Zombie March Chicago 2012 - Post 7 - Random Zombies - June 16, 2012

Last Zombie Post!  Okay, for the most part, I like the zombies to have a schtick or fit into a theme or something, but sometimes a random zombie is just a cool random zombie.

 Hippy zombies.  I suppose their motto would be "make blood not war... wait, no... war is fine.  Carry on"?

 I'm not even going to try to guess why he's wearing Spongebob arm floaties, but I have to give a shout out to my alma matar zombie.  Go Redbirds. ;)

 All I could think of when I saw this guy was, "OMG, did you not check the weather?"  He's wearing a mask, a wig and a full coverall with boots... and it was 95 degrees out the day of the march.  And he stayed in that entire outfit the entire time.  I cannot imagine how he didn't either pull it off or pass out.

But I'll give him this... it is creepy.

 She was actually the first zombie I featured back on post number one for this year.  This is her whole outfit.  And she had a 'twin'.  Or at least someone else dressed very similarly, clearly meant to be a zombie of the same species.

Want to play a game of "Where's Waldo"?  Can you find the photographer (me) in this picture?  I'm in it.

 Are you my mummy?

Another suitably creepy costume that I cannot imagine how the guy stayed in it in 95 degree weather for three hours.

And of course, you gotta love the zombie who takes the time to make a random kid smile.








Okay, that's it for the zombies.  Next up: tomorrow's parade!

Zombie March Chicago 2012 - Post 6 - Zombie Crashers - June 16, 2012

So this post is called "Zombie Crashers".  Weirdly enough I don't mean "a nice normal event crashed by a few zombies".  Instead I mean "a zombie event crashed by a few normal people"!

You might remember last year that there was the wedding (Quinceanera?) that did "Thriller" for the Zombies.

Unfortunately for us, this year there wasn't anything quite that interesting.  On the flip side... there were a lot of people coordinating things in groups at The Bean while the Zombies congregated.

 This was apparently an actual, regular, Flash Mob.  A group called "Move It" came up to The Bean and did a dance to "Move It" from Madagascar.  They didn't seem to have been overly prepared or rehearsed, since everyone seemed to be following the two girls on the right in sunglasses and not really moving as a choreographed group.  It apparently had something to do with getting up off the couch and exercising, but honestly, they never really did explain who they were or what their point was.  It's possible that the amassing of 2000 zombies had them slightly stunned.

 Then there was this guy as we came up Michigan Avenue.  Now, I'm all for public protest and the First Amendment and all that, but I tend to think it works better when you know you're reaching the people who are making the decision you're objecting to.  So I have no idea how this is going to get him visitation with his kid.

The other pretty annoying thing?  He was standing in the middle of the sidewalk as we crossed Michigan and he refused to move.  So we've got this mass of humanity trying to beat the light so we can stay together and we had to bob and weave around this guy.

 Do Quinceaneras have 'bridesmaids'?  I saw several groups with a girl in what was very much (to me) either a Disney Princess dress or an 80's-ish Prom Dress, who had several similarly-dressed attendants.  And they had what looked like a groom's party too.  Guys in similar tuxes.  Very weird to me.

<----- And then there was this.  I'm assuming some kind of wardrobe malfunction, but I can't imagine what it is that needed to be fixed right there in the middle of the plaza, like that.  It looks... a tad odd.

There was a regular wedding.  I didn't get any regular shots - there were too many tall people in front of me.  But I could see them all in The Bean.  See all the girls in black dresses with big yellow bouquets of flowers?  Yeah... wedding group.  You can see the bride in the middle of the line, slightly forward.

So... yeah.  A lot of interesting events crashing the zombie crashing. ;)

Almost done!  Which is good, because tomorrow is the Chicago Gay Pride parade.  I'm sure I'll have few thousand photos to share after that! :)

Zombie March Chicago 2012 - Post 5- The Signs of The Apocolypse (beta) - June 16, 2012

First... the reminder: NOTE to the regular readers who are used to cute, fluffy squirrels and happy little song birds...  These zombie posts contain exactly what you'd think of when you hear "zombie".  A lot of stage make-up gray faces and latex flesh wounds and currant-juice fake blood.  If this is not what you signed on for, please feel free to look away now.  Personally, I found it all to be a lot of "Hey look someone in make up", but some people on the street were legitimately startled by some of the participants.

