If a fun-loving public was looking for a break from a tense political season, the West Hollywood Halloween Carnaval was not the place to be. "No on 8" signs, buttons, and stickers were impossible to avoid, and Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin appeared in the form of multiple look-a-likes. Republican presidential candidate John McCain, though, could not be found, although one young man bravely wore a McCain-Palin T-shirt as he walked through an estimated crowd of at least 250,000 people.

A look-a-like of Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, surrounded by drag queen friends, attended the Halloween Carnaval in West Hollywood on Friday night.

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By Tom Christie

Miami City Ballet, Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Oct. 24-26

You don't have to know a lot about dance to know when you're in the presence of dance genius. It took all of one second after the curtain rose last Friday night on the Miami City Ballet's performance of George Balanchine™'s Symphony in Three Movements: A chorus line of young, pony-tailed women in white leotards, one arm aloft against a sky-blue scrim, each raised hand delicately falling. The image seemed of its time and place – New York and all that signifies (the theater and all that jazz) in 1972 and perhaps earlier, with Balanchine reflecting on his 40-some years there. Likewise the movement that followed: casual but sassy, energetic and buoyant; almost cute -- no, definitely cute, as if these young women (and men) were padding (quickly!) around their Manhattan apartments barefoot. Life here and now, it seemed to say.

I was reminded of George Gershwin, and the American (or, more to the point, the America) in him, in his work. One doesn't necessarily think of Balanchine and the lighter side of dance but in fact he had an extensive show-biz resume, having choreographed "Ziegfeld Follies of 1936" on Broadway and worked on four films, including Goldwyn Follies with Gershwin, during which the composer died. (Balanchine would later create a ballet, Who Cares?, to several Gershwin songs.) Given the opportunities to return to ballet, of course, Balanchine did, but he did so with those American pop influences – he greatly admired Fred Astaire, for instance -- in tow.

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BY MARC COOPER

I've got a lot of nervous friends. They refuse to believe what now seems obvious: an imploded Republican Party facing a veritable electoral Waterloo on Tuesday.

They fret.

They worry.

They wonder aloud about dirty tricks, hinky voting machines, and the Bradley Effect.

I have a different view.

I worry only that Barack Obama will not rack up more than 325 electoral votes. Something like 370 would be more comfortable.

My friends in Las Vegas who approach professional gambling as mathematically sound "short-term investments" tell me they are willing to put up $150k to win $20k on an Obama victory. That's how confident they are. That, I find, is very re-assuring.

But my biggest charge tonight comes from seeing Arizona -- home state to John McCain -- having just turned from bright red to pink, from solid McCain to barely leaning McCain. Indeed, the latest polls of Arizona now show Barack Obama trailing by a slim 3 points -- within the margin of error.

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While the margin is getting tighter, a new Field Poll, released this morning, finds that Proposition 8 will lose on Election Day. The poll, however, shows declining support for the "No on 8" campaign over the past month, which is when the "Yes on 8" side started a vigorous TV ad campaign. Based on the numbers, voter turn out in California for the presidential election could be a deciding factor in the passage or defeat of the ballot measure that will eliminate the right of gays and lesbians to legally marry.

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MILTON KATSELAS DIES AT 75

Rumors had been swirling for about a week, but official word came in on Wednesday that teacher-director Melton Katselas, who founded Camelot Artists Theatre 20 years ago, died on Friday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. He was 75.

Katselas' career as a director began in the 1960s with the original off-Broadway production of Edward Albee's The Zoo Story, and he was nominated for a Tony Award for his direction of Butterflies are Free. Katselas directed over sixty plays, as well as several feature films for Columbia, United Artists, CBS and Fox.

Under his direction, Blythe Danner won a Tony Award, Eileen Heckart an Academy Award, and Bette Davis her only Emmy Award. Katselas directed such actors as Al Pacino, Gene Hackman, Goldie Hawn, Christopher Walken, Burt Reynolds, George C. Scott, Elizabeth Taylor, and Richard Burton.

As a teacher, the list of noteworthy actors who benefited from his tutelage includes Alec Baldwin, George Clooney, Kate Hudson, Kim Cattrall, Anne Archer, Kyle Chandler, James Cromwell, Tyne Daly, Jenna Elfman, Miguel Ferrer, Penny Fuller, Jorge Garcia, John Glover, Beth Grant, Michael Pena, Michelle Pfeiffer, Kelly Preston, Giovanni Ribisi, Robert Urich, Jeffrey Tambor, Tom Selleck, and Patrick Swayze.

