Retrospective: The Party's coming from Inside the House!

Saturday 28th, Halloween
Since the dawn of time, or thereabouts, the residents of Borden House have been notorious party-throwers. The original parties would have been more primitive, with skin-drums instead of sub-woofers, turpentine instead of G&T's, bee's wax candles instead of fertility candles, but the spirit is very much the same as the days of old -- and those spirits sure made an appearance this Hallowe'en'en'en'en (being 4 e'ens before the hallowed eve).

"This Halloween had an almost New Years-esque intensity," states John Hand-cock (played by Nathan Robertson), "I give it three-thumbs up!!"

"I give it three-thumbs up!" repeat the Copy-Cats........?

The night saw a wide range of costumes, from a small squad of guerrilla's, to skunks, to a man in a kissing-booth, paper-bag royalty, a wookie, and...um...monster-hands...Almost everyone was dressed up somehow, even if it was just as themselves (which, as proven by one Mr. Field, can actually require a lot more effort than you'd think -- I predict a lot more Ryan Field costumes in 2007). The party estimate stood at about 60-70 boils and ghouls; yup, I said boils and ghouls alright...I'm bringing it back.

Reports from the party-front confirm that the night was definitely on fire. Perhaps it was the spirits, perhaps the wine, or maybe it was the fertility candles, but people seemed to be hooking up left and right. To those of you who left with someone, consider it a token of our appreciation here at Borden House -- a loot bag of sorts. To those of you [us] who did not...there's still New Years...

* * *
Andrew 'Sexy-Back' Reeves 'Baby-Back' Reever reports on clean-up the next day: "This is like a movie-theatre times 50!"

Reever, René and Nate spent a couple hours cleaning the mess that was several hours in the making. The smell of 'party' was still heavy in the air (and smelled a lot like LYCHEE) and was virtually impossible to escape considering the phenomenal adhesive power of alcohol spilled on the floor. But in no time the place was back to par, and our hosts went on with their lives, a little tired from (in some cases) being up until 5:45am, but ultimately with an extra hour in their pockets -- thank you daylight savings time!

So to those of you who made it: thank you for making it a night to remember, or in some cases, to forget and then be reminded of later while asking "I ate WHAT?!" And those of you that didn't make it, I've got cartons of eggs...I'll see you on Halloween...

Halloween Costume Ideas

As promised, some kind of Blog entry about the upcoming party. It won't be glamourous, and it won't be insightful, but I'll be goddamned if it's not funny...

Ladies, pay close attention now.
[Just click the white screen below and the video will play.]

Nuit Blanche means White Night

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 1st
Sunrise. At last. It's hard to make sense of the night's events, but from what I can tell, for 12 glorious hours, the streets of Toronto were turned into a surreal art showcase of the most random sort. Having known virtually nothing about "Nuit Blanche" until the night of, I found myself getting more and more excited at the prospect of meandering about the streets until all hours of the morning, and when we did hit the town, it was beautiful to see how strange and artistic our city can be when prompted by corporate sponsorship (thank you Scotiabank!)

It's a little difficult to describe Nuit Blanche in one broad term, but generally it was a series of installation pieces located all over the city, including such things as neon Elvis lyrics in the windows along Baldwin Street, a woman eating cake for 12 hours in slow motion on University, a huge twister game in the shadow of OCAD, a disco-yurt in the Hart House reading room (complete with multi-coloured dance-floor), and countless other oddities. The fog in Philosopher's Walk was truly something to see; rows and rows of mist jets obscuring the valley, light shining through the trees, and huddled masses trying to keep from stepping off the path into shoe-stealing mud. The gay-penguin exhibit at the Harrison Bathhouse was also quite interesting with it's filmographic exploration of the gay-penguin lives Roy & Silo, plus swimming by candlelight under the projection of artsy montages and eerie music.

But above all, I think what did it for me was the Ballroom Dancing. We get into the University Settlement House and make our way toward the gymnasium, all the while feeling like we're on our way into a grade 8 dance. Then it hits me: a rubber ball the size of my head. Balls are flying everywhere as adults become children in a giant ball-throwing battle royale. I found it fascinating how much you learn about people by putting them in a room full of balls. You've got the people who are excited just throwing them up in the air. Then in the middle, sitting in a circle, dressed in black with their backpacks on, are the dark, apathetic youths with their angst and their "I'm cool cause I'm different" attitudes, being pelted from all sides. You've then got the constructive types who were trying to shoot for the basketball net. Then you've got the people with anger-management issues who took full advantage of the situation and whipped balls at people as hard as they could. Yes, if you ever want to know who your true friends are, put them in a room full of balls.

All tolled, we covered most of Section A and B and I got in at 6:30am. The art was delicious, and I hope that this is the first of many White Nights, although my suggestion for next year would be to pick a less rainy season to have it in.

n8