Culture Hound: October

Welcome to Culture Hound, InsideHook’s deep dive into the month’s most important pop cultural happenings.

BINGE: Black Mirror
Netflix premieres 12 new episodes of this creepy anthology series (six now, six next spring). Expect a mix of horror, satire and technophobia. Details are tight, but some leaks suggest feral mutants, deadly video games and social media-inspired murders.

IMPRESS: Mozart 225: The New Complete Edition
This, let’s say “pathological” Mozart retrospective boasts 240 hours of classical genius (that’s 4,000 tracks, or 10 days straight of music), plus a new hardcover biography and several frame-worthy prints. He deserves the time: the guy wrote his first opera at 14; what have you done?

RELISH: The Sunrise At ESB
Can’t sleep? Early riser? Either way, you win. Head to the Empire State Building for their joyous sunrise viewing. Limited to 100 people per day for a limited time only. (select Saturdays)

LISTEN: Joyce Manor
The Cali band’s fourth album Cody features 10 songs in 24 minutes — all concise, perfect indie-emo singalongs, with a first single (“Fake ID”) that details how a young man’s tryst ends when his paramour suggests Kanye West “is better than John Steinbeck.”

INDULGE: The Hump Tour
The brilliant, boisterous HUMP! Film Festival returns. From sex-positivity advocate Dan Savage comes another go-round of mind-bending, kinky films of all shapes and sizes. The kicker: they will only appear on the tour and never again. So if you wanna get shocked, this is your singular chance. It’s erotica at its sincerest. Speaking from experience, don’t go with your cousin. (10/8)

READ: Loose Lips: Fanfiction Parodies of Great (and Terrible) Literature
Former InsideHook editor Casey Childers and Amy Stephenson curated this anthology of satirical erotic fan fiction, as crafted by dozens of Hugo, Nebula and Rita award-winning authors. Says Childers: “Loose Lips answers pressing questions from history’s favorite books, questions like, ‘I’m new to being rich … Can I f*ck my yellow car?’ and ‘How come there’s not one woman in Moby Dick who isn’t a boat?’ It’s gross AF, and there are so many laughs.” (Out now)

GO WILD: Brew At The Zoo
When we tell you there are animals at this party, we’re not being facetious. A part of the Bronx Zoo’s adult programming, this Halloween-themed evening features snakes, lemurs, sea lions and more. Plus, you can count on food trucks and 100 varieties of beer. Costumes encouraged, but keep the sexy Harambe in the Meatpacking where it belongs, yeah? (10/29)

ENJOY: Alex
An arty, limited-edition NSFW photo journal focusing on the voluptous Alex Hanson. Yes. (Out now)

EXPERIENCE: The Illuminati Ball
Have you ever been blindfolded, taken out of the city — in formalwear — and had an immersive theater experience, plus dinner, drinks, costumes and whole lot of nudity? We have. We still don’t quite know what happened. We definitely don’t know where we were. But we dug it big time. They don’t do this often … so sign up now. (10/8, 10/29)

GO: Mohegan Sun’s 20th Anniversary
In store: Bruno Mars, Tim McGraw, the Celtics v. the Hornets, Kevin Hart, Dave Atell, Sarah Silverman, Margaret Cho, Chrissy Teigen, LL Cool J, Megadeth, Lynrd Skynrd, Dane Cook, Chicago, Earth, Wind & Fire, Sia, Air Supply, Kiss and Tom Arnold. See also: a stop or two at the craps table. We can’t think of a more interesting itinerary.  (through 10/31)

WATCH: The Accountant
A “forensic accountant” (Ben Affleck) who’s made his career working with money launderers, terrorists and assassins goes legit and uncovers financial chicanery at a robotics company. Math and gunplay ensue. The twist (Affleck’s character is autistic) and A-plus supporting cast (Anna Kendrick, J.K. Simmons) bode well for this unusual fall thriller. More picks in our fall movie guide. (10/14)

LISTEN: Our Spotify playlist
Over 90 minutes of hand-picked new music, including Solange, Royksopp, Dawes, Leonard Cohen, Zach de la Rocha and Justice.

PLAY: Battlefield 1
As Call of Duty heads to the future, its like-minded FPS cousin dives back into World War I. Meaning: Lots of mustard gas, bolt-action rifles and zeppelin attacks, along with 64-person multiplayer action. Take a dekko, watch for crump-holes. (10/21)

ALSO: Remember when video game box art was way better than the game itself? The Art of Atari will remind you (10/25) … All the Mad Max movies and plenty of extras (including a black and white take on Fury Road) come together on the Mad Max High Octane Anthology Collection (10/25) … Stashimi is a cool app for obsessively following your favorite musicians (out now) … A telepathic, disfigured Backgammon champ roams the world in Jonathan Lethem’s eccentric new tome A Gambler’s Anatomy (10/18) … Funnyman Joel McHale (Community, The Soup) gives “get rich gradually” tips in his autobiography Thanks For the Money (10/25), which has a rather insanely great promo trailer … Werner Herzog + volcanoes = works for us. Catch his Netflix doc Into the Inferno (10/28) … The true scares this Halloween arrive via the small screen: most notably, the “creepypasta”-inspired Channel Zero (10/11) and the Aussie serial killer drama Wolf Creek (10/14)