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Tamale Hut Cafe Presents: Halloween!
Oct. 27th, 2009 08:33 pmSo I guess it's time for all that Tamale Hut gushing that I promised, eh?
Where to start? Well, I suppose it's important to mention that Halloween is my absolute favorite holiday of the year, so naturally I was especially excited to be hosting a reading themed around ghouls and ghosts and things that go bump in the night.
My first order of business was putting together an appropriate costume. Bear in mind that I've only done myself up Halloween style a couple times as an adult, and in general I feel weird calling attention to myself. In this case however, I figured it was my duty as hostess/emcee to invoke the spirit of the season, and so at the beginning of the month I hit a halloween shop, not really finding much that appealed to me. Up until the morning of the show my plan was to simply spruce up jeans and a black collared t-shirt with a cloak and tiara, but before I left to go buy them I gave my closet a cursory glance, on the off chance that some other sort of inspiration might hit.
It turned out to be the right move....whilst shuffling through my non-work garments I laid a hand on one of my favorite dresses, a black number with white skeletons. I felt an idea forming, so I tried it on with my calf-high black boots, and realized that I could expand upon my original idea to create a look that was costumey and cute and also punk rock in a modest, Jenny Seay kinda way:
I was thrilled with the results, though I had to visit two Halloween shops in order to lay hands on the tiara, which was kind of irksome.
What wasn't irksome, however, was the drive to pick up a couple friends, and my lovely special guest, Claire Cooney. I rented a car specifically for this purpose (and for all the errand-running I mentioned in my last couple entries), and really enjoyed helping people without their own transportation to arrive at my little show.
Though I have to say, the show this particular evening wasn't all that little. Just about every seat in the house was full, and everyone sat at attention once Claire got rolling with her vivid tale of the land where children go after they die.
It was sometimes funny, sometimes tragic, always captivating, and further enhanced by a decorative raven that seemed to instinctively know when to chime in with a few well-played squawks. Or perhaps Claire coached him ahead of time?
When she was done I kicked off the open mic with my Henry Lee Lucas-inspired short story. Chris, who usually tells of UFO's honored the theme with a chapter from his novel introducing a voodoo woman, and some ladies from the Berwyn Arts Council Committee kicked off Poe-Fest with a dramatic reading of The Cask of Amontillado. Again, our friend the raven offered some dramatic sound effects.
All in all I couldn't have asked for a better way to honor Halloween. Claire even dubbed me Queen of the Wolves, and we ate lots of yummy tamales and chocolate.
I could probably go on even more, but instead I'll leave you with an image of one of the audience members, whose costume was probably my favorite of everyone there. I'm still not sure how he was able to see in this thing, but he pulled it off well in any case:
Where to start? Well, I suppose it's important to mention that Halloween is my absolute favorite holiday of the year, so naturally I was especially excited to be hosting a reading themed around ghouls and ghosts and things that go bump in the night.
My first order of business was putting together an appropriate costume. Bear in mind that I've only done myself up Halloween style a couple times as an adult, and in general I feel weird calling attention to myself. In this case however, I figured it was my duty as hostess/emcee to invoke the spirit of the season, and so at the beginning of the month I hit a halloween shop, not really finding much that appealed to me. Up until the morning of the show my plan was to simply spruce up jeans and a black collared t-shirt with a cloak and tiara, but before I left to go buy them I gave my closet a cursory glance, on the off chance that some other sort of inspiration might hit.
It turned out to be the right move....whilst shuffling through my non-work garments I laid a hand on one of my favorite dresses, a black number with white skeletons. I felt an idea forming, so I tried it on with my calf-high black boots, and realized that I could expand upon my original idea to create a look that was costumey and cute and also punk rock in a modest, Jenny Seay kinda way:
I was thrilled with the results, though I had to visit two Halloween shops in order to lay hands on the tiara, which was kind of irksome.
What wasn't irksome, however, was the drive to pick up a couple friends, and my lovely special guest, Claire Cooney. I rented a car specifically for this purpose (and for all the errand-running I mentioned in my last couple entries), and really enjoyed helping people without their own transportation to arrive at my little show.
Though I have to say, the show this particular evening wasn't all that little. Just about every seat in the house was full, and everyone sat at attention once Claire got rolling with her vivid tale of the land where children go after they die.
It was sometimes funny, sometimes tragic, always captivating, and further enhanced by a decorative raven that seemed to instinctively know when to chime in with a few well-played squawks. Or perhaps Claire coached him ahead of time?
When she was done I kicked off the open mic with my Henry Lee Lucas-inspired short story. Chris, who usually tells of UFO's honored the theme with a chapter from his novel introducing a voodoo woman, and some ladies from the Berwyn Arts Council Committee kicked off Poe-Fest with a dramatic reading of The Cask of Amontillado. Again, our friend the raven offered some dramatic sound effects.
All in all I couldn't have asked for a better way to honor Halloween. Claire even dubbed me Queen of the Wolves, and we ate lots of yummy tamales and chocolate.
I could probably go on even more, but instead I'll leave you with an image of one of the audience members, whose costume was probably my favorite of everyone there. I'm still not sure how he was able to see in this thing, but he pulled it off well in any case:
