Calvert Girl Plans Pet Costume Party

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Calvert Girl Plans Pet Costume Party

Huntingtown, MD – 10/8/2012

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Lauren Hoover

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October is full of haunts and jaunts at Lockwood-Mathews

The Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum will offer visitors a frightfully good time at its upcoming Halloween Costume Party and Ghostly Sightings Tours.

On Oct. 27 and Oct. 31, the Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum at 295 West Ave. in Norwalk will invite visitors of all ages to celebrate Halloween, and explore the darker memories of this National Historic Landmark.

An adult event, 21 and over, the Haunted Mansion Costume Party on Saturday, Oct. 27, from 7 to 11 p.m., will embrace the Collins family attire worn on the TV drama House of Dark Shadows, which was filmed at the mansion in the 70s. The Haunted Basement Tour will introduce guests to the rarely seen cavernous underbelly of the building, which will be transformed into an eerie dungeon on the night of the party.

The Ghostly Sightings Tours on Wed. Oct. 31, 12-4 p. m, will focus on the history of the house, when it was a private residence, between 1868 and 1938.

For the costume party, the museum invites guests to dress in their scariest or most imaginative costume and enjoy a night filled with dark “Collins family fun,” dancing, prizes–and a perfectly good scare. All proceeds will benefit the Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum. Readings by the Psychic Tea Room of Norwalk will be available upon request. Light dinner, drinks and Halloween treats will be catered by Outdoor Cookers Catering and Event Planning.

General admission to the party, which includes dinner, drinks and dancing is $75 (for adults 21 and over). Tickets for psychic readings range from $25 to $40 and tickets for Haunted Basement Tour will be $10.A special ticket price of $99.99 will include the party, one palm reading and the Haunted Basement Tour.

Ticket purchase and reservation in advance required by Oct. 23 To RSVP call 203-838-9799, ext. 4 or send an e-mail to info@lockwoodmathewsmansion.com.

All ticket sales are final and cannot be refunded. The Haunted Mansion Halloween Costume Party is chaired by Trustee Doug Hempstead and sponsored in part by SL Powers, Ring’s End, BJ Ryan’s, BJ Ryan’s Banc House and Hatch and Bailey. Haunted Basement design courtesy of Greg Kling, Photography: Amber Meyer; Grave Rubbings by Rita I Phillips; Flyer design courtesy of Ellen Letkowski. All proceeds to benefit the Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum.

By showing their “Haunted Mansion Halloween Party ” tickets, visitors can continue their ghostly explorations with the Norwalk Historical Society’s Haunting at Mill Hill Lantern tour through the graveyard at Mill Hill Historic Park on either Friday, the Oct. 26 or Saturday, Oct. 27. Reservations recommended. For information and tickets: www.norwalkhistoricalsociety.org

The Ghostly Sightings Tours on Wed. Oct. 31 from 12 to 4 p.m. will be $10 for adults, $8 for seniors and $6 for children and young adults

Docents will take visitors through the first floor of the Museum and discuss the darker memories of this National Historic Landmark.

LMMM’s 2012 programs are made possible in part by generous contributions from LMMM’s Distinguished Benefactors: Xerox Foundation, Klaff’s, Maurice Goodman Foundation and Mrs. Cynthia C. Brown.

During the season, full tours at the mansion are $10 for adults, $8 for seniors and $6 for children and young adults ages 8-18. Children under 8 are admitted free. Tour hours are 12 to 4 p.m., Wed.-Sun. Tours are on the hour, and the last tour starts at 3 pm. For information on educational programs, events and rentals, call 203-838-9799.

How to help

You can make pillowcase dresses and send them to Rachel O’Neill’s nonprofit, Little Dresses for Africa, 24614 Curtis Dr., Brownstown Twp. 48134.

Dresses can be made of pillowcases or any cotton material using any simple pattern, as long as they don’t have buttons or zippers. (If buttons fall off or zippers break, the clothing becomes useless to the children receiving them.)

If you don’t sew but would still like to help, donations may be sent to the Brownstown Township address or made online at www.littledressesforafrica.org. The money will be used to help pay shipping costs for the dresses and other supplies. In addition, donations of pillowcases, cloth, bias tape, elastic and trim materials are always welcome.

