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Halloween Report

It shouldn't be surprising that Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. Finally a day when no one's allowed to critcize the donning of wigs, thigh highs, and other costumey apparel. The one day of the year where we're sure never to be called inappropriate by anyone.

Still, for those of us who cosplay on a regular basis, Halloween could be thought of as amateur night. Where those unindoctrinated into the world of costuming transform themselves into sexy "fill-in-the-blank"s which they pulled complete from a bag they purchased at Ricky's or other such Halloween adventure shop. Sexy senoritas, naughty nymphs, cherry red riding hood, captain booty, and, simply, jailbait. If it's sexy and comes in a bag, it's fair game for Halloween.

There's nothing wrong with this per say -- in fact the costumes are usually pretty cute. But it's also, in our opinion, kind of lazy. So we decided to create our own costumes. The theme for us and our friends this year?

Fairy Tales gone wrong.



Left to right: Little Dead Riding Hood, Little Miss Muffet (post spider attack), Geisha Goldilocks, and No-Longer-Sleeping-(Now Dead)-Beauty.

Here's how the night went down.

I arrived to work in the morning to find pirates and fairies milling about and quickly realized this was the one day of the year I could costume at work. So I changed into my zombie red riding hood outfit and put on my makeup. The purple eyeshadow from the Clarin's jazz collection does a mean bruising effect.



My co-worker Sarah (pictured above) later painted herself green and added wings to this ensemble.

Leanna arrived near the end of the day and changed into her Little Miss Muffett outfit in my office.



For a reason unbeknownst to me, she added vampire fangs to complete the look. Maybe the spider's venom turned her into a were-spider? You'd have to ask her... I do know it gave her a wicked lisp, which we kept laughing about all night.



After she'd changed, we headed over to Posner's Books in Grand Central to pick up Dead Beauty and Geisha Goldilocks - aka Stacy and Liz. (Who omg had amazing glitter makeup on.)



I gave Goldilocks/Liz a bear to steal porridge from, but she insisted it was actually a cat. The jury's still out on that one. But in hindsight I guess a Geisha Goldilocks might very well carry a cat around. I mean, cat cafe anyone?



We left Grand Central and managed to snag the only available cab in NYC and rode down to Morgan's where the party would take place later that night. There, we met up with Snow White, aka Hope Tarr.

We dropped off our stuff and headed down to the village parade where police and blocked roads thwarted our every move. You'd think they didn't want us to watch the parade or something! We were subject to a lot of attention. As Riding Hood, I got a lot of wolf calls. I also got accosted by Freddy Kruger while crossing the street.

Freddy: Is your name Mary?
Me Thinking: Uh, do I know you?
Freddy: Cause my favorite drink is...BLOODY MARY!!!

Oh-kay then.

There were some...interesting...costumes.



And what Halloween could be complete without the Scream guy? He followed us for a while.



He even tried to kill Stacy... Or maybe that's his way of flirting. Tough to say.



Even the dogs got into the fun!



We finally managed to snag a spot right outside the old Limelight church/nightclub. Leanna and I posed RIP style for the infamous club we'd never get a chance to patronize.



We waited for the parade. And waited. And waited. And...waited.

It was freezing.

In all, we waited an hour and a half for the seven pm parade. The floats didn't start arriving until 8:20. You'd think a Zombie Red Riding Hood wouldn't feel the chill. You'd be wrong.

But the parade, when it did finally arrive, was pretty darn cool. Which almost made up for it.







After seeing the major floats, we headed back to Morgan's to party. (And get warm!) There, we met up with the rest of our peeps.

Jacob aka David Bowie from Labyrinth.



Kat aka Hockey Mom Sarah Palin. (The devil horns are not random!)



Chris, a prince of a guy.



Our hostess Morgan, a beautiful butterfly.



And Nick the builder.



We played Celebrity and a bros against hoes trivia game. Sadly the three bros kicked we hoes asses. Not sure how that happened!





By the end of the night, everyone for some reason HAD to try on the Bowie wig. With...various results.







All in all, it was a great Halloween!



Zombie Red out.

Happy Halloween

Fairy tales gone wrong girls...

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

More soon!

Marianne

Zac Posen Masquerade Ball

Before I write about last night's Halloween party, I wanted to write about the event Liz and I went to the night before - which will explain why I was so tired for said Halloween party.

I was reading a Daily Candy email a couple months ago and it mentioned an upcoming charity ball put on by the Young Patrons of Lincoln Center. They were honoring the amazing designer Zac Posen. Zac designs for ALL the celebrities these days - dresses, bags, shoes - you name it! His show at fashion week was THE one to get into. He's also super young - only 28 years old!

Anyway, I decided to cover the story for Better TV. I asked Liz to come along as my assistant because 1) I knew it'd be more fun with her there and 2) Sometimes when you're stuck on a red carpet, you need people to do things for you. She agreed.

