Turkey Day 2020

While most call this coming Friday, the biggest commercial holiday called Black Friday, here at the Krypt, we call it Turkey Day, and have been since 2003. And this Friday will be no different. Well, maybe a little different. Because of the pandemic, we’re not able to host our usual event of screening some of the finest in cinematic shipwrecks here at the Krypt. BUT… that will not stop us from screening those movies, just this time it will be online. And everyone reading this is invited.

Turkey Day Marathon 2020

Once Halloween is over, here at the Krypt there is one thing on our mind: Turkey Day! Our bi-annual celebration of the finest in cinematic shipwrecks! I started doing these Turkey Day Marathons back in 2003, and it has slowly grown into something insane. Crazy enough that in 2015 we started Turkey Day in May, holding another onslaught of some of these gems!

But then Covid hit and in May, we couldn’t really have the usual get together. So we held our first Turkey Day online, which I think was somewhat successful. It wasn’t the same, but at least we were still able to enjoy the event. We were hoping that by November things would have calmed down, but alas, we find ourselves still in the thick of it, as they say.

Which brings us to our big announcement today. Since we’re going to have to hold our Turkey Day Marathon online once again, we have decided to open it up to the world! Now, some of you might not fully understand exactly what is our Turkey Day Marathon, so let me give you a brief summary.

Turkey Day in May 2020 – Pandemic Style

I started holding my Turkey Day events way back in November of 2003. In 2015, we started a second one, Turkey Day in May. Ever since these started, we have never missed holding one. The numbers for each of the events varies from time to time, but there is always a group of us enjoying some of these cinematic road bumps. And then the pandemic started. As much as I wanted to gather a group of friends and still hold our May event, it just didn’t seem like the right thing to do. Originally, I had just planned on doing it by myself, watching the movies I had planned. But then talking to Turkey Day regulars Aaron Christensen, and then Jason Coffman, they informed me of this streaming thing you can do where people just log in and can see what you’re playing on your computer. Now originally it would be nice to have video and audio of everyone attending but it really would just have been too many people, and the chatting might have interfered with the actual audio from the movie. Jason mentioned using Kast, which has a chat room feature, so at least people could still communicate, make jokes or whatever, and still be able to watch the film. So after a few trials, on May 30th, we held our first online Turkey Day event. We only got through 5 movies instead of our usual 7, but I think it turned out pretty good. Not to mentioned the fact that we had more people at this event, hitting past 20 people at times.

Turkey Day 2019

“The only bad movie is a boring one”, a statement made by author Stephen Thrower that I not only agree with, but live by as well! This last Turkey Day, we put that statement to the test and proven it to be true! For the most part, that is.

Before we get to our 17th year of holding our annual Turkey Day Marathon, I have to first say how thankful I am to have so many like-minded friends that journey out to the Chicago suburbs twice a year to celebrate the types of films that we watch. They are not only true cinephiles, but know that there is entertainment and enjoyment in even the lowest rated film out there. Well… most of them!

Time for the Turkey!

Now that Halloween season is official over, the next thing on calendar for us is of course, Turkey Day. No, I’m not talking about Thanksgiving, but our annual Turkey Day Marathon. Trust me, after getting through some of the titles we’ve watched over the years, just surviving is thankful enough! In all honestly, what I’m really thankful for is that I have a group of friends that make the trek out here every Black Friday to celebrate these Cinematic Shipwrecks along with me, and we have a lot of fun doing it.

Turkey Day in May 2019

In May of 2015, we started our official Turkey Day in May proceedings and now 5 years later, on Saturday, May 11th, the fun continued! While we did have a few people that weren’t able to make it out for the T-Day celebrations, we did have more than enough to partake in the food and fun. The usual suspects were Aaron Christensen, Adam Rockoff, Neil Calderone, Brian Fukala, and Matt Harding, with Gregg Olheiser and Alan Tromp making this their second time out for the festivities. This time though, Gregg brought his lovely wife Jill along too for her first time! Our buddy Gavin Schmitt, traveling all the way from the land of cheese (aka Wisconsin), made it out for his first T-Day experience. As the famous TCM tag line says, “Who Will Survive and What Will Be Left of Them?”

Turkey Day 2018

When we get to November, here at the Krypt is all about Turkey Day. While most are planning ahead for Thanksgiving or even an early start on Christmas, we are planning Turkey Day. From picking the right titles for our bi-annual event, to my wife Dawn and son Nick coming up with some new ideas for pizzas, it really is a family event. And not just us, but our convention family that shows up to enjoy these movies and pizza with us! This is our 16th year holding our Turkey Day Marathon, and there is no stopping us now!

Turkey Day in May 2018

 

It’s strange how things turn out in life. In case you didn’t know, these Turkey Day marathons that I’ve been doing since 2003, were started in tribute to Mystery Science Theater 3000 back when they were on Comedy Central, and used to show 24-hours of their shows non-stop the day after Thanksgiving, which they would call their Turkey Day Marathons. I loved that show and had most of them on VHS at one point. I loved that they brought a new audience to some of the films that I loved as a kid. But then a few weeks ago, I picked up a copy of Frank Conniff’s (TV’s Frank) book on his years on MST3K, called Twenty Five Mystery Science Theater 3000 Films that Changed my Life in No Way Whatsoever. It’s a little book, barely 100 pages, but as I paged through it, reading his thoughts on some of the titles were my favorites, it was almost like my childhood crashing down.

Turkey Day 2017

Fifteen years. I can’t even fathom the idea that for the last one and a half decades, I’ve been spending my Black Friday sitting in front of my TV watching some of the finest is cinematic shipwrecks. But even better, for most of those years, I have been watching them with some great friends, which makes the experience even better. Including this year’s titles, we’ve “experience” over a hundred titles in those fifteen years. And I do mean “experience”, because some titles it is so much more than just watching. Sitting there with a bunch of like minded crazy cinephiles, really does make it an “experience”. This year, there was moments when the laughing was so loud and hard, that I actually feared for some of the sanity in the room!

Time of the Turkey

That’s right, folks. October may be over, but that just means that Turkey Day is approaching. And no, I don’t mean the Thursday that we sit around the table and stuff ourselves more than the Turkey you’re eating, but an even more important occasion…our Annual Turkey Day Marathon! And this year marks our 15th year of our little crazy tradition.