“The biggest challenge is shipping costs,” O’Neill said. “The job is not done until the dresses are on the children’s backs.”

It costs $140 to send a single box with about 100 dresses to Africa. Roughly 20% of the dresses and other supplies are shipped directly to Africa; 75% go with other mission groups. The rest are hand-delivered by Little Dresses for Africa volunteers.

For details about dress sizing or more about the cause, go to www.littledressesforafrica.org.

Costume party fund-raiser

A fund-raiser for Little Dresses for Africa will be Oct. 27 at Fellow’s Creek Golf and Conference Center in Canton. The costume party and silent auction will support shipping costs and go toward finishing the school and teacher’s house in the village of Thobola, Malawi. O’Neill is collecting items for the silent auction. For details, call 734-637-9064, or send an e-mail to rachel.oneill@littledressesforafrica.org .

‘Value is there’ in ’90s acts, tour organizer says

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By Melissa Ruggieri

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

In the 1990s, somewhere between the novelty of MC Hammer and the genre-defining explosion of Nirvana, a slew of pop-rock bands and artists wound their way to the top of the charts.

Call it fate, call it coincidence or call your mom to ask her to dig out the Missy Elliott trash bag you wore as a Halloween costume in 1997, but the ’90s are returning to Atlanta this weekend with tours fronted by Sugar Ray and Everclear and Barenaked Ladies and Blues Traveler, with Richard Marx thrown in the middle with a dose of’ ’80s-’90s hybrid material.

Too bad it’s too hot for flannel.

Mark McGrath knows a ’90s package isn’t reinventing the touring industry. But he also knows that no one else has capitalized on the potency of hits from dozens of acts from the era, so he and buddy Art Alexakis of Everclear figured, why not? He hopes “Summerland,” the tour they planned

– named after an Everclear song — becomes a seasonal institution.

“Every decade has their nostalgia tour. The Turtles have their ’60s tour, Ringo [Starr] brings back the ’70s, Poison and REO Speedwagon represent the ’80s, but no one has galvanized the beautiful music of the ’90s,” McGrath said recently from his home in Studio City, Calif. “There was such a hangover with the ’90s at the end of the millennium. The music industry imploded and they weren’t building any new rock stars. You’ve got about 50 million records sold among [these acts]. The value is there.”

McGrath, the frontman for agreeable pop-rockers Sugar Ray (“Fly,” “Someday,” “When It’s Over”), is a natural talker, a guy who fit perfectly as the host of “Don’t Forget the Lyrics” during its tenure and who drops pop culture references like the three-time “Rock Roll Jeopardy!” champ that he is.

He’s also candid, admitting he first reached out to ’90s comrades Smash Mouth (too busy, they said) and Collective Soul (doing their own tour, which wrapped here last week).

Jesse Valenzuela, guitarist for the Gin Blossoms, another “Summerland” hit factory (“Follow You Down,” “Hey Jealousy,” “Found Out About You”), loves that the band is participating rather than doing its own tour as usual in the summer.

His only question is, why no women on the tour?

“Shawn Colvin, Suzanne Vega, somebody? Professionally speaking, I’d like to have a nice girl band or singer with us. Bring on the chicks! I’d love to tour with Shawn Colvin,” Valenzuela said.

McGrath scoffs at any intimation that females were intentionally excluded.

“I think we just went to bands we knew we could work with best to get this up and running. There certainly wasn’t any conversation of, let’s not get Alanis [Morissette]. Believe me, there was no ban on females,” he said.

It will be enough of a challenge as it is for most of the acts on the roster to squeeze their hits into tight sets. The Gin Blossoms will play for 35 minutes — a “heavy-duty tour,” Valenzuela said with a laugh — while Sugar Ray and Everclear will play in the 40-45 minute range.

McGrath is also hopeful there will be some cross-pollination among the bands.

“Being the glory hog that I am, I can’t see myself not wanting to jump onstage in some capacity. We want to end the show with an all-star jam. There is definitely that spirit and desire to surprise the audience. We want people to request cover songs online and we want to have fun, too,” McGrath said.

