Kitsch 'n Bitch is a radical counter-movement to the subversive, most nefarious women's group ever created - Stitch 'n Bitch. In this constantly-expanding women's organization, members meet in local cafes and do the most despicable things imagineable: Sew, knit, and stitch while socializing! In protest, we men, the Chapel Hill/Carrboro husbands of these anarchists, have recently formed Kitsch 'n Bitch, a group dedicated to giving men a chance to come together, watch really bad movies, and make equally inane comments about these films. If you feel you're qualified to do these things, then you're probably about as social as most men can be and, hence, ready to become a Kitsch 'n Bitcher!

This past week, on Thursday evening, our group got up off of our asses and actually had the energy to assemble in front of my house at 6:45 to take a field trip to Southpoint Mall in Durham. Rick, Kyle, Demos, and I - a fearless quartet of KnBers - piled into the car, braved the horrors of I-40, and went to the 7:10 showing of..... Dawn of the Dead.

Unlike the other 4 guys (Scott lives over near the theater so he met us there) I thought the film was pretty good -- FOR WHAT IT WAS. I didn't have any really grandiose expectations before going in, so I was able to sit back and enjoy its sheer stupidity. I grant my four fellow "Kitschers" their complaints: bad editing, poor characterization, improbable explosions, lack of gore, telegraphed scare tactics, etc., etc. But all in all, I thought, the film probably accomplished mostly what it intended: It was a movie about zombies -- and the small group of the living holed up in a shopping mall fending for their (shallow) lives. There are zombie celebrity look-alikes (Jay Leno, Burt Reynolds), a zombie baby, hoardes and hoardes of - well - zombies, and an errant chainsaw. There's not one minute in which the movie takes itself seriously, so I didn't either. If anything, our stalwart group left the theater with plenty of ammo to aim at the film's kitsch. So, on the drive back home we Kitschers were able to live up to the second half of our title and do a lot of Bitching.

(My biggest bitch of the evening was the $7.75 price tag on the film, and I would recommend either renting or seeing this one at the dollar theater!)

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Books currently under the glass:

The Flickering Mind by Todd Oppenheimer
The Shining by Steven King
Writing Horror edited by Mort Castle, HWA