Picture of the Day - Zombie Apocalypse PSA

Today at Atascadero High School, I encountered this poster on the door to the staff restroom adjacent to the Student Health Center. Photo by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).

My Negan

Last night, comic genius Dave Chappelle hosted Saturday Night Live for the first time and made quite an impression. Most notable of the skits in which he appeared was this spoof of the recent current season premiere (now nearly iconic and viewable HERE) of The Walking Dead wherein Chappelle satirizes the role of Negan, the newest uber-villain on the show (Seasons 6-7) easily making us forget The Governor (Seasons 3-4).

Avoid Costco In Zombie Apocalypse

This requires no explanation from me.... just watch and enjoy!

Like A Scene From A Zombie Apocalypse

Last night was the fourth and final 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. 12-hour night watch shift I experienced at San Gabriel Elementary School in Atascadero, CA. Last Friday, which was September 11th, as in 9/11, or the night before, some sociopath with access to the school deposited a container on the campus playground containing a toxic substance as well as one or more threatening letters. Our company was tasked with keeping unauthorized persons off the school property, day and night. Aside from having my circadian rhythm disrupted, with more guard work this weekend and Cal Poly starting next Monday, I was grateful for the chance to serve my community in this small way and earn a few shekels in the process. The single most enduring memory seared into my memory from this experience was how odd it felt looking into each room of the campus and observing frozen in time, the exact moment the campus-wide alarm was sounded and order to leave immediately. Each room featured its own story. In one classroom, most memorably, I observed what appeared to be a test and answer sheet resting on each student desk but none of them appeared to be marked upon yet. The class was about to take the test or quiz when the alarm sounded and they fled and that was it. In the multi-purpose room which serves as both an auditorium, gym, and cafeteria, students' backpacks are strewn all over the place and lunches rest at each sitting location on a large table,  uneaten or at least unfinished (featured in the image above). In the faculty lounge, the refrigerator has several women's purses crammed in it. Given the heat wave that was occurring at the time it appears the women placed their cosmetics-laden purses in the box to keep their make-up from melting. At random locations throughout the campus, student's backpacks rest on tables or hang from chain-link fences adjacent to play areas, abandoned when the alarm was sounded last Friday.
Image by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).

Picture of the Day - Zombie Outbreak Response Team

As I left the Cal Poly store today I walked past one of the Mule carts parked nearby sporting these seat-covers... when I get my next automobile I must have these on my front seats. Photo by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).

I Must Join The Zombie Squad

This week I discovered a movie that I immediately fell in love with for many reasons. It is called Dead Snow: Red vs. Dead and in it the above organization defeats the below organization 65 years after the latter officially disbanded. This was possible due to a supernatural curse, of course. Anywho, go find it on Netflix and enjoy its cleverness and visual appeal. Watch trailer HERE. Also, be prepared to have your cultural sensitivities be offended. Note: this is a sequel to Dead Snow which I have yet to see but now must see. Also, the Zombie Squad does actually exist and predates these movies which use its name and logo with their blessing.

Racism In The Zombie Apocalypse

Recently I have had the privilege of viewing two hilarious and clever comedy sketches inspired by the AMC hit television series The Walking Dead. The first one below debuted on Saturday Night Live a couple of weeks ago but since I don't have television I saw it on Hulu a few days later. In it we see an alternate scene in which fun is poked at the topic of black-instigated guilt-manipulation based upon imagined or outright false allegations of racism in order to intimidate whites. In the scene below that we see a comedy sketch by Comedy Central's Key & Peele poking fun at deeply-ingrained suburban white racial hang-ups about blacks as well as at black stereotypes of the nature of suburban whites as it relates to perceived racist attitudes.

I Love The Walking Dead

My newest and current television addiction is AMC's The Walking Dead which is in a mid-season hiatus in its second season. Note: I do not have cable or satellite TV but I do watch DVD's on my television. Also, I watch some scattered television at various family and friend's houses on occasion which is how I watch this program. Anywho, the "reimagined" Battlestar Galactica which ran from 2004-2009 had been my previous TV addiction and before that, Farscape. which ran from 2000-2003.

Those who populate modern society seem to increasingly view the future with skepticism and fatalism as opposed to the sort of "futurist" optimism of past generations. There are many reasons for this and that topic deserves its own blog posting which I hope to get around to here at some point. However, I say all this to preface what I'm about to say.

We "moderns" are increasingly haunted by and drawn to themes relating to the End of All Things. Not so much in a Millenarian context although for a minority of religious fanatics it is rooted in religiosity run amok. However, what I refer to is a more general phenomenon that reaches across the divide between various faiths and ideologies and even cultures. There seems to be a growing underlying feeling that we are all "fucked", ergo that our grand global civilization is about to face a day where we all get up one fine morning thinking it is going to be just another day. At some point during that day the wheels come flying off of civilization and nothing is ever the same again. The agent by which this happens varies widely according to the source and the medium and the agenda be it in a book or graphic novel or TV show or movie or wacky website. Take your pick of Nuclear War, Asteroid Impact, Tectonic Upheaval, Climatory Catastrophe, Microbe Epidemic, Zombie Apocalypse, Rise of the Machines, Alien Invasion, Seven Years of Tribulation, Mayan Prophecies, Pole Shift Tomfoolery, ad infinitum.

The Walking Dead is merely a continuation of this theme but in some important respects it breaks new ground. Most fictional (as well as non-fictional) treatments of this topic try too hard and go over-the-top in some respect or another and thus lack any artistry as they play fast and loose with too many plot points to effectively "suspend disbelief" like all effective fiction (and conspiracy theorism and doomsaying) must necessarily accomplish. Another flaw these sorts of fictions often make, particularly when presented in some electronic medium, is that they rely too much upon CGI and the presence of "big name" acting "talent" in an attempt to compensate for the inherent weaknesses in the writing and casting and acting and directing. Not so with The Walking Dead whose actors were unknown to me before the series and who acting performances are top-notch and their casting was perfect and the writing is not merely great but powerful and the use of CGI and other special effects is just perfect: not too much and not too little.

For those of you not familiar with this show I highly recommend you watch it on AMC when the encores are broadcasted on Sunday evenings while the second season is in hiatus and then pick it up when it resumes the remainder of the second season. Below are the two official trailers for the two seasons thus far.