el dia de los muertos party

of all the party preparations, making the altar was my favorite part of the process. the table was so large that the party food was laid out on the shrine which was a great way to have a captive food eating audience discover the tiny vignettes hidden within larger displays. 

when i wanted to get away for a moment to a quiet place i would get in my friend's restored 80's era limo - complete with flat black astroturf with tiny pile for its exterior paint job. when this limo drives by it looks like a black hole going down the street -it reflects no light except for the underglow of green. inside he had rigged up an old laptop to control an elaborate light show with sync'ed playlist and shimmying hula girl. he has taken us on many adventures in this ride.

my RL friends seemed to tolerate Mayden okay. grrrherhahaha. not only was it a treat and joy to have her come, but she was absolutely invaluable in making the party run smoothly. thank you grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrl.
here's a wide shot of the altar. our blogger a.b. donated a killer print of one of her brother's paintings to the cause. i made it the central building block of the altar backdrop. Its the image of the skeleton lovers sitting on a couch watching TV.

my best friend wore an orange satin dress with the names of people who had died this year written on paper and pinned to a black scarf. her hat was a marvelous netted and feathered thing. her beloved had boney hands that lit up red on the tips and a mask from Venice.

i set up a little paper cemetery lit with votive candles. a basket of blank gravestones awaited guests to fill with the names of those loved and lost. as you can imagine, many were dedicated to pets or famous people but some were quite poignant like the one to all our fallen soldiers and one that simply said "good-bye, i loved you dearly".

two of my dearest friends in the world dressed as the "two fridas", a painting by frida kahlo the mexican artist i have written about often. we had seen her show together in san francisco since we all adore her work. these two won the costume prize. they spent all day saturday searching out elements and constructing these outfits. its amazing how much they looked like the painting. where did they ever find those amazing rubber human hearts!

it was one of the highlights of the evening to have my friends put that kind of effort in dressing up for my little party. that's love in action. when they walked in i was thinking "who are these chinese ladies coming in"... grrherhahaha i was so blown away when they got close enough for me to see the two fridas! thank you grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrls.i phoned my frida kahlo costume in by pencilling in my unibrow of crow and throwing on a mariachi jacket. but everybody gave me a pass since i had the altar to do. friends are creative AND generous.
this delightful trio of witchy wonders are my partners in dance crime. its too bad the Big Dog had to leave the party to play a gig downtown. he would've loved this girl. she was a great photography subject. this is the only photo of hers i could show. i didnt post a photo of the band because they all look the same. and besides, i didnt have time to take pictures until the end of the party.
today was the clean up and i actually enjoyed it. i got to taste all the things i didnt have time to eat last night, and leave the boys in the band a good stash of leftover mexican beers. amazingly, there was no leftover tequila. ;-)