HalloweenClick.com

Toronto zombie Walk 2006: The authoritative zombie walk, if you’ll ask me.

When you see a gathering of some people wearing ragged and tattered clothing, dripping with yucky makeup, and walking in a daze, relax. It’s not the filming of the nth installment to some epidemic flick. You’re seeing a zombie mob, zombie march, zombie horde, zombie lurch, or zombie shuffle!
I researched the zombie walk on flickr lately, and I’ve never seen a more engaging or high energy group-cum-publicity event! Some folks were in corporate oufits, or in hard hats, in construction work clothes, in wedding gowns, or in skate wear. But they were the same in the red gore that covered them, their ripped outfits, and their horrible shuffle. That was the impression I got from what seemed to be a highly successful Melbourne Zombie Shuffle back in June 2008.
As I researched further, wondering what to make of this event, I read that these public gatherings are sometimes not just for plain good fun, but can be effective for making more well-known some social cause. Also, did you know that a zombie can’t call for brains? Contrary to what some wits intone during a walk, purists and other zombie fanatics claim that a zombie needs only living or freshly killed flesh for its sustenance, and not brains in particular.
So when and where did the first zombie walk start? The first known Zombie Walk occurred in 2001, in Sacramento, California. Today, almost any big metropolitan area has a Zombie Walk, and quite a few happen in countries other than the United States. Like the cold, they crop up throughout the United States, Canada, the UK and Australia.
Being a creepy-enough, yet hare-brained zombie is no easy task, mind you. You need to take time walking slowly, or drag a foot or trudge. Your arms ought to hang limp by your sides, except when you’re reaching out for your next victim. The Essential zombie facial expression is the following: blank, wide eyed stares, and slack jaws. While keeping a straight face can be difficult, it really is possible to be very good at this, however
One kick that you can get out of a zombie walk is watching how people react to you. The first thing that usually happens is that people laugh their surprise out, and take pictures sometimes. Another likely possibility is people looking on, half-disbelief and half-annoyance. The third and perhaps the most addictive reaction is the one where you can almost here the onlooker’s mind saying, “Please please let them not see me…” Hehehe, gonna get myself mo-o-o-ore!!

Over there at YouTube land, I found the following great videos that poke fun at our dearly beloved undead:

A Guy’s Guide To Zombies: in homage to those glorious black and white films aimed against communism with the help of those for free capitalism

How to Survive a Zombie Attack: a student’s project that quietly went viral

Sometime in the 60s, author Maurice Sendak wrote a children’s picture book about a young misfit’s adventure to a land of imaginary monsters.
Some forty years later after its publication, “Where the Wild Things Are” is a treasure in almost every home. Lots of people tell of having read it way before (equivalent to the way I would annoy my friends by bragging we had Charlotte’s Web, haha). Naturally, it was a matter of time before filmmakers trained their sites on this classic. The highly anticipated live-action movie version, with Spike Jonze at the helm, is due in 2009.

For the latest news on the development of the film, click here.

Clickable photos on the best Wild Things costumes on the Web:

From the MAKE blog

From the geniuses at Craftster

Kid’s Wolf Costume at Etsy

What’s the middle way between social activism and self-loathing grunge? Why, it can only be the eighties! In this article, I’ll get you updated on how to dress up like it’s the eighties all over again!

THE EIGHTIES GAL
accessories: White (Or black) lace gloves, a big belt that hangs off the hip, Many metallic bracelets and various length necklaces. huge hoop earrings or dangling ones

dress : a leotard with an off the shoulder tank over it, a short layered tutu skirt, colored tights OR oversized off-the-shoulder sweater that almost reaches the knees, a blue tank top underneath, neon-colored leggings/socks

footwear: leg warmers with pumps, black and white converse shoes

hairstyle: Long hair in the back and short sides and bangs. OR tie your hair high up at the side or tease your bangs and puff up the rest of it OR crimped my hair and put it in a high side pony tail with a bright colorful hair nylon scrunchie.

make up: generous eyelining or blue eyeshadow, bright pink lipstick.

EIGHTIES PREPPY KID

accessories: swatch watch, Ray Ban’s Wayfarer (and why not try the Wayfarer as your glass frames!), ribbon belt

get up: high-water chinos, Lacoste polo shirt with the collar turned up. and blazer with your high-schools crest on it! OR tan chinos or tapered white levis with bright tennis sweaters or a conservative blue blazer with school tie

footwear: topsiders

JEANNIE BUELLER (from “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” the goldmine for everything eighties!)

