Good Weekend: Monster Hospital.

This weekend starts, on the last Friday of October, with Richard and a giant prawn; After heading out to buy a whole bunch of decor supplies, Anja and I return home to find Jared, Richard and the afore-mention giant prawn waiting for us at The Lister. We head up onto the roof and proceed to spend the next few hours hanging out, crafting decor & outfits for Monster Hospital the next night.

At some point, a huge mass of clouds blow in... ...we grab our cardboard creations, dash inside... ...and stare at the apocalyptic thunderstorm that starts falling across Johannesburg. By Saturday afternoon, the day of the party, the weather's still looking pretty rainy. It means we need to move indoors. It's a bit of a bummer, not to be having the show under the stars, but at least we have someplace to hang the crazy chandelier Anja and Jared created. MJ and Lizzy arrive and get straight to work making awesomeness for their Sangoma Republic photobooth.

The KRNGY kids pull into the parking lot with a boot-load of decor for their elevator. Kyle, Kathy, Olivia & Scott show up and start helping out with making things. Cam, Lindi, Silas & The Mirrors all join us and the next thing I know we're a small army of 20 people transforming Private Practice and The Lister elevators into something more awesome than I ever imagined Monster Hospital would be. Time flies by and next thing I know the soundchecks are over, the doors are open and deranged doctors, dead patients and blood-drenched nurses start streaming out onto the roof. Chinxxx arrives, plugs in her laptop and proceeds to provide the most perfect backdrop to the awesomeness that is Make Overs.

In the intermission Kaptien MJ starts shooting his Sangoma magic.

I dish out the best dressed prizes for the night's most excelent guy, girl and couple.

Franci gives the members of the ELM squad giant 3rd eyes.

Then I throw Seafox over my shoulders and we kick out our Mirror-jams! We have a frightfully fun time, then vacate the stage for The Vampire to make his live debut. The crowd response to this new incarnation of Vampire9000 playing it's first show is just awesome too see. He's unveiling a bunch of new material, and even the three songs from his Colours EP have changed drastically when moving from recordings to live entities. In spite of this, people are just going nuts, clapping along in time to his loops and generally loving being a part of the vampiric joy.

Nathan Scott Phillips takes over, just as the heavens break open. The people hanging on the roof, dash for cover. The Sangoma Republic relocates to a drier home.

One set of excellent later, NSP tags out and Marc Latilla tags in and continues tearing the dancefloor apart.

All too soon though, it's past our closing time of 2AM. Marc starts winding things down. I make a little sing to run through the visuals and break the sad news to everyone that The Monster Hospital is dead. And so endeth one of the best parties Ri and I have ever thrown together.