Odds n' Ends

A round up of zombie-related news hitting the web

• Mail Order Zombie, an outstanding zombie movie podcast of which I am a big fan, aired a special show last week: The Dead Letter Awards. Under the direction of Brother D at Mail Order Zombie, the Dead Letter Awards brought together a community of horror podcasters to dole out honarary awards for the best in 2008 zombie media. Listeners of Mail Order Zombie were not only able to vote but also win gift bags. Check out Mail Order Zombie on iTunes for more.
  

• Katherine Monk provides a succinct run-down of the unique linguistic themes in Bruce McDonald's Canadian zombie film Pontypool. Yes, language can be scary. [via Canwest News Service]

• According to Nick Breckon at Shacknews, Valve saw sales of its zombie shooter game Left 4 Dead increase by 3000% last week, beating its launch numbers. Valve offered Left 4 Dead at rock-bottom sale prices for purchase over its Steam digital delievery system last week. Consumers bit and bit had. Having just discovered Left 4 Dead, I look forward to all the new players this game will deliver who will abandon me to a Tank during online play! Thanks guys!
  

LEAKED: Behind the Scenes of New Romero Zombie Film

The fine folks at Fangoria have linked to a 5 minute Youtube video that features leaked behind-the-scenes footage of Romero's new zombie film -- a film so-far only known as . . . Of the Dead

CAUTION: Spoilers may be ahead (I haven't watched the whole thing yet)



[via Fangoria]

Undead Anonymous: Viral Marketing

Finally, a support group and medication for the unhappy undead.

S. G. Browne's novel Breathers: A Zombie's Lament is due out March 3rd, but the novel has been attached to a series of viral ads and websites. Breathers (which has also been optioned for a film) is the story of Andy Warner, a recently revived zombie facing the social persecution that the living (breathers) force on the undead. Having trouble adjusting, Andy joins an Undead Anonymous group.

Over at Undead Anonymous you can read the undead commandments of how to live well as a zombie, learn if UA is right for you, read Andy's diary, ask Andy questions, and view ads for the zombie antidepressant Necrobufrin.





Since most antidepressants usually come with a long list of side effects that would make you feel like a zombie, Necrobufrin doesn't seem half bad.

5 Most Memorable Zombie Movie Assholes

You think your neighbors are bad? Blasting music at 3:00am in the morning. Letting their dog turn your lawn into a toilet. Stealing your newspaper before dawn. Now imagine you and your neighbor are trapped in a farmhouse while the hungry undead tear at your feeble barricades and your neighbor won’t come out of the fucking basement to help! Ever since Night of the Living Dead, zombie films have featured a number of memorable asshole characters that outshine the zombies in making life difficult for others. Your neighbors got nothing on these guys.

TOP 5 MOST MEMORABLE ZOMBIE MOVIE ASSHOLES

5.) Harry Cooper (Night of the Living Dead – 1968)

Mr. Cooper (Karl Hardman) was the character that started it all. After keeping his wife, wounded daughter, and two other survivors hiding in the cellar while Ben and Barbara fight for their lives upstairs in the farmhouse, Cooper emerges from the cellar and begins a power struggle with Ben. Cooper's really fixated on the cellar. For the whole movie, Cooper argues with everyone, plots to control the only weapon in the house, and comforts himself with petty revenge fantasies. “Let them stay upstairs,” he grumbles. “Let them. We'll see who's right. We'll see, when they come begging me to let them in down here.” It’s also pretty clear that he abuses his wife (if not physically then emotionally and verbally). The tension comes to a climax when Cooper attempts to shoot Ben but Ben wrenches the rifle out of Cooper’s hands and shoots Cooper instead. Stumbling downstairs, Cooper’s precious cellar becomes his grave.

Why He’s Memorable:

It’s not because he was the first zombie movie character to show how humanity’s ego and greed is more of a threat than actual zombies. It’s not because his struggle with Ben broke racist patterns by presenting a Black man as an authority figure. No, Harry Cooper is memorable for a better reason.

