Halloween

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Halloween!

I like Halloween. It is the one time a year an adult can play dress up, go out in public in the most outrageous costume, and no one will try and arrest him or take him off to the funny farm. The pictures here are a case in point.

David & Scott's Halloween Party

David & Scott are good friends of mine. They are both enormously creative and are also fun to be around. Halloween for them is their favorite time of year - better than Christmas and New Years combined! Not only do they get to dress up like every other sane, fun loving adult, but they also get to throw a really bitchin Halloween party. I've been to a couple of these now and they are a lot of fun. At their 2001 party Thomas brought along his camera to record some of the action. He then sent us copies of the photos and those are what I am featuring here. Thomas, in addition to his many other skills, runs his own ice carving business, Art In Ice, and has achieved just success with his efforts.

David and Scott's Backyard - ooohhhh scary!

The Backyard

David and Scott recently purchased a house. Not only did this allow them to store all of their stuff in one place (I've never known anyone with so much stuff!) but it has also afforded them the pleasure of having a real backyard to play in!

These two photos show just a little bit of what David & Scott have done with all this space to play with.

Each Halloween they turn their entire house into a Halloween Playground and fill it with a bit of their Halloween stuff.

David and Scott's Backyard - fresh dug graves, skeletons and bodies!

I say a bit because even with their house, backyard, front yard, and even the roof all covered with Halloween stuff they still have more that they could put out there - they simply have run out of places to put it all!

This year David & Scott had more of their yard to play with as they had an entire year since they first moved in to clear it out and landscape it. It shows. With all that cleared space this just provided the two of them more space to lay out their stuff. David & Scott are the only guys I know who have not just one, not just two but THREE full size store mannequins!

Last year they used part of the turned up yard as a "cemetery" in which their guests could go "grave robbing" to find the "buried treasures of the grave." This was replete with all these little tombstones. The "treasures" were little trinkets which you would usually find in ticky tacky tourist trap stores or adult gag gifts. I still have the "treasure" which I "robbed" from one of the "graves." This year David and Scott did something different, as they make sure to do each year, so there were no more graves to grave rob. They still did have a Pumpkin Carving Contest though!

The Great Pumpkin Carving Contest Lineup

It's Pumpkin Carving Time!

This is one of the really neat things about their party. Each year David and Scott go out and purchase a whole bunch of pumpkins. Then their guests get to carve them up with their own designs. Once everybody has finished creating their artistic masterpiece we all then get to vote on which ones are the best. To top it all off each guest then gets to take home the pumpkin they carved! Very giving and considerate of David and Scott. It also makes for a really fun night.

Some of the erstwhile pumpkin carvers give great thought to their creations. Some use patterns as a starting point. Some go at it freehand. Some bring along add-ons to enhance their designs. Just to the left of Scott (he's the one in the fishnet body suit at the bottom of the picture) you can see one such pumpkin. It's the one with all the knives sticking out of it. Doran, its creator, also used heavy gauge staples to "staple shut" the mouth of the face he carved in it. A gruesome thing to see! Another pumpkin with props is up towards the far right hand corner of the picture. Patty made that one and it has a figure inside of it "watching her cable TV program" on the mini-television set inside. Then there are those who simply cut to the chase in their pumpkin carving efforts. Thomas comes to mind here. That really big pumpkin just to the right of the picture's center is his. Thomas brought along some of the power tools he uses to carve his ice block sculptures. They made short work of his pumpkin and this is what resulted.

The Pumpkin Carving Contest is no passive thing. Once everybody has put up their creation, David makes sure each pumpkin is displaying its number and then hands out ballots to the guests. Then each pumpkin carver gets to come up and extoll the virtues of their creation. Any attempt to sway the voting public is actively encouraged! Once everyone all the pumpkins are presented then David collects all the ballots and retires to make a proper accounting of it all. No dimpled or hanging chads here!

Inside!

This photo should give you some idea of just how full David & Scott's house is. Packed from wall to wall and floor to ceiling with all sorts of Halloween stuff! And this is but one room of the house!

Here we see David handing out the quiz sheets for one of the various games and contests he also runs during his parties (I did say he was very creative, right?)

