Saturday December 6th, there’s a lot going on at The Rio Theatre (Broadway and Commercial), all of it part of Cthulhupalooza (kuh-too-loo-pah-loo-zah) – I’ll see if I can break it down for you.

For starters, there’s a Rock Band contest, sponsored by the game creators, Harmonix – if you’ve got some pals, and think you can rock it out, the contest is open to all attendees. Finalists get to rock it out on stage, and the winners, besides winning sweet prizes, can perform with The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets. The Thickets have a track on Rock Band, so that’s the connection.

Then later there will be a screening of the HP Lovecraft Historical Society’s Call of Cthulhu (which is done as an old-school, silent movie) along with other visual fun.

And then the evening is capped by a performance by The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets! Lead singer and chief instigator Toren was recently a guest-host on CITR’s We All Fall Down, helping to get the word out and drive some funds for CITR’s on-going funding donations (listen here.)

Besides being a barrel of monkeys, the event is helping to raise money for Child’s Play, which helps provide hospitals around the world (including BC’s Children’s Hospital) with video game systems, toys, and other fun things that make time spent in a hospital that much less sucky.

There’s a website for the event, which has information on where to pick up tickets (RX comics, Elfsar comics, Scratch, Red Cat, Zulu, and Neptoon records, etc. plus online sales via PayPal), how to enter the Rock Band contest, and more as the day of the event gets nearer!

Please spread the word, as the event benefits from having as many people as possible in attendance!

Full disclosure – I am helping to organize this event. It’s a charity event, so I’m not sure if you give full disclosure on that sort of thing. But let’s just say I a lot of my heart invested in this event, and I wish it to go well. Hope to see you there.

Why, a werewolf novel set in the Northwest Territories!

But that’s not it for the Canadian connection, dear readers. The author invites Canadians to have a say about their portrayal:

If you are Canadian, I’d like you to keep a close eye on me. I know I’ll probably mis-spell “colour” and “centre” more often than not, but that’s easy to fix. What I really want to know is whether my Canadian characters sound and act authentic. Conversely, I’d also like to know if they come on too strong, if they’re washing down their Timbits with too many Labatt Blues while cheering on a hockey match, muttering, “give’r, ya hoser, eh?” too often. I want these characters to be believable human beings, not caricatures.

And please, if there’s anything offensive to Canadians in the book, please let me know that too.

Read Frostbite, then email David at contactmonster@hotmail.com and be a part of Canuck Lycanthropy literary history!

*Ahem, Romero fans.

Yup. Some vandal has definitely tagged the country-style spirit bear at the corner of Smythe and Burrard outside the Paramount Theatre.

Graffiti has been part of the urban scene since before Rome’s most famous citizen scrawled “Julius wuz here” on beachfront property in England. It will always be with us.

Actually, some of it, I don’t mind; on back alleys, overpasses and underneath bridges, people with too much time on their hands can go ahead and stake out as much turf as they like. Some of the art is even appealing.

I don’t even like this particular spirit bear all that much (It just looks, well… stupid). But it hardly seems fair for one self-styled underground artist to deface the artistic creation of another.

Isn’t there some kind of graffiti artist constitution that makes it beyond the pale to actually tag an existing piece of public art? To me, this kind of graffiti isn’t cool or counter-cultural. It’s just plain anti-social, in the most extreme definition of the term.

By the way, does anyone have a favorite piece of public art they’d like to mention? Mine is the War of the Worlds tripod things by English Bay beach.

Every time I make a post, I try to think of a way to work mythical animals into it, but I haven’t been able to make it happen. So I’m asking you, dear reader, to help out. Tell me about a mythical Vancouver animal in the comments. I’ll start:

The Vancouger can be seen in her natural habitat, the courts at the Jericho Tennis Club. Often spotted wearing (or wearing spotted) lululemon pants and offering to buy microbrews for young male cyclists passing by the patio. They hunt in packs but devour their prey in isolation, usually while their husbands are on “fishing trips.”

Your turn!