I found out a few weeks before the event that Uma Thurman would be giving out the award to Zac at the event. Bonus! Always good when you cover an event to have an A list celebrity in attendance.

The event was held in the Time Warner Center's Allen Room. If you ever have the opportunity to attend an event there, do it, no matter what the event. You won't be sorry. The glass walled room looked out over Columbus Circle and the park. Dazzling at night. My photos are a little blurry due to the low light, but you can get an idea.

There were three levels and each level had its own bar and food station.










And at the top level you had your silent auction items. From trips to luxury Vegas hotel The Wynn to designer bags made by Zac Posen, there was a mouthwatering array of goods up for grabs. Sadly we are too poor to do any grabbing!

I really liked this dress, though.





After wandering around a bit, it was time to go back out to the red carpet and wait for the celebs to arrive. The thing you need to know about celebs and the red carpet is the lesser celeb you are, the earlier you arrive. Not sure how the powers that be work it, but it's true everytime. That meant Uma would come last. But she couldn't come too late, we assured ourselves. After all, she was giving the presentation. And the presentation was set for 9:30.





This woman is an actress on Law and Order. I don't watch the show and I'm too lazy to look up her name now. Anyone?





I was more excited about the Gossip Girls, to tell you the truth! Nicole Fiscella, who plays Isabel Coates, and Amanda Setton, who plays Penelope. We LOVED both their outfits and they were really friendly and fun to interview. Now I've met four of the actors on the show. Just gotta get Blake Lively someday!!







And Amanda's shoes were beyond awesome.




We also interviewed two Olympians - who won silver medals for fencing. I think Liz had a crush on the dark haired one.





Next came Zac Posen himself. Sans Uma. He was adorable though. And super friendly. Wearing a coat of ermine and a mask he made himself. He talked about dressing Uma - a goddess of our time.





Now we just had to wait for Uma. So we waited. And waited. They brought dessert out. Liz snagged us some candy apples.







We began to get bored. Standing on the red carpet for three hours will do that to you. So we took some masked photos while we waited.







Then we were told that Uma was too nervous to come out on the red carpet before her speech (huh?!) and that she'd come out for photos AFTER her presentation. Meaning we had to wait LONGER. Grr. Doesn't she know I want to go home and to bed? Halloween is tomorrow and I want to be well rested!

So she gives her speech and presents Zac with his award.





And then, after another wait, she finally comes out on the red carpet. I think Liz took some video with her camera - so hopefully she'll post that soon. But to recap it was about five seconds of prancing around with Zac - no talking to the media - and then running off the carpet yelling peace and love. Three hour wait for THAT!

Bleh. The world of celebrity is just so ridiculous. It's like a power play. She was sitting around at 9pm, but knew the photographers would wait all night if they had to, so she decided not to make an appearance. Just so disrespectful to them and their time. And then to not even talk to us after making us wait so long...well, I can't say I am going to look at her in the movies the same way again.

I do want to point out that none of this is the fault of the Young Patrons of Lincoln Center. They put on a great party and everyone seemed to have a good time. Their publicist, Kate, was really helpful and good at keeping us up to date. I felt a little bad for her with the Uma thing. After all, she was just the messenger.

Anyway, that's about it. Overall a fun night. I'll post the Better TV story when it's finished!





Marianne

Little Dead Riding Hood

I had to try on and photograph my Halloween costume a few weeks ago. It may change a tiny bit from this, but it'll give you an idea of what I'll be doing tonight.

By the way, the blood in this photo was photoshopped. Hopefully I can make my real/fake blood look just as cool.

I made up this costume from bits and pieces bought online or from my closet. The wig is from Ricky's. I have so much more fun coming up with costume elements individually than just buying a bag costume. Probably more expensive this way, but I feel more pride in the final product.

When I was a kid my mom always would sew my Halloween costumes. It was a special thing that I will never forget. She made me princess and fairy and angelc costumes - I always wanted to be something girly. I don't think that's changed much over the years.

What are you guys going to be for Halloween?

Marianne

Pranna

Jacob and I attended a restaurant opening on Tuesday night at a place called Pranna - a huge space (15,000 square feet - massive for Manhattan!) on Madison and 28th. The design is sleek and elegant with soaring ceilings, open kitchen and a balcony lounge.

While most people seemed to go expecting straight-up Indian food from chef Chai Trivedi, Pranna offers a much wider variety of pan-asian cuisine. The menu was actually inspired by the chef's six month motorcycle tour of Southeast Asia. Dishes offer a variety of Indonisian, Thai, Indian, Vietnamese flavors.

Sadly, there was much competition for actual food at the opening. Well heeled patrons lucky enough to snag an invite descended like vultures on the hapless waiters carrying steaming plates of food. Jacob and I managed to score two chicken skewers but that was about it. The free flowing champagne dulled the hunger pains though. :)



Me at Pranna


In all, I wish I had gotten to try more dishes - but the place definitely intrigued me all the same. And I love the deocr. I wouldn't mind returning to actually dine sometime soon.

Marianne