Dance of the Dead has the look and feel of a disastrous zombie flick.  It has a bunch of no name teenage looking actors and actresses.  A plot (Zombies rise from the dead on the night of the prom and high schoolers have to fight for their lives and their town) ripped from several other zombie movies.  A movie poster eerily similar to that of 2004's amazing "zombedy" Shaun of the Dead.  And, on top of all this, a director with virtually no feature film directing experience.

But this, true believers (Yes, I just pulled a Stan Lee reference out of my ass.  You don't like it?  Go read a DC comic then you pussy.  Yeah I know Batman is good, but other than that, DC sucks.) is why we watch movies, and THEN decide if they suck or not.  Or at least some of us do.

Dance of the Dead managed to do something that all good horror, and especially zombie flicks, HAVE to do.  Make the most out of the pieces you have.  If you look back in the legendary genesis of the zombie flick, you will quickly find out that the best of the bunch, even the ones done by famed directors like Romero and Fulci, were done on smaller budgets without the luxury of having big stars to bank on for success.  Dance does this wonderfully, making even the predictable and annoying characters seem likable.  And if they weren't likable, then they at least had the presence of mind to kill them off early!

This all brings me to my first point.  The cast here, again full of people who's biggest project to date seems to be Dance of the Dead itself, are all very competent.  The movie is exactly demanding, but it still has a lot of dialogue, and without people to spew those words out, however trite or meaningless, it's difficult to make a movie work.  The saving grace seems to be the comedy within the conversations though.  Nothing is taken to seriously in Dance of the Dead, and that lightens the load for everyone involved.  It's a feel good, fun time zombie flick, and the cast seem to reflect that with the youthful energy being the driving force.

Direction here is solid, but not in the least bit flashy or pretentious.  There some nifty use of heavy lighting and filters, the cornerstones of any 80's "Return of the living Dead" style zombie flick, but other than that, everything's played pretty straight forward, and I for one have no problem with that.  If you don't feel comfortable as a director taking chances and being experimental, there's no need to force it.  That "comfort" is actually a strength to the film, and I felt right at home with the direction, and thankfully nothing was ruined by the dreaded "shaky cam" or choosing shitty angles to shoot the action on.  Simply put, the camera work never gets in the way of the fun.

Gore and special effects are all good, but it's most likely all stuff experienced zombie fans have seen before.  Doesn't mean it isn't highly entertaining, and some of the bullet wounds are particularly graphic.  There's also a head split in half the long way, and a severed head "still alive" gag that is very cool.  Nothing here will have you howling or calling your friends to tell them "how awesome that kill just was", but it's all impressive none the less, and thankfully, almost totally free of any cgi.  Yay!  Here at the Midnight Showing we basically have one rule concerning our gore and special f/x, and that is "Fuck CGI!"

If you couldn't tell by now, Dance of the Dead is a movie that has all the elements to become a cult classic.  Sure, that's pretty cliche to say, but when a movie has it, it just has it.  I think the director has a pretty good handle on this zombie thing, and if he continues to interject the brand of humor in his future flicks, he should make some very interesting stuff.  Also, some of the actors and actress's are surely going to be noticed because of this film.

If your looking for a light-hearted, "Shaun of the Dead" style zombie flick, and you can appreciate flicks that pay obvious homage to what's come before it (Return of the Living Dead, Night of the Creeps), then you should get plenty of enjoyment out of Dance of the Dead.

If only my prom was overrun by zombies.

long version:  "Bob" be praised, someone has finally concocted a fucking proper viral-berserker/fast-zombie movie that is not offensive to the sensibilities of the zombie fan.  that person is John Eric Dowdle, the director of this movie, which is a remake of the spanish film "[Rec]."

What has he done right?  Lets go bit by bit.

First off, he gets us interested in the characters by showing them at ease.  Cute young reporter woman and her burly cameraman have been sent to shadow some firefighters for the night, a nice human-interest story to fill some airtime.  The firefighters hit on her, she plays basketball with them, and is clearly having fun beng the only woman in a building full of half-clothed adventurous men. A call comes in, and off they go to get a kitten out of a tree or whatever it turns out to be, but there's nothing actually on fire.

