A very Gorey evening....

Our official portrait from the Edwardian Ball at the Belasco Theater in Los Angeles.
I  regret that you can't see Jim's cool gunfighter's coat in this picture. But you can see my ray gun.

I'm not sure why I love to dress up so much. Psychiatrists might have a theory about self-loathing, and they might be right. I haven't been comfortable in my skin since sixth grade. When you're not happy with the way you look, pretending to be someone else makes a lot of sense.

My favorite gown from Age of Innocence.
Now this is better than Renaissance clothes. 

A close-up of my ray gun.

Halloween is my favorite holiday, and I can remember dragging my mother's best white peignoir set out of her drawer, wrapping a ribbon crossways over my chest and declaring myself Helen of Troy. At which point she forbade me to drag her good nightgown all over the neighborhood, especially in late October.

When I had kids, I spent so much time making them costumes, I never quite got around to making one for me. A notable exception was in the late 1990s, when I made a red satin Edwardian ball gown, which would have been suitable for the Titanic. In fact, I did wear it for formal night on a week-long cruise to Mexico. It hangs in my closet, a mute reminder that I'm not as thin as I once was.

Here is the gunfighter coat with all the
 accouterments that April provided.
You can see a Gorey character behind him,

The Society for Creative Anachronism and the Renaissance Faire gave me lots of opportunity to dress up and pretend to be someone else, but 16th and 17th century costumes were not as detailed and delicate as liked. I gave a Russian party once, and April Ray of Daisy's Costumes on Lancaster Boulevard turned me into Anna Karenina and my family into that of Czar Nicholas.

So when my husband and I decided to go to the Edwardian Ball, I knew just where to go. I went into Daisy's with a sheaf of photographs and drawings culled from the Internet. You can't go into Daisy's and browse, because only she knows where everything is. You have to go in and say, "I want to be steampunk," and show her examples.

April got excited over one drawing that had leather straps and buckles holding up an overskirt and a corset top, and when your costumer is having fun, you get a great outfit. She took one look at my husband and exclaimed, "Oh, I've got a wonderful gunfighter's coat that will just fit you!"

We still haven't mastered the art of taking our own
 photo yet. How do those kids do this?

We ended up making about seven trips to Daisy's Costumes. I bought a striped steampunk corset and a ray gun, as well as goggles for Jim off the internet, and April made me a holster for my gun. I already had tea-length crocheted gloves and Victorian boots.

When we got inside the Belasco Theater, it was like stepping into a film. The venue actually is from the Edwardian era, generally described as beginning with the death of Queen Victoria in 1901 and ending with the start of the first World War.

This is the main theater at the Belasco. We paid a fortune
for one of these tables, but it was great to have a place to roost.

There was a guy playing a guitar made out of a shovel, called appropriately enough, Shovelman.

The place was awash in crinolines, corsets, high-topped ladies' boots, spats and top hats on men in a variety of time periods. Lots of the women had those tiny top-hats perched at a jaunty angle.

The Edwardian era was well-represented, as was steampunk and Victorian. I only saw a few truly authentic Edwardian costumes, but this wasn't about authenticity, it was a giant party. Everyone made at least some sort of effort.

One of our friendly neighbors, a steampunk naturalist.
She had butterflies all over her clothes, an Edwardian
walking skirt, a leather corset and goggles.
Jim thinks she was a little lit. I think he's right.

Waiting in line for a martini, I looked around and saw men in full safari gear and pith helmets, gentlemen in evening clothes who looked like they just came from seeing Jenny Lind perform, ladies in low-cut dresses with dazzling necklaces, and even a few men in Oriental robes and turbans, looking like Ram Dass from A Little Princess.

I was sad that I forgot my camera, but we both had our iPhones, so we got a few photos. People were coming up to us and exclaiming how great we looked, and asking to take our picture. We were doing the same, and everyone we met was remarkably friendly. Couple would just come up and introduce themselves, and chat.

One of our balcony neighbors insisted that the only way we could take her picture was if I was in it with her. She was a steampunk naturalist, and truly looked like an Edward Gorey drawing.

