I thought my Ghostbuster costume with a proton pack was a shoe-in to win the office contest, but no, guy with stained clothes who was "Bit by a Vampire Shark" (As evidenced by the bite mark in his boogie board) was it. I'm incredibly salty over it still. The lady who did Pennywise absolutely deserved her prize, that was some fine halloweening.
Got over to the parent's pretty quick after work after switching to my clown get up, (Kids would ask if I was Pennywise, always replied that I was his cousin Poundfoolish) but no one really started showing up until 6:30/7:00, which meant I was twiddling my thumbs testing the house for like an hour and a half and getting nervous about it raining. However, it didn't rain and the kids came. They were sufficiently spooked, as were several adults who weren't expecting me to pop up (The kids were very good not to warn people about me showing up. Some even wanted to make sure I got their friends when they came next. I appreciate such cold-blooded traitors to aid me in my work) We give away the full size candy bars, but you've gotta brave the inflatable house and fog machines to get there.
We started the night with just shy of 300 bars, and ended up using about 260. Not bad for a Wednesday night that was projected to be rained out.
"Go down, kick ass, and set yourselves up as gods, that's our Prime Directive!"
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#pipeCocky Stride, Musky odoursPope of Chili TownRegistered Userregular
I thought my Ghostbuster costume with a proton pack was a shoe-in to win the office contest, but no, guy with stained clothes who was "Bit by a Vampire Shark" (As evidenced by the bite mark in his boogie board) was it. I'm incredibly salty over it still. The lady who did Pennywise absolutely deserved her prize, that was some fine halloweening.
Last year a couple of my crew who are also dads with mini-busters of their own went to a "Boo in the Zoo" event. There was a costume contest and they did not win it, which isn't something we really look to do since we build our costumes over years. The family who did win, however, was wearing Rubies store-bought plastic Ghostbusters jumpsuits with inflatable proton packs. The reason given for them winning was because "their costumes are home-made!" because the mom hand-lettered their name tags on the suits. My crew is awesome so they still cheered for them like maniacs but they couldn't not roll their eyes at that rationalization. All of our packs and suits are extremely home-made, they just look professional because of the time and attention given to them. It's funny hearing people's biases during costume contests.
I thought my Ghostbuster costume with a proton pack was a shoe-in to win the office contest, but no, guy with stained clothes who was "Bit by a Vampire Shark" (As evidenced by the bite mark in his boogie board) was it. I'm incredibly salty over it still. The lady who did Pennywise absolutely deserved her prize, that was some fine halloweening.
Last year a couple of my crew who are also dads with mini-busters of their own went to a "Boo in the Zoo" event. There was a costume contest and they did not win it, which isn't something we really look to do since we build our costumes over years. The family who did win, however, was wearing Rubies store-bought plastic Ghostbusters jumpsuits with inflatable proton packs. The reason given for them winning was because "their costumes are home-made!" because the mom hand-lettered their name tags on the suits. My crew is awesome so they still cheered for them like maniacs but they couldn't not roll their eyes at that rationalization. All of our packs and suits are extremely home-made, they just look professional because of the time and attention given to them. It's funny hearing people's biases during costume contests.
I mean, they probably inflated the packs themselves...
Yeah, that's bullshit. Maybe you guys need different levels of BDUs, like your professional set then a "press/public appearance" set that's more caricature?
The times we actually have won contests I've almost turned it down. I do think those prizes should go to the people who made the costume for a specific event or holiday. The time I accepted was at a Halloween 80s night where the band nominated us because we wouldn't nominate ourselves and there were very few people in character costumes to begin with.
StraightziHere we may reign secure, and in my choice,To reign is worth ambition though in HellRegistered Userregular
edited November 2018
My Halloween party was this past weekend.
So the theme this year was contemporary art gallery, owned by myself, the illustrious patron of the arts, Dorian Gray. The opening, (in)Human Forms, was specifically focused on the human body and distortions thereof. Our featured artist was my roommate as St.Heno, the Grecian sculptress (there may have been a subtheme of immortality hidden away in there). It's probably a bit more high concept than even I usually go for - most of the art wasn't directly spooky or anything, but rather designed to provoke a sort of uncanny discomfort. And all rendered with the loving hand of two people who went to an art school despite not being artists themselves, who have attended a lot of art openings and read a lot of artist statements.