He was also mentored by such stage and film directors as Elia Kazan and Joshua Logan. It was through these influences and his subsequent extensive directing experience that Milton ultimately created his technique taught at the Beverly Hills Playhouse.

THIS COMING WEEKEND'S NEW REVIEWS

Check back here Monday after noon for NEW THEATER REVIEWS of Spring Awakening at the Ahmanson; Ron Sossi's staging of Brecht's A Man's a Man at the Odyssey; Virginia Watson's solo perf, Better Late Than Never at the Lost Studio; West Cost Jewish Theatre's staging of Leonard Spigelgass' A Majority of One; Fountain Theater's revival of Gem of the Ocean; Stephen Massicotte's Mary's Wedding at the Colony Theatre in Burbank; and Vince Melocchi's new play, Lions at Pacific Resident Theatre.

Last weekend's NEW THEATER REVIEWS can be found at http://www.laweekly.com/2008-10-30/stage/theater-reviews-lovelace-the-rock-opera-u-s-drag-how-cissy-grew/

For this coming week's COMPREHENSIVE THEATER LISTINGS and press the Read On tab at directly below.

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On Saturday, out-of-state evangelical Christian leaders will finally appear in the flesh and press for the passage of Proposition 8. The Call co-founder Lou Engle, a resident of Kansas City, and Dr. James Dobson, a Colorado Springs resident, will be among the heavy weights who will take the stage at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego on November 1. The day-long event, called "The Call," may be a total success...or a complete and utter fiasco.

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By Max Taves

There’s a lot of complicated stuff on next week's ballot, billions of dollars in spending contained in 12 statewide and a half-dozen local measures filled with extremely confusing wording. (See “How to Spot the Loopholes, Legal Doozies and Loose Phrasing in California’s Ballot Initiatives” or my article on the incredibly consequential legalese behind Prop. 6 or Paul Teetor's on the L.A. City Council's "Proposition B: The Sneakiest."

Inside the Official Voter Information Guide, California Attorney General Jerry Brown has written up short summaries of statewide initiatives so people don’t have to read the fine print — 60 pages of near-complete obfuscation in 10-point font courtesy of the best lawyers Sacramento lobbyists can buy.

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*Proposition 6: The Most Implosive
By Max Taves
October 30, 2008
A tiny, unnoticed clause could allow the use of much looser hearsay in trials.

*Questions Still Surround Oliver Stone's W.
By Nikki Finke
October 30, 2008
Winner or loser? Original or borrowed? Investors or Chinese gangsters?

*L.A.'s Proposition B: The Most Sneaky
By Paul Teetor
October 30, 2008
It repeals a ban on low-income housing taller than two stories. It just doesn't say so.

*Proposition R: The Most Expensive
By Daniel Heimpel
October 30, 2008
Suburbanites hold the cards in approving a countywide sales-tax increase for mass transit.

*Election '08 Voting Guide: Endorsements From a Freethinker — No on 8, Yes on 11. And a Nod to Mark Ridley-Thomas
By Marc Cooper
October 30, 2008
Why siding with Arnold on redistricting makes sense, and other ballot notes.

*Proposition T: The Most Divisive
By Jorge Casuso
October 30, 2008
Things get absurd between slow-growthers and pro-growthers in Santa Monica.

*Barack Obama's Slippery Fund-Raising Slope
By Patrick Range McDonald
October 30, 2008
Small donors aside, he's awash in cash from big labor and business. Can he say no?

*What Could Stop Obama: Secret Racist Democrats
By Jervey Tervalon
October 30, 2008
The AP-Yahoo poll on race and what it says about our prejudices that still remain.

*Proposition 5: The Most Threatening (to the Prison Industrial Complex)
By Mark Groubert
October 30, 2008
More drug treatment means fewer criminals, and fewer criminals could mean fewer prisons.

*The Red Scare and Average Joes
By Joe Donnelly
October 30, 2008
What we talk about when we talk about socialism.

*Proposition 7: The Most Confusing
By Judith Lewis
October 30, 2008
Why environmentalists are against solar power.

*It's Going to Take a Whole Lot More Than a Democratic Majority to Save Us
By Marc Cooper
October 30, 2008
Hope, not faith.

*Proposition 11: The Most Misunderstood
By David Ferrell
October 30, 2008
The League of Women Voters, Common Cause and AARP seek change in Sacramento.

