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Halloweek
Depending on how you look at it, Wednesday is either the best or the worst day of the week for Halloween to fall. On the one hand, it's right smack in the middle of the work week. On the other hand, it provides the perfect excuse to party in costume two weekends in a row.

Mystery
Mystery, the world's greatest
pick-up artist and my date
for the Evaline Halloween party
For my first weekend of Halloweening this year, I accompanied Mystery, the world's greatest pickup artist (well, okay, a reasonable Halloween-inspired facsimile thereof) and a conglomeration of his closest friends and roommates to the Evaline Halloween party. What is the Evaline Halloween party, you ask? Well, I trusted Mystery enough not to ask, but as it turns out, the Evaline Halloween party is an annual event hosted at the home of an indeterminate benefactor on Evaline Street in Bloomfield. It is open to the public for a $20 cover charge—at first this sounds expensive, but it's actually quite a good deal. Not only does the party provide a DJ, live bands, creative themed-décor... but also free booze! That's right, folks, free booze. It makes sense, after all. The indeterminate benefactor isn't going to tangle with the PLCB to get a liquor license for one night a year.

Jeanette
The "real" Jeanette from
Vampire: The Masquerade
We met up at Mystery's house ahead of time to put the finishing touches on our costumes before heading out to Evaline. While I was excited to be dressing up for Halloween for the first time since I got too old to trick-or-treat, I'm also poor, and so wanted to pull from my existing wardrobe as much as possible in constructing my costume. The most obvious costume suggested by my closet was Catholic school girl. Oddly enough, this is not due to the fact that I once actually was a Catholic school girl—all of my high school uniform components reside at Neilbert's and Saundra's house, none of them especially stylish. Rather, my current wardrobe volunteered a plaid and pleated mini-skirt, upon which I once squandered $29.99 on whim at a mall shop. Beyond that, white button-down shirts, loafers and knee socks are not hard to come by. Mystery, however, was not impressed. In effort to enliven the Halloween spirit in my costume he suggested that I tweak my outfit from plain ol' boring school girl into vampire school girl Jeanette from the comic/video game, Vampire: The Masquerade (who knew Mystery was a video game aficionado in his off hours from being a master pick-up artist?).
Jeanette
My rendition of Jeanette
from Vampire: The Masquerade
Since I already owned knee-high platform boots and fishnet stockings, I gladly agreed. Other than that, it was just a matter of getting some makeup to make me look pasty and vampiric. Despite our failed experience with false fangs and green putty, I'd say the make-up was a success. This experience, however, while fun for an evening or two, only reinforces the resolve that inspires me to eschew eye make-up on a daily basis. I think there may still a shadow of eyeliner on my lids—which, I guess, is not a problem if you wear it every day. Luckily, I was not alone, as Mystery's costume also required that he wear eyeliner. Fully bedecked in our Halloween finest, we headed out to the party, picking up a few friends on the way. We were a creative and diversely costumed crowd including not just Jeanette and Mystery, but a panda, a priest and nun couple, an in-drag yinzer cheerleader, a dancing robot and the far-and-away best of three Rainbow Brites at the party that night.

Evaline
Outside at Evaline
It was drizzling a little when we arrived at the party, much of which was in the back yard of the aforementioned house. Luckily much of it was also covered in a rented tent. The bar area outside offered drafts of beer, as well as shots from a carousel of upside down liquor bottles. The bar servers recommended going to the inside bar for mixed drinks, but after exploring the house fully, we could not locate the bar. Never fear, Rainbow Brite and I did manage instead to locate a concrete-esque bunker (the Evaline theme this year was WWII) offering fruity punch and bottles of vodka. I skipped the punch and went straight for the vodka, while Rainbow Brite opted for a generous serving of both—as a result we both ended up drunker than we'd intended to that night. Inside, the house was fully outfitted for the party on WWII theme, bringing me to wonder if anyone actually lives there during the rest of the year.
costumes
Mystery picked up quite
an assortment of women that night
The basement had live music and the first floor had a DJ with two rooms cleared entirely for dancing. Upstairs were rooms with tables and chairs made up to look alternatively like a war strategy room and a 40's dive bar. The attic was a dark room with walls covered in glow-in-the-dark stars under black lights. Outside, there was also purportedly a homemade roller coaster ("purportedly" because I didn't go near the thing and it was not in plain view) and a "sideways room" which I do not recommend visiting in platform heels. I, perhaps predictably, spent most of my time on the dance floor, sometimes with Mystery and sometimes without (hey, I challenge you not to dance in whatever circumstances you find yourself when "Sexyback" comes on).

