Friday afternoon we met for lunch at Harvey's. The weather here has been insanely summer and Shilpa and PeeDee jumped on the chance to join us for lunch. It was very spirit-ual here at work, with most people in costume and kids from the day care center parading about exuding incredible cuteness in class-made costumes.
Sharon was exceptionally crafty in her made-from-a-disposable-tablecloth-found-in-the-kitchen Alice costume (made for a club party the night before). Shilpa recycled a flying monkey, and PeeDee dressed out of his seventies wardrobe and skeeved it up a bit as a child molester, which is pretty wrong when I consider that we were around all those kids.
Lunch was great, as expected, and we were lucky enough to get a table with a view and be in Milton's section. We also ran into Madame on the street which was cool. RJ and Matt eneded up going to her show Halloween night.
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We were also lucky enough to catch the annual costume parade from the elementary school up the street.
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For All Hallow's Eve Eve, Shilpa, Skot and I hosted RJ on a long night of happy hour and pub crawling in the Castro. Gay and Halloween make for mardi gras sort of vibe. I loved the giant Ouija boards up in the Midnight Sun.
I did notice that the series of boards spelled out "TIPS." Heh.
For Halloween I crafted a costume to be the Operation guy (you know, the game— "Don't touch the sides!"). I had a screened shirt and then various other bones cut out from foam and mounted on red felt with foil trim. Unfortunately, not many of these showed up in photos considering their location. And the nose was so difficult to breathe through I didn't wear it much, even though it really "made" the costume. That, and the salad tongs I attached by wire to be the over-sized tweezers. Additional "bones" included the funny bone, charlie horse, connected-to-the-leg-bone thing, and the "wrenched" ankle.
The first person I ran into at the party was Hal, who became my party pal for the night. We were a good pair as he wore his clothes from the hospital. It's a lame costume to wear your work clothes, but he was the perfect accessory to be the doctor to my patient (and to crime). I also started out in a hospital gown and would occasionally "reveal" my costume.
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It was also roasting that night so all those layers, and hiking around, made us all sweaty costumed boys. At one point I had to hike up the hill to fetch a bag of ice, and spent a little too much "personal time" with the bag trying to cool down.
There were some awesome costumes out that night, but I think my favorite may have to be Brent's. He didn't come as Iron Man—he came as Tony Stark. He's a total comic nerd and craft guy (clearly, my kind of guy) and rigged a model chest arc reactor, which he wore under his shirt so it would shine through, and a prototype repulsor ray. (Obviously, it looks better without a flash, and it looked better than it does in photos.)
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All kinds of awesome.
Once in the Castro, I was amused that I could spot Michael a mile away. He looked great, but it cracked me up that I knew him in an instant even though (or because) he looked like this:
Seriously. How flawless are those eyes? Michael made my night as me and mine hung out in 440. The ABC folks were out strictly enforcing occupancy rules, as were the cops keeping people on the sidewalks. The former made for long lines at all bars, and it's nice to be such a regular that the door guys know you and pass you in ahead of tourists.
The night was, as far as I can tell, without incident, but more madness that might have other wise been as Halloween fell on a Saturday. At least the bridge as still closed. However, it was extremely annoying to have busloads of foreign tourists desperate and delighted to get photos of drag queens. And the insanely annoying straight 20-something girl twinks and their boyfriends (and mostly not in costume, and if so, only half-assed) who were local-tourists and not part of the community. Nor were they behaving contextually respectful as guests should. I had a fit of anger during a particularly long stretch of frustration during the night and did tweet about it. "If you are not gay and not in costume, unless you're a hag or a stag, get the FCK out of the Castro." While I regret the crude manifestation of that thought, it was sincere. I deleted and followed it up with the more succinct and pointed "We are not a zoo."
This year, the massive interlopers would have been more welcome if they didn't treat Halloween in the Castro with the offensive combination of entitlement and objectification. Even this year I heard a couple of anti-gay slurs. Those kids need to get the eff out or have their ass handed to them.
End rant.
Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, the play was pretty awesome. Other fun friends at 440 included Barry and Shane, who are always a delight even when their chests aren't bare (not that I am encouraging them to cover up mind you).
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And, as I always respect, the costumes ran more to the clever side of creativity (when not running to the fleshy). This first guy reminded me of a particular scene from Victor/Victoria.
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Those other guys: They came as the MythBusters! Love it!
Sunday rounded out the week nicely with a Day of the Dead party hosted by Jim Rudoff. Costumes were encouraged, and he and his buddy wore their wares from the Opera Wardrobe Sale. (That's me on the left if it's not obvious.)
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I thought that a crucified Jesus was...interesting... for a Day of the Dead party, and I amused myself endlessly with Jesus jokes (I greeted him with a "Love your work." And followed him for the rest of the evening looking for chances to use lines like, "Close that door behind you. What? Were you born in a barn?" "My hangover this morning felt like I had been dead for three days... but you know what that's like." "Whatever, Son of Mary." "Talk about the cock crowing three times." You get the idea.)
Shout out to Dante, a fun party companion and the talent behind Fire and Icing.
Flickr set.
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