— पांच हजार तीन सौ दो —
Well, today is Halloween, and I won't be done with my photo collections for the year until the day is over, but—I have a few photos already added to my "Halloween" photo album dedicated just to today, with photos that are precursors to my costume this year.
As it happened, I went to
two Halloween-themed events over the weekend that I had never gone to before. So, even though I had one new event last year that I did not repeat this year ("
Spookly Specimens Tour" at Volunteer Park Conservatory), with two new events this year plus all the regular ones otherwise, I've already got
six separate Halloween themed photo albums for this year,
a new record, when even last year I had a new record at 5. This year I have the requisite "Halloween Time" album, basically Halloween-themed photos taken randomly through the months of September and October; the now-third-annual Virtual Pumpkin Carving Party; and today will yield two separate albums: "Halloween 2022 at PCC," which also includes several photos taken around the office throughout the month; and then my overall "Halloween 2022" into which all photos taken today will be put (and for which there will be a great deal of crossover, given the number of photos I'll take at work today—and, indeed, have already taken).
That accounts for four photo albums this year, which leaves the two new ones generated by events over the weekend: the "100% That Witch" dance party at Neumos; and the West Seattle Harvest Fest, which Shobhit and I went to yesterday.
The event at Neumos was at 9 p.m. on Friday, and I went with Tracy and her older sister Cindy, who just incidentally came out as a lesbian not long ago. This means that although Cindy is older, Tracy, with a lot more exposure (thus far, anyway) to the queer community, has largely served as a bit of a guide, thus kind of filling an "older sister" role even though she's actually younger. This is kind of ironic, since Cindy is notably shorter and smaller than Tracy as well, and honestly looks younger. (Tracy wasn't especially thrilled by my noting that.)
I had bought tickets for both Shobhit and me to this event, knowing there was a fair chance he would not make it due to jet lag. And even though he clearly wanted to go, that was exactly what happened: I had left work shortly after noon on Friday so I could go pick Shobhit up from the airport, having traveled a full 22 hours or so, first from Delhi to Dubai and then fourteen and a half hours flying from Dubai to Seattle. By the time we were a couple of hours from the show, Shobhit was sound asleep on the couch. At one point I woke him up to ask if he still wanted to come or if he wanted to sleep, and he said he wanted to sleep.
Honestly, he might have been able to come had we all just waited until 10:30 to go. This must be a reflection of our current existence as middle-aged people, but both Tracy and I thought this was a drag show first and foremost, and it turned out to be a drag show secondly—it was first and foremost a Halloween weekend dance party. We already knew drag performers tend to be late onstage, but we weren't really prepared for standing in line a good 45 minutes (after I arrived right at 9:00, the time on the tickets), then waiting another 45 minutes inside for anything onstage to happen at all.
In the meantime, at first, we went up to the second floor bar area, which has a few tables and on one side a railing that overlooks the main stage and dance floor. The few tall tables right along the railing were all reserved; I wondered how much that had cost. We found a small, three-chair table along the wall opposite, and we sat there until the show started, barely able to talk to each other thanks to the volume of the dance music. Tracy doesn't drink, and I have no idea whether Cindy does nor not, and even though I was tempted to get a drink at the bar we were seated right next to, I kept rationalizing that we were likely to go out afterward, because Tracy and Cindy had, incredibly, not yet had dinner.
Once any performers actually started, we eventually found spots standing at the railing, where we figured we would get better views than if we went down into the crowd below. This absolutely was true, but it also meant we spent the entire evening either just sitting or standing, at a dance party, with long stretches of people otherwise just dancing to a DJ on the stage. Because, as I noted already, we discovered it was a dance party first—there were only about four drag performers, one of them the host, who we saw do a lip sync performance twice. She had another drag queen perform right after her first performance, and another shortly after her second; a very strange woman in clown makeup (but nothing clown-y about the rest of her outfit), lip syncing to a randomly assorted medley of song snippets. Soon enough, even though we knew a fourth drag queen was coming at some point, Tracy leaned over to me and said, "I'm done." I said I was fine to go as well.
I got
28 shots out of the evening, at least, including the top and middle in this very post. Also including two shots taken at the place we went next: Lost Lake Café on the block across the street, where Tracy and Cindy could get their incredibly late dinners at about midnight, and I had a wildly overpriced-for-how-tiny-it-was cocktail, with eggnog and rum. I had smartly already had dinner before leaving. I would never get all the way to 9:00 p.m. without having had dinner.
Lost Lake was far busier then than it had been when Tracy and I went there for dinner two Mondays ago, and this time they had
removed the dividers usually hanging from the wall between the booths. We were there nearly an hour probably, and I did not wear a face mask in there—but I did the whole time we were inside Neumos, it was so crowded in there. Tracy, who always wears a mask in movie theaters when she goes to movies with me (except when she's eating the concessions she usually gets), did not wear one in Neumos, and neither did Cindy. I assume this was because, to them, it did not suit their costumes.
I saw other people at Neumos who did wear masks, but they were very, very few and far between. It was kind of jarring, actually. But, at the very least I guess, I live in an area where no one particularly judges me for being one of the few people still wearing one. (Side note: there are no photos of me wearing it that night; the couple selfies I took, I took the mask off for the photo.) I did take
this photo of a woman in the crowd wearing a mask, just because she was completely surrounded by people who weren’t. (I did only just notice it looks like another person in the shot, near the bottom of frame in more shadow, appears to be wearing one as well.)
