THRILLERFEST 2009: Thrill the World at Seaholm!
Saturday, October 24 at Seaholm Power Plant
Doors open at 4pm!
Dance Lesson at 5pm
Dance Performance at 7:30pm
Dance Party after that!

Tickets on sale now for just $15, and proceeds benefit
SCARE FOR A CURE!

Last year, we set a new record for the most people dancing the Thriller choreography at the same time in the same location when we had 881 people gather for our Thrill the World celebration at the Long Center. Last month, the citizens of Mexico City SHATTERED that record when they had more than 13,000 people dance in unison.

So 13,000 is going to be a tough number to beat, and Austin can’t possibly compete with Mexico City in terms of sheer population. But that doesn’t mean we aren’t going to give it our all this year, especially because even if we don’t set a new record for the most dancers in one location, we’ll still be dancing in unison with other Thrill the World participants in more than 50 countries across the globe, and we’ll be setting a new World Record for that dance no matter what.

There’s one more Thriller dance lesson at BodyBusiness, (on Anderson Lane facing the Alamo Village across the parking lot) on Friday, October 23rd at 10:30am! You don’t need to be a member of the gym to participate, and you can sign up at the front desk or by calling 459-9424.

And there’s one more Thriller dance lesson at The Highball on Saturday, October 24th at 11am!

All of the lessons will be absolutely free, but you should expect to have it down after one or two full lessons. Each lesson will last between two to three hours.

On Saturday, October 24 we’ll have the main event at the iconic abandoned power plant in downtown Austin: SEAHOLM! The festivities that day will start at 5pm with a FULL LESSON for anyone that hasn’t had a chance to learn the dance yet. Then promptly
at 7:30pm we’ll join in with all of the Thrill the World dancers from across the world, setting at least one world record and maybe, just maybe, taking Mexico City down as well. After that performance, we’ll have multiple screens set up to play music videos and more and we’ll celebrate with Austin’s first Rolling Roadshow outdoor Sing-Along with
a full on Michael Jackson Dance Party.

The abandoned power plant location will be an AMAZING backdrop for all of our dancing zombies, but the one problem is that there isn’t any easy parking nearby. If you come out early enough you should be able to find free parking on the streets nearby. We’ll be using the back of the power plant as an entrance, so you’ll want to come to the gate at Third
and West, and NOT to the front of the building on Cesar Chavez. If there’s no free parking when you arrive, we recommend either parking at the Monarch apartment building or the State garage at Third and Nueces. You can cross over the Shoal Creek pedestrian bridge by the Austin Music Hall and you’ll be right there.

This summer, we put out the challenge: bring us your tired, your
under-sexed, your overly expositionist, your love-starved mimes and costumed crazies, and bring them out to the World Air Sex Championships.

We sent our crew on a 15 stop tour through North America’s sexiest cities and saw dozens of competitors from all over the world. But this October, the Air Sex World Championships are coming back home to Austin, TX, and it all comes down to one night. The finalists from every other market are being flown in. The stage is being cleaned and janitors are standing by to clean it again after each performance.

The ultimate champion and winner of 2009’s World Air Sex Champion title will be crowned this October at the Highball, and after being fucked by performers as talented as we will see that night, the air in this town will never be the same again.

Emcee and maestro Chris Trew will oversee the ceremonies once again, and Joel Keith will be on hand to teach the new audience members all of the finer points of a truly nuanced Air Sex performance.

2008 Air Sex Champion Arthur Simone will serve as one of our judges and ultimately be handing his crown over to the new winner, who will represent our planet in all interplanetary Air Sex competitions throughout the next year. This will be an epic worthy of Roland Emmerich’s talents, but instead of watching global landmarks fall to their doom in copious amounts of fireballs we’ll get to see moral standards destroyed by insidious levels of sexual impropriety that can only be performed with an imaginary partner.

Confused? Check out some videos of the performances that happened across this great continent during our summer tour and prepare your brain for some serious mind-being-made-love-to.

