Get pre-zombified at either of our makeup stations at Beacon Cinema or Shawn’s Barber Shop, then begin the Zombie Pub Crawl from either side of Upstreet- take up the crawl starting at the new Phineas Gage’s Moral High Ground (formerly Brix) and the Thistle & Mirth beer bar on West St. across from the Crowne Plaza and work your way north, or start on the other end of North St. and work your way south from Mission to Y Bar and Mad Jacks BBQ. Or start your zombie experience off with a $5 showing of Shaun of the Dead at 7:30 and be out in time for several more hours of zombie antics.

Meet up with other zombies taking different approaches at Baba Louie’s around 8:30 to 9:30 and then proceed to Spice Dragon by around 10:00pm to grab your free raffle ticket, and at 10:30pm we will raffle off some zombie prizes.

Continue on to any of the other downtown taverns you haven’t yet visited, or pile in with your designated drivers and check out zombie karaoke over at Chameleons nightclub over at 1350 East Street.

Zombie Action Committee and BESPOKE COSTUMING  present:
3RD ANNUAL ZOMBIE PUB CRAWL!!! ZOMBIE PROM!! “VISUAL DEAD” Art Show …. and more!

Sponsored by Spice Dragon-Go Pittsfield-Beacon Cinema-Cultural Pittsfield-Aldam Press-Mad Jacks BBQ- Phineas Gage’s Moral High Ground
& in conjunction with cities and towns around the globe, the ZAC and its partners will fight hunger for World Zombie Day this year with a series of events designed to collect food for local food pantries and raise awareness about resilient community building in a manner that is just ridiculously good fun.

I have a knee-jerk reaction to contemporary zombie stories: “Well, this isn’t about zombies at all.” It’s what I said when I got to the second scene of The Walking Dead, and after I finished that first episode I started ranting to a coworker that the show wasn’t horror: it was a story set in a horror environment in roughly the same way that the show Angel is set in Los Angeles.

But it’s not about zombies.

That’s a formulation that begs the question, “What is a story that is about zombies really about, then?” And that, to me, is unclear.

If we were talking about vampires or werewolves I’d be on more solid ground. Those are ancient evils, evils with pedigrees, evils whose well-advertised weaknesses tell us as much about their secret meanings as do their cravings for particular parts of the human form. If zombies still had sorcerers pulling their strings — even if they still hungered for brains — they could be the third column of this unholy trinity. As it is, they’re too diffuse to pin down as a metaphor.

In some sense this is Romero’s fault. The zombie of today owes as much to George Romero as your average axe-wielding dwarf owes to Tolkien. Zombie stories don’t need to establish their terrain any more; we’re so accustomed to the notion of the mysterious and apocalyptic plague and the wholesale cranial destruction that is its only solution that the second we see a peripatetically-challenged corpse in a celluloid landscape, we already know the score. Don’t tell us how it started: we already know it’s vague and probably has to do with government scientists.

But a plague isn’t evil. A plague, however harmful it may be, means us no harm. A plague, like a government, is an unfortunate fact of life on Earth, and that’s one of the clues to the hidden meaning of the modern zombie.

As regards that hidden meaning, I’m tempted to say that zombies represent our discomfort with aging and death. I’m tempted to call them apolitical embodiments of the violence of war. I’m tempted to define them as products of the collective guilt of the American empire, shambling nightmares that the slow-moving hordes of the Third World will one day overtake us by way of sheer volume, but the truth is that zombies are more and less than all of these things.

Try to pin down a zombie and another zombie will catch up with you: this is true in an action sequence, and it’s true with the slippery myth-making of these second- and third-generation tales of the undead.

At this point in my tirade, you may be asking yourself, “Is this elected official of the Zombie Action Committee actually arguing against the validity of the fictional creature that has given him not only the coveted title of At-Large Cabal Member but the inspiration and psychic stuffing for his locally-buzzed-about but apparently-unpublishable novel DEAD BOYS?” To which I reply: almost.

Almost, but not quite, because whatever zombies are not, they are creatures that have appeared in my dreams, and no dream is irrelevant to its dreamer.

