Halloween '08

Backdating here for Halloween. My desire to write timely election-related posts rather put off the usual catching up I would be doing, plus having to download pics from the camera phone and upload to the website took time, too. There are supposedly some high-quality images floating around some partiers' digital cameras, but since I haven't been sent them, you're gonna have to make due with my Sidekick camera. Anyway...

Halloween was a party at our house. Doug the Best Friend and I had dim sum for lunch on Thursday, then spent the day cleaning and decorating the house. It actually turned out rather awesome; Doug the Best Friend put up HUGE swaths of fake spider-webbing across the ceiling and furniture that actually looked quite plausible. We had some LED rope and Christmas lights for mood lighting, and it all created a very different atmosphere. I wish I'd taken a picture during the daytime, since my crappy camera phone doesn't pick up low light one little bit.

Anyway, on Thursday I also carved Derek the Roommate's leftover giant pumpkin (the skin was so thick it took a good two hours of scraping to get into a carving condition) and on Friday I put it out on the stoop:



( And a nighttime shot )

The puking pumpkin got a tremendous amount of approval from the ten-year-old boy set. The other roommates had been carving their pumpkins throughout the week, though ( they were all grouped together on the front lawn )

To tell you the truth, we didn't put a ton of effort into the food or drinks. Doug the Best Friend bought some cheap booze and some chips, and just about every member of the household bought a giant bag of candy under the assumption nobody else would be buying candy for trick-or-treaters. Again, I didn't bother to document any of that, so let's get right into what's best about Halloween...costumes!

And here I am, in my semi-obligatory pirate-gear. Forgive the lame MySpace convention of taking a self-cellphone pic in a mirror, but by the time it occurred to me to get pictures of myself for the old blog, people were already too drunk and/or engrossed in the party.

Here's an almost full-length shot of my outfit. There isn't a scrap fire-retardant polyester on my body. The clothing is from my Renaissance Fair collection - linen chemise, black Irish dress (the skirt is attached to the bodice), red jester pants, and brown suede boots. The boots are actually calf-length, but I discovered that if you only lace them half-way, you can fold the top part down to get the cuffed silhouette. Granted, it made a leather seam pretty visible, but I still thing it contributed to the look nicely.

This is what I like to call "My Vaguely Pirates of the Caribbean Promotional Material Shot." Again, I was shooting with my Sidekick (clearly visible in frame), so it was impossible to light me without lighting up something else that would wash me out of the photo. Plus, lighting to take a picture in a mirror is really fucking hard! In the end I decided there's some kind of mystical-pirate-hell-dimensional-portal thing opening up next to my lamp and bed curtains, and that's why they're so white. Uh, yeah.



The details: The hat and weaponry were Doug the Best Friend's - he had an official Jack Sparrow movie-hat made out of felt that came complete with fake dreadlocks. Coincidentally, the dreadlocks were the exact length and color of my actual hair, so they blended right in. The hat was probably the lamest part of the costume - the fabric had a tough time holding shape and I had to actually pin it with a Fair favor to get it into a tri-corner - but it made a pirate point, so to speak. The flintlock drew the most admiration and I found myself frequently resting my hand on it with a sense of subtle menace, just in case.

And yes, that's a pelican on my shoulder! I've had him for a long time; my mother bought him for me in a fit of whimsy years ago, and I've kept him around because he was so cute. It probably doesn't read on camera, but he actually has the tail of a stuffed fish sticking out of his beak. Hilarity! Much better than a parrot or a fucking monkey. ( Here's a better-lit close-up of the hat, weapons, pelican... )

About two-thirds of the way through the evening I got sick of being in my pirate costume. For one thing, it was physically hot - the Irish dress is made of a very heavy twill and has tremendous amount of fabric in the skirt - something like five yards of it. Wearing a hat and my hair down didn't exactly help with ventilation, either. My boots were slightly too small, and the tight bindings of corset got old every time I tried sitting down. So I did a costume change - the privilege of being hostess, I guess - into my Hogwarts school uniform ( For Gryffindor! )

