Mutterings of a Mad Woman

I've been a stressed out little spirit recently, dreaming of running away from it all. Usually I am prone to travelling to distant places that can be rather challenging - physically or mentally - and exciting to a Westerner; places like India and Japan. I'm a backpacker, not a suitcase toter. I've never done all-inclusive packages nor am I usually interested in paying a lot of money to sit on a beach while ignoring the rest of an unexplored country beyond the resort compound. I don't think talking to the waiter who brings you another margarita counts as 'getting to know the locals'.

But recently the idea of a classic vacation has appealed to me. Instead of looking into Vietnam or Cambodia (which I thought would be my next destination of choice), I've been drawn to Disneyland (oops..have been corrected. Disneyworld in Florida, not Disneyland) - the ultimate in indulgent, mind-numbing relaxation. And in pursuit of my new obsession, I came across an artist who goes by the name of Shag.

The dead are among us! Or so lostzombies.com would have us believe. Or, more specifically, what lostzombies.com wants you to make others believe.

Lostzombies.com is a "community generated zombie documentary" where zombie trackers and fans report sightings from around the world. The website encourages people to warn others with tales of their encounter with the undead - through written works, videos (it can be a re-enactment of a zombie sighting), audio recordings, photographs, you name it (though please make sure all content is original and not copyrighted). From these submissions, a grand documentary will be created.

Their goal? To collect 10,000 photos and 1,000 videos from zombie fans worldwide.

Hello fellow creepers! I decided to leave my computer turned off this holiday season so that I would be refreshed and ready to go once more for the new year.

Ah, New Year's Eve. While I can appreciate the affection some people have for the holiday, I generally associate it with being dragged out into the city where you're forced into cramped quarters with drunken strangers to pay too much for very little. And then you spend the end of the evening trying to get home in the freezing cold, hoping the person beside you on public transit doesn't throw up on your shoes (and people think Halloween is scary).

To be fair, I've spent the last few New Years in the comfort of a friend's home for a gathering of friends, so I shouldn't be so surly.

In the spirit of the holiday, I'll take a moment to reflect on the past year in terms of the darker delights. My Ghoul Friday had its official launch this year, and I want to thank my faithful posters (and faithful lurkers) for visiting and making it all worth while. I hope all of you have a safe and happy new year, and I look forward to seeing you in 2009 for more ghoulish discoveries and creepy creations.

When it comes to fetishes and horror, it's hard to compete with the Japanese. Yoshitaka Kawakami (or Yock as he is sometimes called) is a perfect example of why the Japanese never fail to push the boundaries on both these genres.

While Yock produces some work that North Americans associate with Japan - cute yet odd creatures (like the piggy bank pictured right) - Yock mainly focuses on high school girls as a motif in his fetish works.

It generally takes something substantially unnerving to make me uneasy in my skin. Yock's collection of 3D computer graphics, which he started producing in 2002, makes me question where the line is for me between cool horror and simply disturbing images.