I've written before about things that scare me. So it may surprise you to know that my favourite holiday (in the American sense of the word) is Hallowe'en. I love it so much that I put that ‘ between the Es.
But I still hate zombies. I'm much more of a fan of classic horror. From the weird tentacle-filled works of Lovecraft and the bizarre murders in Poe to the campy fake blood filled movies of the ‘60s (I watched a few of the latter via YouTube's fantastic movie channel).
Zombies sit nicely with the consumerist metaphor and as such have been very popular in this modern world of ours. And the costume is fairly easy: wear something, rip it a bit, cover in blood/gore, add whiteish green makeup to face, groan a lot. But zombie fatigue has set in.
The only zombies I really enjoy any more are the drinks (and then only in moderation because… well… let's leave that story alone).
And it's not just me; Sci-Fi blog io9 has called zombies one of the most over-used tropes. We've had them caused by viruses, meteors, experiments and good old "no reason at all". They've been on boats, planes, even on a Star Destroyer. Marvel and DC comics have turned their heroes into flesh-eating villains and the regency period saw zombies in Pride & Prejudice & Zombies. Yep zombies have been (ahem) done to death.
Which is why I'm a little surprised that the Wellington Zombie walk seems to have a lot of people going along (even if you don't go to the dance the walk should be fun). Still that's zombies for you; they're all about community. A pack of vampires? You could maybe do that with werewolves but October is a bit cold to be going around shirtless (if Twilight is to be believed).
And so that's it: zombies are popular at moment because they are the undead embodiment of social media.
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I know there's a lot of Halloween-based stuff going on in Wellington but in Auckland I strongly recommend The Monsters' Brawl.
It's wrestling, roller derby and monsters. What more could you want?
I haven't written much about the Pirate City derby girls, mainly because I don't live in Auckland, so I spoke with Scheisse Minelle of Dead Wreckoning yesterday (that's her with Phloss-A-Raptor.
The Pirate City League has only three bouts this year (one so far where Wreckoning blew Mascara Massacre off the track) with two more to come. Instead they've had a lot more exhibition bouts that are drumming up both support and money for the league. (Monsters' Brawl is another of these and the teams have been split into Hell's Belles and the Deadutants.)
Scheisse loves it for the unpredictability. The teams are mixed up for the exhibitions so the skaters have to learn to play with people who are normally opponents but are also using knowledge of their friends against them. But does exhibition mean soft hits and no competition? Like heck it does!
The thing that drives these skaters more than anything is winning, they don't care how it happens or who it's against but they want to win. There's no second in roller derby, if you lose you carry the stigma until the next chance for you to beat the other team. So expect big hits and angry roller girls.
I'm going to report more on the Pirate City Rollers the closer we get to their next bout. Until then please enjoy this video of the girls doing Thriller on Rollerskates (something I believe they may break out live on Saturday)