VIDEO: ABOUT LAST NIGHT...

By Loren Mayo
| 4:00 a.m. October 29, 2012

Arts + Culture

Avatars are supposed to be tall — nearly 10 feet in height.

Poor little Black Tie realizes she’s nowhere near even five feet, five inches, but painting myself blue was this year’s Halloween dream. So in between Friday night’s bridal shower for a long-time friend in Orlando and Saturday night’s Oceanic Evening and Safe Sex Halloween Bash, the crazy blue costume came to fruition.

To become an Avatar, one needs a brown or black wig and, if you don’t purchase an already braided wig, at least two hours of braiding time. (Braiding seriously takes forever!) To make the tail, a half-yard of blue felt and batting, and some blue tape or paint for the kitty-cat-like stripes. I went with a blue unitard, borrowed from Sarasota Ballet’s Kate Honea, and turquoise stilettos for the main part of the costume, then watched a YouTube tutorial to figure out how to paint my face with a makeup kit I bought from The Glass Slipper. It was recommended to me by Joannie Atkins, and if you haven’t yet watched the video of her transforming me into a glamorous “Two Face,” see it here: www.yourobserver.com/news/longboat-key/Front-Page/1024201222536/Area-artist-helps-people-become-two-faced.

I got as far as everything except the face and body paint before I headed to Mote Marine Aquarium’s Oceanic Evening event — I didn’t think The Ritz-Carlton, Sarasota was the right place to walk into looking like a crazy blue creature, and I surely didn’t want to embarrass myself in front of Mote’s founding Director Dr. Eugenie Clark and Dr. Kumar Mahadevan, Mote’s president. Afterward, I raced home, got into character and headed to Planned Parenthood’s Safe Sex Halloween Bash — “Deadtime Stories.”

As Black Tie Editor, I’ve become used to photographing designer evening gowns, tuxes, stilettos and purses at almost every event I attend. As far as HB, I expected some fired-up costumes, but my eyes literally almost popped out of their sockets when I ran into two sirens of the sea in the Michael’s On East Courtyard — Jennifer McAlister and Renee Phinney — and their Triton — Paul Davis. Their bodies were airbrushed in all shades ocean and McAlister and Phinney’s top halves were adorned in shiny crystal-like beads. WOW-ZA. The mermaids were a little too X-rated for us to post, but here’s Davis’ costume. You can check out the full photo gallery here: www.yourobserver.com/gallery.html.

Minutes later, the crowd flocked to the dance floor to form a circle. Black Diamond Burlesque’s Mademoiselle Rowdy Pants and Sarasota’s famed ballroom dancer Sid Pocius hit the dance floor for a sensual tango as Little Red Riding Hood and The Big Bad Wolf. See the two in action in the following video.