 So there were just a few more signs I wanted to share.

 So I heard this thing long before I saw it.  I don't think mufflers were required in... I don't know, 1922 or whatever.

Anyway, I see this sign on an old car.  I honestly thought it was a coincidence since the walk was more than three-quarters done, so I didn't think it had anything to do with us.

 Then I saw the side.  I swear I've seen this car before.  I can't remember where - maybe just toodling around Chicago somewhere - bit it looked really familiar.  So I'm staring and staring, trying to remember where I've seen it when I realize... this thing has no driver!

Then the car pulled up a little more and I could see the guy inside.  And his friend.  I guess they were with us after all. :)

 And then there was this...

Not exactly what you'd expect from a brain-munching zombie. :)

Okay, a few more pics of just random bits and pieces are up next!

Zombie March Chicago 2012 - Post 4 - The Signs of The Apocolypse (alpha) - June 16, 2012

So... I got a bit of interesting feedback on my second Zombie March post for this year.  I made the comment that I wasn't sure if it wasn't 'too soon' for Zombie Amy Winehouse, given that she died less than a year ago.  Someone kindly pointed out that Zombie AW had actually originated back in 2007, long before she actually died.  Which just got me to thinking... I was a little ponderous about the AW zombie, because it seemed to me, that on some level, it was making a statement about a real person who was actually dead.

And yet I had no second thoughts about Obama-zombie.  I guess because unlike Amy Winehouse, he doesn't show self-destructive tendencies that would result in a real death at a young age.  I think.  I'm not sure.  I'm suddenly very introspective about how the kind of zombie you dress as says something about a person.

The same person said they found this sign more disturbing than the Amy Winehouse zombie because it was much more recent.

Now, to be fair, it was a good half-an-hour after I first saw this sign that the joke registered for me.

I make bath salts.  You know, scented epsom salts or sea salt that you toss into your actual bathtub.

I have never been a part of, or even had a high interest in, the illegal drug culture.

So it took me a while to remember that there is a mind/mood-altering substance out there called 'bath salts' that have nothing to do with actually cleaning your skin.  And that the use of them has caused some 'real zombie attacks' in the past couple months.  Apparently in a few cases, people who have gotten high on the stuff have killed others and then literally eaten a part of that person.

Pretty gross, right?

So now I *get* the joke, but I think because I was only peripherally aware of these cases as 15-second news bits, they don't have a lasting impact on me.  Maybe people with a lot more interest in zombie legend and cosplay have a greater interest and identification with these stories.  Because once I got the joke I was like, "Oh!  I get it.  Yeah, that makes sense now.  Next!"

So... it's interesting.  I mean, zombies are supposed to be, on some level, disturbing.  But to actually contemplate why some zombies are more disturbing or 'problematic' for some people is just *not* something I ever saw myself putting a lot of brain power into.  And yet...

Anyway!  There were signs!  Zombies with signs.  I always find the signs people carry at any parade/march/protest interesting.  I took many hundreds of pictures of signs at the John Stewert/Stephen Colbert rally in Washington D.C. a few years ago.

There were so many signs that I didn't even attempt to blog them all.  I made a music video out of a handful of my favorites, though.  I could have sworn I linked that here, but I can't find it if I did.  So just in case... here it is again.

Anyway, some of the zombies had signs!

This one was particularly noticable because there was very little lurching this year.  Apparently lurching takes more energy than walking and slows down the process.  Since it was about 93 degrees (F) during the march, no one was up for either wasting energy or going slower.

I like this one because of the hand silhouetted behind it.  It looks like someone's trying to claw through the sign to get away from the monsters.

Apparently "Zombie Rights" are a hot-button issue in the undead community right now.

And, of course, there has to be the Undead of the Occupy Movement represented.

I just hope she isn't implying that 99% of Chicago is zombies. :)









Okay, tomorrow will be one more quick post on signs. :)

Zombie March Chicago 2012 - Post 3, The Zombie is in the Details - June 16, 2012

I missed more shots on this topic than I got, but one of the things I adore about the Zombie March is some people's attention to the details.