He was right

Despite being one of the biggest assholes in zombie movie history, it is arguable that Cooper was still right. They should have stayed in the cellar. He knew the zombies would descend en masse. He knew they would be strong in numbers (“And I'm telling you they turned over our car! . . . . Now you're telling me these things can't get through a lousy pile of wood?”). Had they stayed in the basement, Cooper, his wife, Barbra, Ben, Tom, and Judy might still be alive. Sure, they would eventually have to contend with Cooper’s zombie daughter, but that’s just one zombie instead of hundreds.

Harry Cooper was right. Unfortunately, he was also a massive dick.

Who's asshole #1? Keep reading after the jump!

4.) Uncle Les (Braindead – 1992)

In Braindead, Uncle Les (Ian Watkin) epitomizes sleaze. Les is Lionel's uncle, and Lionel is having some mother issues. You see, Lionel’s mother has become infected by the Sumatran Rat monkey, an infection that proceeds to turn her into a grotesque zombie who infects three other people. Lionel can’t seem to kill these creatures, so he keeps them sedated in his basement -- mother too. Then Uncle Les comes along, sliming into the film in a cheesy pompadour wig, looking to squeeze some money out of Lionel. Les discovers the sedated bodies in the basement, and instead of being horrified or scared he nonchalantly goes into blackmail mode. Are we surprised? After all, this is the same guy who appears quite acquainted with bestiality stag videos.

Why He’s Memorable:

Just watch the beginning of this scene and you tell me he’s not an asshole.



On top of that, Les is also remarkable in that, when the zombies attack, he holds his own and survives for longer than he has any right to. Just like a cockroach.



3.) The Inspector (Let Sleeping Corpses Lie - 1974)

The youth movement of the 1960s and 70s didn't look kindly on figures of authority, especially police. So, when it becomes clear that the protagonist of Let Sleeping Corpses Lie (aka The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue / Don't Open the Window) is George -- a motorcycle driving young rebel with environmental concerns -- we know that the police might as well have "ASSHOLE" stamped on their badges. The Inspector, especially, lives up to the title of "dick."

In the film, the Inspector (Arthur Kennedy) is a detective on a mission to rid his jurisdiction of any disorder, and he becomes obsessed with pursuing George as a suspect in a series of murders that are actually perpetrated by the living dead. Despite all evidence and reason to the contrary, the Inspector dogs George at every turn, accusing him of being a Manson Family-style sicko and pervert. The Inspector is a cop on a supreme power trip, and he minces no words rationalizing why he fingers George for the murders: "You're all the same, the lot of you, with your long hair and faggot clothes. Drugs, sex, every sort of filth!"

A real progressive thinker, that Inspector.

Why He’s Memorable:

During the climax of the film, the Inspector shoots George dead and makes it clear the investigation has not been so much about justice as hate. Speaking to George's corpse, the Inspector makes the most deliciously ironic wish: "I wish the dead could come back to life, you bastard, so then I could kill you again."

Like, what a fascist, man. Totally.



2.) Nathan Grantham (Creepshow – 1982)

While most asshole characters in zombie movies are human, zombies too can be supreme douche bags. Example: Nathan Grantham (Jon Lormer) from the “Father’s Day” segment of Creepshow. In life, Grantham was the elderly patriarch of the wealthy Grantham family and a spiteful, hateful devil. When his daughter Bedelia finds love, Nathan Grantham has the man killed in a “hunting accident.” After a stroke, he berates Bedelia into making him a Father’s Day cake. Wailing from his chair, clacking his cane against the arm rests, he screams, “Where's my cake, Bedelia? Where's my Father's Day cake? I want my cake you dirty BITCH! I'm going to have it!” Bedelia snaps and gives her father the present he deserves: a skull-crushing blow from a heavy marble ashtray. Good-bye Nathan, right?


