gumbercules81

So we just had the biggest storm in recent memory here in Roanoke and the power's gone out about ten times, but I'm still stupid enough to try and update my page. Seriously, I looked out my front window and everything was blurred with rain. I went into my bedroom and looked out the window and I thought the building was about to blow away. Storms don't scare me. If I knew I wasn't going to die I would have run around in the rain like a monkey on PCP, but unfortunately I have enough sense not to do that. This was a crazy storm, though.

I saw Batman Begins and Lan of the Dead over the weekend, Friday for zombies and Saturday for superheroes. Both excellent movies. Both highly reccommended. It's great to see Romero finally have a budget, let alone have his script sold after twenty years of trying and failing. It's also great to see a decent Batman movie for once. Cilliam Murphy as Scarecrow is a great casting choice. Apparently he was the first choice for Batman, but I'm glad Christian Bale played Master Wayne.

So here's something for everyone to ponder. I have a philosophy behind what makes a good zombie movie, or why certain people like zombies. It's the outcast, social deviant mentality. In zombie movies, there's always a small group of survivors who are trying to stave off an overwhelming tide of living dead. I bring this back to T.S. Eliot and "The Waste Land" where he describes "the walking dead" going to work every morning, "I had not thought death had undone so many." Our small group of survivor heroes in, say, the original Dawn of the Dead are trying to fight the status quo of the consumer world, trying to live lives that are apart from what is. They fight to remain independently sentient creatures rather than become mindlessly roaming cannibals who return to the mall because it's what they're used to doing. And think of their downfall, as well, since when they liberate the mall they become bored with the new material utopia they have won. When the raiders storm the mall, if they just lay low and possibly escape in the helicopter all together they would all live, but one of the heroes can't surrender what he's won, which leads to tragedy. By deviating, they become that which they are fighting. I tried convincing a friend of mine of this yesterday, but he can't accept zombie movies as real pieces of art. Maybe I'm just crazy. It wouldn't be the first time.

So this is turning into a long entry, but there's so much to say. Yesterday I went to the Wine Festival at the Hotel Roanoke. We got fuckin plastered. Yeah, the tasting part is only a couple of sips, but we bought four bottles to share around, and in that heat a little went a long way. I didn't realize how drunk I was until we were in the car afterward. One of the featured vineyards was serving pear sangria, and they said the stuff would knock you on your ass. Honestly, sangria isn't supposed to knock you on your ass. I had sangria in Rio, at the source, and it's suuposed to be the weakest drink you could possibly serve. It's supposed to refresh, not intoxicate. Philistines. I should say that AmRhein makes some excellent wine. Give them a taste.

I just came back from my friend's apartment where they were having a "power's out" party. It's funny. They live maybe three blocks away, but their electricity is out while mine is working just fine. I was lording it over them the whole time. Sweetness. I love being an asshole. Sometimes it's all that keeps me going.