I reckon Maine is a pretty good place to have a post apocalyptic setting. The home state of horror writer Stephen King is now featured on webisodes called Vacationlanders (Vacationland is the motto on Maine ‘s registration plate). From their homepage:
Vacationlanders is a 12 part miniseries that will be released on the Internet as free webisodes.
Our story begins in 2012, when the U.S. government takes its first drastic step in the decline of the Age of Oil. In response to leaked data about the true remaining oil reserves in Saudi Arabia, Congress passes the “Emergency Energy Conservation Act.” Within several months, six U.S. states are shut off from the grid and all remaining infrastructure is left in the hands of those who choose to stay behind.
No power. No services. No Internet. No law.
Three years later, a documentary film crew travels into The Unorganized Territories of Maine to learn and document how survival has worked for those who have made the decision to stay and rough it out. Those people will be known as Vacationlanders.
Update 2020-09-03 – entire episodes are on youtube here.
The ice caps have melted. The air is filled with a poisonous smog. No land. No safety. Sam and Evan, along with their rescued cat, Hippo, pilot the scavenger Arken, a salvaging submarine. Together, they search the endless seas for organic life and raw materials to help rebuild their world.
Sam is still holding onto her past, trying to stay ever hopeful in the face of a ever darker reality. Evan, like a father, is trying to keep them safe and ever moving forward. Hippo has no idea what’s going on…he’s just a cat!
The suspense, mystery, and struggle unfolds in FATHOMS!
I get the newsletter from Sovereign Man (it’s sort of an investors opportunity guide for the coming economic collapse) and there was interesting article about New Guangzhou – one of several Chinese cities built from scratch to showcase China’s economic strength. Does this mean that China’s economic tiger is on a roll? Not quite, according to Tim Staermose. It may well be the world’s largest ghost town, a ghost city of apocalyptic proportions. New Guangzhou is just one of several cities that have been built for the masses, but the masses are not living there.
Guangzhou South Station is absolutely COLOSSAL. By comparison, it is much bigger than any of the 3 international airport terminals in Manila where I live… and I’d say it’s over 8 times larger than the Central Airport Express Station in Hong Kong.
For a start, the Guangzhou South Station is built on THREE levels. I was dropped off at level 2. When I entered there was an “Information” booth straight ahead. It was unstaffed. In fact, the entire second level was completely deserted. Very spooky. It was something out of a low-budget zombie movie.
I went downstairs to the ticketing area where there were a few signs of life. Of the forty or so ticket windows, well over half were closed, and there were only a few dozen people mulling about. To give you an idea of density, imagine the largest football stadium you can think of with only a few hundred people inside. Ghost town…
Now, you’d think that if they spent so much money building a station this large, they would be expecting hundreds of trains steaming in and out at all hours of the day. Not by long shot. There was only one train at the platforms. Mine.
It was the same zombie movie theme– areas the size of multiple football fields with hardly any passengers standing around. And yet, throughout the entire station over all three levels was expensive, high quality marble tiles and artistic finishings, all polished to a mirrored shine.
Guangzhou South Station is truly a monument to excess, exemplifying China’s ruinous “build it and they will come” attitude.
When I arrived to Wuhan about 4-hours later (going 300 km per hour on the high speed bullet train), it was the same theme: acres of empty space, hardly a soul in sight, yet all very modern and marbled with dozens of elevators and abandoned information booths. When my train pulled in, it was the only one at the platforms.
Frankly, the whole episode reminded me of Bangkok and Hong Kong airports during the SARS epidemic back in 2003. I observed this firsthand– passenger traffic cratered because most people were scared silly of catching the deadly virus, and major airports were practically empty.
Similarly, it’s what you would expect Grand Central Station to look like after a flesh-eating virus outbreak.
According the video posted above, these cities are like the pyramids of Egypt; showing off the might of the builders rather than benefiting its inhabitants. These cities are too expensive for many Chinese to live in, so they will probably remain unpopulated.
I’ve recently found out about a Mad Max theme party that takes place in the Southern California dubbed the ‘Wasteland Weekend‘ – so I thought it would be an excellent way break a dry spell in my blogging. So what exactly is the Wasteland Weekland? From their site:
First our event is costumes-required (so there are no gawkers, only participants in the theme) and we’re laser-focused on only one theme: post-apocalyptic. Wasteland Weekend, on the other hand, is a place where all of the organizers and participants collectively contribute to one specific unifying theme, creating a powerful movie-like setting.
The event starts on the 23rd of September 2011 in Los Angeles. For those like me in the southern hemisphere, the USA is playing Australia in Rugby world cup that day, maybe they’ll have a match of post apocalyptic footie (or juggernaut) between the Aussies and Yanks in the Thunderdome ?
Here are some great pics from the 2010 event from lady_wolf_star’s photostream :
Here is some youtube goodness of the event:
But wait, there’s more! You think American’s are the only ones with a penchant for Post Apocalyptic revelry? Check out Russia’s Fallout Party near St Petersburg back in ’09 (based on the Fallout Computer Game) and then with their STALKER based party in Crimea in ’10. From mutants to power armour all set in a post industrial landscape, these guys don’t muck around (from http://star-tm.ru/).
The Old Fever Hospital in Wellington recently experienced a deadly outbreak.
Fifty unsuspecting visitors were infected by zombies in a terrifying attack at the historic Mt Victoria site, which has long been the location of suspected paranormal activity.
This extraordinary event was captured by a television documentary crew and will be broadcast for the first time on Four this week.
Fortunately, the outbreak has been contained and traced to Wellington film student Amber Cadaver – coy when asked if her surname is her legal name – who was among the winners of the Smirnoff Night Project competition run last year.
The vodka brand issued an open call to New Zealanders for the most original and outrageous ideas for a one-of-a-kind event, which it would provide financial and technical support for, and document in half-hour episodes for a television series hosted by Elemeno P front man Dave Gibson.
Of you want to see some piccies (from four.co.nz)!
And how they cast the zombies:
So there you have it, road warriors, mutants and zombies – enough to get your juices flowing for your own post apocalyptic theme party!
Is nuclear anihilation still in the cards for the human race? Lucy Walker seems to think so. In her movie, Countdown to Zero, she expresses her opinion that mankind is more at risk from nuclear weapons than ever before.
For Lucy, fear of nuclear war had been with her since she was a child (from the Guardian):
“I remember my dad saying you’d need to build a shelter, and you’d need a gun to keep the neighbours out,” says Walker, “and my mother saying she’d take a suicide pill anyway. To hear these ideas coming out of the mouths of your otherwise sensible parents, it didn’t compute. It was so shocking and outrageous.”
Here is the official trailer for Countdown to Zero:
Interestingly, Valerie Plame served as a consultant for the movie (starting around 1:50)
