Wednesday I sped down to West Los Angeles to join Beverly and her coworkers to be voyours of the 16th annual halloween carnaval in west hollywood. One of her coworkers knew the owner of a boutique on Sunset and so we were able to park behind the building 0.5 blocks south of the parade (normal walking distance is probably 8-15 blocks south of Sunset).
We walked as far as we could go east and then as far as we could go west. In both directions we saw a smorgasboard of crazy, unique, hackneyed, and just plain strange costumes. Beverly had her picture taken with a few she found particularly amusing or original. They were on her camera though – so it might take me until the weekend to get those up online. Some notable costumes were – S&M guy pulling friend on cart cobbled together with PVC pipe and a trash can, extravagant Las Vegas strip transvestite showgirls, Lt. Jim Dangle (both brown and hot pink versions), Tina Turners (three complete with disco ball and sound system and accessory Liza Monelli), giant gay butterfly, Mardi Gras “giant head and large hands” generic costumes, and so on.
When we walked back west to the very end of the parade we could hear live music. The music was fairly generic pop music. At first I thought it was just a live broadcast from a crappy radio station (The Wave, anyone?) – but as we walked further we discovered it was a live concert by none other than Hanson (next to the green lasers in the photo). When we finally walked in front of them they played their trade-mark “old tune” mmm-bop. It has to be weird to be 27 years old and playing mmm-bop and having that be the finally of your show.
After that we walked a block south to go to The Factory, a bar that was largely empty when we arrived (after 10pm). Even though the exterior had a large sign saying “Factory” and the building was shaped like a small factory – inside everyone called it “metro.” I quickly realized that this was a gay bar. I also quickly realised that #1 I had to go work the next day so waiting for more of Beverly’s galpals to show up wasn’t a good idea and #2 I had absolutely no interest in “dancing” at a gay bar. In the ultimate chuckler of the night Beverly was convinced until she called her friends later that I was wrong about it being a gay bar.
In a stroke of irony one of her friends had left with all our jackets (because “it’ll be hot inside”) – and couldn’t go back to get them when I informed Beverly we had to leave (soon). So, for the second time in only four days I’d made her shiver in the cold. (although “cold” seems to be quite a flexible term to this Midwesterner)
