I spent my Halloween with Kyle in downtown Los Angeles watching an orchestral performance of the music of Danny Elfman from Tim Burton's films. No costumes for us, but we sure were excited to be doing something other than a Halloween party…not that there's anything at all wrong with that. It's just nice to switch things up a bit.
We were rushed to the Nokia Theater after checking into our hotel, but were very kindly given a parking pass on our way in to the parking lot by the gentleman in the car next to us. Saved us thirty big ones! How nice.
The downtown district where the theater is located was so busy! The concert drew a large crowd, plus it was Halloween and there were all kinds of people running around in costumes, eating dinner, and going to the clubs. There was also a mini carnival in the middle of the square, but of course we didn't have time to check it out. We barely managed to inhale some food and rush to our seats in the nick of time.
Downtown LA district where the Nokia Theater is located. So many lights and billboards, but I'm sure it's still nothing compared to Times Square (which I have never been to…yet!).
The marquis outside the theater.
The mini carnival in the promenade celebrating Halloween and Day of the Dead.
LA is covered in billboards and advertisements. I thought it was funny to see four of the same ads for the same movie with the same picture and everything in one spot. You think they're pushing this movie hard enough?? Haha.
It was pretty much a sold out event. The concert was done last year as well, and we had wanted to go to that one but the tickets sold out instantly. We were lucky to get the seats we did this year. I imagine this will be a yearly occurrence based on how great the turnout was.
The orchestra played all the best Burton movie songs - Beetlejuice, Batman, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Edward Scissorhands, Sleepy Hollow - and of course rounded out the evening with pretty much all the songs from The Nighmare Before Christmas. Danny Elfman made an appearance and of course sang all the vocal parts he does in the film, including Oogie Boogie's song, which was an interesting version. All of the songs featured snippets from the movies to accompany the music, so it was a fun dose of Elfman's memorable compositions.
The program for the evening.
PeeWee's Big Adventure! Did you know there's a sequel coming out??
Intermission selfie
Frankenweenie, which is one of my favorite stop-motion flicks.
There's Mr. Elfman belting away.
I think he's singing "Oogie Boogie's Song" here.
Screen right before the show stared and the musicians were all taking their seats.
"The Nightmare Before Christmas" with Elfman there in the center.
I took lots of videos, however I don't want to upload them because you're not supposed to video at the theater and out of respect to the artists, I'm using them for memories only.
We booked the cheapest, crappiest, two-star hotel on Priceline through "name your own price," and I do NOT recommend this service for big cities like LA or San Francisco. The two star hotels in big cities must be held to a different standard or something because our hotel SUCKED. Neither of the table lamps worked, the light was on a timer and kept turning itself off, the TV was practically an antique, and the outlets were so loose we had to prop something against the power cord of our phones to make sure they stayed in the stupid hole. But the worst part was that Halloween turned out to be a stormy night and the windows on the eighth story were not caulked or sealed shut in any way. You opened them up and there wasn't even a screen to keep you from falling out. The wind whistled through relentlessly and made the loudest racket all night not to mention we were freezing since there was no heater or good blankets on the bed. Such a terrible experience and we both slept awful. And to top it all off we were charged for off-site parking. Don't stay at the Hacienda Inn near the airport - it's ghetto as heck.
The following day was a ton of fun however, no matter how tired we were from not sleeping.
Stay tuned for my post on Comikaze (my first comic convention!) and Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood.
Saturday night The Black Dahlia Murder and Chelsea Grin played at Ace of Spades along with one of my girlfriend's boyfriend's band called Alterbeast (yes, that sentence was awkward, but it's my blog, so I don't care).
Some friends of ours from high school also came from our home town to watch the show, so it ended up being a super late night.
Alterbeast. They just got back from touring and played Knotfest with Slipknot. Super brutal local metal band. A pleasure to watch.
This is my friend Brittany's dude. He's the guitarist in Alterbeast. We were enjoying the show but also happy to support our friends.
Alterbeast was my favorite band of the night to watch. I'm not super into death metal like Black Dahlia Murder or Chelsea Grin, so it always helps to know the people you're cheering for.
Chelsea Grin from the back of the room.
A closer, albeit blurry pic of Chelsea Grin.
I learned that it's super hard to catch a picture of death metal bands mainly due to the fact that the members NEVER stop moving.
"Heartburn."
A very small picture of me and a new friend. I don't make friends easily, so I was pleasantly surprised to meet someone without a formal introduction. Not to mention that the Sacramento metal scene is so small that it's rare to meet someone you have something in common with after going to the same venues for so long. Also, the photo is really small because it was stolen off of Facebook and when it's enlarged, the quality suffers.
