Halloween 2009!
Nov. 4th, 2009 12:46 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
grrgoylAs promised, Halloween 2009.
Despite having a few weeks' notice this year (unusual for the crowd we hang with), I was drawing a blank on a costume. Tery tossed out a few suggestions, all of which I forget now (except I know one was Dr. Manhattan from Watchmen. How was I supposed to pull that off short of having a radiation accident myself and learning how to rearrange atoms?) Then she mentioned Rorschach from Watchmen, which I was just about to dismiss when after a little thought it occurred to me how easy (most of) it would be.
Sure, they make a manufactured costume, but the mask looks pretty ridiculous and it's pretty pricey for something I wasn't even sure would fit me (my noggin is as oversized as my feet):
Store-bought piece of crap
Trench coat from Goodwill (they had an entire rack of them): $12.
Fedora from eBay, cheap costume quality, with shipping (could have probably found cheaper if hat sizes weren't so hard to gauge online): $18.
Stocking for mask: $3.
Men's dress pants and shoes: Free (already in my closet).
That's it. Here's one pic of the result (more under the cut later):
Tery got smooched by Laura the Slutty Devil while I looked on disapprovingly
The mask obviously posed the biggest challenge. I scoured the internet, where I found plenty of fan forums discussing making your own. Unfortunately most of them were obsessed with having moving ink blots "like in the movie!" (guess what, morons -- in the movie his eyes are actually completely exposed and the blots are CGI'ed on later) This could apparently be achieved with the use of thermal paint that shifts when you breathe on it, but it involved a complicated process of more than one layer that I might not be able to breathe in and I'm sure would come at a higher price than I was willing to pay considering I expected no one to even recognize me.
That included a site I found, Rorschachmask.com, where a guy sells his own that look nice, but not $49.99 worth of nice.
So I got a few pairs of tights and stockings to experiment with. At Target the only ones that came in white were little girls sizes, which were very difficult to see through. My grocery store had "ivory" nylons that were more promising. I played around a lot with making the tiniest possible pinholes for my eyes, until I just tried no holes for the heck of it and discovered I could see fine. In fact, the darker the room, the better I could see.
Then the blots. Everyone online suggested using a Sharpie, which would have taken a month to color in all the shapes and would have resulted in very clean edges. In a stroke of genius, I found in the back of our closet some "scuff remover" for shoes, essentially liquid shoe polish. When I blotted that onto the stocking, not only did it cover large areas quickly but came out nicely irregular and automatically created a "bleeding" effect on the edges of the pattern. Again on the fan forums someone had helpfully posted a sample pattern that I just printed out, stuck under the stocking as a template, and dabbed in. VOILA.
I was ridiculously pleased with the result after so little effort. Even if no one would recognize me.
You can see the mask better. Tabby came as Edward Scissorhands (store bought)
Tery was going to go as Balloon Boy Falcon Heene, before realizing that everyone in Colorado also had that idea. So I suggested the 2009 Killer, which she accomplished by sticking photos of all the celebrities who have died so far this year all over her.
She wanted a pair of those New Year's Eve 2009 glasses but couldn't find any, so everyone had kind of a hard time guessing
I eventually had to take the mask off because I was freaking one of the other partygoers out so badly. As I stripped down my layers, I discovered how versatile a trench coat and fedora can be:
Shoo-be-doo, baby. Frank Sinatra
Finally, Justin "Sexyback" Timberlake
Okay, enough pics of me. There were other people there too:
Hosts Fred and Wilma (Chris and Liana)
Kay as Amy Winehouse
Laura and new (to me) boyfriend Tyler. More on him later. Also, Laura struck an identical pose with me 6 years ago. I think it's her default
Turns out his costume went just as well with Angel Becca
This is the first night I met Tyler. Shortly after our introduction, Laura confided that God was "commando" this evening. When I expressed doubt, he didn't hesitate to flip up his bathrobe to show off a completely nude and quite shapely arse. Later (much later) when there was talk of going in the hot tub, Tyler came into the kitchen to ask about borrowing undergarments. I started to say, "Hey, just go au natur..."; before the words were out, he instantly shucked his kit and dashed out to the backyard naked as a jaybird.
