Zombie Love (Again)

Curious Printery

I just heard on the auld virtual grapevine that May is National Zombie Cultural Appreciation Month. Why am I only finding this out now?!* Anyway, I realise the ‘national’ part refers specifically to the US but, the way I see it, undead pandemics tend to be a worldwide phenomenon so I don’t see any reason why they shouldn’t be appreciated globally too. Plus, it’s a great excuse to indulge in a little zombie love.

I was going to make a list of my top five favourite zombie films to mark the occasion, but then I realised it’d just be a list of Romero flicks working in chronological order from Night of the Living Dead downwards (or should that be forwards?).  Since that’d be rather dull, I’ve instead decided to celebrate some of the other aspects of undead ‘culture’ out there in Geekland.  So, without further ado, here are just some of my favourite titbits. Enjoy!  

*Ok, so I actually found out two days ago - when I wrote this post. Argh! Cheers again Blogger for deleting it, comments and all. Ah well, at least I had it saved in drafts :)  

Zombie History

To understand any culture, as they say, you should look to where it came from. And according to the owner of this vintage map, “while no one can precisely pinpoint the first resurrections of the living undead, historians and scholars agree that Pittsburgh was the birthplace of the modern undead phenomenon.”  He goes on to explain that the grandson of the cartographer, one Mr Romero, later went on to make educational documentaries on various undead uprisings. Very excellent indeed.

Alternate Histories

Zombie Art and Décor

Ok, so there’s tons of this stuff out there to suit all tastes. These are just a couple of my choices for a chic and pretty plot:

 

 Lucky Faces

Beat Up Creations

Zombie Literature

Not literature about zombies, literature by zombies! Well magnetic fridge poetry anyway, with this set specifically tailored for the undead vocabulary from ThinkGeek. And for those lacking in the imagination department (which zombies are wont to do) they also have a great wee guide to haiku for the verbally challenged:

Zombie Food

Find out how to make these brainy treats in this photo-tutorial.

Zombie Fashion

For any style-conscious undead gals out there looking for something for that summer wedding:

Zombie Dolls

And to scrub up before hand, how about this bubble bath which “soothes and freshens dead and decaying flesh”: 

 

 Little Horror Box 

Zombie Music

I’d say their gigs would be good craic.

Wonderbros

For Little Zombies

To keep the wee monsters amused while mammy’s out hunting for fresh flesh.

Sunnfox

Pseudo Octopus

And Finally…

For those of you who aren’t as excited about a possible apocalypse as some of us, there’s plenty of protective products out there to calm your nerves. Like this lovely soap:

 Rude and Reckless

Seasonal Irony

Image via inishowennews.com

Well people, the rain’s back and so am I! Thank the heavens for it too - the rain that is, not me being back (I might be a bit ditsy but I’m not that self-absorbed).  And for once I’m not alone in rejoicing at the return of the clouds; it must be the first time in history people were actually praying for rain in Ireland. Things were getting a bit hairy there for a while!

For anyone not from these parts, we’ve been having some trouble with gorse fires recently. These past weeks of hot, dry, windy weather saw them popping up all over the British Isles. Donegal was quite badly hit, and while we were lucky enough to only have a few minor blazes in our immediate area (like the one photographed above), a large chunk of the rest of the county was ablaze. From our upstairs window you could see hills burning across the lough.  ‘The fires of Bealtaine’ as a friend on Facebook called them. Indeed.

Not to worry, though, for the rain has returned, Ireland is once more her soggy (if a little smouldering) self, and all is right with the universe again. Well, aside from the fact that thousands of hectares of bog, woodland and forest have been decimated. Not to mention those wee chicks in their nests and all the other little unfortunate critters caught up in the flames. There may not have been any humans killed, but there’s fear now that some rare native bird species may have been completely wiped out. Devastating stuff altogether. 

Anyway.

Right, so I’ve been trying to think what I’ve been up to since I last made a proper post, as opposed to one where I just came on to blog about how I’ve not been blogging enough. Let’s see, what have I been at? Well, I’ve joined a local camera club, which has been both fun and educational in equal measure. Basically it just involves a bunch of super-cool folks sitting around looking at and talking about photographs.  And drinking tea. What more could a girl ask for? Here’s one of my photos from last week, the theme was ‘macro’. It’s not great, but, as I said, I’m learning loads from the group.

I’ve also been helping  my fiance’s dad out with a history and heritage group he’s involved with and I’ve found out some really interesting stuff about local ley lines and stone circles after he discovered these maps in an old book. The zoomed-out one charts the astronomical connection between several megalithic sites in the wider area, while the close up one concerns a circle just nearby my house!  I love this stuff…

In other news, any corrupt politicians or scandalous personalities in my vicinity should beware, I may soon be returning to the world of local hackdom. It’s all still up in the air at the minute but fingers and toes are crossed! I’ll keep you posted on any developments.

Finally this evening - last but certainly not least, and all that - I want to say a big happy HELLO to my latest follower, Libithina! Aside from having a really beautiful name, this lady also has several wonderful blogs to peruse. Here’s her profile link because I couldn’t decided which site to share. You see, my friends, the lovely Libithina is my 200 th follower! As such I’d just like to take this opportunity to say I LOVE YOU GUYS!

Thanks so much to each and every one of you who take the time to call into this little corner of webland. I can’t for the life of me think why anyone would want to, but I am really truly grateful to all who do. I’ve made some great friends here over the past year and it amazes me that I keep meeting new ones. I have to admit, I do feel a tad guilty since I’ve been such a bad blog buddy lately.

As I said though, I’m back now, and this weekend I’m making a point of catching up with you all - new friends and old!  Until then!

A Fairy Tree for Bealtaine

“All around the thorn tree, the little people play; and every one that pass there, they turn their heads away.”

- Count John McCormack, ‘The Bush Beyond Clougheen’.

Hello folks! Just dropping in quickly this evening to let you all know I haven’t given up blogging or anything, I’m actually still struggling to escape that time warp I mentioned last week. You know I seriously believe The End must be fast approaching, what with time speeding up and the fact that I don’t remember the last time the sun wasn’t shining! The rest of the world’s getting blown away and washed out of it, yet there hasn’t been a drop of rain here in around a month. Something’s definitely up. 

Anyway, I’m sure now that’s it’s officially summer the grey clouds will be back with a vengeance soon enough, and once I’m stuck indoors again time will return to it’s normal blog-friendly pace. I know nearly every other person in Ireland would probably hit me for saying this, but I can’t bloody wait. Bring back the gloom, all this pleasantness just isn’t normal!

(Oh, and sorry about my half-assed attempt at a Bealtaine post. My photo of the hawthorn is out of season and everything - it has to be in bloom to be Beltane-y. I did have some lovely shots of a flowering thorn from a couple of days ago but I deleted them from my camera by accident last night. Typical!)