In this shot he is going through the answers to one of those contests. On the floor in front of him are some of the boxes containing this year's prizes. Yup, a fun time, great company and some pretty cool Schwag too!

This year's contest was a "match the word with its associated fetish." Uh huh. That's right. I didn't say these contests were easy, just that they were fun.

Aside from being very creative and fun, these two guys are also rather practical in pursuit of their fun. You'll notice that the couches in these shots are both covered with sheets. Aside from adding a "ghostly ambiance" fitting for Halloween, they also insured that none of us would be getting any pumpkin guts onto their upholstery. Smart guys these two!

The only thing that David & Scott ask their guests to bring along, aside from their own worthy company, is a meal to add to the potluck. It's also a smart idea to bring along your own pumpkin carving tools as those are always in short supply. Some of the attendees show up in their full leathers and deal with having to later clean them of the pumpkin guts which they spilled on themselves. Others however, combine their fetish with practicality and show up in their finest latex wear. Cleaning those outfits is simplicity itself.

By evening's end we all left with our own freshly carved pumpkins, full stomachs from all the food we all brought to share, faces tired from all the happy smiles and stomachs well worked over from all the laughter. A good night shared with good folk. I'm glad to be among those invited.

Costumes!

Halloween 1997

Slash Maraud - lead guitarist for the Killer Penguins

This is me in my "Slash Maraud - lead guitarist for the Killer Penguin" costume. It is something I first came up with when I lived in Atlanta. I have more photos of the costume being created and will post those here once I get them scanned in. For now though, this will do for a start. The costume was based around a T-shirt with a drawing of a machine gun armed and cigar chomping penguin and a pair of outrageously patterned tights I bought. The black and white splinter pattern was very eye catching. The penguin was ridiculously lethal looking. The rest was history.

In Atlanta in 1989 I found myself in need of a good Halloween costume. I had the shirt, I had the tights, I needed something more. So, I scouted around the various thrift stores and used musical equipment places until I found what I wanted. At one musical equipment store they had this beat up and broken electrical guitar. No strings, no electronics and the fret was cracked. However, it was perfect for my needs. I cleaned it and then airbrushed it in a pattern to match the tights. Then I went out and bought a black and white "punk" wig and some black and white Halloween costume makeup. With a bit of work, it all came together. This outfit worked so well in fact, that I kept it all with me when I moved out here to San Diego.

In 1997 I was at my new job at SAIC and they had a big to-do for Halloween that year. There was an official contest and a special pot-luck luncheon. I decided to go all out even though I wasn't a staff regular employee yet. Even though I was still a temp I felt secure enough with my fellow employees to give it a go. I don't think they expected anything like this. I know the head of our department didn't.

Me and the boss

This was fun.

Dave is the very uncomfortable guy on my left here. He really was squeamish about being so near me in my get-up. Of course, as soon as I learned this I made sure to sit right next to him! The rest of the crew at work loved it and were egging me on. Dave just had to deal with it so as not to look the fool. Just one of those little Hells that come with being a boss!

Just another day at the office

Just Another Day at the Office

And it was too! This was my office at the time. That pumpkin on the desk in front of me is one that I carved for the competition that day as well. Like I said, I have fun on Halloween.

Behind me there are some examples of what I do for a living. I am a project scheduler by trade. Perhaps because that is such dry work I manage to compensate for it in other ways. In any event I had fun that day. In fact, I even won as the best costume in the contest!

Out at night

Out At Night

Later that night I went out to partake of the "Nightmare on Normal Street" festivities. That is the section of street in Hillcrest which they block off for people to gather and come out in their costumes. Lotsa eye candy and lotsa creativity. It was fun to meander around in my get-up. As you can see, I did change the face paint. I was not going to leave that goop on all day!

If you would like to know more about this night of adventure I had, then just ask! Click on my email address here:
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This page was last updated on: 27 February 2003

Unless otherwise noted, all photographs and images on this page are copyright protected property of Madoc Pope. If you would like to use any of my images you must contact me first before you do so.

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In the meantime, I hope you have enjoyed your "stay" at this site. Check back again to see what new images I have added. Until then, stay well, play hard, play safe, and have fun!

Madoc