FRONT DESK? THERE'S GRAFFITI IN MY ROOM
Check into room 10C at the Carlton Arms Hotel tomorrow, and you won't find the typical nondescript painting of flowers hanging on the wall. Each of the New York art hotel's 54 rooms and four hallways have long been painted or decorated by artists from around the world, but beginning Nov. 1, room 10C, or the "Outside In" room, will feature the work of some of the East Coast's top graffiti artists. Urban art notable Billi Kid headlines the action (that's the beginning of his part of the room above), with graffiti artist CERN, photographer Allan Ludwig, authors-photographers James and Karla Murray, and Calrton Arms veteran Julier Dermansky joining in on the fun as well. The artists were still busy working today, so stop by Thursday night from 6 to 9 p.m. to get a peek at the finished room—and make your reservation for your next stay. 160 East 25th Street, New York. Go to www.carltonarms.com

I SEE A SPOT UP AHEAD!
Is there anything more annoying when parking a car than realizing your ride's just not going to fit into that tiny space you were sure was big enough? Ah, yes, there is: trying to find a spot in a jam-packed parking garage. The circling and circling and circling alone is enough to make one nauseous. It turns out, however, that despite all the concrete and frustrations, there's an inner beauty in parking garages, as writer Simon Henley and photographer Sue Barr discover in The Architecture of Parking (Thames & Hudson, $45), which hits bookstores Nov. 1. "A new, more technically perfect and mischievous architecture of planes, ramps, spirals, folds, and continuous landscapes [has] surfaced," Henley writes of recent trends in parking lot architecture. The book, however, spans the entire, truly fascinating history of car parks, noting their designs' influence on not only architects but also on novelists, photographers, and filmmakers. It's not going to help you find a spot any quicker the next time you're in a time crunch, but maybe it'll take some of the pain out of the search.

FORGET THE KIDS, SCARE YOURSELF
It's the scariest night of the year, and for those of us who trick-or-treated ourselves to Dracula-style death this past weekend, tonight's all about sitting down with our bounty of goodies, our favorite scary movie, and someone to hold tight during all the gory parts. We polled the CITY office to see which movies freaked us out the most as kids, and which will still give us nightmares tonight, and here were the frightening results. Click on each to order from Amazon.