They smell of rotted flesh and fetid breath. They shuffle and moan. They’re scary and disgusting. Anita Blake and Alice Parks make them quiver in their puss-sodden boots. Well, perhaps they would if they had a mind of their own.

Zombies are the bane of many a hero’s clean getaway. Low budget films have been known to be some of the biggest hits when it comes to Zombies. One drive-in theater in Tucson, Arizona had a 6-mile traffic backup on the opening night of Carlton J. Albright’s film The Children of Ravensback back in the 1980’s.

Then there’s the typical creep out movie, which the Irish Film Classification Office banned… would it be classed as a love story? Boy Eats Girl by Stephen Bradley. Boy commits suicide and comes back to life. Definitely a Minties moment; even if just for the bad breath.

The classics, as in books, aren’t even safe from the re-animated folk. Jane Austin’s Pride and Prejudice having been rewritten by Seth Grahame- Smith in 2009. Pride Prejudice and Zombies may also become a movie, perhaps in 2011. The rumor mill on IMBD says it’s in the pre-production faze and David O. Russell could step up as Director.

Michael Jackson made a good Zombie in the music clip for Thriller. If you haven’t had the chance to head to the Gallery of Modern Art to see the photographic work of Douglas Kirkland, get onto it. They’ll only be there until October 24th. I had so much fun looking through the photos he took during the 1983 filming of Thriller. The amount of work that goes into the makeup was just mind boggling.

While you’re in the CBD checking out those photos shuffle on over to Wickham Park Brisbane at 3pm Sunday 24th of October. Zombies are going to be taking over Brisbane to help rains funds for the Brain Foundation. http://www.brisbanezombiewalk.com/ Head on over to their website and register to participate in the Zombie walk.

And if you are going, but not in your Sunday best zombie garb, you may need The Zombie Survival Guide, written by American author Max Brooks, published in 2003. I saw a copy last weekend at ACE Comics in the Queen Street Mall, and couldn’t help giggling.

I will NOT be seeing any of you at the Zombie walk, or at any of the latest zombie movies because, well, frankly they scare the living crap out of me.

If you do go to the Zombie walk on Sunday, send us photos of yourself all Zombiefied. We’d love to see. Though I may end up peeking through my fingers at all the scariness.

Rockabilly / Pinup
I am a fan of those who can really pull off this look. Curves are okay and though comfort isn’t always at the forefront of the mind when going shopping there is a wide range of really extreme Rockabilly/ Pinup beauty queens in my opinion. Look at Dita Von Teese. Just WOW!

Tattoos have come into the modern mix, which, love ‘em or hate ‘em, make for an added extra layer of colour and expression of the women rocking out.

Vintage American cars, set and styled hair, tight ¾ length pants, circle skirts or pencil skirts for the gals. Guys cross Steve McQueen with Elvis Presley (the early years) and come up with a very distinctive style. Leather and Brylcreem (hair grease) are the must-haves for every young rockabilly man.

Want a movie with rockabilly? For the Johnny Depp connoisseurs, there was a movie back in the last millennium called Cry Baby. Johnny was time warped into “Drape” (or Greaser) Wade Walker. Wade was also known as Cry-Baby for his ability to shed a single tear. He falls head over heels for “square” Allison Vernon-Williams who, incidentally, is tired of being good  (sounds a bit like Grease, but it wasn’t quite as popular).

Rockabilly lives a very flamboyant life in modern society, and Brisbane isn’t left off the hit list of places where it’s okay to let your inner rockabilly rock on.

Though I’ve never set foot in the place myself, Cadillac Barbie in West End seems to be the place to go to get your hair well and truly sorted for your first foray into the style.

Want to find a sweet rockabilly ride? Try the Queensland Auto Spectacular in Early April 2011.
I went in 2009 when it was held in Cleveland show grounds and it was enough to make you want to pull out the bobby socks and circle skirts and jive the night away.

GreazeFest at the Rocklea Show Grounds Auguat 2011 looks to be a HUGE fest of all things 1950’s.
What would GreazeFest be without a soundtrack (available on the website) including acts such as… Marti Brom, Big Sandy, Deke Dickerson, The Planet Rockers, The Detonators, and The Retro Rockers.
Everything old is new again. The 1950’s were very fashionable indeed.

You know you’ve ‘made it’ when people are wearing you. I have images dancing around my head of someone deciding to wear their Justin Bieber pelt for the day.  (Does that mean when he gets dirty we can take him outside and beat him?) *cough*

Though this isn’t exactly what I meant, who wouldn’t love to beat the Bieber for those earworm lyrics?

I mean the fashion labels, the fragrances and the other hock-able items.

Delta Goodrem and Kylie Minogue have their underwear lines. Gwen Stefani has L.A.M.B and probably a fragrance or 3 out there. Mariah Carey, though not always stable on her feet onstage, has definitely got herself firmly planted in the fragrance world. Even Avril Lavigne has her own perfume. Then there’s the endorsements, Covergirl, Loréal, and Avon.

It’s not only the famous women who are taking on the marketing world either. Usher, Ian Thorp, Jay-Z, Sean “P Diddy” ~Formally Puff Daddy~ Combs and David Beckham just to name a few.

