Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Halloween town

Sorry I'm late with this post - there were a ton of photos for me to upload over the weekend and the first of the month is always a little crazy for various reasons, but here you go! As promised! Photos! Yay!

Thursday night Benni and I carved pumpkins while sipping hot chocolate and humming the Nightmare Before Christmas theme song to ourselves, because we're cool like that. Here's me carving my pumpkin:


and here's Benni's pumpkin:

and here's the four of us, creators and creations, together:

but let's face it, jack-o-lanterns look better in the dark :)


On Friday night we headed over to our friend Zak's party, where we ate too much and watched cheesy slasher flicks playing in the background while bobbing for apples and generally pointing and laughing at other peoples' costumes. Most people got that I was Harley Quinn except for one chick that guessed that I was Mrs. Incredible.

Really? Really?? Last time I checked Elasti-Girl did not wear fishnets. Of course, Harley technically doesn't either, but still...

Benni was kind enough to take some pictures of me getting ready for the party, most without me noticing:



And then we were off to the party!





Benni and I had decided to go into West Hollywood for Halloween - every year, up to 400,000 people (nope, not making that number up) show up and crowd into three or four blocks and it's supposed to be absolutely insane. It's also supposed to be a fantastic way to celebrate Halloween if you can deal with the crowds and parking and insanity and riots and male nudity (West Hollywood is, uh, very liberated). Having been warned to show up early and make a day of it, and having never planned this sort of thing before, that's exactly what I did. If there's one thing us A-types are good at, it's getting into Tour Guide/Cruise Director mode. I can plan with the best of 'em.

So Saturday morning I decided to make breakfast for Benni (see? I do my share of cooking!) and made him poached eggs on english muffins spread with goat cheese, and fresh homemade chocolate croissants right out of the oven. It was yummy.

We headed down to W. Hollywood early, arrived at noon, and parked in a parking structure so we wouldn't have to deal with drunk jay-walking pedestrians when we tried to leave that evening, then we walked up to Sunset Blvd. and caught a movie (New York, I Love You) at the movie theater.

After the movie, we headed back to our car and got changed into our costumes. Now, as an actress, I am fairly skilled at changing my clothes and putting on makeup in my (parked) car, but my costume involved a skirt, two layers of tights, boots that reached to mid-calf and a corset, so there was some...maneuvering. Let's just say I got a good abs workout.

We barely made it to our 5:30 dinner reservation on time, so this is us finally leaving the parking structure, fully (and finally) in costume once again:


and as we headed out of the parking structure towards the restaurant, we literally crossed the street, walked ten feet...and were there. Can I plan like a bad-ass or what? I'd had no idea the restaurant and parking structure were that close. Apparently I'm just that good. (And yes, incredibly humble.)

After making the reservations, I had called the restaurant (Cafe La Boheme) to make sure dining in costume was okay, and the guy who answered the phone practically screamed, "Is it okay? The entire wait staff is going to be in costume!!" So I already knew this was our kind of place.

We walk in, and I kid you not, we are the first ones there - so the staff lets us choose where we want to sit. We end up choosing a small, intimate table on the balcony of the restaurant, over-looking a huge fireplace and gorgeous, blood-red chandelier - this place was practically MADE for Halloween, and it's decorated with spider-webs and glowing pumpkins everywhere. As we pass our waiter, he exclaims, "Awesome, I get to wait on Super-Villains!"

We loved our waiter.


The food was incredible, we were waited on by a shirtless cowboy, the dessert was to die for, and the restaurant was about fifty feet away from the start of the celebration. It was absolutely perfect.



So after dinner, the carnival was well under way, so we started at one end and just slowly walked down to the other, making our way through the thousands of people crowding the streets. The best thing about the costume parade was the fact that everyone was supporting and loving each other's outfits - there was very little ego, just tons and tons of people taking pictures of costumes they thought were cool. And guess who was the hit of the night?

You guessed it. Out of the thousands of costumes we saw, Benni was the ONLY classic Joker, and people went nuts. People followed him down the street, yelling "Joker, over here!" before pulling him aside to take pictures with him. Most of them didn't know who I was at all (HUGE bummer at first) but I got over it fairly quickly because I was just really happy to see Benni getting a ton of attention for his fantastic costume.

There were a lot of Batmans who wanted to take pictures with Benni, and a rowdy group of Australians found him and pulled him into their group for a picture (they had a Batman in their group), but when I tried to step out of the picture all the guys started yelling, "No, you too, you too!" So that was nice. Somewhere in Australia there is a picture of me looking surprised.