I believe that is actor Christopher Shyer (J. Edgar)
with the accordion, but I'm not 100% sure. His female
companion was a big hit with photographers all night.

Oh, did I mention Gorey? The Edwardian Ball, which began in San Francisco, is dedicated to the author and illustrator, whose black and white drawings of the bizarre lives (and deaths) of Edwardian families have been a favorite of mine since high school. The Vau de Vire Society reenacts Gorey stories with the blessing of the author's trust. This year's offering was The Iron Tonic, a tale about what happens when denizens of a home for the aged discover a magic elixir.

Couples were waltzing on the main floor to prerecorded music before the entertainment began. From our perch in the balcony, we had a great view. The master of ceremonies was fantastic, and changed costumes three or four times. You can see a video I shot of the opening number here.  Footage of the San Francisco ball is playing on the screen behind him.

The evening's entertainment also included Rosen Coven, the "World's Premier Pagan Lounge Ensemble," a string based musical group who are among the originators of the Edwardian Ball, and various vaudeville-type acts.

Feeling like the Edward Gorey character
from the PBS Mystery! titles.

The latter included aerialists, a whip act (get your mind out of the gutter), and a vastly entertaining Western shooting act which turned the gender tables. The shooter was a tall buff woman in a barely there buckskin top and pants shooting balloons off an "Indian maiden," who was the most flamboyant  queen I've ever seen. He was wearing nothing but a loincloth, moccasins, and a feather, but he might as well have been in rhinestones. Politically correct? No, but hysterical.

The only real anachronism was Creature Feature, who describe themselves as a "shitty rock band who writes songs about shitty horror movies." Here is a video of them which I shot mainly to show you the background video. It reminds me of Terry Gilliam's animation for Monty Python. Imagine what Gilliam could have done with computers!

Here's a link to a Huffington Post article with photos. You will see a photo of the tarot card reader to whom I paid $20. She read a three-card spread, then we chatted and she rubbed scented oil in my palm. It felt very decadent.

We want to go to San Francisco next year. That ball is an entire weekend, in a much larger venue. They actually had a bicycle-powered merry-go-round at that one, and many more vendors. But I think we'd like to come bank to this one again next year ask, and bring friends.

But a year is a long time to wait to dress up again. Maybe I should look into the Pickwick or Jane Austen societies. You know they've got to have parties, right?

Why I love the Big Bang

Much of "The Big Bang Theory" takes place around Sheldon and Leonard's  coffee table
eating a variety of Asian take-out. From left, computer whiz Howard, physicist Leonard,
community college dropout Penny, super-genius physicist Sheldon, and astrophysicist Raj.

I am hopelessly addicted to "The Big Bang Theory."

Uncharacteristically, I came very late to this nerd fest. The show debuted in 2007, when I was deep in grad school hell, going to classes at night and working all day. I didn't start watching until last year, and I've been catching up with the reruns on TBS ever since.

On the surface, it doesn't really sound like much of a premise: a bunch of egghead scientists living in Pasadena, working at a university, which although I don't think I've ever heard the name used, is obviously California Institute of Technology, and their bright, yet uneducated, neighbor, wannabe-actress Penny.

Penny is the perfect foil for these academically brilliant, yet socially inept quartet. There is a continuum of social awareness among them: Leonard could be cool, if he could tamp down his inner geek god; Howard is constantly on the make, convinced that women are attracted by his smarmy self-confidence; Raj is handsome and sweet and could easily get a girl if only he could talk to them without being drunk; and Leonard is so freakishly asexual that his girlfriend has to negotiate for hugs and kisses.

Mayim Bialik, as Dr. Amy Farrah-Fowler and Jim Parsons as
 Dr. Sheldon Cooper. Despite the body language,
they are an item.

The setup is somewhat reminiscent of the 1941 screwball comedy, Ball of Fire, with Barbara Stanwyck and Gary Cooper. Stanwyck is Sugarpuss O'Shea, a gangster's showgirl girlfriend who needs a place to hide and end up in a houseful of nerdy lexicographers, who are learning how "everyday people" talk for a new dictionary project. Cooper, a soft-spoken professor, falls head over heels for Sugarpuss. The professors learn how to relax and do the cha-cha along with modern slang, and she learns that being square isn't the worse thing in the world.