The thing about the Zombie Apocalypse is that you never know where you’re going to be when the first outbreak starts. Sure, you could conveniently be making jokes about how they’re coming to get Barbara while visiting a graveyard, but chances are you’ll just be out and about, living your life, when BOOM, someone else starts living their death and needing your brains. Some people will be at the office. Some people will be shopping for groceries. And some people, young people, will be at their high school prom.

So it is for the teens of DANCE OF THE DEAD, when as luck would have it the dead rise to eat the living on the very night that they were all supposed to dress up, wear corsages, and feel pressured into making out with each other. Instead, the people inside the dance
have no chance at survival at all, unless the losers who couldn’t find dates to the big night can find a way to save them…

“DANCE OF THE DEAD has cult classic written all over it” raves Ain’t It Cool News, and Bloody Disgusting states that “DANCE OF THE DEAD is one of the best horror-comedies of all time that will be remembered for years to come.”

DANCE OF THE DEAD premiered to sold out crowds at the South by Southwest Film Festival and is distributed by Lionsgate and Sam Raimi’s Ghost House Underground.

For more info, go to www.DanceOfTheDeadMovie.com

Of course, we weren’t satisfied to simply have a movie about a zombie prom programmed for our Halloween night, not when we have access to the brand new Highball event space and could put on the best Halloween party this city’s ever seen just across the parking lot from the Alamo South Lamar. So after the movie, we invite you to join us and the
filmmakers for our very own Dance of the Dead: the First Annual Zombie Prom at the Highball! We’ll ONLY be allowing zombies through the doors, and we’ll have a dance party and more eating of brains than this town has ever seen.

Tickets are available to the movie screening itself, to the Zombie Prom alone, or you can save a couple of bucks and guarantee yourself the best Hallow’s Eve ever by getting a double feature ticket that gets you into the movie and the after party. Just remember to wear your zombie finest, because no one living will be allowed in!

If there’s a better movie for a Halloween live score than the original
Lon Chaney PHANTOM OF THE OPERA we haven’t seen it. And if there’s anyone we’d rather have behind the Alamo monstrous Wurlitzer organ console at South Lamar than maestro Graham Reynolds, we haven’t met him.

Reynolds, known for his work as a film composer and mastermind behind the Golden Arm Trio, is eager to chill the marrow of  audiences as they watch the man of a thousand faces, Lon Chaney, in his most terrifying role. Surely you know the story by now, but this is the primal version
of it, and audiences today are still terrified by the atmospheric setting and, especially Chaney’s climactic unmasking. Don’t miss this special Halloween treat.

To celebrate the Halloween season, Master Pancake dreams up fun ways to eviscerate the Wes Craven classic A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET (1984), or as we like to call it “Scissorhands vs. Razorgloves”. Featuring a baby-faced Johnny Depp (21 JUMP STREET, EDWARD SCISSORHANDS) as a preppy horn-dog who just wants to get with Heather Langenkamp (NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 3, GROWING PAINS) the girl next door with a fantastic set of lungs. Of course it’s Robert Englund (C.H.U.D. II: BUD THE CHUD, THE ADVENTURES OF FORD FAIRLANE) who steals the show as the well-clawed Freddy Krueger, who, like most 80’s horror villains, only seems to stalk teenagers who are in danger of copulating. Join Master Pancake as they riff apart this creepy nail biter. (John Erler)

MASTER PANCAKE IS PROUDLY SPONSORED BY KERBEY LANE CAFE!

OK, good news/bad news: the print of KUNG FU HALLOWEEN we had lined up for tonight has disintegrated in the gate of the projector when we tried to inspect it. We are all very sad about it but it’s OK really, because we have a TOP SECRET Kung Fu Halloween Jam for you that you WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED BY. Don’t miss this ludicrously rare screening opportunity!

