Believe it or not, 2020 marks Mickey Mouse's 92nd birthday. Though he's hardly aged a day since his 1928 debut, Mickey has had a career for the ages spanning television and film, video games and theme park attractions, plus merchandise galore. 

There is still plenty of time to enjoy “Noirvember” with a seemingly endless cache of film noir to fill it, but don’t just stop at films made in the United States. Noir made a lasting impact on American filmmaking, but it soon spread to cinema around the world. This new cinematic style quickly became an international phenomenon.

"The Twilight Zone" is a compelling TV series created and hosted by Rod Serling, who wrote most of the scripts. The series, which ran from 1959-1964, featured an array of genres, from dystopian fiction and supernatural drama to black comedy. Each episode typically included a twist, and the original shows are still relevant today.

“The Crown” – Season 4 of the soapy British royal family drama covers 1979 through 1990, which means we’ll get our first look at Emma Corrin as young Lady Diana Spencer, an unassuming teacher’s assistant who would become the beloved bride of Prince Charles (Josh O’Connor). Also new to the saga is Gillian Anderson.

Any other year, the Spokane Community College campus would start to buzz about the Spokane Fall Folk Festival, which launches Saturday. The two-day festival, which debuted in 1996, typically brings more than 100 performing groups and 5,000 attendees to town each year.

Out of all the genres of video games I enjoy, perhaps the most difficult to discuss is role-playing games. It’s not for lack of fans of the genre or anything – quite the opposite. Rather, the RPG label is applied to so many different games that it comes to mean something different for everyone.

All movies provide a bit of an escape, but animated films especially add a touch of fantasy to the theater-going experience. The adventure is often just as intense in animated films, but the images are typically brighter than their live-action counterparts, plus there's usually a catchy song or two to boot. 

In his book, “Moving to Higher Ground: How Jazz Can Change Your Life,” trumpeter, composer and educator Wynton Marsalis wrote, “Because jazz musicians improvise under the pressure of time, what's inside comes out pure. It's like being pressed to answer a question before you have a chance to get your lie straight.”

Alex Trebek, the master of trivia whose quick wit, easy smile and my-favorite-professor demeanor made “Jeopardy!” a welcome guest in the living rooms of America for decades, has died at his home following a battle with pancreatic cancer, per the quiz show’s Twitter account. He was 80.

Spokane singer-songwriter Liam St. John performed Marcy Playground’s “Sex and Candy” for his blind audition in the new Season 19 of NBC’s “The Voice” on Oct. 20, and his appropriately sexy rendition caught the attention of coaches and newly engaged couple Gwen Stefani and Blake Shelton.

The faces of Kevin Costner and Diane Lane are given equal prominence on the poster for "Let Him Go" – next to the long barrel of a gun and a house on fire – but it's Lane who gets top billing, deservedly, in this surprisingly gripping and moving modern Western about two mothers at odds over the fate of a small boy.

When Elvis Costello made his one and only local appearance at the Big Easy, which is now the Knitting Factory, in 2005, it appeared that the celebrated singer-songwriter was content and about to enter the back end of an incomparable career. Costello was busy with a few distractions during that period.

Over the weekend, iconic actor and first James Bond, Sir Sean Connery, passed away at age 90. Connery leaves an enduring cinematic legacy that isn't just Bond, James Bond. Having originated the role, it's impossible to think of Bond without thinking of Connery, arguably the gold standard of the character. 

Standup comedy has come to a virtual standstill thanks to the novel coronavirus. Some clubs in states where the restrictions are relaxed, such as Oklahoma, Florida and Texas, are hosting shows. However, Dan Cummins is a comic who is not down with making such a trek. “I don’t need to tour if it’s going to be super stressful," Cummins said.

Best friends (Stephen Odubola and Micheal Ward) who live in different South London boroughs but attend the same high school find themselves on rival sides of a brewing gang war in "Blue Story" (2019, R), an urban drama with a Romeo and Juliet twist. (Amazon Prime and Hulu)

When author V.S. Santoni joined Wattpad a few years ago, he was primarily a content consumer. But when the idea for his popular “Gay Wizard” series came to him in 2017, he knew it was time to start posting his own work. “(‘I’m a Gay Wizard’) was the first thing I ever posted, and it pretty much blew up immediately,” Santoni said. 

“Far Cry 6,” “Halo Infinite” and “Deathloop.” These are just a few of the big-budget games we’ll be playing in 2021 instead of this year thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic that has upended the video game industry’s workflow. AAA titles are created by hundreds of developers across several years, racking up budgets in the tens of millions of dollars.

Early in her book about Dolly Parton and how her music influenced generations, author Sarah Smarsh remembers taking her grandmother to see the iconic singer on tour in Kansas City. Smarsh recalls Parton’s showing her virtuosity both musically and as an entertainer during a rousing rendition of “Rocky Top.”

For cinema lovers and movie buffs, the horror-thon of October will be followed by another month-long celebration of genre, Noirvember. November, kicked off with the end of daylight saving time, sets the perfect moody atmosphere for indulging in the world of film noir with its short days, chilled air, cloudy skies and dropping of the remaining turned leaves.