But enough about me. Doug the Best Friend put on a disturbingly realistic doctor costume and did a lot of drink mixing. You could almost say he was a mix doctor. HAHAHAHA! Ha. Okay, that's not that funny: ( Doug the Mix Doctor )

Doug's Girlfriend Sharon (or Sharon the Friend) actually took a lot of elements of her costume from Doug's wardrobe as well. She wore his overalls and straw hat, and was basically a "Country Bumpkin." It might not be visible in the pic, but she wore a homemade "Palin for Prez" button throughout the evening. Trust me when I say, this outfit is much more attractive on Sharon the Friend than it is on Doug the Best Friend. As disturbing as Doug the Mix Doctor may be (note him vamping in the corner of Sharon's pic), Doug the Country Bumpkin almost made me vomit in terror. ( Sharon the Country Bumpkin )

Juli the Friend (katharsia) showed up in classical witch's garb and let it go straight to her head as she started hexing all over the goddamned place: ( Juli the Witch )

Sharon's Friend Sarah had a fabulous witch's hat she'd made herself. This thing was an epic construction of lace and magic. Of course, it doesn't read on the Sidekick. ( Sarah the Witch )

Alex and Juli's Cousin Angie made off with a Peter Pan costume from some theater department - not sure if it was her school or a community theater, but it turned out pretty cute: ( Angie Pan )

Of course, a zillion other people wore costumes. Lucas the Friend was a Catholic cardinal, though he'd never heard of The Thorn Birds, so my jokes about it fell a little flat. Nate the Friend put together a rather authentic The Dark Knight-era Joker costume. Derek the Roommate constructed an awesome Zoolander costume - specifically from the "Derelict" runway show. We had a couple of fairies and some run-of-the-mill Slutoween garb. I don't have good pictures of any of it, partly because it got too crowded and dark to take pictures, but mostly because I forgot to towards the end of the party.

However, I did get a picture of Al the Roommate's costume. Al's original idea was to go as Chuck Norris, but inspiration struck at the costume store, and he instead switched to what was a top-secret outfit instead. I can say that when I first saw him in the costume, it, much like Doug the Best Friend's redneck costume, made me want to vomit in terror:



Be glad that my Sidekick can't pick up low-light detail, because what you can't see in these photos is Al's complete disregard for body hair removal. Also, though it's not obvious from the angle here, Al the Roommate's skirt had a distressing similarity to Zapp Brannigan's, in that it always looked wrong.

Over all, people's costumes were mostly pretty good. And the party itself worked out pretty well. Al the Roommate put together a playlist, and we put on a series of movies with the sound muted (Legend, The Matrix, The Cell, a zombie flick, etc.). The silent-movies-with-music actually works pretty well; the images give a sense of movement and interest, but not having dialogue prevents people from focusing on overmuch on the television.

My biggest delight of the evening, though, were the trick-or-treaters. Trick-or-treating as a practice seems to have fallen off a lot in the last five to ten years, and I haven't really seen much in the way of it in the last four places I've lived. But we got a solid thirty or so kids at the house. And their costumes rocked, too! There were some Star Wars clone troopers, a Jedi, some princesses, a couple of animals, and several pirates (I gave the pirates extra candy, because they were "me mateys!"). The littlest pirate was a tiny small boy - maybe four? - who had spent a long time trying to figure me out as I handed out candy in character, then hesitantly touched my skirt and pointed at my shoulder.

"Can I pet?"

"Why sure, matey!" I said, and bent down. The littlest pirate hesitantly rubbed the pelican's beak, then pet his fluffy head.

"Is he your friend?" The littlest pirate asked.

"Yar, he is."

"Can he hop...hop on my shoulder?"

That was so cute I broke character to apologize, and the littlest pirate's dad tried to explain that the pelican was just a toy and part of my costume. The littlest pirate walked away unconvinced, but with an extra handful of candy in his pillowcase.

Between the party and the trick-or-treaters, this is one of the better Halloweens I've had as an adult. Yay for Halloween!