Happy Halloween!

It is becoming more and more apparent to me that the pain I was having in my jaws was only partly from tension, as one side has eased up, and the other side still hurts. In a very localized place. Between two molars. Shit.

Boy Trumpeter to Lead NYC Halloween Parade.

The leader of New York's annual Halloween parade will not be a drag queen on roller skates. It will not be a giant caricature of President Bush. It will not be a naked man covered in glitter.

The star will be a little trumpeter from New Orleans — 10-year-old Glenn Hall III, whose house and horn were destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. In New York, he got a new trumpet that he will play Monday in what is billed as the country's biggest public Halloween event. Glenn's role as grand marshal is part of a New Orleans theme at Monday's parade, which takes place in New York's Greenwich Village. The parade's symbol — as it was in 2001 after Sept. 11 — is a phoenix rising from its ashes.

The phoenix will rise from a traditional New Orleans jazz funeral, with displaced Katrina survivors dancing behind a coffin in both grief and joie de vivre.

"The dancing is to raise the spirits, to bring them back. And the music is a cry for the people who died," said New Orleans rapper Allen Porche, 22, who will be dancing in the parade. On his right arm, he has a tattoo that reads "Ninth Ward" — the neighborhood where his family's home was submerged under 27 feet of water.

Voodoo Practitioners Scatter After Katrina.

Speaking of Katrina, I was flipping through the book the other day (for my own nefarious purposes, and happened to come across this part in Independence Day:

PRESIDENT WHITMORE: Please, remain calm. If you feel compelled to evacuate the affected cities, please do so in an orderly fashion.

THE NATION: *starts looting*

I'm just saying, keep that in mind when... Bush Will Unveil Super-Flu Strategy on Tues.

Worth 1000's Halloween photoshop contest. As far as I am concerned, this one is teh winnar.

Pasolini murder mystery persists in Rome, 30 years on.

You know you wish you could review movies like my friend sweetdaddydavid, mothabitches.

"Disney erotic thriller": Three words I never expected to see in the same sentence.

Aight. Me and the toothache gotta go get ready for class. Don't forget: tomorrow is the beginning of NaNoWriMo, and the book finally comes out in Australia. Also: last day to get your triple-clicks in for the Breast Cancer Site.

(no subject)

Quick, urgent question: does anyone know where there's a screening of The Rocky Horror Picture Show in Birmingham (AL) tonight?