Secondly, once we like these people, he plunges them, and the audience, straight into panic.  The firefighters were responding to a call regarding an old woman screaming to high heaven in her locked apartment, and after a tense scene with what turns out to be a violent berserk octagenerian with blood all over her, it is mere second before we find out that the building has been sealed off with bulldozers and big concrete barricades and gas-masked soldiers with big guns.

Thirdly, he lets us know what we're dealing with.  no zombies.  no mysteriously ambulatory corpses, no hocus pocus or weird cults or ghosts or flashbacks.  One of the tenants in the apartment building is a veterinarian, looks at one of the infected, and recognizes what's going on.  Rabies.  wierdly fast-acting rabies that only takes hours to get to the stage it normally takes the diease months to arrive at.  these pople are not zombies.  they are insensate to pain and acting berserk because a virus has swollen their brainmeats to the point where their own skull is crushing it.

this is where the movie diverges from the spanish original, which had people from the vatican researching a cure for a demonic virus in the attic of an apartment building.  This was Somebody's dog caught a weird disease and some vet outside the building called the cdc, which came and closed the building off while our characters were dealing with berserker-senior (you can't trust old people, a wonderful nod to Fido and other such zombie movies).

The next thing he does right:  shakycam!  I heard people in the audience comparing this to Cloverfield, but i hold no truck with giant monster movies.  This harkens back to Evil Dead, the feeling of someone being ther ein the room with a camera experiencing the same crazy shit as everyone else, because that is exactly what's going on.  our glimpses of late-stage infected are few and shocking, which is nice.

Sixth, he gives it a goddamn proper ending that was telegraphed from very early on (in the movie's title, in fact).  This building is sealed.  nothing gets in or out.  so the story that began in the building ends in the building.  Very nicely done, but it woulda been nicer if they'd left certain things out of the commercials.

And lastly, it's all the little details.  the way nobody bothers to save the obnoxious drunken lawyer.  the infected children, the local drug-dealer coming to the rescue with all manner of pills and potions to help people, and the cute leading lady just to name a few off the top of my head.  These are trapped, frightened people in a hellacious situation, but they're still people, and the touches of humanity get this one suprisingly high marks for a not-quite-a-zombie-movie, and earn it a place of honor next to the works of George Romero and Andrew Currie (the director of Fido, my favorite non-romero zombie movie)

side note:  if you like the idea of rabies infecting humans and making them go berserk, and want a little dystopian social-sci-fi to go with it, check out Chuck Palahniuk's Rant.  if you got a kick out of fight club, you'll enjoy it.  it has similar cacophony-society-inspired antics, hints of time travel, and other goodies.

     The funny thing is, these zombies don't crave brains, nor are they even zombies.  They are simple people infected with something that is dubbed the "rage virus"  But let me go back a few steps and take it from the start.

     A trio of activist's trying to free some chimps inadvertently release a virus on the city of London England, which causes the population to destroy itself.  28 days later, Jim awakes in an empty hospital room.  Having been unconscious from a bicycle accident, he has no idea of what has happened.  After roaming the deserted streets, he eventually finds some of the survivors in a church.  Naturally they are survivors of the infected variety, and the chase is on.  Jim is saved by Mark and Selena, and brought up to speed on what has gone on while he was sleeping.  From here on in the movie is all about survival, and after coming across a father and daughter taking shelter in an apartment building, the small group decide to try and find other survivors who had been broadcasting over the radio.

     What I like most about this movie is the infected themselves.  They are still humans, and can be killed just as easily.  But unlike the undead zombies of other movies, these suckers are fast and unrelentingly violent.  And all it takes is a drop of their blood to get into your system, or even a bite, and you have about 30 seconds until you are one of them.  The one thing that I still can't seem to wrap my head around is how the infected seem to know who is one of them and who isn't?  They track down and rip apart people that are normal, yet leave each other alone.  But if that is the worst thing I can say about this movie, then I can live with that. 

28 Days later gives a new twist on an old theme, and is a very intense ride.  The sequel is also worth checking out. 

Já que o assunto é "voltar a ativa", uma coisa leva a outra. O blog tava morto / eu vim aqui e ressucitei ele / o Blog virou um Zumbi / portanto, um blog zumbi, da dicas de filme... de ZUMBI !

