So it’s Halloween weekend. For some of you, that means another lame party with cliche costumes galore. Zombies, nurses, vampires, oh my! But if you’ve got any sense about you, it means you’re making the trek to Gainesville for the best party of the year, and Halloween’s got next to nothing to do with it.
Don’t believe it’s the best? How do you think they get away with simply calling it The Fest? But I digress! For those of you making the trip for the first time, Racket presents a list …

The AFI Film Festival 2009 is returning to Hollywood Oct 30-Nov. 7th with a selection of fantastic programs and films. Highly anticipated titles like THE ROAD and Heath Ledger’s last film to be shot before his death THE IMAGINARIUM OF DR. PARNASSUS are being screened here first before their theatrical releases, as well a variety of shorts and fantastic not-to-be-seen anywhere else movies you may never have the opportunity to catch ever again. Other events worth dropping in to catch are the always popular AFI Digifest, this year’s twist …

As many of you know, it’s been just about 10 months since Polaroid left behind their “instant film” line for the digital camera market. Ten months since Polaroid made the biggest mistake of their damned life.
As I have two of their instant film cameras and having used them for everything from my old day job of busting perps (mug shots!), a date in San Diego (she was hot), to a visit from an out-of-town friend (www.facebook.com/joshcomics), I would consider myself pretty familiar with that line of products. I’ve always enjoyed …

Where the Wild Things Are
Warner Brothers
5/10
A bunch of mopey monsters in suits, some daddy issues, and some brilliant on screen images- this is what’s to be expected from Spike Jonze’s latest flick. The adaptation of Where the Wild Things Are was highly anticipated, what with its huge childhood cult following, Maurice Sendak telling anyone who doesn’t like the movie to go to hell, and Karen O working on the soundtrack. This all sounds like the makings of a fantastic fun time for kids and adults alike, but such is not …

Ballads of Suburbia
Stephanie Kuehnert
MTV Books
8/10
While on the whole, I enjoyed my time in high school, I do NOT miss high school. Kuehnert’s second novel REALLY drives that point home. I do not miss the outright verbal viciousness, the stress of learning how to date, and the shit tons of friends loaded to the eyeballs on drugs I couldn’t pronounce.
Ballads follows Kara and her immediate social circle as they deal with divorce, depression, death and some other terrible things that start with the letter D. And in true teen fashion, …

Nouvelle Vague
3
Peacefrog
7/10
From their (obviously) third album, the French duo of Marc Collin and Olivier Libaux and their harem of chanteuses once again cover everyone from Depeche Mode (complete with duet with Martin Gore) to The Psychedelic Furs to the Sex Pistols. This time around, the group has taken some…interesting turns. Apparently the idea of a third covers album of bossa nova was getting old to them, too. Yes, it was interesting the first time (Self titled), kind of quaint the second time around (Banda A Parte), but the third go …

The Passports
Is It True
Self-Released
8/10
Ahh, summer. The wind in your hair, days at the beach with your buddies, BBQs. I’ll miss you. Now, in typical California fashion, we’ll bypass fall and go straight to winter. At least I’ll still have the shimmery jams from the Passports to keep me company and remind me of the golden days of California summer. Well, the cooler parts of it, not so much the heat waves.
This band is very much a product of Southern California. From the Beach Boys-esque vocal harmonies to the toe-tapping …

Who doesn’t love the smell of silicone in the morning? Celebrities definitely do. For your reading pleasure, a collection of the top ten worst celebrity plastic surgeries.
10. Tara Reid- confirmed to have body contouring/liposuction and breast implants. Of course it’s confirmed, we all saw the scars when her dress “accidentally” fell off her shoulder.  Please. That was no accident and we all know it. Go back to Taradise.
9. Brittany Murphy- rumored to have lip injections. Inject all the fat into your lips that you want, Brittany. You’re still going to …

Lucero
1372 Overton Park
Universal Republic
10/10
FINALLY, a serious contender for album of the year. Took long enough. Now, I do not go tossing out full marks willy nilly, but Ben Nichols and crew have REALLY stepped up their game on this one. Underneath the amazing horn arrangements, courtesy of Jim Spake (celebrated Memphis session player who has worked with Al green and Solomon Burke), and the amazing production led by Ted Hutt (Gaslight Anthem), lies an entire album of well written songs. Ben Nichols has the innate ability to be forthcoming as …

Fewer things encapsulate the desires of this here Emperor better than Lucha Va Voom. Seriously, Monsters, violence, hot chicks dancing around mostly naked and beer. If there were some robot characters in the mix, we’d be GOLDEN.
Returning to the Mayan Theatre in LA once again comes more violencia in the form of the Chubacabra’s newest hatchlings, set to face off against Los Crazy Chickens with their pal Lil’ Chicken. In between the Lucha matches featuring the likes of Dirty Sanchez and the ever-so-fabulous Cassandro, …

The story of Adam Marsland is the story of America.  From humble beginnings as a teenager playing gigs at county fairs, to a successful-yet-tumultuous career in the 1990s, he is Exhibit Number One of how artistry does not necessarily equal laboring in obscurity.  But success has not come without a price- and how staggering it is.  Dropped from two major record labels in the ‘90s and early 2000s, he has endured personal tragedy and professional setbacks on the road to becoming a Horatio Alger story of his own, including a …

Lenore – Noogies
Roman Dirge
Titan Books
9/10
With the percentage of his body covered by tattoos firmly in the double digits, Roman Dirge is the G that all the little gothies want to be. The Noogies collection of Lenore bits is a collection of dark, funny, and sometimes simply fucked up tales involving the titular character.
Having died and been embalmed, Lenore’s outlook on life is…different. Between mounting friendly butterflies to a board to ensure they keep their word and dealing with stuffed vampires (I can only assume that either Joss Whedon …

So I’ve been writing for Racket for a little over a year now. I hadn’t really stopped to think about that before, but that’s kind of kickass. I live on the other side of the country from my two “bosses,” but I just flew out to their coast recently to meet up and put a face to the jerks that cut all my good lines about mass murder. Alas, that’s another story. The point is that just about a year ago I went to Riotfest in Chicago to cover …

Time Gentlemen, Please! (PC) Zombie Cow Studios
9/10

Indie game designers Dan Marshal and Ben Ward have done it again with Time Gentlemen, Please!, their new time-traveling sequel to Ben There, Dan That!.
After returning home from their previous adventure and finding themselves the unquestioned rulers of the world the over-eager duo decide to celebrate with a global back to back Magnum PI marathon and in the process end up accidentally causing the death of everyone on earth when they forget to specify the need for snack breaks. After traveling back in time …

Ahhh, the stereotypical gift guides. While everyone’s going on about what YOU should give to other people for Christmas, I’m going to tell you what I, a 27 year old nerdy music snob with leftist leanings and a penchant for Thai food, would LOVE for my 28th birthday, this October 21st. Gimme gimme.
The PSPGo: I love gadgets. Mostly ones that allow me to dick off. I kept my first cell phone, an old Nokia 3310, for 2 and a half years after I changed plans simply so I could play …

We’ve all seen their faces splashed on the TV sets smiling and smirking as though taunting us inferiors about our bourgeois desire to drive their Bentleys, live in their $20 million dollar mansions, and sleep with whoever we please- which is why there is nothing funnier than a celebrity getting their mug taken by the boys in blue. The following photos are courtesy of mugshot.com without which this article would not be possible. Without further ado, here are the top ten celebrity mug shot photos.
10) Brad Renfro …