Greetings Friends,
Happy Rocktober!
This is my favorite time of the year. It is getting chilly, the evenings start to get dark and then this month ends with one of my favorite days of the year, Halloween. Becky and I love decorating for Halloween more than any other holiday and we hope you will stop by to trick or treat. Our pirate ship will be there to greet you. Our ace photographer and illustrator MJ Mangano has so much fun with our October cover and it gets better each year as we create our own cast of our creepy Modesto characters. The McHenry Mansion is getting into it this year and they are doing a whole exhibit called “Morbid Obsession” with authentic Victorian tools and messages from the dead and the afterlife. I love it when our great historical places come to life in different ways. We will be featuring as many haunted homes and places on our Instagram @modestoview so make sure you keep your eyes peeled. Tag your haunted pics #modestoview and we will look for them.
This month is just flat out wonderful. There has been so much going on. We have new murals downtown, there are new restaurants open and the cafes and the patios are the place to be. October brings us the Downtown Sampler on October 8, which is a great way to taste the treats from our downtown eateries. You know what is really cool is that all of our downtown restaurants are all locally owned. This is really special and you know that we love to do business and support our friends in the community by eating and drinking local. Our community is healthier when we support our local businesses, like those that advertise here in the pages of Modesto. But right now, you need to buy your Sampler tickets at www.modestosampler.com
What really warms my heart as it gets colder is LIVE MUSIC. Truly, live music makes a community feel so alive, young, current and electric. I just watched the Ken Burns Country Music series, and it was great to see the recognition that our own Maddox Brothers & Rose got as the root of country, hillbilly, rockabilly and rock and roll. It was great to honor K.C. “Don Juan” Maddox at the MAMAs in 2013. This year, we are celebrating 20 years. WOW. This year we celebrate 20 years of MAMA Winners and recognize the DJs of KFIV radio for the MAMA Lifetime Award. Please vote for your faves at www.modestoareamusic.com and tune in to watch the show live on October 15, live from the State Theatre at www.modestoview.com
Finally, thanks to all of you that have donated and supported our local non-profits and have survived my relentless emails and phone calls asking you for money. We are so fortunate that we can raise funds for orgs that do so much good in our community. Thanks for supporting our 100th MoBand Season, Heart Walk, Power of the Purse, and Walk a Mile in Her Shoes, Community Hospice, East LaLoma Park, Rotary Clubs and so much more. This is a really giving town for both funds and volunteerism. I am proud to be one of the regular fundraisers and I will be calling you again soon as we have some big things coming up.
Thanks to you all for reading ModestoView, celebrating the good in our community and making a difference. ModestoView readers and advertisers are the best people in town and I hope to see you out and about. Please let me know what you like about, or how we can improve ModestoView. We always strive to make it better as it is for you.
Wishing you a spooky Rocktober,
Chris Murphy
Publisher and Founder, ModestoView
chrism@modestoview.com<mailto:chrism@modestoview.com>