Zombie Strippers é o nome desse filmaço. A sinópse do filme é breve e intrigante : Cientistas em um laboratório começando a virar zumbis, sendo eles controlados por uma força tarefa que ta mais pra grupo revolucionário ultra-jovem. Porém, um dos zumbis escapa, e caminhando pela cidade, acaba entrando em uma casa de Strip-tease. Não dmeora mto rpa confusão começar, assim que o zumbi morde a primeira stripper, o público masculino não quer mais saber de mulheres vivas, e sim, de shows de stripper de mulheres zumbis, o que chama a atenção do dono do estabelecimento. Vneod a grana comer solta, ele tranca as portas do "clube" e deixa o circo pegar fogo. Intrigas entre strippers zumbis e não zumbis começam a rolar, enquando o faxineiro, um mexicano que guarda um jegue dentro do armário de vassouras tenta conter a horda de zumbis com seu berrante naipe Sunset Raiders (aquele jogo de super nintendo).

Vale resaltar a ILUSTRE presença da grande atriz e diga-se de passagem, a mais "homenageada" da mulecada, JENNA JAMESON ! (em brilhante e bicuda apresentação) e tb uma resalva para o ator q faz o dono do "clube" ( esqueci o nome dele, mas é ele que fazia o FRED GRUGER)

Sem mais, ai vai o cartaz do filme... ASSISTAM, pois vcs vão morrer de rir.

And I'm sorry to say I have been holding out on y'all a little. So here it is - a synopsis of the last week, with a focus on my Thursday and Friday...

The other week I wrote about my most recent Vedic astrology phone reading on Sunday and some of the predictions that I was given.

One of the main things I was interested in, is if I was EVER gonna get a job again any time soon. Now, in my post about the reading, I wrote: "Josie thinks I should be offered a job pretty imminently". Imminently was my interpretation of what she actually said - which was, "I won't be surprised if you get a job this week".

I didn't convey exactly what she said because you know, I was lacking confidence. Not in Josie's prediction, just in myself. And it was a pretty definite statement. But guess what??

Yep! I FINALLY HAVE A NEW JOB!! Start Monday. Whoo hoo!! :)

I had my first interview with them on Tuesday afternoon. The fact this interview happened at all was amazing, since I'd somehow managed to include an old email address with my job application. Doh! Quite unforgivable for someone who's a geek. So they were trying to email me and getting a permanent bounce. Luckily for me, they actually bothered to pick up the phone and call me anyhow.

I was booked in for an hour, but when we looked up it was ten minutes short of two hours. I met with the company owner and their Business Development Manager. Things definitely felt positive, but I've been there before in recent times, so I wasn't gonna believe it just yet.

But in that session, they asked for my references and told me they wanted to see me for a second interview. As I was leaving, the guy who owns the company said: "I feel like we've all had a really great connection". Sounded a little like what you might say after a good first date! But... so far, so good.

Then I got the call about another day of temp work on Thursday. And then I had my morning saved by a very kind human being. The temp work was pretty much doing nothing all day and getting paid for it. Sweet!

Thursday night my friend L and I had tickets to a gig (awesome reggae band called the Black Seeds).

In the afternoon, I checked my emails to find out I'd been asked back in for a second interview on Friday. I said yes ofcourse. BUT I didn't have any suitable interview clothes with me... so after I finished doing nothing all day at 5pm, I hurried over to the big mall near L's work.

Once again, I said a couple of quick prayers - let me find something to wear for tomorrow's interview, let me find it quickly and make sure it goes with my black leather boots (the only footwear I had with me).

As many of you gals out there well know, shopping for something specific in a short timeframe isn't always easy. But I found a funky little black dress and some accessories within thirty minutes!

Unbeknownst to me, L had told a certain boy of our plans for the evening. The one who recently caused me some confusion. He kinda invited himself along. So the three of us had drinks, then dinner (which the boy went out of his way to pay for). Then t'was off to the gig. My word, I had no idea Kiwis could rock the reggae so well! I was a bliss zombie before the night was out - we crashed around 2am.

But good news about the state of confusion - I have no idea what this boy's motives are, but I've definitely decided he's not for me. He plays things way too coy which aint good for a straight shooter. I need things to be a little more upfront than that! So I'm just going to enjoy his friendship and that's all. [Relief!]

Friday morning I rocked up for my interview in my cute 'n' funky outfit and was pretty much offered the job straight up. This time I was in there for almost four hours - talking through some more of my experience, looking at some technical stuff and then they took me out to lunch! Its a very small business full of smart and friendly people. Think I'm gonna like it there.