Valenzuela joked that LSD — Lead Singer Disease — would also afflict Gin Blossoms frontman Robin Wilson.

“He’ll be singing leads with the other acts whether they want him or not. I’m sure he’s already picked songs from each of their catalogs! I’ll be just as happy watching TV on the bus, but I’ll go out if they ask,” he said.

The tour has also served as inspiration for Sugar Ray and the Gin Blossoms.

McGrath, a dad to 2-year-old twins, has started writing music that he isn’t sure will be for the band or his first solo project.

“We’ve always lived in a free world, that’s how we’ve stayed together for 24 years. The band is always open and no one will ever be fired,” he said.

Valenzuela said he hopes to see a handful of new Gin Blossoms songs by next year.

“I’d like to record a bunch and put them on our website. But I’m just one of five [band members] making that decision.”

As for McGrath’s extracurricular activities, such as his TV co-hosting stint on “Extra” a few years ago, he’s open to anything if he feels he’s capable of doing it well.

“I’ve gotten more comfortable around the cameras,” he said. “But you know, for every Marky Mark [Mark Wahlberg] in the acting world, that highway is littered with a lot of Vanilla Ices.”

Concert preview

Summerland with Everclear, Sugar Ray, Gin Blossoms, Lit and Marcy Playground

7 p.m. Friday . $25-$69. Chastain Park Amphitheatre, 4469 Stella Drive, Atlanta. 1-800-745-3000, www.ticketmaster.com.

The Real Housewives of New York City — “A New New York”

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Much like the cast of the originator, The Real Housewives of Orange County, the fifth season of the show’s New York counterpart bears barely a resemblance to its initial line-up. That’s just fine, given the quality of the new batch of alpha females stepping into the spotlight this round. It also has a card up its sleeve, given the fact that RHNYC has fared consistently well over the four seasons it’s been a part of the never-ending Real Housewives hamster wheel of heels and hair. Still, the decision to boot mainstays Jill Zarin (too needy), Alex McCord (too creepy), and Kelly Bensimon (too bananas) has given it a fresh revamp while holding onto cast members who will stir up the best kind of drama.

Picking up where last season left off, we’re reintroduced to the still-simmering tension between two of the cast’s biggest stars, quasi-posh LuAnn de Lesseps and Ramona “Turtle Time” Singer. It seems that Ramona called LuAnn’s parenting into question last season by branding her a “weekend mom” and that has not been well-received by the former Countess. That storyline is bandied about during the episode — including a pretty meek confrontation at one of Sonja’s parties — and culminates with some serious allegations by LuAnn, accusing Ramona of threatening to release damning information about LuAnn’s teenage children if she didn’t stop seeking an apology. The whole thing is wildly vague and held together in a very Bravo way, in that it feels perfectly constructed to define allegiances among the circle right off the bat.

Meeting the new additions and watching them navigate the choppy waters of crazy they must endure to be part of the show is the real treat of the episode. We already know Ramona is a pinot-fueled, wild-eyed wonder and LuAnn wants to gossip her very pretty face off while passive aggressively correcting manners left and right. Sonja shines as reality TV gold, whether rambling about her “toaster oven diet” or forgetting to wear the bottom half of an elaborate Marie Antoinette costume to a costume party, as she did last season, and hanging her butt out for all to see.

So who are the newbies? There’s tall, blonde Aviva, who we learn was born and raised in NYC and is a stay-at-home mom to four kids. Just minutes into her pedicure with Sonja we find out that Aviva has an unexpected bit of news to share: she’s missing her left leg, below the knee. She’s entirely casual about the whole thing and manages to come across as a shockingly well-adjusted addition to the group… that is until she corners another new housewife, Carol, at Sonja’s cocktail party to rattle on insensitively about how much she loved her book (about watching her husband slowly die of cancer) to the point of cringing.

