CatBusRuss was given the honor to be a panelist at the first GalaxyCon St. Louis. For the second day of the convention, our podcast host is joined by 'Cinema Shitshow's' Nix Eclips to have another go at "Ninety For Chill: The Panel". And this time, they come sporting punch and pie.

Nix dedicated the day to worship at the altar of Bruce Campbell, but the queue was so long that he tried to cut some deals with those stranded in the line to get him some merch. Russ on the other hand was able to finish much of his Christmas shopping, reconnecting with the associate producer of "Galaxy Warriors", and bugging "KPop Demon Hunter's" Danny Chung on behalf of his niece.

And of course, the two podcasters did check out some panels like another installment of the "None of this Matters" podcast and the psychological draw towards "The Boys". CatBus tells his tales of the day while trying to deal with the Cubs efforts in the final game of the NLDS.

Hopefully, the crowd was impressed enough to come to Day 3's "1985 Triple Threat Match". They will need it since it was scheduled in the "let's beat traffic time slot".

It was CatBusRuss's pleasure to be invited to be a panelist on Jess McCord's panel at GalaxyCon Des Moines. The topic of said panel, A24's rich horror movie history and influence. But, perhaps, more importantly, is calling it "elevated horror" a good thing?

One half of the "Skies of Fortune" tabletop, role-playing game team put on quite a presentation, and must have his finger on the pulse of what nerds wants to chat about. The crowd of 40 people is not something a CatBus panel is accustomed to. In other words, if you have issues with the audio from the panel, that and a powerful air conditioning system are to blame.

Jess offers up clips and Joe Bob Briggs commentary to try and do away with the term of elevated horror. Russ is there to defend those who think certain horror movies are high brow, like A24 offerings, when compared to the horror movies that Gen-Xers and Millennials group up with. Our podcast host also offers reasons why arthouse does not equal box office since A24 has yet to distribute a feature that has made over 100 million dollars when other studios are desperate for one billion dollar box offices.

Elevated. Emo. Neuro-Spicy. After this panel, hopefully we can all determine what kind of horror A24 truly offers.

Comic book writer and novelist Josh Nealis is on a virtual promotional tour for his latest book, "Cocaine-Stripper Stronghold: Issue 2", so a podcast called "I Dig Crazy Flicks" seems an obvious production to reach out to. His project's wild premise makes him seem like the ideal guest for CatBusRuss, but can these two demented minds talk about films that can reach the lofty expectations they carry with themselves?

Josh is obviously a passionate man, and that took priority when he offered the podcast's host one of his favorite films, 2002's "The Count of Monte Cristo", Alexandre Dumas's tale of long-gestating revenge in post Napoleonic France. The film has many supporters, but it is a half hour too long for "Ninety For Chill" and is pretty grounded in the historic environment. Director Kevin Reynolds may have given us "Waterworld", but this podcast needs some insane idea(s) like that Kevin Costner flick to work.

Russ still has his skills that will allow anyone to talk about any movie they want on the podcast, so he decided to offer up a movie with similar themes, but with monsters and a manageable runtime. Someday, he would love to discuss Timur Bekmambetov's Russian action-monster movie hybrids that got him to the Stateside attention, but "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter" may be a great jumping off point to this director's filmography.

CatBusRuss met the founder of Cutthroat Comics & Publishing at Capital City Comic Con 2025 in Lansing, Michigan. Josh's table on artist alley featured comic books and novels with titles that will grab your attention like "Pedoman and Kid Friendly" and "Stuffed Squirrels & Porcelain Angels", so our host could not resist talking shop with this talent. Comics were bought and information was exchanged. And now its Russ's turn to make something from this new friendship.

After the small audience at the Indiana Comic Convention "Ninety For Chill: The Panel", circumstances prevented screenwriter Chuck Thomas from "Atlanta Film Chat" meeting with CatBusRuss for a panel at ATL Comic Convention.Russ still wanted a chance to chat with one of Atlanta's best movie podcasters. So, it is only fitting for Chuck's cinematic wisdom to select a feature that fits the "Ninety For Chill" parameters and star an actor with quite the outrageous career, Eric Roberts. Throw in James Earl Jones and Chris Penn, and you have to call this a crazy flick. This film is Taekwondo's answer to Karate's box office dominance, 1989's "Best of the Best".

These two podcasters had a ball to start since Chuck wanted to find out about what he may have missed from the convention, and Russ was fascinated by his guest's PROPER football scarf selection. It serves as a preview of what will become of this year's Devil's Night's podcast with the cast and creator of "The Crow". With so many similar interests, the language is a lot looser than usual, so ear muffs for the kids, please.

Despite the similarities of these talking heads, CatBus was not impressed by this feature. It may have brought up past trauma from "Over the Top". But again, Chuck has a great mind for movies, and like our host, raised on "Mystery Science Theater 3000". Thus, it may not be too challenging to turn Russ's opinion around on the first chapter of Phillip Rhee's franchise.

CatBusRuss was too worn out to catch the "Josie and the Pussycats" reunion panel with Rachel Leigh Cook & Tara Reid, but he still had a handful of "I Dig Crazy Flicks" buttons to give out, so he made it to day three of GalaxyCon Des Moines. Just in time to catch the Q&A with Brian O'Halloran⁠ the star of "Clerks".

This was an insightful panel where our host was impressed about how active he is in film and television, and every actor's fascination with Jason Mewes. It also gave CatBus a sound byte to open this episode with. If Russ is not tempting the Hollywood big wigs to start sending out cease and desist letters, is he putting enough effort in promoting this podcast?

Our host also ran into Jess McCord at that panel and the two stuck around to check out the "Inglourious Treksperts" panel/podcast recording with Bret Spiner. It was a fun panel that pretty much ignored the series and films that are the actor's claim to fame, "Star Trek: The Next Generation".

With October coming up, CatBus has been trying to figure out when to release all of his banked podcasts/panels (Hopefully to coincide with Spooky Month). While he was figuring out that schedule, he decided to post up a review for the latest feature from Dario Argento, "Dark Glasses". Russ is going to be on Jamie Ray's "Fave Five from Fans" podcast where the two will discuss all elements of the Italian auteur's career some Friday in the upcoming weeks, until it doesn't.

CatBusRuss may have missed the "Speed Friending" event as he recovered from the stress of making it to day one of GalaxyCon Des Moines (Never mind the stress of his personal dramas.), but he worked his promotional butt off and is damn near out of the con's "I Dig Crazy Flicks" buttons. This is thanks to the help of Jess McCord of the tabletop RPG "Skies of Fortune". The two guested on each others' panels respectively and had so much fun, Russ nearly lost his Yeti microphone.

But ThePoeticCritic may think that is justified because he was in a rush to get to see his first John Barrowman panel. It was a fun show, but Barrowman's lack of humbleness leads our host to believe he getting paid way too much to frolic around and curse at conventions. If only the appreciative Karen Gillan's panel would have followed his instead, CatBus may have felt better about his love for the country that is cool with the C-word.

Russ also had fun running into some familiar faces from his travels this year, and if it was not for his hard out, Darby Harn from ScreenRant (Check him out on the "The Last Jedi" episode.) would have had him as a guest on his "Humanity of Superman" panel. Perchance this professional nerd gig may pay off for this kid from Peoria.