The money is actually a little more than I wanted, and my first day on Monday will be a road trip to meet some clients a couple of hours out of town, tagging along with the Business Development Manager.

It will be different, working with only a handful of people instead of the large corporate world I've come from. But I think its definitely a good thing, and a much needed change from "same-same" experienced in large companies with so much corporate bullshit and red tape.

And then three for three - on hearing the good news, my parents decide to spring for dinner. Perhaps they're just glad that soon I'll be getting out of their hair?? ;)

So yay! I wanted to thank those of you who've been listening to me mope and complain here. New adventures await...

Don't forget to enter the contest for your chance at free shite.

http://theeriver.wordpress.com/2008/10/09/arise-oh-deadoh-and-a-contest/

Believe it or not, the zombie on the left is my pastor, James Harleman. 

This picture was taken at the San Diego Comicon.

Admit it. 

You wish your pastor was so cool!

I am overjoyed that my pastors (James AND his wife Kat) enjoy zombie movies, horror, anime, and other great films. 

In fact, they enjoy it so much that the name of their 9th wedding anniversary party is,

Harleween 2008 - The Walking Dead

and they have invited me to partake, which means I have to come up with a zombie costume over the next 2 weeks. Google to the rescue!

The first thing I came across was this great zombie-making video on Youtube,

Next, I ran into this website that goes into specific zombification details,

So You Wanna Be A Zombie?

Finally, in keeping with the zombie theme, you should check out Diana Taibi's review of George Romero's Zombie Quadrilogy (Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead, Day of the Dead, and Land of the Dead). Diana is the webmaster and one of the contributing film critics for Cinemagogue, a ministry sponsored by Mars Hill, my church. 

You can check out her review here.

Any suggestions on what kind of zombie I should go as?

(The best-dressed zombie gets a prize!)

Oh man, all this zombie talk has got me hungry.. for... some...brainnnnnnnnnnnnssssssssssssssssss..................................

Delacorte Press, 2009
320 pages
Carrie Ryan's Website
Rating: 3.5 out of 5
Song: Fleurs du Mal - Sarah Brightman

Imagine a future where your world consists of the village you live in surrounded by the Forest of Hands and Teeth - a forest that contains the Unconsecrated, zombie-like creatures that crave living human flesh. One bite from the Unconsecrated on a living human will turn them and they, in turn, become an Unconsecrated. This is Mary's world. A world where the village she lives in is led by the Sisterhood and the fence, the barrier, between the forest and the village is protected by the Guardians. A world where the people are taught to dedicate themselves to the Lord (God) and that their purpose is to live, to continue (basically reproduce) so humanity can survive. Mary questions this existence. When she was young, her mom use to tell her stories of life prior to the Unconsecrated passed down from generations; stories of tall metal buildings and an endless ocean untouched by the infection. When Mary goes to live with the Sisters after her mom is infected and toss out into the Forest, the truths that she grew up learning from the Sisterhood begin to unravel. Mary begins to ponder of a life outside the fence walls and when the fence is breached, her whole life, and that of her friends, is thrown into chaos.

When I first heard the summary of this novel, I immediately thought The Village (the movie directed by M. Night Shyamalan). The similarities with The Village is basically the plot - a village surrounded by woods/forest that people cannot enter because it contains dark creatures that will kill you and then the main character stumbles upon something that threatens to unravels that whole infrastructure of the village, etc. Carrie Ryan's dark, post-apocalyptic novel is raw and ominous with an honest, brutal look at human nature, faith, love and hope. There were times when the story felt repetitious especially the constant see-saw love triangle with Mary, Harry and Travis and certain scenes could have been spiced up but, the layers of themes in this story make this a book worth discussing.

Due out on bookstores: March 10, 2009

One small college

A grocery store

One library

Three schools

One papermill

Two drugstores

One post office

Three hundred and fifty seven cats

Eighteen hamsters

One hundred and five fish

Five humans

Four thousand and ninety nine undead

Four hundred dogs

Two bent on world domination

Rolling down the asphalt

"Back in Black" blaring out the windows

Weapons galore in the back

Axe, Machete, Katana

Winchester Lever Action

Remington Slug Gun

Where am I going?