Carol comes across as the most interesting new addition, by far. Though her late husband had ties to the Kennedy family, her own life is filled with very some very notable (and un-Housewife-ian) accomplishments: She’s been an award-winning journalist at ABC News, PrimeTime Live and 20/20, all before writing the aforementioned memoir and ending up on The New York Times Best Seller List for 12 weeks. As far as how that all translates to the Bravo universe is still to be seen, given the fact she holds down the post of “normal human” in the first episode while all the other gals orbit around her. In fact, while the other women are getting to know each other (via tequila shots) in the Hamptons, Carol stays in the city to work on a magazine interview (full disclosure: it’s with the Kardashians… It’s still Bravo!).

Then there’s newcomer Heather, who has made her mark in the NYC-scene via a shape wear collection that’s done quite well. Followers of the series would be wise to see the inclusion of another shape wear queen as a direct dig at newly booted Jill, whose Skweez Couture By Jill Zarin line surely must not love the Bravo-centric promotion for another housewife’s brand of stretchy underoos. There’s also the mind-blowing realization during these programs that many of the women are successfully building mini-empires out of shape wear, shitty wine, and whatever else they can brand their names onto while laughing their way to the bank. This was just a full paragraph about Housewives-branded shapewear, too. Just let that soak in for a moment.

Onward! As far as the first episode shenanigans, there aren’t too many. Ramona reminds everyone how fantastically abrasive she is when she and her creepo husband Mario corner Heather at their Hamptons dinner party to tell her: “You do cut people off. Just so you know.” She handles the tag-team lesson on manners (from two of the most poorly mannered people in the show’s history) with some tact, pointing out she felt the same way towards them and would do her best to avoid stepping on them conversationally in the future. But just when you think you might be leaning towards Heather for the “Most Level-Headed” vote, she veers off course by announcing repeatedly that her father died just days earlier and that her son had a life-saving liver transplant when he was just a baby. It’s far too real-world shocking for the confines of the Bravo universe and is met by awkwardness and discomfort by the other women (and viewers). As much as we want the back-story on these women, it becomes somehow too bizarre to hear her tell truly heartbreaking stories to glassy eyed cardboard women wearing fur vests and thigh-high boots.

There are some more quality scenes, like when we see LuAnn’s daughter host an art showing for her paintings. The small room ends up not-so-mysteriously filled with the housewives and their friends, even though she’s a senior in high school. Also, the women (who we see in previews for later episodes cavorting topless in pools and drunkenly dancing on bars) are forced to reconcile their feelings about Victoria’s very “edgy” art, which consists of a few cartoon skulls and some nondescript outlines of nude women. It’s jarring stuff from the twisted mind of a 17-year-old socialite.

The whole first episode is really a flurry of coiffed hair and heels, establishing the allegiances that have carried over from last season (Sonja and Ramona vs. LuAnn, specifically) and showing the newcomers like deer in headlights as they learn the ropes of this frightening universe they’ve signed on to be a part of. And if the previews for upcoming episodes are any indication, it’s going to be just the doozy that fans of the series come to expect. It’s only a matter of weeks before we get to hear LuAnn lob this gem at Ramona during a heated confrontation: “What other tricks do you have to pull out of your pinot filled hat?!” And there you have, in a single utterance, exactly why maniacs like me come back for more.

Dates for your diary

• A car wash in aid of Għaqda Melita Banda San Ġużepp and the Passi Wara Kristu youth group will take place today near the workers’ monument in front of Msida police station from 7.30 a.m.

This week:

• A bazaar will take place from tomorrow until Thursday in the lower hall of St Joan Antide School, Gudja, from 8.30 a.m. till noon and 4 till 6 p.m. Proceeds will go towards the missions of St Joan Antide. Items on sale include plants, clothes, toys, souvenirs and bric-a-brac.

• The Indian Navy Ship TEG (F45), a Talwar-class frigate, will be open to the public tomorrow and Tuesday from 11 a.m. till 4 p.m. Visitors are requested to present a form of photo identification before boarding the vessel. Children under the age of 16 will not be allowed on board unless accompanied by an adult. For more information call the Consulate of India on 7979 8081 or e-mail Johann Cuschieri on info@india.org.mt.

• A lecture on nature photography will be delivered by Guido Bonett on Tuesday at the Din l-Art Ħelwa office, 133 Melita Street, Valletta, at 6.30 p.m. This will be followed by a site visit to Il-Majjistral Nature and History Park on June 10 at 8.30 a.m. Booking is compulsory as there are limited places for the site visit. E-mail walks@majjistral.org.

