Talk of the Town - Halloween hoedown November 04 2000

People sure do like holidays, don’t they? I can understand the love of Thanks- giving or the Fourth of July because you get vacation from work. But Halloween? The only thing to get excited about is being able to make a complete fool of yourself with the ultimate excuse of, “Well, it’s Halloween. I’m just getting my freak on.” Yeah, right. Everybody thinks they can just transform themselves into something else for one night and all will be forgotten the next day. Think again.
Rich’s at Lenox Square got into the act last Saturday when the store was closed early and morphed into a party labyrinth for Evolution, a joint event with Jezebel magazine. Jezebel was celebrating its four-year anniversary while Rich’s was showing off its newly renovated interior and merchandise expansion. I was excited about attending because I heard that Puff Daddy was expected, supposedly with Jennifer Lopez.
Guess what? There was no Puff and no Lopez, which wasn’t a big surprise. What celebrities did grace the event with their presence? Ivana Trump reportedly walked in and walked out, however I couldn’t find one person who actually saw her. RuPaul performed on a ministage constructed just for the evening but was then quickly whisked away.
Carmen Electra at least hung out for a while, signing autographs and taking pictures with fans. She looked stunning, of course, but everything on her was so tanned and taupe-y with golden undertones that she looked as if she were melting into herself. Sexy, yet creepy.
I caught a bit of the performance by Blessid Union of Souls, who had a pretty impressive number of people catching their energetic show. It was the most sincere appearance of the evening, maybe because they seemed to really be enjoying themselves on stage.
What I had hoped, as I’m sure other people did, was that I would find some of these “invited” celebrities walking around and mingling with the masses. Instead, they were stuck at posts like Tommy Chong, who was stationed by a table with a stack of T-shirts and stickers with his image on it, circa his Cheech and Chong years. I’ve never seen Rich’s sell them. He was also selling a psychedelic-patterned glass pipe with his name engraved on it. I’m pretty sure they don’t stock those, either. At one point, two young men asked Chong if he’d like to take a “smoke break” with them in their car. When I left Chong, he was in the middle of convincing an inebriated fan that if he didn’t pay the $20, he couldn’t get the signed T-shirt while the two young men waited anxiously to fulfill one of their fantasies — to smoke out Chong.
Tequila Mockingbird: Jose Cuervo had a launch party last Thursday for its new intoxicator, Vive Cuervo, a high-concept tequila. The party was equally high-concept and weird. Events director Marc Gambello created a kind of interactive voyeurism where people could watch themselves watching other people via a screen placed on a stage. Or at least that was the idea.
What I saw were Click models dancing on stage, pretending to be a part of the party but who were actually hired to make the launch look like a fantastically fun club night in progress. By the time I got there, the national distributors, mostly middle-aged men with pot bellies and weathered Polo shirts, were having a ball, booty shaking next to the models.
Boys will be boys: Filmmaker and social satirist extraordinaire Joe Christ was spotted at Eyedrum Saturday, attending the opening-night party for an exhibition of paintings by underground comic artist Skip Williamson. Christ was busily handing out flyers for his next multi-media Love Camp event, taking place Dec. 2 at Somber Reptile. Williamson, a Love Camp regular, is particularly excited about the upcoming event because, he says, “This time, I get to paint the nude models!”
The horror continues: On Nov. 11 Chris Baker of Flavourset Promotions is keeping the Halloween vibe alive with his Wicked West Ball at the Tabernacle. Everyone is encouraged to dress up in Wild West gear. I can’t wait to see who shows up in what.