Powell, Ohio

Another Z-town

I'll stop them

I always do

Nothing different

Undead shambling

Shuffling along

Nell'immaginario giapponese come sono visti gli zombie?
Innegabilmente, ugualmente alla figura del vampiro, sono penetrati nel Sol Levante in anni piuttosto recenti attraverso la cinematografia ad essi dedicata con la differenza che vampiri e licantropi essendo connotati da una forte caratteristica di individualita' e rispettivamente di nobilta' e forza hanno probabilmente catturato maggiormente l'attenzione del grosso pubblico.
Gli zombi che invece paiono far parte di una silenziosa collettivita' (molto piu' vicina, se vogliamo, a quella del mondo dei salariati giapponesi imbrigliati in rigide regole sociali) sono principalmente stati utilizzati come "carne da macello" per i vari videogiochi quali, tanto per citarne alcuni, Residente evil o Oneechanbara. Azzerandone la valenza sociale e politica si sono li' rivelati il nemico perfetto (sicuramente meglio di avversari dall'aspetto piu' "umano" che immancabilmente avevano il difetto di provocare l'ira delle varie associazioni pronte a inveire contro la violenza gratuita presente nei giochi... Insomma, in fondo si tratta di "death meat", no? Niente problemi etici o morali). Inoltre sono comparsi in alcune anime e film dichiaratamente ispirati dai B movie americani ed italiani (e infatti tali produzioni si muovono nell'ambito di una cinematografia a basso budget) dove la possibilita' di riversare sugli zombie oltre le classiche armi da fuoco tutto l'armamentario di spade, coltelli e quant'altro presi dalle arti marziali orientali ha ampliato la gamma degli scontri e dato sfogo alla sanguinaria furia repressa degli eroi di turno creandosi un proprio target di spettatori. Troviamo quindi pellicole come Oneechanbara tratta dal suddetto videogame o Zombie Self-Defence Forze. Per  non parlare di derivazioni estreme come Yakuza zombie.
Vero comunque che ci sono stati esperimenti cinematografici piu' interessanti quali il bizzarro Tokyo zombie con due attori del calibro di Aikawa Sho e Asano Tadanobu (con tanto di capigliatura afro) dove gli zombie vengono affrontati a... mosse di judo!
Se vogliamo, in realta' in Giappone pare che la valenza sociale e politica degli zombie sia stata annullata a favore del "eroe" che li affronta. Quasi che esistano semplicemente per enfatizzare la singolarita' di quest'ultimo. Da notare poi come spesso negli ultimi anni l'avversario dell'orda famelica piu' agguerrito e combattivo sia proprio una donna, in genere pure di bell'aspetto. Un duplice invertimento dei ruoli. Quello del gender e del ruolo sociale. Non e' lo zombie a rappresentare un moto di ribellione verso la societa' bensi' l'eroe/eroina, elemento anarchico fortemente in conflitto con i membri della sua stessa specie.
In letteratura si segnala un'opera interessante come Stacy - trasposta ovviamente anche in un film da molti ritenuto un piccolo cult del genere - del cantante e scrittore Otsuki Kenji (personaggio di spicco della subcultura di Tokyo) dove per una misteriosa malattia tutte le ragazze tra i quindici ed i diciassette anni muoiono per rinascere in forma di affamati zombie i quali, per essere eliminati, devono venire smembrati in piu' di centosessanta pezzi.
Tra i manga si segnala Shikabane Hime (Le principesse cadavere) dove i resti di alcune ragazze si occupano di eliminare altri esseri sovrannaturali in base ad un accordo stretto con i monaci della scuola buddhista esoterica Shingon che gli permetteranno di andare in paradiso solo dopo che avranno eliminato cento otto avversari. Un'intrigante contaminazione tra la figura dello zombie come noi la conosciamo e quella delle tradizioni autoctone. Attualmente ne e' stata realizzata pure una versione animata.

Ma pellicole con riferimenti agli zombie li troviamo gia' negli anni ottanta anche ad Hong Kong. E' abbastanza singolare che la figura dello Jiang Shi venga spesso associata a quella del vampiro pur avendo invece diverse similarita con quella dello zombie nell'accezione delle sue caratteristiche moderne (certo differenti da quelle della tradizione originaria haitiana).

C'e' da riflettere come le figure tradizionali del folklore sia occidentale che orientale mutino nel tempo acquisendo man mano particolarita' che non sono solo frutto dei dubbi e delle paure di ogni epoca, ma anche dei diversi luoghi geografici ammantandosi cosi' di nuove leggende.