We worked with PeopleFund back in June and are excited to sponsor
their event once again, with Alamo Drafthouse co-founder Karrie League as one of the panelists on the Art and the Local Economy sessions!

PeopleFund’s Conference on Economic Opportunity (formerly the East Austin Economic Summit) unites community members, business leaders, and policy makers throughout the region in a dynamic dialogue about our region’s evolving economy. From adult education and job opportunities to affordable housing options, the Conference addresses the key issues facing low- to moderate-income communities, and highlights strategies for creating opportunity for Central Texans. Come join the conversation on October 24th, 2009 at ACC’s Eastview Campus and learn more about resources available in your community!

Topics include:

• Small Business
• Workforce Development
• Housing & Development
• Transportation
• Arts & CultureUrban Agriculture

Through a series of interactive panel discussions, we will discuss strategies to help neighborhood residents, community leaders and business owners take advantage of local resources, such as foreclosure prevention, transportation, adult education, and much more!

To learn more about the Conference on Economic Opportunity go to PeopleFund.org, email Ayleen@PeopleFund.org, or call Ayleen Perez at 472.8087

PeopleFund’s Annual Conference on Economic Opportunity
Saturday, October 24th
8:30am-3pm
ACC Eastview Campus
3401 Webberville Road – Bldg. 8
For tickets and more info go to www.PeopleFund.org

Who you gonna call? GHOSTBUSTERS!

At looooooonng last, we’re finally giving this classic film the Quote-Along treatment it deserves. Strap on your proton pack and join us at the Ritz as we sing-along to one of the most amazing movie theme songs of all time, quote-along to amazing lines of dialogue like, “Somebody blows their nose, and you want to keep it?” and try to talk in a super creepy low demonic voice when we say, “There is no Dana, only Zuul!” We’ll also have plenty of marshmallows on hand, so we can all StayPuft through the entire screening.

October 21st join Love-A-Bull in the lobby as they promote responsible ownership of pit bulls through education and advocacy.

Win tickets to the 2009 Ghoulwill Ball at The Driskill! Brought to you by Goodwill of Austin for show on October 22nd.

Oooohhhh man, it’s a full on Michael Jackson month this October!

To help us gear up for ThrillerFest 2009, our latest attempt at setting a new World Record for having the most people planet-wide (and maybe, just maybe, in one location) performing the infamous Thriller choreography at the same time, we’re bringing back a few special nights of our always popular Michael Jackson Sing-Along to the Alamo Ritz.

This was clearly a tragic year in the world of pop music, but while we mourned the loss of the King of Pop at our MJ Tribute shows over the summer, these shows will be more about celebrating his life and all of the magic he brought to the world. We’ve added in a couple of new videos that have never before been a part of the Michael Jackson Sing-Alongs, including some early Jackson 5 work that really should have been part of the show since the beginning, and we can’t wait to be in the theater with you again for that one beautiful moment when Michael yells out, “You ain’t bad; you ain’t NOTHING!” and then the music kicks in and we all go crazy.

Take a look at the Man in the Mirror, and resolve to bring him (or her, really) down to the Ritz this October for a Sing-Along event like none other.

Scare for a Cure joins the fun at MJ Singalong: Scareing up people before MJ Singalaong with Zombie transformations (get zombified before the show) and ticket giveaways to *Blood Ritual* Haunted House too!

Summer is over and it’s time to put the pajamas back ON! And for the triumphant return of our Cartoon Cereal Party pursuits, we’ll be
putting on a special ALL-SPOOKY MONSTERS edition just for you!! Your eyes will devour spectral superstars like GHOSTBUSTERS, BEETLEJUICE and DUCKULA, plus you’ll get your bones rattled by special Halloween episodes of shows like HE-MAN, REN & STIMPY and more! Forget that you grew up and got a job and started sleeping through Saturday mornings…the glory days are BACK! Because we’re gonna bring you a 2.5 hour attack from the wildest cartoons in the TV Netherworld! Just bring yourselves, and if you have a special spoon or stuffed animal you can bring that too. Pajamas are optional. Let me rephrase that: please wear clothes, even if you choose not to wear pajamas. Regardless, both the cartoons and the endless supply of cereal will unleash your powers of monster-fighting, sugar-eating and FUN-HAVING until you reach a new level of superhuman powertimes!!!