 So it's a Zombie in a hat... cute, right?  Then you read his shirt.  And crack up.  Well, at least I did.  Dude, you just got turned into a zombie... not so lucky, I'd say.  But no one asked me, right? :)

 A lot of people have plain t-shirts that they don't mind tearing and bloodying up so I didn't pay a lot of attention to the t-shirts until I happened to be walking behind this girl.  This as a zombie shirt is an awesome piece of cognitive dissonance.

Photo fail in a big way. :(

If you can't piece together what her shirt says under her hair, it's "LA [something] Work Release".  But the awesome detail is in her left hand.  She's got the hand of the person she was handcuffed to before she 'broke away from the chain gang'.







There were lots of awesome make up effects - I showed you Zipper Face in the first post and Snow White's eyes and Wraith Girl's eyes in the second and first post respectively, but sometimes it's just a little thing that you might not ever see unless you get behind the right Zombie.

Zombie March Chicago 2012 - Post 2, Zomb-ody You Might Recognize - June 16, 2012

NOTE to the regular readers who are used to cute, fluffy squirrels and happy little song birds...  These zombie posts contain exactly what you'd think of when you hear "zombie".  A lot of stage make-up gray faces and latex flesh wounds and currant-juice fake blood.  If this is not what you signed on for, please feel free to look away now.  Personally, I found it all to be a lot of "Hey look someone in make up", but some people on the street were legitimately startled by some of the participants.

One of the big schticks for Zombie March is to be a famous, infamous or at least recognizable zombie.  These were the ones that I could recognize.

 I posted this one the other night.  This is Amy Winehouse and her (apparent) husband, someone named Blake.

There was a tiny part of me that asked 'is it a bit too early for the dead Amy Winehouse bits', but I'm not sure what the etiquette is when deciding who's Zombie Fair Game.

 Then there was Zomb-ama.  This guy liked working the crowd.  And before you ask, I'm not 100% sure what the red thing at the split in his pants is supposed to be.

 The Scoobie-Doo Crew finally lost their battle with the guy in the mask!  Poor Scoobie *really* got the raw end of the deal.

This was pretty funny.  I mean, to go to the trouble to get coordinated but not matching t-shirts and the make the box and then bloody it.  I love that it's finger-smears across the 'face' and then there's a heart of blood on the zombie on the left.

 Then there was the Disney Zombie Crew.  Snow White, Pocahontas (I think) Rapunzel, Tinkerbell with Peter Pan behind her, Belle, Cinderella, the Prince from Little Mermaid and Ariel herself.

This crew did some nice details in the make up.  Like look how "Ariel" used make up to really accent her ribs and make her look all emaciated and sunken.

I isolated a few of them to make the details easier to see.  Snow White didn't carry an apple - she had a bloody brain.  And also contacts.  The contacts are still the one thing that will totally throw me when I don't expect to see weird eyes.

And while these aren't people whose names you would know, I'm sure we're all familiar with the ubiquitous Wal-Mart Greeter.


Well if you look closely (or click on to blow up) the little yellow tags under their names, you'll see that these are "Wal-Mart People Grrrrr-eaters."


Very, very clever!


Speaking of details, tomorrow I'll put up the post where the little things in a costume or make-up make all the difference.

Zombie March Chicago 2012 - Post 1 - June 16, 2012

I'm interrupting our cute little swallows and pretty butterflies and whatnot to bring you Zombie March 2012!

NOTE to the regular readers who are used to cute, fluffy squirrels and happy little song birds...  These zombie posts contain exactly what you'd think of when you hear "zombie".  A lot of stage make-up gray faces and latex flesh wounds and currant-juice fake blood.  If this is not what you signed on for, please feel free to look away now.  Personally, I found it all to be a lot of "Hey look someone in make up", but some people on the street were legitimately startled by some of the participants.


Last year I posted on Zombie March 2011 and how much fun it was, so I went back this year.


