Rocking out Halloween with New York Cool!   Written by Wendy R. Williams Opposite Photo and Cover Photo Credit - Wendy R. Williams

Costumes

It's Halloween and time for all the true ghouls of New York City to crawl out of their subterranean haunts and hit the streets to blend in with the local populace! But if you are not a true ghoul and need a few pieces to update your "Queen of the Night" look, the first stop on your Halloween journey should be New York's fabulous year-round Halloween store, Abracadabra, located at 19 West 21 Street, between 5th and 6th Avenue. October hours are everyday, 11AM to 9PM. See www.abracadabrasuperstore.com for more information.

Dog Parade

Once suitably atired (if you are a dog, or just like dogs), check out:

LARGEST HALLOWEEN DOG PARADE AT NATION’S TOP DOG PARK
Tompkins Square Park - New York's East Village
Saturday October 28th @ Noon

Hounds Go A’ Haunting Halloween just got beastlier. “Friends of First Run" is pleased to announce the hound howling 16th Annual Tompkins Square Dog Run Halloween Parade. On Saturday October 28th, hundreds of masquerading mutts will participate in the country’s largest Halloween parade for dogs at one of the nations Top Dog Parks (Dog Fancy Magazine, May 20, 2005). Pimpin’ pooches contend for over $5,000 in prizes, including two Apple iPod Nano, flat screen TVs and a weekend getaway for two with your dog. All proceeds go to the N.Y. Parks Department for the renovation of First Run -- the city's first and largest dog run. Click here for more information.

Halloween Adventure House(s)

And then off you shoul go to one of New York's artisitic haunted houses.

Photo Credit Wendy R. Williams	Photo Credit Wendy R. Williams

Log onto (www.hauntedhousenyc.com) for directions (this year it is in all five boroughs) and tickets to the Psycho Clan's " Nightmare, New York’s Original Haunted House" which is running through October 31st.

Carnivals

There are two really great celebrations on October 31st: one at BAM and one at the Theater for the New City.

BAM PRESENTS BAMboo!
OCTOBER 31, 4-7PM
BAM's Peter Jay Sharp Building

Bam's 5th annual Halloween celebration includes free outdoor activities, including garden games, costume contest, and carnival performances

BAM is excited to announce the 5th annual BAMboo! Halloween celebration. Brooklyn's best ghouls and goblins, princes and princesses, pirates and scallywags will surround BAM on Tuesday, October 31st from 4-7pm for an outdoor, pirate-themed extravaganza, featuring a candy giveaway and other fun-filled activities for kids. BAMboo! is free and open to the public and will be held in front of BAM's Peter Jay Sharp building at 30 Lafayette Avenue between Ashland Place and St. Felix Street in Fort Greene, Brooklyn.

The BAMboo! fun begins at 4pm with an array of pirate-themed events-from street performers to Pumpkin Bowling and Pirate Cove Moonbounce. In the BAM garden, located across the street from the Peter Jay Sharp Building, there will be various carnival games, including Pirate Ring Toss and Buried Treasure Hunt. Pirate Hat-making materials will also be available. Throughout the event, costumed BAM staffers will distribute free trick-or-treat bags to fill with tempting sweets and gifts. The festivities will culminate in a costume contest with prizes for the best costume.

BAMboo! is sponsored by One Hanson Place.

BAM's Peter Jay Sharp Building| 30 Lafayette Avenue
Between Ashland Place and St. Felix Street
Directions - Subway: 2, 3, 4, 5, Q, B to Atlantic Avenue;
D, M, N, R to Pacific Street; G to Fulton Street; C to Lafayette Avenue

Photo Credit Wendy R. Williams

Nonstop theater, a costume competition and ballroom dancing will bewitch the East Village in Theater for the New City's 30th annual Village Halloween Costume Ball. This unique festival continues as a grand coming-together for everyday New Yorkers and artists alike. A carefree fall tradition, it celebrates the creativity that comes with the season. The one-night fiesta takes over all four of TNC's theater spaces, plus its lobby and the block of East Tenth Street between First and Second Avenues. Customarily over 1,400 wildly-clad celebrants gather for dancing, dining, showing off costumes and viewing acts from the cutting-edge of Cabaret and Theater.

Infoi/ticketing www.theaterforthenewcity.net or (212) 254-1109
Admission is $20; costume or formal wear is required.

Theater for the New City |East Tenth Street between First and Second Avenues

And Harlem's legendary Apollo Theater has a treat in store for Halloween night and in honor of Halloween, a costume contest will be held during Intermission. :

The Apollo New Legends Series
Presents
THE BRAND NEW HEAVIES
Featuring Special Guest
Amel Larrieux
Thursday, October 31st, 8PM
Apollo Theater

The Apollo New Legends Series presents an electrifying night of funk n’ soul with the groundbreaking British based soul band - the Brand New Heavies. With vocalist N'Dea Davenport singing lead, the pioneering outfit built a bridge from underground music sensations in London and stretched it all the way to the American mainstream, gaining an intensely loyal following along the way. Now, fresh from an extensive layoff, The Brand New Heavies, reunited with the sassy yet soulful Davenport, are back with a successful new album, Get Used To It, and ready to take on the world - or at least the world famous Apollo Theater. Featuring special guest artist Amel Larrieux.

Tickets are $45, $40 and $35 and are available through the Apollo Theater Box Office, 125th Street between 7th and 8th Avenues, 212/531-5305 and Ticketmaster, (212) 307-7171, www.ticketmaster.com.

Apollo Theater| 253 West 125 Street
Between Adam Clayton Powell Blvd (7th Ave.) and Frederick Douglass Blvd (8th Ave.)
www.apollotheater.com.

Village Halloween Parade

Photo Credit Wendy R. Williams

And don't forget to march in the Halloween Parade on Tuesday, October 31st. Tuesday, October 31, 2006 Starting at 7 p.m. All those in costume are welcome to join hundreds of puppets, 53 bands of different types of music, dancers and artists and thousands of other New Yorkers in costumes of their own creation in the nation’s most wildly creative public participatory event in the Greatest City in the World !

Line-Up ! For all those in costume is on 6th Avenue South of Spring Street and North of Canal between 6:30 and 8:30 p.m. Alert ! ONLY enter the line-up on 6th Ave. from the East and South between Canal and Spring. For more information, log onto: http://www.halloween-nyc.com

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Photo Credit Krisztina Fazekas

Photo Credit Krisztina Fazekas

After Party

And afterwards be sure to attend the after party at Webster Hall starting at 8PM. Log onto: www.websterhall.com for more information.

Or Just Grab A DVD

And if you just want to stay home and veg-out on Halloween, try renting a new soon-to-be-classic-fright-film, Courtney Solomon's An American Haunting which will be out on DVD on October 24, 2006 - Click here for Frank J. Avella's review.