Sacramento Horror Film Festival Day One

An acquaintance of mine puts on the Sacramento Horror Film Festival and he was kind enough to give me a 3-day pass with a +1 for a friend so I could write about the event. Yay for press credentials!

VIP lanyards, flyers, and program! So many little souvenirs to remember this fun festival.

Sacramento Horror Film Festival is a three-day event that takes place at the historic Colonial Theater and showcases independent horror films and shorts. There are also a smattering of other horror-related events, panels, and performances throughout the weekend, including live shadowcast theater.

SHFF will show "Bride of Chucky" on Halloween. Kyle and I would totally be there except for we have tickets for a Danny Elfman concert in L.A. that night. 

Exterior of the Colonial Theater. It's so old-school and has more personality than I do.

On day one, which was a Friday, I brought along my girl friend Kasi, who also appreciates cinema, particularly the macabre.

Movie theater lighting. Queens of darkness. Plus we only come out at night. Not true - it was totally day time and still hot outside. Come on weather…can we have fall already??

The first section of the day started out with a series of shorts and ended with a full-length feature called "Eat," which was about a struggling actress in Los Angeles who develops a disturbing habit of eating pieces of herself when she gets upset. The horror aspect of this film lies in its gross-out factor. There were several scenes where the protagonist's body, namely her toes and fingers, ended up in such bad shape that Kasi and I were both gagging and laughing simultaneously. "Eat" was thoroughly enjoyable with good cinematography and pretty decent acting. It also had memorable effects, although the ending was kinda lame.

After a short break during which Kasi and I grabbed some vegan eats from the restaurant next door to the theater, we headed back inside for some Evil Dead burlesque complete with fake blood and boobies. Score.

Jezebelle's Army with an "Evil Dead" inspired performance. And yes, that's a chainsaw underneath that chair in the center. 

A bloody burlesque performance. This is how the act began.

Hula hoops and booty shakin'.

Bloody zombie faces and hula hoop dancing with nipple pasties. 

Yay - more blood.

Next was a creature and zombie makeup contest. The winner was a "demented Minnie Mouse" as the judges named her, but the runner-up was Regan from The Exorcist, and personally, I think her costume was the best.

Regan costume that took second place. Later, she did an Exorcist-inspired burlesque act.

I can't imagine why this movie disturbs so many people. ;-P

Regan, Little Red Riding Hood werewolf, and the honey badger. Honey badger don't give a shit.

Judges and contestants in their full glory. 

"Demented Minnie" took first place. Although technically that's not what her costume was - she said it was a demented porcelain doll, but the judges called her Minnie, so whatever works.

After all the performers finished up, the shadowcast of Troll 2 began. Kasi had gone home because it was late, so I was there by myself sitting on the aisle seat during the intro credits with all the cheesy dancing trolls and I got spooked by an actor dressed as a troll touching me while I was not paying attention! The trolls came prancing up the aisles to get to the stage and messed with people along the way and although the trolls themselves are the farthest thing from scary, I was very much not expecting that interaction and was caught totally off guard.

Dancing trolls.

I left after the "piss on hospitality" scene because the audience got squirted with super soakers and being that I was on the aisle, I got pretty wet. Plus it was late and I was tired and Kasi had ditched me, so I called it a night before the show finished. I wish I had the energy to stay because two actors from the film, Darren Ewing and Deborah Reed, were both there to do a signing and Q&A session afterwards. I love Troll 2. It seriously is the "best worst movie" ever.

Next up is day two of the Horror Fest.

Until next time!

It's Finally October!

Yesterday was the first day of October! The weather was beautiful and it was a very pleasant day to work in midtown Sacramento.

Not only was the weather great, our next door neighbor, who owns a gym, got a new pitbull-mix puppy that she brought over to visit. So cute! I'm jealous.

Crop top - Lip Service; Mini skirt - Serious L.A.; Boots - New Rock

Started off the morning with a coconut water. Yum! Made me miss Hawaii.

We stream French radio at the store, and this song plays frequently. It's a French rap song and they sing so fast! Look it up and listen to it if you're at all curious. I think you'll get a good laugh out of it if nothing else.

My boss Darcy and the baby from next door. 

Her name is McKenzie. 

The trees are so green and there was such a delightful breeze. This photo shows what midtown is like and also gives a good example of why Sacramento is called "The City of Trees."

Until next time!

Outfit of the Day - L.A. Muscle Tank + Chiffon

Can we please have sweater weather already?? Come on Sacramento…give us some rain and gloomy, overcast skies. I'm tired of tank tops and layered pantyhose. I want to show off my massive collection of Black Milk leggings and long sleeves!

Today the weather wasn't scorching, but it was still hot enough to facilitate sleeveless tops and light-weight leg wear. 

I received a parcel in the mail yesterday from G-Stage that included this L.A. skeleton hand print muscle tank. Under $10 if you can believe that? I love G-Stage! Super affordable and super cute. Not to mention they had a decent selection of black stuff, which is really what I look for in a website these days. 

High-low chiffon blouse - Forever 21; L.A. muscle tank - G-Stage; Boots - New Rock

L.A. is my second home, even though I don't truly want to live there. It's a great place to visit and explore and get to know, but ultimately, all you do there is wait. Wait for opportunity, wait for traffic, wait for everything. I just can't handle spending that much time in the car in traffic, which is why I love visiting but am always glad to get out.

Until next time!

Sunday Brunch and "Tusk"

Sunday was our good friend Zach's birthday. We met up with a bunch of friends at a restaurant in downtown called Capitol Garage. They're known for their brunch specials and cocktails.

Starting brunch off right with an alcoholic horchata! 

