The Boise State community is gearing up for the Halloween holiday with the following events:
Extreme Pumpkin Carving Contest/Silent Auction to support United Way, Oct. 22-30

Boise State is hosting its first Extreme Pumpkin Carving Contest to support the United Way in its quest to “Help the Most People.” All Boise State departments are invited to compete. The entry form and $15 entry fee are due Oct. 22, with pumpkin submissions due at noon Oct. 26. Each entry needs one submission per department, a team name, a carving title, and department name and contact information including a name and phone number or e-mail. Pumpkins will be displayed in the Student Union Bergquist Lounge from Oct. 27-30, and a team of pumpkin fanciers will pass judgment on Oct. 29. A silent auction will be held to benefit United Way Oct. 28-30. Contact Lola Michaels at ext. 6-4892 or lolamichaels@boisestate.edu for information and entry forms.
Dia de los Muertos, Oct. 24

Dia de Los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, is a celebration of life and death, when the spirits of the departed are said to return to Earth for a family fiesta Nov. 1 and 2. Boise State’s Bilingual Education Student Organization is hosting a creative workshop on the holiday with artist Alma Gomez-Frith from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. in the Student Union Simplot D Ballroom. It is geared toward educators, but anyone who wants to learn about the holiday’s cultural significance and traditions is invited. The workshop is $15, and participants must RSVP to jennicooke@u.boisestate.edu.
Monster Bash, Oct. 29

The Boise State Student Programs Board is hosting Monster Bash, Inflatable movie screen on Halloween carnival that includes a costume contest, trick-or-treating and more for children and their families. The Bash will take place from 6-8 p.m. in the Student Union Jordan D Ballroom. Admission is $2 for families with a Boise State student ID and $5 without. E-mail spbspecialevents@boisestate.edu or call ext. 6-3835.
Pumpkin Carving Contest, Oct. 30

The inaugural pumpkin carving contest is a benefit for the Boise Sculptors Guild, a Boise State student club that also includes alumni and community members. From 10 a.m.-5 p.m., participants will carve pumpkins on the Boise State Quad, available for $4, $5 or $7 depending on size. Once carved, the pumpkins can be entered to win a prize. College of Arts and Sciences Dean Martin Schimpf will choose winners at 4 p.m. Contestants can pick up pumpkins between 4:30 and 5 p.m. For more information, contact Dawn Lea at (208) 890-5416 or dawnlea@cableone.net.
Game Day Lounge/Trick-or-Treating, Oct. 31

Watch the Bronco football game against San Jose State on a giant inflatable movie screen and on Bronco Vision screens while enjoying a Halloween party inside Taco Bell Arena, all for free. Co-sponsored by Taco Bell Arena and the Student Programs Board, the event is from noon-3 p.m. and includes a costume contest, trick-or-treating, games and prizes. Outside food and beverages are welcome (alcohol will not be permitted). Coke products will be available while supplies last and concession stands will be open. E-mail Taylor Siders at spbdirector@boisestate.edu for more info.

Here’s a quick Halloween card I made recently. Would you believe this was a $1 stamp I found at a big box store last year? This was the first time I used it, and used some A Muse paper to paper piece it for a bit more interest. I also added some Martha Stewart black glitter and diamond glaze on the eye.

A Making Memories star button from last year finished it off. Today was SOOO fun- we had the A Muse Addicts gathering at The Paper Tree. Of course, I forgot my camera, but much fun was had. Heather even stopped by for a bit to visit -yay!

We finished out the day by going to an outdoor showing inflatable movie screen of It’s a Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown on a huge inflatable movie screen – so fun!

