Games' closing ceremony 📷 Olympics highlights Perseid meteor shower 🚗 Car, truck recalls: List
POP CANDY
Halloween

Early Buzz: Halloween, politics and sad news

Zack Smith, Guest blogger for Pop Candy
Lena Dunham arrives at the Emmys on Sept. 23. Salon reports that she's pitched a book of advice.

Happy Monday, Pop Readers! I had a great weekend – saw two versions of Dracula at the Retrofantasma film series, met comic creator Brandon Graham at Chapel Hill Comics, and threw a mini-Halloween party with classic monster movies Sunday!

Let's get on in to the first Early Buzz of my guest week! I started writing this Friday, so there's tons of stuff:

The film of The Perks of Being a Wallflower with Logan Lerman, Ezra Miller and Emma Watson is doing well – glad to hear, as it's a great film of a great book!

Treme is getting a five-episode final season.

Paste has compiled Neil Young's interview on Twitter.

The BBC turned down a Doctor Who 50th Anniversary graphic novel from Russell T. Davies?! Inconceivable!

Mockingbird Lane, the rebooted version of The Munsters with Eddie Izzard and Portia De Rossi, got decent ratings on Friday night. You can watch it on NBC's website. (I liked it!)

Sad – Natina Reed, who played one of the Clovers in Bring it On, died at age 32 after being hit by a car. She was also in the R&B group Blaque.

Also sad: Everybody Loves Raymond creator Philip Rosenthaltalks about his friend, Yes, Dear co-creator Alan Kirschenbaum, who recently died.

G4 – the network I don't get but all my friends love – has canceled X-Play and Attack of the Show, the latter of which gave us Olivia Munn.

Brian Baumgarter from The Office is sticking with series developer Greg Daniels for a new ABC pilot.

Degrassi creator Linda Schuyler picks her 10 Favorite Episodes. If I went to that school, I'd be afraid for my life. Canadian high schools are rough.

Here's how R.L. Stinespends his Sundays.

More childhood horror: The audiobook versions of the Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark books, complete with the original illustrations (the best part!)

Perfect for your Halloween: Abominable Ice Men Tray. These also make great cheap toys for kids.

Lena Dunham, Miranda July and others team with Lesley Gore to lip-sync Gore's You Don't Own Me with regards to Mitt Romney and women's rights.

Dunham also caused quite a stir with her suggestive Obama ad.

On a more conservative note, Adam Carollahas joined Fox News….

…and Joss Whedon has "endorsed" Romney.

Here's a look at how Superfolks, a prose superhero novel from the 1970s, influenced Alan Moore, Grant Morrison and many modern comic writers.

Daniel Handler aka Lemony Snicket makes a mixtape including Nina Simone, Tom Waits and others.

"6 Things You Don't Remember about The Real Ghostbusters Cartoon"

Parks and Recreation co-creator Mike Schur talks about the big moment from last Thursday's episode! There's also a reaction from Amy Poehler and Adam Scotthere.

Five Guys was picked as the nation's favorite burger chain in a survey. I prefer second-ranked In-N-Out, but we don't have them in North Carolina!

Writer/Artist Molly Crabapple writes an honest and sometimes harrowing piece for Viceabout her time as a nude model (contains a NS4W illustration).

"Twenty-Five Terrifyingly Awesome and Horrifyingly Awful VHS Horror Covers"

Marc Maroninterviews Jimmie "JJ" Walker from Good Times.

An incredibly rare Atari video game, Air Raid, recently sold a copy in the box for $36,100. Insert "That's a lot of quarters!" joke here.

Perfect for an election year: Gary Trudeau and Robert Altman's 1988 TV series Tanner' 88is now on Hulu.

Also on Hulu: All 114 episodes of the classic private eye series Peter Gunn, with that jazzy theme song you know from being mixed with Every Breath You Take on The Sopranos, serving as the theme to the video game Spy Hunter and more.

Adventure Time lead designer Andy Ristainonow has an online store with prints.

"10 Reasons why Speed Racer is An Unsung Masterpiece" (it really is).

Jim Romenesk otracks down a newspaper writer whose hilarious description of The Wizard of Oz went viral last week.

And finally: "How to Pretend You've Seen Cloud Atlas."

Follow @thezacksmith on Twitter or visit www.zswriter.com.

Featured Weekly Ad