Four Things To Make Your Blood Tingle This Halloween

The famed Castro Parade is off this year in San Francisco. Don't be a corpse. Get out and see a show. My blood is tingling about these four local events in particular:

1. SHOCKTOBERFEST 2007
Thrillpeddlers' annual Shocktoberfest bloodbath is entitled Maker of Monsters. It's hard to imagine a more suitable venue for a Halloween show than The Hypnodrome in SOMA. Splurge on a cozy "shock box" for two for an unforgettable scare.

2. CREEPSHOW
Impossible Productions' Creepshow Live! at the Dark Room celebrates comic book macabre with nightmarish accounts reminiscient of Tales from the Crypt and DC Horror Comics such as The Haunt of Fear.

3. THE CREATURE
Join cataclysmic actors James Carpenter, Andrew Hurteau and Mark Philips at The Magic Theatre for a free workshop presentation of dramatist Trevor Allen's spine-tingling new play inspired by Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.

4. YE OLDE FUNERAL MUSIC
San Francisco Renaissance Voices is joined by Harp Trio Trillium for a spooky concert of funeral music from the English Renaissance and Baroque, with Medieval and Renaissance music for harp from the British Isles. San Francisco Renaissance Voices' dirges are to die for. (And I should know -- I sing with the group.)

Check out the Home for Halloween blog for more ideas of things to do in The Bay Area this Castro-less Halloween. (I don't necessarily endorse the city's decision to shut down the Castro party this year, but this blog features a wide array of interesting non-Castro events which is why I'm including it here.)