Zombie Sara is a zombie.

I was a zombie extra for a movie today! I’d never been undead before — not even for Halloween — so it was a lot of fun. Scary fun.

Zombie Orpheus Entertainment and Dead Gentlemen Productions are producing a (secret) zombie film project with Rennie Araucto of Good Hair Productions. I signed an NDA, so I can’t say much. I will say, however, that this movie beats Cowboys vs. Aliens!

This was the Facebook invite: “Give us six hours of your time and we’ll put your undead face on the screen! We need 40 more zombies to pull this off and you could be one of them.

“This secret project for a major online network will be released in six weeks. You’ve always wanted to be on film… NOW’S your chance to be seen by millions!”

Jim linked me to it. We were undead together.

The theme of the shoot was Hurry Up and Wait. All of us extras were waiting at Base Camp off set for instructions on make up, costumes, blood and what to do in our scenes.

Extras helped extras finish their costumes and makeup. A zombie extra named Jason Hay asked for my “artistic” help cutting up his clothes, which was fun. (I researched How to Make a Zombie Costume on eHow, so I was qualified. lol.)

Then, get this: Jason’s looked so good that other extras asked me to cut their clothes for them too! There I was, scissors in hand, cutting and ripping clothes for an assembly line of zombies.

I was a street-clothes zombie in a shirt and jeans. A zombie extra I nicknamed Ohio — because he’s from Ohio — cut my shirt up for me. It was an I’ll-cut-yours-if-you-cut-mine trade off. lol. I asked Jim to cut up my jeans for me, though. He enjoyed that.

Our makeup ranged from ick to eww to totally gross. Makeup for the freshly undead zombies was done last. As in, last minute. I was a freshly undead zombie.

I felt so lucky: Eric Pope, organizer of the Seattle Zombie Walk, and also big in the Ren Fair (as Wotan! Fairie Smasher!) and Faeriecon did my zombie makeup. (Not only that, he knows Jim through the Ren Fair!)

When I sat down in front of Eric so that he could do my makeup, he looked at me and said: “You’re too pretty. I can’t do anything with this.” Aww.

After some “brainstorming,” though, he came up with this back story: My zombie was a very messy brain-eater. Blood was dripping all down my chin and neck. My eyes looked very “zombie,” if you know what I mean.

Eric thought that I should also have a bloody hand print smeared across my face like I’d been in a fight, but there was no time for it. Zombie extras were being called to the set.

Jim and I shot two scenes together. There was a third scene with extras in it, but they didn’t use us for it. We did a lot of slow shuffling and groaning in surprisingly not that many takes — which was actually good because it was very cold, very rainy and very muddy.

There was a lot of waiting, but the waiting was a lot of fun too. It was like we were all at a party where everybody was a stranger to everybody else. We played my game of Zombie Dice — it was too perfect (and ironic) that zombies were rolling dice to chase after victims, eat brains or get shot.

My favorite zombies at the shoot: Jason Hay, Casey Matteson (aka Ohio), Eric Pope, Bijua N (aka Bi) and George Fisher. I also liked our “zombie wrangler” Rachel Araucto, Rennie’s sister.

Other highlights: Damon Vanhee, owner of Bandersnatch Studios — which does special makeup effects, prosthetics and props for film, print, video and more — was at the shoot! I used to work with him at the University Bookstore! I was stoked to see him. Absolutely stoked.

After the shoot, Jim and I stopped at Safeway and a worker there saw me and said: “Are you OK?”

My shower was reminiscent of the scene from Psycho with all of the blood that I washed off.

I’m now signed up to be a zombie extra again for JourneyQuest. Too cool!

 

Sorry I missed you.

Haiku left for Alex Fry:

a surprise visit
from Sara of girlfriends past
sorry I missed you

 

And oh, hello there!

Haiku for Jim Preshaw on Valentine’s Day:

your kisses goodbye
are more like kisses hello
and oh, hello there!

 

Gotye: Making Mirrors — Smoke and Mirrors

You’re a fraud and you know it
But it’s too good to throw it all away
Anyone would do the same
You’ve got ‘em going
And you’re careful not to show it
Sometimes you even fool yourself a bit
It’s like magic
But it’s always been a smoke and mirrors game
Anyone would do the same

So now that you’ve arrived, well you wonder
What is it that you’ve done to make the grade?
And should you do the same?
(Is that too easy?)
Are you only trying to please them?
Will they see then
You’re desperate to deliver
Anything that could give you
A sense of reassurance
When you look in the mirror

Such highs and lows
You put on quite a show
All these highs and lows
And you’re never really sure
What you do it for
Well do you even want to know?
You put on quite a show

Mother, are you watching?
Are you watching?
Mother, are you watching?
Mother
Mother

You’re a fraud and you know it
And every night and day you take the stage
And it always entertains
You’re giving pleasure
And that’s admirable you tell yourself
And so you’d gladly sell yourself to others

Mother, are you watching?
Mother, are you watching?
Mother, are you watching?
Mother, are you watching?
Are you watching?