Overall, the evening was kind of a bust. At least the tickets were inexpensive, and I was happy to spend the time with Tracy and her sister. I really went back and forth as to how Shobhit would have taken it had he actually come along. If we all had just sat around or stood around with him with us, he'd have wanted to leave after probably half an hour. On the other hand, had he come, he might very well have wanted to go down into the crowd and dance, and the experience of the evening would have been a lot different. But, whatever. Hindsight is 20/20, I guess.
— पांच हजार तीन सौ दो —
— पांच हजार तीन सौ दो —
I had no social engagements on Saturday, and while Shobhit caught up on the last three episodes of
House of the Dragon that he missed while in India (I did manage to catch the climactic scenes of both episodes 9 and 10 again while he watched), I took myself to a movie at Regal Meridian downtown:
The Banshees of Inisherin, which was excellent—A-minus. Shobhit had asked me if he was likely to be getting a SAG Award screener for it, and I said, "Almost certainly," which I knew even before going, which was why he was totally comfortable with not accompanying me. He did some cooking prep while I was gone as well.
My day was quite packed otherwise on Saturday, just due to the movie and then other errands. I went to the movie; I came home and wrote the review; I walked out and about on Broadway looking for accessories for
my Halloween costume. I went to Out of the Closet, then into both Walgreens and Rite-Aid, and found nothing. But, at Lifelong Thrift Store on Broadway, I found
two more stuffed cats to add the three I already had. Then I went to Panache and found my cat earrings I will undoubtedly wear many times again whether it's Halloween or not. And when I got to work, I have these two tiny cat figures I've had for about two decades that I also crammed into my wig. All told, then, I have about nine cats on my person. When I went into the kitchen at work this morning to get my tea, a guy took one look at me and said, "Crazy Cat Lady." I was so happy! So many of my past costumes have required explanation. Granted, I did have to clarify even this one to two other people so far today, but that one guy getting immediately still made me feel good.
I got back home from that, Shobhit finished with
House of the Dragon, and then we drove to PCC and then to Trader Joe's for some grocery shopping. Soon after we got back and had the groceries put away, I got Shobhit and myself both applied for an Australian Electronic Travel Authority e-visa for our trip there in February. I was concerned about getting the application in early enough—only to have us both approved almost instantly. Apparently we are clear to travel to Australia for the next 12 months.
Finally, we started watching the new
Interview with the Vampire series on AMC, but I had to stop it until finishing it last night, because again, Shobhit fell asleep. I decided I would watch the 1958 version of
The Fly on HBO Max instead. In the context of its time, and in spite of its wildly dated special effects, I was surprisingly impressed by it. I then watched the famous 1986 remake starring Jeff Goldblum and Geena Davis, also on HBO Max, last night. It is without a doubt a hell of a lot more disgusting—precisely what got it all the attention it got at the time—and I would even say it's a better film, improving on the original. It was weird to realize, however, that the 1986 film is now 36 years old, making it older now than the 1958 version was in 1986. Indeed, David Cronenberg's effects barely look less dated now than the Kurt Neumann version in 1958 does. Even the more recent one is far too old to have any CGI effects, and it packed with practical effects and elaborate makeup.
— पांच हजार तीन सौ दो —
Anyway! I'm getting ahead of myself.
The Fly double feature was a suitable double feature for Halloween weekend, but before we got to the second one, yesterday in the late morning, Shobhit and I drove out to West Seattle for the
West Seattle Harvest Fest, which I've heard about for years—especially its traditional costume parade—but had never been to before. Shobhit was the one who happened to see something about it online and mentioned it, and I suggested we go. Shobhit currently has weekends schedule off at work, which had had requested through the end of the year when he thought his mom would be visiting. Even prior to that, he was typically getting Sundays off, which he often did not have in years past, so we finally had an opportunity to go.
I don't know if I'll continue going out of my way to go every year, but I'm glad we went. It's also a farmers market, much bigger than the Sunday market on Capitol Hill (my theory there is that it's because the West Seattle farmers market covers a larger geographic area, if not a larger population; Capitol Hill has more people than most other Seattle neighborhoods). So, Shobhit got several food items while we were there.
Oh, did I mention yesterday was also Shobhit's birthday? This was one of those years when he did very little to make a big deal out of it. With him, this really varies by year, including
how photogenic whatever we do that day is. If it overlaps with a Halloween themed event, as it did both this year and last (when we were in Las Vegas), the "Shobhit's Birthday" collection's album for that year tends to be bigger. In other years, I might just have two or three photos, of dinner and/or dessert.
I really took only three photos specific to Shobhit's birthday, and just tacked them onto the "West Seattle Harvest Fest" album. I did post
a birthday selfie with him, which has proved quite popular, as it's a great photo of us together.
Anyway. Shobhit had made a dish out of eggplants from his gardens already, and so he abandoned his initial desire to go out for dinner for his birthday. Instead, we got takeout from an Indian place right there by the farmers market in West Seattle. The place was called Maharaja Indian Cuisine, and we just got a couple of naans, plus one lentil dish so we could get the rice that came with it. We took that home with us after Harvest Fest, and combined it with his homemade eggplant dish
for dinner while we watched the 1986 version of
The Fly, then finished the 90-minute premiere of
Interview with the Vampire, then I went to process the day's photos.
I might have come back out to watch some more stuff with Shobhit, as I also finally had my Halloween costume done, but once again, Shobhit was askeep.
— पांच हजार तीन सौ दो —
[posted 12:33 pm]
