Editrix Abby  

Halloween Wrap-Up

My Madcap Halloween Marathon of Parties!

Okay, Halloween is finally over. The last few days have been positively GRUELING! And if you count the ZombieCon as the beginning, it’s been over a week! That’s right, for me, the Halloween weekend began on Saturday, October 21 with ZombieCon. Organized by a crew from Kostume Kult, a roving band of flesheaters began the day at The Carriage House, applying prosthetic makeup, sipping bloody marys and eating…blood red scrambled brains. Once we had gathered critical zombie mass, we staggered and shambled, lurched and leered down Fifth Avenue, with a most hilarious trip through Bloomingdales. We moaned through their makeup departyment, “Do you have anything for these dark circles under our eyes?” They loved us! From there it was photo ops at FAO Shwartz and St. Pat’s, Cartier and Gucci, Rockefeller Center and beers across from Grand Central. The zombies wound up in the East Village, where no one bats an eye at hoards of stumbling drunks. I got home the next afternoon.

My Friday night began at a private birthday party. The birthday boy had chosen an S&M theme and hired makeup and hair people, airbrush artists applying glitter and me—to bring in a bondage expert, Mistress HarleQuinn, a muscleman and dungeon master. I was pretty impressed with the guy’s friends; they really took his dress code to heart—more so than any dress code fetish party I’ve ever thrown!—and showed up in thousands of dollars worth of PVC, leather and elegant Agent Provocateur. Our plan was to go from there to Motherfucker, but those plans were kiboshed when The Roxy was shut down less than a half hour after the party began. Bah! So it was off to SMack! instead, where the two of us immediately ensconced ourselves in a banquette, sending subs and other assorted fans to the bar for us. When they shooed all the fetishists out into the night, I moved into the main room, where there was afterhours dancing to an incredible (trance?) DJ. I finally bumbled home at 7am.

Saturday night I was the MC for the October BadAss Burlesque as they debuted in their new space—Bowery Poetry Club—and on their new night—the last Saturday. It was a star-studded and boob-bejewelled line-up, beginning with The World Famous BOB. Julie Atlas Muze performed a duet with a handsome young man, Amber Ray was on fire and Rev. Jen Miller performed as “Barb,” an old bag with an alarming amount of stringy grey body hair! She was, as always, hilarious! Rose Wood gave a reprise of her whiskey bottle lift (you must see this to believe it), Storm engaged in sacrilege, Velocity Chyalld offered an homage to New Orleans and Aprella brought a cast of thousands to the stage for a bloody finale. But still that wasn’t the end! Vulgaras rocked the house with their new line-up, followed by Gothic Hangman and Madame Dollhaus spinning scary, sexy tunes for the crowd and the party lasted long into the night.

But I jumped into a cab and headed to Brooklyn for Rubulad, the city’s long-running semi-underground art party. It was beyond packed, with a long line up the stairs and an even longer line for the bathroom! Eventually it thinned out a bit, though, and then, like magic, the Disorient party buses filled the place with ALL MY FRIEENNNNDDSSSS! I got hijacked by one of the party buses and wound up at an after party, dancing till, yes, 7am.

Sunday night I went to Zenwarp and got commandeered into MCing the costume contest. I was totally BRUTAL to those in store-bought costumes. Brutal, I tell you. Kate Rigg and Penthouse Pet Victoria Zdrok judged the contest with me, marveling at the bare breasts, Corpse Bride, cardboard transformer and sexy feathered girl. Got home at the embarrassingly early hour of 4am.

Finally, the big day arrived. It couldn’t have been more beautiful! An Indian Summer-ish 70 degrees! I enjoyed an anniversary brunch in the sunshine. Ahhhh... And then it was on to the parade. This year I opted to participate in the barrel of fun that is The Bear Bus. It was an unBEARably spectacular parade experience! Close to 60 Cop humping bears, sex crazed bumblebees, bloody mauled bear victims, bear hunters and a few NAMBLA members (North American Man Bear Love Association, of course!). Before we got underway, we were parked between the rockin’ Kostume Kult/Disorient float and Gleny.com’s collection of crazies. Gleny had hired a few dwarves for his float and I simply couldn’t resist flirting with them. I found myself so inspired that I drizzled honey across my breasts and offered them up (down?) for the licking. It was a media frenzy! The paparazzi  swarmed, snapping shots of the two little people licking my cleavage, honey, gold glitter and all! A lifelong fantasy finally fulfilled!

After the parade, a crew of us wandered the city, vagabond style, in search of a party, finally realizing that, in fact, WE ARE THE PARTY! I’d been so afraid of the open bar/areyouonthelist Flavorpill party, but it soon became our best option. When we got there I told the clipboard girl "Flavorpill Complacent Burning Man blah blah blah." My exact words. She stamped my hand without blinking an eye and waved me in. The vagabonds followed. Open bar? Check. Soccer with a stuffed bear? Check. Rockin’ live band? Check! Making out on the ground a la From Here to Eternity? Check. Clown portrait on dramatic staircase? Check. On to the next bar!

Like we needed more beer, we cabulated downtown to Korova for, yes, more beer. Things got a little blurry for me at this point. Eventually I piled Goldilocks, Orlando and a very broken Smarmy the Clown (who turned out to have actually broken his leg!) into a cab before continuing on to an odd little art space in Soho. It felt like 1980. Hmmm... A street level space guarded by sketchy characters and once inside, darkness and dirt floors and art all over the walls, a painter in mid-stroke right on the floor. I half expected to see Basquiat’s ghost! We babbled to interesting strangers until we could babble no more and I meandered home in my honeycomb coat at, yes, the magical hour of 7am. Wow, what a wild ride!

[Written Nov. 2005]