Announcing yet another Los Angeles book signing – this time for Crazy Wacky Theme Restaurants: Tokyo!
WHEN: Monday, November 30, 6:30-8:30pm
WHERE: Giant Robot LA gallery, 2062 Sawtelle Blvd, Los Angeles CA
Hope to see you there and at the November 28 and 29 signings at Kinokuniya LA.

Let’s now reminisce on the most important day of the year: October 31st, All Hallow’s Eve. My evening began with an aborted attempt to get into the Vice Magazine 1994-themed party in Brooklyn. I was with Elizabeth Wurtzel, author of bestselling memoir Prozac Nation who is featured in October’s issue of Vice. And get this: not even she could get in! The Vice party was an absolute disaster: there was no VIP list, the warehouse was over-capacity…

Onward, to the next Halloween bash — which turned out to be the best one in NYC that night. Dances of Vice is a celebrated gathering of neo-Victorian, steampunk and dark cabaret aesthetes. I saw Napoleonic military outfits and Marie Antoinette hats and knew that yes, this was the place to be!

Theme: Edward Gorey Dwindling Party. Dresscode: Neglected Murderesses, Doubtful Guests, Gashlycrumb Tinies, Hapless Children, Gilded Bats, Lonesome Mourners, Dancing Cats, Restless Widows. Don’t you love Dances of Vice already?

We rarely see men and women in hats these days (baseball and skullcaps do not count). What a treat to see top hats, bowlers, floppy brims, towers of fruit and a giant white parrot. The costumes were gloriously elaborate. Many of them took dedication to wear: such as the life-size curtain tassel who had to hold up his “head” all night long.

I found Kanae, who plays the “Party Girl #1″ in our fabulous Japanese B-movie. We drooled over the steampunk and broken doll jewelry.

Doe Deere of Lime Crime Makeup looked lovely with teardrop eye makeup and a unique hair accessory: cones wrapped in faux braids. I’m wearing an Atelier Pierrot dress, cone hat from Village Paper, scrunchie and panda sticker from a Harajuku accessories store.

I ran into Kyshah Hell, my friend who interviewed me for a Morbid Outlook article. Love her veiled hat and Yohji Yamamoto dress.

Hooray for the decadent undead and… avantgarde conceptual ghoul mummies? (Pop quiz: can anyone name the Woody Allen movie that inspired the silver-headed character in the back? Answer is here.)

I made a beeline to this amazing Hello Kitty costume. Her Japan-style kawaii nails were done by a lady in Brooklyn.

The fashionable spooks weren’t the only attractions (distractions?) in the room. Decadent offerings included hand-drawn Gorey portraits of guests, crime scenes interpreted through dance, a theramin performer and 24-piece chamber rock orchestra…

From body painting to Day of the Dead makeup, there was so much inspiration in one room. Thank you to Shien Lee for inviting me — I couldn’t have spent my Halloween in a better way!

New Yorkers: you’ve got to get on board the next Dances of Vice! “The Grand Shipwreck Ball” is setting sail on November 20-22. Hurry — there are only two days left to get tickets for “the most extravagant and fanciful gathering of castaways, sailors, glittering mermaids, sea sirens, pirates, romantic sea captains and scalawags ever known to New York.” Find out the scoop on Dances of Vice’s website and Facebook.