Immagine: videogioco Oneechanbara per XBOX.

Can you hear me now?

Just t’other day, a FOE asked the Evil: “What’s up with this zombie infatuation all of a sudden?”

Evil knew of what she spoke: over the past two years, zombiana has infiltrated pop culture to an extent the once-living, now horribly risen could never have imagined. You’ve got your “zombie survival guides,” zombie apocalypse t-shirts, zombie walks, zombie rockstar mockumentaries . . . and the list goeth on.

Now, Evil is pro-walking dead. He himself has dabbled in the occasional zombie-related anecdote, though, truth to tell, he stopped when he sensed the impending oversaturation in our society of lifeless eyes, senseless moans, and death-stank.

Among publishers, who buy books 18 to 24 months before publication, this zombification of popular culture must have been met with sighs of relief; you’d have to think editors would be sick unto undeath of vampire novels by now. (Though apparently those Twilight books, and this True Blood HBO series, indicate that vampire love will never die.)

But that begs the question: when we finally tire of zombie this and zombie that, where does our cultural lust for heebie-jeebie providers take us? Naturally, Evil is here with a suggestion:

Observe: so intent is our model on her pose that she fails to notice scaly death approaching . . .

How about a certain lagoon-based creature? Or, heck—lake, river, swamp, loch, sea, bay, or fjord-based . . . basically, how about the famous but criminally underexploited Fishman? You’ve got your “humanoid but creepy” angle . . . the fact that it rises from the murky depths in which you, presumably a scantily-bikini-ed hottie, so blithely swim . . . throw in the whole “giant companies dumping toxic waste into our water supply” back story—what’s not to like? And fear?

Plus . . . looka that face:

That’s a mug you can love, even as it drags you screaming into its cavernous lair. Shot in grainy black-and-white, its lines and wide eyes—seemingly saddened by the accumulated wisdom of man’s follies—resemble those faces you see in Depression-era photos, no?

Who knows? Fishman might be the perfect monstrous metaphor for our times.

Enjoy the weekend. If possible, look great while screaming in terror.

http://theeriver.wordpress.com/

As an added bonus, if you submit something, along with your info you put on your submission. Way of the Chosen, and you win. I'll send you a Way of the Chosen T-shirt which I am having made. so don't forget your t-shirt size.  Good Luck

With stiffened limbs, a corpse slowly lifts it's coffin, and oozes out of it with slow jerky movements, then another one rises, and then another. Soon there is several zombies, hungry for the flesh of the living. With maniacal laughter the necromancer whispers, "Go forth and unleash chaos."

As one the zombie horde moans, "Brrrrraaaaainnnsss...."

--------------------------------------

I'm having a contest to show those usurpers the true way. The usurpers I speak off. Those zombie hating fools at Shoulda Woulda Coulda.  Well it's time to show them the error of their ways.

CONTEST-

I am offering a contest the person who sends in the best zombie battle plan to defeat the human race will win this.

http://www.thinkgeek.com/tshirts/generic/ae5e/

I am also offering a contest to best piece of fiction, short story, poem, or recipe containing brains will win this.

http://www.thinkgeek.com/books/humor/a06e/

I will post top 3 entries in each category.

For the absolutely crappiest entry I will send you a prize as well, but that in itself will be a surprise. Cause unlike the humans, we zombies reward effort.  

This contest is open until 10/24/08

HOW TO SUBMIT ENTRY -

Send me an email with your submission to braineaterlove@yahoo.com

Your submission can be in email, Word, or PDF format only.

On the submission it has to have this information.

Name, address, email address, Shirt Size (please specify male or female size).

Any other questions you can ask me if you wish.

CONTEST RULES

1. You can enter as many times as you like for either category, but you can only win either one, not both of the prizes.

2. If out of stock of said items I will substitute a prize of equal value or more.

3. Women, if you send in naked, or half naked photos with your submission WILL not help you win, but to be honest it won't hurt either.

4. The contest is open to everyone around the world, but if it costs more then 10 bucks to get the stuff to you, you either pay the difference, or you can come pick it up.

5. No plagiarism, if I find out you copied something your toast, original work only.

OK that's it I think I covered everything good luck, and lets show that human scum we mean business.