One major thing I noticed right off the bat was that we had to be a good 20 degrees hotter today.  Blergh.  We took a different route and had a fair number fewer zombies.  Not that there weren't A LOT of Zombies, but not as many as last year.  I suspect the heat kept some people home.  Some of the costumes and make-up jobs are pretty intense.


Anyway... I still had fun.  Here's a few random shots to start the posting off with.  Just some of the ones I liked best. :)

 The contacts were out in force again.  I played some with isolating parts of the make-up jobs.  This one is probably one of my favorites.

 And of course, the thing about portraits of people, versus what I usually shoot, is that I can say, "Hey over here where the light is better, okay now turn, like that, move here..."  Seriously, I'm so used to shooting wild animals that I almost forget that I can have people move to where the shot will work the best.

Zipper 'embedded' in the skin was the hot new make-up trend this year.  This was one of two really awesome examples I saw of this.  Unfortunately I couldn't get a shot of the other one.

 As usual, there were a fair number of people and characters you might have known when they were alive.  I recognized Amy Winehouse right away, but someone had to explain to me who Blake on the left was. :)

This was a total accidental shot.  She's coming up the stairs as we went down Michigan and I either caught her blinking or looking down as she came up.  But there's something about her colors and make up job that combine with that expression and... you get the most serene zombie ever!

And of course, there are always the cute-kid zombies.  I should have asked if she was celebrating how many years she'd been alive or how many she'd been undead. ;)




























Okay, more tomorrow.  If you are in any of these shots and you'd like them removed, just let me know.  Or if you'd simply like to put your name with the shot, you can let me know that too.  I can be emailed at kymberleericke [at] gmail dot com. :)

How to Do the Zombie March in Three Easy Steps...

Okay, so this is the last post on the zombie march, as much fun as it's been.

I'm going to repeat my warning from the last post:  NOTE to the regular readers who are used to cute, fluffy squirrels and happy little song birds...  These zombie posts contain exactly what you'd think of when you hear "zombie".  A lot of stage make-up gray faces and latex flesh wounds and currant-juice fake blood.  If this is not what you signed on for, please feel free to look away now.  Personally, I found it all to be a lot of "Hey look someone in make up", but some people on the street were legitimately startled by some of the participants. Personally (and this is something I'll go into later) the only thing I found creepy were some of the contact jobs.  Even under all the grease paint, latex and Rice Krispies (more on that in later too) I still expect people's eyes to look like, you know, normal eyes.

So if this is not your thing, feel free to back-button now.  The next post I make will be back to the cute, fluffy, normal stuff you're used to from me. :)

But if you're into zombies... you have to become one.

The event was planned on the internet.  There's a website and a Facebook site and everything.  You have to wonder if this is one of the odder things Mark Z and the Twitter folks have found their inventions being employed for.  "Yeah, we created this great way for people to find old school friends and to chat with their cousins ... and it was just used to set up 2000 people to dress like zombies and attack Chicago."

If it's not one of the oddest things they've been used for, I want to know what *is*. :)

Anyway, the website said that if people needed help with make up, there would be people set up to help you.  But most people showed up either read to go, or they just bloodied themselves there or they made their friends undead.

These two girls were two of the first to show up and start getting ready near the Bean.

 I posted these girls before.  They were busy helping others get set up.  When I looked at their "victim", I saw this...

So I had to ask why they were sticking Rice Krispies to her face.  Turns out that they put liquid latex over the cereal and it gives the texture you can see on Ginny's face above.  Neat trick!

 I mentioned that the one thing that made me freak out a little - among all the gray and green and white paint and all the latex and fake blood - was the contacts people were using to do bizarre things with their eyes.  Like this zombie - with one blown eye and one normal.

Or these two.  I wish I had the aperture set a little better, so you could see the blue eyes in the blonde girl's eyes a bit better.  They're the freakishly light blue ones that make her look almost irisless.  And of course, there was scads of red eyes.  I wonder how many people went home and tried to use 'red-eye removal' on their photos. :)

 Once everyone was made up, we started moving all 2000 zombies and 100 photographers down Michigan Ave.

 Crossing streets was fun.  We um... annoyed traffic a few times.

