The route

Okay zombies, the official course takes us from the VCSL campus at the corner of Laurel and Santa Clara Streets up to Main Street, all the way downtown and back. Feel free to lurch the entire route or any part thereof, but we're looking forward to a large zombie population on Main Street between four and five p.m.

Come out, join us, and 'Come to Life!'

Schedule of Events

It's almost time! Here is the current schedule of events:

3:30 p.m: Our makeup triage opens, come and get your makeup applied, and get ready to go!
4-6 pm: The walk -- zombies lurch downtown, take mainstreet by benevolent storm, wreak congenial havoc
6-9 pm: The Haunt -- Zombies return to VCSL, and 'come to life' for the party!
7 pm: Zombie pageant and talent show; bring your best zombie skills (or other talents) into competition with the rest -- win fabulous prizes!
6 pm, ongoing: strut your stuff in our thriller dance, commencing every half hour, as interest warrants...

The Poster!

Expect to see our poster appearing in Main Street windows this week... credit to the insanely talented Luci Scolari for her fabulous illustration of the Zombie Family:

Time to Get Involved.

Since our event is meant to raise awareness of the zombifying influences in our lives, to do nothing would be the ultimate surrender to the dreadful malaise. Much better to join the ranks, have some fun, and come to life.

Sounds cool, you say?

Good, we're glad to have you. At this point, there's a couple of action points you can take to get involved:

• you can join the zombie walk by downloading our sponsor sheet at the top of the sidebar -- get a few people to pledge a few bucks to sponsor your walk (bring your completed sponsor sheet with funds on the day of the walk, and you'll get in to the party afterward for free), and join us late Saturday afternoon on 10/25 ready to join all the other zombies and lurch downtown and back. If you aren't sure what to do about makeup, don't worry about it -- we'll have cheap makeup efx available onsite.

• you can buy one of our groovy t-shirts; go to www.cafepress.com/vcslzombie to check out the many designs, and if you buy one and wear it, not only can we make a couple of bucks on the sale, but you'll promote the event in the community as well.

• you can volunteer to help with the effort; sign up at the church, or simply leave your name and email in the comments link at the bottom of this post, and we'll get in touch.

• you can donate directly to the fundraiser -- see the link in the sidebar at right.

Zombie walk? Huh?

Say what?

It seems like a bizarre event to promote a spiritual community, we do realize. But Halloween is second only to Christmas in its marketing appeal; it captures the imagination in a way that few other holidays do -- and we're all about capturing the imagination. Besides, who doesn't love to don a fun/cool/crazy/scary/sexy/ disgusting costume and rub elbows with Count Dracula or Elvis or Richard Nixon?

Well, we do.

As for zombies, it's been suggested that they've become the most relevant "monster" in the cinematic pantheon, in this age of mindless consumerism, couch potato-ism and pandemic spiritual vacuity. The zombie was originally taken from legendary Voodoo Hoodoo and famously adapted in 1968 for George Romero's landmark film Night Of the Living Dead, in which the recently deceased inexplicably return to life to prey upon the living. Since that time zombies have headlined in countless sequels, spin-offs, rip-offs, adaptations, novels, comics, board games, role playing games and video games, and with each new cultural iteration it's clear that the theme of the "living dead" resonates in western culture at a frequency to which many of us are keenly attuned.

But what's a 'Zombie Walk?'

It's equal parts quiet riot, social movement, ironic parade, flash mob; a free-form traveling costume party in which dozens or hundreds or thousands of participants adopt the garb, makeup, expression and gait of the living dead, and collectively lurch along pre-arranged routes through metropolitan centers. According to Wikipedia's Zombie Walk entry, the practice was officially born in 2001 in Sacramento, as a gag to promote a local midnight film festival. Other accounts trace its origin to Toronto, but despite the where and when, since that time the cultural infection (to use the time-honored narrative parlance) has rapidly spread throughout the nation and the world: events in San Francisco and Toronto have drawn hundreds of participants, while this year's Brisbane lurch featured a staggering 1,500 (okay, pun intended) reanimated revelers. Kindly check out the YouTube link below, video from this year's event in Prague, and watch as hundreds of zombies stream by the camera in an uninterrupted flow that runs for nearly six minutes.