Anyways, onto the pictures:
My Picture was hung outside the bathroom, obscured by that velvet curtain at the beginning of the night. It was pretty obvious, and I know plenty of people peeked, but I also would draw the curtain back a little bit more every time I went to the bathroom myself, so by the end it was essentially uncovered.
Here's the rest of the hallway to the bathroom, as well as another picture of me, because I am very vain. Those hands are all papier mache, and yes, they are very easy to knock down. The pictures that you can't really see here are all portraits - some of them are original works, but a number of them are prints that were purchased from a thrift store. Those thrift store ones all had their eyes cut out and replace with mirrors, which creates a very weird effect.
Here are some masks. This was honestly a last minute project - I'd bought these manicurist's practice fingers early on, assuming I'd use them for something, and we had some extra mask forms because that's the sort of people we are, so we eventually combined them. The faces represent four of the six basic/universal emotions - Anger, Happiness, Sadness, and Surprise.
Both of these birds are made of porcelain doll parts, from I think three different dolls in total. The velvet ribbons that are streaming from the cage have the names of various songs that compare women to birds, predominately by male artists.
We had some extra doll parts, too. The hands were repainted, obviously, and her hair was done up with porcupine quills. There's not like, symbolism or anything there, I just had a bunch of porcupine quills laying around.
The King in Yellow exhibit was one of our biggest ones - three masks (Camilla, The Stranger, and Cassilda), along with the sketches that I did for the masks and a piece of the play itself, both of which were tragically damaged with black mold, obscuring some key details. Oh and also a print that a friend of ours made that happens to involve a person having dreams about the theatre. It's weird when life lines up like that.
The other big project was the sculpture garden. These were St.Heno's featured pieces - I believe they're entitled Rage, Despair, and Fear. Along with some cataclysmically large numbers next to them - she's very prolific in her vengeance.
Back inside we have the contents of our glass table - a full scale model of our apartment (set up the way it usually is, rather than the party setup). I believe each inch is equal to two feet here.
And the final exhibit I have pictures of, these are Saint Genesius and Saint Sebastian. They're filled with candy and bible verses.
Well, they were filled with candy and bible verses.
Also in the kitchen we have our food spread, and in the background of that you can see my champagne holder - he had about fifteen pounds of ice inside of him as well.
Not pictured are a number of smaller art pieces, including a variety of art books that were spread out across any available tables, and two of the major exhibits - Refraction was a pair of disposable cameras with mirrors partially obscuring and distorting their viewfinders that were passed around the party, and Reflection was our bathroom exhibit, in which I hung a couple dozen additional mirrors in the bathroom, for maximum existential dread.
And I do have a few more closeups and stuff if you want any details on anything that we did. Or, y'know, most of it is still set up in my apartment and I can go take more pictures.
I was watching Curious Creations of Christine McConnell on Netflix with my grandmother, and we both enjoyed it. But she kept wondering who this show is really for. Who are these recipes and guides actually for? She thought they were cute and interesting, but had no idea who would spend so much time and effort on snacks and party favors and decorations and everything.
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Got over to the parent's pretty quick after work after switching to my clown get up, (Kids would ask if I was Pennywise, always replied that I was his cousin Poundfoolish) but no one really started showing up until 6:30/7:00, which meant I was twiddling my thumbs testing the house for like an hour and a half and getting nervous about it raining. However, it didn't rain and the kids came. They were sufficiently spooked, as were several adults who weren't expecting me to pop up (The kids were very good not to warn people about me showing up. Some even wanted to make sure I got their friends when they came next. I appreciate such cold-blooded traitors to aid me in my work) We give away the full size candy bars, but you've gotta brave the inflatable house and fog machines to get there.
We started the night with just shy of 300 bars, and ended up using about 260. Not bad for a Wednesday night that was projected to be rained out.
Is this a reference I don't know of are you just Aussie vampire hunter or something?
Need some stuff designed or printed? I can help with that.
