Who's the Scariest?

Andy and Jess' house was done up, all four floors of it, with Heaven on the top floor, all soft music and gauzy fabric and blue lights...My fellow Swinging Orangutang Vinnie and I take five in Heaven.

The basement of the house was Hell. There was a very nasty torture chamber down there. Oddly enough, I felt equally comfortable in both places, although after awhile Hell got to me and I went back to Heaven.
Andy and Jess had worked for weeks, with the help of Matt and Ali, to transform their warm and pleasant house into something Other for this party. The basement was undeniably creepy. Andy confessed to me that his childhood dream was to make monsters for the movies. He'd be real, real good at it.

Speaking of scary...Bill of the Birds was voted Scariest.
I cannot imagine why, unless it had to do with the fact that he was 6'8 in that wig, and he slammed his costume together the night of the party. He's always been good at improv. We took separate cars to the party, and when he walked in I had a laughing fit that lasted a good 15 minutes.
Here, he's talking with Zane, who did a very convincing turn as roadkill, complete with tire tracks and litter pasted all over his otherwise natty attire. Half his teeth are gone, and his glasses are shattered. Beautiful. Here, he's talking with Hef.
Margaret was a new mom, not a huge stretch for her...you may remember her as Oona's mommy. She's got a big glass of Mother's Little Helper to get her through.
She had a crib mattress strapped to her back, covered with the accoutrements of motherhood, most of them having to do with poo management.
Robert Smith from The Cure made the scene. Every time someone pointed a camera at him he stopped laughing and smiling and fell right into character.
Although he did let down his guard once, for me.
A naughty schoolgirl from Kill Bill.
has a conversation with the Lizard King, who happens to be our next-door neighbor and fellow musician.
A little klatsch of witches in the living room.
And a very happy caveman, enjoying the company of his friends and a cold brewski. Gotta love Hef's artless hand, draped over the couch...
I love my creative friends so much sometimes it hurts.

Halloween Fun

I know. Halloween's a long way away. And so am I. I'm sitting at home by the fireside canning blogposts on a quiet November Sunday afternoon. Bill's in Texas. Phoebe's curled up with a book, Liam's reading; Chet is chewing a Nylabone at my feet. As I write, I'm looking forward to a ten-day natural history trip to Guyana, to not having to think about my blog for ten whole days.

So I'm looking back and writing ahead, picking and choosing topics that will sustain the effort in my absence. I'd love to think that at some point I could relax about it all and just go, leave a little note on my virtual door, Gone Birding. I'm not there yet. True or not, I believe that all my readers would up and leave if I were to do that, lovely as it sounds.

And so I give you some images from Halloween past, a wonderful costume party thrown by our fabulous friends Jess and Andy. Jess is a Muse, which is appropriate for a singer, musician and voice/piano teacher--My Voice Teacher!!, and Andy is a Pastafarian. He has a Flying Spaghetti Monster on his shirt, but his dreads hide it. This link is why I love Wikipedia.
Lots of people look great on Halloween. They manage to be slightly menacing or odd and alluring at the same time. Cathy and Martha are prime examples of this approach.As is Andrea.Clay as Cool Hand Luke definitely qualifies. He's carrying a specimen that he drinks from.Sarah made the scene, palin around with terrorists. (Stole that line from the Kinsey Sicks).

I happen to think Halloween should be scary, and Bill and I dress accordingly.BOO!