This week is all about getting ready for Halloween by buying candy for trick-or-treaters and then eating it all by yourself before they even show up. Hey, it’s your candy!

For those of you who want to get out of the house, the Cathedral of St. John the Divine has a classic event every year called The Procession of the Ghouls, where ghosts and witches traipse around the church and sometimes even touch you. This year they’re screening the original Phantom of the Opera beforehand with accompaniment by the church’s awesome Great Organ. The fun starts at 7 and 10 p.m. on Friday night and it costs $20. Register here.

Below, check out our list of dozens of events for the week starting Oct. 24. We will likely add more as the week progresses. And email us at info at westsiderag dot com to let us know about upcoming events.

Please double-check times and prices with the event producer. Many venues offer special pricing for students, seniors and members.

Monday

6 p.m.
Forgotten Musicals Unsung treasure from the Library’s musical theater collections performed by cabaret artist Steve Ross and friends. At New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center, Bruno Walter Auditorium. FREE.

7 p.m.
Lyn Di Iorio Introduced by Ernesto Quinonez: Outside the Bones Lyn Di Iorio (author of Killing Spanish) reads from her debut novel Outside the Bones, a magical story that weaves Afro-Caribbean witchcraft rituals into the story of a woman’s strange disappearance. Ernesto Quinonez (Bodega Dreams) introduces the event. At the 82nd Street Barnes & Noble. FREE.

8 p.m.
D’Ambrose Boyd & David Pearl Present Singers Space Come to Singers Space at Thalia Café, hosted by D’Ambrose Boyd with David Pearl at the piano. Where New York’s finest professional and aspiring singers go to sing their favorites and hear their peers perform before an intimate audience. The café offers cocktails, wine & beer, soups, salads, wraps and desserts. There’s no cover and no minimum. At Symphony Space. FREE.

Tuesday

10 a.m.
Hippo Playground Class: Creative Tuesday Art Class Join Marina, an experienced early childhood art teacher, for a creative Tuesday in the Hippo Art Studio. Each week, toddlers ages 2-4 will create artwork inspired by favorite stories, authors, artists, seasons and the ever-inspiring NYC. Classes will be limited to 10 children with accompanying caregivers and will be filled on a first come first served basis. In the Park House at Riverside Park’s Hippo Playground. $15.

11:30 a.m.
Hippo Playground Class: Mommy & Me Music Class Loretta Daley is a musical theatre professional with 15+ years experience teaching babies and young children in numerous Upper West Side programs.  Loretta’s classes for 1-2 year-olds include circle time filled with rhythmic games using a variety of instruments, animated story telling, puppetry and other engaging, musical activities. In the Park House at Riverside Park’s Hippo Playground. $15.

12 p.m.
Toe-Tappin’ Tuesdays – Dixieland Jazz with the Gotham Jazzmen The Gotham Jazzmen bring you all your old favorites and more on Tuesdays from 12:00 noon to 1:30 p.m. New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center, Bruno Walter Auditorium. FREE.

2:30 p.m.
Karloff, the Monster (and the Gentleman) The Body Snatcher, b&w, 77 minutes. New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center, Bruno Walter Auditorium. FREE.

5 p.m.
Crypt Crawls: A Halloween Tour Shake your spirits loose this Halloween! Creep into the Cathedral’s crypt with Cathedral Guides and learn the origins of Halloween as the Celtic New Year celebration and later transformation into All Hallows Eve. Space is limited and participants must be 12 years of age and older. At The Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine. $20.

7 p.m.
Seminar on Felix Adler’s Writings Leaders Dr. Joseph Chuman and Dr. Anne Klaeysen will guide us in a study of Adler’s writings, with the goal of our gaining a thorough understanding of his thoughts and aims through probing discussion. At the Society for Ethical Culture. FREE (registration required – limited enrollment).

7 p.m.
Doron Doron Braunshtein (who is also known as Apollo Braun) is back in New York City! The pop artist who some consider to be “The Jewish David Bowie” will perform 10 songs from his last three cd’s “Michelle Obama”, “(Between Me and Allen Ginsberg)” and “The obsessive poet”. the show by the way is dedicated to Gilad Shalit. come and see him before he’s too big! At Symphony Space. FREE.

