GALVESTON ISLAND WITCHES' BALL'15

It's that time of year again! Tickets for the Galveston Island Witches' Ball are now on sale!!!

This will be our sixth year and we are proud of the contributions we have made to the Galveston Island Humane Society for the past five years on behalf of all the attendees of the Witches' Ball. As the success of the Ball grows, so does our desire to try and make a difference towards other worthy causes on our beautiful island. The possibility to fund other philanthropic efforts has been a challenging one, but after careful consideration our decision has been made to broaden our giving efforts instead of just focusing on one.

This year we will split the net proceeds between the Galveston Island Humane Society and Artist Boat. We all know the tremendous efforts that GIHS does for the welfare of stray, lost and homeless animals and it's something our community supports and we appreciate more than words can say. However, you may not know about Artist Boat and it's mission. In a nutshell it's about protecting and restoring our coastal heritage, but you can read more at their website!

Now, onto the Ball! Last year was definitely the best year of all! We allowed access to the library, Two Star Symphony opened the show, we expanded the dance floor, we added video and the music selection was phenomenal! We loved the dark victorian cabaret theme from last year so much that we want to bring some of that back this year!

Have you all been watching Showtime's Penny Dreadful? We have and it's really good! It's everything we imagine the Ball to be...Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Vampires, Witches, Werewolves...all set in a Victorian theme!

As always we want you to be whatever you want to be at the Ball! Isn't that the best part about Halloween? But, if you feel so inclined, follow the theme! If you haven't attended the Galveston Island Witches' Ball in the past all of your questions can be answered by reading our Frequently Asked Questions!

This event has sold out for the past five years, so get your tickets soon!

We're so excited about this year and we hope you are, too! Let's PARTY!!!!!

I'M BACK!!!

Do people still read blogs? I guess so. Recently, several new customers have come into the shop and mentioned that they read my blog and enjoyed it. It's been almost four years since I've written one! I suppose it's time!

My last entry was about the first Galveston Island Witches' Ball and we just started selling tickets last week for the 5th annual Witches' Ball. My, how times have changed! If you read the previous post you can see that we held the first Ball in 2010 in the loft above The Witchery for 100 guests. Since then we moved it to the Ballroom at the Scottish Rite Cathedral just around the corner from the shop. The Cathedral was built in 1929 and the Grand Ballroom is the perfect place for our event.

In 2011 we doubled the ticket sales to 200 and hired HVK Studios out of Austin, Texas to transform the space into a themed nightclub for the evening. Mike Jordan and his crew built these huge monoliths out of PVC, chicken-wire and foam to create a "Stonehenge" dance floor (which we called Foamhenge!) It was absolutely incredible!

Even with 200 guests there was still plenty of room for more, so in 2012 we increased the tickets sales to 300! This was the magic number. We ran with the Mayan theme that year, with there being so much hype in the media about the end of the world and all, and HVK Studios built stone blocks out of cardboard and plaster and painted Mayan hieroglyphs on them to hide the trusses. Though we set a theme each year for the event we don't expect our guests to dress accordingly, but some do...

To me, Halloween is that one time a year when you can be whatever you want to be, whether it's a super hero, a favorite movie character, villain, monster or a witch (it is the Witches' Ball after all) and we don't want the theme of the event to limit your costume choices! We also added a photo booth which was a big hit! Every guest was able to take a photo in front of a green screen and we superimposed an appropriate backdrop to the photo that they were able to take home!

In 2013 the theme was Angels and Demons. By then we had developed a good working model for the Ball and everything went off like clockwork. We hired a great staff that kept the place clean, the food was rotated out so it was always fresh and hot and our amazing bartenders kept the drinks flowing!

So here we are looking forward to the Galveston Island Witches' Ball '14 and we have to out-do the last four years! We will start the event off with my new favorite group of musicians, Two Star Symphony, a beautifully dark string quartet.

Inspired by Madame Talbot's new posters (which we sell at the shop) of two Victorian Cabarets in Paris...

and...

We decided to use them as the theme for this year's Witches' Ball! L'Enfer was a "Hell" themed cafe where you might be greeted by the Devil.

The Cabaret du Neant was inspired by Death with coffin shaped tables...

...and waiters dressed as undertakers!

Where are the clubs like this today? I, for one, would certainly be there for a drink or two! Well, not to worry. We are going to do our best to recreate the sights and sounds of Victorian Macabre! We hope you will choose to join us and remember that all the profits will be donated to the Galveston Island Humane Society. If you have any questions about the Witches' Ball you'll find the answers here!

THE WITCHES' BALL

Yesterday we presented a check to the Galveston Island Humane Society for $3000. That might not seem like a lot of money to some people, but it’s more than we could ever give on our own. In fact it took a whole community of friends to make this happen.

It started with a conversation between Kimberley and I one day towards the end of August. Our idea was to have a fundraiser that would serve to raise money for a good cause, promote the shop and have a fun event for our customers and the community. The obvious choice for The Witchery was to host a Witches’ Ball! Kim and I had decided a while back to narrow down our list of benefactors to animals and children (The latter probably from guilt associated with not having any). We decided to give to the Galveston Island Humane Society.