Nah. This guy has balls so full of spite that he returns from the grave on the seventh anniversary of his death, hauling his worm-eaten corpse out of the dirt, and brutally murders not only Bedelia but most of his family.

Why He’s Memorable:

While I would normally argue that Grantham isn’t technically a zombie, the scene where he emerges from the grave is one of the best in horror, the special effects design of his undead body is fantastic, and Jon Lormer’s voice is bone-chilling. You just want to reach into the TV and throttle him yourself. This character is instantly memorable; "Father's Day" is the segment most remember from Creepshow. Also, as far as the undead go, most zombies can’t help what they are. Nathan Grantham, on the other hand, makes a point of returning from the grave to kill. And for what? To get his cake. Cake! This guys makes Ryan O'Neil seem like father of the century.

1.) Captain Rhodes (Day of the Dead – 1985)

How Joe Pilato didn't destroy his voice screaming and ranting while playing Captain Rhodes is beyond me. Racist, misogynistic, ignorant, violent -- Captain Rhodes takes command of an underground bunker of soldiers and scientists and quickly runs the place into the ground by antagonizing everyone in his path. It's not like the scientists in the film are doing effective work, yet Rhodes and his thugs typify the worst in narrow-thinking and abuse of power. Honestly, words don't do Captain Rhodes justice. Luckily, Youtube user 6uckfay6ouyay6 has compiled every Rhodes scene into a series of video clips. Just watch this guy fly off the handle. How can he not get the Oscar for BEST ZOMBIE MOVIE ASSHOLE ?



To the very end, even when the zombies are yanking out his intestines, Rhodes is defiant, loud, and the most memorable asshole in zombie movie history.

So, as you live your life and deal with all the jerkoffs who piss you off and make your life difficult, remember Rhodes' parting words: Choke on 'em! Choke on 'em!

----------------
Honorable mention: I would be remiss to not mention Andy Nyman's turn as Patrick in Dead Set (2008). While this show is fairly new, once the series hits North America and Region 1 media, I think history will show Patrick to be one of the top asshole characters in zombie history.

Click for my review of Dead Set

King of Beers, meet the Zombie of Wines

Les Raisins de la mort (The Grapes of Death) is a 1978 film about a vineyard whose grapes and wine turn people into zombies as a result of an odd pesticide sprayed on the grapes. While the connection between zombies and wine had for the longest time remained soley with this film*, Redheads Studio in Southern Australia gives us a new reason to think of "undead" as a vintage.

Calling it "Return of the Living Red," Redheads Studio and Mash design have teamed up to release a top end fine wine with a zombie packaging theme:

This was a complex fine wine with no listed age; a mysterious and intriguing wine. To compliment this the nature of the product, Mash developed a concept to create a small pack containing missing and/or suppressed crime files implying the existence of the living dead in and around the vineyards. With use of disturbing illustrations and
fascinating old photos on a toothy uncoated paper the concept was bought to life. A slip knot with old twine and a deep red wax dipped bottle went with the old crime file
folder to create one of our favorite wine packaging pieces

[via Dread Central]

*I forgot about 1989's The Vineyard. Then again, it is a forgettable movie.

MARCH 19, 21: East Coast US Pontypool Premiere

The Museum of Modern Art in New York has announced a number of film exhibitions in relation to their Canadian film exhibition series: Canadian Front 2009. This March will include the American East Coast Premiere of Bruce McDonald's Pontypool on March 19th and 21st. From MoMA.org:

Pontypool. 2008. Canada. Directed by Bruce McDonald. Screenplay by Tony Burgess, from his novel Pontypool Changes Everything. With Stephen McHattie, Lisa Houle, Georgina Reilly. Maverick filmmaker Bruce McDonald, whose The Tracey Fragments was a highlight of last year's Canadian Front, is back in full force with Pontypool, a taut, smart chamber horror story in which a virus, spread by language, turns listeners into flesh-eating zombies. The action takes place in a radio station whose broadcasts may be a big part of the problem. Courtesy of IFC Films. 96 min.