I, Gabriel Squailia, have mowed down hundreds if not thousands of these brown-ooze-puking, custard-eyeball-having, intestine-scarf-wearing motherfuckers, and I loved every second of it. I have slain zombies on beachheads, I have slain zombies in forests, I have slain zombies in office buildings, and tonight, who knows, I may slay zombies in the Crowne Royal.

What’s more, I know why I slay zombies in my dreams. It’s the same reason these thematically ambiguous zombie tales are popular, and it comes down to the one scene that is an unalterable constant in the genre: what would you do if your (insert loved one here) was trying to chew your face off?

This scene is the crux, or at the least a grace note, in every modern zombie story because it forces us to look hard at ourselves and answer the question of whether or not we’d have the courage to survive a direct attack by our undead parents, our undead spouses, our undead children, our undead best friends.

And that question is exactly why today’s zombies are relevant. They, in and of themselves, may lack the metaphoric oomph of vampires or lycanthropes, but while vampire stories may deal with swooning heroines we could care less about, zombie stories are always about us.

If it happened tomorrow, who would you be? Would you be the first one eaten, or the one who flies the chopper to freedom?

Do you have the ingenuity, the grit, the flexibility, the brass-plated cojones to finish the movie alive?

Zombies aren’t important for their own qualities, they’re important because of ours. They’re important because we might not be able to imagine ourselves going to war for our country, we might not be able to imagine ourselves going to war against the newly-independent states of the Bible Belt, but we can all imagine ourselves going to war against a festering mob of erstwhile neighbors and friends whose very stench forgives us for what we’re about to do to them.

Zombies give us the promise of violence without guilt, because eww; because what were you going to do, let them go bite someone else?

More importantly, they give us a way to imagine ourselves as heroes just the way we are, without the benefit of gym bodies, martial arts skills, or tactical training. They allow us to imagine ourselves kicking ass, wreaking havoc, and winning, largely because they are slow and incredibly stupid, so the bar’s kind of conveniently low.

The encounter with zombies is telling because the qualities it prizes are the very qualities we need to succeed in the most difficult times of our lives.

The only reasonable conclusion is that the metaphorical definition of zombie qua zombie is beside the point.

What counts is what the zombie can teach us about ourselves.

On behalf of the Zombie Action Committee: Joe and Jane Zombie, we salute you. By trying to make us a meal, you’ve made us realize who we are.

Imagine your high school  prom gone terribly wrong…

Everyone all dressed up in gowns and suits and tuxes, ready to dance the night away to the funky beats of a fabulous deejay… but something has gone wrong.  An infection has broken loose in the crowd of revelers… screams break out around the edges of the party as party goers begin biting and devouring each other.  Cheesy streamers and balloons are spattered with blood, shredded corsages fly everywhere as chaos overwhelms the banquet hall.  Howls and groans fill the air as the well dressed denizens become bloodthirsty, carnivorous monsters all around.  But the music never stops; and, confused and disoriented, the zombified horde begins to dance amidst the mayhem…

This is the scene you will enter as the Zombie Action Committee and Bespoke Costuming will conclude Zombify Pittsfield and ring in World Zombie Day with the ZOMBIE PROM, a night of stylish gore and classy monstrosity!

Beginning at 8:30 PM on October 13 (World Zombie Day, celebrated in cities around the planet!), the Zombie Prom will feature Berkshire County’s most popular mixmaster, DJ BFG himself.  Complementing his sweet beats will be the acclaimed VJ B-17 Bomber, projecting a barrage of disturbing zombierrific visual imagery throughout the room.

With a cash bar, glamour zombie photography, and plenty of blood-stained, tarnished high school ambiance, this event is not to be missed!  

The cover is just 8 dollars, or only 5 with the donation of two or more items of nonperishable foods to go to local food banks.  This event will also conclude our week long election for officials in the Zombie Action Committee, with the winning candidates announced that night.

ZOMBIE PROM  - Upstairs at Spice Dragon, 297 North Street, Pittsfield

8:30 PM, October 13, 2012

w/ DJ BFG & VJ B-17 Bomber

In total, the ZAC has authorized the adoption of the following three logos by two outstanding local artists, for use as applicable in its current and future promotional materials.

The ZAC warmly congratulates CASEY ALBERT (1st Place) and KATY LEVESQUE (2nd Place) as the emerging victors of our competitive logo contest!

