Halloween and Dia De Los Muertos Weekend 2008 in LA

Hi Folks,

It's November 2nd, the Day After The Day of the Dead,

and what I used to consider and the year's High Holy Day

of Halloween.

I thought I'd post a few short and quirky videos I made

this weekend, both to share and to continually learn how

to use this new medium. I hope you can forgive the 'Cinema

Verite' handheld nature of some of these videos. I guess this

little camera has no stabilizer!

The first is of my co-worker Dan Lazarow. Dan is simply

a really, great guy. I loved this costume he picked for the

day at work, and he was kind enough to let me take a quick

video of him. Apparently his whole family dressed up

this way for Halloween:

It was really nice of him to let me post him

here. Isn't that wig really something? :0)

Then on Saturday my friends Dr. Dave, Andy and Saba

and I went and attended the annual Day of the Dead

celebration, Dia De Los Muertos,

at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery.

On November 1st however, it turns into one of

the biggest Day of the Dead celebrations I've ever

been too. Their web site for the celebration is

here, and worth a look.

The basic idea behind the celebration is that

people can spend one night a year with family

and friends who have passed away. That Halloween

and Nov 1st is when the veil between  the world of

the living and the dead is the most easy to crossover.

So elaborate alters are made by families and friends

to honor the person who has passed away, and food,

lights and flowers are set out to tempt the loved one

back for a night with the living.

Here's a few of the videos I took that night of

the celebrations. The first are some of the alters:

This one had a Pirates theme with little skeleton

sculptures.

Many of the alters are very beautiful, with elaborate

lighting, and decoration, honoring either family

and friends that have passed away, or groups of people,

like Iraq and Afghanistan War Veterans. Here's one with

beautiful lights, notice the face makeup of the women

tending the alter:

Or this one for people who were organ donors:

One of the big centers that night is the mausoleum,

where they had these wonderful 2 story sculptures

just outside the doors, and an art show inside:

They also have stages set up for entertainment,

actually about 4 stages altogether, here's one

of the largest. The MC is polling the political

climate of the audience, what a surprise their

reaction!

And some of the costumes can be a little elaborate.

Hopefully you can see this guys headdress,  even in

the low light:

And they also have some wonderful dancing, singing,

and performances from all over the Americas. For

instance, here's some very sweet dancing between

a couple:

Here's a snippet of a big mariachi band on a stage in a lake

in front of another large crypt:

And finally my personal favorite, because I liked the

music so much:

While going through this evening I often thought

of my friend Laura who runs a bed and breakfast

in Mexico called Casa Del Encanto. I wished I'd

been able to share this experience with her. I'm

sure she could have regaled me in marvelous stories

of Dia De Los Muertos in Mexico itself!

Well, I may have inundated you with a little too much

video here. But, as you can tell, I kind of like the idea

of this little camera, and it's handy-dandy-bloggable

qualities. I just hope I retain my audience in a month! :0)

With all my love,

Bob