Some of the tourists were a little taken aback.  I don't think this was included in the brochures. :)

At one point the traffic problems got us noticed by the cops.  They were totally cool with everything, and this guy - a bike cop - basically became our escort, helping us not, you know, completely hose traffic in the Loop.  He was also totally game for playing along with everything.

 When there was a lull or a rest stop at a landmark, certain Zombie Dramas would break out.  I want to note that these skits were completely ad libbed, but also completely consensual.  No actual 'innocent by-standers' were actually grabbed by the zombies.  Even this guy was totally on board with being "attacked".

 This guy was so into getting his picture taken with the Zombies that he kissed anyone who sat next to him on the cheek. (I don't think he actually made contact, because a.) creepy and b.) make-up... on both parties.

 When we stopped in front of NBC, the "Zombie Hunter" went after one of the zombies with a camera.

 He lost that battle.

 But when he got up to try again, this little tiny person (I wish I had a shot of her face - she was an adult, but actually smaller than me.  And in feetsy pajamas!) jumped on his back.

And held on but good until she took him down.

 As we moved through town, the locals began whipping out whatever camera they had.  dSLRs, point-and-shoots, cell phones...

You just have to imagine this guy getting home.

"Hi honey, how was your day?"
"Well, 2000 zombies went past the hotel."
"Oh be serious!"
"No, look, I even have pictures!"

Because, really, who would believe that?

This guy had both a phone and a regular camera.  He's a roller-cop at the Bean.  The fact that he carries a dedicated camera makes me think that 2000 zombies may be 'just another day on the job' for him.

This guy even 'Flat Stanley'd the zombies.  If you don't know what Flat Stanley is, you can go here to read up on him.  The short version is, when you either can't go somewhere yourself, OR you go somewhere alone and can't get pictures of you in front of a landmark, you put a little picture/doll/figurine in the shot that represents you.  A friend of mine uses a Captain Jack Harkness  (from Torchwood) action figure, other people use a favorite stuffed animal.  It's a way of showing "I was here, I saw this thing in person, but I couldn't get myself into the shot."  This guy couldn't get a picture of himself with the zombies, but he held the little Amigurumi doll (which, IMHO, looks like Where's Waldo) to the zombie parade as a way of saying, "Look what *I* did in Chicago!"

 So we shambled past Broadway in Chicago...

 ...across the Chicago River.  (One thing I noticed about zombies - they're camera hogs. If I stopped for a second to get a shot, odds were good someone would stick their face against my glass.)

Clearly a zombie from years gone by got tired of being labeled and left this on the railing to the bridge over the river.

After making the loop around, well... The Loop, we made our way back to the Bean.  It was about four hours later... and there were still people there getting dressed up as zombies.  I have no idea what they were going to do or where they were going to go as a zombie, as the walk was over, but... there he was.

ETA: So this young lady with the red hair here is Alexandra.  She and I were chatting on Facebook and she explained why they were still doing make up after the march.  "If you were wondering why we were still doing make-up, we were just having fun I suppose.  I didn't understand why people wanted makeup after the march, but I was having fun so I did it."

The one last person I have to mention is Heather Myers.  Heather was going around with a small video camera, interviewing zombies, but not dressed as one.  I asked who she was interviewing for and she said that it was for her Masters thesis.  She is, no joke, getting her Masters in Zombies from HARVARD.  She turned in the proposal to her advisor as a joke and had her 'real' topic of... something about the aculturalization of Native American Trickster Gods... to turn in afterwards. Anyway, the advisor looked at the Zombies one and went, "You are so totally doing this!" So now she travels around and studies the zombie phenomena and its growth in America.  How wild is that?

This week I'm going to a bonfire event.  Those shots will probably be a little more along the lines of the stuff you're used to seeing from me.  But I have to say, I wasn't sure about hanging out with the UNnatural for a day, but it really was a blast.  Thanks to all you zombies.  I've never met friendlier undead people in my life.

OH!  That reminds me... I kept asking people if they knew this song, and I didn't meet one who did.  I'm not saying it's brilliant music or anything.  But it's "All You Zombies" by the Hooters.  It's an old 80's pop tune... that's vaguely about zombies.