What To Do This HALLOWEEN

Philly loves a good party, and this isn’t news to anyone in the 215. But first — how about those champs?! Last night clearly wasn’t our favorite of more recent games, but we have some comin’ up this weekend and will be cheering in our seats! Go team!

Also, in lieu of a potential SEPTA strike, be sure to plan your weekend in carpools, bicycles and on foot. FYI: The regional rails will still be running, but will be packed and only accepting riders who purchased tickets in advance.

Thriller @ Society Hill Dance Academy Lauren tipped me off about learning to dance like the undead. There is a Thriller Dance Class happening in Philly tonight! “Join the folks at Society Hill Dance Academy to learn the infamous Thriller moves. Feel free to dress the part and get ready to break a sweat. Why? No one’s gonna save you from the beast about to strike. Friday at the Society Hill Dance Academy at 409 S. 2nd Street. Creep on over by 8:30pm.

Trick or Treat Sale You read the banner, kids! On Saturday there will be a giant sale: Everything in-store at Grasshopper Boutique on Walnut Street is on sale! But one day only– check their blog for updates.

Titan and The Fireflys Exhibit Emily G tipped me off about this exhibit and it really sounds boss. The Titan and The Fireflys is an awesome exhibit in Fishtown, by local artist Jason Hackenwerths, and it opens today. What makes me so excited? His main medium isn’t paint, paper or fiber…. it’s balloons! The giant 3-d sculptures are completely fascinating in the pictures– I’m dying to know what they look like in person! More details here.

Making Time Halloween Freakout Talk about the ultimate costume rager– when is the last time you went to Making Time and We got this email from R5 Productions reminding us all about their Halloween Part– err, “freakout.”

This costume rager seems to have ditched Transit for a new warehouse space (2424 Studios) and will be featuring Simian Mobile Disco, all you can drink. The Making Time DJ’s will be spinning and the Phillies game will be projected on a giant wall with full audio. The party starts at 9pm at 2424 E. York Street (Fishtown) and more details can be found here.

Trick Or Treat at the Kimmel Center This sounds adorable. Read more on Uwishunu.

FreshMeltWater Hallowe’en Teeshirt Launch Surely you’ve heard of FreshMeltWater before: They’re located in the NoLibs, make some pretty sweet tees you may have seen around town, and are totally in on a Halloween throwdown to launch their new tees! Details here.

Fright of Fancy Dance Party @ Fabric Horse Our favorite quirky NoLibs boutique is bringing it. And by it, we mean a party with music, boozin’ and a ton of bad-ass fanny packs. More details here.

Hand Turkey Crafts @ Tattooed Mom’s Usher in November at Tmom’s on South Street! The Sunday after Halloween is really only about relaxing, anyway. There will be a craft-up featuring a fav we all did in elementary school: hand turkeys! Have a beer and get crafty before the game.

Philly fall colors

Oh, one more thing: we’ve got a Philly girl in the semifinals of the Apartment Therapy Fall Colors contest. Right now her studio is a mere few votes behind some guy from L.A., whose West-Elm-colored stripes I am not a huge fan of, anyway. Click on the picture to see the two spaces and vote!

Inside your head

Skulls: usually, they remind me too much of my brief, shameful dalliance with Hot Topic in middle school for me to wear myself. But in honor of Halloween being tomorrow, we’ve rounded up some jewelry and accessories that would not be found on any faux-goth eighth-graders.

And if you’re talking about skulls, you gotta start with the obvious: Ring, Alexander McQueen, $250.

For the menz: Muerte oxfords, Esquivel, $898.80.

Skull rings, Dior.

Diamond earrings, Jude Frances, $4,800.

Scarf, Topshop, £10.00

Skeletal… cuff? Man, we don’t even know, but it’s kind of fantastic, Delfina Delettrez Fendi.

Sugar skull coin purses, mexicansugarskull.com, 12 for $66.

DJ Skullhead ring from Japanese line Hysteric Glamour.

OK, that’s all for today, gotta finish my costume and get the keg! Yay!

