Dead Doug

Dust off your tux or dress and freshen up your corsage or boutonniere, Prom is just around the corner. Oh, and don’t forget your blood and latex too!!

I haven’t been to a zombie event in a while, and I haven’t had a chance to see GWAR live since sometime around High School. So, I couldn’t even begin to tell you how excited I was to hear that this summer we are lucky to have the NYC Zombie Prom.

If you happen to be in the area on June 9th, you definitely should try to attend. Tickets are not cheap, but it is bound to be well worth it. Leah and I will be there in our finest attire, so feel free to track us down.

I was sad to hear about the passing of Bill Hinzman earlier this month. You may know him better as the cemetery zombie from the original ‘Night of the Living Dead’. He passed away on February 5th at the age of 75 from cancer.

While he may not have gone on to great stardom after NOTLD, he has always been close the the hearts of every modern shambler fanatic. He was the first rotting glimpse we got of what Romero had in store for us. Hinzman went on to play roles in a few other genre movies. He even directed one of his own, ‘Flesheater’ in 1988. Naturally, it was a zombie flick.

Bill was also a mainstay of horror conventions, and I am doubly sad that I will never get to meet the man. By all accounts he was a great guy to hang out with, and thoroughly enjoyed his stature as the first modern zombie.

Here he is in a pizza commercial that will surely put a smile… or at least revolting  rictus on your face…

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While we are on the subject of the living dead, I wanted to mention a cause that may interest all of us fans of the seminal NOLTD. It seems that the Evans City Chapel, which also had a cameo in the film, is in need of our help. The chapel has fallen into massive disrepair over the years, and is in danger of being torn down. Gary R. Steiner, who happens to have been the sound engineer on the film, has a year to raise $50,000 to restore the chapel to it’s former state. Please go to the website for further info. And if you can’t donate, at least help to spread the word.  The website lists all the ways one can pitch in. You can donate, buy merch from the store, or attend any of the events listed on their page. Please do all you can to save this landmark from destruction!

I would go black today in protest like many other sites… but I don’t think anyone would really notice! Mwahaha…

I did however, want to put in my two cents on this whole SOPA/PIPA debacle that is still unfolding. As it affects the internet and the movie industry, I felt it was apropos to post something. I just copied and pasted my little verbal diatribe from my FB page earlier this morning… so, it suffers from sever lack of editing…

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Remember VCRs? Back in the day both Jack Valenti of the MPAA and the whole of the movie industry were scared of those things. They felt that it would be far too easy for someone to sit at home and just pirate copy after copy of any movie they wished. They thought that the VCR would be the death of the movie industry.

“‘I say to you that the VCR is to the American film producer and the American public as the Boston strangler is to the woman home alone.’ Jack Valenti said this in 1982 in testimony to the House of Representatives on why the VCR should be illegal.

Of course, Hollywood soon learned how much profit could be had from this new technology, they just had to learn to adapt to it. With the advent of videotapes and then DVDs, they opened new avenues for more revenue.

So it is with SOPA and PIPA, a ridiculous over the top reaction to a new technology that frightens and threatens the status quo. Many artist and filmmakers have learned to adapt and thrive in this new arena. Louis C.K. just made around $200,000 by charging $5 for his latest standup show.

I am not saying that piracy doesn’t happen, or it isn’t and issue or problem. However, cassette tapes and CDs did not kill the music industry. VHS tapes and DVDs have not killed the movie industry. Yes, the internet makes it easier to acquire your favorite music or movies or tv shows, but if the entertainment industry would realize that they have yet another untapped revenue stream here, things might change for the better on both ends. Look at Netflix, or Hulu or iTunes. I believe that most people would much rather pay a fair price to watch or own something (preferably DRM free!), than go through the trouble of downloading a possibly corrupted, third generation VHS digitized version of some movie they loved as a kid.

Look, I don’t think Gwyneth Paltrow, James Cameron, or the heads of Warner Brothers are in any serious danger of getting kicked out of their mansions and forced to live in cardboard boxes. If anyone is hurt by piracy, it will be the independent film makers, and the actors who are waiting for their big break. But SOPA is like operating on a cancer with a sledgehammer when a scalpel is the right tool for the job.

To simplify it… SOPA would be like having a neighbor in your apartment building back in the 80s who owns one of Jack Valenti’s dreaded VCRs. This neighbor decides to start making copies of his favorite movie and handing it out to his friends and family. Not only would he be arrested if caught, but also so would you, and your other neighbors, and the landlord could be held liable as well for allowing your criminal neighbor to rent space in his building. Even though everyone else in the building was unaware of what this guy was up to.

Again, sorry for the rant. I would like to partly blame this on the amount of coffee I consumed this morning. I have had a lot of time to think on this. It may be rambling, all over the place, and rife with grammar and spelling mistakes, but I feel my intent is clear. All I am saying is there has to be a better way. Do we really want lawmakers who are willfully and happily ignorant on tech issues, voting on such important matters? Do we really want to hand that much power over to anyone to censor the internet as they see fit?

There are ways you can get involved with this issue if you feel as strongly as I do:

http://americancensorship.org/

http://voteforthenet.com/