We like to celebrate the independent voices of Northeastern Pennsylvania and today we introduce you to Ruthless, a new zine published in Scranton “looking to unite women musically, artistically, and socially.”

Ruthless is run by Marywood University student Jessica Meoni. Along with launching Ruthless, Meoni is working locally to organize Ladyfest, a non-profit, community-based event designed by and for women to showcase, celebrate and encourage the artistic, organizational and political work and talents of women. It’s a woman-run event but all are welcome to attend.

Look for Ruthless downtown at Anthology Books, Outrageous, GreenBeing, Embassy Vinyl, Marc’s Tattooing, The Banshee, Northern Light Espresso Bar, Duffy’s Accessories, AFA Gallery, Nightmare Video, Phoenix Cuts, Electric City Tattoo, The Bog and more; or read the first issue as a PDF.

The Scranton Business Alliance, a project of Scranton Tomorrow, has released a guide to the Holidays in Downtown Scranton with a list of all the events and activities you won’t want to miss over the next two months.

The list includes:

• Greater Scranton Jaycees 16^th Annual Santa Parade
  Saturday, Nov. 22 at 9 a.m.
• Breakfast with Santa at the Hilton Scranton & Conference Center
  Saturday, Nov. 22, immediately following the Santa Parade
• Scranton Business Alliance Holiday Window Showcase
  Saturday, Nov. 22 through Saturday, Dec. 13
• Downtown Scranton Extended Holiday  Shopping Hours and First Night Scranton 2009 Buttons on Sale
  Friday, Nov. 28 through Wednesday, Dec. 24
• Nay Aug Park Light Show sponsored by the City of Scranton
  Friday, Nov. 28 through Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2009
• CPR Holiday Train at Steamtown National Historic Site and Food Bank Collection
  Friday, November 28 at 5:30 p.m.
• First Friday Scranton - Artwalk
  Friday, Dec. 5 from 6-9 p.m.
• Trolley Rides with Santa Claus at the Electric City Trolley Museum
  Saturday, Dec. 6 and Sunday, Dec. 7 at 10:30 a.m., noon, 1:30 and 3 p.m.
• Ronan Tynan: The Gift of Christmas Song at the Scranton Cultural Center
  Saturday, Dec. 6 at 8 p.m.
• A Christmas Carol: A Musical at the Scranton Cultural Center plus special Wiggles and Giggles Workshops
  Sunday, Dec. 7; workshops at noon, performance at 3 p.m.
• Festival of Trees at the Electric City Trolley Museum
  Friday, Dec. 12 through Saturday, Jan. 10, 2008
• Second Saturday Soiree - Window Showcase Finale
  Saturday, Dec. 13
• First Night Scranton 2009, a project of Scranton Tomorrow
  Wednesday, Dec. 31 from 6 p.m. - midnight
• Winter in the City, a fundraiser for Scranton Tomorrow
  Friday, Jan. 9, 2009 from 5:30-8 :30 p.m.

For more information on these events, keep reading Electric City Renaissance in the weeks ahead or check www.scrantontomorrow.org.

Each week we feature a round-up of interesting stories from PaAdventure, the official blog of the Pennsylvania Tourism Office and a site that shares the goals of the Electric City Renaissance.

This week on PaAdventure, you could read about:

• Bendigo State Park: A look at Bendigo state park located in the Pennsylvania Wilds on the East Branch of the Clarion River.
• Which is the better PA sandwich?: Examines the epic question - Are Philly cheesesteaks better than Pittsburgh-specialty, the Primanti Brothers’ sandwich?
• Light-Up Night: Kicking off the holiday season in Pittsburgh with fireworks, shopping and Santa.

We recently discovered PaAdventure, the official blog of the Pennsylvania Tourism Office, that shares many of the goals of the Electric City Renaissance. Now, on a weekly basis, we’ll be bringing you articles from the PaAdventure site we think Northeastern Pennsylvania readers need to check out.

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If you’ve never been, now is the perfect time to visit local landmark the Psychic Theater of Scranton, 1433 N. Main Ave., with Halloween right around the corner.

The more than 100-year-old theater has been featured on the Discovery Channel’s “Exploring The Unknown,” The Biography Channel, and the BBC’s Dead Famous. During winter months, the theater hosts tours of its Houdini Museum with a live stage show but, for fans of the supernatural, you have to check out its “Haunted! Mind Mysteries & the Beyond” show.

The Psychic Theater is so sure of its spiritual activities that “Haunted!” comes with a $5,000 guarantee you will “hear, feel or see paranormal type happenings… such as sounds, touches, ghosts, mind reading, mind control, or poltergeist activity that you will not be able to fully explain and duplicate” during the show.

The show tells the story of murder-suicide-electrocution that happened in the building and lays out the seven steps to a successful seance. And after a short intermission, visitors take part in a multi-media dark séance, including “experiments in mind control, telepathy, clairvoyance, telekinesis, metal bending, sightless vision.”

The entire presentation runs nearly three hours, evenings at 8 p.m. by reservation only. Call 383-9297 to make your reservation.

October in Northeastern Pennsylvania is haunted house season; get set for Halloween in the Scranton and Wilkes-Barre areas with our list of local haunted houses, along with a few “real” haunted places around the region.

