overdoing it (with a smile)

Music: KUT's "Twine Time" with Paul Ray

This year's Halloween costume party may be the best ever. Mike and Ashley and Rob Mack (no relation) hosted this year in their new rental, which I think has to have one of the best layouts for a party: a massive backyard deck, a formal living room (perfect for the dance floor), and lots of mingling places scattered between.

The Mack Attack dreamed up the party theme ("Revise and Resubmit") and the decoration theme ("haunted academic conference"), and let me just say that "creative" is an understatement. These two staged the best party décor I have ever seen. I think they should do party consulting or something and make some money!

The party theme, "revise and resubmit," was announced in a funny letter from an editor outlining the details. Basically, participation in the costume contest required one's costume to "change" over the course of the evening. Now, Austin pollution includes some "creativity" toxins, so I expected folks to go nuts with this---and many did. For example, Ashlyn arrived as "West 6th," which I didn't get. But over the course of the evening she became "Dirty 6th," and then her costume made sense: she arrived at the party as someone who hangs out on West 6th street---which is more upscale, older, and where you go to avoid undergraduates vomiting in the street. East 6th (apparently known as "Dirty Sixth"), is our equivalent to Bourbon street and most of us avoid it. It was pretty hilarious. Hester Prynne to Demi Moore, Village Person sailor to Village Person construction worker, Karen to Sonya Foss, ideal ego to ego ideal, water to wine, Donnie Darko to the Unibomber, this costume party had just about all the double-your-pleasure costuming you could handle without an adult beverage.

As one approached the front door, she was greeted with a poster adverting the "96th Annual Haunted Conference" and the registration table. There partygoers were to pick up a lanyard name-tag, writing the before and after costumes on front and back. As you entered the house, you moved through the dance floor area to the "poster session" area, where one could read up on "The Influence of Lunar Cycles on Competition in Werewolf Packs." Just beyond it was a deadly panel session that had apparently been going on forever; one of the living dead panelists was giving a PowerPoint presentation on "Graveyard Talk." The kitchen on the right had been transformed into a black-light lit tomb of rejected manuscript letters. The back den was transformed into a "Grad Fair," festooned with the "heads" of chairs (literal heads belonging to, for example, "Dr. Dusty N. Krumblin"). Next to that was the "conference bar," which was oddly beautiful in a "Kubrick-film sort of way," as Bryan remarked.

The back and deck area was transformed into a "camp" environment with film screenings. On continual rotation throughout the evening the Macks screened Sleepaway Camp (and sequels). There was a campfire and fixins for smores!

The shear genius of the transformation of the house into the kind of party environment one only sees in Hollywood films needs to be documented, which is what I've tried to do! I cannot really do the party "scene" justice in this space; ya just had to be there. This is going to be the party to beat for years to come. With a debut like this, the Macks are going to have to really work hard to top it next year. Fortunately, they have a year to scheme!

I managed to capture almost all of the costumes this year. In fact, I managed to capture a little more than I had expected---and I've deleted those to protect the wicked. Here's the gallery!.