• The Mission Fund is holding a clearance sale on Tuesday from 9.15 a.m. till 1 p.m. and from Wednesday to Friday from 9.15 a.m. till 1 p.m. and 4.15 till 7.15 p.m. The sale will take place at Garage ‘St Joseph’, Ġummar Street, Birkirkara.

• A public talk on happiness and optimism by Leo Bormans, author of the international bestseller The World Book of Happiness, will be held on Friday at the Phoenicia Hotel, Floriana, at 8.30 a.m. A public debate moderated by Joe Friggieri will follow. The talk is being organised by Leading Talks, in collaboration with the University’s Research, Innovation and Development Trust and the Malta Philosophy Society. Admission is free and registrations in advance on info@leadingtalks.com.mt.

• A car wash and car boot sale will take place on Saturday at Le Méridien Hotel’s outdoor car park in front of the main reception in Balluta Bay. The event is being organised in support of Starwood Hotels and Resorts’ fifth annual associate fundraising campaign, ‘Road to Awareness’, which will be raising money for Unicef’s Early Childhood Care and Education programme in Ethiopia.

• A dinner and retro music night with Marisa D’Amato will take place on Saturday at St Catherine VM Band Club in Żurrieq from 7.30 p.m. Enquire at the bar or call 7964 7018 for more information.

Next week:

• A card games party in aid of the Little Sisters of the Poor will be held on June 6 at the Preluna Hotel, Sliema. For bookings, call Blanche Martin on 2133 0397.

• A buffet lunch in aid of the Pontifical Missions Office will be held on June 7 at the Coastline Hotel, Salina Bay, at 12.15 p.m. Tickets cost €17 for adults and €8.50 for children under 10. For bookings, phone 2123 6962 until June 4. Tickets are available at the Missions Office in Merchents Street, Valletta, and at the door. Transport will be available from Valletta to the lunch venue and back.

• Our Lady of Lilies Youth Section of Mqabba will kick-start this year’s feast celebrations on June 8 with the annual Blue Costume Party at the Lily Band Club Premises in Mqabba Square, from 8 p.m. onwards. DJ Pierre Cordina will be providing music. Entrance is free. For more information visit www.talgilju.com.

Later next month:

• A car wash in aid of the Living Ability Not Disability (Land) group will be held on June 10 from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. near the old pixxina in Marsascala. Volunteers are needed to donate or sell food, wine, drinks and cakes (without cream) at the event. SMS Jeanesse Abela on 7982 8787 or Daniela Schembri on 7906 0393 or e-mail landcontact@hotmail.com for more details.

5 things The AV Club learned at the Art Institute’s new Roy Lichtenstein …

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He’s inspired many a thoughtful Halloween costume and witty ad, but what do any of us really know about the late artist Roy Lichtenstein? With the public opening of the Art Institute’s new Lichtenstein retrospective today, The A.V. Club thought it would be a good idea to check it out ourselves and hip readers to some arty science. Here are five neat things we learned gazing at all those dots.

This exhibit is a really, really big deal.
Not only has this exhibit been years in the making, but it’s also been the brainchild of some very big artistic names. The retrospective’s only showing at four museums, and they’re biggies. It makes its debut in Chicago, of course—an honor unto itself—but then it goes to the National Gallery in D.C., the Tate Modern in London, and the Centre Pompidou in Paris. Those aren’t bad names or institutions to be associated with, to say the least.

Lichtenstein was all about energy and emotion.
This makes sense when you hear it, but look at the work in the exhibit and you’ll really get it. There’s an entire room devoted to paintings about war and romance, both of which are intensely emotional. Lichtenstein’s other work is about movement, wit, and thought, all of which is chock full of energy and implied vibrancy. If Lichtenstein’s colors didn’t sell it enough to begin with, just look at the subject matter.

A mirror is a ready-made painting.
There’s a whole other room in the exhibit of just Lichtenstein’s paintings of mirrors, which are hard to explain in words, but amazing to see in person. The artist believed that mirrors are ready-made paintings, capturing in a frame what they were reflecting for a split second in time. If a mirror reflects a room or a person, it’s capturing a portrait. These works depict nothing, but that’s kind of the whole point.

