Wanna celebrate Halloween multi-media style? Friday, October 7th: Infinite Connectios’ presents the “Pleasure and Pain” party at CHAC, featuring no less than 3 piercing/suspension troupes (CoRE, Pure Cirkus and Shift), with music by Betty X, Mankind is Obsolete and Mistress Catherinna, and visual art by KillingFrenzy, Jason Soles and Ann Koi from Catalyst Studios, and photography by Savina.

Tickets are $15 in advance at Brown Paper Tickets, $20 at the door. Doors open at 9:00 p.m. 21+

• the Weekly discovers a hidden cove of not-necessarily wholesome fun in Seattle nightlife called “Pine Street” [seattleweekly]
• On a similar front, the Cha Cha will survive the impending condo-ification of their block by making a move to Pike [slog]
• Ultimate Capitol Hill Hallowe’en disguise = alt-weekly editor. Just add pot cookies and a fake firearm for maximum authenticity. [chs]

Washington State’s very first bestiality charges may end with a death sentence. Not for the guy who couldn’t resist the charms of his dog, but for Sara, the pit bull whose allure ended a Pierce County marriage. After Mrs. McPhail found her husband enjoying an illegal outdoor activity with their pet, she snapped a few pictures with her cell and called the cops. Mr. McPhail is now out on bail, but the dog is still at animal control:

Animal Control officials say a 4-year-old pit bull at the center of an alleged case of felony bestiality will likely be euthanized, prompting an outcry from animal-welfare groups. … Deputy Prosecutor Karen Watson said Sara won’t be euthanized while investigators gather “evidence” of her injuries as part of the case against McPhail. [times]

On the bright side, so far there haven’t been any reports of the pictures showing up on the internet. A minor blessing in this age of Paris Hilton hacked Sidekick photos.

Today’s King County Journal has a story about the theft of at least 50 copper vases from graves at Sunset Hill Memorial Park in Bellevue.

Officials at the graveyard think the thieves took the vases–part copper and worth $350 each–to sell to scrapyards. For the sake of their visitors, Sunset Hill Memorial Park will replace the vases themselves. They also plan to install around-the-clock security. This is generous of them, but they shouldn’t have to do this: this is a place where people go to honor the memories of the people they’ve loved and lost; shame on those who can’t respect that.

In the words our own Samantha, writing earlier about other shameful thefts: “Stealing is bad. Quit it.”

My fourteen-year-old brother is going through the Nirvana phase of his “I want to be a rock star, so I will listen to everything ever recorded rather than practice my instrument” ambitions. So he, at least, will probably be thrilled to hear that Kurt Cobain has taken over Elvis’ place as the US’ top-earning dead guy [bbc].

This has happened because poor little Courtney Love has sold a quarter of her burdensome Nirvana stake to Larry Mestel [bbc]. Love “has reassured fans that although the sale would take Nirvana where they’d “never been before”, the way their music was used would remain “tasteful”.” (Yeah, that’s just too easy of a shot to take.)

Do you savor the scary? Crave the creepy? Jump for joy at things that go bump in the night? Perhaps, then, you might want to visit one of the many haunted houses in the Seattle area this Halloween weekend. Whatever your level of thrill-seeking, there’s bound to be something out there for you: Details behind the jump
	image by Katie

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The Metroblogging family just got a little bigger. Today, welcome graz.metblogs.com to the fold.

Image, via wikipedia [#], where you can learn fun facts about Graz. Like, it’s a college town in Austria! And California’s own governator, Arnold Schwarzenegger was born in an village just about a mile from it! Nifty.

photo by wesaturtle, via the mb seattle pool [flickr]

• In what might be a piece of high-level performance commentary, the seattle sartorialist has changed her URL to pikepine.com and still has no new pictures of seattle street fashion.
• Starbucks plans to rid their bakery case of hidden trans-fats, as heart attacks might be bad for business. [starbucksgossip]
• Calling all math majors: UW student wants the know the deeper meaning of 1 + 1 = 3 graffiti. [uw.lj]
• A vision of delayed openings to come, coverage of Seattle Cloud Cover at the Olympic Sculpture Park. [belltownbent]

A very few of you either like or don’t mind the idea of the previously-mocked-in-this-blog “Metronatural” brand for Seattle tourism. The rest of us really, really don’t like it. At all. The fine folks over at Strategic Name Development, a firm whose very existence is all about naming things really, really don’t like it either and aren’t afraid to say so in their own blog [#] which includes links to still more blogs (including this one) where the general consensus of the ad campaign is: “$200K for THIS?”

Here’s the rub: even those who are quite eloquent in describing why they dislike this campaign so much don’t seem to have better ideas. I find it inconceivable that with all the smart people in Seattle that there’s no one with a better idea for “branding” Seattle for tourism so I’m calling you on, dear readers: how would you brand Seattle?