Thriller

  I don't know if I ever told you how I got into zombies in the first place.  Well, when I was in the 2nd grade, a music video came out on MTV called, Thriller by Michael Jackson.  I was so enamored by the zombies, it stuck with me throughout my youth.  I didn't know there were movies, books and songs about them.  They were just something from a Michael Jackson video to me.  I think the first zombie movie I ever saw was Dawn of the Dead.  From there, I was hooked!  They were more than just decomposing thespians, they were flesh-eating menaces to society.  I can dig it.
  Over the years, I've seen some clunkers of zombie movies.  If you're a zombie fan, I'm sure you have too.  Zombie Nightmare, anyone?  Seemed like for a while, people were just trying to come up with any reason to have people become zombies or at least, zombie-like.  Even the first Naked Gun movie had one.  There was The Stuff, which actually not that horrible of a movie.  In my opinion, George Romero was one of the only people using a zombie apocalypse as the background for tales about people.  The characters were not just cardboard cutout victims, they were the crux of the story.
  Being always fascinated by people and life, that is what pulled me in.  I've always studied the people around me to see what makes them tick.  Everyone has their own ways of looking at life, dealing with stress, interacting with other people, communicating with God (or not) and having fun.  I think that's also why I loved Star Wars so much.  It wasn't just laser guns and robots.  There was a very human story at its heart which touched on faith, love, betrayal and redemption.
  On a side note, my first album ever was Michael Jackson's 'Thriller' on cassette.  That same day I also bought 'She's So Unusual' by Cindi Lauper.  My musical tastes have evolved much since then, there are still some excellent songs on both of those albums in my opinion. 

Boring Movies

  I apologize for not blogging yesterday.  My internet was temporarily down.  I did, however have some very interesting conversations with my wife.  It all started when I was complaining about a beep on the computer that wouldn't go away.  To set this up, I must first let you know a little about our belief system (you can read for yourself Neale Donald Walsch's books).  We believe that before we come into this life, we choose the lives we're going to live.  In other words, I chose to have the computer beep at me.
  Me, being as thick as I am didn't understand why I would choose such a thing for myself.  As usual, she used examples that she knew I would understand to illustrate to me her point.  She said, "You've got to look at why the beep is here.  What can you learn about yourself?  Perhaps it's about control.  You feel as if there are things in life you can't control and this is just another thing, but it's one that's an easy target for you to take out your frustrations on."
  Did I mention I was thick?  Yeah, I still didn't understand.  Here come the examples: "Imagine in Star Wars when Luke found out that the Empire had killed his Aunt Beru and Uncle Owen.  How boring of a movie would it have been if instead, the stormtroopers just stopped by for a cup of tea?  That would be like if the computer never beeped at you.  Now, imagine if Luke had simply found the bodies, then spent the rest of the movie whining about how much the Empire sucks.  Boring.  That's like complaining about the beep, but doing nothing about it.  Imagine if Luke found the bodies, but didn't care.  He just went to Toshi Station to buy some power converters.  You can't just ignore the problem."
  She told me that it is through a process of dealing with problems that you grow to a place where you can take on bigger challenges.  Problems will arise in life.  Don't just hope for them not to, don't just whine about them and don't ignore them.  Another important thing is to not let anger allow you to do something stupid that will not solve the problem.  Passion, on the other hand, will help you try to solve the problem in a calm manner.  Use passion, not anger.  Anger would not have allowed Luke to shoot straight into a hole not much larger than a womp rat.  It was calm resolve, passion for the resistance and faith in the Force that gave him the power to destroy the Death Star.
  She said that I may never figure out how to stop the beep, but that if that happens, I shouldn't allow it to drive me crazy.  To paraphrase the AA prayer, "Lord, give me the grace to deal with shit I can't do shit about, the power to fix the shit I can and the wisdom to know the difference."  God, I love that woman.

Costumes and Masks

  When I was in the 2nd grade, I was in a school Christmas production of the Night Before Christmas.  I played one of the reindeer.  I remember that deer costume.  It itched like a mofo.  One of the little numbers we did was to sing Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer so we had to learn the entire song.  I thought it was the funniest thing in the world that the song starts with the words, "You know Dasher and Dancer. . ." as if they take for granted that we know all the reindeer names.  Most people mumble their way through that part and make up names like Jazzer and Nixon.  Then it goes on to question, "But do you recall the most famous reindeer of all?"  Ironically, it's only at that part that everyone confidently jumps in with "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer!"  I used to laugh my head off at that.  I was a weird kid.  A lot has changed about me since then: my height, shoe size and nose hair count.
  I've been fascinated by masks throughout my childhood.  It started with Star Wars.  The stormtroopers, Boba Fett and Darth Vader were the coolest thing!  My aunt brought me to see Episode 4 in the theatres in 1977 when I was a 1 year old.  My parents brought me to see the Empire Strikes Back when I was 4.  The same year of that Christmas play, I went by myself to the theatre on the US Army base in Taegu, Korea to watch Return of the Jedi.  For each of the new Star Wars movies (Episodes 1, 2 and 3), I went to see them in the theatre wherever I happened to be living at the time.  I've watched every single one when it first came out in theatres.
  But I was talking about masks.  When I was in the 4th grade, living in Fort Benning (Columbus), Georgia, there was a cartoon I watched religiously, called Mask.  There were these armed agents who rode around in armored attack vehicles which were disguised as regular cars and trucks.  They also, true to the name of the show, wore masks with visual enhancing eye gear and whatever.  I still have a lot of my Star Wars and Mask toys.  Somehow, the concept of masks always fascinated me (don't tell my shrink).
  Skip ahead to high school and bands like Green Jello and GWAR were big.  Sykotik Sinfoney were not so big, but I liked them.  Anyway, they're all masked bands.  Then in college, Slipknot, Mushroomhead and the Berserker came out.  I began to get the idea that I could make my own masks.  I don't even remember how many I've made so far, but I'm getting better and better at it.  You can see one that I made in Chief Loh's music video for our song, "Equilibrium".
  I will be showcasing my newest creation in the video I'm making for Shadow Puppet's song, "Scar Chasm". A little background on the mew mask: part of it is a respirator.  When I was a member of the crew of the USS Wyoming, SSBN 742, I was part of the paint crew.  Whenever we would come into port, we would chip off rusty areas of the submarine and repaint it.  We had to use a respirator for safety.  I incorporated mine into the mask cuz I think it looks cool.  I'll tell you when I've completed the video so you can watch it and judge for yourself whether or not you like it.