Lichtenstein said, “Art deco is cubism for the home.”
There are several sculptural pieces in the exhibit that wouldn’t be out of place in any mid-century modern abode. Still, they’re both decorative and potentially useful, and go to show that even the lowest utilitarian object can have aesthetic purpose.

Lichtenstein ended his work at the beginning.
Right before the artist died, he was coming around to his most famous style of work, those comic-book styled paintings from the mid-’60s, but reimagining them. He unclothed the women, and painted them from afar. He portrayed them leaving the canvases and slightly less dramatically. Because of Lichtenstein’s untimely death, we can’t really say where this series of work would have really gone, but it’s a nice reminder that our work, our thoughts, and our lives are always up for reinterpretation. Everything can be a new beginning, and it’s almost preferable to be able to end things with a question.

Chihuahua costume party falls short of record

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By BILL DRAPER

The Associated Press

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Hundreds of tiny tacos, ballerinas and other costumed dogs fell short of a world record Saturday morning in Kansas City, but organizers said they were encouraged by the turnout for the inaugural Cinco de Mayo Chihuahua parade.

Dennis Stone of Independence, Mo., holds his four-month-old Chihuahua, Cherry, Saturday, May 5, 2012 in Kansas City, Mo. Hundreds of tiny dogs dressed up like tacos, ballerinas and a variety of other things fell short of setting a world record, but organizers say they’re encouraged by the turnout for the inaugural Cinco de Mayo Chihuahua parade. (AP Photo/The Kansas City Star, Jim Barcus)

Cody Crawford created a tank for his Chihuahua, Dexter, left, as Willy, a three-year-old Chihuahua takes a closer look, Saturday, May 5, 2012 in Kansas City, Mo. Hundreds of tiny dogs dressed up like tacos, ballerinas and a variety of other things fell short of setting a world record, but organizers say they’re encouraged by the turnout for the inaugural Cinco de Mayo Chihuahua parade. (AP Photo/The Kansas City Star, Jim Barcus)

People raise their costumed Chihuahuas during the inaugural Cinco de Mayo Chihuahua parade, Saturday, May 5, 2012 in Kansas City, Mo. Hundreds of tiny dogs dressed up like tacos, ballerinas and a variety of other things fell short of setting a world record, but organizers say they’re encouraged by the turnout for the inaugural Cinco de Mayo Chihuahua parade. (AP Photo/The Kansas City Star, Jim Barcus)

Mark Valentine, the president of the group that organized the parade, said 500 dogs showed up in costume — about 200 fewer than what was needed to break the Guinness Book world record. The event, organized by United Entertainment to benefit a local animal shelter, was open to any breed.

Valentine estimated that 80 percent of the costumed canines were Chihuahuas, more than the 50 percent he anticipated.

“We are going to keep doing this until we run out of dogs in Kansas City and have to start shipping them in,” Valentine said. “For a first try, we did OK.”

Valentine said he was told Chihuahuas were among the most common breeds in animal shelters. Saturday’s event raised about $2,500 for The Pet Connection, a local no-kill shelter.

“Chihuahuas get killed in animal shelters almost as much as pitbulls,” he said.

Anne Fisher, a food stylist from Stilwell, Kan., about a half-hour south of Kansas City, said her male Chihuahua, Willie, seemed relieved when she slipped off his ballerina outfit after the parade.

“We figured he was going to be the smallest Chihuahua here, but he’s not,” she said of the 3-pound dog. “We’re having more fun than he is. It’s hysterical.”

Just after 11 a.m., everyone in the crowd with a Chihuahua raised their pets over their heads. The result was a sea of tiny heads adorned with sombreros, cowboy hats, bows and even a Green Bay Packers football helmet.

Afterward, participants lined up and participated in a slow-moving procession along a sidewalk, as dozens of people in lawn chains watched the colorful animals strut past.

Valentine thought it was a little extreme that Guinness required a veterinarian to be on hand to make sure every dog registered for the event was alive. No dead dogs showed, he said, but someone did bring a potbellied pig.

