Quote, zombies

Ask not what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive... then go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive. - Howard Thurman
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This makes me think of zombies.

But seriously, it's a nice quote.
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Speaking of zombies, it's that time of year when halloween costume shops appear in the perennially-empty storefronts that plague the dying strip malls of, at least, the Midwest. Haunted houses spring up everywhere and advertisements for them (on TV and the radio) attempt to conjure up the scariest images and market them as entertainment.

I hate haunted houses. I also hate horror movies which have transcended their seasonal complements and are released all year long. I really detest seeing previews for those movies on TV and in movie theaters. I think what really irks me is the violent nature of many of the movies that center around very graphic and explicit torture.

It's ironic because metal/punk/hardcore have roots penetrating into stuff like horror movies and monsters (think: Rocky Horror Picture Show or the Misfits...). Without doing any research into this thought, I am assuming this connection is historically an allegorical one based on stuff like kids being called "freaks" by their popular/mainstream counterparts and the general tension with Christianity such that kids jokingly adopt "Hell" (the music scene?) and "Satan" (music? etc...) as their focus of worship... Does that make sense?

Ghosts? Okay. Monsters? Ehh. But immersing oneself in a scene filled with murder and torture is deplorable.

I sound like such a geezer. I guess I can see some sort of value in the fantasy that is composed of monsters and demons, and that this sensational fear and irrationality is a break from the mundane fears that cast a shadow over our daily reality (economy, health, war, etc.)