The Undead Take Over The 16th Street Mall

My friend and former office-mate Peter and I drove down to Denver's 16th Street Mall for the annual Zombie Crawl this past Saturday morning, the day when zombies are allowed to roam free and strut their stuff, so to speak.  Both Peter and I noticed that the event was not as well attended as in previous years, but on the other hand, it was still pretty early, and zombies are known as notorious late risers.  One other thing I have noticed, however - a great number of these zombies are clowns.  Why is that?  Why have clowns suddenly become so sinister? I think they need to form some sort of organization to fight this bad image.

Of course, there were other types of zombies, too - nun zombies, little girl zombies, even entire families of zombies.  I took a photograph of a zombie clown family consisting of a mother, father, and three children.  I would have put it on my blog, but I'll be damned if the father wasn't texting on his cellphone.  Not only is that not sinister, it is disheartening.  Are even zombies now hopelessly attached to their cell phones?

There were even some 18th century zombies in attendance on Saturday, who I suspect must be old as hell, but of course, being undead, what does it matter?  The sad thing is that I remember these two from last year, and I also took their photograph then.  Is the Zombie Crawl losing its freshness and spontaneity, or am I just getting old?  Don't answer that.  The fact is that Denver is filled with 20 somethings, and they, as well as many other age groups, just love any excuse to dress up in costume - the Zombie Crawl, Halloween, Comic Con, St. Patrick's Day, Oktoberfest, the installation of a new pope, etc.  Good for them - I guess.

And no - the person in the photograph on the right is not a zombie - it is Peter, my former office-mate at the Tattered Cover Bookstore.  When I first started working at the Tattered Cover, Peter was always willing to have his photo taken for this blog.  However, after a few years, he became very camera shy. And I am still not sure why - perhaps it involves the Witness Protection Program, perhaps not.  In any case, I think this is the last photograph he let me take of him, which I took several years ago while we were having lunch at Pepper, a really nice Asian restaurant a few blocks from the Tattered Cover. Great to see you and catch up on things, Peter!