And I think on-line New Yorker only, a nice memorium:

That is a very hearfelt valediction.

Hec, from that same issue, you'd probably enjoy this article by Colson Whitehead about growing up watching horror/sci-fi movies: [link]

I read that, Frank! Pretty cool. Weird seeing all the kids who grew up on science fiction/horror in the New Yorker (Chabon, Junot Diaz, Whitehead...)

So, you said you're coming out to SF? What are the dates again? Maybe we can find something fun to see at the Castro while you're in town.

Well I have to ask, is Halloween crazy there (as I suspect it is)? Because the week I was thinking of taking was the week of Halloween for my annual get-the-hell-out-of-Salem for Halloween escape.

If it's too crazy then booking a room and flights might be more difficult.

Well I have to ask, is Halloween crazy there (as I suspect it is)?

It's not nearly as crazy as it used to be. In fact, not really crazy at all now. They were having so many problems with suburban teens rolling up to the city and causing trouble that they've shut down the big Castro celebration.

However, SF still loves Halloween and there will be tons of horror themed events that week. I'm sure the rep house theaters will be showing cool programs and there will be interesting shows. There's usually a bit of Grand Guignol theater going on then.

PLUS they'll have pumpkin pancakes at Zazie and those are very tasty indeed.

eta: Also, October is often the most beautiful weather in SF. Though I must say it's been quite gorgeous the last couple weeks.

OK, that's excellent. My fear was exactly what they shut down the big celebration for, because that's what happens in Salem (and it's been getting more so every year I've lived there). With Halloween on a Wednesday, I'm not quite so concerned.

I will have to start planning this a little more thoroughly. I made note of the Hotel Carl being mentioned in the F2F thread.

t /off topic

Off-topic, but also vaguely on, Frank, if you had the money for something swankier, there's also the Chateau Tivoli, a superswanky b&b which is maybe sort of literary since it has a Mark Twain suite and a Jack London room. It's just awesomely over the top and, if you're in the mood to treat yourself, fairly affordable for its level of swank. Many, many years ago I got to go to a party in the Luisa Tetrazzini suite, and it was ridiculously opulent.

Um, wow. That's something to be considered, though I'm not sure a suite is something I'd need. The building looks like a building out of an Argento movie.

Ahhhh! My friend just emailed me for the first time in months to tell me he's interviewing Joan Didion on stage next week at the theatre where he works. [link]

I am half-crazed with jealousy and want to invite myself down. I've read pretty much everything she's written.

A couple quotes from Bradbury - this first one is him on Something Wicked This Way Comes; I found the quote in Stephen King's Danse Macabre, so I'm not sure where it's from:

Along the way I said all and everything, just about, that I would ever want to say about my younger self and how I felt about that terrifying thing: Life, and that other terror: Death, and the exhilaration of both. But above all, I did a loving thing without realizing it. I wrote a paean to my father. I didn't realize it until one night in 1965, a few years after the novel had been published. Sleepless, I got up and prowled my library, found the novel, reread certain passages, and burst into tears. My father was locked into the novel, forever, as the father in the book! I wish he had lived to read himself there, and be proud of his bravery on behalf of his loving son.

And one exchange from the end of The Halloween Tree:

Tom: Oh, Mr Moundshroud, will we EVER stop being afraid of nights and death?

Moundshroud: When you reach the stars, boy, yes, and live there forever, all the fears will go, and Death himself will die.