Last Thursday nite I went to a block party on Halsey Street that I got email about only that day. While there, I picked up a bunch of postcards with various kinds of info to tell people about, plus a poster for this year’s “Open Doors” art festival. It’s not, apparently, called an “art festival” or “artfest”. “Artapalooza” is used in other cities. But we need something to describe it and the many events and venues under the heading “Open Doors”. Artsplosion, Artoberfest (Newark arts’ busiest month is October; it runs me ragged.), and Newartfest/ival are also taken. We need some generic term by which to refer to what happens each October in Newark, “festival”, “jamboree”, or something. “Open Doors” is a title, not a description, and does not itself indicate that it has anything to do with art.In any case, the first of the Open Doors events is the 17th at NJIT, so I have time to put those events into my online calendar. Once I have done so, I’ll create a clickable link to that calendar in this blog’s template. I’ll also include some other calendars, here and/or as a page on my Resurgence City and/or TourismNewark.org website/s. For now, let me deal with items for Wednesday and Thursday of this week.”The Wednesday Afterwork Soulcial” runs 6pm to 2am at Nick’s Bar & Restaurant. This is apparently a weekly event that started September 30th, and is apparently intended for black Newarkers. You see, white people, Orientals, etc., are soulless. Hm. Perhaps I shouldn’t mention this event, since some of the people who read this blog are not black, but I will. I found a Facebook page for Nick’s Bar, and not everyone shown as a “friend” is black. I also see that a Newark-based country band (yes, that’s what I said), called “Secret Country”, has played at Nick’s. A blogpost on Glocally Newark also shows lots of white people, so maybe the Soulcial is an attempt to bring more black people into a predominantly white bar?? Anyway, Nick’s is at Central and Halsey (Nick’s Bar & Restaurant, 28 Central Avenue, Newark 07102; tel: (973) 642-0123; fax: (973) 642-7770; nicksinnewark@gmail.com). The card for the Soulcial event has different contact info: Sean H. (973) 885-0811 or DL (862) 250-0058, ishineushine826@yahoo.com.Two Thursday Events. There are two events that have come to my attention, one at 3pm at the new Central High School on 18th Avenue (near Boyd Street) and one from 6pm on Halsey Street between Central Avenue and Bleeker Street, Downtown.The 3pm event is auditions for a December 12th performance of The Nutcracker. While that work is ordinarily a ballet, I must wonder from the description in this email notice if the Newark version is going to be ballet, modern dance, tap, or what.The dopey web service Twitter is aptly named, incorporating “twit” in it. I can’t be bothered with such nonsense, and a great many other people can’t either. Facebook requires you to join even to search within that site. I am not joining Facebook or any other “social networking” site. They are targeted for scams and identity theft, and a great many odd and dangerous people hang out on such sites. I’m about as odd as I can take. The closest thing I find thru Google to a proper, ordinary website for the Halsey Street association or whatever it is that sponsors this Block Party and has a consistent logo is a Glocally Newark post. I must ask, “What is the problem with creating a website if there is a more-or-less formal organization for Halsey Street merchants/events?” Help us out, people. Create a HalseyStreet.org website. (I see a HalseyStreet.com, but it’s based in the 908 area code; NJ, but not Newark (973).)I did a Google search on “Greater Newark Convention Visitors Bureau” and found a single webpage, about Go Newark Restaurant Week. I suppose that is co-sponsored by the GoNewark.com website. There was a clickable link to the GNCVB that I checked out, and the whole website appears to comprise two pages, the Restaurant Week page and a Contact page. I’ve been waiting for some organization or City agency to do something about tourism, but the merest start of a City website for a C&VB that I saw is pretty pitiful. (Hector Ortiz, shown as contact for the GNCVB, is or was a deputy mayor.)Well over a year ago, I was told by someone at the “Beautiful Newark” project’s sponsor, The League, that the City was finally setting up a C&VB. She gave me Mr. Ortiz’s email address, and I wrote to ask if there was some way I could help. No one answered me. I got not so much as a “Don’t trouble yourself, buddy. We’re taking care of this ourselves and don’t need any help from the likes of you.”I had earlier made a start on a TourismNewark.org website, which at least has a slideshow of about 50 fotos to go with the introductory text. I have been unable to add to that site, for other demands (like trying to update this fotoblog at least four times a week), but I’m only one person. The Convention & Visitors Bureau is part of the Brick City Development Corporation and has received public funding for its work.The GNCVB was established over 14 months ago? So where is a website of consequence? Where are the brochures? Maps? Local artists Lowell Craig and Kati Vilim created a map with some tourist information, on their own, I think. The City’s website does have a “Visitors” area, comprising several clickable tabs to bare lists, in tiny, hard-to-read GRAY type (not even a crisp black). These unillustrated listings provide the most minimal of information, and no locator maps.”Places to Dine” says there is a “Newark Restaurant Guide” atop the left column of that webpage. There isn’t. Lower in the left column there’s a graffical representation of a calendar but no actual calendar, with clickable spaces for the various days. Indeed, the left column seems to refer not to things of interest specifically to visitors, but to navigation for the City website generally.What is going on? Or, more to the point, why isn’t anything going on in creating Newark into, as I put it on my private, meager, bare start of a TourismNewark home page, “A Destination, Not Just an Airport”?If I had a staff and budget, you can bet there’d be a great website, with hundreds of fotos, 360-degree videos of key locations with narration about the city’s history and attractions (in fact, if I’m to do this for my own tourist site, I’d better do it before the leaves fall!), maps with color-keyed and numbered dots for restaurants, galleries, concert halls, sports venues, etc., and foto-illustrated brochures on display in kiosks in places like Newark Penn Station and Newark Airport, plus downloadable .PDF versions online — and other things — to promote Newark tourism.

