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October 12: 2018: What to Know

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The reimagined Idaho State Museum swings open its doors, the Mega Millions and Powerball jackpots continue to climb, Kanye West leaves Trump speechless and take a first look at Disney's reboot of Aladdin. Eleven deaths across three states have been linked to Hurricane Michael, and more than a million homes and businesses are still without electricity. After causing widespread damage across Florida and Georgia, Michael weakened into a tropical storm and The Weather Channel says it is now slogging through the Carolinas, which are still recovering from last month's Hurricane Florence. Five years and $17 million in the making, the doors of the renamed, reimagined Idaho State Museum will swing open to the public today. "The size of the project was always big, and the challenges continued to grow as time progressed," Idaho State Historical Society Executive Director Janet Gallimore told Boise Weekly. "But it was always important to think about this in the simplest of terms: doing it right." Opening ceremonies get underway this morning, with remarks from representatives of the Coeur d'Alene, Kootenai, Nez Perce, Shoshone-Bannock and Shoshone-Paiute tribes. Once they open the doors, museum officials have scheduled a weekend full of family friendly events, including a swirl of hands-on activities for kids, potato sack races, gold panning, cultural performances and gallery talks. Food trucks and a photo booth will also be on site. Parking in Julia Davis Park is expected to be limited, so shuttles will transport visitors to and from two satellite locations: the Brady Street Garage at Boise State University and Clearwater Analytics in downtown Boise. Expect some long lines if you're buying a lottery ticket this weekend. With no winning numbers last week in the Mega Millions and Powerball drawings, the combined jackpots have grown to nearly $870 million, one of the highest amounts ever. The projected Mega Millions jackpot for tonight's drawing is $548 and the Powerball jackpot for Saturday night's drawing is expected to be $314 million People are still scratching their heads over Kanye West's rambling monologue in the Oval Office on Thursday that left President Trump speechless for 10 minutes. NBC News said that reporters counted at least 40 different topics during West's diatribe, including mental illness, "stop-and-frisk" policing and hydrogen-powered planes. USA Today reports that a Florida woman is threatening to sue Frontier Airlines after she was booted from a flight for bringing aboard her "emotional support squirrel." NBC, in an attempt to retain audiences who have abandoned traditional networks for streaming platforms such as Netflix, Amazon and Hulu, is developing a drama series based on Abraham Lincoln: Vampire…

Esme Patterson Drops Tunes Off Her Unreleased Album at The Olympic

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Esme Patterson performed at The Olympic on Oct. 11. Singer-songwriter Esme Patterson is working on a new album. It doesn't have a name yet, and is set for release in 2019, but she did have a few new tracks ready for a small audience at The Olympic on Oct. 11. "I was, like, '[Expletive], I want to make dancing music,'" she said ahead of her visit to Boise. On top of music from her most recent album, We Were Next (Xtra Mile Recordings, 2016), she performed a few "reactions" songs to classics by The Beatles and Michael Jackson, and teased a handful of songs that leaned punk rock, rather than swayed to the down-tempo melodies many fans have come to expect from the Denver, Colorado-based musician. …

Boise City Leaders, Lime, Bird to Host e-Scooter Educational Events

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The e-scooters from Bird and Lime should hit Boise streets later in October. The City of Boise, gearing up toward the imminent release of e-scooters in the City of Trees, has announced it will host e-scooter education and training events at locations across town. The events are slated for Monday, Oct. 15, from noon-1 p.m. at Boise City Hall; on Tuesday, Oct. 16, from 3-4 p.m. at Rotary Plaza in Julia Davis Park; and on Wednesday, Oct. 17, from 6-7 p.m. at the shelter in Esther Simplot Park. There, people can meet with representatives of the two e-scooter companies that have submitted applications to do business in Boise—Bird and Lime—and learn about using the scooters safely and courteously on Boise streets. City leaders first said the e-scooters would make their debuts in Boise on Oct. 15, but their rollout, according to the city, will happen sometime before Halloween. According to Lime's application, the company has asked to release 250 e-scooters in Boise. Lime e-scooters first appeared in Meridian in late September, but within a week, they had been pulled from the streets after approximately a dozen were impounded by the Ada County Highway District for impeding the right-of-way. In early October, the Meridian City Council asked Lime to delay reintroducing its e-scooters until mid-May while the company works with stakeholders to address problems with the initial rollout. While events unfolded in Meridian, Boise City leaders said they had placed their faith in a package of ordinances passed earlier this summer that create a licensure system for bike-share and e-scooter companies, with caps and minima on the number of devices they can deploy on city streets. …

