FILM: Ease in to Halloween with classic horror flick The Innocents, based on Henry James' novella The Turn Of The Screw. Evil and innocence, the strange and the everday, will mingle as you...enjoy complimentary vodka an tapas! more ›

Before the City Council approved a $52.9 billion budget yesterday, they got their desert, aka Schedule C. Also known as the Fiscal Year 2007 Adopted Expense Budget Adjustments Summary[PDF], Schedule C is the list of all the Council's pet items that successfully were restored or added to the budget. And what a crazy list of pet items got through! It's going to take a bit of time to find the goodies in the 70-odd pages of the summary (if you find anything of interest, use the comments!), but Times newsroom juggernaut Sewell Chan has already started to charge through it:

The roster is encyclopedic, from the Afikim Foundation, which provides Jewish online learning ($35,000), to the Zeta Zeta Zeta Lambda chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha, a national African-American fraternity ($10,000). It includes the Filial Piety Society of Sunnyside, Queens ($3,500); the Ghetto Film School ($28,500); the Russian American Voters League ($7,500); and the Sister Power Organization ($10,000).

Frog Eyes and Sunset Rubdown (despite having border problems) will be taking over Mercury Lounge two nights this week. Sunset Rubdown is Wolf Parade keyboardist Spencer Krug's side project, and he produced a beautiful album this year entitled, Shut Up I Am Dreaming. It got an 8.6 on Pitchfork, just a few points below last years Wolf Parade rating. Anyway, point is...it's good. If you go to the show tonight you can catch Beirut as an opener, see if his 2nd time out impresses the bloggers a bit more than his last show. Wednesday night you'll see Bedroom Walls opening. more ›

With KEXP in town there's a lot more music than usual. Check out their in studio shows online while you're at work this week. Off the airwaves there's a lot to see, hear and enjoy as well. Tonight and tomorrow night, Angels and Airwaves and I Am The Avalanche play Bowery Ballroom. If you walk by the venue to see a cluster of pierced tweens waiting to get in, it may help to know that the former band is Tom from Blink 182. Goldfrapp is also in town, playing Irving Plaza tonight. more ›

Gabe - drums
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The Thrills have a great new album, Let's Bottle Bohemia (I hear a bit more pop and less California country), and are stopping by Irving Plaza tonight. The much-buzzed-about and Mercury Prize-nominated band The Zutons are opening the show. If your wallet is a little light these days, don't fret. The Thrills are playing at Tower Records at 4th and Broadway tonight at 6pm. more ›