Peach or light yellow light-weight jacket, sleeves rolled up. Striped shirt underneath. Tight, plain black pants that stop at mid-shin. thick rolled white socks. layers of necklaces and bangle bracelets. Hair in a bob, permed and lightly gelled or moussed. manicure. Light make up with lip gloss.

If worse comes to worse and your grandparents’ cabinets can only give as much, come in shirt and tie and paint your face to be a Kiss band member!

Now that we posted something about the guys, it’s time now for the gals. Here are some ideas on what the ladies can pretend to be, come halloween night:

1) The Brit pop duo Swing Out Sister is known the world over for the 1987 breakthrough “Breakout”.

Back then, the debut album (and in a few weeks the band) electrified people with an original blend of jazz and electropop, with real horns, synths (arranged subtly, to sound like strings), drums, and xylophones. “Breakout” was followed by the darker “Surrender”, which in turn was followed by the dance-club legend “Twilight World”. The rest is history.
Hey, wait, that’s true, they are not siblings! But that’s the reason why I put the quotation marks on the title above, hehe. Seriously now, let’s get on with it.

2) The early-90s were perhaps the perfect time to bring Celtic folk rock to the world, and perhaps that was the gamble of The Corrs. The looker-siblings were a successful hit all over the world, and soon people were talking about the group from Dundalk, County Louth, Ireland. The band consisted of Andrea (vocals, tin whistle); Sharon (violin, vocals); Caroline (drums, percussion, bodhran, vocals); and Jim (guitar, keyboards, vocals).
After five studio albums and numerous singles, they state that they are only in hiatus, with perhaps a new musical landscape to bring us to in many a months’ time.
Er, I hope the above ladies are not the Corrs. But they are recording artists, too! Find out who they are by clicking about the Iranian Corrs.

3) The Pointer Sisters are legends when it comes to American Grammy Award-winning Pop/R&B. Who doesn’t know this very unforgettable team of talented women, belting out hits from diverse genres such as pop music, disco, jazz, bebop, country, soul, funk, dance, new wave and rock.

If I were to ask you guys, what would be a good addition to this list? And when I wrote good addition, I really meant it.

Too good to pass up! Anybody following Scott Campbell? Here’s the poster he did for the second Crazy 4 Cult show on August 22nd.
Whew, even the whats-his-name giant from Mad Max’s Bartertown is there!

At this point in time, comic cons are hot places for ideas! Whenever you search for costume keywords on the web, chances are you’ll get loads of ideas from past comic conventions. So here am I, attempting to tap (now I hope you’ll bear with me as I get creative with how I get ideas) into the genius of some web comic masters.

toothpastefordinner.com
1) The Toothpaste’s Everyman - Toothpaste for Dinner is a webcomic created by “Drew.” The comic was launched on January 1, 2002. From that point on there was no looking back as the small, simple drawings, paired with short captions or dialogue began to be the talk of the Web. Toothpaste for Dinner’s sense of humor is like sandwich spread, covering everything from social commentary to ennui, among other sub-”isms” of comedy. Each cartoon is entirely self-contained (except in certain cases of a series, such as the horoscope series.)

www.gapingvoid.com/

2) The Blue Monster - Hugh MacLeod is a cartoonist and professional blogger, known for his ideas about how “Web 2.0″ affects advertising and marketing. He is also constantly engaged in the public speaking circuit, talking about Web 2.0 and how it influences business. From the looks of his blog, MacLeod (as I know him, at least) is really and still those toons on the back of business cards, and that Blue Monster.

xkcd.com
3) xkcd’s Classhole, Doctorow or Furry costume - The webcomic xkcd is the brainchild of Randall Munroe, a former contractor for NASA, according to Wikipedia. As seen on the site’s header, it’s a very addictive blend of “romance, sarcasm, math, and language.” With hundreds of people following it (millions were reported as having visited it in late 2007), who can fail to recognize the costumes of the black-hatted Classhole, or the Cory Doctorow costume, or the furry (see below)?

xkcd at flickr

xkcd.com

xkcd.com

Are you a dude on the look out for a no-nonsense halloween costume?

Are you a dude who doesn’t mind a bit of acting to go with his halloween costume?

Are you a dude with a close buddy who want to try out those halloween get ups with you?

If you answered “yes” to at least one of the questions above (hehehe), then this halloween idea article is for you! This time we check out some new beat via the most headlining-hitting brother tandems that we know today. So be on the lookout for the signature swagger, the get-up and most of all the quotes!

#1) Blues Brothers

Blurring the gap between blues in moivies and blues in the live music scene, the Brothers are a Grammy Award-nominated blues and soul band founded in 1978 by comedians Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi.

