2010-10-29: Creaking Planks play at Witches and Warlocks Critical Mass afterparty

What are you doing after this?

How about this?

Witches, warlocks and other Hallowe'en creatures that bump in the night, lend me your ear(wig)s! Our night to celebrate the powers of light and (mostly) the dark is nigh upon us! The cursedly Creaking Planks will begin the evening, after which Little Woo will alter the fabric of the space-time continuum, transporting us to "The Silent Kingdom" with shades of puppets.

The heresy of the Blackberry Woods will lead us into a Bacchanalian trance of dance madness, and the wizard known only as Timothy Wisdom will weave enchantments of endless motion until the late hours. Potions will be drunk and demon's gate spells will be cast.

The party rolls at the Grandview Legion Hall upstairs at 2205 Commercial Drive; admission is $10, or $8 if you arrive as part of Critical Mass. The carriages turn back into pumpkins at 2 am.

2009-10-30: Velowe'en on Devil's Night!

As ancient lore tells it, Veloween is an age-old festival where for one day of the year old, dead, abandoned, dismembered and forgotten bicycles awaken to roll amongst the well-oiled and able-framed. We will celebrate together in copious ritualistic beer drinking and dance, possessed by the rhythms of the Creaking Planks, the Fur Bearing Animals and DJ Steamboat Fatty. A practice known to raise the dead follows, the eldritch Jackson Zombie Dance Off. Offerings to the shadow world will be made by Little Woo and her shadow puppet fairytale.

The best dressed bicycle competition commences the moment Critical Mass arrives at the Anza Hall (3 W. 8th Avenue at Ontario); the rider of the best-dressed bicycle wins never-ending pints all night.

At the strike of one am -- for those who are most fearless amongst us -- we will ride naked in circles around our celebration (did we mention that the event is a fundraiser for the 2010 World Naked Bike Ride?) to chase the bikes of the dead back to the underworld!

8 pm - 2 am; $10 / $5 if in costume with Critical Mass