Look, I’m not going to front like I’ve never been to Taco Bell but I’ve only gone in the absence of other viable choices and I’ve never, ever called it “Mexican” food. Taco Bell is pure and simple junk food and there’s no other way to describe it. People eat there because it’s cheap. Today it’s super cheap: as part of a World Series promotion , Taco Bell is offering everyone a free taco today between 2 pm and 5 pm today at any of their many Puget Sound locations.

Photo by pdgibson on [Flickr]

DAYS UNTIL HALLOWEEN:

1

DRINK:

Orange and Black Screwdriver

1 1/2 oz. Blavod Black Vodka
3 oz. Tangerine juice

Add ice to a highball glass, pour tangerine juice. Top with vodka and garnish with a Halloween candy such as candy corn on a swizzle stick.

EAT:

Spooky Spiced Shrimp

Turmeric, chili and curry powders, and the Indian spice, tandoori masala (coriander, cumin, ginger, fenugreek and pepper) give these Spooky Spiced Shrimp an orange color. Sprinkle them with black seeds and you’ve got a spicy and festive Halloween dinner!

GO:

Still haven’t carved pumpkins for Halloween? Perhaps it’s a little too G-rated for your pleasure…so spice it up and sexify your pumpkin for Babeland’s Sexy Jack-O’-Lantern contest. The first-place winner will receive a Babeland gift bag worth $100. Second and third place winners will receive gift bags valued at $50 and $25, respectively. Entries will be accepted during store hours today, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Babeland, 707 E. Pike Street.

OR

Check out the House of Terror haunted house at one of their two locations–Tulalip or the Supermall in Auburn–from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. $10 to $13.

photo by sprizee [flickr] via our group pool [#]. Seen any great halloween scenes? Send them our way!

• Sorority girls in Pullman makeover computer scientist guys and auction them off to the highest bidder. (ed: where are the before pictures?) [dailyweekly]
• Dreadful ideas for punishing the Huskies’ poor gridiron performance. [crosscut]
• Of course Sharkansky hates the bus. [seatrans]
• Signage for the preservation of interesting mushrooms fails to irritate. [capitolhillseattle]
• It’s Membership Drive time again. Pledge early and often. [kexp]

7:30 p.m. – Henry Petroski reads from “The Toothpick” @ Town Hall – You can extrapolate out a lot of knowledge about us humans via the history of the toothpick, I hear. Enough for a whole book, apparently.

7 p.m. – Zombie Movie Marathon @ Chop Suey – Shaun of the Dead, Dead Alive, and Zombie II. Get scared for free!

Zombie Walk 2007 – Fremont. Photo by Brymo on [Flickr]

DAYS UNTIL HALLOWEEN:

2

DRINK:

Zombie Cocktail

1 oz. Apricot brandy
1 oz. Light rum
1 oz. Dark or Jamaican rum
1 oz. Lime juice
2 Dashes grenadine
Orange juice
1 oz. Bacardi 151 rum

Mix light and dark rum and brandy in a cocktail shaker, add lime juice and grenadine. Shake well and strain into a higball glass filled with cracked ice. Fill glass with orange juice but leave enough room to float the 151 on top. Garnish with a cherry and orange slice.

EAT:

Zombie Meatloaf

Just like mom used to make!

GO:

Some of you may have witnessed or seen pictures of the Zombie walk in Fremont last Sunday the 21st. There’s another one at U Village today at 4 p.m., so if you happen to not be working and have a sweet zombie costume lying around, throw it on and help haunt. Or, head to Chop Suey for their Zombie Movie Marathon, sponsored by Scarecrow Video and featuring Shaun of the Dead, Dead Alive and Zombie 2. Doors at 7 p.m., FREE! Chop Suey, 1325 E. Madison.

• Architecture in Helsinki went from being the Australian Belle & Sebastian to taking a flying leap of a psych-infused cliff and never looking back. Onstage, there’s far more going on than you’d think possible for a six-person ensemble. with Glass Candy, Panther. $16, 8p [showbox SODO]
• I’ve been meaning to see Caribou since the days before copyright scuffles made them change their name from Manitoba. During this time, they (or, rather “he” as the band is the work of maths PhD Daniel Snaith) have migrated from primarily instrumental compositions to the fuzzy, sixties-inspired gauzy pop bliss on this year’s Andorra. with Born Ruffians, Feral Children. $10+, 8p [neumos]
• Last year Joanna Newsom teamed up with Van Dyke Parks to bring orchestration to Ys, dramatically expanding her previous solo-harpist work with rich textures, and making one of my favorite records of 2006. Tonight, she’s performing with a full orchestra at Benaroya Hall. I can’t imagine that this won’t be magnificent. $25-35 [benaryoa]

(more [flickr])

I’m still sorting through photos from last night’s incredible Broken Social Scene show at the Moore. For now, here’s a picture of Ben Gibbard, who joined a stage full of guests (including Andrew Kenny of American Analog Set) for the singalong “encore” of “When It Begins”.

[updated]

(more photos [flickr])

Heading into the theater early without having done much in the way of trolling the band’s website as research, I wasn’t sure what to expect from the “plays Kevin Drew” version of Broken Social Scene. As Sally Seltmann (a.k.a. New Buffalo) played a solo set, swapping between keyboard, guitar, and pre-programmed rhythm sections, the house began to fill with mostly well-behaved quiet crowd.

