I Ain't Afraid of No Ghosts!

Halloween is a messy holiday. There's just something about mixing costumes with alcohol that leads to a super distorted sense of reality. And Halloween weekend in Orlando always means one thing -- a bunch of unprofessional drinkers (dressed as Pimps and Hos) descend upon downtown, drink themselves into oblivion and turn into complete and total douchebags. While you're bound to encounter a handful of these amateurs, you can steer clear of them by avoiding Church Street/Wall Street, and by attending any of the recommended events below:

If you're looking to engulf yourself in the chaotic mess of the annual downtown block party -- it's fun if you don't drive -- you're best bet (read: FREE) is to hit up the Halloween edition of Get Mental at Sky60. As homage to the upcoming election to rid the White House of Satan himself, the password for the evening is "Scarier Than Politicians." $5 without password.



In their annual Halloween tradition, Crooked Bayou will be hosting everyone's favorite Misfits cover band, Psycho 78. Jerry Baloney seems to like them, anyway. $5 cover.



The older and slightly eccentric crew will be over at the City Arts Factory for the Shine Psycho Circus Halloween Masquerade. Tons of stuff going on there -- check the over-saturated flyer (if you can read it) for details. $20 cover.



If the downtown mayhem ain't your scene, then make your way down Mills to Peacock Room for their annual Halloween party. I've seen people pull out all the stops to win the costume contest so it should be pretty interesting. $7 cover.



Ride your bike to Stardust Video and Bold Hype for their joint parking lot OMG WTF Halloween party. No cover.



More non-downtown action can be found at Taste in College Park, who is hosting A Funky Boogie-ween with the Windham Group and The Good Rub. $8 cover.



And finally, if you just want to get the fuck out of Orlando altogether, head over to party in Ybor with the Pulp kids for Lol-O-ween. Special guest (and my hero) DJ Mega. No cover with costume, $5 cover without.



Be safe, kids. If you do go out, I'll bet a million dollars you hear at least one of the following: Thriller, Ghostbusters or Highway to Hell. Bonus points if you hear all three!

Working for the Weekend

Ok, so I've been slacking. Well, technically, I've been too busy to breathe, forcing me to put my beloved event blog on the back burner. I missed the chance to call Steve "DJ to the Stars" Aoki an Asian jumping bean! I missed the chance to talk about the last-Thursday-of-the-month debauchery that is Velvet Sessions at the Hard Rock Hotel, where $25 bucks will get you free drinks AND a slightly washed-up (although completely awesome) rock star. I even missed a prime opportunity to make fun of Bret Michaels!!! Naw, I'm still going to post that one:



And the best glam rock cover of all time? Look What The Cat Dragged In!!!



Now, on to the weekend.

Tonight the legendary Eddie -- errrr --- Charlie Murphy will be performing at Hard Rock Live. I wonder if anyone has ever told him that he looks like his brother??? Naw. I also wonder if anyone would know him if it weren't for the long-lost Chapelle Show.



And now for a shameless self plug: I'll be DJing with Cub Saturday night at RV's Studio. That's the same warehouse space used for the Pintura Grafitti Conference a few weeks ago, in case you weren't sure (I wasn't). We'll be doing the funk/soul/disco thing if you're down. It's an early gig -- 6 to 10 PM and here's the flyer:



And, as much as I like to be an Orlando cheerleader, I have to admit sometimes there ain't shit going on. Nothing I care about, anyway.

It's these desperate times when we are forced to take road trips and I would suggest partying down with the St. Pete kids over at the Vitale Studio. They're having an art show dedicated to the baddest gang in Coney Island: The Warriors. A few Orlando artists will be showing -- Dolla, Andrew Spear, Johannah O'Donnell, Adriaan Mol, Terribly Odd, Horsebites -- among St. Pete's finest: Bask, John Vitale, Joey Vitale and a ton more. Click the (semi-unreadable) flyer for all the info.



And a St. Pete Saturday night wouldn't be the same without visiting The Lobby for some DJ Mega action. Oh burrrrrrg!



Back in Orlando, Sunday night brings the return of Rockstar Bowling to the infamous Colonial Lanes. What exactly is Rockstar Bowling, you ask? Imagine all the bartenders in town getting together every other week for three games of bowling and booze. It's basically their "Saturday" night throwdown and things can get pretty messy (in a good way). Not for the faint of heart or those who can't handle Monday morning hangovers.



Don't feel like bowling? Just show up to drink at their super dope retro bar and watch Hearst from Sky60 intimidate the other teams.

Have a nice weekend, kids!

Radiohead VS. Kid Koala

Choose your own adventure for this evening:

#1 - A road trip to the land of Fake Plastic Trees, Pink Plastic Watering Cans, Paranoid Androids and Bodysnatchers (turn to page 27)
# 2 - Stay in your own backyard to see Your Mom's Favorite DJ who likes to cut records and make drawings on brown paper (turn to page 352)

If you chose #1: Congratulations! you're on your way to the Ford Amphitheatre to see Radiohead. There, you will be joined by thousands of sad emo rockers for a night of weeping and joy. In all seriousness, I went through a pretty big Radiohead phase and I've heard their live show is amazing. However, the best thing anyone has ever said about the band is this:

"Radiohead is boring music for white people who have no soul at all." -- DJ Mega

If you chose #2: Congratulations! You will be joining the B-Boys for the Kid Koala show at The Social. He's not a kid OR a koala, BUT he is a dope ass DJ, turntablist, producer and illustrator. Lots of creative juice coming outta that guy... wait, that sounds kinda gross. Anyway, he's playing tonight with DJ Jester the Filipino Fist and BMF.