Why Am I Seeing This? Interesting Facebook Ads From Our Political Ad Collector

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We’re highlighting examples from our Facebook political ad collection that are interesting because of how they’re targeted, what they say or how they can help explain how Facebook’s advertising system works — and how it can be gamed. These ads are collected from participants in our Political Ad Collector project. If you want to help us by submitting the ads you see to our collection, join the project. It’s easy.What Facebook Political Ad Algorithms Don’t CatchThis Member of Congress Spends Big on Facebook AdsUber Targets Ad at Supporters of Black Lives MatterThe Biggest Political Advertiser You Probably Haven’t Heard Of: Marsy’s LawSupreme Court Battlefield: North DakotaCordray Campaign’s Made-Up News Pages Now Have DisclosureWe’ll be updating this list as we find other interesting ads.What Facebook Political Ad Algorithms Don’t Catch #Sen. Kamala Harris bought ads in states across the country opposing Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation to the Supreme Court. Normally, an ad like the ones Harris ran would be considered “political” by Facebook’s definition, as it “advocates for or against an issue of national importance.”But Facebook’s political ad archive, launched in May, hasn’t been catching all such ads. Consider this ad about civil rights in schools, from The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. Even though “civil rights” is one of Facebook’s designated “issues of national importance,” it doesn’t include the disclosure either. Facebook has pitched its disclosure requirements and its searchable database of political ads and their sponsors as a major tool for transparency. The usefulness of those tools depends on the company’s ability to sort through huge quantities of ads and identify which ones are, by its own definition, political.But even as the net Facebook made has caught things that aren’t political — like LGBT-themed events and news stories — ads like Harris’ are still slipping through.Reached for comment, a Facebook spokesperson said “enforcement will never be perfect but we regularly take steps to improve,” and said that the ads run by Harris and the Leadership Conference should have been marked as political.— Ariana Tobin and Jeremy B. Merrill, Oct. 8, 2018This Member of Congress Spends Big on Facebook Ads #Early this year, residents of southern New Jersey saw a lot of Facebook ads from Don Norcross, their member of Congress. The ads prompted them to like his Facebook page and to sign up for email updates from his office.Here’s an example: Norcross is a big buyer of Facebook ads. According to a ProPublica analysis, he is one of the top spenders on Facebook ads in the House. According to the House’s Statement of Disbursements, he spent $24,570 from his office budget on Facebook ads…

Pre-Dawn Fire Damages BrickYard, Amsterdam in Downtown Boise

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Investigators said the fire started in a plate warmer unit built into a wall between 601 and 609 Main. The warmer had been left on and wood plates within the warmer ignited and extended up the wall. Boise Fire officials say a warming unit left on overnight sparked a blaze that damaged The BrickYard Steakhouse and Amsterdam Lounge in Downtown Boise early Saturday morning. Fire crews were summoned to the 600 block of Main Street just before 6 a.m., to find that smoke had already activated sprinklers in the kitchen. Investigators said the fire started in a plate warmer unit built into a wall between 601 and 609 Main. The warmer had been left on and wood plates within the warmer ignited and extended up the wall. The BrickYard suffered most of the fire, smoke and water damage with some damage also reported at the Amsterdam. …

