Masquerades

I went to two masquerade balls this year.

One was called Devil's Night Ball 3, which took place the day before Halloween. It was held by Tragic Trantrum, a San Diego cabaret. They also performed and a friend of mine was one of their dancers. There were other performers there, including Zirk Ubu. They did some freaky circus acts, like putting a needle through an arm, having a topless girl ejaculate feathers, and showing a violent shadow puppet show. It was also fun seeing people in their Halloween costumes. I saw Billy Mays, Linguine from Ratatouille, Frieda Kahlo, Wolf from the Star Fox video game series, and Prince Nuada and Princess Nuala from Hellboy II: The Golden Army. Overall, the event was fun and I only wish that more of my friends came to see it.

The other ball was UCSD Circle K's annual masquerade ball. Last night I went there, which took place on a cruise ship. I saw alot of people from Circle Ks across California, Nevada, and possibly Hawaii. There was a dance floor, karaoke, casino games, but not enough food. Also, I was the only person from my school CK to attend. My fellow members couldn't come because they either had family-related business or other plans. Its too bad since they would have enjoyed it. Its a bit irritating though. Nowadays I feel like I'm the only one who represents my college at volunteer events and such. If only there were more active members...

The masquerade also had somewhat of a Sin City theme to it. They gave me this bag of chocolates as a thank-you gift.

Marv: "I don't know about you, but I'm having a ball."

What did I wear to both masquerades? This mask.



I went to a costume shop called Gypsy Treasure. They had a wall filled with masks and I chose the one I liked the most. Too bad I don't have an extravagant ball gown to go with it.

Short Reviews

• Last month I went to Eternal/Eterno, a goth nightclub in Los Angeles. I saw a band called Gentleman Junkie. I was actually very impressed with the backup vocalist, even though, obviously, she wasn't the lead singer. Still, they were great. Strangely, I swear, I've heard their songs before at Sabbat, and they're not even a mainstream band.
• I saw a Japanese horror film called Audition. Its pretty silly how it starts off as a cutesy romantic movie about a widower looking for a new wife. Then it goes down the creepy feministic-revange route. My friend commented saying that American movies should be more like Audition.
• My other friend wanted to celebrate Halloween with me by renting An American Werewolf in London and drinking pumpkin ale. We tried creating a drinking game but she couldn't handle the taste and stopped drinking. I guess she was expecting it to taste like pumpkin pie. (Pumpkin itself doesn't taste like anything but its often given spices to taste like "pumpkin.") I didn't like the taste either but I drank it anyway. The movie itself was amusing, especially because the bystanders near the end ran TO the werewolf instead of AWAY from it! Impressive pre-CGI makeup effects too.