Location! Our loft above the shop was empty, but only about half done. The first thing we needed was electricity. I called my good friend and master electrician Chris who agreed to moonlight with some help from me. It took us about a week of working after hours to get it all done.

The kitchen cabinets had come with the purchase of the building they just hadn’t been installed. Another call to my friend and master carpenter, Andras, and we got the kitchen up in two days!

We would also need running water and a working toilet. Another favor from another good friend, Ray Flores, who just happens to be the best plumber in Galveston and we were in business!

Music! I paid a visit to Bubba at Island Music. “The Humane Society?” he said, “that’s where I got my dog! No problem!” He would donate the use of a pro sound system.

DJ! There was only one choice. Brandon Ragan had put together a mix for our neighborhood Halloween party the year before and everyone loved it. I called him up and he agreed to mix all night.

Food! We needed food. I asked my friend Steve Rennick from Mosquito Café if he could make some of his famous Crostinis for the party. “You can’t just serve crostinis,” he told me, “we’ll put together something special for you.”

Drinks! I went to Spec’s liquor and spoke with the manager about the possibility of them donating a portion or giving us a discount. All I needed to do was send an email to this person and I would get a response 30 days before the event. I never heard back. Something told me to keep it local so I went to Economy Liquor and talked to Seth. He calculated just the right amount of liquor to purchase for the event and threw in a keg of beer for free!

Advertising! I called the Parrot, everyone’s favorite newspaper. I asked Trey if he’d be willing to donate an ad for the Ball. “Of course we will!” How big of an ad can I have? “A full page!” he said. Wow!

I called The Islander magazine next. “Trey at the Parrot’s giving us a full page for free. Can you do something for us as well?” Done!

The ad would have to be really cool, so I called Will Wright from willthing, llc. The same Will that created our website. He didn’t even hesitate…“No problem, Clyde. Let me put something together for you.” Everyone loved it so much they wanted to buy the posters we put in the windows around town.

Tickets! I threw together a mockup of a ticket and took it over to Speedy’s Printing. I told Frank we were doing it for the Humane Society and he printed the tickets for free!

The only thing left was to sell the tickets. That wasn’t a problem at all. The first day tickets went on sale people were waiting for the store to open and within two weeks we were sold out! Our magickal community of friends and customers came together to celebrate Samhain (Halloween) and contribute to a great cause!

At the last minute our new friend Stephanie Vera agreed to perform a contortion show as a special surprise performance and what a show it was! Amazing!

I needed a uniformed police officer at the door and my Masonic Brother, Glen Mulvaney, offered his services at no charge.

We all had a fantastic time! The costumes were incredible, the food was delicious, the music had everyone dancing and our great bar staff kept the drinks flowing!

So you see? This little island has a lot of cool and caring people. Our shop has the best customers and I am blessed to have the most giving and loyal friends anyone could ever ask for and we all did it together!

I can’t wait until next year!

(To see the entire photo album courtesy of Bobby Weiss see The Witchery's facebook page)

BORN, LIVE, DEATH, REBIRTH!

As the end of our first year in business arrives I have been reflecting on the long road with the many twists and turns it took to get here.

When we first started looking for a location we thought we might want it to be in an old house. I imagined an old witch's cottage with a maze of rooms dividing the different sections of the shop.

If you know Galveston you might remember the old Jewels & Junque shop on Broadway. I thought the location was perfect and the price was surely right. I just didn't know what kind of shape it was in because it was stuffed from floor to ceiling with (yes...you guessed it) junk. I contracted to do the clean-up before the purchase so we could do a proper inspection. It took nine 40 yard dumpsters to empty the house and we didn't find one "jewel" except the house itself which we began to restore right away.

As the project was nearing completion we inherited some money and began to think about moving the location downtown. This coincided with an offer on the house, so we took the money and ran...only to find out that there was practically nothing for sale to fit our needs. The only thing left to do was lease a space and (wow!) downtown is NOT cheap! Unless you go a little off the beaten path and then the price drops in half!

And you might have to do a little work. At least that's the line I sold to my wife (again). "We can fix it!" It just takes money. And did we spend some money!

Four to five months later we had rehabbed someone else's building! We actually opened the shop July 1, 2008 and business was great! "Finally," everyone was saying, "a real new age shop in Galveston!" We spared no expense. The place was 3200 square feet of metaphysical madness! We exhausted every vendor we could find to fill the shelves of this enormous space.

Shortly after opening, the owner of the building moved tenants upstairs with disastrous results. There was no insulation and you could hear everything going on including children running, loud music and finally their dogs were urinating and it ran through the floor boards into our shop! I was at my wits end and offered to buy the building, but was denied. All I wanted was to have control of my environment. And then about ten weeks into it a Hurricane was forming in the Gulf. It had been a busy storm season and I had already cut the plywood to fit the windows and filled over two hundred sand bags stored behind the building. We went through the routine of boarding up and stacking the sand bags in case we had a little high water. No one ever predicted what happened.