My next posts should be about a week or two away as I'll be on vacation this weekend/mid-week. Kyle and I are heading to LA for Halloween Horror Nights, Comikaze (possibly), Disneyland, and a Danny Elfman/Tim Burton concert!
Friday night was the final Trash Film Orgy at the Crest Theater. It's been held there for 14 years and due to "changes" that are coming to K Street, the TFO had to find a new home. Thankfully, it got sent off with a bang and tons of people showed up to watch "Beetlejuice."
Kyle and I met up with a bunch of friends and were happy to be a part of the festival's final showing.
Beetlejuice leggings by BlackMilk; Boots - New Rock; Tank - Sovrin; Shrug - CAbi
The line to get into the theater stretched down K Street. It was so packed!
Marquis.
Poster outside the venue.
I've never seen the lobby of the Crest packed this full. So many people supporting TFO's final show.
People filming little snippets about their TFO memories.
The Trash Afterlife booth.
Aloha Mighty Tiki!
This was a skit with the Bloody Bunny, a TFO staple character, and a Sleazy Lawyer. The parody skit was called "Phantom of the Crest" and of course it spoofed "Phantom of the Opera."
Here is the Phantom killing the Sleazy Lawyer. It's funny because the lawyer represents the reason why TFO is being booted from the Crest. According to him, the consortium he represents wants to transform K Street into a bunch of bro-douche bars and urban Walmarts.
It was such a fun night and I spent it in the company of good friends. Goodbye TFO! Hopefully you'll find a new venue soon!
Some cheap raven graphics to make up for this post's lack of Halloween material. Also - long sleeves! It's finally cold enough to sport light-weight long sleeves, but not quite cold enough for jackets. P.S. The shrug I'm wearing was thrifted. I think I got it for under a buck!
Last night was a failed attempt to go to a local haunted house. I saw this ad for a place called "Scream Park" that's not too far from us, so I invited a group of friends to tag along and go to the haunted house event with us. Many friends bailed or couldn't make it (which turned out not to be such a bad thing!), but when Kyle and I got there, right away we thought it looked janky and cheap, especially since we're so used to big budget haunted houses a la Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios in Hollywood. Once everyone else arrived, they all had the same feeling about the place, not to mention the Yelp and Facebook reviews were atrocious.
So we had a change of plans and ended up eating sushi together instead. I figured I'd have some artsy, creepy, Halloween-y haunted house pics to post, but instead, all I have are my outfit shots. I got all dressed up just for dinner. Damn, I hate it when that happens!
The night didn't turn out quite as expected, but I still got to see my friends and catch up, so overall, it was still a good night.
Sunday we bought pumpkins and got together with friends to carve them!
We congregated at Lyndsie and David's house and ate homemade enchiladas. Mine were cheese just for me. So good. We also consumed homemade "cider" made of apple juice and cinnamon whiskey.
Kasi, Zach, and Kyle intently discussing something - probably Ogre stuff. It was the day after we met Ogre for the billionth time again, so we were still riding that high.
Kyle replicating a childhood photo where he is afraid and grossed out by the insides of the pumpkin.
Gutting my pumpkin.
Zach is super excited about pumpkins. Also Lyndsie and David have four dogs wandering around and showing up in photos.
Cider, pumpkin guts, and good company.
My finished Skinny Puppy logo pumpkin. I scraped it out of the skin, but didn't go all the way through.
My Skinny Puppy pumpkin, Zach's ghost, Lyndsie's disco ball, and Kyle's Snow White Smile logo.
This is where our pumpkins live now. Mine looks like it's glowing even though there's no candle inside. Kyle says his looks like it has a skin disease.
Can't wait for it to be Halloween! We'll be in L.A. watching a Danny Elfman concert, going to Halloween Horror Nights, attending a Comikaze convention, and Disneyland!
An appropriately horrific background to my photo for a horror festival post. Vest - Lip Service; Tank - Heavenly Couture; Boots - Demonia
Saturday was the continuation of the Sacramento Horror Film Fest and a HUGE day for me and Kyle. I'll talk more about that towards the end of the post.
I was all by myself for the first half of the festival, enjoying the panel on the current state of horror movies as well as the series of short films that were presented.
The panel was led by Jordu Schell, a concept artist who worked on films such as 300, Avatar, and Men in Black. We got to see a slideshow of his artwork and sculptures and then the other panel guests took the stage. Schell's contention was that the current state of horror, in a nutshell, sucks. As he put it, and much more eloquently, I might add, and I'm totally paraphrasing so this is by no means a direct quote: "Modern horror is unoriginal and fundamentally boring and unartistic." It was quite a lively discussion and it was interesting to hear other people defend the modern movies that have come out today as well as to discuss the mainstream aspects of horror, a la "The Walking Dead."