Wednesday is going off!

Tonight has a lot in store to "get over your hump day" or "cure your mid-week blues" or some other dumb phrase to describe getting drunk on a Wednesday.

First up is Múm, who (according to the most reliable source of information on the web) is an "experimental Icelandic musical group whose music is characterized by soft vocals, electronic glitch beats and effects, and a variety of traditional and unconventional instruments." All I know about them is their names are hard to pronounce (God, I am such an American) and their stylist seems to want them to be the most stereotypical hipsters I have ever seen, as demonstrated below. Emo song titles include "We Have a Map of the Piano," "Weeping Rock, Rock," and "Dancing Behind My Eyelids." If this sounds like your scene, they are performing tonight at The Plaza Theatre.



Next we have Meat Beat Manifesto, another experimental outfit of the heavier variety, playing tonight at The Social. If Múm is airy and dreamy, MBM is synthy and dark. Their live show incorporates more of an audio-visual aspect and I'm guessing drugs would enhance the experience.



If you know me well enough, you would know I would never set foot on Church Street without a good reason. Unfortunately tonight, there is a good reason -- one that will force me to go to Antigua for the first time ever. While I roll my eyes at shiny shirt guys and under-dressed chicks with fake boobs, Andrew Spear and DJ Mega will be providing the tunes. Redeeming qualities of the night include awesome music, 3 for 1 drinks until midnight and 2 for 1 shots after midnight (hellllloooooo Thursday hangover!)



The Carnival kids are doing what they do every Wednesday at Suite B. Tonight they will be seeing off resident DJ h∆LLc∆LL for his NYC tour. Shit will be bananas, as it is every week.



And last, but definitely not least, The Peacock Room will be presenting Remember When, a "live retrospective into funk, soul, hip hop and jazz" hosted by Stereo 77 and Rod-1. Should also be pretty dope.



PS... I want to wish a SUPER HAPPY AWESOME BIRTHDAY to my boy Tony, aka Schwa who is currently residing in Dallas and taking over!!!! Miss you, kid!!! :)

Beer fest + John Beltran + SOS Band + Tittsworth

Blogger power outages and a musical about two witches has left me MIA the past few days. (ADD moment: speaking of MIA, I am absolutely in love with the Soulwax remix of 'Paper Planes,' a song that is normally almost unlistenable. Go download it from Glitter and Gold right now!!!!!) Also, forgive me if I don't link everything below -- I am running late, as usual. Anyways, what was I saying? Oh yes...

This weekend is totally going off. Tonight there's an over-priced Beer Fest taking place at Heritage Square that may be worth checking out. Maybe, maybe not. Sometimes these things can turn into drunken frat boy fests (try saying that five times fast!). Not my scene, jellybean.

The Fast Forward crew will be bringing another one of Ubiquity's golden boys, John Beltran, to DJ at the Peacock Room this evening, alongside Dr. Um and Riverside. Nujazz, soul, funk, broken beat and house music lovers unite!



And on to Saturday's events.

The house kids in this town have been trying to pull together a daytime pool party for ages, and it seems as though it's finally happening on the roof of the Vue building downtown. Not too shabby. The free party goes from 12 - 6 PM with DJs Atnarko, Edson, Rob Slac, Mo Negro, Nat, Buckner and TARD.



Old skool kids can relive their Firestone days for a good cause. Tomorrow night a memorial party will be held for Donald Johnson in an effort to raise money for the family he left behind. The lineup includes Stylus, Sandy, Rob E and more. Click the flyer for full details.



Orlando is on a roll with awesome disco-band reunions -- tomorrow Star 95.4 will host a free block party on Central Ave between Orange and Magnolia. Who's performing? None other than the S.O.S. Band. You know them -- they sing "Baby we can do it, take your time, do it right, we can do it baby, do it tonight!" Since I can't find any awesome funked out photos of the band, here is a great album cover that could have easily been shot last week at a hipster fashion show.



And here are two dope songs from the same album:

S.O.S. Band - You Shake Me Up.mp3
S.O.S. Band - Can't Get Enough.mp3

The big event of the weekend will take place right down the street from the block party. Art and music nerds alike will be flocking to the warehouse space at 630 West Central Ave. for the Pintura International Graffiti Conference. The all-day event begins at noon and will continue until the wee hours of the AM. Headlining the event is Tittsworth; other talent on the bill includes Kittybat, Swamburger, Phat-N-Jazzy Collective, Andrew Spear, MOT, Mega, Cub and a ton more. Find all of the details on WPIentertainment.com and MBArtProjects.com.



Grab the Tittsworth remix of AC/DC at Awkward Pirates (and grab the Crookers version too, it's sick).

And finally, if warehouse graffiti parties aren't your thing, the Peacock Room is hosting its new monthly hair metal party, "Turbo Love Machine," and DJing this month are Anti Social and Angry Asian. Come prepared to rock out with your cock out.

Road trip to St. Pete

Last night was off the hook!!!! ... too bad it didn't exist. HUGE thanks to everyone who made it out!!!

If you feel like taking a road trip tonight, Nova 535 Gallery is hosting Heavenly Creatures, an art show featuring works from Orlando artists Andrew Spear and Patrick Fatica.


And, of course, a St. Pete road trip wouldn't be complete without a trip to The Lobby to see DJ Mega.