First We Take Somerville, Then We Take Cambridge

While waiting in the bathroom line at the Diesel, Bostonist caught zombie overlord Alli Auldridge putting up a poster for Zombie March 2006. When cornered, Ms. Auldridge revealed her plans: on Saturday, April 29th, the local undead will walk from Davis Square to Harvard Square in search of a decent brain to eat.

How long do you expect Zombie March 2006 to last? Are we talking about traditional, slowly-lurching Dawn of the Dead zombies, or more efficient 28 Days Later zombies?
Always always slow zombies. I'm not quite sure at what point we as a culture became so jaded that we decided that we need fast-moving zombies to scare the hell out of us in the new zombie films and remakes, but I am a huge fan of Romero's subtle original, slow moving guys. In those old movies like Night of the Living Dead, as viewers we knew that as "we" were running away in the dark we were running over a hill and into a sea of slow moving zombies who would circle around us and tear out our innards and eat our brains and eventually take over the world.

I timed the walk by myself yesterday. I think it will take an hour from Davis to The Cellar depending on people's pace.

You've said that the zombie march has no political affiliations. Are there any issues that Massachusetts' underrepresented undead citizens are concerned about? (Health care's probably a moot point.)
For a while the Big Dig seemed like something zombies should care about - they thought that because of its name that the project would effect them more. But as it turns out, "The Big Dig" had nothing to do with graves and it also didn't have a huge effect on anyone really--living or undead. Well zombies, like all good Massachusetts citizens are concerned with equal rights. Of course they want to see gay marriage passed. As they could probably tell you, the living spend way too much time being divisive and isolated. As they've learned being "undead" is really the great equalizer, because at that point it's pretty much just "brain brains brains" all the time. Everyone's pretty much of the same mind about things in the zombie world.

As it relates to the above question as well, zombies are luddites and hate new-fangled technologies. PDA? Blue-tooth? Blackberry? They long for the simpler times, the good old days. So that's the word on the street for the Boston Zombie.

Which of the following theories do you suscribe to, if any: (a) zombies represent consumerism or some other ugly aspect of American culture; (b) zombies represent "the Other"; (c) the New York Times' recent suggestion that zombies are an expression of our collective post-9/11 apocalyptic fears; or, (d) they just want to eat brains?
Brains, brains, brains.

We've seen the havoc zombies wreaked upon the Apple Store in San Francisco. Which businesses might zombies patronize here?
I really hope no destruction or general unrest is caused by this March. That's completely not the point of the March, which was conceived in the spirit of absurdity and an appreciation for a certain genre of film. I think Boston Zombies are different from the folks who did the San Fran March. They aren't going to try and make the march into an anarchist anti-establishment demonstration. If anything Boston Zombies would want to make the March into a pub crawl. Man, I love Mass Holes.

Do you expect any opposition or counter-demonstrations? Ninja Pride groups? Pirates? Fred Phelps?
God, I hope Fred doesn't show up, although he does seem to make appearances everywhere. Does bigotry know no bounds? Does it extend to zombies? As for Ninjas and pirates--we welcome them with open arms. Robots too.

Zombie March 2006
April 29, 6:30 pm
Davis Square, down Elm Street and Mass. Ave., ending at The Cellar (991 Mass. Ave.)

Photograph of Zombiewalk Vancouver, used with permission from Flickr user Roskylde.