Last year a couple of my crew who are also dads with mini-busters of their own went to a "Boo in the Zoo" event. There was a costume contest and they did not win it, which isn't something we really look to do since we build our costumes over years. The family who did win, however, was wearing Rubies store-bought plastic Ghostbusters jumpsuits with inflatable proton packs. The reason given for them winning was because "their costumes are home-made!" because the mom hand-lettered their name tags on the suits. My crew is awesome so they still cheered for them like maniacs but they couldn't not roll their eyes at that rationalization. All of our packs and suits are extremely home-made, they just look professional because of the time and attention given to them. It's funny hearing people's biases during costume contests.
I mean, they probably inflated the packs themselves...
Yeah, that's bullshit. Maybe you guys need different levels of BDUs, like your professional set then a "press/public appearance" set that's more caricature?
So the theme this year was contemporary art gallery, owned by myself, the illustrious patron of the arts, Dorian Gray. The opening, (in)Human Forms, was specifically focused on the human body and distortions thereof. Our featured artist was my roommate as St.Heno, the Grecian sculptress (there may have been a subtheme of immortality hidden away in there). It's probably a bit more high concept than even I usually go for - most of the art wasn't directly spooky or anything, but rather designed to provoke a sort of uncanny discomfort. And all rendered with the loving hand of two people who went to an art school despite not being artists themselves, who have attended a lot of art openings and read a lot of artist statements.
Anyways, onto the pictures:
My Picture was hung outside the bathroom, obscured by that velvet curtain at the beginning of the night. It was pretty obvious, and I know plenty of people peeked, but I also would draw the curtain back a little bit more every time I went to the bathroom myself, so by the end it was essentially uncovered.
Here's the rest of the hallway to the bathroom, as well as another picture of me, because I am very vain. Those hands are all papier mache, and yes, they are very easy to knock down. The pictures that you can't really see here are all portraits - some of them are original works, but a number of them are prints that were purchased from a thrift store. Those thrift store ones all had their eyes cut out and replace with mirrors, which creates a very weird effect.
Here are some masks. This was honestly a last minute project - I'd bought these manicurist's practice fingers early on, assuming I'd use them for something, and we had some extra mask forms because that's the sort of people we are, so we eventually combined them. The faces represent four of the six basic/universal emotions - Anger, Happiness, Sadness, and Surprise.
Both of these birds are made of porcelain doll parts, from I think three different dolls in total. The velvet ribbons that are streaming from the cage have the names of various songs that compare women to birds, predominately by male artists.
We had some extra doll parts, too. The hands were repainted, obviously, and her hair was done up with porcupine quills. There's not like, symbolism or anything there, I just had a bunch of porcupine quills laying around.
The King in Yellow exhibit was one of our biggest ones - three masks (Camilla, The Stranger, and Cassilda), along with the sketches that I did for the masks and a piece of the play itself, both of which were tragically damaged with black mold, obscuring some key details. Oh and also a print that a friend of ours made that happens to involve a person having dreams about the theatre. It's weird when life lines up like that.
The other big project was the sculpture garden. These were St.Heno's featured pieces - I believe they're entitled Rage, Despair, and Fear. Along with some cataclysmically large numbers next to them - she's very prolific in her vengeance.
Back inside we have the contents of our glass table - a full scale model of our apartment (set up the way it usually is, rather than the party setup). I believe each inch is equal to two feet here.
And the final exhibit I have pictures of, these are Saint Genesius and Saint Sebastian. They're filled with candy and bible verses.
Well, they were filled with candy and bible verses.
Also in the kitchen we have our food spread, and in the background of that you can see my champagne holder - he had about fifteen pounds of ice inside of him as well.
Not pictured are a number of smaller art pieces, including a variety of art books that were spread out across any available tables, and two of the major exhibits - Refraction was a pair of disposable cameras with mirrors partially obscuring and distorting their viewfinders that were passed around the party, and Reflection was our bathroom exhibit, in which I hung a couple dozen additional mirrors in the bathroom, for maximum existential dread.
And I do have a few more closeups and stuff if you want any details on anything that we did. Or, y'know, most of it is still set up in my apartment and I can go take more pictures.
I said I know some people.
https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/230245/its-halloween-everyones-entitled-to-one-good-scare#latest