Thursday, March 19, 2009, 6:15 p.m.
Theater 1, T1 (East Coast premiere)

Saturday, March 21, 2009, 8:45 p.m.
Theater 1, T1 (East Coast premiere)

If you live in the area, get your tickets!

Tony Burgess talks Pontypool

OpenBookToronto has posted to Youtube an interview with Tony Burgess, the author of Pontypool Changes Everything (1998). Burgess also wrote the screenplay for Pontypool, the 2008 film directed by Bruce McDonald which debuted at the 2008 Toronto Film Festival and is set for a limited release in Canada (March 6, Toronto; March 13, Montreal and Vancouver; March 20, Calgary and Edmonton; March 27, Ottawa). It will also open in other international venues in March. Americans will have to wait until April.



Burgess's original novel, Pontypool Changes Everything, is being reprinted and is shipping to bookstores on March 1, 2009.

In Pontypool, "Shock jock" Grant Mazzy (Stephen McHattie) is working a dead-end radio job in Pontypool, Ontario when reports of people having bizarre fits, speaking in strange patterns, and turning horrendously violent start to come in. Grant and the small staff at the station become trapped while a deadly "virus" spreads through the English language and turns people into violent zombies.

More Pontypool media (including the trailer) after the jump.

TRAILER: Pontypool Changes Everything




Director Bruce McDonald answers a question at TIFF



LINK: Bruce McDonald talks Pontypool

Bruce McDonald interview on The Hour with George Stroumboulopoulos (for The Tracey Fragments




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Odds n' Ends

DMX TO MASSACRE ZOMBIES

Hip hop artist and actor DMX will play himself in the upcoming Zombie Massacre game for the Wii. Ben Krotin, of 1988 Games, stated in an e-mail that players will be able to control DMX to help their team fight zombies and deliver a bomb. I guess, in a zombie apocalypse, the the police will overlook all those theft, drug-possession and animal-cruelty convictions.

No word on whether DMX’s “penis be out” when he fights zombies too. [via NetworkWorld]


THE AMERICAN ECONOMY IS DOOMED

Robert Brusca may be chief economist at Fact and Opinion Economics, but he has his facts wrong about zombies.

While everyone is afraid that the recession will produce zombie economies, some American economists appear to know nothing about how to stop zombies . After stocks slipped Friday morning following a presentation by Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, Brusca likened the stock market’s response to a "horror film with a zombie with a stake in its heart." Dude, stakes are for vampires. Four-year-olds know that shit.

We’re all fucked! [via Money.CNN]


NIGHT OF THE LIVING DOLLS

At the New York Comic-Con this weekend, EMCE Toys highlighted their new 8” MEGO-style action figures based on George A. Romero’s original Night of the Living Dead. Figures included representations of Bill Hinzman as the Graveyard Zombie and a spot-on version of Duane Jones as Ben. [via Figures.com]


WE ARE GOING TO EAT YOU. . . . AGAIN: ZOMBI 2 REUNION?

Fearnet.com is reporting news from Paura Productions that indicates the cast of Lucio Fulci's Zombi (aka Zombie 2) will be appearing at the Chiller Theatre Expo from April 17th through 19th in Parsippany, New Jersey.

Sounds like Ian McCulloch, the male lead of Zombi, will be there but who else from the cast? [via Fearnet]

DIABLO CODY TO PRODUCE BREATHERS

Diablo Cody, screenwriter of Juno, may be producing a film adaptation of the unreleased novel Breathers: A Zombie’s Lament by S.G. Browne. In Breathers, a man name Andy dies in a car crash but returns as a zombie only to be ostracized by society for his hunger for flesh. He turns to an Undead Anonymous group and, presumably, finds love.

Geoff LaTulippe is writing a script for Breathers. Breathers: A Zombie’s Lament by S. G. Browne ships to bookstores on March 3rd. [Source: Production Weekly via Shock Till You Drop]

Pittsburgh Zombies Protest Comcast

Send More Cops, a zombie blog, has posted a Youtube link to news reports of a zombie protest against cable giant Comcast for dropping WBGN-TV.

