Blood suckers and heathens, take heed: the hour of rock is near

On Halloween night, Congress Street will quench any evil dead vampire's thirst for fast tunes and times.

"Nightmare On Congress Street" will feature six different participating venues from up and down Congress Street (with different costume contests at the four intersecting venues). The venues will host a plethora of instrument-equipped hooligans including surf legend Dick Dale, smelly foreigners The Zsa Zsas, rocking Chango Malo, The Jons, Flam Chen, and more. This is all at the cost of one $10-$15 ticket. Consider it Death Crawl. [Read article]

Bust out the nice china, prepare a feast and gather with loved ones. No, it's not Thanksgiving. This Sunday is the Day of the Dead, or D’a de los Muertos.

The Hispanic holiday, a combination of ancient Aztec and other Meso-American rituals and Catholic traditions, honors the life of lost ones without the stuffy, somber mourning process so many of the bereaved follow.

Instead of attending a wake, donning black and shedding tears, D’a de los Muertos observers will attend to the dead by donning skeleton masks and shedding light on those who have passed. Traditions include visiting the gravesites of lost relatives, cleaning them up and bringing their favorite foods to share with their spirits, according to JosŽ Abelardo Frisby, owner of Las Cazuelitas restaurant. [Read article]

What will you be for Halloween? [Read article]

Sometimes poo is funny. But "Scary Movie 3" isn't poo, it's complete shit.

And shit is never funny. It is messy and stinks like a banshee.

After "Scary Movie 2," I didn't think it could get much worse. But they got rid of all Wayans Brothers and hired David Zucker and his buddies, who made the "Naked Gun" movies.

This gave me some hope for the project. After all, it's fairly fun to see spoofs and the horror genre is so easy to parody. The flick would be worth the price of admission even if only half of the jokes worked. [Read article]

Exotic dishes can be a 'Fear Factor' experience for the faint of heart

This year, axe the candy corn and try something even more fitting for Halloween. A few places around Tucson offer menu items that rival some of the tasks in "Fear Factor." Here are a few scary foods and the places you'll find them.

Alligator Tail
The French Quarter, 3146 E. Grant Road, offers battered and fried alligator tail ($5.99) complete with three dipping sauces. Though it seemed scary at first, I liked the idea of switching around the food chain and giving the human the chance to eat the alligator. Cut into unrecognizable pieces, I was able to pop the pieces into my mouth without a shudder. Expecting it to taste like chicken (what doesn't?), I was surprised when the meat tasted light and mild, like fish. I'd get that again, Halloween or not. [Read article]

Provocative Halloween costumes can be fun, but do they sometimes go too far?

Everyday should be Halloween

What's wrong with freaking out the squares and dressing a bit risquŽ on Halloween?

Absolutely nothing.

Jessica Suarez wants you to think it's tacky and despicable, but we all know better than that.

Dressing slutty is hot and awesome!

For example, there's nothing better than when a non-prostituting college girl dresses up as a prostitute because most costumed prostitutes are hotter than real prostitutes and have less genital warts. [Read article]

I wanted to watch "It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" that night. Joe refused. He wouldn't sit through it, and he wouldn't let me sit through it happily, and so we didn't watch. What I'm saying is I could have watched, and I chose not to, because Joe would have ruined it. So I'm saying that what happened is partially my fault, but not really. It's Joe's fault.

So at 7, when I could have been inside, not enjoying the program, I was instead outside, not enjoying anything. We used the courtyard grill to burn hotdogs, soydogs and vegetable kabobs. We tossed a Nerf ball around. [Read article]

Today

I am what many might call a pansy when it comes to horror movies. Most movies are scary for me, whether they involve monsters, serial killers, ghosts or demonic children. I love watching them and love being scared, but I was even terrified when Bambi's mother was shot.

Whether horror is your favorite genre or not, there are some movies that you have to see. And you have to see them on Halloween. Of course, there's only a two-year period from age 14 to 16 when people watch movies all Halloween, and now everyone is drunk on Fourth Avenue by nightfall. But take a break in the afternoon tomorrow, turn off all the lights and pop in the DVD or VCR of a classic horror movie. Perhaps one of these will do. [Read article]

It's 10 p.m. on Halloween night. Do you know where your costume is? If you slacked off and waited for the last minute, or if the ninja turtle suit you coveted disappeared from the costume shop just moments before you arrived, don't despair. We've got you covered with these costumes that are quick, easy and won't cost you a dime.

Switch clothes with your significant other and go as each other. When boys wear girl clothes, it's hilarious. Have the girl draw a mustache on herself and put a cucumber in her underwear. I did this with my girlfriend last year. But then she broke up with me...so maybe you should steer clear of this costume.
Nate Buchik [Read article]

Envision me pointing toward you as you read this column and shouting in a "Tool-Time" voice, "DOES EVERYONE KNOW WHAT DAY IT IS??"

Now you will shout back, "THURSDAY!" and I will be very happy because that means that tomorrow is Friday and that, dear friends, is Halloween.

I LOVE Halloween!! In fact, if Halloween entitled me to lots of presents, then it would most likely be my favorite holiday. As it is, it comes in a close second. The costumes, the glowing vegetables, the fun-sized candy bars that I buy even though there are not children in my neighborhood, anything caramel, but especially apples-who wouldn't love this day?!! By far, however, the best part of Halloween is the dressing up factor. My secret bedtime fear as a child (aside from dropping my candy in the street and having it snatched up by the evil neighbors ... that's a bit of a shout out to my brother) was that this year would be my last year to dress up and that next year I would be too old. Luckily, I came to a university where people share and embrace my youthful passion. [Read article]