Click here to buy your badge today!

About the Conference and Festival
The 2009 Austin Film Festival and Conference
Conference: October 22nd – 25th
Festival: October 22nd – 29th

For sixteen years the Austin Film Festival has been dedicated to celebrating the art of storytelling through film. The AFF features a four-day conference, eight days of films and parties with one-of-a kind networking opportunities for filmmakers, screenwriters and film lovers.

The AFF and Conference provides unparalleled access to A-list producers, studio executives, agents and managers, as well as professional screenwriters and filmmakers. These industry pros are looking to buy and sell your work and help you navigate the
entertainment industry effectively.

Austin is a friendly, laid-back city and the AFF and Conference definitely follows suit. No
velvet ropes or VIP rooms here. The AFF and Conference panels create an intimate and casual setting for attendees and panelist to discuss the creative process of screenwriting and filmmaking. After a day of panels, festival attendees and panelist alike head to film premieres, networking parties and the legendary Driskill Bar to discuss screenwriting and filmmaking.

The Conference provides over 80 inspiring and interactive panels, roundtables and meet
and greets with established screenwriters and filmmakers. The Conference conducts workshops on the core elements of screenwriting and filmmaking, including dialogue, story structure and character development. Some popular panels focus on writing scripts that
producers want to develop, overcoming writers block, producing your film on an indie budget, marketing your project and more.

Click here to learn more about the Conference

The Festival boasts an outstanding program of narrative, animation and documentary features and shorts, including premieres, advanced screenings, and independent films. Film screenings are complemented by lively and informative Q&A sessions with cast members and filmmakers.

Click here to learn more about the Festival.

The Parties: The AFF and Conference offers multiple networking opportunities in the form of exclusive parties where registrants mingle with legendary screenwriters, filmmakers and other industry insiders. Only in Austin could you see John Milius and Oliver Stone discussing War Films, enjoy a three-hour conversation with Chris McQuarrie, and share some barbecue with Terry George at the Film Texas BBQ Supper. Come to Austin to enjoy
passionate conversation with your peers about the art and craft of screenwriting and film.

The Found Footage Festival is a one-of-a-kind event that showcases
footage from videos that were found at garage sales and thrift stores and in warehouses and dumpsters throughout the country. Curators Joe Pickett and Nick Prueher host each screening in-person and provide their unique observations and commentary on these found video obscurities. From the curiously-produced industrial training video to the forsaken home movie donated to Goodwill, the Found Footage Festival resurrects these forgotten treasures and serves them up in a lively celebration of all things found.

For more info, visit foundfootagefest.com

The new documentary from YOU’RE GONNA MISS ME director Keven MacAlester!

An evil elf is displaced by Hurricane Katrina. A sanitation worker
lures friends into a “Sphere of Annihilation.” A failed super-villain
starts a cable-access show involving ninjas, puppets and a cooking
segment.These are the subjects of THE DUNGEON MASTERS.

Against the backdrop of crumbling middle-class America, two men and one woman devote their lives to Dungeons and Dragons, the storied role playing game, and its various descendants. As their baroque fantasies clash with mundane real lives, the characters find it increasingly difficult to allay their fear, loneliness, and disappointment with the game’s imaginary triumphs. Soon the true heroic act of each character’s real life emerges, and the film follows each as he or she summons the courage to face it. Along the way, THE DUNGEON MASTERS re-imagines the tropes of classic heroic cinema, creating an intimate portrait of minor struggles and triumphs writ large. Official selection of SXSW and Toronto International Film Festival.