Camp WaterColor Pumpkin Patch

October 16–24, 2009: Stroll through pumpkins on the hunt for the perfect addition to your front porch. Pumpkins will be available in all shapes and sizes! $7 per pumpkin.

Moonlight Inflatable Movie Screen-It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown!/Hocus Pocus
October 24, 2009: Venture to The BoatHouse at 7:00 p.m. Watch this Charles Schultz classic on our inflatable movie screen along with a Disney Halloween classic “Hocus Pocus” immediately following! Admission is free.

Kid’s Night Out at the Halloween Ball
October 30, 2009: Bring your kids to Camp Water Color from 6:30 p.m.-9:30 p.m. and wear your most scary costume and put on your ghoulish dancing shoes for a night of pumpkin decorating, bobbing for doughnuts, hay rides and other terrifying treats! Tickets are $45.00 for the drop-off program. You may also purchase tickets for carnival games and hay rides for $2.00 each if you wish to participate with your child.

August 3, 2009 (San Diego)—Movies in the park have emerged as this summer’s hot new trend for free family fun.

This weekend, Allied Gardens Community Park (just north of I-8) installs a 15 by 20 foot inflatable screen and professional sound system to bring you a first-rate Hollywood movie in the park at dark. Navajo Events, sponsors of the film showing, invite you to watch Inflatable movie screen presentation of “Night at the Museum” starring Ben Stiller.

In the inflatable movie screen, newly recruited night security guard at the Museum of Natural History discovers that an ancient curse causes the animals and exhibits on display to come to life and wreak havoc. The movie is rated PG (for mild action, language and brief rude humor).

The movie is sponsored by MME Event Productions Inc. The show starts around 8:30 p.m. or at dusk. Allied Gardens Community Park is located at 5155 Greenbrier Ave. in San Diego.

The event is free, however Navajo Events, organizers of this and other community events in the neighborhood, welcome donations.

Residents will relax on lawn chairs and blankets tonight to watch “E.T.” on a large inflatable movie screen at Colonial Park as part of the Parks and Recreation Department’s “Movies in the Park” event. The movie starts at 7 p.m. at 4130 Byron Street.

The rescheduled date for “Babe-The Gallant Pig” rated G, which was canceled on Oct. 9 because of the weather, will be showing on Oct. 23. Hot dogs, chips, candy, and popcorn will available for purchase provided by Edloe Deli. Make sure to bring your lawn chair or blankets. For more information, please contact the Parks and Recreation Department.

Most of you out there know how much I love me some Muppet. I’m thrilled that AAAD reader Dustin let me know about the Frisco Square “Movies in the Square” kicking off tonight. The Muppet Inflatable Movie Screen is playing! Some of these movies even have themes. The October Sky movie night even has a rocket launch and display! June 26. That sounds so cool.

Apparently this summer, everyone around Big D (and probably America) is pulling out the big screen and doing it up free movie in the park style. I love it! Free family fun and yet another reason to bust out the picnic recipes. So throw the picnic in the bike basket and let’s do this.

Current cinema are all about diascope, but perhaps part of the reason visual work hasn’t become nearly as commonplace as music is that outdoor screens and diascope are not so easy to land than speakers and PAs. As a result, the ask of a really good-quality mobile manipulate is evident – especially one that can play outdoors.

General Inflatables makes up inflatable movie screens international. It’s Chinese mill, and have already made a name for itself by exporting large amount inflatable movie screens for like out-of-door drive-in and film festival outdoorsy viewings. Its products have typically go at the high-level.

You have two choices. First, there’s a full “home backyard theater kit,” including:

9’ x 5’ inflatable movie screens

Yard stakes and straps for setting it up (sand bags are optional)

A Sanyo 2300-lumen LCD projector (not a bad model, in fact)

DVD player

Audio mixer, complete with A/V cables and adapters, with PA

LED goose neck light

Carrying cases

Air blower with a muffler to keep the noise down (it was quiet from what I could tell, though we were in a loud space)

That’s for the house user, so I suspect you’d have just as much luck putting together your own elements – and though the Sanyo projector is nice, you’d otherwise potentially be disappointed with some of what’s here. But here’s the interesting bit: you can get just the screen. And it’s ridiculously small and light; the whole 9’ screen packs into a tiny case you could pop into your backpack and weighs just eight pounds.

Even the full package I think is potentially good news for VJs, even indirectly – it’s just the kind of commoditization we’ve been waiting for for projection setups. Cheap + turn-key could mean more venues preparing for projection and working for visualists, and this is just one example.

you can use a white or grey bed sheet for inflatable movie screen… just make sure it is reasonable thick cotton.

For the outdoor projector, can you borrow one from work or know someone who could?