And It Just Gets Scarier

The shakey state of indie mags and distribution right now is kind of giving me the creep.

All Your Souls Are Belong To Us

And your brain jerky:



And the most frightening part of Halloween? Xmas is only 8 weeks away...

Eye: Hand

Here's a fun exercise! Take a photo of yourself and then draw it. And then send it here to post it.

A Bunch Of Bunk!

THE WIRE and Associated Black Charities present Fat Tuesday Hoodoo Throwdown, a Hurricane Katrina benefit hosted by Wendell "The Bunk" Pierce, Tuesday, November 1st, 2005 at Sonar.

The evening will feature cast and crew of THE WIRE, as well as performances by New Orleans greats: The Subdudes, The Rebirth Brass Band, and The Iguanas. Doors open at 6pm and tickets are $50. All Ages! Available through all TicketMaster outlets or at the Sonar box office. The event is made possible by the cast and crew of THE WIRE, in conjunction with Associated Black Charities and Sonar. All proceeds from the event will benefit victims of Hurricane Katrina.

Maybe I can finally get that Baby Doll pic with Laura Lippman.

On Being A Small Business Owner

When you have a small business (or a micro business) you have to write your own ad copy. Or you get friends who are "professionals" to help.

You get copy like this:



Hmmm, what to choose....

HOLEE SHIIIT!

That's right! It's a NEW TV CARNAGE, kids!!

This makes up for the fact that I didn't get the new Soul Calibur today....

Great Comic Strip Swindle

Kozyndan's first comic strip was rejected by Swindle because of a little cartoon nudity.

It's the cutest little thing! I mean, the strip.

Baltimore Flickr

photo by Jack Lyons, design by Dawn Mercurio

The Baltimore Flickr Group is having a show at Holy Frijoles starting November 15th through the holidays! Reception on November 22nd, 7-9pm.

The BFG is a collection of Baltimore based photographs by pro and amateur photographers, most of who live in MD.

See Baby Doll printed and stuck on a wall instead of online! See the awkward mingling of people who've never met in Real Life before but have had conversations on the "computer"! What's your Baltimore about? Inner Harbor, crabs, transvestites? It's all here.

Balls

It's a busy Halloween week!

Here on the Avenue, we have our annual Halloween festivities this Saturday, 29th. Trick or treating up and down the street for the kids is from 5-6pm. Costume contests start at 6:30 in front of Oh! Said Rose (for more info: 410-235-5170).

Among many other events around town, the Charm City Roller Girls are having a Bruiser's Ball at the Ottobar on the 30th.

Speaking of balls...did you know that 80% of the men in Baltimore* shave their balls**? I don't know about you, but I feel enlightened.

*Source - my poll at Frazier's last night where I yelled at guys, "Hey, do you shave your balls?"

**If you ask this question, make sure that you are prepared for a very long discussion of other related topics and stories. Especially from Gene.

UPDATE: Ok, let's be more inclusive about this but possibly less scientific and take this poll.

Junk Mail Or Literary Journal?

McSweeney's 17

Good American Know-how

You know what never lets you down? Sex Machines.

Meet the photographer/author, here, Nov 4th, 8pm! It's a slideshow!

The Norwegians Stood Us Up

So, after many phone calls and emails and faxing of contracts about Hurra Torpedo coming to Atomic to shoot part of their documentary, the band, which includes the Sexiest Man in Norway (and a loooong time Atomic Books customer), didn't make it to Baltimore yesterday. At all.

Still, funny guys. You should check out their cover of "Total Eclipse of the Heart" if you don't know what they're about.

Musicians are a difficult lot to work with.

Now writers, they're alright.

Sure the I'm-a-piece-of-shit-that-the-world-revolves-around persona gets tiresome...but they're a hell of a lot easier to work with than artists.

But what about artists with books? Or movie people? Or video gamers? Or chefs?

Hey, those are our November events!

Wow

It's a good season for completionists.

So much great stuff...

City Paper Tried To Kill Us

Sending glass in a padded mailer...hmmm...smarties...

Monkeys, Drinkies & Smokeys

Get Your Pancake Mountains Here!

Ah, good ol' cable access is still cranking some good shows out. But now, it's for the kids.

We've got the first couple of DVDs of the DC kids show "Pancake Mountain" in stock. It's educational and kind of scary. Henry Rollins is always kind of scary. But Arcade Fire is so cute (but you can tell the kids were still kind of scared).

Tshirt Contest May Be Over

I don't know. Can you beat this?

Atomic Books Tshirt Contest

It's time for another tshirt contest!

Design a tshirt for Atomic Books. The Winner gets a $300 shopping spree in the store and 5 shirts.

RULZ:
1. You can enter as many designs as you want.
2. Please limit your design to 2 colors at the most.
3. Email a jpg of your entry to rachelATatomicbooks.com (higher resolution image will be needed from the winner later) or mail or drop it off at the store: 1100 W 36th St. Baltimore, MD 21211
4. DEADLINE is November 21st!!

Lost Reading Club

Starting with the Third Policeman, we've launched the Lost Reading Club, featuring all the books that have been shown on the tv show, "Lost", as "clues".

15% off in October for the current title.

Future books in the club:
A Wrinkle in Time
Watership Down
Turn of the Screw

So far, the club is just me and Lisa.

Reptilian's Empire Grows

Reptilian Records's publishing venture, Scapegoat Publishing, has come out with their first book!

It's a beauty and comes with a CD!

And they're still putting out great music, like the debut CD by Fascist Fascist:

Lost On Lost

So, I missed Lost last night. Did anyone catch the Third Policeman in it? Benn watched it but didn't see it referenced at all.

If they keep using books as clues on the show, we could start a Lost section!

Alterno-Wonderland

Emily Flake will be on G4 TV's "Attack of the Show", tomorrow night, LIVE, at 7pm! They're going to talk about pop culture. Or something like it.

Who Has More Fun?

Well as far as sales go, Brunettes and Blondes are neck and neck! Poor Redheads.

Fall Line Up

We have a bunch of great events set up for the next few months! And there's more coming...