“Apparently, they’ve had trouble with people sneaking pigs in,” Valentine said.

___

May 05, 2012 08:11 PM EDT

Copyright 2012, The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Party with other sci-fi nerds at May The Fourth Be With You

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There are never enough events with Star Wars puns, which is why City, O’ City is hosting the inaugural sci-fi costume party May The Fourth Be With You, held on, uh, May 4, beginning at 3 p.m. Comedian Ben Kronberg, of the Ted And Gracie web series, will host the event.

The event begins with a screening of The People Vs. George Lucas, a documentary featuring our own esteemed Denver City Editor Cory Casciato! Following the screening will be a QA with director-writer Alexandre O. Philippe and producer-cinematographer Robert Muratore. Then, from 5 p.m. on, bands will perform on an outside stage, including a ska party at 11 p.m. featuring The Repercussions and The Ruckus, which will almost certainly look like this. A special appearance by Boba Fett And The Americans, Denver’s finest Star Wars-themed guerilla marching band, is also promised.

Candy costumes and champagne showers mean the XIV party is on at Hyde Bellagio

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Courtesy of Hyde Bellagio

By Ron Sylvester (contact)

Saturday, April 28, 2012 | 2 a.m.

XIV Vegas Sessions

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Tess Balesteri has her candy necklace and some lollipops for her hair. She just hopes she doesn’t melt under a shower of champagne.

“Some of the girls will be wearing cotton candy, so when they start spraying champagne, that should be interesting,” Balesteri said.

Balesteri, a cocktail waitress at Hyde Bellagio, was getting ready to serve up the crowd at the club’s XIV Vegas Sessions, its Sunday afternoon theme party. April’s theme: “Candy Carnival.” Your Easter basket never looked like this — dancers in candy-colored costumes, drinks with names like Love Unit and DJs blasting house music.

“It’s not the typical day party or nightclub party because it’s in a smaller venue,” Balesteri said of Hyde, which holds about 700 people.

When Sam Nazarian’s sbe Entertainment Group launched the idea of an adult costume party on a Sunday afternoon at its XIV restaurant in Los Angeles, it wasn’t universally predicted to become a hit.

“People said everyone was going to be at the pool or not going out at 5 o’clock on a Sunday and that it would never work,” said Mio Danilovic, vice president of operations for sbe, which runs Hyde Bellagio.

But it didn’t take long to start packing in the 2,000-square-foot space on Sunset Boulevard each week with crowds looking for some Sunday afternoon debauchery.

“Actually, we found it was a perfect time to capture an audience after they left the pool and in between the nightclubs,” Danilovic said.

The Las Vegas parties at Hyde began in January once a month to give people one final weekend hurrah. Now, Danilovic said, sbe is looking to expand XIV as a brand of these themed parties that he hopes will reach South Beach in Miami, where he was this week.

The Los Angeles version became a hideaway for celebrities looking for a party that didn’t advertise their appearances or put them on a display to draw people to the club. The stars came with the rest of the crowd for the wild decorations, raging dance music and performance artists in elaborate candy costumes mingling among the guests.

“At these parties, you’re likely to be standing beside the celebrity instead of seeing them on a stage, Balesteri said.

The room takes on a character of its own, such as this Sunday’s sensual Candyland, and the party develops its own vibe into the evening. The night is fueled by Hyde’s wicked cocktails, such as the Love Unit or Celery Superstar. But XIV insiders say the most popular order from the bar is an oversized champagne bottle “flown” to your table by Superman.

DJs Julien Nolan, Chris Garcia and Zen Freeman will build musical atmosphere throughout the night, ramping it up into a confetti-blowing, champagne-raining frenzy.

While arriving late may be fashionable at some clubs, Danilovic said the character of XIV doesn’t mingle well with tardiness.

“People make the mistake of coming late, and then it’s like walking in on the middle of something that you’ve missed,” Danilovic said. “You really have to be part of the progression and the build-up of the night.”

Those arriving are encouraged to dress with the theme of the night. It’s not advisable to wear anything that needs dry cleaning.

“You will get sprayed by champagne,” Danilovic said.