7:00 - 9:00 PM, Tues. Oct 4
GREEN DRINKS
It all started in 1989 at a pub called the Slug and Lettuce in Northern London when a handful of eco-conscious mates pulled some tables together and drank some beer. The concept evolved into Green Drinks and now it's global. Each city has an organizer who arranges meetings in bars and restaurants (providing the greenest beer possible, and by green we mean enviro-minded, not colored; in our case, Climax, locally brewed in Roselle Park). Green Drinks meets in fifty countries from Argentina to Zambia. And now, METUCHEN! Come have a beer and get green. FREE!
8 PM, Sat. Oct 8
TOM DAVIS
Reading/Signing
A LEGACY OF MADNESS
The story of a loving family coming to grips with its own fragility, A Legacy of Madness relays Tom Davis' journey to uncover, and ultimately understand, the history of mental illness that led generations of his suburban American family to their demise. "By sharing the story of his family history and his own personal journey, Tom Davis provides hope and inspiration to others." Former First Lady Rosalynn Carter. FREE. Books on sale at event.
8 PM, Fri. Oct 14
Live Music
More info soon. FREE.
Raconteur Radio Presents
7:30 & 9 Sat. Oct 15
7 PM, Sun. Oct 16
WAR OF THE WORLDS: A Staged Radio Play
Featuring Carlyle Owens, Michael Jarmus, Gwen Owens, Laurence Mintz, and Alex Dawson
RESERVATIONS REQUIRED!
War of the Worlds was first performed October 30, 1938 as the Halloween episode of "Mercury Theatre On Air." Narrated by Orson Welles, the episode, set in Grover Mills, NJ, is a loose adaptation of the H. G. Wells' novel, and begins as a dance band broadcast intermittently interrupted by news flashes about strange explosions on Mars and the landing of a cylindrical spacecraft on Earth. Incineration ensues. The simulated "news bulletins" of the original broadcast suggested to many contemporaneous listeners that an actual alien invasion was currently in progress and, as a result, there were instances of panicked evacuation throughout the US. Especially in New Jersey! 35 min. Theatrical Lighting! Sound Effects! Martian Props! This is our version of a "rent party" and, accordingly, there's a suggested donation of $10. That said, if you happened to be broke as a joke and still want to see it, you won't be turned away (as long as seats are available).
8 PM, Tues. Oct 18
HOPE FOR AGOLDENSUMMER & Special Guests
Live Music
TimeOut NY describes them as "part junkyard orchestra, part campfire song circle," and the Washington Post calls them “Haunting folksters.” Hope fronts, the sisters Campbell, hail from Georgia and write songs that play out like Flannery O’Connor stories sound tracked with singing saws, penny whistles, and cookie tin banjos. Barren yet evocative, ethereal and eloquent, this is strange, soulful, and deeply affecting stuff. Think a rural Cocorosie, an ornate Cat Power, or a female Arcade Fire. They've played in Peru, scored a Nick Nolte film, and toured with Man or Astroman. With special guests: fellow folkies Anthony Walker and Ryan Bing (of Glad Hearts). FREE! CDs on sale at event.
8 PM, Sat. Oct 22
MIKE EDISON
Reading/Signing
Dirty! Dirty! Dirty!: Of Playboys, Pigs, and Penthouse Paupers, An American Tale of Sex and Wonder
A wild and uncompromising history of four infamous magazines and the outlaws behind them, Dirty! Dirty! Dirty! is the first book to rip the sheet off of the sleazy myth-making machine of Hugh Hefner and Playboy, and reveal the doomed history of Hefner’s arch rival, Penthouse founder Bob Guccione, whose messiah complex and heedless spending (a legendary film flop paid for with bags of cash, a porn magazine for women, and a pie-in-the sky scheme for a portable nuclear reactor) fueled the greatest riches to rags story ever told. Along the way we meet many unexpected heroes—John Lennon, Lenny Bruce, Helen Gurley Brown, and the staff of Mad Magazine—and villains—from Richard Nixon and the Moral Majority to Hugh Hefner himself, whose legacy, we learn, is built on a self-perpetuated lie. "Mike Edison can go toe to toe with some of the best writers of the (old) New Journalism. This is foul-mouthed popular history at its most entertaining. Plenty smart, too—and also, strange to say, poignant and loving."—Rick Perlstein, author of Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America. FREE. Books on sale at event.
8 PM, Tues. Oct 25
STAKE LAND
W/Director/Writer Jim Mickle & Star/Writer Nick Damici
Screening/Discussion/Q&A
Compared to both Joss Whedon and Terrence Malick by The Village Voice, and cheered by NPR, The New Yorker, and Salon.com, Director/Writer Jim Mickle (and Star/Co-writer Nick Damici) screen and discuss their New York Times Critic's Pick, Stake Land, a smart, pitch perfect horror thriller set in a post-apocalyptic world somewhere between Romero and The Road. Half grind house, half art house, Stake Land is part of a new school of socially conscious horror, what The Voice calls "brains before blood," but rest assured its plenty gruesome, and with its dive bars and muscle cars, biker boots and buck knives, it all sort of plays out like a particularly acute Lynyrd Skynyrd song hopped up on supernatural steroids. Plus a special on stage conversation between Mickle, Damici, and Fangoria scribe/Fear Mongers host Clay Mcleod Chapman. $15. Presented in conjunction with Crystal Plumage Films and The Forum Theatre. NOTE: At The Forum NOT The Raconteur. Click for The New York Times review. Click for the trailer.
11:30 PM, Fri. Oct 28
HALLOWEEN
Hosted by New York Times film critic JASON ZINOMAN
Screening/Discussion/Q&A/Signing
Called "the most successful independent motion picture of all time," Halloween is also one of most frightening films ever made. New York Times critic Jason Zinoman, author of Shock Value, an account of the gifted and eccentric directors who gave us the golden age of modern horror, will helm a discussion of the film. Copies of his book will be on sale at the event. Click to read the New York Times review of Shock Value. Presented in conjunction with Crystal Plumage Films. NOTE: At The Forum (not the Raconteur). $10. Special reception before the film (10 - 11) at The Raconteur (all you can eat candy and a complimentary can of beer).
7 – 11:30 PM, Sat & Sun. Oct 29 & 30
THE HAUNTED BOOKSHOP
After a two year hiatus, the Raconteur's popular Haunted Bookshop returns. The only "haunted attraction" of its kind in the world! This year features characters from Moby Dick, Titus Adronicus, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, The Woman in White, Dante’s Inferno, Metamorphosis, Don’t Look Now, Frankenstein, and Something Wicked This Way Comes. With make-up, prosthetics, and props designed by Tom Savini protege Dan Diana and soundscape by Bruce Donnola(who respectively did the makeup and music for The Raconteur's acclaimed production of Nosferatu). What goes on after a bookstore closes for the night? See Gregor Samsa turn into a clacking, black bug, see Captain Ahab, harpoon hoisted high, mad with the hunt, see the pulpy, tentacled snout and beating, bat wings of Lovecraft's most horrifying creation, feel the long gnarled fingers and barked bones of Dante's tree suicides, scrabbling your ankles as they struggle to climb up and out of the Seventh Circle, watch Dr. Jekyll's hideous transformation as The Dust Witch cackles in her balloon and a bound behemoth is jolted to lightning induced life! Plus a consumptive Annabelle Lee, a carriage crushed Woman in White, and is it an Italian dwarf killer or the return of a drowned daughter? Find out all this and more, for only$5. Guaranteed to scare you "lit-less!"