Not only is WBGN-TV Pittsburgh's Independent TV station and it's disappearance will be another blow for broadcast diversity, WBGN-TV also broadcasts the It's Alive Show, whose creators have been a staple of the zombie community, especially in Pittsburgh where George A. Romero's made Night of the Living Dead. The It's Alive Show crew organize ZombieFest, an annual horror convention, and the record-breaking zombie walk in Monroeville, Pennsylvania.

REVIEW: Zombie Haiku by Ryan Mecum

Blood is really warm.
It’s like drinking hot chocolate
but with more screaming.

It is with observations like these that Ryan Mecum’s Zombie Haiku brings us what is a unique first for the zombie genre: a zombie poet.

The general idea behind Zombie Haiku (How Books, 2008) is that you are reading a reproduction of a poetry journal written during the zombie apocalypse. The unnamed poet writes about his life and observations in the haiku form: a line of five syllables, a line of seven syllables, and another line of five. Our writer, however, finds himself in the middle of a zombie outbreak and is attacked and bitten. He becomes infected. As he turns into a zombie and joins the horde of the cannibalistic undead, he (somehow) continues to write in his journal, recording the narrative of his (un)life and his thoughts on flesh eating, decomposition, and the trials and tribulations zombies face in the pursuit of food.

The book is lovingly designed to appear like an worn, blood-splattered journal held together with scraps of paper and tape. Between its covers are crude drawings and doodles by the zombie author as well as illustrated representations of Polaroids paper-clipped to the journal pages. If you think too hard about the visual concept it doesn’t make sense (where did the zombie get a camera and time to write during his rampage), but the book is categorized as humour, so you’re not meant to read it as high concept.

Although it may not be high concept, Zombie Haiku is an incredibly funny, witty, and inventive look into the mind of a zombie. The beginning haiku poems, written while the author is alive, are uninspired dreck overwrought with hollow angst (“The bird flew away / with more than just my bread crumbs. / He took my sorrow”), but once the writer is infected and becomes a zombie the graceful beauty of the haiku form lends a sublime perspective to the gory details of hunger, flesh, and the absurdity of life.

[Mom is] always with me
especially if my gut
can’t digest toenails

Zombie Haiku isn’t laugh-out-loud funny – it’s not slapstick humour – but what Ryan Mecum is able to do is present a perfectly waggish take on the zombie. He contrasts the elegance and natural structure of the haiku format with the disgusting and unnatural life of the zombie to express the zombie’s indifferent, blithe spirit. The zombie writer is admirably comfortable and curious about his current situation:

Looking at my hand,
somehow I lost a finger
and gained some maggots

Some of the pace in Zombie Haiku drags as several haiku poems are simply included for exposition to explain how the writer got from one location to the next. I wonder if the collection would have benefited from dropping these parts and focusing more on the witty observations such as this excerpt:

Falling down stairs
wasn’t too bad or painful.
Took a lot less time.

Overall, Zombie Haiku is a fast, fun read. While not as substantial in content as other humor-categorized zombie books like Max Brooks's The Zombie Survival Guide, Mecum’s work is not simply a novelty. Sure, the individual haiku poems might not appear inspiring in isolation, but reading them in succession creates a very enjoyable reading experience. You’ll return to your favorite haiku poems again and again.

Mecum’s Zombie Haiku is a jocular treatment of the haiku format and zombie genre that goes right for the jugular.

