All the ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT You Can Eat

Movies: Three brief, sharp exhalations—Borat, Babel, Bond—but they say so much. Borat: Cultural Leanings for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (November 3), comedian Sacha Baron Cohen's mockumentary about a foreign correspondent touring America, is either a revolutionary bit of dada/guerrilla satire or the grim, manipulative apotheosis of reality-TV thinking. Either way, it's backed the Kazakhstan government into a posture of defensive publicity—did you see the four-page advert in The New York Times?—and that can't be entirely bad. Babel (November 10) finds Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett and a cast of many in one of those far-flung, cross-cutting narratives in which divergent stories eventually come together to make a point—in this case, about the impossibilities of communication and how great Pitt looks in stubble and wheat-colored foreign-travel gear. Bond goes blond in Casino Royale (November 17), starring Daniel Craig in the 007 movie that producers say will revive the leaner, meaner, less-gizmo'd agent originally conceived by writer Ian Fleming. Reversionist Bond? Please tell us it'll still have all the product placements! Some things don't change, though: Eva Green appears as the Bond girl.

Music: What singer-songwriter boasts the strongest catalog over the past 35 years? Springsteen? Possibly. Joni Mitchell? Could be. Neil Young? Dismissed by reason of insane sideburns. Dylan? Not a bad choice, if obvious. But a solid underdog argument could be made for Tom Waits, who bolsters his case with Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards (November 21), a three-disc set featuring 54 rarities and never-before-heard cuts.

Book: A source with an early copy of Thomas Pynchon's Against the Day (November 21) describes it as "a bit bloated and inflated," but that's SOP for Pynchon. Leaner, meaner and less-gizmo'd might work for Bond, but anyone who recalls the, shall we say, epic, precision bloat of Pynchon's classic Gravity's Rainbow isn't too put off. According to Pynchon's own description on Amazon.com, the book features "anarchists, balloonists, gamblers, corporate tycoons, drug enthusiasts, innocents and decadents, mathematicians, mad scientists, shamans, psychics and stage magicians, spies, detectives, adventuresses and hired guns," not to mention Groucho Marx.

Why you should see a dance for Halloween

Dracula, Nevada Ballet Theatre, October 27–29 at Judy Bayley Theatre, UNLV. $29–$69, 895-2787. For those who like their vampires steamy and sexy, Nevada Ballet Theatre's popular Dracula opens just in time for the Halloween weekend. The gothic fantasy follows the career of Count Dracula from 15th-century Constantinople through late-Victorian England, where he attempts to reunite in the usual vampire way with his reincarnated lost love.

Joss Whedon fans be warned. These are mature vamps, not characters in Buffy, the High School Musical. Choreographer Bruce Steivel has created a passionate, dramatic work using modern and classical dance vocabulary, and has liberally sprinkled it with essence of Grand Guignol. The score is a pastiche of Johann Strauss and award-winning Polish composer Wojciech Kilar and, combined with the lush sets and period costumes, is designed to intensify the overheated mood. The narrative closely follows the familiar 1897 Bram Stoker novel, and even those for whom ballet is foreign territory will find it easy to follow.

Haditha Horror: If you can get past the smug George Clooney cover, November's Vanity Fair offers a patient, thorough and compelling account of the Haditha massacre, in which Marines killed 24 Iraqis after a mine blast killed one of their own. Writer William Langewiesche carefully embeds the incident in the swirling ambiguities of that war, from the inexact rules of engagement for U.S. soldiers to the difficulty of distinguishing, in a guerrilla war, insurgents from citizens.

Also in this issue: Columnist James Wolcott has great sport with the red-state/blue-state divide, chastising red-state moralists by pointing out that their color has higher rates of incarceration, illegitimacy, firearms death, suicide and divorce.

Democracy Is Over: Matt Taibbi's snarl of outrage, "Time to Go: Inside the Worst Congress Ever"—backed, sadly, with piles of evidence—makes for a more despairing Rolling Stone cover story than even news of Justin Timberlake's resurgence. Even shifting your reading glasses to adjust for Taibbi's anti-Bush bias, you can't help but lose hope for our form of government. The story offers ample proof that lies, deal-making, corporate interests and toxic partisanship have—perhaps forever—subverted Congress' vital constitutional role.

Also in this issue: Pop Life columnist Rob Sheffield boldly says what needs to be said: that Dane Cook is not funny.

Endorsement Fever: Esquire, in its November edition, offers endorsements in 504 political races across the country, including a few in Nevada. For governor: Dina Titus (Jim Gibbons "is an ideologue who wears his ignorance proudly"). For Congress: Shelley Berkley (over Kenneth Wegner), Dean Heller (over Jill Derby) and Jon Porter (over Tessa Hafen). For Senate, the editors go with John Ensign, declaring Jack Carter "kind of a boob."

Also in this issue: Scarlett Johansson is named the sexiest woman alive. No shit.

Someone's in the Outback with Dina: That someone is, surprisingly, Las Vegas cultural critic Dave Hickey, who, for the November Harper's, followed the gubernatorial hopeful into rural Nevada as she battled for the Democratic primary. Not primarily known as a campaign-trail reporter, Hickey tucks some sharp observations about the political climate of Nevada—more nuanced than red-state/blue-state theories allow or big media realizes—into his admiring portrait of Titus.

November 2006: After a second straight month of low visitor turnout, organizers realize their mistake: holding the event on an ancient hipster burial ground. They’re cursed!

January 2007: Partisans of Third Thursday show up, make trouble. “There’s only room for one third-week gathering,” they snarl. Only the timely arrival of artisanal lattes averts a rumble.

October 2007: First anniversary celebration draws huge crowd. Organizers declare the event a success. Critics immediately cry “sellout,” vow to start Second Sunday.