Whilst looking for the oldest zombie movie I could find at I Heart Video, I came across White Zombie. Had Bella Lugosi in it, so it seemed old enough.
When I watched it, I realized that our ideas about zombies have changed a lot since the 1930s. This movie, which took place in Haiti, was indeed about reanimated people, but their reanimation involved being given a voodoo drug that caused them to fall into a deep sleep at which point they were proclaimed dead. The poor creature was then “resurrected” to forever serve their master, the person who had given them the drug in the first place. In addition to sending the recipient into a deep coma, the drug also caused a loss of soul once they were awakened.
This prompted me to tap Wikipedia to learn the origins of the term Zombie. Now, it is Wikipedia, so take this with a grain of salt. According to Wiki, the term zombie originally comes from Voodoo folklore and is defined as a “human body re-animated by supernatural means and shamanistic medicine to create dread among the living.”
A bokor (a dark voodoo priest) or a mambo (a female voodoo High Priest) can reanimate a corpse and will retain control of the zombie, as zombies have no will or soul to act independently. Now, there is some belief that the priests don’t actually resurrect the dead, but give living people drugs that cause them to seem dead. The priest can then miraculously raise the dead person from their grave to do their bidding.
[Answers.com even has a recipe for creating your own zombie to do your bidding! (second entry)]
Wikipedia then goes on to claim that our current vision of zombies came from I Am Legend, a book by Richard Matheson. Now, the creatures described in this book are more like vampires, what with their taste for blood and distaste for all things sunshine related, so I don’t know what they’re talking about. But it is Wikipedia, after all. The movie The Last Man on Earth, starring Vincent Price, is a loose adaptation of I Am Legend as is Omega Man with Charlton Heston.
Afterword: Well, Holy Crap! I did a google search for I Am Legend, and yet another movie adaptation of this book is being created as we speak. It’s due out in 2007 and will star Will Smith.

Unbearables show! Without a doubt, zombie songs will be played. And it’s to celebrate Emily’s birthday, so it will be lots of fun. (For those who don’t know, Emily’s part of Stem and Leaf Records and is currently managing the Unbearables. And she’s crunk nasty.)

The lovely ladies of the Zombie Rock Orchestra’s backing choir rehearsed their parts tonight. They’ll be singing when we go into the studio in, oh, about a week! Then, everybody will be able to hear their angelic greatness when the Zombie Rock Orchestra makes its big debut at the fundraiser on August 18th.

So, this past week we had an Unbearables practice with the horn section. That’s right, brass. The Zombie Rock Orchestra will include some badass players. After just one practice they were already making the songs sound even more amazing then they already do. The horns will be recording the songs with us in the recording sessions coming up over the next few weeks, but the first time the general public will be exposed to their amazingness is going to be August 18th for the Zombie Rock Fundraiser at Red’s Scoot Inn.

Also, another zombie link for your enjoyment…
Michael Lalonde, out of Canada, writes the web comic OrneryBoy.  One of the main characters is Brian, the friendly neighborhood zombie.  Check it out.

I haven’t been this excited about a video game since GTA:

This game looks like so much fun. You’re a photographer during the zombie apocalypse and you have to document zombie chaos either by finding it or creating it. You have to save people, too. You’ll, of course, spend a bunch of time in a shopping mall, hitting zombies with whatever products you can find. Apparently you can stick a showerhead into the back of a zombie’s neck and they’ll go around spewing blood. Rawk. (I have no idea when it comes out but it will be for the exbox threesixty)

I also just got The Zombie Survival Guide. I’ll let you know what I learn.

So, the Austin Chronicle cover article this week is a nice little overview of up-and-coming local theater companies. While we didn’t make the cover (that honor went to the sexy Josh Meyer and Matt Hislope of Rubber Repertory), Loaded Gun Theory did get a nice little write up and Bitten! was mentioned. Read it here:

http://www.austinchronicle.com/issues/dispatch/2006-06-16/arts_string_all.html

Austinist.com did a nice little companion post to the article with links to the companies mentioned. Thanks, Austinist!

After making that Vice post, I was poking around their site and guess what I found? More zombie killing flash games, this time with 200% more death metal:
GAMES

Okay, so I’ve been thinking about planning a Zombie Walk here in Austin since the beginning of my involvement in this crazy “Zombie Rock Opera” project. So I stumbled upon this woman who arranges Zombie Walks in Seattle.

We need to emulate her example. Remember: Zombie Walk Austin. August 3rd. S. Congress.

Mark it down.

http://cleozombie.livejournal.com/

Last night, we had a first rehearsal with the girls who are going to be singing in the choir for the recording and the Zombie Rock Orchestra performances. Seven lovely ladies who sound Awesome! They all picked up their parts really quickly and are going to be great. Personally, I hope they’ll all audition for the stage show, because we’re going to be needing lots of good singers.

Tonight, the band is going to be rehearsing with the horn section, so I’ll let you know how that goes tomorrow. I’m anticipating more excitement. And mark your calendars for August 18th! Why? Because you don’t want to miss the debut of the Zombie Rock Orchestra at its full power!