FIRST PLACE:  CASEY ALBERT

SECOND PLACE: KATY LEVESQUE

In solidarity with allies in cities around the country, the Berkshire-based Zombie Action Committee will fight hunger for World Zombie Day on October 13, 2012, by sponsoring a series of cultural, educational and recreational activities October 11-13 in the newly designated Upstreet Cultural District of Pittsfield, Massachusetts. A series of uniquethemed events, including a zombie prom, art exhibit, film showings and our legendary annual Zombie Pub Crawl will be used to generate nonperishable donations for local food banks while generating business for the downtown district and raising awareness about resilient community building in the Berkshires.

EVENT SPONSOR- $250
● Top sponsorship presentation in all posters and marketing efforts (online, print,
posters, radio) publicity materials
● Available space for signage, banners or other advertisement at WZD Weekend
Events
● 1 year advertising on SurviveBerkshires (ZAC Web site)
● 2 Zombie Action Committee T-Shirts
● 5 tickets to Zombie Prom
● Commemorative Poster signed by the 2012 Zombie Action Committee
● Invitation to a private reception with ZAC’s Chancellor and top elected zombie
officials
● Advisory (non-voting) membership to the ZAC

PARTNERS $25
● Featured on all posters, in publicity materials, and some online promotion Sep 1- Oct
13
● 2 Tickets to Zombie Prom October 13
● Certificate of Honor from the Chancellor of the Zombie Action Committee

SAFE HOUSE
● Host zombies as part of the Zombie Pub Crawl (Oct. 12), offer specials and discounts at your business, or have your organization participate in some other neat way we haven’t even thought of! Call Director of Educational Events Eliza Ryan at (413) 418-5919 or email zombiefacts@gmail.com for more info.

*A study by the ZAC showed that even without any paid promotion, last year’s Zombie Pub Crawl drew hundreds of participants and generated an estimated $7,000 or more in spending at a variety of downtown businesses.

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: Visual Dead

DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS: SEPTEMBER 14

Oct. 11-31 @ Shawn’s Barber Shop, North St, Pittsfield

An exploration of views, themes, and interpretations of death, undeath, and
what it means to be -symbolically, existentially, or metaphysically- living or not living. From ancient mummification to the contemporary obsessions with zombies and vampires, this boundary land has fascinated in all times and places. From dreams to folklore, from religious to scientific perspectives- this exhibit seeks original art from a variety of angles and mediums that revisits this vast archetypal area in unexpected ways.

*Submit images of up to five works to ChancellorAutumn@Gmail.com or mail on a CD to Zombie Action Committee, 395 North Street A, Pittsfield, MA 01201

*Include a work list including name, size, and media of each submitted work, whether it is for sale and at what price.

*Include email and telephone contact information

*(Optional) Artist resume & link, if available

*(Optional) Written information on how the pieces or pieces you are submitting relates to the theme of the exhibit, not to exceed one page in total for up to five works.

Below is a list of contest rules. We hope to see your entry! Show us what you have in store! We’re hungry for your work!

This is a great design created by designer Joseph Wilk for our Zombie Pub Crawl, but we need something which designates the Zombie Action Committee and represents all that we are working to do in the Berkshires.

Contest Rules

(Please note: If the conditions below aren’t met, we will not be considering your work for the logo contest, no matter how awesome it may be).

-No committee members are allowed to submit an entry

-Contest will run until August 17th

-No copyrighted material shall be used in the submission.

-The words “Zombie Action Committee” must be clear and legible on the logo

-Family Friendly (Nothing too terrifying, pornographic or ultra-violent. It’s just a logo.)

-Must be submitted in High Resolution

-Multiple Submissions Welcome

-Winner will be announced one week after contest ends.

-Logo will be the sole intellectual property of Zombie Action Committee.

-Submit logo, name and contact info to zombiefacts@gmail.com

Winners will receive a deluxe Zombie Action Committee Survival Package, complete with various supplies, a copy of the book “Cryptic” by D.A. Chaney, and two free V.I.P. tickets to our October 13 “Zombie Prom” at Spice Dragon.

Have questions? Need to clarify something? Send us an email! zombiefacts@gmail.com