Day 2: The Disney+ Main Stage - August 8, 2022

CM Darth was able to make up some sleep. With the Starbucks providing him the wherewithal to go back and get his badge, he was able to leave a main stage seat indentation for Billy Dee Williams, the “Kenobi” supporting players, and an Irish Michael Rooker.

CatBusRuss left Indiana Comic Con extremely honored by who he was able to share panels with. They were all inspirational.

In the event of the "Was 1985 the Greatest Year in Movies?" panel, he got to speak with filmmaker and founder of the Gal's Guide Women History Library, Dr. Leah "Riwo" Leach. Our podcast host may come off as a cinematic know-it-all, so it was great that he was partnered up with a feminist who has created films, something CatBusRuss still aspires to do (Check out MainEventOfTheDead.com to find out more about his pro-wrestling, zombie-comedy script).

Each panelist came into the panel with a thesis. CatBus thought that 1985 was a year the year 1982 finally got its flowers. Harrison Ford received his only Oscar nomination for "Witness", but he should have got one for "Blade Runner". John Carpenter's "Starman" had lasting box office success, but that should have occurred with "The Thing". Steven Spielberg was being taken seriously as an artistic director with "The Color Purple" despite "E.T." was just as dramatic.

Riwo, being a Twin Cities gal, thinks 1985 is remembered so fondly thanks to Prince and Musicland forcing "Purple Rain" to be an affordably priced VHS tape. We did not have to go to the theater anymore to love these films, so the initial box office suffered for this.

Our two movie experts and the audience talk about a wide range of films. Russ's homework from the week prior served well as he could talk to the audience about "Better of Dead" and "The Last Dragon". Riwo got to head into the two remaining days of the convention knowing that there would people checking out her panel about the fortieth anniversary of "Clue". And the "I Dig Crazy Flicks" host gets to contemplate whether his childhood development was stunted by not getting to see "Weird Science" and "Life Force" as a five year-old. Maybe he should have graduated in 1998 instead of being a year older than his classmates, Mom.