After a night of raucous debauchery at Evaline, I shelved my Jeanette costume for a few days. It was tempting to get in on some of the Halloween festivities in and around the city that week, but the practicalities of early-rising workdays kept me from shimmying back into the Jeanette outfit until the following Saturday. The second weekend of Halloween brought a combination birthday/costume party from upper echelons of Wilkinsburg high society... in other words, Sabrina threw a party for Ted.
Cupcake
The sombrero, the cupcake,
and the painted-on goatee
Unfortunately most of the guests seemed to be suffering from Halloween fatigue, as only Sabrina, Ted, Mystery and I showed up in costume. Nevertheless, it was a soiree to remember. Ted dressed up as a ruthless but stylish bandito; Sabrina dressed up as Ted, complete with curly hair, painted-on goatee and fictional, pretentious indie band T-shirt. There was buffalo crab dip, an array of Mexican dips for tortilla chips (in effort to calm the cravings of all those who beheld Ted' sombrero), an assortment of cupcakes from Dozen in Squirrel Hill, many varieties of beer including Augustiner and a Victory sampler, as well as a 1.75 liter of Old Crow Bourbon—which may or may not be the best cheap bourbon at the PA liquor stores. We have yet to test this hypothesis by pitting it head-to-head against my personal favorite cheap bourbon, Heaven Hill. The highlight of the evening (so judged because it was the only thing I deigned to take pictures of) was when Sabrina attempted to stuff thirty-eight candles into one Dozen cupcake. The cupcake was pulverized, but undoubtedly all of Ted's birthday wishes came true. Perhaps one of them was for Sabrina to wash off the goatee before bed.
2007-11-12 23:07:56 GMT
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Restaurant, Bar & Club Reviews
PITTSBURGH
The Aspinwall Grille
Cafe on Main
Cafe Fifth Avenue
The Crow's Nest
Country Chef Buffet
Gene's Last Chance
Gene's Place
Grand Concourse
Hemingway's
India Garden
Klavon's Ice Cream Parlor
Jimmy G's
Laforet
Lava Lounge
Macy's Bakery
Mad Mex
Margaritaville
Matrix
More
Mountain View Inn
Murray Avenue Grill
Nicholas Coffee Company
1907 Tavern
The Park Classic Diner
The Parlour
The Pleasure Bar
Primanti's
Rumshakers
Sanctuary/Altar Bar
Tonic
Wheel Deliver
Yokoso
CATTARAUGUS COUNTY
Dina's
Ellicottville Brewing
Gin Mill
Myers Steakhouse and Inn
NEW YORK CITY
Emilia's
Ping Seafood Restaurant
The Village Cafe
Wild Ginger






Media Reviews
DVD
Bones Season 1
Deadwood Season 2
Entourage Season 2
Grey's Anatomy Season 1
The L Word Seasons 1 & 2
Nip/Tuck Season 1
Prison Break Season 1
Queer as Folk Season 1
Queer as Folk Season 2
Sex and the City Season 5
BOOKS
Shadow of the Wind






RECIPES
FOOD
Bacon Blue Cream Cheese
Best Cheese Spread Ever
Biscuit Extravaganza
Citrus Tuna Steak
Chicken Salad
Easy Chocolate Mousse
Gussied-up Marinara
Quiche Lorraine
Tuna Salad
Vegan Bean Dip
Vegan Rigatoni
DRINK
Cosmopolitan Punch
Frozen Cranberry Margaritas
Low-carb Cosmo
Matthew Stover Margaritas
Vodka Gimlet