There is something rotten in the city of New York.

There is something viral at least, and it's claimed too many victims. The symptoms are, well, somewhat symptomless. Mostly it's a feeling of utter exhaustion coupled with aches and pains. You feel like you've been hit by a cross-town bus. You fall asleep at work. Your head feels heavy and your sinuses are somewhat full, but there's barely any sneezing, and no runny nose to speak of. But you can't move. You lie in bed with your clothes on, the lights off, praying for an October snow day to skip work.

Everyone has it. It's going around.

Pretty soon we'll all be zombies. Let this serve as proof that I never meant to eat your flesh. My bad.

Awesome song. Anyways. There has been another great lapse in my blogging, which sucks - but I am moving this weekend, so things have been crazy - not really, but that is my excuse for my laziness... I haven't even packed. But we are only moving to  the next building over, so ya - I am good for now.

Peter on the other hand Picnik'd this little diddy up today... awesome - hence the Zombie song.

Oh yes, you are not forgetting about the Sitges Film festival!

It is going on right now just outside Barcelona in Sitges and is the number one fantasy film festival in the world. Check out their website to see what movies are on today and other activities. I heard some crazy rumours about a ZOMBIE WALK on Friday. Yep. It is true.

Tom makes it to the middle of the room and pick up the swords. When Tom look behind him to see where the farmer was he look into another mirror which a old man in and he now out of the mirror.

"What Is Going On?! Tom yells out loud. Tom just notice he was surrounded by the souls of the dead. The farmer runs at him at full speed. Tom stabs him with one sword and cut off the farmer's head with another sword. The old man knock Tom over and knock the swords out of his hand. Teenage boy jumps on top of Tom. Tom kick the teenage boy off. Getting back to his feet grabbing one of the swords and stabs the teenage boy. The old man runs at Tom. Tom punches the old man in the face and cuts off his head. Walk back over to the teenage boy but by accident looks into a mirror on the floor but instead of it jumping out his hand grab Tom and try to pull Tom into the mirror. Tom still holding his sword stabs the hand and the hand lets him go.

"OK I just can't look at mirror" Tom talks to himself. Before he can say anything else one of the doors open. An old man wearing what looks like old navy jeans with a riped Joy Division t-shirt with a staff walk in.

"Who are you and where am I" I yell at the old man. The old man look at me like I had five heads. "Sorry for looking at you weird. You are the first person I seen in one hundred years. My name is Eric Johnston." Eric tells Tom. "How can you live for that long." Tom ask. "Well time does not move but your body still ages and there you don't need to eat either" Tom said.

Eric paused to and start to look around and notice the zombie on the floor but disappears when he looks at them.

"Do you know anything about this place Eric?" Tom ask. "Well I found a journal that might lead me to believe that the castle was build during any point before 39,999 b.c and time itself stop in 30,999 b.c. There was the Holy War during 39,958 b.c and anytime before that. This castle was in war with the seven warriors of light. The war ended when the seven warriors of light sealed the king inside this castle with everyone in it.

Eric starts to walk in front of one of the doors. Tom notice Eric looking in one of the mirror but nothing happens. "What your name." Eric ask. "My name is.." When Tom was about to say his name the door that was in front of Eric fly open hitting Eric that make Eric fly across the room.

Tom picks up his other sword. Tom looks at the door that was just sent across the room. "Eric are you OK!" I yell to him. "Yes I am Ok." the voice come from the area the door used to be and than same person walk into the room.

"Hi how do you know my name." Eric ask. Tom points to the door. "My name is Tom Hall." Tom tell Eric. The door fly back toward Eric. Eric blast the door with his staff, the door split in half and miss him. Tom look back to see another Eric but now sees giant black creature, had six arms, fingers looks like swords and. four legs. His face was horror with teeth that look like daggers.

Starving for reality,
Settling for mythic sentiment,
then shackled!

When flight should have been learned,
no mentor found.
Lonesome zombies’ protégé
designed to feed as eagles, but
scrambling for slow insects,
free of hope’s passion.

Think we,
the sun shines as an insult?
the rain descends to flood us?
The earth softens to mire us?
and eagles soar in arrogance?

Within the wheels there is a call
to consider these more clearly.

Windows have a way
of opening on the wretched.
Pinfeathers have a way
of growing unexpectedly.

June 1997