We’ve been hooked on AMC’s award-winning drama from the opening beats of the opening credits of the very first episode, and we’ve never looked back. The ’60s style, the talk about marketing in a time when advertising was really just coming into its own, and of course Don Draper himself just keep everyone coming back for more and more.

Of course, for us it’s the fantasy world of drinking and smoking and
taking naps in the morning, then going for a martini and oyster lunch, then smacking around Pete Campbell and calling it a workday that makes the world of Sterling Cooper such an enticing one.

Tickets to these screenings will be free, but you can reserve your seat by purchasing a $5 food and beverage certificate redeemable towards your check at the show that night. For premieres and finales especially, we generally recommend reserving your space ahead of time that way.

Pure pulse-blasting entertainment for only a buck! SPONSORED BY VULCAN VIDEO!!!

One week before October 31, a mysterious corporation unveils a series of adorable monster masks that are secretly devised to transform children’s faces into a mass of gore and crawling insects. The one man sworn to stop the massacre is none other than Tom “Thrill Me” Atkins of NIGHT OF THE CREEPS and MANIAC COP. There are people who hate this brilliant movie. There are also people who enjoy vegan cuisine, listen to Radiohead or think Jack Black is funny. None of those things can be blamed on HALLOWEEN III. So what if it has nothing to do with the masked maniac that founded the famous series? Now that Rob Zombie has made Michael Meyers about as scary as Austin Powers, join us in enjoying some true HALLOWEEN excitement. I’d rather see a million beautifully crippled ’80s goonrides like this than watch dreadlocked rock ‘n’ roll turd Zombie take another bite out of horror’s corpse. (Zack)

For this very rare screening of George Stevens’ last comedy with Cary Grant, Alamo chef extraordinaire John Bullington will prepare an even rarer feast inspired by the golden age of Hollywood!

Grant stars as Leopold Dilg, a political activist who is wrongly indicted for arson and murder when a factory worker dies in a mill fire in the town of Sweetbrook. Believing that he’ll be executed if he remains in jail, he escapes and breaks into a cottage that schoolteacher Nora Shelley (Jean Arthur) is preparing for Professor Michael Lightcap (Ronald Coleman), the dean of a law school. She allows Grant to stay in the attic, without alerting the professor. The next day, a reporter arrives to question Lightcap about Dilg’s case, along with Sam Yates (Edgar Buchanan), Dilg’s lawyer, who comes at Nora’s behest. Since Yates and Lightcap know each other from law school, Yates asks Lightcap’s help in
defending his client, who he claims to have been framed. The professor refuses, intent on writing a legal treatise. Before Yates leaves, he persuades Nora to house Dilg, who she introduces to Lightcap as a gardener. Before long, the professor begins to realize that the
gardener is well versed in the intricacies and inequities of the U.S. legal system.

Stevens’ entertaining romantic triangle, in which the atmosphere of legal debate is leavened by wit, and low comedy, is brilliantly played by all, especially an atypically dark and impulsive Grant. The director’s characteristically deft touch with comic business is evident throughout the film.

Check OriginalAlamo.com for full menu!

For ONE NIGHT ONLY, the hecklers of Master Pancake (John Erler, Joe Parsons) reprise their classic mockery of John Carpenter’s slasher classic, HALLOWEEN (1978), the story of a shy young man who beats the odds to come home for a surprise family reunion and finds himself followed everywhere by a creepy synthesizer. Featuring Jamie Lee Curtis (PROM NIGHT, TERROR TRAIN) as a nerdy virgin, P.J. Soles (THE BOY IN THE PLASTIC BUBBLE, ROCK ‘N’ ROLL HIGH SCHOOL) as a vapid slut, and Donald Pleasance (ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK, ESCAPE TO WITCH MOUNTAIN) as Dr. Loomis, the only person in town who seems to understand the danger posed by a boy roaming the streets in a used William Shatner mask. Come watch the Pancake boys carve up this spooky classic! Featuring the catch-phrase that swept a few people: JACK-O-LANTERN! (John)

Representatives from MANSION OF TERROR will be helping out with decorations and super spooky undead make up!

