The Month of October

by Tyler Dunahee

Fall is here in southern Illinois and will be in full swing as the leaves turn and temperatures cool in the coming weeks. Tis the time for bon fires, Halloween décor, pumpkin patches and apple orchards.  The month of October signals a number of things, the changing of the seasons being the most obvious as the warm days seem to stretch farther and farther into September.  The month of October is the “awareness month” of a number of things, the most familiar being Breast Cancer Awareness Month, but it also National Bullying Prevention Month, Cybersecurity Month, Adopt-a-Shelter Dog Month, Domestic Violence Awareness Month, amongst many, many other.  On an architectural note, the first Monday in October is considered World Architecture Day.

                For all the sports fans out there, October is probably the greatest month of the year.  Major League Baseball (MLB) Playoffs are starting (well at least for us Cardinal fans, sorry to those Cub and White Sox fans out there), the National Football League (NFL) is in full swing, as well is college football.  The National Hockey League (NHL) preseason has ended and regular season has begun.  Also, toward the end of the month we can begin to look forward to the start of the college basketball season, which for SIU, exhibition games tip off November 2^nd here in Carbondale against Harris-Stowe. 

                For the television and video game junkies, there are a number of things to look forward to as well.  NBC has six new shows premiering this fall, The Blacklist, Ironside, Welcome to the Family, Sean Saves the World, The Michael J. Fox Show, and Dracula.  ABC premiers five news shows and FOX with nine new show premiering this fall.  As well as new shows premiering, there are a number of highly anticipated seasons returning.  Probably the most highly anticipated return is the fourth season of The Walking Dead on AMC, which premieres October 13^th.  As far as video games go, the rest of the year is full of highly anticipated games, however for October, the top games have to be Battlefield 4, Grand Theft Auto (GTA) Online, and Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag. 

                There seem to be few highly anticipated movies released for the month of October, however there are a few to look out for.  Nationwide releases on the first Friday of the month (October 4^th) include Gravity and  Runner, Runner. Runner, Runner possibly being the most anticipated of the month starring Ben Affleck and Justin Timberlake in a film about a Ivy League graduate student (Timberlake) takes on an online gambling tycoon (Affleck).  Other movies to lookout for in the month of October are Machete Kills, Captain Phillips, Romeo and Juliet, the remake of the horror film classic Carrie, Escape Plan, and The Counselor.  However, few of these movies are receiving high marks as the summer blockbusters did.  My advice, catch any summer blockbusters that you missed on DVD or bluray through your local video store or Redbox.

                For those of you in or around Carbondale, October means “Unoffical” Halloween is coming, and this year for the first time in 15 years the Halloween bar ban has been lifted. For those of you partaking in either or both events, I wish you all a fun, but more importantly safe end to the month.