Spooky Scary

Yep, that's Heidi as Shiva. Courtesy of Seventeen.com

As we’ve discussed before, Heidi Klum LOVES dressing up for Halloween. Here are some of her costume ideas, as highlighted by Seventeen.  Sephora windows are highlighting looks for Halloween, but Bare Minerals is giving away treats today for every day looks when you spend $50.  Treats included are the hydrating mineral veil – (it that goes on after you apply your makeup to lock in moisture), primer, exfoliator called RareMinerals renew & reveal, cleanser, a moisturizer called RareMinerals purely nourishing that’s supposed to increase cell renewal as well as an additional moisturizer. Not to shabby, and zero calories, unlike many other treats available today.

If you’re like some of us at Philly Weekly and decided to wait until the last minute to figure out a costume, be sure to watch this Daily Candy video on costumes you can throw together including a Cereal Killer and a Kraft Singles cheese slice.  The Today Show also had costume ideas on this morning that can be pulled together last minute, including the Fanta girls.

Glamour has some do’s and don’ts for Halloween, including walking around like a stripper. Hmm. We tend to think that Halloween is the day when you can get away with almost anything but we guess there are still some rules.

And, if you’re having buyers remorse about your Halloween costume, don’t worry. At least you didn’t buy these $400 Louis Vuitton Bunny Ears that Rachel Zoe is in love with. Usually we like Rachel’s picks, even the high end ones, but $400 bucks for ears? Really?

The boob bail-out program

I’ve expressed my love for Coeur before, but I thought this sale idea was pretty cute. And I’m seriously in need of a new bra.

Coeur: 132 S 17th St.

Previously: How I learned to stop worrying and love the boob

Mad for Mad Men

Trends from Mad Men seem to be popping up all over. Marie Claire as well as Sammy Davis Vintage, a website run by Temple University grad Sammy Davis have caught on – have you? We’ve read that 1960’s designs like those from Mad Men emerge in times of economic struggle. Perhaps Mad Men isn’t just a look for Halloween. Hmm…

Lauren Conrad also has a look that seems to go back in time. Glamour asks – are you a fan of her newly bobbed and darkened locks? Glamour also asks if you keep it cute, sexy or full out skanky for Halloween.

Check out Rittenhouse Square’s website for info on their costume competition – skanky or not, they’d love to have you.

Tie or Die: Who Wore It Best?

Ladies and gentlemen: I’ve found a website that will change your lives. Or  your opinion on the term “business casual.” PWstyle has a serious blog crush, and it’s on the boys of Tie or Die: Who Wore It Best? Two local Mad Men, Jon Fruman and Ryan Brown of 160over90,  have half-windsor‘d their way into our hearts by way of a friendly office competition.

So, how did it all start? The boys told me “the contest itself was sparked by some facebook boasting about having enough ties to wear a different one every day for a month” and developed from there. With that, we were impressed—considering most young professional men barely have enough boxers to get through a week, let alone enough formal accessories to last a month.

The rules clearly state that a different tie must be worn each day for the month of October. When asked if some competitive shopping was sparred, I was pleasantly surprised that the duo already owned most of their neckwear! It turns out that they both previously worked for banks and, as a result, had sharp business casual wardrobes and already knew how to dress like classy you-know-what’ers.

PWstyle: Ryan, we are north of the Mason-Dixon line and easily an hour south-east of the only place in this state that would allow regular equestrian travel. Where the hell did you find a bolo-tie?! Can we have it?

Ryan: I inherited three bolo ties from my grandfather a few years back. Apparently, when you’re in your 80’s, it doesn’t matter if you were raised in Philadelphia – you can still get away with a bolo tie. (And he said we could have one.)

PWstyle: Are you both aware that many celebrities and politicians have tie lines– seriously!– including Rush Limbaugh? Would you wear any or do you think they are all totally lame?
Jon: Rush Limbaugh? No. Sean John? Maybe. R-Kelly? Absolutely.

PWstyle: If your favorite tie was a band, who would it be, and why?
Ryan: My favorite is a plaid fabric tie—pretty rockin’. Kind of reminds me of Daryl Hall.
Jon: My favorite is slick and dark; it’s got some soul. Very “John Oates,” if you ask me.