*Diane Watson: Hillary's Gal
By Mark Groubert
October 30, 2008
A talk with the 68-year-old congresswoman.

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Day 2 of Anand Jon Trial's Closing Arguments

Prosecutor Mara McIlvain delivered the D.A.’s closing argument Wednesday, followed by the first of three Anand Jon lawyers with the defense’s side, presented by Donald Marks. Marks had only begun his comments when court adjourned yesterday, and picked up where he left off Thursday afternoon. The photogenic McIlvain appeared somewhat ill at ease as she ticked off the particulars of each of the case’s nine alleged sexual assault victims, never straying far from the laptop that held her PowerPoint notes. The white-haired Marks, however, appeared to have stepped out of an old Reginald Rose courtroom drama.

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Words and photographs by Timothy Norris

Va Voom! Click the image or check the sideshow here for all the Sexo Y Violencia you can wrap your head around.

Last night, monsters and other creatures of the night made their way to the Mayan Theatre in Downtown Los Angeles for the annual Lucha Va Voom Halloween Extravaganza.  Just after the audience recited the secret Lucha pledge, things got started with a little Va Voom Halloween-style with a raising of the dead.  Lucha Va Voom happens only three times a year and if you've not been, I highly recommend you get your ass down there.  If you have been, you'll remember that just when you think you've seen it all, some crazy new shit will go down like Prince showing up on stage or Medusa bringing a man back from stone.  Insanity. Of course, I couldn't hardly wait to see what the sexy Poubelle Twins had in store, either. Did I forget to mention Chupacabra? Yeah, he was there too.

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BY MARC COOPER

Recently Discovered Photo of Obama Circa 1865

In these final, gasping moments of the Reagan Era we have really reached a dismal, dismal low point in our political discourse. The McCain-Failin' campaign has pulled out all the stops in an attempt to stigmatize the notion of any sort of redistribution of wealth. Merely because Barack Obama vows not to nationalize industry, nor seize all private haciendas, nor confiscate your 7th or 8th home, but rather because he wants to raise the marginal tax rate on those earning a quarter of million dollars a year or more from 36% to 39% i.e. where it was in the year 2001. And that's so he can pay for lowering taxes for 95% of Americans. If that's what spreading the wealth is about, then I am for it. And I imagine millions and millions of others are for it too. One more reason why a landslide is coming a week from Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the ludicrous charge that Obama is a Marxist expropriator reveals the ultimate moral bankruptcy of a conservative movement that has totally exhausted itself. It once had a lot of bad ideas (how many of you would presently like to have your social security invested in the stock market?). Now, the Republicans have literally NO ideas, other than to feebly try to scare you. And to brazenly celebrate self-interested greed. It is now apparently a mortal sin to believe there is anything like a commonweal, any notion of mutual solidarity with fellow humans, or any legitimate compulsion to care for the needy.

These folks so lavishly deserve the ass-whuppin' coming their way.

I had to laugh at Drudge tonight who is running a screamer headline that it found an eight-year-old piece of audio in which Barack Obama is caught on tape lamenting that the civil rights movement didn't spend enough energy fighting for "redistributive change."

Since when has it become an un-American act to skew tax rates and other government entitlement programs to help level the playing field between the ultra-rich and the rest of us? Was I absent that day?

Of course, this all distracts from the man most responsible for radical wealth distribution of the last two decades.

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APOLLO BOUND FOR OREGON

After many years of development, the third part of director Nancy Keystone's Apollo trilogy ("Apollo (Part 3): Libertation) is on its way to completion, and the entire Apollo trilogy is on its way to Portland Center Stage. http://ww.pcs.org

It's being presented in Los Angeles, as part of USC’s Visions and Voices series.

Wednesday, Nov. 5, 7:30 p.m.
USC's Bovard Auditorium
Free Admission
Reservations requested: http://web-app.usc.edu/ws/eo2/calendar/113/event/86638

BETH LAPIDES AT HIGHWAYS

Lapides "100% Happy 88% of the Time" performs at Highways Fri.-Sat., Nov. 7-8, 8:30 p.m. Visit http://highwaysperformance.org

For this coming week's COMPREHENSIVE THEATER LISTINGS and the weekend's NEW THEATER REVIEWS, press the Read On tab at directly below.

