Removing the head or destroying the brain

*thump* *thump*

Is this thing on?

Okay. Hi, Tumblr. I made a film during the pandemic and it would be cool if you’d watch it.

David Bowie, as exuberant and blinding as he appeared on stage, was notoriously frightened of performing live. In his own words:  “I’m not particularly a gregarious person. I had an unbearable shyness; it was much easier for me to keep on with the Ziggy thing, off stage as well as on. Who was David Bowie and who was Ziggy Stardust? It was motivated by shyness.”

After his heart attack on stage in 2004, he performed one more time in public - 2005's Fashion Rocks concert for charity at Radio City Hall. He was dressed to the nines, and probably scared absolutely shitless. Never again. Despite persistent rumors  of him headlining Coachella and doing all of Ziggy Stardust or Hunky Dory or even The Man Who Sold the World, that was it. 

Little did we know he was secretly recording all the way until 2016, when he unleashed his final masterstroke - to be released two days after his 69th birthday and two days before his death (which he knew was looming). 

But there's something to be said for this man - a mere year after a brush with death -  facing possibly his greatest fear in front of the world and absolutely knocking it out of the park. It's beautiful.  It's tragic. And above all else, it's inspiring. 

No magic dust from a Venus Space Probe will bring him back. But the ideas he introduced, the generations he's inspired and he works he's left behind will never die.

He was a personal hero - a true renegade who disavowed the studio system and transformed the genre on his own terms.

I've seen lots of mentions of zombies the past few hours (and rightfully so). But any cinephile would be remiss to ignore some of his other films.

Martin (1978) is a fantastic contribution to vampire mythology with his trademark social satire.

Knightriders (1981) explores a traveling group of renaissance performers, and it's fun as hell.

And of course, there's Creepshow and The Crazies. Check 'em out. But we should also pay attention to the films that inspired him to make movies to begin with.

He was a big fan of The Archers films of the 40s. Most Famously, they did The Red Shoes (available on Criterion) and The Elusive Pimpernell. But the movie that inspired him to break into the industry was The Tales of Hoffman (1951) - an adaptation of a ballet, no less.

What always struck me was Romero's complete humility about the breadth of his work and it's impact. He never thought he was a big deal. But when you ask anyone the genre has ever touched, they'll be the first to tell you he was. John Carpenter, a master in his own right, referred to him as "the father of modern horror movies."

It's a shame he struggled so hard to get projects off the ground the past decade because, if nothing else, they would have been unique. That's something we don't get much of in theaters anymore.

That bootstrap mentality of making movies - that anyone can do it against all odds - is the message from Romero that will stick with me more than anything else. It can't die from removing the head or destroying the brain. It's more infectious than a virus that raises people from the grave. And unlike living tissue, it lasts forever.

One of my favorite things is when people assume I’m the official account of “Kolchak: The Night Stalker.” As if a forty-year old television series would have an official account.