The Little-Known, Grim Inspiration for 'Food Truck Voting' in Ada County

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"What would we have done? The number one thing we must never do is disenfranchise someone's right to vote. So we started planning." In the summer of 2016, Ada County Chief Deputy Clerk Phil McGrane shared with Boise Weekly some of the first schematics of what would become known as "food truck voting," a dazzling, burst-of-colors mobile polling unit that Ada County would soon roll out to satellite locations across the county, in an effort to increase accessibility to the voting process. "We're hopeful that early voting will continue to grow here," McGrane told BW. "How should I describe this? We're going to be 'food truck voting.'" The idea caught plenty of national attention; even Food & Wine magazine reported the news. The mobile voting unit made its debut during the 2016 General Election cycle and has since gained in popularity. But what most voters don't know is that the true inspiration for the mobile unit stemmed from the real possibility of tragedies: devastating weather storms and school shootings. "Quite frankly, we needed to be ready in case of tragedy," said McGrane. "Think back to Hurricane Sandy in 2012, which hit just before Election Day. They had to shut down nearly half of the polling places in the New York area. I don't know what would happen if we had to do that." And then, an unsettling series of active shooter incidents gained in frequency across the U.S. In fact, a little-known incident in Boise on Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2013 (Election Day), put Ada County election officials on possible alert. On that date, Boise Police were summoned to a house where a person with a loaded gun was threatening suicide. Because the house was near a Boise school, the district locked down the school as a precaution for about an hour. But the school was also an active Ada County polling place. "By the time we got word of the police action, the matter was resolved. Miraculously, no one showed up to vote at that polling place in that hour's time, but it begs the question: What would we have done? The number one thing we must never do is disenfranchise someone's right to vote," said McGrane. "So we started planning." Three years and $50,000 later, a mobile voting unit became reality. Indeed, it is a high-profile tool, which has since inspired other election districts around the U.S. to use as a model to develop their own "food truck voting" unit. But in case of emergency, it is, more importantly, ready to…

October 15, 2018: What to Know

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Trump sends the Secretary of State to investigate the disappearance of a Washington Post columnist, early voting begins in a number of Idaho communities, The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are expecting their first child, Lady Gaga makes a bit of history and police in Savannah, Georgia, are up in arms over some googly hijinks. President Donald Trump announced this morning that he would send Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to meet with Saudi Arabian ruler King Salman in an effort to investigate the disappearance of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, who was last seen entering the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul nearly two weeks ago. The Post says the kingdom is pushing back against Trump, who promised "severe punishment" if the Saudis were found to have been responsible for the disappearance. Election season will hit full stride today as early voting gets underway in Ada and Canyon counties in the Treasure Valley, Blaine County in the Wood River Valley and Twin Falls County in the Magic Valley. Ada County will offer three brick-and-mortar polling places to choose from (the county elections headquarters on North Benjamin Lane, and Boise and Meridian city halls) plus its mobile voting unit will visit multiple satellite locations over the next three weeks, beginning today at the Garden City Library. A new Washington Post/ABC News poll indicates that voter enthusiasm is significantly higher than in the period leading up to the last midterm elections in 2014. The survey indicates 76 percent of respondents say that they're "absolutely certain to vote" and another 12 percent said they "probably will." Idaho Fish and Game Commissioner Blake Fischer was the subject of a nationally televised report on NBC's Today Show this morning. Fischer is in the hot seat for posting several photos online showing how he killed a family of baboons, a leopard and a giraffe using a crossbow. Idaho Governor C.L. "Butch" Otter's office told NBC News that it's looking into the matter. Fischer insists he didn't do anything illegal during his recent hunting trip to Africa. Kensington Palace announced this morning that Meghan Markle and Prince Harry are expecting their first child next spring. The couple arrived in Sydney this morning for a tour of Australia. Lady Gaga made a bit of history this past weekend. While her film A Star is Born continued its box office success, the movie's soundtrack debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard chart, making Gaga the only woman to have five No. 1 albums this decade. Entertainment Weekly says the album is filled with songs penned and performed by Gaga. Law enforcement in Savannah, Georgia, is on the lookout for a googly vandal. Someone is putting googly eyes on some of the city's…