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While Mormons have been getting the headlines, the Roman Catholic Church has quietly been a major force in the "Yes on 8" campaign to ban same sex marriage in California. Whether or not Proposition 8 is defeated, it seems inevitable that church officials will face some kind of blow back from gay and lesbian Catholics come November 5, if they haven't already.

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Culty Goodness

What could be better than starting a cult? The power, the accolades, the idolatry, the ritual suicide… At the very least you get the chance to have sex with lithe young vixens who would otherwise be way out-of-your-league. And nowhere are the vixens more lithe and out-of-your-league than in Los Angeles.

From horny hippy Yogis, to murderous musicians, to the former leader of the free world, L.A. is where the charming and insane come to groom their cultish ways. If you can make it as a cult leader here, you can make it anywhere. With the 30th anniversary of the Jonestown Massacre approaching, we figured it might be time to take a look at some of our own homegrown cult masterminds.

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By Ella Taylor

Among the 75 more newsroom staffers let go at the L.A. Times on Monday were three writers who, by any definition, spiffed up the cultural conversation in our city. Film critic Carino Chocano’s best work was embodied in her all too infrequent essays connecting movies to social trends — I’m not the first to notice that her last one, on the kinds of movies we get in hard times, now seems eerily prophetic. The departure of Scott Timberg, whose elegant profiles and think-pieces on literary figures kept Calendar’s pages humming amid the drone of celebrity gossip, leaves only David Ulin and his depleted team holding the fort for books. And Lynell George wrote long-form pieces that took us not only into thriving African-American arts subcultures, but truly all over the L.A. Cultural map. How rotten for them to lose their livelihoods and their platforms; how much the poorer we are for the loss of their voices.