Everyone stayed in their seats during the break, with a small rush to fill the space in the front once Broken Social Scene filtered onto the stage. My curiosity about whether they would play any old songs was quickly answered they threw “Cause = Time” into an opening run of Spirit If… highlights “Lucky Ones”, “Fucked Up Kid”, and “TBTF”.

With the female members of the collective tied up with other touring obligations, the band was in guys-only configuration, calling in Andrew Kenny from American Analog Set and James Shaw from Metric as backup. Thus, no “Anthems for a Seventeen Year Old Girl”, a limited horn section, and a whole lot of roaring guitars accented by high kicks and rockstar leaps from Brendan Canning. At the center, Kevin Drew was bundled in his Half Nelson hoodie and showing off some sparkly new Adidas trainers. Fighting off a cold with cups of tea, he was in good spirits and even braved quite a few of the high parts.

Although Drew kept making jokes about playing in such a large venue (”1,2,3,4, why the fuck are we playing the Moore”), longing to have us all crowded into the Crocodile, and asking each one of us to agree to clap, sing, scream, etc. to clap for three, the place seemed pretty full to me. The superfans were more charming than annoying, and by the time they got around to playing “Lovers Spit” [yt] there might as well have been a giant disco ball spinning above the room of captivated fans dreaming of how it might be possible to use the song as a first dance at their wedding without offending the grandparents in the room.

Throughout, I was impressed at how well the songs, which can work for me as anything from background or walking to work music, came alive on stage. The set both seemed to last forever and came to an end earlier than I’d hoped. The fast version of “Major Label Debut” drove people to dance wild and raggedly and instead of wasting time slipping offstage and waiting for applause to demand their return. The band just stayed, introducing their last song as an encore. A small lamp was plugged in and guests were called from offstage. We all learned our parts and sang along. Band members reached into the audience to say good night and the evening was over a little before eleven, leaving teenage girls in the audience a few minutes to rush outside for the chance to get a closer look at Ben Gibbard.

Smack! Photo by Pipistrula on [Flickr]

DAYS UNTIL HALLOWEEN: 4

DRINK:

Witch’s Brew

2 Bottles of champagne
1 Gallon orange juice
1/2 Gallon orange sherbert
1 Bunch peeled black grapes
Sugar to taste
1 2-Liter of lemon-lime soda
1/2 Bottle vodka
Small pieces of dry ice
Bunches of grapes for garnish

Combine champagne and orange juice in large punch bowl. Scoop sherbert into bowl until it has produced a nice scum over the top. Add sugar to taste if desired. Float peeled grapes in mixture, and garnish bowl with the rest of the grapes. Drop in pieces of dry ice for steaming effect, but note that no one should put dry ice in his/her mouth. If you want to raise or lower the alcohol content in the punch, add vodka or clear soda respectively.

EAT:

Witches Fingers

I ran across tons of recipes for crackers or cookies meant to resemble witches fingers by using blanched almonds for a long, scraggly fingernail. This recipe, however, actually looked appetizing. It’s more of a cheddar cracker like thing than just a piece of dough shaped into a finger. Recipe for a potential Halloween party you could be hosting this weekend?!

GO:

Lots, lots, LOTS going on this Saturday night–what some may argue to be the main holiday evening this year. If you don’t already have a Halloween party to attend, here are some of the 100s of happenings and parties going on in the city tonight:

Thriller in Seattle: A couple weeks ago, The Times published an article about a grassroots Internet campaign called Thrill the World that was attempting to get as many people as possible to dance Michael Jackson’s Thriller at 3 p.m. on October 27th. Roughly 15,000 people in approximately 80 groups from 82 cities, 15 countries and four continents will be participating. You can participate too at the YMCA, sixth floor, 909 Fourth Ave.
(more…)

Friday – Circus Contraption @ Theo Chocolate – The crowd that follows CC is waaaaaay into Halloween, so this should be a thang. No “Thriller” re-enactment this year, sadly, but this should still be fun anyway; I’ll be throwing on the zombie makeup anyway.

Friday – Halloween Funk Spectacular @ Nectar – Altered States of Funk, Lord Funkleroy and the Freakenstein Orchestra; ya go dance. Light show, monster mash procession, ouija boards…

Friday (ZG) – Alice Sebold, author of the Lovely Bones and Lucky reads from her most recent novel, The Almost Moon at the Central Branch of the Seattle Public Library from 7:00 to 8:30 pm. Free

Friday (ZG) – the Seattle Thunderbirds take on the Saskatoon Blades at 7:35 pm at Key Arena.

Saturday-Sunday – SkiFever & Snowboard Show @ Quest Event Center – Pick up some stuff for what I am hoping to be a spectacular ski season!

(more…)

photo from this weekend’s zombie invasion by Danny Ngan [flickr] via our group pool [#]

• The rumors were true and now the paper is off the windows. Zoë’s little brother Quinn gets his own namesake restaurant on Capitol Hill, across the street from Neumo’s. [slog]
• The bossiness of Victrola, expanded. [capitolhillseattle]
• Nate Lippens, pugilist. [arttogo]
• Zombies overtook Fremont (during the day!), photographic proof. [poopoorama]
• Officiating something called “Layer Tennis” [defectiveyeti]
• Starbucks washes its hands of the Sonics. [starbucksgossip]