October 16, 2018: What to Know

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The Saudis change their tune on the disappearance of Jamal Khashoggi, an embattled Idaho Fish and Game Commissioner resigns, a messy morning commute on I-84, Burger King is the speediest of the drive-thrus and archaeologists say they've found one of the largest Viking ship graves ever discovered. The New York Times reports that the Saudi Arabian government is prepared to make a dramatic turnaround in its explanation for the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who went missing two weeks ago after walking into a Saudi consulate in Istanbul. The Times says a person familiar with the incident now says Khashoggi died at the consulate "during a botched interrogation." Governor C.L. "Butch" Otter accepted the resignation of Idaho Fish and Game Commissioner Blake Fischer Monday after Fischer came under increasing criticism for an African hunting trip where he shared photos of slain baboons and a giraffe. The governor's office said he returned from an out-of-state engagement Monday specifically to handle the Fischer controversy. Nearly 2,500 ballots were cast Monday in Ada County's first day of early voting. Ada County has three early voting stations—Boise and Meridian city halls and the county elections office on N. Benjamin Lane—and today, the county's mobile voting unit will be parked in the lot outside of Albertsons supermarket on E. Avalon Street in Kuna. The Treasure Valley commute on eastbound Interstate 84 was a bit more challenging than usual this morning after a semi truck overturned on the highway near Eagle Road. Traffic crawled through one lane through most of the morning. By this time tomorrow, Canada will become the second nation in the world where marijuana will be legal on a national level. The BBC says that beginning Wednesday, Oct. 17, Canadian adults will be able to possess up to 30 grams of pot and grow as many as four plants of any size per household. Travelers should know that it's not a cannabis free-for-all. There are only about 200 retailers who will be open for business on day one. QSR Magazine is out with its annual fast food drive-thru study and Burger King took the top spot for speediest delivery: an average of 193 seconds. Coming in second was Dunkin' Donuts, followed by KFC, Wendy's, Taco Bell, Arby's, Carl's Jr., Hardee's Chick-fil-A and McDonald's National Geographic reports that archaeologists have discovered the outlines of a Viking ship buried not far from the Norwegian capital of Oslo. Researchers think the land was a final resting place of a prominent Viking king or queen. It's presumably the largest Viking ship grave ever found. …

"Cool Hound Luke"

"You're such a good listener."

Puzzle Answers October 17, 2018

Digital Edition Oct. 17, 2018

“Night of the Fireflies”

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Medium: Oil pastel crayon Artist Statement: During my sophomore year at Idaho State University we were exploring darkness in a composition. I made a scene inspired by Vincent van Gogh. When I was 13, my family went to my grandma's in Ohio. We were catching fireflies at night.…

The Fire That Soaked Amsterdam

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"Bad things happen, but I'm lucky they weren't really bad, that they're things you can come back from." In the early morning hours of Oct. 13, a heat lamp set into the wall of the Brickyard Steakhouse scorched a wooden appetizer tray, causing a fire that spread up the wall and set off a pair of sprinkler heads at Amsterdam Lounge next door. "They worked great," said Amsterdam Owner Ted Challenger about the fire-suppression sprinklers. "The Brickyard and Amsterdam got minor damage." By Oct. 15, Brickyard was again open for business, albeit with a slight smell coming from the kitchen, but the measures at Amsterdam that kept the fire from spreading ultimately caused damage to roughly one-third of a bar area in an art exhibition/special events/overflow space that could take longer to repair. "I should probably have that section open again within a week, due to the fact that we have amazing firefighters," Challenger said. It had only been a month since another of Challenger's bars, nearby dance club China Blue, announced it would close for renovations as workers repair the roof and replaced beams supporting an air conditioning unit. He said he expects some movement this week from Boise City Hall, which would allow continued renovation of the historic building. In a video posted on Facebook hours after the fire broke out, Challenger encouraged fans of Amsterdam to continue visiting the bar, saying that while the renovations to China Blue and damage at Amsterdam have dinged his cash flow, they're not critical blows to Boise's Main Street nightlife scene. In an interview with Boise Weekly, he said he was grateful the damage wasn't more extensive. "I feel lucky in both these instances. I mean, with the roof, yeah, I'm out for a while, but imagine if those air conditioners came down on top of a dance floor, or imagine if that fire spread to the whole place," Challenger said. "... Bad things happen, but I'm lucky they weren't really bad, that they're things you can come back from."…

