Zombie Anniversary

Every year for our wedding anniversary, my husband and I try to do something special. This year we had a loose theme to our anniversary road trip. I loosely called it Year 10 - The Zombie Anniversary. 

Now, you might be asking, what sort of things or places may a person go/do on a Zombie anniversary.  I am glad you asked. Some of these events need little to no explaining on how they are related to zombies, but trust me they belong. 

Zombie Anniversary Highlights 

1. Rocky Horror Picture Show
2. Abominable Dr. Phibes
3. Castle Halloween
4. Space Acorn
5. Evans Cemetery 
6. Monroeville Mall
7. Living Dead Museum
8. Carnegie Natural History Museum
9. Carnegie Art Museum

Rocky Horror is not just a catchy cult musical, but a story about a mad scientist bringing their creature to life. Is a zombie not a creature brought back to life? Therefore Rocky Horror is a zombie musical.

Abominable Dr. Phibesis a Vincent Price movie where the antagonist is pretty much a walking corpse seeking revenge upon the living. That might be the summary or plot devise of most zombie movies. 

Castle Halloweenis a fascinating museum that is dedicated to the history, origin and continuation of Halloween and Halloween traditions. While the proprietor is not keen on the horror aspect of Halloween, there were many historical tie ins for undead and celebration the dead. 

Evans Cemeteryis the cemetery where Night of The Living Dead was filmed. What is more zombie themed than one of the most famous zombie graveyards?

Monroeville Mallis more than just a failing shrine to consumerism. It is also the film site for one of the movies that inspire killing zombies in unique ways. That movie being Dawn of The Dead.  In addition to maintaining the majority of its structure from its gory film days, it contains a bust of George Romero, the progenitor of the zombie of modern culture. 

Living Dead Museumis not just a museum that features George Romeros famous works of film art, but discusses the media evolution of the zombie. 

Carnegie Natural History Museumhas unique animal displays that show an animal being half bone and half taxidermies. It is a fascinating to look at and has a slight Return of the Living Dead vibe to it.

Carnegie Art Museumliterally has a sculpture in bronze by Thomas Schutte called Zombie VIII. It is a unique piece of work that makes me wonder what the other pieces in the collection looked like. 

Now you are probably wondering, how does the Space Acorn tie into a zombie themed excursion? In December of 1965 an object fell from space.  In 1968 Night of the Living Dead was released. In the movie there is discussion of a comet that fell from the sky and may have caused the calamity with the undead.  

Gift Idea

 Now that it is November, the Christmas holiday decorations are in full bloom.  There are certain stores that I am just avoiding to avoid the glitter.  Part of the holiday season, means finding gifts for loved ones and family. I am going to share with you the gift that keeps on giving.

A gift that will not only provide emotions but create memories. 

A gift of a potentially haunted object.

It doesn’t matter where you live, thrift store and antique store are a staple. Anything you buy at thrift store or antique market has the potential to have memories attached to it. What is a haunting but a memory of a person or event? 

This gift is simple:

1. Find an object that speaks to you. 
2. Write about a potential history of the item
3. Gift the item to someone

You want an example?  Absolutely.  

 

The Dog:

When I was a young girl, my mother had a dog named Riley. Riley was a sheepdog mixed with terrier. My mother loved this dog, and took this dog with us when we moved across country.  Riley was sweet as can be, but epileptic. There wasn’t any sort of trigger to what would cause an epileptic episode for Riley, so all of us learned how to take care of him when he would start to shake and drool.  This statue is a memory of the epileptic dog of my childhood. 

If I were to gift this statue to my mother, it doesn’t matter how ugly it is or that the eyes look like they are trying to escape its face. Adding a little story to the statue would guarantee that she would keep this monstrosity forever and ever, because it is now haunted with a memory.  

Bread Ape

  I am sure that you have heard the old saying “Some people make bread. And some people bake apes.” I think that I might fall into the later category.  I also may have made that saying up.  No one bakes apes.

My friend Tanya gave me a bread starter. It is kind of like a tamagotchi. Occasionally I need to feed it and take it out for a walk and sometimes even make bread out of it.  This is my first attempt at turning a tamagotchi into bread. 

I am pretty sure I made an ape. I don’t think that bread is supposed to look like this. A yeasty, warm bread ape. I am currently letting it cool, before I chop its face open.  

I don’t know if this counts a bread win, but I tried. That counts for something, right?