8 p.m.
Jane Monheit & the Juilliard Jazz Orchestra Grammy-nominated guest vocalist Jane Monheit joins Juilliard’s Jazz Orchestra in a performance featuring the music of Cole Porter, Rodgers and Hart, Rodgers and Hammerstein, amongst others At Alice Tully Hall. FREE.

Wednesday

9 a.m.
Walk NYC Walk NYC is a program that encourages New Yorkers of all ages to get fit while enjoying the outdoors. Parks will staff locations throughout the city with trained walking instructors to lead one-hour walks. Meet at 83rd Street & Riverside Drive. FREE.

2 p.m.
Guitar Afternoon Enjoy free live music performed by jazz guitarist Bill Wurtzel and guest musicians each Wednesday from 2 to 3 pm. Folk Art Museum. FREE.

7 p.m.
Tony Horwitz’s Midnight Rising: John Brown and the Raid That Sparked the Civil War Tony Horwitz discusses an abolitionist’s pivotal role in the daring insurrection that led to the tragic Civil War, a story captured with drama and detail in his book Midnight Rising. At the 82nd Street Barnes & Noble. FREE.

7 p.m.
OUT@NYSEC: The Alchemy of Gay Relationships Tips from mystical tradition for attracting and harmonizing Same Sex Love Signs and Soul Mates. At the Society for Ethical Culture. $30.

8:30 p.m.
Bar Trivia TriviaTryst was founded in NYC in 2009 by Bryce Galen after realizing that pub quizzes were fun, but there was potential for a new type of trivia night with music, energy and popular appeal! At Symphony Space’s BAR Thalia. FREE.

Thursday

2 p.m.
Halloween: Spider Crafts Learn which spiders live in Central Park while creating festive arts and crafts. Free. All ages welcome. No advance registration. Space is limited; no groups or strollers inside the building, please. For more information, call 212-794-4064. Chess & Checkers House (middle of Central Park at 64th Street). FREE.

6 p.m.
It’s Boris Karloff Just in time for Halloween, a salute to the life and career of Boris Karloff. Born William Henry Pratt in England in 1887, Karloff became a horror-movie star playing the Monster in James Whale’s 1931 film Frankenstein. But he was an equally distinguished stage actor, starring in such Broadway productions as Arsenic and Old Lace, Peter Pan, and The Lark, which earned him a Tony nomination in 1956. The evening will feature a guest appearance by the actor’s daughter, Sara Karloff. At New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center, Bruno Walter Auditorium. FREE.

7 p.m.
Roz Chast — What I Hate: From A to Z Roz Chast, whose cartoons have been a hilarious fixture of the New Yorker for 30 years, talks about her new book of humor, What I Hate: From A to Z. At the 82nd Street Barnes and Noble. FREE.

8 p.m.
Drag, Masks, and Mirrors The Lowbrow Society for the Arts presents: “Drag, Masks, & Mirrors: A Night of Queer Readings on Seeing and Being Seen” Hosted by two time National Queer Arts Festival Feature, Najva Sol, and witty scribe of McSweeny’s “balls-out” column, Casey Plett. At Symphony Space. FREE.

8:30 p.m.
Poets Out Loud Poets Out Loud is a community of poets at Fordham University at Lincoln Center. POL’s mission is to provide opportunities for the creation, dissemination and enjoyment of poetry. The POL Reading Series presents free, year-round public readings by noted and emerging poets, serving the Fordham University community and New York City at large. The POL Book Series, run in collaboration with Fordham University Press, issues two new full-length volumes of poetry annually, awarding publication and honoraria to the best manuscripts submitted in an international competition. At the David Rubenstein Atrium. FREE.

Friday

8 a.m.
Walk NYC Walk NYC is a program that encourages New Yorkers of all ages to get fit while enjoying the outdoors. Parks will staff locations throughout the city with trained walking instructors to lead one-hour walks. Meet at 83rd Street & Riverside Drive. FREE.

8 a.m. (until 1 p.m.)
Green Market Choose from fresh produce & dairy, artisanal breads, baked goods, meats & poultry, honey, eggs. Clothing/textile recycling bin on-site. 97th Street and Columbus.

4 p.m.
A Book Signing with Tim Zagat Tim Zagat will be signing copies of his “Zabar’s Special Edition 2012 Zagat Restaurants Guide”. Come meet him and pick up a copy of the new Guide. Only $9.98 at Zabar’s. At Zabar’s. FREE.

