It's beginning to look a lot like Halloween

Tonight is the annual Halloween Monster Concert at Appalachian State University, a tradition I started in 2006. That's all the credit I can take, because the rest of it was inspired by the same annual tradition in Houston, started many years earlier by others.

Anyway, tonight at 8:00 Eastern, we will hear the Bach d minor, along with "accompaniment" by the audience reading cue cards with such commands as "scream," "applaud," "ooh, aah,""uh oh," "snort," and the like.

We will sing Pumpkin Carols such as "Deck the patch with poison ivy / Fa la la..." and "We three ghosts of Halloween are / scaring kids who wander too far." Classics, I know.

We will administer a Name-That-(scary)-Tune quiz, where the piano and organ will play tunes from horror movies and monster-themed TV shows. Also included in the "scary" category would be tunes that we hear far too often, such as Chopsticks, those *%&# Phantom chords, and You Light Up My Life.

We will hear the Boëllmann Toccata.

We will have various costume contests: scariest, funniest, cheesiest, best couple, and most original. Applause will be the judge.

This year, we are adding a silent movie, Thomas Edison's Frankensten, 1910.

And candy will be available at the end, as will open console.

If you're in the area, you ought to come up. Those of you outside the area ought to attend a similar event or just pine for this one. It really is a hoot, pun intended.