Our Halloween Costume: Banksy and the Red Balloon Girl

At Penske Media Corp., Halloween is a big deal. The company's annual Halloween party, held downtown at the Edison, is perhaps its largest event of the year. And it's strongly suggested you show up in costume. Last year, Maria and I attended as the PricewaterhouseCooper accountants who screwed up the Oscars. This year, continuing with the "ripped from the headlines" idea, we went as the infamous shredded Banksy artwork. I was Banksy, along with a few fake shredded paintings, and Maria was the girl with the red balloon. Happy Halloween! 

Scary Clowns! Spongebob! Tiny Gnomes! Scenes from this Year's Atwater Village Trick-or-Treats on the BOOlevard

It's the kiddie version of West Hollywood's massive Halloween festival. But in this case, it's in Atwater Village, and the goal is simple: To grab as much candy from businesses up and down the sidewalk as possible. The annual Atwater Village Trick-or-Treat on the BOOlevard attracted massive crowds of tykes and their parents on Thursday as a bit of a dry run for tonight's official tricks and treats. And some of the costumes were pretty amazing. Here are a few highlights:


Spongebob Squarepants


Vitruvius, from "The Lego Movie"


CLOWNS ARE SCARY


Even Mini Obama stopped by.


Star Wars: Atwater


Yeah, this guy is the stuff of nightmares.


That's one pooped gnome.


The Flash gets some goodies.


One business, the new Great Escape Club, created a haunted house for kids.


Some of the neighborhood Atwater Village businesses went all out in handing candy.

Scenes From KCRW's Masquerade Party

Maria and I dropped by the historic Park Plaza near MacArthur Park on Saturday night for KCRW's annual Halloween-themed Masquerade bash. The freaks were out -- and that's a good thing. Cool, clever and creepy costumes could be found everywhere, while we roamed the halls from ballroom to ballroom to check out DJ sets, live bands and acrobatics.


Plenty of photo ops could be found throughout the Park Plaza, including this Marquis de Sade-esque scene.



Creepiest mask ever? This baby costume (sorry, blurry pic was the best I could do) is now in my nightmares.


The Park Plaza lobby served as the grand central gathering spot as people dashed from room to room.


Above, Hollie Cook performs live. Later, Maria and I took a break to watch Tom Vek perform live. His set impressed.


In one of the rooms, as the music blared, I encountered the Photobombing Panda.


So Maria and I didn't go overboard with our costumes. I was a spider...man (a man with a massive spider attached to him) and Maria was a cat... woman (a woman with cat ears).