There were a lot of different Halloween parties going on, but I ended up going to the Montrose Crawl, mainly because I like being outdoors. While most of the time it was indoors in the bars, at least I got to be outside walking between them. Plus, I ended up going to five different places and seeing a variety of costumes rather than being stuck in one room the whole night.
Here are a few people I met walking into the first stop, Brazil. I didn't know it at the time, but the ninja was actually one of the organizers/judges. They gave a prize for best costume at each stop, and then there was a grand prize at the end. The ninja told me to make sure to be at the one of the places for a costume contest and then hang around until the end for a chance at the grand prize, so that was pretty encouraging.
A couple of other crawlers at Brazil.
I actually got to Brazil right when most people were moving on to the next stop, Poison Girl, but I hadn't had dinner yet and Brazil is supposed to have pretty good pizza, so I decided to eat there. That would mean I'd miss the costume contest at Brazil and Poison Girl, but there were still four others after that, and I was hungry.
On the positive side, the guy who served me at Brazil gave me a free drink for the costume. While I was waiting for the pizza, this group showed up, so we ended up sharing a table and food.
It took a while to get the food and eat, so we ended up only being at Poison Girl for a few minutes. Plus, it was extremely crowded. Leeloo and Teen Wolf were outside, and she even had her multipass. :) Some guy bought me a drink for the costume while we were here, too.
We had caught up with the main group, so a bunch of us headed on to Boondocks. We passed this zombie on the way there.
One of the guys in our group had this awesome Halo suit.
Egyptians.
At Boondocks I started seeing lots of people who I kept running into throughout the night, although there were lots of people leaving and joining the crawl the entire time, so there were plenty of new costumes to see, too.
Shaggy and Scooby.
Lots of black in this corner.
A crazy guy and Abe. I actually sat and talked to these guys for a bit.
Boondocks had an upstairs area, but I think stairs would have been a bit of a problem with my costume, so I stayed on the ground floor.
The first of the Palin costumes.
I liked the "All girls must park it here" sign.
Captain Jack is still kind of popular, but this guy had the smile to go with it.
Ooh, another guy in a box.
The Frankenstein Monster costume was really well done.
And onto Etro Lounge, with a spider and it's web on the way.
The Ghostbusters. They actually had really nice costumes; their proton packs had computer pieces they got from a friend who worked in a computer store. I noticed my camera had trouble with the autofocus if it was dark, though.
The picture is a little to high, but she's a pregnant nun, and drinking, too.
I ended up talking to the organizer dressed as a ninja for a while at Etro. This is only the second year they've done the Montrose Crawl, so I thought they did a really good job of organizing it. About the only problem was that some of the bars didn't have enough servers; it took quite a while to get a drink at some places, and there were lots of people jumping the queue. The ninja said he had tried to warn the owners but it didn't quite get through to them all.
Alien chest-burster guy.
Time to move on to Catbirds, with this big group on the way.
The wings were attached to a string he could pull to make them flap.
Random people in Catbirds.
And some more, some new and some old.
I usually found a corner to stand in so I didn't get in too much of they way, so at Catbirds I mainly hung out around these guys. If I noticed someone getting a kick out of my costume but not coming over, I went over to them if possible (some places were just too crowded, though).
A couple of well-dressed vampires.
Hunter S. Thompson in the green coat.
I think this guy was a normal delivery man because it smelled like warm pizza, but who knows, I guess it could have been a costume.
John Lennon and a couple of girls. I ended up telling lots of people who didn't know each other to get together so I didn't have to take as many pictures, which is what happened here. They'd see me asking or pantomiming (if it was really loud) that I wanted to take a picture, and people who didn't know the others would start to get out of way, so I'd wave them back in. Might as well meet some new people, right? Oh, and this girl was about the only person who made a funny face the whole night, so that was kind of cute.
I thought this flasher costume was hilarious. He'd walk up to people sitting in chairs and put it on their shoulder until they noticed it.
I passed by this group on the way to the last stop, Slick Willie's.
And these girls.
This giant group was just outside of Slick Willie's. Most of the bars were packed, but Slick Willie's was much bigger. Plus, they had fenced off this big outside area for people to hang out.
My costume, Zoltar from the movie Big. Now that I look at it, it doesn't look that great, especially considering how much I had to paint and cut and tape and glue. Then again, most of the fun came from interacting with people, not looking at it. I'd make them put their hands on the ball (which lit up different colors, although you can't see it here), make a wish, and then I'd give them a fortune card. Most people really got a kick out of it.
Also, it helps that I'm not shy. A lot of people would look and laugh but not want to do more than that, so I went up to them and convinced them to make a wish and have some fun. After a while, word got around about the fortune cards I was giving out, so people would come up to me just to get one. I'd make them go through the whole "making a wish" routine, first, though.
A pirate and a cop. Actually, the cop was about the only person I saw that night who didn't seem to be having a lot of fun. I don't know what it was, but she never even really smiled the whole time, not just when I was there but before and after, too.
Some jailbirds.
Rock and rollers.
Duff Man and friends.
A scout, a pirate, a race car hottie, and a wet t-shirt contest winner.
Another costume I thought was really good was Link. Since the majority of women just put on a sexy "fill-in-the-blank" costume that they bought at a store, I like it when they put a little more effort into it.
Then again, sexy isn't always bad.
Another Palin, although I don't understand the dog.
Frankenstein's monster again with some other people.
And Alien guy again with some other people.
Another shot of the outdoor area.
Chef from South Park.
A group of partiers.
And a different Egyptian woman with some others.
Motorcyclers.
I didn't see too many of the goofy-pun type costumes, but here was one.
Batgirl.
Another sexy girl.
Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf, another really well-done pair.
Hmm, I don't think their costumes are meant to go together.
Or these, either.
These go together, but you probably wouldn't have guessed that unless you watch South Park (ManBearPig and a leprechaun from Imaginationland).
At the end they gave out the grand prize for the costume contest out of the costume prizes given at each of the six stops on the crawl. The grand prize was a two-hour private party at Saint Arnold Brewing Company for 100 friends with all-you-can-drink beer.
Unfortunately, I didn't win the grand prize. The woman with this Bender costume from Futurama did (seen here with her friend dressed as Jack from Jack in the Box). Then again, even though I didn't win, at least I got to the finals and lost to a costume that was really well-made. (At the Exotic Erotic Ball in San Francisco, I didn't even make it on stage because they ran out of time, and I and a few other people who also didn't get on stage had much better costumes than the winner there, which was extremely disappointing.)
Like I said before, I think my costume was the most fun and interactive out of all the other costumes I saw. I even gave people souvenirs to keep in the form of fortune cards. It probably just didn't look good enough to win the overall contest, and it definitely wasn't nearly as polished looking as the Bender costume. The organizer dressed as a ninja told me to definitely come back next year, though, so that was nice to hear.
It's kind of a shame that after all the hard work and fun that everything just goes into the dumpster, but that's how life is. I don't have anywhere to store it and it would be lazy to re-use the costume again next year, anyway. Plus, I didn't win the grand prize with it, so I have to make something better.
I did get a $20 certificate to Brazil for winning one of the individual costume contests, though, and more importantly, it was a really fun night.