They seem very Wayne and Garth in their e-demeanor. A few weeks back the boys wore their Phillies garb and when asked about potential World Series ties, I was given a cryptic answer and an invite to join one of them at game four. They also both insist they pick their duds out solo for the competition (with no help from a girlfriend or mom).

“The Winner will be able to choose a full outfit of attire to be worn by The Loser on the day of The Winner’s choosing. And the Loser has to go tanning wearing only a tie and undies – so that every time he looks at himself naked in the mirror he may be reminded that he should have tried just a little bit harder.”

The last day to vote is this Friday!

Be sure to go to Tie or Die and let these kids know who wore it best.

Old City Gone Wild

That’s as of about 5:15 p.m. from Conrad, who apparently went to high school with our good friend Meg? Or something. Anyway, glad to hear your day in court also went well, buddy! Anyway!

We doubt that many among our blog readership are the type to Go Wild in that archetypical, late-night-commercial-on-Comedy-Central way, but we do figure that many of you would like to know this information for entertainment or avoidance purposes. So here:

We tracked down the locale, which would be the Buckhead Saloon, which advertises itself as “The only place in Philly that has a mechanical bull” and is on N 3rd St. between Callowhill and Spring Garden in that weird deserted area that fills up with everyone who played sports at my high school on Saturday nights.

On a related note: How strange would it be to be the, like, drunk-girl weatherman, trying to predict where the potentially topless girls of America will be drunkest tonight. Perhaps this means that the Girls Gone Wild production team thinks the Phillies are going to take Game 1?

At least, someone thinks that Philly girls are going to have above-average reason to scream WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!! tonight.

What Mean Girls taught me about Halloween

Karen: Why are you dressed so scary?
Cady: It’s Halloween!

Mean Girls is one of my favorite movies. There– I said it! Hilariously written and directed, it stars a then-teen ‘It Girl’ Lindsay Ho-Han (pre-public deterioration) and has amazing comedic supporting roles by Rachel McAdams (The Notebook, The Time-Traveler’s Wife), Lacey Chabert (Party of Five), Lizzy Caplan (Freaks and Geeks, True Blood), Amanda Seyfried (Mamma Mia), Neil Flynn (Scrubs), Amy Poehler (Upright Citizens Brigade, SNL) and– the one and only — Tina Fey.

Fey, who also wrote the script, touched on an amazingly accurate unwritten rule of “Girl World” about Halloween:  “In the real world, Halloween is a night when children dress up in costumes and beg for candy. In “Girl World”, Halloween is the one night a year when girls can dress like a total slut and no other girls can say anything about it. Unfortunately, no one told me about the slut rule.”

I’ll go ahead and say that in some ends of pop culture, this rule isn’t just for high school. Don’t believe me? Go to any state college campus or Old City this weekend. In honor of Emily G’s Unnecessarily Sexy Halloween Costume Roundup, I’ve decided to share a favorite scene. Enjoy:

Jay McCarroll’s Germania @ Spool

Designer and South Philly resident Jay McCarroll, who (as I’m sure he’s sick of hearing) you may remember from season one of Project Runway (in which he turned down the first-place prize of $100,000 because of a creepy clause that entitled the Weinstein company to a 10% interest in all his future ventures, forever), has been teaching at alma mater Philadelphia University and producing some pretty adorable retro-ish fabric prints.

Spool has his latest line of fabrics, Germania (if you look closely, a lot of the prints involve fuzzy little spherical monsters with two fangs and one googley eye, which I love), and they’re using them in their Stitch Party this Friday from 5-7.  FYI.

Spool: 1912 South St., open 11-6 Wed-Sun

P.S.: I have nothing interesting to report about jury duty, they let me out before lunch. I didn’t even get disqualified, they just didn’t need anybody in my 50-person group. Here’s one thing: you can buy ramen bowls, oatmeal, chicken noodle soup and Chef Boyardee Beefaroni at the jury-duty vending machine. The woman in charge of my group was very nice. That is all.