RATING: 4 / 5 zedheads

Odds n' Ends

A round up of zombie-related news hitting the web

• As a follow up to our post about the Zombie Economy, S. Wade Hansen explains on video and in text just exactly what is a "Zombie Bank" [via Learning Markets.com]

• Also in follow up to a previous post, CAPCOM has confirmed Dead Rising 2 after a trailer was leaked to the web. Dead Rising 2 will be released on the Xbox 360, PS3, and PC. The press release has further details:

The sequel to the 1.5 million-plus selling Dead Rising™, Dead Rising 2 will take the franchise to a new level of zombie-killing fun with tens of thousands of zombies, the all new gambling paradise of Fortune City to explore and conquer plus a host of new in-game objects that can all be used as deadly weapons to stave off the zombie assault.

Dead Rising 2 is set several years after the infamous zombie invasion of Willamette. Unfortunately, the zombie virus was not contained at the conclusion of Dead Rising, spreading unchecked throughout the United States and Dead Rising 2 depicts a country where zombie outbreaks continue to strike.

Dead Rising 2 is being developed in partnership with up and coming Canadian developer Blue Castle Games. A number of members from the original Dead Rising team will be working alongside Blue Castle Games throughout the development process, including Capcom’s global head of research and development, Keiji Inafune, who as the game’s Producer will play an active role in the project.

[via Destructoid]

• A remake of RKO's I Walked With a Zombie (1943) is set to be directed by Adam Marcus (dir. Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday) for Twisted Pictures [via Bloody-Disgusting]

• A new international one-sheet for Bruce McDonald's Pontypool has hit the tubes. Pontypool is set for an international release in March, IFC Films plans to release the film State-side in May. [via Bloody-Disgusting]

• Last but not least, a little undead astronomy. Looks like the universe actually has so-called "zombie stars." According to SPACE.com, "zombie stars" (aka Soft Gamma-ray Repeaters) are old stars that have consumed all the fuel that powers their nuclear fusion, so they are technically dead; however, the star continues to spin on its axis every 2.6 seconds while producing strong magnetic fields. There are only five known "zombie stars" in our galaxy and one in a nearby galaxy. So, they spin every 2.6 seconds? I guess this must mean they are fast zombies. [via SPACE.com]
  

ZOMBIE ATTACK IN DANA POINT

You can't log on to the internet without reading news stories about hacked traffic signs warning American motorists about approaching zombies. The Zed Word has posted about it on several occasions.

We now get word that citizens continue to hack into road signs to warn of the zombie threat. According to the Dana Point Times, a sign in Dana Point, California was altered to read, “WARNING! ZOMBIE ATTACK”. Although the Dana Point Times assures its readers that the warning is "all a ruse," I cry cover up!

The road signs speak the truth!

They're here already! You're next! You're next, You're next...!

Dead Rising 2 Trailer Leaked

A trailer for what appears to be the sequel to CAPCOM's Dead Rising game has been leaked onto the internet and videosharing websites. Although there has been no confirmation from CAPCOM about a sequel, this video looks legitimate and seems to suggest much of the game will take place in a location reminiscent of Los Vegas

I just started playing Dead Rising on the Xbox 360 for the first time this month. Despite the save system, it is an incredibly re-playable and fun game (I will be reviewing it here at The Zed Word soon).

If this trailer is real, and all signs point to 'yes', my interest is piqued.

Zombie Economy

I was at Chapters on Friday to pick up some zombie-related literature, when what should I see on display at the cash register but the new issue of The Economist. It was the cover that caught my eye.

The Economist (Feb 7th, 2009 print edition)

Cover Illustration by Jon Berkeley

If you ever needed any proof that zombies are now a palpable part of the cultural imagination, look no further. The article represented by the cover illustration, "The return of economic nationalism," argues that economic nationalism (the urge to keep jobs and capital at home) is starting to claw its way out of the dirt of America's Depression-era history, and the writers of the article advocate for its re-burial to save not only America's economy but that of the whole world.

EDIT: While writing about the cover for The Economist, I came across an article from across the pond which also invokes the symbol of the zombie to talk about economics.

