“Can we not do any more of these ‘oogie-boogie’ myths, please?”¹

Geek Out

Oogie-boogie. I wasn’t aware that haunted houses have a season, but apparently it ends on March 28, as tonight is the last night that the Garibaldi-Meucci Museum will be offering its haunted house tour. (I guess ghosts just aren’t as spooOOOoooky in April.) According to the museum, Haunted Times Magazine have certified their house as haunted, but you and your lifetime Haunted Times subscription already knew that. Even skeptics should enjoy the opportunity to be an amateur James Randi, pointing out why every supposed paranormal observation is scientifically implausible (because everybody loves that guy). It’s also a chance to experience the fabled “fifth borough,” Staten Island. Does it really exist? You be the judge.

Ala-kazam. Bummed that you missed out on the last 98 annual salutes to magic? I have good news for you: Tomorrow, the Tribeca Performing Arts Center welcomes the 99th Annual Salute to Magic. As the latest issue of Make so ably demonstrated, magic has a rich grounding in wizardy—of the technical sort, that is. Hopefully tomorrow’s event will be heavy on the geekery and mind games while keeping schlocky patter to a minimum, but even a bad magic show has its charm.

Geek In

OD on Zelda. Five Gamecubes, five TVs, Four Swords. Those are the ingredients for a decadent Nintendo weekend, as conjured up by retro-gaming blogger Racketboy. Nintendo is infamous for cool games that require you to buy proprietary, borderline-useless Nintendo accessories, but with a new generation of consoles, the cost of this rig has tumbled. At an estimated $350 for all the required kit (minus a bunch of equipment you and your friends likely have already), damned if that pricetag might not be worth it to play the collaborative Zelda game Four Swords the way the Hylians intended.

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1. As spoken by a man who, with his partner, boasts “more than 30 years of special-effects experience.” ↑