Monday 28 February 2011

Run for your life


Hello Zombiology Students,

Please excuse the dramatic headline on today’s blog. It is in fact the title of an EP by New York singer songwriter Aaron Stoquert. He contacted the Institute to let us hear his splendid collection of songs about zombies and the feelings they might have. 

I was asked just last week after a lecture whether a zombie had feelings or not. Whilst the Zombieism condition does present a loss of human personality aspects in a patient it is ultimately impossible to know what is going on inside the mind of a zombie. They simply lack the ability to communicate that information to us.

Aaron Stoquert
So it is wonderful that Aaron has stepped in to creatively theorise about this aspect of the zombie and express his research using music. His 5 track album begins with the song ‘Bunker Hill’. The line ‘but your memories are always intact’ implies that deep within the zombie it remembers it was once a person. Whilst ‘Z’s never coming back’ sadly reflects on the present incurability of Zombieism.
CCTV Image of Davey during 'Mop-Gate'
Our favourite track, particularly with Davey the Janitor, is ‘I’ll see you again’. In fact Davey won’t go to sleep until he hears it. When his mp3 player ran out of batteries he took four students hostage at mop point. Unfortunately the Institute has a non-negotiation policy in regard to terrorism. But new students are enrolling every day.

‘I’ll see you again’ proposes a beautiful humanising theory about zombies. The second verse goes, 'cause I don't care, I don't care what you look like tonight. I don't care, I don't care, what you feel like tonight. I don't care, I don't care if we're alive tonight. Can you stay here throughout the night--be right next to me?’

Perhaps zombies do gather together in mutual loving support. Free from the constraints of shallow conceits like appearance. This track really does bring a tear to my eye every time. And although this fog’s up my glasses increasing my daily accident rate tenfold, Aaron can be forgiven for creating such a moving piece.

Who turned out the lights?
The sound of this album is reminiscent of musician Mark Oliver Everett the son of a Physicist I once knew named Hugh Everett. Run for your life truly is an excellent way to relax of an evening and contemplate the wonder of the zombie.  

We are proud to announce that tracks from Run for your life will be featured during our lecture tour as the Official Theme Music of Zombie Science 1Z. Do listen out for them and make sure you get hold of a copy of Aaron’s album, available at: http://aaronstoquert.bandcamp.com/
             
Doctor Austin ZITS BSz MSz DPep is head of the Zombie Institute for Theoretical Studies and Zombiologist Royal to Her Majesty the Queen