The Market Oracle website has published an article called "Is Zombie Economicus Coming" by Vladimer Papava. It describes how the global recession is prompting governments to increase their support of failing financial institutions through funding and bailouts. According to Papava, this could turn the economy into a zombie economy:

Obviously, [a recession] makes governments feel politically uncomfortable and so they tend to provide financial assistance to such companies so that they could survive and avoid lay-offs. . . . This is exactly how dead companies and banks come back to life. In other words, it is the creation of zombie companies and zombie banks which, in their turn, make up a whole system of a zombie economy

In turn, the writer argues that dead firms and companies must remain dead because, in a zombie economy, dead institutions will infect all "healthy" people and systems that rely upon it. The people and the taxpayers become what the writer calls Zombie Economicus:

A Zombie Economicus has no motivation to raise profits. His only goal is to survive and maintain his existence.

A Zombie Economicus working in a zombie firm knows that he has a permanent credit line in a zombie bank where other Zombie Economicus like him work and that this zombie counterpart will give him credits without any hesitation.

A Zombie Economicus working in a zombie bank, in turn, knows that the other zombies working in the government will assure his deposits and that financial support from the national budget will be unconditionally guaranteed.

Since Papava's article comes from a very pro-profit, pro-capitalist perspective, it is an interesting twist on the invocation of zombies for economic criticism that we don't usually see in zombie discourse and entertainment.

More about Papava's article after the jump

Unlike Papava's article, zombie-themed media, such as the Romero dead series, the video game Dead Rising, and the recent Dead Set miniseries in the UK, tends to invoke the zombie to criticize the functions of capitalism as a social system turning its people into empty shells for unproductive, joyless consumption. For example, in CAPCOM's Dead Rising, zombies are created by a genetically engineered parasite originally manipulated to increase meat production in South America for North American human consumption; therefore, the creation of zombies is a direct result of a capitalist system's search for profits. It is the people who pay the price and are turned into corpses so that the system can live and grow. The hunger of the zombie is meant to mirror the hunger of capitalism.

Although John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath is not a zombie novel (but there's an idea: zombies during the Great Deperssion -- The Zombies of Wrath!), Steinbeck's novel reminds me of zombie films in the way it describes capitalism as a beast that has enslaved the banks and companies to fulfill its hunger for profits:

The Bank --or the company--needs--wants--insists--must have--as though the Bank or the Company were a monster, with thought and feeling, which had ensnared them. These [employees] would take no responsibility for the banks or the companies because they were men and slaves, while the banks were machines and masters all at the same time. . . . A man can hold land if he can just eat and pay taxes; he can do that . . . . But--you see, a bank or company can't do that, because those creatures don't breathe air, don't eat side-meat. They breathe profits; they eat the interest on money. If they don't get it, they die the way you die without air, without side-meat" (Steinbeck 43)

Papava, however, is not horrified or disturbed by the economy that must digest profits. Instead, his nightmare is the economy that has starved and died from lack of profits but still exists as an undead institution. The prospect of an economy that is NOT profit driven -- the zombie economy -- worries him in a way that the consumptive society of the 1970s must have worried George A. Romero while writing Dawn of the Dead. For Romero, the man or woman with no motivation other than consumption to maintain his or her own existence is a zombie, whereas Papava suggests a man or woman with motivation to raise profits is disturbing.

Not surprisingly, Papava's ideas are touched by his experience living in the Soviet Union and witnessing the collapse of its economy, which he analyzes in the book Necroeconomics (iUniverse: 2005).

What I find more interesting, however, is how times of economic hardship (the great depression or the current recession) bring to light differing views of the economy as monster. For some, if the drive for profits is too strong, the economy is a monster. For others, if its drive for profits are not strong enough, the economy is a monster.

Resources

Steinbeck, John. The Grapes of Wrath (1939). New York: Viking Press, 1962.

Oprah is Dead

Team Tiger Awesome brings us this video that dares to imagine the death of Oprah and follows the results to their logical conclusion: zombie apocalypse

Oprah is Dead

Atom.com: Funny Videos | Atom Originals | TV & Movie Spoofs

[via Atom.com]

More Motorists Warned of Zombies

You usually think of the apocalypse as being heralded by fiery angels or dark omens but not road signs. This week has seen a rash of American road signs warning motorists of zombies.