• Horror Hall - A quarter-mile, 20-minute walkthrough located in West Nanticoke. Horror Hall has been around for nearly 20 years and features more than 17 rooms, with multiple themes and interactive rooms.
• Dracula’s Forest - Celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. Located in Clarks Summit.
• Gravestone Manor - Describes itself as a “theatrical presentation” that goes beyond your traditional haunted house. Located in Plains.
• Nite Terrors - With three full-time professionally credited designers on staff, and a blend of computer control and live action, Nite Terrors offers a unique quarter-mile indoors walk at its West Pittston location.
• Psychic Theater - This is a year-round attraction on North Main in Scranton but, nonetheless, it makes an excellent Halloween-time stop.
• Screamin Demons Haunted Attractions - Animatronics, live actors and theatrical effects. Located in Dallas.
• The Haunt on South Irving - Lights up this Friday and will continue from then until Halloween on South Irving in Scranton.

If you’re less interested in the theatrical than the truly haunted, check out a list by the Haunt Society of Northeastern Pennsylvania with all of the NEPA’s haunted spots or a list of Pennsylvania’s haunted places. The Paranormal Researchers of Scranton have posted several investigations of local haunts on their MySpace page.

And on Thursday, Oct. 23, from 6:30-8:30 p.m., the Albright Memorial Library in Scranton will host the New York Pennsylvania Paranormal Society with a presentation, Q&A and the results of their investigation of the library in August

With the Steamtown Marathon coming up on Sunday, Oct. 12, we bring you a set of resources, today, to help runners and race fans around Northeastern Pennsylvania get more out of the race.

First, the basics: The Steamtown Marathon starts at 8 a.m. at the Forest City High School and finishes at Courthouse Square in Downtown Scranton. The course features a full net elevation drop of 955 feet and is considered one of the fastest marathon courses in the country. Steamtown has become popular among runners looking to qualify for the Boston Marathon. In 2007, MarathonGuide.com reported 21% of the Steamtown field qualified for Boston.

Race fans can follow the personal blogs of several runners documenting their training for the Steamtown Marathon.

• Girl In Motion
• MovingDogward
• Solo Runner
• Jokach’s Marathon Training Blog

Browse a huge collection of photos from past Steamtown participants and fans on FlickR.

Chat with other marathoners from across the east coast coming to Scranton for the Steamtown Marathon on the Runner’s World forum’s official Steamtown thread or the Steamtown Marathon site’s own forum.

And WNEP offers a four-part series on the 2007 race and will broadcast a special on this year’s race on Friday, Oct. 17, at 7:30 p.m.

After a bit of a delay, we continue our series introducing the new resident artistic company of Scranton’s Electric Theatre (formerly The Northeast Theatre) today with a profile of Conor McGuigan.

McGuigan is a native of the South Side of Scranton who began working with The Northeast Theatre in 2002 and, since that time, has appeared in numerous local productions. He said he was thrilled when the theatre moved to the downtown area in the old Hotel Jermyn at 326 Spruce Street; he’s even more elated now to be a member of the resident artistic company.

McGuigan was the founder of the recently closed Test Pattern Art Gallery where he developed a string of basement theatre puppet shows.  When not on stage, Conor can be found DJ’ing and making people sweat around the area with his records or hiding in one of the nooks at Anthology Bookstore.

The Electric Theatre recently opened its 17th season with a production of George Bernard Shaw’s “Arms and the Man,” featuring McGuigan and the rest of the resident artistic company. The show runs through October 5 on Wednesdays and Thursdays at 7 p.m., Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m., and Sundays at 3 p.m. For tickets and details, call 570-558-1515 or visit www.electrictheatre.org.

This is part of a series on the members of the resident artistic company of the Electric Theatre. Previous installments include: Mary Ethel Schmidt, Heather Stuart, Richard Grunn and David Zarko.

The community of Northeastern Pennsylvania actors, actresses and filmmakers continues to grow as evidenced by posters for the multimedia political project Vote Tom Ryan plastered around the Electric City and by the growth of the Community Film Project. Following on the heels of the horror film “Head Trauma” shot in our area, Pittston-based Warlight Pictures is preparing to premiere its feature-length thriller “Fair Evil.”

Warlight Pictures was formed in 2003 by husband and wife filmmaking team Claude T. Martin and Tiana Lucie-Martin. The couple has made seven films to date, earning Best Original Screenplay at The Pocono Mountain Film Festival in 2004 and Best Short Film in 2005.

Their latest, “Fair Evil,” was shot around Northeastern Pennsylvania and stars Connie Shelhamer and features Bill Armitage, Johnny Paradise, Jane Adonizio, David Dover, Michael Watts and Robert Haynes. “Fair Evil” will premiere at Endless Mountains Theatre, Dickson City, on October 25 at 6:30 p.m.

Until then, here’s a clip to tide you over:

The powerful and moving “Letters to Sala” exhibition recently opened at the University of Scranton and I encourage all of Northeastern Pennsylvania to see it while it’s in our area.

Based on a young woman’s life in Nazi labor camps, the exhibition compiles materials from the Sala Garncarz Kirschner Collection of the Dorot Jewish Division of The New York Public Library. The University of Scranton will host “Letters to Sala” through October 28 in the Heritage Room on the fifth floor of the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Memorial Library.

Though the exhibition is currently open to view, a reception will be held on Sunday, Sept. 14, from 1-4 p.m. at the Weinberg Library featuring Ann Kirschner. Ann is the daughter of Sala Kirschner, the subject of “Letters to Sala,” and is the author of “Sala’s Gift,” a book detailing her mother’s experiences during the Holocaust.

Funding partners for this exhibit are The Jewish Federation of Northeastern PA, Friends of the Weinberg Library and the Scranton Area Foundation. Supporters are NEIU 19, The University of Scranton, Albright Memorial Library and the PA Holocaust Education Council.