I hope he comes to more parties in the future.
Where was I? Oh.
Edward finds operating a camera a bit tricky
Not much variety, sorry. These were really the best costumes all night.
Actually more people recognized me than I expected, about four I think. That was a bit of fun.
~*~
Since I don't know how to put a cut inside a cut, I'll just say the remainder of this post concerns how Tabby got a little too drunk and completely hijacked the party (for me and the hosts, at least) with her relationship drama, such that I haven't seen since the Denise days. I thought my days of using my "Tabby's Pain Train" tag were over. If no one wants to read it I understand completely, but I like to look back on these things years from now, assuming we make it to a looking-back-and-laughing point.
Kay and Tabby are having problems -- Kay isn't giving Tabby the attention she requires, and furthermore Tabby is convinced that Kay wants a man (remember, I always had Kay figured for an Anne Heche lesbian).
It's been going on for awhile, but it sort of came to a head at the party, when in Tabby's view Kay spent the entire night "joined at the hip" with David, a fellow vet person, and more importantly no time with Tabby (which is silly. Tery and I hardly see each other during parties either. We spend plenty of time together at home, we don't need to be stuck together when we're out too). The irony of this situtation is that Tabby's problem with Denise was that Denise was too dependent on her, needing more attention than Tabby was willing to give. Oh karma, you're too much.
Tabby got steadily drunker and drunker and surlier and more self-pitying with each passing hour. The first sign of trouble was when she started coming on to Becca the Angel, hard, hard enough to make her uncomfortable (which takes a lot). Then after midnight when the hot tub idea was raised, people just decided whether to go in or not (I decided not, despite heavy lobbying from the crowd). Tabby pulled me aside and pointed out how "she wasn't invited" to join them. The fact that it was hardly an invitation-only event didn't really matter to her.
Then she took up a position directly in front of the stereo, where she could select her favorite emo songs and crank them to unpleasant levels and rock back and forth and moan in heartwrenching agony, acting like there was no one else in the room. Don't get me wrong, I feel for her and I'm sure it's horrible to go through, but I can hardly think of a less appropriate place to air all this angst than a nice casual Halloween party.
Liana tried to get her to just go outside and talk to Kay. Tabby protested that it was "always me going to people, no one ever comes to ME." So it went on and on. Nothing would placate her. She crossed the line a little when she latched onto the idea that all their mutual friends were "on Kay's side" because they were all out in the hot tub with her. I said I doubted anyone was aware they were entering a battlefield when they climbed into the tub, but I should have saved my breath. When she wouldn't let go of this idea I called her paranoid, and that pretty much shut her off to me.
I offered to give her a ride home which she declined. I started to go out back to say goodbye to people.
"Where are you going?!" she asked frantically.
"To say goodbye to my hosts," I was a little irritated with her at this point.
"Just don't say anything about me, okay??" Darn. I was planning to announce, "Goodbye folks, I had a great time. By the way, Tabby's having a complete meltdown inside. You all have a good night!" She still apparently holds on to the teenage mindset that everyone thinks about her as much as she thinks about herself.
Rarely have I been so thankful to have the dogs as an excuse to leave. I later learned that when Kay and David FINALLY dragged themselves out of the tub (at least an hour later), a bit of a skirmish ensued. David tried to interject, whereupon Chris informed him that his input would probably be the least appreciated at that moment. Kay and Tabby went home, both come Monday acting as if nothing at all had happened. Except Kay just texted Tery a few minutes ago looking for phone numbers of people who might be out with Tabby, since Tabby herself wasn't answering her phone. Yep, things don't look good. But dammit, work it out between yourselves and don't drag unsuspecting party guests into the fray.
Also on Monday Kay told us how she developed a "leprosy rash" on her chin, she suspects from the hot tub. Which is why I avoid those human bacteria frappès whenever possible.
