A SCATTERED LIFE

I sort of preferred the days when the Boston Red Sox were magically tragic and the New England Patriots had the NFL’s weirdest logo: A madly grinning minuteman in a three-point stance. And look at these teams now. To soak (and chug) it all in, there’s no better place than the relentlessly Bostonian bar Sonny McLean’s ([310] 449-1811) on Wilshire in Santa Monica . . . On Friday, America’s greatest example of prank-art returns. In 1938, Orson Welles created a Halloween panic (at least in the press) with a radio play of “The War of the Worlds” that sounded a bit too real. Hear stagings of it at the New LATC (Page 20) . . . Tuesday I’ll be thinking about something Bob Dylan muttered during a famously bootlegged show on Halloween night 1964: “I have my Bob Dylan mask on, I’m masquerading.” It’s a perfect motto for the Dylan costume contest and open-mike tribute at 7 p.m. at Fingerprints ([562] 433-4996), the best record store in Long Beach. Which is funnier: To show up as Dylan from “Beverly Hills 90210” or in some brilliant Bruce Springsteen disguise? . . .This week’s notable L.A. date: James M. Cain died 30 years ago this Saturday and, while he was a Maryland guy, he gave us the novella “Double Indemnity,” which yielded the most gloriously cynical L.A. film of them all. What better way to mark the date on Saturday night than by hearing the great, grim poet John Doe perform his new song the “The Golden State” at McCabe’s ([310] 828-4497).

-- theguide@latimes.com