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Elfdoll: Don't Call It A Toy Company Oct 28, 2008
Patricia Faure: 1928 - 2008 Oct 27, 2008
Stage Raw: CTG Receives $90,000 New Play Development Grant Oct 27, 2008
Over the Weekend: "Thriller" Zombie Dance-off, Backstage with Flogging Molly, SuicideGirls Halloween Party Go-Go Dancers Oct 27, 2008
"Thriller" Zombies Descend On Hollywood in Attempt to Hold World Record Oct 26, 2008
Election '08: Watch Christopher Hitchens Call McCain "Borderline Senile" Oct 25, 2008
Queer Town: Apple Donates to No on 8 Oct 24, 2008
Stage Raw: Spring Awakening Oct 24, 2008
Last Night: Amy Sedaris Talks Crafting, Candy and Colbert @ Grove Book Signing Oct 23, 2008
Interview: Charlie Kaufman on Synecdoche, New York Oct 22, 2008
Queer Town: New Poll Shows Prop. 8 Losing Oct 22, 2008
Anand Jon's Defense Rests Oct 22, 2008
Stage Raw: Confessions of a Subterranean Playwright Oct 22, 2008
Queer Town: A-List Hollywood Raises Money for No on 8 Oct 22, 2008
Queer Town: Gay Marriage Equals Good Health Oct 22, 2008
Last Night: Belly Dancing and Fish House Punch at Radio Room Speakeasy Oct 22, 2008
Election '08: McCain's Neglected Veterans Oct 21, 2008
Anand Jon Trial: Searching Google for an Arrest Oct 21, 2008
Election '08 Video: Keith Olbermann on Real Americans and Dressing Up Hatred Oct 20, 2008
Election '08: Arise, Ye Socialists! Oct 20, 2008
HuffPo's Top Five Election Season Celebrity Blogs Oct 20, 2008
Pussy & Pooch: Extreme Dog Culture Unleashes New Nightlife Oct 20, 2008
Anand Jon’s Beverly Hills Cop Witness Oct 20, 2008
Delgadillo, Villaraigosa and L.A'.s 2008 Anti-Gang Tax Oct 20, 2008
Stage Raw: To Ser With Love Oct 20, 2008
Comedian Bruce McCulloch Fills Steve Allen Theater with Funny Oct 20, 2008
Election '08: Powell's Shallow Endorsement Oct 19, 2008
Over the Weekend: Absinthe Among the Dead, Family Guy C.R.A.P., Bruce McCulloch Comedy, The Roots Live Oct 19, 2008
Election Humor Video: Same Bat Candidates, Same Bat Campaign? Oct 17, 2008
Stage Raw: Face It Oct 17, 2008
Election '08: McCain Wins Oct 17, 2008
Last Night: Super Sexy Show at El Cid Oct 17, 2008
Los Angeles City Planning Commission Adopts Preliminary Motion to Ban all New Electronic Billboards Oct 16, 2008
Amazing Los Angeles City Council Salaries: $171,648 plus goodies Oct 16, 2008
Election '08: The Final Debate -- You Don't Need a Weatherman.. Oct 16, 2008
Anand Jon's Defense Begins - Sort Of Oct 15, 2008
Los Angeles Median Home Value: $380,000 Oct 15, 2008
Stage Raw: Playboy of the Western World Oct 15, 2008
Silver Lake Residents Protest Against Digital Billboard Blight Oct 15, 2008
Election '08: Obama Up by 14 Points Oct 15, 2008
Last Night: Dodgers Descent Into Darkness Oct 14, 2008
Billionaire Eli Broad's Fat Check to Long Beach Unified Oct 14, 2008
When Geeks Inherit The Earth: Box-Office Power Couples Oct 14, 2008
Art of The Exiles Oct 14, 2008
Last Night: Bowling For Boobies 2008 at Lucky Strike Lanes Oct 13, 2008
Bill Maher Receiving Death Threats Oct 13, 2008
Celebuspeak: My Neighborhood is a Hybrid, Driving the Westside and Beyond! Oct 13, 2008
Stage Raw: The Sequence Oct 13, 2008
Sylmar fire in Los Angeles could become a "siege" Oct 13, 2008
2001: A Space Odyssey @ The Edison Downtown Oct 13, 2008
Dodgers Fight Back Oct 13, 2008
Over the Weekend: Downtown Art Walk, Jonesy's Jukebox Jury, Morrison Hotel Photo Exhibit Oct 13, 2008
Election '08: Joe On Jonesy's Jukebox Jury Oct 12, 2008
Crewest Gallery and The Label Lab: The Z-Boy Show - Direct from the Source Oct 12, 2008
KCET Investigates Billboard Blight in Los Angeles Oct 10, 2008
Dig For San Fernando Boy Ends Oct 10, 2008
Stage Raw: Another L.A. Production in NYC Oct 10, 2008
Election '08: McCain's Watermelon Strategy, Plus Palin's War on Verbs Oct 10, 2008
Last Night: Presidential Comic Book Debate + Drink at Golden Apple Oct 10, 2008
Shoving 850 digital billboards down LA's throat Oct 8, 2008
Election '08: Biden Does Tampa Oct 8, 2008
Stage Raw: You've Come to the Right Place Oct 8, 2008
Queer Town: No Cash, No TV Ads, No Gay Marriage Oct 8, 2008
Last Night: Neil Gaiman The Graveyard Book Reading and Interview Oct 7, 2008
Los Angeles Measure B's Curious Fine Print Oct 7, 2008
Mel's Slay Suspects Sentenced Oct 7, 2008
Queer Town: The Life and Spirit of Genevieve Florence Range Oct 7, 2008
Best and Worst Fictional Presidential Speeches on Film + TV Oct 7, 2008
Advocacy Group Criticizes Plan to Advertise on Amber Alerts Oct 7, 2008
Election '08: The Palin Power Girls Oct 7, 2008
Anus Horribilis: Vodka tumblers & women in caves Oct 6, 2008
Body Dig Underway for Boy who Disappeared 40 years ago Oct 6, 2008
Election '08: The Terrorists Strike, the Markets Crumble . . . Plus, McCain's Radical Dance Oct 6, 2008
Stage Raw: Latino New Works Fest Oct 6, 2008
Sheeple: Mob thinking on both sides at the Palin event in Carson Oct 6, 2008
Los Angeles Invited To Party After Dodger Victory Oct 5, 2008
Over the Weekend: Dogtown Z-Boys, Detour Fest and Dodger Victory Oct 5, 2008
Election '08: Sealing Reagan's Tomb Oct 5, 2008
Grim Times and Crimes in Famed Melrose District Oct 3, 2008
Stage Raw: Robert Wilson at USC Oct 3, 2008
Dodgers Win Big in Chicago Oct 3, 2008
Manny Nearly Beaned by Angry Cubs Fan Oct 2, 2008
Election '08: Palin Post-Mortem and Ifill's Failure Oct 2, 2008
Avenues Gangster Convicted of Gun Charges Oct 2, 2008
Stage Raw: Actors Equity goes Soviet Oct 1, 2008
Council Member Garcetti to Introduce Legislation Targeting Electronic Billboards Oct 1, 2008