Such highs and lows
You put on quite a show
All these highs and lows
And you’re never really sure
What you do it for
Well do you even want to know?
You put on quite a show

 

We’re only pretending to pretend.

 

 

Trading shades of red.

Haiku for my very own Jim Halpert:

trading shades of red
two shy book lovers converse
between the pages

their cups were empty
he came not for coffee but
the cute reporter

the cutest couple
sat across from drunken Joe
on their second date

countdown to midnight:
should he kiss her on New Year’s?
she thinks that he should

 

The Memory Project

Last month, I started what I call The Memory Project. I’m video recording the memories of my grandparents, Ken and Dottie Bruestle. They are both 73 years old, and between them, they have a lot of stories to share.

My method: I prompt them to start them talking, then I let them continue on with their stories, going from tangent to tangent, as stories often do.

I’m not in the videos. I don’t even talk in them, though I am monitoring the camera. I don’t want the videos to seem like one-on-one interviews. I want the focus to be my grandparents’ memories.

I record them using the Flip UltraHD video camera I got for Christmas. I edit the video using Windows Movie Maker. Then I upload the videos onto my YouTube channel.

Click here to watch the videos: http://www.youtube.com/user/salpicatura/videos

 

I watched you walk away.

I watched you as you walked away, you know.

You didn’t know it, of course — but that’s what I did. I watched you walk away from me, as I stood there waiting for the streetlights to change.

The metaphor of it all struck me.

There I was, not ready yet to say goodbye. You were headed in one direction, me in another. It was dark.

You started walking and never once looked back. Not once. I watched and waited, willing you to pause and ponder and turn — but you didn’t. Of course you didn’t.

When the lights finally changed, I left the curb and crossed over to what seemed to be more than just the other side of the street. The distance between us seemed like more than just a few blocks.

I left. I didn’t do it because I wanted to — I did it because I had to, because it was time.

You had walked away from me — again — and for the last time.

 

“Hallelujah” — Jeff Buckley

Well I heard there was a secret chord
that David played and it pleased the Lord
But you don’t really care for music, do you?
Well it goes like this:
The fourth, the fifth,
The minor fall and the major lift
The baffled king composing Hallelujah

Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah…

Your faith was strong but you needed proof
You saw her bathing on the roof
Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew you
She tied you to her kitchen chair
She broke your throne and she cut your hair
And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah

Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah…

Baby I’ve been here before
I’ve seen this room and I’ve walked this floor (you know)
I used to live alone before I knew you
And I’ve seen your flag on the marble arch
and love is not a victory march
It’s a cold and it’s a broken Hallelujah

Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah…

there was a time when you let me know
What’s really going on below
But now you never show that to me, do you?
But remember when I moved in you
And the holy dove was moving too
And every breath we drew was Hallelujah

Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah…

Maybe there’s a God above
all I’ve ever learned from love
Was how to shoot somebody who outdrew you
And it’s not a cry that you hear at night
It’s not somebody who’s seen the light
It’s a cold and it’s a broken Hallelujah

Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah…
Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah…
Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah
Hallelujah, hallelujah

You make me feel like this song inside.

 

Thinking.

I’m always thinking. I remember reading in Psychology Today that people can day dream up to 90 percent of their day. That is probably me.

 

Bird by bird.

As a writer, I get asked a lot if I’m ever going to write a book. A lot of journalists also write books “on the side,” so aren’t I going to too?

My dad wants me to be the next J.K. Rowling. I think of Harry Potter, of Albus Dumbledore, of Lord Voldemort and of Hogwarts and I don’t know where to start.

I do want to write a book. I want to write my autobiography. I’ve wanted to write my autobiography ever since I read “Bird by Bird” by Anne Lamott in COM 467 Feature Writing, a journalism course at the University of Washington.

In the book, which is a national bestseller, she offers wannabe writers some instructions on writing and life.

She says: If you don’t know where to start, start with your childhood. Flannery O’Connor said that anyone who survived childhood had enough material to write for the rest of his or her life.

If you feel overwhelmed, give yourself small assignments. You might start with all you can remember about kindergarten, then move on to first grade, second grade, third grade.

When her brother was 10 years old, he was trying to get a report on birds written that he’d had three months to write, which was due the next day. He was at the kitchen table, close to tears, surrounded by papers and pencils and unopened books about birds.

He was immobilized by his task. Then, their father, a writer, sat down next to him, put his arm around him and said, “Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.”

I’m going to write my autobiography, bird by bird.

I announced my plans to a stranger once. She had asked me if I’ve ever thought of writing a book. I answered, yes, maybe an autobiography. She scoffed at me, then. Actually scoffed at me!

She said, “Usually when people write an autobiography, it’s because they’ve done something worth writing about.” She must have realized how rude she sounded because then she said, “Well, maybe you have done something.”

I said, “Yes, maybe I have.”