rant

We see the word zombie everywhere: movie titles, song titles, books, t-shirts, stickers...you name it. It's as common a word as tinfoil or chocolate.

If I tried to copyright or trademark the word 'chocolate', lawyers would laugh at me. I can claim ownership of something like Chickie's Chocolate or Chocolaticious (if they aren't taken), but not just the word chocolate on its own (or banning any derivative use of the word in the future).

Got it? Good. Now that you understand the very basics of the law (and have a hankering for chocolate), we can move on.

Rob Zombie has threatened to sue someone for using the word 'zombie', claiming ownership of it.

Not the phrase Rob Zombie but the word zombie.

Eric Weiss posts zombie humour on twitter as ZombieRiot. That's how I know of him.

He is also part of ZOMBIE!, a solo multimedia project with a focus on horror rock, artwork, and clothing.

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.

I should be blogging about a terrific comic book I was recently sent, but instead I'm forced to vent about the ridiculous adventures of cross border shopping.

Readers of my blog will remember that I had an unfortunate shopping experience with Oriental Trading Company. They extended an olive branch and sent me a certificate toward my next purchase for my trouble. At the start of last month, I decided to give them a second try.

Everything showed up in good condition this time. The only groan I had was that at the time of ordering, I was told they couldn't confirm whether or not an item was in stock (normally not a big deal, but I wanted bang for my shipping buck. If I had been told I couldn't get the item, I would have picked something else).

Look at him. Perfection. The epitome of sauciness. No one could hold a candle to Tim Curry as Frank-N-Furter. It's unthinkable that someone would even try to reinvent the iconic character on screen a second time. I mean, who would be that stupid?

MTV. MTV is that stupid. MTV who packages cool like it was cheaply made fake tanning cream (it's just like an authentic tan, except it costs more, and makes you orange and totally lame).

Only MTV, in partnership with producers from Fox Television Studios (another seemingly endless creator of American mainstream television trash), could look at a cult classic and think "Hey, I am sure we can make some money off someone else's genius by completely bastardizing the original and turning it into our pre-packaged, mindless fame machine, hack-filled product". Considering the fact that the success of the Rocky Horror Picture Show was a fluke made possible by underground followings, what makes them think they can generate the same type of fan base and financial windfall that has taken 30 years to accumulate?