For the brothers’ look, Belushi borrowed John Lee Hooker’s trademark Ray-Ban Wayfarer sunglasses and soul patch. This makes me wonder: is it possible that the costume designers of the Agents in Men In Black were inspired by the Blues Brothers? Just a thought.

#2) Chemical Brothers

Dazzling, head-pounding, unforgettable, loud… After 16 years together, the British duo has come to pull less and less proverbial rabbits out of their groove machines, and to stick to consistent beats that transport you elsewhere. Here’s the look:

Chemical Tom: long blond hair (makes it more recognizable!) and tinted nerd glasses

Chemical Ed: short curly hair will do

For both: dark colored club wear

Accessories: how about practising and playing an actual live set?

#3) The Gallagher brothers of Oasis

Definitely this blog article is not the appropriate place to discuss the merits of being an Oasis fan or not. Seriously now, this is one easy look to capture, most especially if you have a dark colored, high collared and zippered windbreaker, and some tinted round rims. Grow that stubble on your chin and rock it out (with a well-practiced British accent of course).

#4) The Ramones

This American rock band is arguably the first punk rock group. Describing just how prolific these four are would only make things confusing. But let’s hear out what one observer thought of their debut performance in a famous New York Club in 1974: “”They were all wearing these black leather jackets. And they counted off this song…and it was just this wall of noise…. They looked so striking. These guys were not hippies. This was something completely new.”

For this concept, two friends wear black cereal bowl type hair-dos/wigs (Johnny and Dee Dee) and two wear curly black wigs ( Tommy and Joey). Pair with leather jackets, tight jeans with holes in the knees, converse sneakers and tight black t-shirts. The tallest in the group gets to be Joey, wearing a striped shirt. But Dee Dee is still spokeperson. Optional items are studded belts.

Hmm, isn’t it weird that none of these brothers actually weren’t even?

Ah, the challenge of bringing creativity into a Halloween costume for wheelchair users! As we all know, wheelchair riders also have countless costume ideas to choose from. But they must think ahead and picture out that the costume doesn’t get in the way of the wheelchair’s operation.

Which of the following are you capable of turning into an out-of-the-box costume?

TV News Host
King or Queen
Cinderella in her carriage
Bugatti racer
Aladdin on his magic carpet
biblical wise man on a camel
Saruman on his throne
Engineer and Train Costume

More ideas from flickr:

"Coney Island Mermaid Parade 2005" from contributor MacRonin47

"Darth Vader Tie Fighter Costume" from contributor Tostie14

Pumpkin carving with portrait of Elvis from flickr contributor _stal

It’s time to take a break for awhile from writing about Halloween costumes, and instead focus for today on a rare pastime: free mp3 hunting!
If you need the serious chart-toppers that puts you into a Halloween party mood, check these out:

About.com’s Top 10 Halloween Pop Songs by Bill Lamb; no indication when last updated
All the staples are here: from the pioneering Moster Mash by Bobby Pickett, to Mike Oldfield’s “Tubular Bells Pt. 1” (Theme From ‘The Exorcist’), up to Rob Zombie’s not-to-be-missed contributions. These ten are really classics, so kudos to Bill Lamb for such a power list! This one exception doesn’t have free mp3s however; clicking on each of the song’s link leads to About.com’s Shopping section.

Blog Critics’ Ten Halloween Songs That Aren’t As Lame As “The Monster Mash” by Hazy Dave; last updated October 2003
Sorry, no songs to download in this link. But if you need still more authoritative consensus on what are the top-notch Halloween songs worth checking out, then go here. What’s interesting is that this list and the previous one are in agreement over the scare-factor of ‘The Exorcist’ theme. Now that’s what I call spooky!

Hear Ya’sTop 50 Halloween Songs, Part 1by Drinking Buddy; last updated on October 2007

Daily mp3 download accessible to those who subscribe to the site’s RSS feeds. This quirky selection classifies the mostly rock tunes (ranging from Grateful Dead to Def Leppard to Beck to Warren Zevon) according to themes like Halloween treats, scary horror creatures, and devils.

EZ.Tracks’ Best Halloween Song Downloads
If you are in terrible need of a horror or suspense movie theme (like that of X-Files or of Halloween), then this link is the answer you’ve been waiting for. You can download a minimum number of mp3s, beyond of which you will need to start paying. Most of what appeared in the first two lists are here (note: I didn’t know “Tubular Bells Pt. 1” was that hot, nor “Monster Mash”).

A Putrid Pal Halloween mp3 mix posted October 2007

Cartoonist Michael Fleming’s creation, Putrid Pal, “is an all-ages adventures comic about an undead French boy and his friends on Woe Beach.” Fleming has put up a 21-song collection of totally carefree, 70s-style rock spook-themed tunes. Kids will definitely be heads over heels about “Dracula Cha Cha”, or “Zombie Walk,” and the narrated “Teeny Tiny Woman”. Older folks may simply want to tap along to the funky beats of lyric-less, spy-flick-ish “Spooky”.

