Litquake, San Francisco's annual literary festival, celebrates its 19th year with ten days of events running October 11-20 in venues all over the city. Amoeba Music is thrilled to co-present these two exciting events, both happening at Cafe Du Nord.

Monkee Memoir: Michael Nesmith with Beth Lisick
Thursday, October 18 • 7:00pm - 8:30pm • Cafe Du Nord
Michael Nesmith’s eclectic, electric life spans his star-making role on The Monkees, his invention of the music video, and his critical contributions to movies, comedy, and the world of virtual reality. His funny and thoughtful memoir Infinite Tuesday takes readers on a pilgrimage in search of a set of principles to live by, from a childhood in Dallas, where his single mother Bette invented Liquid Paper, to the set of The Monkees, the heart of swinging London, and an unexpected oasis of brilliance in the Santa Fe desert, where friendships with Douglas Adams and Los Alamos scientists pointed him toward the power of the infinite. A true American original. In conversation with writer and actor Beth Lisick. Book sales and signing to follow.

By Jon Longhi

Welcome to a special Halloween themed Having A Movie Moment With Jon Longhi, where I review recent Blu-ray releases. Halloween is my favorite holiday of the year because that’s when we get a glut of horror and sci-fi releases. I’m actually going to do two columns this month just to try and catch up with all of them.

The Bloodthirsty Trilogy, Arrow Video:
It seems that even the most obscure and barely seen movies are getting nice Blu-ray releases these days but not if you're a fan of Toho studios. Many of us grew up with their sci-fi and monster movies like Godzilla. Sadly, only a handful of these films have been released on Blu-ray in this country. There's a few of the Godzilla films out on Blu-ray but most of their other monster and sci-fi classics like Rodan, Mothra, War Of The Gargantuas, or The Mysterians have never gotten Blu-ray releases and the old DVD copies have been out of print for years. Evidently, the studio is hard to work with when it comes to international releases of their films and that is very sad for those of us who love their movies. This new set helps rectify that situation. Here you get three Toho horror classics in one nice little package. I've been obsessed with this genre of Toho's films since I was a child and have long known of these movies but never got a chance to see them till this new Arrow Video release came out.

Kevin Morby

Close out your San Francisco summer with the final California Academy of Sciences' NightLife LIVE of the year on Thursday, October 11th, featuring a performance from folk-rock singer-songwriter Kevin Morby. He’ll bring guitar-soaked tracks from his latest album City Music, which Pitchfork praised for its “elegant, dusky atmosphere.” Bay Area-based musician Hannah van Loon will bring her latest solo project Tanukichan to the stage in all its dream pop glory. Plus, the national “all-girl, all-vinyl” collective, Chulita Vinyl Club, will be there keeping the museum party going all night.

Also, enter the Museum's West Garden to find a surreal installation by artist Santiago Insignares and “Light Bodies,” an interactive sculpture by Leif Maginnis. Keep your senses stimulated with VR experiences by Dream Logic and Vision Quest. Take a live "Tour of the Universe" or explore the immersive and trippy art and music experience that is "Vortex 2.0" in the Morrison Planetarium. And don't forget to visit us at the Amoeba Music pop-up shop and browse our specially-curated vinyl!

October may be the spookiest month of the year (well, besides April...TAXES!) but it's also the most fun. Even if you don't plan on dressing up in costumes and demanding candy from neighbors, you can still party the whole month through with Amoeba SF and Amoeba Berkeley. We've got enough live in-store shows, listening parties (including one for the Halloween soundtrack!), and hair-raising sales to keep things festive. And don't forget that October is also Breast Cancer Awareness Month and our stores will have the special pink logo Amoeba shirts on sale for just $12.99 all month. Proceeds will benefit the Bay Area Cancer Connections.

The Super Shangri-La Show, the mysterious entity that brought you the hit fringe film events Bigfoot Bonanza and The Space Visitors Film Festival, presents Sorceress Sabbath, Witchcraft Film Festival -- a whole day and evening of witchcraft films at San Francisco's haunted Balboa Theater on Saturday, October 13th! See nine films dealing in the dark arts, as well as special guest speaker author Maja D'Aoust and a burlesque performance from The Devil's Debutante, Szandora LaVey. Additionally, cosmic artist Rocky Angel will be on site providing magical face painting!

Gaze upon the bewitching schedule for the day:
11:50am - Haxan: Witchcraft Through the Ages (1922)
12pm - In Search Of - "Salem Witches" (1980)
12:45pm - City of the Dead (1960)
2:30pm - Incubus (1966)
4:15pm - The Witches (1966)
6pm - Special Guest Speaker Maja D’Aoust
7:10pm - The Witch: A New England Folktale (2015)
9pm - The Love Witch (2016)
11:20pm - Season of the Witch (1972)
11:30pm - Curse of the Crimson Altar (1968)

Get your tickets now HERE before they vanish into thin air...