Reality Awaits, the new album from The Strokes, comes out this Friday, July 24, and you can listen to the whole album with us at Club Underground that night. It’s time for another Strokes Nite at Underground and, this time, it’s a Reality Awaits listening party too. Doors are at 9:30 p.m. and album play starts at 9:45 p.m. Both rooms of Grand Star Jazz Club will be open, with Larry G. and I on the decks. Tickets are available now on Eventbrite and Dice.
As for the rest of this weekend, and early next week, here are my recommendations.
In 1970, just a few short years after Barnabas Collins took Dark Shadowsfrom struggling soap opera to pop culture phenomenon, the vampire’s journey began anew. This time, though, it played out on the big screen. House of Dark Shadows was the first of two films based on show and made by the team behind the television series. Unlike the much more recognizable 2012 film, this one is actually worth watching. At the time of writing this, House of Dark Shadows is streaming on YouTube. If you want to see it in a theater, and live in Los Angeles, it’s screening at the NoHo 7 on Monday, July 27.
Friday, October 4, Videotheque kicks off a month of horror screenings with a Dark Shadows binge curated by yours truly. I picked out five episodes filled with tarot, witchcraft and maybe— just, maybe— a creature of the night. The episodes will make sense whether you’re new to Dark Shadows or if you, like me, have seen all 1200+ episodes. Doors open at 8:30 p.m. for the screening, which starts at 9 p.m., and tickets are $12. You can RSVP on Partiful. 4102 N. Figueroa St., Highland Park 90031.
Victoria Winters was fascinated with the past, so much so that she ultimately got lost in it while chasing after a guy that she picked up during an 18th century witch trial. The Collins clan of 1960s Maine would never see her again and Victoria’s story never reached its logical conclusion— that the foundling-turned-governess was actually the daughter of wealthy family matriarch, Elizabeth— during the television run of Dark Shadows.
Some might scold me for spoiling one of the gazillion plot lines that drove Dark Shadows between 1966 and 1971, but we’re talking about a daytime soap that aired more than 50 years ago. The expiration date for spoilers passed before the Watergate scandal pre-empted ABC’s daytime programming and sent housewives into a tizzy. Besides, there’s a point to this reference. Like Victoria, I spent much of 2023 with one foot in the present and one the past as I worked my way through the 1200+ episodes that comprise the original series and are streaming. Unlike Victoria, I still exist in the present timeline and am here to tell you what I learned from the past.
