This Month’s Top Four
Every month Itineready features four recommended places or events in rotating categories such as: Fun with Kids, Featured Restaurant, Free, Brand New, Outdoor Adventure, Fun with Teens, Secret Spot, Fun for All Ages, Featured Museum, Sports, Featured Bar, and Itineready Favorite.
Featured Picks
It is with much sadness that I must announce that Itineready New York will go on hiatus starting January 1st, 2007. My husband and I will be moving to London in early 2007, making it impossible to continue running a New York-based business!
On this page, in place of the usual monthly feature picks, I leave you with some of my personal favorite places in New York. These are places that I will miss the most. Please be advised that this information will become dated and may no longer be accurate as time passes.
IN PROGRESS!
Blood Manor
Try to ignore the ambulance and hearse parked outside Blood Manor. Don’t think about why they might be there as you head inside to spend the next 25 to 30 minutes in the pitch black labyrinth of rooms that make up this haunted house in far west Chelsea. Blood curdling screams fill your ears, hideous smells assault your nose, and gruesome sights unfold before your eyes. Zombies, vampires, and other creatures of the night, some animatronics and some live actors, play on your worst fears in themed rooms like Skull Alley, the Saw II Room, the Room Full of Spiders and the Psycho Bathroom. There are 20 “environments” in total, each with their own digital sound effects. Blood Manor is not recommended for children under 14 or the faint of heart. It opens October 6th and is open every Thursday through Sunday from 7:30pm to 1am thereafter. Tickets cost $23 to $33 and may be purchased through their website.
Blood Manor
542 W. 27th St.
Between 10th & 11th St.
(212) 290-2825
www.bloodmanor.com
The Evolution Store
Looking for some shark teeth this Halloween? How about a framed scorpion, a mounted piranha, ostrich egg or an alligator head? Well if you were, you’d find them at The Evolution Store in SoHo. They sell museum quality natural history collectibles and have a staff of friendly experts ready to serve. From top to bottom, covering all surfaces, their store is filled with fossils, meteorites, shells, collectible insects, anatomical models, medical posters, skulls, skeletons, and much more. Specimens are obtained from paleontologists, entomologists, and anthropologists, and all items are legally obtained and can be legally sold in New York State. It’s fun to browse and surprisingly hard to leave empty-handed. You’re bound to come away with some new knowledge and an unusual object that will come in useful this Halloween. Open 7 days a week from 11am to 7pm.
The Evolution Store
120 Spring St.
Between Greene and Mercer St.
(212) 343-1114
www.theevolutionstore.com
Halloween Extravaganza and Procession of Ghouls
If you’ll be in New York City on October 27th, join New Yorkers for a favorite Halloween tradition, the annual Halloween Extravaganza and Procession of Ghouls at St. John’s Cathedral. Still only two-thirds of the way toward being completed, the Cathedral is a spectacular and beautiful setting. Its vaulted ceilings soar high overhead the immense 600 foot long interior. Doors open at 6pm for the 7pm show and at 9pm for the 10pm show. Every year the evening begins with the showing of a classic silent film with live organ music played by the Cathedral’s organist. This year’s film is Nosferatu. Following the film is the Procession of Ghouls, also accompanied by live organ music. Staged and directed by Ralph Lee, the creator of New York City’s famous Halloween Parade, the procession is a theatrical event with larger-than-life creatures in incredible costumes and elaborate paper mache masks. They slowly work their way down the center aisle of the audience interacting with those nearby but never breaking character. This is truly a unique, not-to-be-missed experience. Tickets cost $15 for adults, $10 for seniors and students and can be purchased through
The Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine
1047 Amsterdam Ave.
Between 110th and 111th St.
(212) 316-7490
www.stjohndivine.org
Abracadabra Superstore
It’s overwhelming when you first step inside Abracadabra and start trying to wind your way through the narrow aisles stocked with merchandise from floor to ceiling. It’s hard to decide what to look at, there’s so much to see. Zombies, Frankensteins, gargoyles, skeletons, and other undead creatures are everywhere. If you can imagine it, you can probably buy it here. While everyday New Yorkers flock to Abracadabra in October to prepare for Halloween festivities, the rest of the year the store sells to theaters, TV shows, the movies, professional puppeteers and the like. There’s a theatrical make-up counter that rivals any department store cosmetics counter. Masks, magic, costumes, wigs, novelty items, marionettes, life-size movie characters, and so much more overfull their shelves, counters and fill every inch of this two storey store. Abracadabra has extended hours for October open everyday from 11am to 9pm.
Abracadabra Superstore
19 W. 21st St.
Between 5th & 6th Ave.
(212) 627-5194
www.abracadabrasuperstore.com