Here's a very sweet girl who wanted her picture taken with both of us:


And yes, I'm aware the picture is a bit blurry, but this is what happens when you let 6'4" drag queens use your camera.




That's a West Hollywood Halloween for ya! How was everyone's Halloween??

23 comments:

Shanna Suburbia said...

Your costumes look amazing!! And your jack-o-lantern design is cooler than Benni's... ;-)

Gwen said...

How fabulous are you two!!! I love how the costumes turned out and the pumpkins are amazing!!!! I'm so glad you had a wonderful time!!!

I hope you don't get bored seeing that yellow bag around my blog. She'll be making a daily appearance for NaBloPoMo. :)

XOXO

drollgirl said...

man, your halloween was PERFECT! love your costumes! i lived in west hollywood for about 8 years and still never went to see the parade thing. gah! i blew it! one of these days i must -- it always looks so FUN!

jenn said...

now THAT looks like a fabulous time. and your costumes were amazing! love them!

Taylor K said...

6'4 drag queens? you're totally making me miss home. :( i'm glad you had fun in we ho!

Jo said...

Smart! I did the WeHo Halloween "parade" for years! Always, always had a dinner reservation on the Blvd. Made things so much easier!! And more fun! :) Great pics!!

Oh, and yes, I'm joining Jasmine's book club. I'm part of a book club here in L.A., too. I love love love to read! Now if I can only find the time!! ;) Are you considering joining?? (or have you joined?)

Marion said...

What a total blast! Y'all looked AMAZING!! I loved your punkin best. LOL! Ah, to be young again...Thanks for sharing your fun with us. Love & Blessings!

Kristin Quinn said...

Wow. You do Halloween right. Next year I'll be following you around. I can't believe you braved the West Hollywood scene. 400,000 people in costume crowded in on a few blocks sort of scares me.

krista said...

how adorable are you guys? stop it.

Anonymous said...

These costumes are great and you all have impressive pumpkin carving skills.

Deech said...

These are great pics. Looks like a ton of fun and both of you looked great in the costumes. You did this Joker proud!

Happy Hour...Somewhere said...

I have to admit I had to Google Harley Quinn but the Joker I got. Loved your pumpkins and totally jealous about the West Hollywood parade. And I can't wait to try that restaurant~!

Tom Bailey said...

It looks like you had a good time. Holloween is great if you have the right costume and you can handle the attention. Sometimes too much attention is annoying. It was polite of the australians to keep you in the picture.

Anonymous said...

Ha! Great photos!!!

(no one seems to celebrate Halloween over here, which can as a bit of a shock :(


jonas

A New England Girl said...

Okay, first off- LOVE your pumpkins. They look so fantastic!
and secondly- I love, love, loooove your costumes! And it sounds like you guys had a fantastic time wearing them! I would so love to dine in the restaurant you went to and I would die to experience West Hollywood at Halloween. I sadly stayed in this year - I know I mentioned I wasn't a fan of dressing up - so I will be living vicariously through your amazing photos. :)

Archana said...

I want in on your kinda Halloween! Heh, loved both your outfits! You look amazing, as does he! Clearly, you guys had a good time. Who wouldn't in a carnival atmosphere like that right? :)

Honey Bee said...

First of all, those jack-o-lanterns are ART! Second of all I LOVE what you're wearing-it's HOT!
Third of all(is there such a phrase?), when I first saw The Joker's pictures here I felt that eerie chill that I feel when I watch him in the movie.
Fourth of all, I'll tell you what real art is: wearing a skirt in the car!!!!!
Your halloween sounds triple fun!!!

Dionne said...

Hahaha, yes those Australians do tend to get rowdy, lol. You both looked great! My Cali friends were all in WeHo, too. They had a blast.

Anonymous said...

How awesome! Great Halloween!

Lori ann said...

Fantastic photos, pumpkins and I'd love to go to that restaurant.
You are adorable, my favorite was the pigtails.

Iva Messy said...

OMG!! AMAZING!!! SUCH PERFECT COSTUMES!!! love it!!!

and the pumpkins!! WOW!!! great job!!

stewbottum said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
stewbottum said...

And not only did Phoenix plan an incredible day, carve a magnificent pumpkin, and pimp out in a freakin' awesome costume, but she makes a mean breakfast too. :)

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