Zombies Attack Market Square! Zombie Fest Pittsburgh 2011

When it comes to zombies, Pittsburgh is the authority on the subject. The master of the zombie film genre, George A. Romero went to Carnegie Mellon University and started his film career in Pittsburgh after graduation. If Wikipedia is to be believed, this is one of the best facts on the planet:

Romero attended Pittsburgh's Carnegie Mellon University. After graduating in 1960, he began his career shooting short films and commercials. One of his early commercial films, a segment for Mister Rogers' Neighborhood in which Mr. Rogers underwent a tonsillectomy, inspired Romero to go into the horror film business.

My goodness. That is pure magic. (Another awesome Romero fact: he's got dual citizenship - United States AND Canada. Lucky bastard.)

Back to the point: Pittsburgh knows its zombies, and a few weekends ago Zombie Fest proved this to be true and accurate. The event was held in Market Square. It was a warm and bright fall day, so it was beyond strange and obviously awesome to watch the walking dead wander around downtown Pittsburgh. (In the days that followed, I would walk around during lunch and find blood splatters on the sidewalk - presumably from the zombies. At least, I hope from the zombies.) Some zombies had gone all-out and were particularly terrifying. I was only able to hang out around the undead for a little while, but I managed to snap some good shots of what a zombie apocalypse might resemble.

The zombies didn't freak me out, but this ridiculous-looking horse is going to give me nightmares for weeks.

As it happens, in the event of a zombie apocalypse, I'm ready. A few months ago I helped out my friend Eric by participating in a zombie self-defense course for a story he was writing. Check out the story here, and get yourself ready for the eventual onslaught of undead by looking into the services offered by Zomburgh.