First, the zombies were in Austin, Texas. And they were Nazis.

Then, the zombies were in Illinois (no word on their political affiliation).

Now, the zombies have made it to Baltimore.

According to a report by Baltimore Examiner staff writer Jaime Malarkey, drivers in Maryland saw electronic traffic signs warning of “zombies ahead.” The warnings on Route 43 have been erased, according to Kelly Melhem of the Maryland Transporation Authority, but I don’t think this means the zombie threat has been neutralized.

In fact, it appears that citizens are using traffic signs to fight back. Stories from Seattle, Washington report that a hijacked sign on Interstate 405 through Bellevue displayed, "Zombies Drools.” Obviously an attempt by zombie hunters to lower zombie morale.

We at the The Zed Word want to remind our readers of some safe driving tips in this dire time:

1.) If you see a sign warning about zombies while driving, DO NOT SLOW DOWN OR STOP. It may be a zombie trick. If you stop to take pictures, they may swarm you.

2.) Do not get out of your vehicle if you see zombies. Definitely take a picture and send it to us, but do not approach the zombie. Keep all doors closed and windows secured.

3.) Even if you don’t see a zombie, there may be velociraptors on the loose. If Jurrasic Park taught us anything, raptors can open doors, so make sure the doors are locked.

Obviously, US transportation officials are trying to cover up the threat by erasing these road signs. We can only hope that the zombies and raptors meet and finish one another off.

Stay safe, road warriors.

Odds n' Ends

A round up of zombie-related news hitting the web

• Happy Birthday, George! George A. Romero - the father of the modern zombie - turns 69 today. I had the pleasure of briefly meeting George Romero (dir. Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead, Creepshow, Monkey Shines) while seeing him speak with Dario Argento at the 2007 Festival of Fear in Toronto. I also saw him later that same weekend during his interview at the Bloor Cinema when he unveiled footage from the then unscreened Diary of the Dead. He struck me as unwaveringly friendly and outgoing. Have a good one, George!

• Speaking of Romero, it looks like zombie retail consumerism has reached a whole new level. On March 13, a Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania Best Buy store will dress its employees up as zombies and turn part of its store into a haunted house for the launch of Resident Evil 5. I guess irony really is (un)dead. So, if you're in the area on March 13, drop by the store and get chased by a guy with a chainsaw. It's still better than going to Wal-Mart. [via kotaku]

• While you're at the Best Buy spending away the recession, why not pick up an iPhone so you can play Trapped: Undead Infection. Trapped is a wireless game app for the iPhone or iPod, proving zombies are everywhere you wanna be, baby [via Gamezone]

• Bruce McDonald's Pontypool, which debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival [TIFF] in 2008, has been picked up for distribution in the United States by IFC. This is good news: I saw Pontypool at TIFF and have been dying to see it again. Pontypool is about the spread of a zombie-like plague that travels through the English language. [via Dread Central]

• Finally, to start where we began with George Romero, Uncle Creepy at Dread Central spoke with George Romero about his upcoming zombie film, the unofficially titled . . . of the Dead. According to Uncle Creepy's report, the film should be ready in March or April, no reshoots are planned,and John Harrison will be scoring the film. Harrison also scored Romero's Day of the Dead .

Road Sign Warns of Zombies in Illinois!

Looks like the zombie plague has spread outside of Texas where just last week someone hacked into an electronic road sign to make it warn of Nazi Zombies ahead.

Now, the zombies are in Illinois! KSDK is reporting that an electronic sign on the 1-255 Southbound just south of the Pontoon Beach exit was altered to read "DAILY LANE CLOSURES DUE TO ZOMBIES."

Prank, or observant citizens trying to warn us before the government covers it up?

Stay safe out there

[via KSDK.com]