LIKE MOST B movies, the titles of Doris Wishmans sexploitation ...
Thurston Moore has been keeping himself busy lately. He just released a limited-edition collection of short prose and poems, Fuck a Hippie...But Be a Punk (Glass Eye Books), in addition to working on Ecstatic Peace Poetry Journal (whose contributors include Tuli Kupferberg, Mike Watt and Richard Hell). And this Weds., Oct. 23, he's playing a benefit with Lou Reed to raise money to preserve fragile collections of 20th-century American poetry, literature & recordings at the Poetry Project and Naropa University, which desperately need converting into modern formats. At the Poetry Project at St. Mark's Church. 131 E. 10th St. (2nd Ave.), 674-0910; 8, $10 contrib, $7 st/sc.
Joe Corcoran and Mark Nassar, producer and cocreator of Tony 'N' Tina's Wedding, have whomped up a new comedy-drama, The Mayor's Limo. This cop play, set in the 9th Precinct on the Lower East Side, focuses on a college-football-star-turned-homeless-man who gets taken into custody along with a prostitute (played by Sharon Angela, The Sopranos' Rosalie Aprile). Things take an unexpected turn as the cops begin to empathize with the homeless man when they realize we're all "victims of society." The Mayor's Limo runs at the Kraine Theater through Dec. 29; showtimes are Weds.-Sat. at 8, Sun. at 7, Sat. at 2, Sun. at 3. 85 E. 4th St. (betw. 2nd Ave. & Bowery), 352-3101; $45.
Those who fondly remember Madonna's performance at the 1984 MTV Music Awards, writhing around onstage in that lacey, frilly "wedding" dress while singing "Like a Virgin," will enjoy Robert Boyd's debut exhibition, "The Virgin Collection," opening at Schroeder Romero Fri., Oct. 25, 6-9 p.m. Like the pop star, Boyd takes a satirical look at love and consumer culture's obsession with tying the knot. Featuring pop culture ads, corporate branding, photography and an official "virgin collection gown," Boyd critiques the racism and homophobia often embedded in corporate advertising. He also skewers the Gap with a promo video titled "virginz in tees." 173A N. 3rd St. (betw. Bedford & Metropolitan Aves.), Williamsburg, 718-486-8992.
At the spookhouses we visited back when we were a boy, you could count on at least one visitor a night being killed, disemboweled and eaten right there in front of you. But times have changed. Nowadays, most Halloween Haunted Houses, as the result of pressure from various parental, church and scaredy-cat groups, have become tepid, pasty affairs, aimed at the under-12 set, and hardly hair-raising even to them. Fortunately, the folks at Coney's Sideshows by the Seashore didn't seem too concerned about pressure from church groups when putting together Creepshow at the Freakshow. Hell, theirs even has beer! They've transformed their entire creaky old building into the scariest, loudest, weirdest and drunkenest spookhouse in town. Dead Bodies! Mad Scientists! Brain-Washing Machines! Show up between 7 and midnight, and your tour (limited to 13 people) will begin within half an hour. Afterward, you can relax in the lounge and have a few more before trying to make your way back to the subway?if you dare! It's Fri.-Sun., Oct. 25-27, and of course next Thurs., Oct. 31. Surf Ave. (W. 12th St.), Brooklyn, 718-372-5159; $7.50/$10 Oct. 31.
It's that time again, Friday the?25th? Well, All Hallows Eve is right around the?following week. Er?luckily, flicks like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, An American Werewolf in London, Halloween, Blacula and The Omen, while making one yearn for the 70s, and oddly enough 1981, are timeless. Speaking of linear time, how do we get "Twenty-Four Hours of Horror Movie Madness" from an event that starts at 6 p.m. Fri., Oct. 25, and ends at 12 p.m. the next day? Surely the only thing that really matters is that costumes are encouraged. ABC No Rio, 156 Rivington St. (betw. Suffolk & Clinton Sts.), 254-3697; $5.
And more spooky movies: As Chiller gets lamer and lamer, and the best Hollywood seems able to offer this Halloween is another remake, the first annual NYC Horror Film Festival is a welcome relief. It wouldn't be Halloween if we weren't able to watch a whole shitload of horror movies, and this inaugural fest seems just the thing, offering up three days of screaming bloody terror?dozens of shorts, classic indie features and (aahhhh!) panel discussions. Things get under way at the Tribeca Film Center at 7 p.m. Fri., Oct. 25, with a screening of George Higham's brilliant Annabel Lee, a stop-motion puppet film that transforms Edgar Allan Poe's poem into a stunning vision of hell on Earth. Later that night you can also catch a showing of William Lustig's incredible Maniac, one of the sleaziest, most disturbing slasher films ever made. On Sat., Oct. 26, at 9, George Romero will be in town to screen Creepshow. The festival ends Sunday evening with a showing of Return of the Living Dead. 375 Greenwich St. (betw. N. Moore & Franklin Sts.), 1-800-595-4TIX; $10-20; www.moodudefilms.com.
Despite what Dia de los Muertos sounds like, it's a festive Mexican holiday honoring deceased loved ones. Altars in houses and cemeteries are decorated with symbols and mementos of the gone, and feasts abound. Getting in the spirit for the sixth year, area artists will create altars in Chelsea's superb Rocking Horse Cafe to be auctioned silently to benefit God's Love We Deliver and P.S. 11. There's an altar preview/cocktail (read: margarita)/hors d'oeuvres party on Mon., Oct. 28, 5-7, for $40, with a full sit-down dinner and the auction proper on Tues., Oct. 29, 7-11 p.m., at $100 a head. Reserve this instant; if you get shut out, get one of the cafe's Pan de Muertos?bread of the dead?to take home, complete with skull & crossbones decorations, for $26. Order by Oct. 25, pick up on Nov. 1. 182 8th Ave. (19th St.), 463-9511.