5 p.m.
Jazz Legend Fall Series Musicians play at Whole Foods. This week: Leviticus Gory. At the Columbus Square Whole Foods (at 97th Street). FREE.

5:30 p.m.
Free Music Fridays Featuring Trey Powell, Kelley Swindall, Lorraine Lecke At the Folk Art Museum. FREE.

7 and 10 p.m.
Procession of the Ghouls, Following a screening of Phantom of the Opera (1925) The Great Organ will be played by Timothy Brumfield to accompany this year’s screening of the original Phantom of the Opera (1925) and the procession of Ralph Lee and the Mettawee River Theater Company’s ghosts and ghouls. The full stretch of the nave is at the disposal of Mr. Lee’s fantastic creatures of the night, and visitors are encouraged to brace themselves for increased ghostly mischief and ghoulish tricks. Seats closest to the action are for the bravest at heart, who may find themselves directly confronted with the hooked, expressive nose of a demon, the mossy nails of a witch, or the bulging, flushed cheeks of a ghostly manchild. At the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. $20.

7 p.m.
Ethics and the Theater: Harold Pinter’s Betrayal Based on Pinter’s real-life affair with Joan Bakewell, Betrayal opens with a meeting between two of the characters – Jerry, a literary agent, and Emma, the wife of his best friend, Robert, a book publisher – years after they have ended an adulterous romance, and proceeds backwards, to the beginning of the relationship. It is in many ways a mystery play, slowly revealing who knew and did what and when, throwing in misdirection, twists, and surprises. Like much of the playwright’s work, it manages to be simultaneously mordantly funny and grim, almost frightening, in its portrayal of the pain people inflict even on those of whom they are genuinely fond, through betrayals of far more than marriage vows. At the Society for Ethical Culture. Suggested donation: $5.

8 p.m.
Jeffrey Kahane Conducts the Juilliard Orchestra Conductor, pianist, and Music Director of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and the Colorado Symphony Orchestra, Jeffrey Kahane makes his first appearance with the Juilliard Orchestra. At Alice Tully Hall. FREE.

8 p.m.
Michael Barra Michael Barra is an actor and stand up comedian. He is originally from Durham, Connecticut. Michael studied acting at the Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts as well as the acting conservatory at SUNY Purchase. Michael has been in major television shows including Law and Order: SVU, as well as having a role in the upcoming movie Spider Man 3. At Symphony Space. FREE.

Saturday

12 p.m. (until 3)
Floral’s 17th Annual Doggie Halloween Party Dress up your doggies and bring them down to Floral’s 17th Annual Doggie Halloween Party. There will be a doggie costume contest, a silent auction, and a raffle, all of which will have great prizes. There will also be delicious treats for dogs and their people. Riverside Park’s 72nd Street Dog Run. First entry for the costume contest is $10; additional entries are $5 each. Judging starts at 2 pm.

2:30 p.m.
In concert with Nick Dinnerstein, cello and Tania Stavreva, piano A concert of 20th- and 21st-century works for cello and piano. At New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center, Bruno Walter Auditorium. FREE.

8 p.m.
SpookTAPular You are in the depths of a haunted house in the dead of the night… Don’t open your eyes! You risk witnessing the intricate rhythms and furious footwork of today’s leading tap dancers. Come and bring the kids to scream and laugh at SpookTAPular for the most fun and frightening experience in NYC. Come in costume if you want to be eligible for prizes! At Symphony Space. $22.

Sunday

1 and 2 p.m.
Crypt Crawls: A Halloween Tour Shake your spirits loose this Halloween! Creep into the Cathedral’s crypt with Cathedral Guides and learn the origins of Halloween as the Celtic New Year celebration and later transformation into All Hallows Eve. Space is limited and participants must be 12 years of age and older. At The Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine. $20.

1:30 p.m.
Ethical Economics Participants will explore how our current economic system(s) work and begin to develop a working list of strategies for confronting the shortfalls of our economic system and ways these strategies can be implemented in our communities. At the Society for Ethical Culture. FREE.

2:30 p.m.
Pianist Daniel Beliavsky Plays Chopin, Rachmaninoff, Scriabin, and Shostakovich At the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center, Bruno Walter Auditorium. FREE.