There are plenty of Zombie Marches, or Michael Jackson Dance Parties, or dozens of other excuses to dress up like a zombie throughout the year. But we’re still going to make you dress as a zombie on Halloween, the one night that you can dress as literally anything you want to, if you want to come to the best Halloween party in town – the Zombie Prom at the Highball.

But wait! That’s not at all a bad thing. Because what we’re hoping to see in costumes for this event is more zombie variety than we’ve ever witnessed before (and after the Zombie Waldo, that may be tough).

So yes, you need to be dressed as a zombie if you want to gain entrance to the Highball this Halloween. But you don’t have to be dressed as the regular old ripped suit or dress zombie! You certainly can, of course, and those outfits go great with a prom theme, but I’m really hoping to see some regular Halloween costumes zombified.

Basically, I want to imagine that it was Halloween, the Zombie Apocalypse happened just as we were all getting ready to go out, and then once we’d all succumbed and become mindless brain hungry monsters, we decided to go out and get our dance party on anyway.

The super strict costume regulations are just the beginning, though. Other plans for greatest Halloween party ever involve a crazy awesome dance party curated by The Action Pack, the same people who have been bringing you Alamo Sing-Alongs for so many years now. We’ll have zombie video backdrops, a photo booth to help you cherish all of your undead memories, a costume contest, human brains on special from the kitchen, and as always, more surprises than we can tell you about here.

Tickets to the Zombie Prom are $13, and include admission to the film that inspired it all DANCE OF THE DEAD! Those screenings will be taking place at the Alamo South Lamar, and after the movie you’ll be able to walk over to the Highball for the Zombie Prom.

Reservations are also available for booths and tables for any interested parties who call and request bottle service. Call the Highball’s reservations specialists at (512) 383-8309 to set up your table reservation today!

Click here to buy your badge today!

AAAFF is an Asian/Asian-American film festival committed to celebrating the best in independent Asian cinema from across the globe. For five years, our festival has highlighted the complexity and vitality of Asian/Asian-American communities through cutting-edge narrative, documentary and experimental films. We aim at bringing awareness to important global issues like saving the environment and supporting other causes through the strong impact of media.

We here at the Alamo love the internet. It’s got all sorts of cool things on it! Sometimes we want to share that stuff with you! Also, we like to let you know when shows are on sale, surprise screenings, and general fun things that we do. Follow us to get up-to-date and instantaneous Alamo news (and general personal information about our fantastic Programming Dept.). All the cool kids are doing it!

Tim League: @TimAlamo (Founder/Owner)
Henri Mazza: @HenriMazza (Creative Director/Programmer)
Lars Nilsen: @LarsAlamo (Programmer/Weird Weds Coordinator)
Brad Parrett: @AlamoBrad (Programmer/Booking)
Zack Carlson: @ZackAlamo (Programmer/Terror Tues Coordinator)
Caitlin Stevens: @CaitlinEStevens (Programmer/Promotions)
Sing-Along/Quote-Along info: @TheActionPack
Alamo Drafthouse information: @Drafthouse
Fantastic Fest information: @FantasticFest
The Highball information: @HighballAustin
MondoTees information: @MondoNews

Sure it feels early to think about booking your holiday parties before we’ve even passed through Halloween yet, BUT it’s never too early to enjoy the anticipation of your company or groups holiday party at the Alamo Drafthouse. Besides, if you wait ’til after Thanksgiving, you might miss your chance to book your Ultimate Holiday Party, Renegade Carolling trip, Christmas Pops Sing-Along, or our unique holiday-themed scavenger hunt! Holiday parties in the office always end up in accidental make-out sessions and people photo-copying their butts, so why not save yourself the drama and give us a call! Your holiday memories with us will be much less embarassing!

CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION, or contact our team at venue@originalalamo.com and (512) 407-9531.