A tofu curry scramble for breakfast - all vegan. It was damn good! 

There were like 12 of us altogether! What a large group. The birthday boy is the one on the right wearing a black beanie and stuffing food in his face. 

After some great conversations and delicious food, we headed to the movies to see Kevin Smith's new horror film, Tusk. Kyle and I are pretty big Kevin Smith fans and listen to all his podcasts, so we've been following all the Tusk news eagerly and waiting impatiently for the movie to come out. It did not disappoint!

Love this poster. 

All these cool people all in black. And no, it wasn't planned. That's just how our crew rolls. Hahaha. Also, we went full walrus in this picture. #walrusyes

The movie was awesome. It was everything you would expect from a Kevin Smith film (in the best possible way) and since we had been following it so closely, we were delighted to find out that it actually stayed very true to the original podcast that it was based off of. The makeup and special effects carried the film, but the actors' performances were also stellar. It was no surprise that Michael Parks made a great evil Walrus scientist/doctor, but who woulda guessed that Justin Long could pull off such an amazing walrus? All of the references to the SModCo podcasts were hilarious and the movie managed to find that perfect balance between weird, horrific, and terribly amusing. Go Kevin Smith. Please keep making movies of this caliber.

Until next time!

A Fashion Show at District 30

Last night I got all gussied up for a fashion show at a local club called District 30. We didn't end up seeing the fashion show or staying out super late because all my friends (and Kyle) had work the next morning, but it was still fun.

This is the interior of District 30. It's set up very strange for a club (in my opinion) because it's basically one long hallway of a venue. Here I am scratching my face and not paying attention to Kyle taking a picture. For some reason, there's a speck of light at just the proper place to make it look like my finger is radiating sparkles or something. Also, it looks like I'm flipping him off, but I'm not, I promise. 

Here we are outside on the patio having fun. I was already three drinks in at this point, so yeah….

Outfit front view. Loving the high-low hems right now. 

Crop top  - Rue 21; Chiffon high-low tank - Heavenly Couture; Boots - Demonia

After I drank three cocktails (did I mention the drinks were FREE??) I was pretty tipsy and Kyle was also ready to head home, so even though it was only 11:30 and the fashion show had not even started, we called it a night.

Until next time!

A Belated Post About an Anniversary Dinner

Kyle and I celebrated fourteen years (yes, you read that correctly - FOURTEEN years ) of being together on September 12th. We've only been married for four years, but we celebrate our dating anniversary too because that's how it's always been and that's the way we like it. Who doesn't like a fancy occasion to spend time with their significant other? *wink wink*

We headed out to downtown Sacramento to The Melting Pot, a fondue restaurant we had both never been to before. Hey, I know it's a chain, but Sacramento Yelp said it was one of the top-ranked romantic things to do in Sac, so yeah….

We started things off with cocktails. Well, I guess I should say, I started things off with a cocktail. Kyle had a glass of red wine.

My cocktail was a martini that tasted like chocolate ice cream! 

What a fun design for a cocktail. In case you're curious, it had kahlua, vanilla vodka, ice cream, and chocolate shavings. Yum!

Because it was our anniversary, they seated us in our own private little nook. It was a tiny little "room" all separated from the rest of the diners. So private! 

Before all the food came and cluttered up the table

Opening course was cheese fondue. It was a blend of white cheeses with shallots, green onion, and white sherry. 

Nom nom nom

Because neither of us was familiar with how a main course at a fondue restaurant worked, we ordered entrees. In retrospect, we would've skipped this pricy course because you actually cook it at your own table in a broth. They bring you raw meat or veggies and you boil them in the broth, which makes for some bland eating in my book. I prefer the cheese and chocolate dips.

Kyle ordered duck which turned out to be an awful choice considering that boiling duck pretty much murders all the flavor, texture, and fats that you get from cooking a duck properly. As I said, had we known this, we both wouldn't have ordered entrees. 

My smorgasbord of veggies to boil.

The best part of the experience was dessert of course. Dipping a variety of fruits and sweet cakes into melted chocolate was not only fun, but memorable. They even brought us special anniversary strawberries.

Smores-flavored chocolate with graham cracker topping!

Brownies, marshmallows, bananas, strawberries, and poundcake to dip!

Check out our special little anniversary strawberries. :)

 It sure was a pricey dinner and we had planned to see a movie at the drive-in theater afterwards, but we were both so stuffed that we just went home and Netflixed some "Once Upon a Time." We've gotten into that show recently.

Until next time!

Outfit of the Day - Blouses with Crosses

Look - I got a hair cut! Asymmetrical, shattered bob! Hahaha - just kidding. I styled my hair a bit differently and my extensions are on my off-camera shoulder, so it just looks that way. 

Nothing exciting to report today. My weekend is lining up to be super busy with a birthday brunch for a friend, the release of Kevin Smith's new horror flick "Tusk," and a small concert at a local club though, so I'll probably have lots more to say after the weekend.

Just an outfit post for today. I scored some sweet things at the local Goodwill, including the chiffon cross-print blouse I'm sporting today. I have several tops with cross prints, and sometimes I feel a bit odd wearing crosses because I associate myself with Christianity in NO WAY, so really, if you know me, it's kind of a sarcastic commentary on my atheism if anything.

Anyways, I had work to do when I got home from work (*sigh* the dilemma of working from home), so really the highlight of my day was hearing my boss inhale leftover helium from some decorative balloons at the store and then proceed to sing "We're Off to See the Wizard" from "The Wizard of Oz."

Cross blouse - second hand; High-low tank top - Love Culture; Boots - New Rock

Until next time!