Another non-entry

Whole lot of nothing to say, lately. Since the residency came through, it's all been rather slow.

Had an uneventful but enjoyable Christmas. So there's that.

Started reading a Donald E. Westlake book last night, and 19 pages in I decided to stop. People who are funny, I can take. People who try to be funny, not so much. The other two books I read -- Somebody Owes Me Money and Money For Nothing -- actually were funny, so I don't know what happened with this one.

Nikki got me a book today called "The Map That Changed The World" which looks fascinating. It's by Simon Winchester, who wrote "The Professor and the Madman", about the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary. "Yawn," I know, but it was incredible! Can't wait to read this one, but I have a stack from the library that I have to plow through first. One about the Black Dahlia, which is always good reading. Except when it's by James Ellroy. And a couple others that I can just burn through in a day or so. All serial killer stuff, so it's not heavy-hitting journalism, but the sensationalistic tripe they like to churn out to cash in on tragedies. Well, that's commerce for you.

We're going down to Deb and Brendan's on New Year's. The plan was to play the Dawn of the Dead boardgame (!), but Brendan and I felt it's way too complicated to just toss Deb and Nikki into, so we've decided, instead, to have a horror movie marathon. I said I'd bring Shaun of the Dead, and Brendan suggested I bring some more along -- I'm thinking the original Texas Chain Saw Massacre (which probably won't go over very well, so I'll bring the remake as a backup), Creepshow, Jacob's Ladder, Return of the Living Dead, The Thing and The Fog. I'd love to do a Romero/Dead marathon, but I'm pretty sure I'd be out-voted on that. And I'll count myself lucky enough if I can get Brendan to watch the original Chain Saw...

Branching

I read today that there's a sequel to the remake of Dawn of the Dead in the works. It won't be a remake of Day of the Dead, the sequel to George Romero's original Dawn, and the third in his Zombie series, but a sequel in its own right.

The recent remake of Dawn wasn't a sequel, either, to 1990s remake of 1968s Night of the Living Dead, but a stand-alone film. Odd that a remake of a sequel can stand on its own, but nevermind.

There's also a sequel to the original Day of the Dead, called Day of the Dead: Contagium, which, oddly enough, doesn't have anything to do with the characters or events in Day, but takes an alternate look at what might have caused the whole Zombie epidemic in the first place, which makes it, technically, another remake -- or, to borrow a term from Tim Burton -- a re-imagining of Night.

You see where this is headed?

In addition, Romero's former Night partner, John Russo, has produced his very own sequel to Night, called Children of the Living Dead... which itself has spawned a sequel, Escape from the Living Dead. (Since, like Day, this is the third in the series, can it too be considered a re-imagining?) According to allthingszombie.com, Russo states that Escape will have a budget of $5-10 million, and that several big-name stars are said to be interested in the film, including Jeff Goldblum, Patrick Swayze, Dennis Hopper, and even Jim Carrey. This is bullshit, of course, because Children was soooo mind-numbingly bad, its director, the improbably named Tor Ramsey, has taken a public stand against it in the "bits and pieces" section of homepageofthedead.com. Turns out that he's pretty much of an asshole himself, but he does explain how the film was ultimately taken out of his hands, even as he was directing it. No Orson Welles, this guy.

Return of the Living Dead was marginally a sequel to Night -- when Russo was involved early on, it was meant to be a direct sequel, but it soon became less so and more a stand-alone film which paid homage to Romero's film. Of course that saw two sequels, both of which sucked, and will soon, all too soon, see two more sequels, which will no doubt suck in their very own special ways as well.

Why does it seem that every Zombie movie made in the last twenty-five years is either a remake of, or a sequel to, or a remake of a sequel to one of Romero's flicks? His universe has branched off in so many different directions, it's about to lap itself -- and it can be argued that it already has. Shaun of the Dead, while it took the whole Zombie thing in an entirely different direction, profound though it turned out to be, still made reference to the original Night by way of the mysterious satellite that may or may not have been the cause of the Zombie epidemic.

Man, can't ya just have Zombies without having to rely on Romero for your background material? Cripes, even 28 Days Later decided to go another way with the whole "rage infected monkey" thing. But, as has been pointed out ad nauseum by more experienced reviewers than myself, 28 Days Later was not a Zombie film, so does it really count?

I don't know. As far as I'm concerned, the Final Word on Zombies will be Romero's own Land of the Dead, due out next year. Likely, it will be George's Final Word as well...

At last

Got a call from our lawyer today: My residency has been approved!

This news was met with much less excitement than expected, only because we'd already celebrated a few weeks ago. We wanted to celebrate again tonight, but it all seemed rather pointless. Kind of an anti-climax, really, to what seemed to be an uphill battle.

Ah, well. Over and done with. Now I should be able to get back on track with the writing, see how that goes. Plus, we can start looking for a place to live without having to worry about whether I'm going to be able to actually live there or not.

Brother

Got to speak to Mike yesterday for the first time in about two years. He's got himself into some trouble (which, for propriety's sake, I won't go into here), and wrote to tell me about it. I rang him and we talked for about 4 or 5 hours. He explained his situation, and then we both went off on Mom and her hobby of humiliating her children, but it wasn't all so heavy -- we talked about SHAUN OF THE DEAD, the new DAWN, I told him what's going on with my residency, and he told me to check out a comedian named Ron White, who sounds suspiciously like Bill Hicks, which ain't all that bad.

Now I'm going to have to call Mom, though, and I'm not looking forward to that. Apparently, he's not allowed to use the computer without someone signing him in, because giving him the password would be too much like treating him like an adult, I suppose. That shit's going to stop. He's got to be able to reach me at any given time, through Skype or the actual phone lines, and he can't get me on the computer at 3am if he's got to get someone's permission first.

I wish he could get out of there. Out of that house, obviously, but out of the area, as well. Lebanon County is just no good for anyone, it seems. Coming over here isn't an option just yet, so I don't know what he's going to do. He's caught in a Catch-22: Needs a better job to get out, but needs to get out to get a better job. I'm lucky I had a girlfriend who could help finance my trip -- Mike's girlfriend is in the same position he's in, so she's just an anchor. I just hope he can cut loose before he gets dragged all the way down...