October Is...October is a fun and wonderful month. Thirty-one days devoted to books, movies and candy! Along with raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens, those are a few of my favorite things.
October is National Reading Month. Books can be used for other things besides propping open doors and squashing bugs, you know. Celebrate National Reading Month by reading anything and everything: Magazines. Newspapers. (October 11 is International Newspaper Carrier Day.) The dictionary (October 16 is Dictionary Day). Websites (Internet Day is October 29). Cereal boxes. Joke books (October 31 is National Knock-Knock Joke Day).
Join a book club (October is also National Reading Group Month). Read in the bathtub (‘cause it’s also Kitchen and Bath Month). Challenge yourself by finally tackling that science fiction classic you’ve been putting off. Walk up to a library bookshelf, close your eyes and choose a book at random. On Evaluate Your Life Day (October 15), browse the Self Help section of your local bookstore.
On October 25, stop by the St. Petersburg Times Festival of Reading at the USF campus in St. Pete. (It’s free.) Talk about celebrating National Book Month! At the Festival of Reading you can find national authors, local authors, seminars, discussions, booksellers, book groups, writers’ organizations and much, much more. The list of attending authors is too long to print here, but I have to mention: Dennis Lehane, Susan Orlean, Ridley Pearson, Robert Vaughn (yes, THAT Robert Vaughn – he’ll talk about his autobiography), Dr. Roy Peter Clark, Alexandra Kerry (John Kerry’s daughter), Kristy Kiernan, Cody Fowler Davis, Richard Paul Evans, Jeff Klinkenberg, Lisa Unger, Gary Mormino and a slew of journalists and critics from the St. Pete Times.
Don’t forget to save plenty of time for movies this month, though. The Halloween Horror Picture Show – now partnered with the Gasparilla Film Festival – is October 24-26 at the Beach Theatre in St. Pete. During the day there will be “family-friendly films” like House on Haunted Hill, Robot Monster, Ghostbusters and Munster Go Home, and in the evening they break out the family-friendly-if-you-mean-the-Manson-family-or-that-family-in-The-Texas-Chainsaw-Massacre horror movies (some shorts, some features, some local, some zombies).
Don’t forget the bucket of popcorn at the theater. October is National Popcorn Poppin’ Month, you know. (Floss when you get home, though, because it’s also Dental Hygiene Month.)
Over in Orlando on October 17-19 there’s Spooky Empire’s Ultimate Horror Weekend (the Event Formerly Known as Screamfest). Guests include Malcolm McDowell, Doug Bradley, Angus Scimm, Corey Haim, Michael Berryman, Ken Foree, Joel Wynkoop, Tom Savini, Linda Cowden and many, many others. I think they might be showing one or two horror films, maybe.
Or you can stay home, camped out in front of the TV, eating cookies, desserts, pasta, pretzels, pizza or chili, all of which claim October as their national month. (It’s also National Pickled Pepper Month, thanks to that Peter Piper guy.) Turner Classic Movies will screen “48 Hours of Horror” on October 30 and 31 (including I Walked With A Zombie, The Tingler, Cat People, Freaks and Bedlam). Every Thursday night in October IFC is showing three horror films in a row (including Eaten Alive, The Prophecy, Nightmare on Elm Street, Ed Gein and The Burning).
If horror films aren’t your cup of tea, there are plenty of non-horror films out in October, both at the theater (Religulous, Body of Lies, W.) and on DVD (Casino Royale 3-disc collector’s edition, The Incredible Hulk and War, Inc.).
There’s no excuse for being bored in October. If nothing I've written about sounds good, you could always get a dog (National Adopt a Shelter Dog Month) or run a virus scan on your computer (Cyber Security Awareness Month).
Happy October, everyone.
p.s. Have I told you lately how awesome I am? (October is National Self-Promotion Month.)
p.p.s. It’s also National Sarcasm Awareness Month. I don’t know if there’s a colored ribbon for this yet, but awareness is the first step.
"FANGRRL" is ©2008 by Lisa Ciurro. All graphics, except where otherwise noted, are creations of Nolan B. Canova. All contents of Nolan's Pop Culture Review are ©2008 by Nolan B. Canova.