But really, a zombie walk to promote a spiritual community?

Again, yes, we think the metaphor is most apt. Few would disagree that we live in a zombifying age; throughout the world countless millions endure mind-numbing commutes to soul-crushing workplaces, wallow in insipid, sophomoric or frankly destructive entertainment and advertising, and blindly pursue indeterminate goals rooted in insatiable appetites for trifling desires. For such 'nouveau zombies,' true inspiration arrives on occasions that number too few and far between to construe the sort of flotation device that might serve to bear us up above the social and cultural detritus of this desperate age -- and as culture and society fail to support enlightenment, we're left with nowhere to turn but within.

Thus do we find the Zombie Walk to be very much within our mandate at VCSL. For most of us, the single greatest (or perhaps only) opportunity for vivification (or 'reanimation,' if you'll tolerate a last quip) is in and through spirit. Likewise, thus do we offer our invitation in the banner of this webpage, and with our event in general:

"Zombies, come to life!"

Our Reverend Bonnie Rose put it most aptly when she recently penned: "Spiritually speaking, the zombie provides a powerful metaphor. We begin to notice our inner zombie with humor and compassion. We reveal the living dead in us that tends to stagger through life seeking only to consume, hypnotized by base desires. As we become aware, we smile at the inner zombie and release it. Ultimately, the 'zombie comes to life', as we awaken to the spirit that seeks expression in all of us."

For our purposes, then, the Zombie Walk celebrates our limitless life potential, even as it pokes fun at our natural tendency toward entropy, and urges the uplifting of life and spirit and fellowship that we believe comprises the energetic center of us all.

We hope you'll join us in celebrating life, and the undead -- er, immortal -- spirit in all of us this October 25.

Walkers, get sponsored!

Zombies, remember that the fun is all to a good cause, and find your sponsors for the walk. Download our sponsor signup sheet, at the top of the sidebar to the right -- call the number to register as an official undead walker, then bring it to your sponsors. Any amount will help, and your sponsored sheet will get you entry to our after-party party!

Remember, zombies eat brains, but they have hearts! Get your sponsors involved, and don't forget your non-perishable foods!

Zombies have hearts, too...

Remember to bring your non-perishable food items to the Undead Lurch -- we'll collect them at the pre-event Triage, and donate them to a worthy local food resource!

World Zombie Day!

In a testament to the power of synchronicity, our weekend is also World Zombie Day (10/26). Following is a blurb about the event from AMCtv's Monster Fest Page:

"If your idea of fun is dabbling in white powder and fake blood, donning your funereal garb, and shuffling in a horde to raise awareness for world hunger, then October 26th is your day. The hosts of Pittsburgh's "The It's Alive Show," who have set Guiness World Records with their last two Zombie Walk events, have decided to conquer the world with this new charity event for world hunger.

Part non-perishable food drive, part zombie massacre, World Zombie Day is growing like crazy, already gathering contingents in 52 Cities across the U.S. and the rest of the world..."

Since on that day we'll all have appetites only for brains, perhaps we can set aside some canned goods to try and help quell this infernal hunger...

Crawl Of the Dead.com

Click here to find our listing on Crawl Of the Dead.com, a very cool online zombie walk resource. This is the page I'm linking to in our "sign up" link at the top of the sidebar; there's a cool feature that allows users to "rsvp" (kind of). Anyway, it also shows some of the other Zombie Walks happening on our weekend -- cool to think of it happening simultaneously in so many cities around the world!

2008 Prague Zombie Walk!

For those of you who'd like to see what an Undead Lurch looks like in the veritable flesh, below is some video from this year's Prague event. While this looks like good fun, with our event we're looking to recruit a much wider undead demographic -- we need zombies of all ages, from the very young to the, ahem, mature. So kindly do your part and tell your friends, family, co-workers, creditors, debtors and everyone in between to visit this page and get involved!
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Zombie walk earlier this year, in Prague!