The panel and moderator. Since everyone seemed to think horror sucks nowadays, I wanted to ask them so badly what they thought of Kevin Smith's "Tusk."
Some of the shorts that were shown were amazing! I couldn't believe that Kyle didn't want to come. There was one called "Heels," which opened with a shot of a penis in a women's pump doing some dirty things and ended with a revenge murder scene. Not really that horrific, truth be told, but certainly controversial and graphic. From what I understand, it was shocking enough to get banned from the film school in which it was created.
I also enjoyed a short called "Silk" in which a woman has a spider crawl into her vagina and she ends up giving birth to tons of baby spiders, a very gross and bloody affair. Given that I am terrified of spiders, this one really hit my gross-out button.
Kyle got off work, cleaned up, and showed up to the theater around 9:00. Just in time for a contortionist performance and some more bloody burlesque acts.
Burlesque act.
This was my favorite burlesque performance of the entire festival. She drenched herself in blood, performed in the shadowcast that night, and also directed the show. Plus any girl who can cover herself in blood and look amazing all the while dancing to Nine Inch Nails deserves some recognition.
The contortionist!
She looks truly creepy here. Like something out of "The Exorcism of Emily Rose."
This has got to require a ton of core-muscle strength.
This group of guys did little side-show gigs throughout the festival. Here they are clamping mouse traps on each other's nipples.
A mouse trap on the tongue!
It's hard to tell, but both of them have sewn their eyes shut with surgical thread!
The highlight of Saturday was the Repo! The Genetic Opera/The Devil's Carnival shadowcast mashup performance. I have seen the Repo! show many times before, but never with The Devil's Carnival snippets in it. Although I enjoyed the show, I really couldn't wait for it to be over because Ogre from Skinny Puppy was in attendance and would be signing autographs after the show.
The Devil's Carnival shadowcast.
The Devil's Carnival shadowcast.
The Devil's Carnival shadowcast.
Ogre standing ever so regally on the stage during the Q&A session following the show.
Emilie Autumn answering a question during the Q&A session.
Emilie Autumn, Marc Senter, who plays The Scorpion in The Devil's Carnival, and Ogre during the Q&A session. Fun fact - Marc and Emilie are now dating after meeting on the set of the film.
Ogre answering a question during the Q&A. That man has the sweetest demeanor ever, which is very different from his Skinny Puppy persona, which is very dark and mysterious. He's a man of few words in SP, but on stage as himself and out with his fans, he couldn't be a bigger sweetheart. I seriously cannot say enough good things about him as an artist and as a human being.
Kyle and I have had the privilege of interviewing Ogre and running into him at shows several times before. But man, were we thrilled to find out he remembered us! When we approached him for the signing, he asked, "Are we doing another interview tonight?" And I was just flabbergasted. "You remember us?" I asked. "How could I forget two people as pretty as you guys?" was his response. I JUST ABOUT DIED RIGHT THEN AND THERE. He said I was pretty. He actually said I was pretty! We had a very pleasant conversation with him and when we left, he was still complimenting us out the door saying we were an adorable couple and we should never break up. Holy shit. I think I have met Ogre enough times to call him an acquaintance. I repeat - holy shit. I can't even explain how much of a fangirl I turned into. How do you react to your musical idol (who you also happen to crush on HUGELY) telling you you're an attractive human being?? UGH. One of the best nights of my entire life.
I'm not entirely thrilled with this photo because I couldn't control my face. My cheeks were so wobbly and my knees were knocking because he had just called us pretty, so yeah…that explains my dopey expression and lack of neck and defined chin. I was so caught off guard.
We also got the opportunity to meet Emilie Autumn, who is also a delightful human being, by the way. She had a humongous line of fans waiting to see her and she took about ten minutes to personally connect with each and every one of them, making sure she listened to them and occasionally cried with them. That meant we had a lot of waiting to do to meet her and since we're not huge fans of her work, we just wanted a quick autograph and photo, but she wanted to tell us to make sure we never texted while driving. "The car is not an office," she made us repeat. Such a sweetheart. She's also a very touch-feely person, which I am not, so I got a little tiny bit uncomfortable when she touched my face and grabbed my earring. Haha.
Kyle said this is a photo of two hot chicks and the weird guy in glasses behind them. Haha. Oh yeah - Kyle finally got glasses about a month ago and is still getting used to them. Everyone says he looks very Clark Kent-ish.
So that's my schpeal about the Sacramento Horror Film Festival. I also wrote a real, journalistic review of the show which you can read here: http://www.examiner.com/review/sacramento-horror-film-festival-draws-spooky-crowd-to-the-colonial-theater?cid=db_articles.
If you're interested in videos of the Q&A variety with Ogre and Emilie Autumn, the videos I took are posted below.
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