Pursuant to my earlier blog post about whether or not Robocop would be considered a zombie robot, screenwriter and friend-of-the-blog Sam Hamm got me an answer directly from the source: Robocop co-screenwriter Ed Neumeier. Sam says: “[Ed] said that Peter Weller was legally dead before he was transformed into Robocop, so he should count, by your definition, as a zombie robot.” Ah-ha! Victory is mine!

I should point out, however, that Mr. Neumeier thinks the term “zombie cyborg” would be more accurate, which, in all fairness, is totally true. Still, zombie cyborg doesn’t quite have the same ring to it, and since the Terminator is called a cyborg when in fact it is just a robot, I feel perfectly justified in continuing to think of and refer to Robocop as a zombie robot.

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I was just having a conversation about whether or not Robocop would in fact be considered a zombie robot. A detractor insists that Robocop was not actually dead when transferred into the robot body. I say he obviously was; did you see how many times he got shot?

In any case: want so you think? zombie robot or something else entirely?

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Last week, I mentioned how my fake band (i.e., Rock Band band) Zombie Robot performed in the Funde Razor charity show at NYC’s Village Pourhouse. Alas, we did not win: turns out we came in 9th place (out of 18). You can see the complete results here. Also of interest is #15, Sex Tardis, which Tor.com’s Pablo Defendini played in, Mayorsnake, featuring Tor editorial guy Steven Padnick (#7), and Achievement Whores (#16), featuring my agent Jenny Rappaport, singing a song she’d never heard before (“Don’t Fear the Reaper”). Pablo also provided guest vocals for Band 17 as their vocalist seemed to have left before their slot, and shredded his throat singing “Painkiller” by Judas Priest—the hardest song in the game.

I did not do well on the style points (you can see our judge tally sheet here), though I did attempt to move around, etc. Will have to try harder next time. We played The Who’s “Won’t Get Fooled Again,” which, as you may know, features two long keyboard instrumental sections during which the band doesn’t have any notes to play. We had planned on our vocalist, Jordan Hamessley, talking to the crowd, giving some The Who trivia, etc. in the opening section, but I’m not sure anyone could hear her; I was standing right next to her, and *I* couldn’t hear her (it was quite loud in there). During the mid-song break, there was more banter planned, and also, our guitarist, Matt London, ate a banana, with Jordan yelling at him. Meanwhile, I posted to twitter, which did not impress the judges, though I must say, I’m pretty sure I’m the only one who did such a thing in the middle of a song. Our drummer, Chris LaBrunda (agent Jenny’s husband), did not die, which is a good thing and apparently was not at all guaranteed, as The Who drummer Keith Moon apparently actually died immediately after playing that song live. During the song, Matt actually played one of the solos with the guitar behind his head, which is pretty awesome, though I didn’t actually get to see him do it, as I had like notes to play and stuff.

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