Alley Repertory Theater’s The Cake Puts Politics Center Stage

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Thursday, Oct. 18 through Friday, Oct. 27 at the Visual Arts Collective Even if the minutiae of national politics isn’t your cup of tea, there’s a good chance you remember the Supreme Court faceoff between a Colorado baker and the gay couple whose wedding cake he refused to make. The baker, Jack Phillips, cited a religious objection to creating the cake, and on June 4, the U.S. Supreme Court sided with him, ruling that his choice was protected by religious freedom. More recently, a similar case before Britain’s Supreme Court saw the same outcome on Oct. 10, with the court ruling that the baker’s refusal to make a cake for a gay customer inscribed with the message “Support Gay Marriage” shouldn’t be considered sexual discrimination. Art, as they say, imitates life. And starting with a preview on Thursday, Oct. 18, Alley Repertory Theater will debut the comedic play The Cake at the Visual Arts Collective in Garden City. While the synopsis for the The Cake reads like a play on recent political events, Director Buffie Main of ART said it’s actually based on This Is Us playwright Bekah Brunstetter’s real-life experience asking a family friend to create a cake for her same-sex wedding. That realism may be what saves the production from what could otherwise have been a partisan throughline: Because all of the characters are based on the writer’s close friends, The Cake is a political story that refuses to dehumanize or take sides. “What I loved the most about the show is that [the characters] all have a really strong belief system, and all of those people are well-represented and we still have compassion for every side of the topic,” Main said, adding, “It’s just a delightful show. It’s funny, but it’s also written really well.” The production will run through Friday, Oct. 26, with intermittent evening performances and a matinee on Sunday, Oct. 21. Main said she hopes The Cake will spur discussion of its same-sex marriage and religious themes, but also churn up thoughts on the broader topics of love and marriage. Debates will be enlivened by the fact that The Cake itself doesn’t offer any answers, instead focusing on character growth and evolution. “I think it’s a very realistic ending, but there’s no resolution,” Main siad. “I think the thing is, no one wins. And maybe that’s the part of it that’s powerful.”…

After Fire, The Reef to Host Knitting Factory Employee Fundraiser

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Rocking the Country rolls into The Reef on Friday, Oct. 19. Outside the Knitting Factory Concert House on Sept. 11, employees from The Knit and other nearby businesses filled the sidewalks to watch firefighters do their thing and battle a blaze that damaged 60 percent of the building. "The restoration process at the Knitting Factory is moving along quickly but we don't have any additional details yet on a reopening date," wrote Knitting Factory General Manager Gary Pike in an email. "So far, our main focus has been to clean up and remove everything that was damaged by smoke and water." A fundraiser at The Reef, the Sixth Street restaurant, bar and concert venue, aims to keep employees of The Knit out of the lurch. On Friday, Oct. 19, Rocking the Country will roll into The Reef for five hours of country music, and all funds raised will support the Knitting Factory staff displaced by the fire. The Reef concert showcases eight acts—Corey James of Fall Creek String Band, Pinto Bennett of Pinto Bennett & The Famous Motel Cowboys, Dustin Isaac of The Tumbleweeds, Cliff Miller, Jesse Dayne & The Sagebrush Drifters, Dave Nudo Band, Dusty Leigh & The Claim Jumpers, and Jensen Buck & The Family—hosted by Tim Meyer of Channel 99. There will be a $5 cover for the 21-and-over show and raffle items from supporting businesses. The Reef Booking Manager Garren Spinato called The Knitting Factory and its workers "part of our community" when explaining the event, which will be the second fundraiser for Knitting Factory employees. The first took place at Mardi Gras Sept. 23. Wade Huston, a member of Dusty Leigh & The Claim Jumpers and one of the chief organizers of the fundraiser at The Reef, said he already has a "room full" of swag for the auction, including a Taurus 9mm handgun, a Fender Telecaster-style guitar, stays at local hotels and more. He said the fundraiser is his way of saying "thank you" to The Knit. "That's probably our favorite place to play in the valley. A lot of the stage crews, a lot of the lighting and sound guys, they're the ones that are kind of just sitting around waiting for the venue to open back up so they can go to work," Huston said.…

