Zombies in 1599: Land of the Dead

Ground Zero Theatre and Hit & Myth Productions are two of my favorite theatre companies I've come across and recently they did a production called, "Land of the Dead." And I was lucky enough to catch a preview performance of the show.

"Land of the Dead" was an interesting play that definitely picked up speed as it went on. The first act had the major issue of simply containing too much exposition. The same problem many people who try to approach zombies as entertainment run into, treating the audience as if they know nothing about zombies but still trying to be vague and mysterious. Any successful venture into the realm of the undead has to realize that unless they are doing something new, or at least out of the norm, the audience knows more about the topic than the film (or in this case play) does. For example, a lot of time was spent discussing how the process spreads and in the end the characters still seemed a little unsure and thus the story lagged on until one character simply forced everyone else to accept that those bitten were infected and those who weren't were not. There was also a lot of exploration into Ye Olde England and religious politics at the time that was quite unneeded and not beneficial to the plot. The first time we see the undead and the characters fight them it is with below average stage combat and the zombies are killed by simply cutting them down as would any normal human mob... except sometimes it doesn't work... zombies only die if it's convenient for the plot and even if ripped to shreds will come back to life at the most predictable moments. But that is only the first act...

Suddenly in the second act it is as if watching a different play. Exposition is thrown to the way side and we are given what was promised, Shakespeare and zombies! There is well performed stage fighting, zombie hordes, a plethora of clever Shakespearian jokes and the plot finally progresses as the characters reach some real development. The zombies are still inconsistent and apparently can be confused by jingling bells, pretending to be a zombie yourself or Michael Jackson music. But over all the second act is the bloody, funny entertainment I've grown to love and expect from this company.

Even though the first act is a little rough, I highly recommend this show to anyone in the Calgary area!

Land of the Dead

Stay vigilant, may the infection never reach you, and those close to you have the resolve to do what is needed should you be so unfortunate, Mike D.

Floating tents

I'm sure many of you have seen these:

 

A lot of people are saying this is the best thing in zombie defense since the Zombie Survival Guide. And many of you know how I feel about that little piece of literature.

The benefits of this tent are in fact great, but security is so often false.

First off the obvious point of sleeping above the ground is great! I often suggest to people that sleeping in trees or upper levels of a house are in fact the rule when it comes to sleeping after the fall. But here also is the danger, see the man in the photo? How the tent is just above his head? If he reaches his arms up he can reach the tent? Yep, therein lies the problem. Unless you have can climb high enough into each of the trees to make it so the tallest undead cannot reach you this tent is useless.

Next is the problem so many survivors have to face. Putting yourself away from the zombies is awesome, but what after that? How much food do you have in that tent? Enough to wait for someone else to come kill all those zombies that are going to keep collecting under the tent? Once up there, there is no getting down so you better have the weapons and gear to be able to fight your way down.

Finally, it is always questionable how zombies hunt. By sight, sound, smell, instinct driving them toward living flesh?  Not really that much a question, the undead seem to hunt with unnatural drive but in fact they use the very natural senses all humans have but are too busy thinking to pay attention to. This is why a zombie can see, hear and smell its prey miles away. It is fully using the senses living humans so often take for granted. So based on that it is possible for the undead to slip under the tent completely unnoticed. But it is also possible for snoring or body odor to make sure there is a nice rotting surprise waiting for the would be tree campers waiting when they wake up. Now this is always going to be an issue wherever you sleep that isn't a sheltered building, which is why having a route of escape in the morning is always important. So if you put the tent high enough, and have a way of escape if you get stuck up there, than sleeping in a tent is going to offer a much better rest than up in a tree. Just beware the dangerous that thinking you are safe add to the ever deadly wasteland after the fall.

Stay vigilant, may the infection never reach you, and those close to you have the resolve to do what is needed should you be so unfortunate, Mike D.

Z-Cells no cause for alarm

The newest things in zombie myths running around is the Z-Cell. I'll sum up briefly: the Z-Cell is produced by taking a protein based cell and coating it in silica acid. Then heating the covered cell to 400C. The protein evaporates and leaves the silica replica in its place. There is more to it but that's the basics. These cells are than be backwards engineered to learn new things about them and how they function without having to build the cell from scratch or worry about a protein cell dying. In terms of things like fossil fuels these cells can be used to replica and store the fuel and the "Z-Cells" are much more resilient to heat, cold and electricity. This is a huge scientific breakthrough and unlike the "mummy cell" which only replicated the outside of a cell when it died, the "zombie cell" replicas the inner workings of the cell as well and so can still be used to perform the cells functions to some extent.

Now there is always the possibility of something like this being used in the wrong way or the boundaries being pushed to far. But there are far more likely suspects for the zombie outbreaks and the growing issues surrounding cannibalism and strange activity continue to grow around us, Florida, Canada, Switzerland, California  news everyday coming up from the States makes it sound more and more like a war zone. Although the attacks that were first related to the "zombie drug" bath salts and now being credited to "cloud nine" another street drug. The media is constantly changing its story to fit whatever is happening in the moment. But the cautious survivor watches all of these reports from around the globe and takes each one on it's own, seeing not the copy-cat cannibalism trend but watching for the few cases where pure human insanity doesn't account for everything.

Stay vigilant, may the infection never reach you, and those close to you have the resolve to do what is needed should you be so unfortunate, Mike D.