Despite having a few weeks' notice this year (unusual for the crowd we hang with), I was drawing a blank on a costume. Tery tossed out a few suggestions, all of which I forget now (except I know one was Dr. Manhattan from Watchmen. How was I supposed to pull that off short of having a radiation accident myself and learning how to rearrange atoms?) Then she mentioned Rorschach from Watchmen, which I was just about to dismiss when after a little thought it occurred to me how easy (most of) it would be.
Sure, they make a manufactured costume, but the mask looks pretty ridiculous and it's pretty pricey for something I wasn't even sure would fit me (my noggin is as oversized as my feet):
Store-bought piece of crap
Trench coat from Goodwill (they had an entire rack of them): $12.
Fedora from eBay, cheap costume quality, with shipping (could have probably found cheaper if hat sizes weren't so hard to gauge online): $18.
Stocking for mask: $3.
Men's dress pants and shoes: Free (already in my closet).
That's it. Here's one pic of the result (more under the cut later):
Tery got smooched by Laura the Slutty Devil while I looked on disapprovingly
The mask obviously posed the biggest challenge. I scoured the internet, where I found plenty of fan forums discussing making your own. Unfortunately most of them were obsessed with having moving ink blots "like in the movie!" (guess what, morons -- in the movie his eyes are actually completely exposed and the blots are CGI'ed on later) This could apparently be achieved with the use of thermal paint that shifts when you breathe on it, but it involved a complicated process of more than one layer that I might not be able to breathe in and I'm sure would come at a higher price than I was willing to pay considering I expected no one to even recognize me.
That included a site I found, Rorschachmask.com, where a guy sells his own that look nice, but not $49.99 worth of nice.
So I got a few pairs of tights and stockings to experiment with. At Target the only ones that came in white were little girls sizes, which were very difficult to see through. My grocery store had "ivory" nylons that were more promising. I played around a lot with making the tiniest possible pinholes for my eyes, until I just tried no holes for the heck of it and discovered I could see fine. In fact, the darker the room, the better I could see.
Then the blots. Everyone online suggested using a Sharpie, which would have taken a month to color in all the shapes and would have resulted in very clean edges. In a stroke of genius, I found in the back of our closet some "scuff remover" for shoes, essentially liquid shoe polish. When I blotted that onto the stocking, not only did it cover large areas quickly but came out nicely irregular and automatically created a "bleeding" effect on the edges of the pattern. Again on the fan forums someone had helpfully posted a sample pattern that I just printed out, stuck under the stocking as a template, and dabbed in. VOILA.
I was ridiculously pleased with the result after so little effort. Even if no one would recognize me.
You can see the mask better. Tabby came as Edward Scissorhands (store bought)
Tery was going to go as Balloon Boy Falcon Heene, before realizing that everyone in Colorado also had that idea. So I suggested the 2009 Killer, which she accomplished by sticking photos of all the celebrities who have died so far this year all over her.
She wanted a pair of those New Year's Eve 2009 glasses but couldn't find any, so everyone had kind of a hard time guessing
I eventually had to take the mask off because I was freaking one of the other partygoers out so badly. As I stripped down my layers, I discovered how versatile a trench coat and fedora can be:
Shoo-be-doo, baby. Frank Sinatra
Finally, Justin "Sexyback" Timberlake
Okay, enough pics of me. There were other people there too:
Hosts Fred and Wilma (Chris and Liana)
Kay as Amy Winehouse
Laura and new (to me) boyfriend Tyler. More on him later. Also, Laura struck an identical pose with me 6 years ago. I think it's her default
Turns out his costume went just as well with Angel Becca
This is the first night I met Tyler. Shortly after our introduction, Laura confided that God was "commando" this evening. When I expressed doubt, he didn't hesitate to flip up his bathrobe to show off a completely nude and quite shapely arse. Later (much later) when there was talk of going in the hot tub, Tyler came into the kitchen to ask about borrowing undergarments. I started to say, "Hey, just go au natur..."; before the words were out, he instantly shucked his kit and dashed out to the backyard naked as a jaybird.