Sheldon doesn't understand sarcasm, that sometimes its better to not tell all the truth (or as Emily Dickinson would say, "tell it slant"), or any number of "social protocols." It's like he needs his own droid like C3PO to help him navigate the minefield of daily life. When Leonard has a girl in his room and puts a tie on his door handle, Leonard is smart enough to know its a sign, but has to ask Penny what it means. "You know, you went to college," Penny tells him. "Yes, but I was 11," is his retort. Penny then admits that she was usually on the other side of the tie.

Jim Parsons as Sheldon is the undisputed star of the show, which his two Emmys and multiple other awards attest to. He and former Blossom star Mayim Bialik, who plays his girlfriend Amy, are perfectly cast. Bialik plays a neurobiologist, which she is in real life, with a PhD from UCLA. Apparently she's also as badly dressed as Amy Farrah-Fowler in real life, since "What Not to Where" did a makeover on her. This moment, when Penny convinces Sheldon to buy Amy a gift to make up for his boorish behavior will go down in history as one of TV's greatest moments. The sparkle-deprived Amy dissolves into a girlish, yet totally Amy response.

This is how Big Bang nerds celebrate New Year's,
with a costume party at the comic book store.
You gotta love guys who like to dress up.

I'm not sure why I love the show so much. Part of it might be that I have known a considerable number of nerds. They may not be geniuses, but they do love comic books, superheroes, Star Trek, Star Wars, Stargate, and any other science fiction. One of the great things about nerds is that they actually like to dress up. There are lots of nerds in the Society For Creative Anachronism, and many of the local ones work at Edwards. Computer screens by day; swords and capes by night.

I used to go to an English country dance SCA gathering on Friday nights, but I never went without a conversation partner of my own. The dancing was loads of fun, but when we went out for pie afterward, the talk turned to Star Trek, and I wanted to flee.

The show was always good, but the addition of Amy and Howard's fiancee, Bernadette has made it even better. Penny has to deal with the social ineptness of females, this time, who are equally stunted but in a different way. Amy's desperation and crush on Penny, and Bernadette's slow transformation into Howard's stereotypical Jewish mother make for lots of comedic opportunity.

My favorite relationship is that of Sheldon and Penny. He is at times openly hostile and insulting to her, especially about her lack of education, but often needs her help and nurturing. Penny actually has love for him in a way you might for a hurt puppy, or an obstreperous two-year-old. When he asks her to sing the "Soft Kitty" song his mother sang to him, you melt, but the next minute he berates her for not getting the words right.

I hope that Big Bang does real-life nerds some good, showing them as fun, bright, funny, open-minded and  loyal, as well as smart. Penny is slowly learning that her handsome, hunky ex-boyfriends don't treat her as well as bookish, eager to please (in bed and out)  Leonard does. As someone said, one day all of us will be working for the guys with pocket protectors.

*******

Speaking of dressing up, my husband and I went to Daisy's Costumes on Lancaster Blvd. to get fitted for costumes for the Edwardian Ball on Feb. 19. The ball is put on by lovers of author and artist Edward Gorey. According to their website,  "the Edwardian Ball is an elegant and whimsical celebration of art, music, theatre, fashion, technology, circus, and the beloved creations of the late, great author Edward Gorey. Set in our own version of “Edwardian” times, this multi-media extravaganza has grown over the past decade from a small underground club night into an internationally recognized event, now operating with the blessing of The Edward Gorey Charitable Trust."


Jim is getting a long gunfighter's coat, an ascot and vest, and some kind of top hat. April Ray, Daisy's proprietor, is making me a dress with a corset on the outside. I already ordered a ray gun and goggles for us. The theme is The Iron Tonic, and I know there will scads of steampunks there. I can't wait, and will takes lots of pictures. Here is a video from last year's San Francisco ball.