BCT: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

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Boise Contemporary Theater, through Saturday, Nov. 10 Here's the gloss on The Curious Incident: When the neighbor's dog, Wellington, is found after meeting a grisly end, 15-year-old math whiz Christopher must become a sleuth to find its killer. The Curious Incident was originally a 2003 novel that was long-listed for the Man Booker Prize and a book club favorite, but the story has proved portable. Playwright Simon Stephens' stage adaptation, which will run at Boise Contemporary Theater through Saturday, Nov. 10, tied the record for the most Olivier Awards (seven wins) after it debuted in 2012, and snagged a Tony award in 2015 for Best New Play. Unlike the book, though, the play centers on a schoolteacher reading Christopher's story aloud in segments.

Horrific Puppet Affair

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Thursday, Oct. 18 through Wednesday, Oct. 31 at the Gem Center for the Arts There are no strings holding down the Horrific Puppet Affair. Over the last seven years, this puppet show has gone from a novelty to an honest-to-puppeteer Halloween tradition, and it's as iconically Boise as marching up Simplot's Hill for a silver dollar. For the last four years, Woodland Empire Ale Craft has hosted HPA, but this will be the first season that HomeGrown Theatre, which puts on the show, will throw down at its new location, the Gem Center for the Arts. Check out its eight short Halloween-y plays by the likes of Alan Heathcock and Josh Gross, and directors like Dwayne Blackaller of Boise Contemporary Theater, HGT Co-founder Jaime Nebeker and Dayna Smith of Campfire Theatre Festival. While puppets and shadow-plays have a childish feel to them, viewers should be aware that this is entertainment for mature audiences.

Evolution Dance: Cirque Maudit

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Expo Idaho, Thursday, Oct. 18 through Sunday, Oct. 20 Deep in the French Alps is a network of peaks called Cirque Maudit, or the Infernal Circus. It's a forbidding place, where stony fingers reaching for the sky surround a pristine snowfield. In the late 1800s, this terrifying spot gave its name to a raucous French circus and burlesque tradition that turned legends of a haunted alpine landscape into a blur of fantasy, the erotic and the off-limits. For two nights, Evolution Dance is bringing that tradition to Garden City, where it will perform Cirque Maudit days ahead of Halloween. While the classic Infernal Circus is a rated-R affair, Evolution has toned down the sexuality and mock horror, but never fear: These performances will still have the devil's share of horror, sensuality and adult language. Head over to "discover the curse behind the glittering lights."

Boise Classic Movies: Spooktacular October Films

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The Egyptian Theatre, various dates and times Halloween in Boise is no joke, and to help you get even more in the mood for trick-or-treating, Boise Classic Movies is offering up a slate of scary (and not-so-scary) Halloween-themed films over the course of the month. Beetlejuice and The Nightmare Before Christmas have already come and gone, but four more movies are still waiting in the wings, including Young Frankenstein (7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 19), Hocus Pocus (1 and 4:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 20), The Shining (8 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 20) and the season's crowning glory, The Rocky Horror Picture Show (7 p.m. Monday, Oct. 29 and 11 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 30—a second Tuesday showing is already sold out). Snag your tickets on the BCM website and schedule a time to scare yourself silly.
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