A Song and a Novel About a Haunted House and

The spookiest day of the year is here, and since there's no upcoming Batman movie to hype (yet), I'm gonna recommend a novel. Richard Brautigan's The Hawkline Monster: A Gothic Western is not necessarily more spooky than Trout Fishing in America or Sombrero Fallout, but if you've recently read Ray Bradbury's The Halloween Tree, why not? It's as much a Western as it is a Horror novel, but it's not really either in anyway that fevered fans of either genre will recognize. Mostly it's a Brautigan novel, and it's one I no longer have a copy of--haven't for a dozen years. Someday I'll build a nice library of Brautigan volumes, but I'm gonna wait until I have a big house to haunt with shelves and nooks and secret passages.

mp3: "Be the Last to Stay in a Haunted House" by the Howling Hex

flashback: 1997

A great couple of posts by Wade regarding the nineties. Which is an interesting coincidence, since I'm currently knee-deep (just one knee) in composing a weird remembrance of 1992 that has something to do with something but has also become a thing of its own.



mp3: Live in Toronto, 1997 by Bluebeard

FemBots tonight

FemBots are a very excellent band from Toronto and they are playing tonight in Vancouver at the Railway Club. It would behoove you to attend. I saw them in the spring of oh-six in at the Exchange in Regina on a bill with Cuff the Duke and the Hylozoists. As you might be able to imagine, it was a pretty amazing night of music. FemBots sort of occupy the middle ground between the Hylozoists' percussive adventurism and Cuff the Duke's rocko-balladry.
Tonight they're playing with the also excellent Octoberman, who I've never seen live, but I think I interviewed him/them at one point (which is a safe bet for any CanRock outfit who operated between 1997 and 2006).

mp3: "Good Days" by FemBots
mp3: "Run from Safety" by Octoberman

read this

One of the best articles (op-ed) on InSite and Harm Reduction I've ever read (from yesterday's Globe & Mail).

Proof that I'm not making good use of my 'free' time

Sometimes, I just sit at my computer with Vic Chesnutt on my headphones, following one link to another until I don't know how I got where I am, but I'm glad I've arrived. This is where I ended up tonight.

SHAZHMMM... - An extremely likable comic review site with a winning he said/she said thing going on. It's like Siskel & Ebert but you read it. And it's about comics. But, y'know, two intelligent, articulate people with broad tastes discussing new releases (and sometimes older stuff).

Areas of My Expertise - You know John Hodgman. But did you know he wrote a book? But did you know he wrote another?

mp3: "Wallace Stevens" by Vic Chesnutt

Who Blotches the Blotchmen?

If you like comics and plums, you can't miss with this hilariously excellent webcomic from Kevin Cannon.

Party in the hood tomorrow night!

Do you like barbecues, saving lives and free music? Get on down to 139 E. Hastings on Thurs., Oct 23 to eat some free burgers, check out Bedouin Soundclash, and show some love and support for InSite, Vancouver's Supervised Injection Site. With the Harper Conservatives returned to a minority gov't, it's more important than ever to let them know that Canadians will not abide their attempts to condemn drug addicts to "a short and miserable life" when we have the tools to provide dignity, survival, and hope for a better tomorrow. Party starts around 3:30 p.m., and Bedouin Soundclash goes on around 6:30 p.m. Word has it Bend Sinister will also be playing.

mp3: "Shelter" by Bedouin Soundclash