I’d love to see what sorts of things authors would be approached to endorse. Parker Pens, Reflex Paper, Snuggies, tracksuits, coffee maybe even Apple Computers. Stephen King could market his new fragrance for men… “FEAR” A mixture of wet Kugo and graveyard moss.

Now the only author I know of who was lucky enough to get a bonus for the shameless plugs in her books, was MaryJanice Davidson, scoring a bunch of Manolo Blahniks. I think the character, Betsy Taylor, really paid off there.

I know I’ll be thinking really carefully of product placement when I’m writing my best seller.

What would you name a fragrance by a famous author ?

What other things do you think authors should be approached to endorse?

By the Bel

The term Steampunk was apparently coined by K.W. Jester in the 1980’s. The look is based around Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, the age of invention, the Victorian era, Aviation, Pirating, and steam powered gadgets. It’s even in the Oxford English Dictionary. Their definition is, ”a genre of science fiction that typically features steam-powered machinery rather than advanced technology.”
I googled steampunk and was met with a vast array of truly amazing pictures. Anything, it seems, can be steampunked.

Steam Punkrock?

Ssssssteaming haute couture!

Electric guitars with cogs, gears, brass pipes and fittings. Computer keyboards made to look like old, clunky typewriters. Then we get down to the business of fashion sense.
Now, I’m not talking Mohawks, safety pins, and Sex Pistols when I say steampunk. I’m talking Victorian garb, goggles, air ships, and muskets.
Corseted, Amelia Earheart-esque looking women, complete with aviation goggles and a ballsy demeanor.

Men take on a gentlemanly, regimental, pirates-of-the-sky appearance. Trench coats, war medals, and skeletal-looking fob watches.
It is a sight to behold when people make a real go of their Steampunkery.
If you want to get the gist of the steampunk world, look no further than your local video store for inspiration. Steamboy, Wild Wild West, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Howlers Moving Castle, and Treasure Planet are just a small selection of the more well known movies that may (or may not) be considered to have themes of steampunk through them.
This all goes beyond a few threads and a gimmicky keyboard though.

Steaming Keys!

There is a whole world of steampunk ‘stuff’ out there. There are music groups. Abney park, Ghostfire, Sepiachord, Bitter Ruin, Sunday Driver to name a few. There’s a Steampunk Magazine, that has all things to do with steampunk within its pages. There are even entire conventions dedicated to all things steampunk. So, it seems to be a little better thought out to me than buying a cheap corset and chucking a pair of goggles on your head. If you really want to make an impact, do your research. Embrace your inner hero and let your imagination run wild.
Congratulate the steampunk crews you see at your next convention. They really are the thinking person’s cosplayers.

Music: Abney Park – Airship Pirate

Ghostfire – Vaudevillain

Books: World Shaker – Richard Harland

Leviathan – Scott Westerfeld

By the Bel:

Remember that TV show ‘Third Rock from the Sun’?

Remember the cute young kid, Joseph Gordon-Levitt?

No?

Okay so I’m old. But you’ll see the re-runs eventually.

Anyway, he’s covered Lady Ga Ga’s song ‘Bad Romance‘. The clip can be found here… *contains a few swear words*

It got me thinking, mathematically speaking there can only be a certain number of songs ever made. After they’ve all been written, sung, and made us all either love them or loath them, the following generations will just have to do covers.

And boy oh boy there are some shockingly bad ones out there. Some pretty good ones too thankfully.

As an ex cover band singer, I think there is nothing quite so amazing as getting that song to sound the same yet different. Spiced with your own brand of panache. I did, however, kill quite a few songs within the 3 gig span of my singing career. And not in a good way. Girls are just not designed to sing Pearl Jam songs.

Studio magic can help some covers become an epic success for the second or perhaps third time around, and at the same time it can totally ruin the memories you may have made with the song as you heard it originally.

Adding on catchy little call and response adlibs in covers has become a fad. ‘Do ya think I’m sexy,’ Just doesn’t sound the same for me without the ‘Do ya? Do ya?, Do ya?’ that the band T-Shirt added in 19 something or other.

Then there’s the mess of combining songs to make them different enough to be able to throw in some new lyrics. Kid Rock should be ashamed of himself for mixing ‘Werewolves in London’ and ‘Sweet Home Alabama’ to make that irritating thing that got him on the charts this year.

Occasionally there’s a weird mix that catches you unawares. We called them club remixes when I wasn’t yet old enough to go to clubs. They’re now called mash up’s. The most stand out one for me was the McSleazy remix of Marilyn Manson’s cover of ‘Tainted Love’ and Darren Hayes’ song ‘Insatiable’

That one, I think, just has some history behind it for me. I can remember sitting in grade 10 maths having a huge argument with the hot guy I had a crush on, about which musical act would be more enduring Savage Garden or Marilyn Manson. This argument lasted almost all year. He told me my Savage Garden memorabilia would end up sitting in the back of a cupboard come the year 2000, and Manson would still be touring. I told him this was a load of rubbish, Savage Garden would last forever and be touring like the Rolling Stones (or as I like to call them, the strolling bones)

But as we now know he was right. I was seriously wrong. I still think it’s hilarious Savage Garden may be dead and buried, but the lead singer can still mix it up with the king of freaky himself.

As for Gordon-Levitt’s cover of Ga Ga… I’ll let you decide.

What’s the best and worst cover songs you’ve ever heard?