Albert Reyes’ haunted house for October, 2023 (Pic: Liz O.)
Back in 2009, I was standing in at the Japanese American National Museum in Little Tokyo for a massive Giant Robot exhibition and ended up chatting with one of the artist’s in the show, Albert Reyes. I had just started working full-time at L.A. Weekly, so I hit him up for an interview and then he invited me to his Halloween house party/art maze. Considering how many stories of mine have been lost within the black hole of the Internet over the years, I’m surprised that short interview is still online. Over the years, I interviewed Albert a few times, the most recent for Los Angeles Magazine in 2019, when he had a solo exhibition at Eastern Projects in Chinatown, and have seen a number of his haunted houses. This year, for the second year in a row, I got to DJ at Albert’s haunted house.
Dancing to Blue Monday at Club Underground’s Halloween party 10/27/23 (Pic: Liz O. )
Sometime before 11 p.m. I had to take off the blazer. I had tried to hang longer in the Battle Royale costume, but the dance floor upstairs at Grand Star Jazz Club was already full and it gets pretty warm behind the DJ gear. Advanced tickets for Club Underground’s Halloween party had sold out and, from what I could tell, people showed up early and ready to party. I don’t even know what to say about last night except that the energy was high and people were down to dance to anything, as you can probably see from the set list below. See you back at Underground on Friday, November 3. Happy Halloween!
Mannequins dressed up in the Goodwill lobby. (Pic: Liz O.)
The moment I saw the khaki skirt, I knew that my Halloween costume issue was going to work itself out. I actually found two khaki skirts wedged in a rack at the Glassell Park Goodwill. One was a mini that could work in a pinch. The other was slightly longer and fuller. It had a wraparound belt and some buttons down the front, but still looked a little more like a school uniform. I shoved it into the cart and headed over towards the men’s department to find a blazer.
Halloween parties are this weekend and I still didn’t have a costume. So, of course, I showed up at Goodwill with no plan.
