I got the book pretty quickly after I was approved for the blog program, which was impressive in and of itself.  More impressive was the fact that I basically picked up the book one day, randomly, and had my review finished by that same time the next day.  I tore through the book like a zombie at a meat processing plant.  It really is a great, funny read if you know anything about Victorian England.

Perhaps more importantly, you can win a free copy of the book and a bunch of other stuff.  Just head over to Quirk’s forum, sign up and register (I know it’s a bitch, but there’s like $100 worth of freebies up for grabs for 50 people) and let them know where you saw it. Either here, PopFi, or DoG works, since Quirk knows they’re all me.  Make me look good, readership.  If you somehow don’t manage to win, you can just buy the book for $8.73 at Amazon (or 80 cents if you use a Kindle).  It’s definitely worth the purchase.

I also managed to get out and see The Crazies, the 2010 Breck Eisner remake of the 1973 George Romero virus panic horror flick, except this time The Crazies are basically zombies, and the Romero framework is used to support a greatest-hits of postmodern zombie movies.  I also enjoyed it, and it seems more people enjoyed it than did Cop Out, at least in terms of critical indices and whatnot.  Not like I care what critics say, but it’s nice to know I’m not the only person out there in the wilderness, screeching at the top of my lungs that a movie is adequately entertaining.

Yes, I know I just mixed Shakespeare’s Hamlet with Shelley’s Ozymandias.  I did that in much the same way Legion mixes The Bible, action movies, zombies, and ham-fisted CGI:  deliberately and with malice aforethought.  It’s not that Legion is bad, it’s just that Legion is incredibly dumb.  I have no doubt that it’ll make a great Rifftrax one day.

I’ve seen an awful lot of awful Misfits-inspired homemade videos on Youtube, but this is surprisingly good.  It uses some great stills from Astro Zombies and works with the lyrics will.  Plus it’s got a good beat and you can dance to it.  I give it a 7.

I never got to see the New Misfits when they were around.  It goes without saying I’ve never seen the original Misfits, either.  But I have seen the Jerry Only Traveling Punk Rock All-Stars version of the Misfits (Marky Ramone/Robo, Jerry, and Dez Cadena) and I have seen Michael Graves doing Misfits songs and his solo stuff back in 2005, so I figure that’s pretty close to the same thing, right?  Right.

The only thing I could add to the list is to go see Danzig now that he’s doing a mid-set chunk of Misfits songs with Doyle, but Danzig is really expensive and doesn’t come to Louisville.  So we’ll pretend I’ve seen enough various Misfits in various projects that it adds up to one Misfits concert and call it a Feel Good Friday.

Click here to view the embedded video.

So, Zombieland.  I got to see it this weekend and, in a word:  awesome.  In two words?  Fucking awesome.  It was this weekend’s big hit and nobody I know who saw it has a bad word to say about it.  Check their blogs and see if you don’t believe me. (And if you don’t buy into what I have to say by now, then why are you reading this?  You can disagree, but they haven’t bought my soul or my reviewing pen.  Yet.  Call me, Hollywood!  We’ll talk!)

Kind of disappointed I didn’t get a chocolate ear, but that’s what I get for going to the last showing on Sunday rather than the midnight screening.  In spite of everything, the theater was PACKED at 10 PM on Sunday, and I’m planning on going back again next weekend with my dad.  Good times, people.  Really good times.

Me: Why did you have to go and kill Michael Jackson?

Garth Marenghi: I’m sorry.

Me: Now his zombie won’t stop dancing on my lawn

Click here to view the embedded video.

Garth Marenghi: It’s like “Return of the Living Dead II” only real. No one deserves that. If only I’d known this would happen, I’d've spared his life.

Me: luckily for me he seems a lot more interested in those cub scouts

Garth Marenghi: Who’s going to look after them now?

Me: Roman Polanski? Oh wait, those are girl scouts

Garth Marenghi: lol

Me: How about Victor Salva?

Garth Marenghi: He cares a lot.

Me: He has got so much love to give. And so much wine and sleeping pills.

Garth Marenghi: We’re both going to Hell.

Me: We really are.  And guess who’ll be waiting?
In one glove and a red leather coat

Garth Marenghi: Him and John Wayne Gacy.

Me: Now that’s scary.

In honor of Michael’s passing, Boy Scout troops across the country tomorrow will be wearing their pants at half-mast.

As usual, The Onion broke the story of MJ’s death ahead of everyone.

Author’s Note:  Is it tasteless to mock the dead? Sure. Is it tasteless to mock a dead pedophile? Not so much. Screw around with kids and you deserve all the public humiliation I can muster. Shame he did most of the humiliating himself with how he’s lived over the past 15 years or so.

Author’s Note 2:  Thriller is still really badass.  Second best thing John Landis has ever done, slightly after American Werewolf in London and slightly ahead of Animal House and The Blues Brothers.

Happy Rebirthday, Jesus!

(Sorry, Christians.)

Long story short, I think that the time for a zombie MMORPG is, well, now.  Between XBox Live, the PlayStation Network, the Wii’s online capability, and general availability of high speed Internet, people have never been this interested in playing games online before.  If you can strike while the iron is hot, look outside the high fantasy and science-fiction genres, and attach a marketable name (Resident Evil) to whatever zombie MMO you’ve got, you can reach a whole lot of people.

Author’s note:  My lack of focus is apparent even in that article.  This is how my mind works.  I can’t contain it, let alone stop it.  May as well just run with it.