I hope he comes to more parties in the future.
Where was I? Oh.
Edward finds operating a camera a bit tricky
Not much variety, sorry. These were really the best costumes all night.
Actually more people recognized me than I expected, about four I think. That was a bit of fun.
~*~
Since I don't know how to put a cut inside a cut, I'll just say the remainder of this post concerns how Tabby got a little too drunk and completely hijacked the party (for me and the hosts, at least) with her relationship drama, such that I haven't seen since the Denise days. I thought my days of using my "Tabby's Pain Train" tag were over. If no one wants to read it I understand completely, but I like to look back on these things years from now, assuming we make it to a looking-back-and-laughing point.
Kay and Tabby are having problems -- Kay isn't giving Tabby the attention she requires, and furthermore Tabby is convinced that Kay wants a man (remember, I always had Kay figured for an Anne Heche lesbian).
It's been going on for awhile, but it sort of came to a head at the party, when in Tabby's view Kay spent the entire night "joined at the hip" with David, a fellow vet person, and more importantly no time with Tabby (which is silly. Tery and I hardly see each other during parties either. We spend plenty of time together at home, we don't need to be stuck together when we're out too). The irony of this situtation is that Tabby's problem with Denise was that Denise was too dependent on her, needing more attention than Tabby was willing to give. Oh karma, you're too much.
Tabby got steadily drunker and drunker and surlier and more self-pitying with each passing hour. The first sign of trouble was when she started coming on to Becca the Angel, hard, hard enough to make her uncomfortable (which takes a lot). Then after midnight when the hot tub idea was raised, people just decided whether to go in or not (I decided not, despite heavy lobbying from the crowd). Tabby pulled me aside and pointed out how "she wasn't invited" to join them. The fact that it was hardly an invitation-only event didn't really matter to her.
Then she took up a position directly in front of the stereo, where she could select her favorite emo songs and crank them to unpleasant levels and rock back and forth and moan in heartwrenching agony, acting like there was no one else in the room. Don't get me wrong, I feel for her and I'm sure it's horrible to go through, but I can hardly think of a less appropriate place to air all this angst than a nice casual Halloween party.
Liana tried to get her to just go outside and talk to Kay. Tabby protested that it was "always me going to people, no one ever comes to ME." So it went on and on. Nothing would placate her. She crossed the line a little when she latched onto the idea that all their mutual friends were "on Kay's side" because they were all out in the hot tub with her. I said I doubted anyone was aware they were entering a battlefield when they climbed into the tub, but I should have saved my breath. When she wouldn't let go of this idea I called her paranoid, and that pretty much shut her off to me.
I offered to give her a ride home which she declined. I started to go out back to say goodbye to people.
"Where are you going?!" she asked frantically.
"To say goodbye to my hosts," I was a little irritated with her at this point.
"Just don't say anything about me, okay??" Darn. I was planning to announce, "Goodbye folks, I had a great time. By the way, Tabby's having a complete meltdown inside. You all have a good night!" She still apparently holds on to the teenage mindset that everyone thinks about her as much as she thinks about herself.
Rarely have I been so thankful to have the dogs as an excuse to leave. I later learned that when Kay and David FINALLY dragged themselves out of the tub (at least an hour later), a bit of a skirmish ensued. David tried to interject, whereupon Chris informed him that his input would probably be the least appreciated at that moment. Kay and Tabby went home, both come Monday acting as if nothing at all had happened. Except Kay just texted Tery a few minutes ago looking for phone numbers of people who might be out with Tabby, since Tabby herself wasn't answering her phone. Yep, things don't look good. But dammit, work it out between yourselves and don't drag unsuspecting party guests into the fray.
Also on Monday Kay told us how she developed a "leprosy rash" on her chin, she suspects from the hot tub. Which is why I avoid those human bacteria frappès whenever possible.
