Celebrate Halloween at 370 Degrees Studios in Napa  Friday with free dance classes from 3:30 to from 6 p.m. for those who show up in costumes. From 6 to 7:30 p.m.is a pizza and dance party with a special fire salsa performance at 7 p.m. The cost for the party is $3 for studio members and $5 for non-members. 370 Degrees Studios is at 1115 Jordan Lane in Napa.

Jarvis Conservatory celebrate 13 years of Saturday Opera Night Nov. 1. Kristin Pankonin will accompany the singers, Andrew Moore will lead  a special anniversary sing-a-long, and Lou Zanardi will charm the crowd with his accordion before the singing begins and during intermission.

The Napa School of Music presents the Garage Band 101 Concert Saturday, Nov. 8 at 6 p.m. at Vintage High School Little Theater, 1375 Trower Ave, Napa.

The San Francisco Center for the Book (SFCB) will host a gala party and live auction, Friday, Nov. 7, at the Center, 300 DeHaro St. in San Francisco. All proceeds from this annual fundraising event support SFCB’s programs.

A few months ago, a journalist friend in New York City turned me on to a little-known story by that “American original” writer, Ambrose Bierce, famous for his bleakly cynical, fatalistic tales, such as “Incident at Owl Creek Bridge,” which Kurt Vonnegut calls “the greatest American short story” ever written, and “The Devil’s Dictionary,” a collection of scathing redefinitions of common American words, according to Bierce’s slanted, bitterly ironic outlook. 

Just in time for the creepy season (no, we mean Halloween, not the presidential election), Jeff Dwyer has published a handy guide to curdling your blood and raising your hair: “Ghost Hunter’s Guide to California’s Wine Country.” (Pelican).

“Halloween with the Wailers — does it get any better?” asks Evy Warshawski, the artistic director of the Opera House. “A Rasta reggae dance party in the Café Theatre, right here in Napa, on the spookiest night of the year? We thought it would be fun, since the Wailers were on tour and looking for a date on Oct. 31. It’s always fun to dress up, dance, and have some fun ... and kids are invited, too.”

When asked about mounting the original Broadway production of his “West Side Story,” composer Leonard Bernstein told Rolling Stone magazine “we had the really tough problem of casting it, because the characters had to be able not only to sing but dance and act and be taken for teenagers.

Calistoga’s award-winning Downtown Jazz & Blues Festival takes place this weekend