A Shot in the Dark

Ever mindful of my need to keep up with my blog, Miss Gokey invited me to accompany her this past weekend to the Las Vegas Gun Show. Well, it was either that one or the Crossroads of the West gun show. The date matched with the location has disappeared from the internet. Anyway...

They don't make guns like they used to. Too many of them show signs of shotty workmanship. Haha. This CNN Student Newsworthy pun comes to us from the folks at this website. I apologize.

The Gun Show featured cookies. I was happy with that. It also featured...well, guns and ammo. Among the non-firearm merchandise was a good supply of survival gear. There were rainwater harvesting systems, CPR masks with one-way valves on sale for $15, Scandanavian army jackets, sleeping bags and camping pads, lots of mace (which I guess is called pepper spray, and I really want some, but it's illegal on school campuses), and one charming little old man who had a cell-phone stun gun for sale for $35. As you can see, there are plenty of online sources for these items, and many are not unreasonably priced.

The same held true for what Miss Gokey was looking for, a spare magazine for a Glock 17. One salesman offered to sell her one for $66, which some passersby insisted was a good deal, but when she called home, this turned out to not be the best price.

Should you pay $13 to get into a gun show? I say...probably. There are cookies. And flyers for free classes for Concealed Carry Permits. And an opportunity to visit your old pals from the Zombie Apocalypse Store. In addition, there are plenty of knowledgeable people who are not selling things. You can chat with them and learn a lot about various aspects of gun ownership, survival, and personal safety.

In concluding this post, I return to my family's visit, especially the part where we visited the Mob Museum. We might do well to remember the immortal words of Al Capone:

A Passing Fad?

This post starts by making two points:

1. There are a host of schemes out there that seek to separate you from your money, and 

2. If that person you admire and follow on twitter doesn't answer the questions that you tweet to him or her, you probably shouldn't specifically promote that person on your blog. 

I'll address item 2 first. 

So I follow this one guy on twitter. I think when I was setting up my account, I looked for "who to follow," typed in something bland and inoffensive like "urban geography," and I've been following him ever since. Social media in general, and this guy in particular, has led me to a host of instructional materials that I have been able to adapt for my students' use. I strongly encourage my teacher-readers to look for experts in their subject-matter fields to follow. 

Resting on the laurels of my recent and triumphant visit to the Zombie Apocalypse Store, I took a few days off from blogging and was beginning to fear that I wouldn't find any more fodder. Then, an amazing concept popped into my twitter feed courtesy of my silent and reluctant mentor. It's a seminal urban renewal project for the city of Detroit.

Now, moving on to point 1: my cousin Ryan's band Shiloh recently used an internet site called kickstarter to plead for money to make a new album. The band was successfully able to purchase some studio time to work on their new project. A site similar to kickstarter is indiegogo. These funding platforms will have you donating $1 to 27 different, really-great projects in no time, although personally, when I need money, I use Donors Choose.

Z World Detroit is a project asking for funding on indiegogo.

As you can see, the concept is to take advantage of Detroit's urban rot to make a zombie-themed amusement experience where a group of friends go overnight into the gamescape and get chased by zombies. If they get caught, they become zombies themselves and chase other park-goers.

It's brilliant.

But as you can see from the numbers, it's very ambitious and not getting funded, which I completely understand. Not only does the project pander to the niche market of Zombie Apocalypse enthusiasts, it targets a subset of that market: Zombie Apocalypse enthusiasts who are athletic enough to want to run around overnight with their friends, practicing their skills and such. I also doubt the staying power of the Zombie Apocalypse theme. I think that it will eventually play itself out. However! If this project already existed, fully operational, I totally would have tried to get some donors on my favorite funding platform to send my former 8th grade Explorations students to Z World Detroit.

What a creative way to incorporate the Apocalypse to fill a real need - the need to transform and renew blighted cities.

I Just...Couldn't...Resist

Vaguely there, in the back of my mind, I knew it existed. But it took Elias posting a photo on my facebook wall to inspire me to visit my old neighborhood and check this place out.

Yeah, probably not, but more about that later. 

The above photo of the Zombie Apocalypse Store is the one I posted on my log for a nearby geocache. 

My review? The interior was smaller than I expected, but the store is still well-stocked with guns and ammunition (which I didn't look at because even if I had looked, I wouldn't be able to testify to the quality or value of same), knives, MREs, camping supplies and souvenirs. 

I picked up another Emergency Fire Starter, but beware! It was more economical on amazon.com, and I also think that the amazon version has more magnesium than the Zombie store version (obviously, I didn't know that at the time, even though I had my moderately intelligent phone [thank you, Congolese miners!] and could have checked). So...inflated prices due to the owners know you're willing to pay a bit more for a product that is combined with zombie ambiance. 

There are many, many novelty items related to the store's theme, including bumper stickers, posters, books and movies, t-shirts and even bleeding zombie targets.  

There was a heavy flow of traffic in the store from the time I arrived until the time I left. 

BY FAR, the best part about the Zombie Apocalypse Store in Las Vegas (are there any other Zombie Apocalypse Stores in other cities? I ran a google search for this and came up confused) is the little zombie-shooting range. You stand behind the counter, feed two quarters into the slot and get a fixed number of shots to aim at glowing targets. When you hit your glowing target (I know, because it took me exactly two shots each time to get each zombie), the furniture twirls or the zombie head pops up or some other interactive feature gives you positive reinforcement for your good shot. 

There was also a corner of a display case weirdly dedicated to Twinkies, and a Twinkie recipe book. 

The million-dollar question: is the zombie apocalypse store worth the $1.85 in gas that it will cost you to get from my home to the store? 

The answer is mostly yes, especially if you are a tourist here and you've gotten bored and/or lost money on the Strip, or if you live here and guests who do not know about the Zombie Apocalypse Store are coming to visit. 

The answer is no if you are seriously looking for survival items and weaponry. There are other places in town which have these things at a better value. The answer is also no if you live here and are very busy with like, say, a job or something. 

So that's that. Let me know what you think if you visit the store. Lots of people do, I think, because as I was driving home I noticed about 27 "zombie hunter: kill or be eaten" stickers on various cars around town.