Dave’s MOSTLY GHOSTLY MUSIC SHARING; latest post is dated September 21, 2008
Talk about a formidable collection! As the blurb on the page says, “this blog contains Halloween music, albums, cds, downloads, free, sharing, LPs, cassettes, [and] spooky stories…” and for both kids and adults, at that, most of which are already no longer sold. Vintage music and audio book collectors must never miss out on this one gem.

Elen’s Vague Space- Halloween Music; posted October 2007

I also reserve a huge proportion of my USB flash drive for indie music that I stumble upon on the Web. I was all over the screen when I saw the names of Broken Social Scene’s Kevin Drew, Thurston Moore, and Sufjan Stevens, among others, on the same web page! Sadly, the links to most of the songs are broken; but at least I find out that Steven’s “John Wayne Gacy Jr.” is still good to go!

Zyzzybalubah ’s Fangdango (The Halloween EP) posted at Archive.org

If you:
a) are not bothered by how old the downloaded recording(s) are, and only pay attention to the quality; and,
b) are impressed by the first two lists of Halloween songs in this blog entry, and especially want songs like “Tubular Bells Pt. 1” (n-o thanks, I want to fall asleep immediately every night, thank you),
then this podcast is for you. To give you er, a picture of what to expect, let’s take a look at the titles: Horns From Hell, Mystery Town, Midnight Chainsaws, Chasm Concierto, Carnivorous Cavern, Banshee Basement… ‘Nuff said. Ahoy, fans of Instrumental, Dark Ambient, Gothic, Post Rock, and Progressive Rock. Time to dig in!

More stuff a la “The Office”:

Michael Scott with women staff on Valentines episode; this perfectly captures the normal "Office" mood! (NBC photo)

Meredith Palmer.She is Dunder Mufflin’s Supplier Relations representative battling out alcoholism.

Attire: Her daily attire consists of a dark-colored cardigan paired with a dress a la Betty La Fea. Don’t forget also those little liquor samples which you can bring out from time to time.

Phyllis Vance. Phyllis is a sales representative at fictitious paper distributor Dunder Mifflin. She is a quiet but friendly, motherly-type who loves “girl talk” and gossip.

Attire: Aside from the blouse, long skirt, and oven mitt-shaped wrapped gift, don’t leave home without one of those exotic-looking necklaces.

The Office's Most Unlikely Duo: Angela and Dwight (NBC photo)

Tell! Him! Not! Dwight… Quiet, you!

- Dwight

Dwight Kurt Schrute III. This post will arguably be a let down if there’s no mention of Mr. Determined-Worker-Intense-Good Worker-Hard Worker-Terrific Dwight!!

Inexplicably devoid of sociability and common sense, Dwight is nevertheless a multi-awarded salesman for the company. And while the special filing cabinet of his complaints on Jim may keep on growing, the two are still Dunder Mifflin’s top sales team. Sadly, the shadow his 6 -foot frame casts has difficulty garnering higher levels of professional success or respect in the office.

Attire: To play this character to the hilt, I suggest that our would-be Schrute have those lightning eyebrows, hawk-like glare, plus hair parted at the middle. Just the same, I’ve seen a few Dwight costumes on the Net without those natural features, and I think they did well too.

Now let’s check out what it takes to achieve the minimum Dwight Shrute look: think of the Dilbert get-up, only change everything to a monochromatic yellow.. no seriously. Take a look yourself. And it’s a good thing you don’t have to figure out how to make that tie skew forward. Part your hair in the middle and instead of the cartoon’s round-rims, get those square-rimmed glasses that must be going slightly green already at the edges.

Another way to satiate your Dwight addiction is to make a flowing hood out of some huge black cloth. Don it a la Darth Maul and pass on Dwight’s legacy.

(l-r): Jim, Pam and Roy. Where will Pam's distant art studies bring her relationship with Jim? (NBC photo)

“OMG Dwight, what are you doing? You’re not allowed to take off your pants in the middle of the office.”

- Jim

Jim Halpert. At the beginning of the sitcom in 2005, Jim Halpert is a paper salesman at the Scrantonbranch of fictitious paper-goods distributor Dunder Mifflin. Some three years later, he is already assistant regional manager and is “almost-there” in proposing to Jenna. Watch out for Season 5 for more details!

Attire: Easy, you can have it both ways, actually. it’s either the three hole punch Jim or the pale-shirt-and-dark-tie Jim.