I've been looking forward to this week for so long, it's almost hard to believe it is finally upon us. This Friday the 13th is the release date for the 13th and final episode of Lemony Snicket's Series of Unfortunate Events: the miserable tales of three wretched orphans, from the piquant pen of Mr. Snicket and marvelously illustrated by one Brett Helquist.

Coinciding with the book's release, Stephin Merritt has assembled an album of 13 songs and two bonus tracks under the project name The Gothic Archies. The Tragic Treasury will be released this Tuesday. The album features music Merritt originally recorded for the 13 Series of Unfortunate Events audio books. The first Gothic Archies album since 1997's The New Despair, Tragic Treasury will feature Snicket himself accompanying on accordion. (Snicket, sometimes known as Daniel Handler, has recorded and performed with Merritt's better known music project - The Magnetic Fields.)

Read a conversation between Merritt and Snicket recently published in the Guardian, and go to Nonesuch Records for audio samples and video clips.

Snicket will be reading from his miserable book and performing live with the Gothic Archies at the Union Square Barnes & Noble in NYC at 4pm on Friday the 13th, and at the Michigan Theatre in Ann Arbor on Halloween at 5:30pm. More at Olaf's event page.