Over 100 mph winds and eight feet of water had it's way with us and destroyed all of our hard work!

It took 24 hours for the water to recede and when I was finally able to make it to the shop this is what I found. Utter chaos!

Everything was covered with muck and it smelled horrendous! The only thing to do was start cleaning up. Which we did with the help of some good friends.

As the people of Galveston started to assess the damage from Hurricane Ike many decided not to rebuild and suddenly a handful of desirable buildings were for sale. I had asked my friend Maureen a couple of years before the storm, if she ever wanted to sell her building, to call me and she finally did. I actually entered into contract on three buildings downtown before deciding on Maureen's which happened to be the old Central Drug Store. The size was right, the price was right, and all we needed to do was a little work. At least that's the line I sold to my wife (again). "We can fix it!" But this time it was the perfect location and it was ours!

Well, you know the rest of the story. We opened again at our new location August 22, 2009, and we've had an amazing year! You know what they say, "Be careful what you wish for...you just might get it!" We got it, but the Universe made us work for it!

DINE OR DASH?

People come into The Witchery everyday looking for the Galveston Ghost Tour. We always pass along the info they need to find Dash Beardsley's original Strand Ghost Tour. It's rated the number one ghost tour in Texas and the number two ghost tour in the country.

One day I got a phone call from none other than Dash thanking me for sending business his way. Of course I was happy to do it. He told me he was creating a Secret Societies Cemetery Tour and as the historian for the local Masons I cleared up a couple of questions for him. I invited him to stop by and introduce himself next time he was downtown which he did soon after. I knew it was him as he walked in the door because of his trademark and unmistakeable appearance. We hit it off right away and he invited Kimberley and I to be his guest on the ghost tour.

Last Saturday, July 17, I asked Kim if she wanted to skip dinner and take the tour after work. I called Dash and he said the offer was still good. We closed the shop at 7 and rushed to make the 7:30 start time. We arrived just as he began his introduction.

It was still sunny out for 7:30 PM and there was a group of about 50 people. Right from the start the crowd was entertained as Dash asked individuals where they were from and to share ghost stories from their area. After hearing a few stories and a shout-out to The Witchery the tour began on the steps of Moody Plaza with a history of the island starting with the Karankawa indians.

He talked of pirates and fires and when the story led to the 1900 storm as if on cue the clouds darkened and a wind stirred up. As he raised his voice and intensity so did the clouds and the wind. It seemed that all the souls that perished in Isaac's storm suddenly arrived en masse.

As the gusts of wind whipped at Dash's trench coat and the crowd shielded their eyes from the blowing debris I was thinking to myself he couldn't have timed his performance more perfectly. As the story of the 1900 Storm ended so did the threat of rain and Dash led us down the Strand stopping periodically along the way to tell us a little history and a ghost tale tied to a particular building.

If I had to think of anything negative to say about the tour it would have to be that it was long. Over two hours! But, to Dash's credit, he kept us and the rest of the group entertained all the way to the end. No matter how much you think you know about the island you'll learn something on this tour! Kimberley and I had a great time that night and I recommend it to tourists and locals alike.

GHOSTS AT THE GALVEZ

It was late in the afternoon on Friday, July 2, when the phone rang at the shop. The voice of the young lady on the other end informed me she was the concierge for the Historic Hotel Galvez. She began to relay a story to me that, as a Galveston Island resident, I was somewhat familiar with.

The story goes something like this...a young lady checked into room 500 waiting for her fiance to return from sea when she found out that his ship was lost. Overcome with grief she hung herself in one of the turrets. Unbeknownst to her he had survived and returned to discover the tragedy whereupon he also committed suicide. Now the two souls are trapped in the Hotel Galvez and there are many accounts of haunting by staff and guests.

It seems there was a guest at the hotel who knew of the story and wanted to have the couple's relationship spiritually "blessed" on the 4th of July. The concierge was trying to find someone who understood the situation and could provide the needed "service." I would have loved to do this myself, but I had big plans for Independence Day, so I called our most popular psychic, Sharon Michelle Davis. She agreed to help out.

Reporting back, Sharon said the hotel staff served as witnesses to the ceremony in room 500, which had been set up as a bridal suite complete with champagne and scattered rose petals. Well, the next day, as Sharon was preparing to get a massage, her and her masseuse had a strange experience involving two "lights."

To hear Sharon's full account come to the next meeting of Galveston Ghost Hunters at The Witchery, Sunday, July 18, at 6pm.

TO BLOG OR NOT TO BLOG:

That is the question…our web designer set us up with this blog page incorporated into our website. I didn’t request it, but it is here so I assume I am expected to use it. I have struggled with the idea of what the content should be and how it will affect the shop. I certainly need to avoid politics. I am told I can turn on or off the “comments” option. I like the idea of hearing feedback, but certainly want to be able to control the “voice of opposition.”

I’m guessing as I move forward I’ll find my way and hopefully it will become another tool to provide you “the customer” with the best experience that I “the proprietor” can provide. Let’s do this!