Martha Stewart radio interview

Tomorrow (Wednesday, Oct. 28), I will be interviewed about zombies on Martha Stewart Living Radio (SR 112, XM 157), at 9:30am CST.

Reading photos

Here are some pictures from Saturday.

Barnes & Noble signing this Saturday in Chicago

The Barnes & Noble store on Webster Ave. in Chicago

I’m doing a reading/signing for my new book Z.E.O. this Saturday, October 24 at 3pm at the Webster Ave. Barnes & Noble store in Chicago.

At Spooky Empire 2009

I had a great time signing books, speaking on panels, and causing trouble generally at Spooky Empire in Orlando over the weekend. 

I also finally got to meet Max Brooks, who was a really nice guy.  (I was wondering if he had heard of me, and when I introduced myself he cocked his neck like he wasn’t really sure.  But then he saw the cover of my book and was like “Oh, you’re that guy!”  And I was like: “Yep, I’m that guy.”)

Here are some pictures:

Being assigned the book-signing table next to Max Brooks is a little like being assigned the urinal next to Ron Jeremy. (I still sold quite a few books, though. Thanks to everybody who came up and said hi!)

Gettin' set to discuss zombies!

With Dana Snyder!

 

Movie Review: Zombieland

Last night I finally saw Zombieland.  It is delightful.  Four stars. 

At first glance, Zombieland is a road movie about a college student who joins up with an unlikely band of survivors while on a quest to find his parents (during–need I even say it?–a zombie apocalypse).  One of these survivors is played by Woody Harrelson, who all but steals the show as a violence-prone, Twinkie-crazed Floridian.  (Question: Has an actor in a zombie film ever been nominated for Best Supporting Actor at the Oscars?  Because I feel like Harrelson has a legitimate shot with this.  He is outstanding.)  Emma Stone from Superbad also plays a love-interest quite ably. 

The zombie-killing is funny, gory, and masterfully rendered.  There are lots of big guns and shoot-em-up sequences.  Zombies are also attacked by cars, carnival rides, pianos, and more.  The zombies themselves are fast-moving, and look pretty cool.  For all the gore, the film never forgets it is a horror-comedy.  Again, Harrelson is show-stealingly hilarious, and so is a much-lauded cameo from an A-list actor (which I won’t reveal).

And yet there is something more here.  Zombieland is also a great film because it works on deeper levels…

In his 1941 review of Citizen Kane, Jorge Luis Borges argued that a great film must present an audience with both an engaging simple narrative and a deep metaphysical question.  (In the case of Citizen Kane: Simple Narrative = C. F. Kane is the richest man in America but still sad because money can’t buy you happiness.  Metaphysical Question = Is it possible to know what a man was really like in life based on what is left after he is dead?) 

So wait…  Am I about to compare Zombieland… to Citizen fricking Kane?!? 

Yes.  I.  Am.

Though shorter and less ambitious than Welles’ work, Zombieland nonetheless plumbs the depths of difficult (and perhaps unanswerable) questions about friends, family, and self.  There’s no doubt that it has a blood-drenched, funny, fast-moving storyline.  (Simple Narrative = Strangers become friends as they help one another navigate a world of the undead, because, gosh, deep-down we all need each other.)  Yet on a deeper lever, Zombieland is about the atavistic need to redefine oneself after a tragedy has stripped the things that used to do that.  (Metaphysical Question = When the world takes away my blood-family and the things from which I derived my identity, can I still find things and people that will help define ”me” as me?)

Final Thought: In her cursory and unbelievably self-indulgent review in the New York Times (“What’s that?  Zombies make you think of dead bodies, which makes you think of the Holocaust, which makes you feel sad?  Boo hoo.  And also: You missed the point!!!  [As Harrelson's character would say: 'Nut up or shut up!']“),  Manohla Dargis faults Zombieland for failing to touch on “politics” in the manner of a George Romero zombie film. 

I would counter that she is correct.  Zombieland does not touch on politics.  It touches on things that are even more important and vital.

I will discuss zombies at a Chicago art opening

I will discuss zombies (with several artists and graphic designers) at the opening of “Zombie: A Mindless Affair” at the ANTENA art gallery in Chicago, on October 23, at about 6:30pm.  The discussion will be moderated by the show’s curator, Edra Soto.

According to their press release, the show “uses the vernacular of the mythological zombie as a starting point to engage in ideas of death, mindlessness and symbolisms for the occult and inexplicable.”  It runs from October 23-November 21. 

A painting by one of the artists from "Zombie: A Mindless Affair"

For more info on the event, click here.

An awesome evening at Open Books

Last night I went to a great open house event at Open Books, a new Chicago-based nonprofit that operates like a bookstore to raise funds for literacy programs for adults and children.  I met and bought a book from Norb Vonnegut, and heard several speakers talk about Open Books and plans for its future.   It looks like they are legitimately poised to make a positive and meaningful impact on literacy in Chicago, and also on the Chicago literary scene “at large.”  Their space (near Chicago and Wells) is pretty cool.  I encourage you to check them out if you’re unfamiliar.

Send More Cops is doing a Z.E.O. giveway

How thoughtful of them.  You can enter it here.

You know you’ve made it as a zombie author…

When your books are on display at the Monroeville Mall (from Dawn of the Dead)! 

Onarga, IL = right out of Left 4 Dead

Like many of you, when I travel for work or vacation, I often find myself considering how the places I visit would fare in a zombie attack.  Certainly, not every neighborhood or piece of architecture lends itself to a zombie scenario, but I’ve certainly enjoyed considering the zombie-related benefits and drawbacks of structures like The Renaissance Center and The Venetian. 

Anyhow, this past weekend I journeyed downstate to Onarga, IL to play a show with my band, and I’ve never before  encountered a place that was structured so exactly like a level from Left 4 Dead.  The whole town is shaped like an L, with impenetrable 2-story buildings on each side.  There’s a railroad track cutting the town off at one end, and a weird, old-timey sign with big yellow incandescent bulbs.  Really, really Left 4 Dead-y.  I could picture zombies attacking from across the tracks, or turning the town’s single corner to find the entire street infested by the walking dead.

Here are some pics I took:

1/2 of Onarga, IL

The Onarga town sign

Also of note (though [probably?] not zombie related): There are these weird little signs  that say “BIKE NO SKATE” all over downtown Onarga.  (Which is to say, Onarga.)  When I saw them, my first thought was: What a weird way to say “No Bikes or Skateboards.”  (The sentence structure is all wrong for that, of course.)  But then I considered all the variants that were possible when punctuation was applied, and began to second-guess the meaning of the signs.  There was:

• “Bike?  No!  Skate!”  (Skateboarding is appropriate while bicycling is not.)
• “Bike!  No skate!”  (Bicycling is appropriate while skateboarding is not.)
• “Bike no Skate” (Don’t transport Skate by bicycle.)

"BIKE NO SKATE" signs in downtown Onarga

Anyhow, it is still a mystery.