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orange and black
Oct. 24th, 2009 03:36 pm...I am actually not a big Halloween person.
Let me clarify.
I have a thing for skulls. Probably a third of my clothes have skulls on them, and this LJ icon is in fact something I think of as personally representative. My love of Oingo Boingo and Day of the Dead are well known, and I collect calaveras. I have a thing for happy bouncy death. I like the contrast. I like the happy bouncy stuff but it needs a counterweight, a darkness and an anger to it without which it flies away into Pokemon happyland.
So you'd think I'd be really into Halloween.
Similarly, my colors are orange and black, purple and lime green, red. I love things that glow in the dark. I like dressing up in ridiculous outfits, and elaborate makeup. I like big boots and flouncy skirts and strange hair. I like dressing up to go out.
Hell, my room is decorated with "Halloween" lights - strands of blacklight purple and bright orange, and a garland of lights shaped like eyeballs.
The truth is, I love Halloween *stuff* - decorations, Jack o Lanterns, stripey socks and witch hats and all that - but I'm not super fond of the actual holiday itself.
Like New Year's, Halloween is a big holiday for expectations. I want to be doing something intense and magical and fun and strange, and it's hard for anything to live up to that. This is not to denigrate any plans I have or have had, just that this desire born of a thousand bad movies makes it really hard to just enjoy stuff without wishing it was all more ...cinematic. This isn't even to say I haven't had a few of those amazing and cinematic nights, just that they're *really* hard to plan in advance. Cinematic usually has to sneak up on you at least a little bit; trying too hard is a quick way to ruin it.
The other thing that's hard for me is the whole costume angle. I love dressing up in ridiculous outfits, but they're very rarely "a costume." Halloween usually requires that you are "a thing" - a cowboy, a ghost, a cop, a pirate. I have a lot of clothes and a lot of them are strange going out sorts of clothes, but hardly any of them fit nicely into a single noun explanation. I'm not a cowboy or a ghost; I'm a me who wanted to look fabulous while still being comfortable, and blend in ok at that club night or that festival or that convention or that party.
A friend posted to Twitter last night: "Welcome to San Francisco! You will need: a dirndl, a Santa costume, a pirate costume, a steampunk costume, a clown costume, a hobo costume.." While he was kinda joking, he was also not wrong. The SF freak scene has a lot of events to which costumes are appropriate if not necessary. I think I might find next Halloween less frustrating if I spend the year collecting a fairly high quality set of four or five costumes. Fox and I had been kinda talking about needing to start costume trunks already, but like many things that has been on hold as we've been sorting through our things and organizing our house, and getting our finances back in order after my summer of unemployment.
On a purely practical level, Halloween is frustrating because there are so many fun-sounding things happening at the same time and it's hard to pick. It's hard to know which event is going to be the best for what you're wanting at the time, and hard to get a sizable number of friends to pick the same event. This year there are at least three things I can think of that I really want to go to, another couple that I'd definitely enjoy but don't make first tier, one thing that a ton of my friends are doing but I'm pretty sure I'm not up for, and a couple of things I think I've heard about that sound awesome but I haven't seen concrete details.
For some reason, I am feeling a lot more "bah, humbug" about it this year. I'm having a hard time coming up with a costume idea that I'm excited about, and I really hate going to costume events without being in costume. Wearing a meh assemblage of stuff out of my closet isn't really appealing, but I don't want to go buy a ton of stuff either. I'm sure I'll figure something out, but I'm feeling a little dispirited about it at the moment.
What about you? What are you doing for Halloween this year? Costumes? Events? What are your thoughts on the holiday?
Let me clarify.
I have a thing for skulls. Probably a third of my clothes have skulls on them, and this LJ icon is in fact something I think of as personally representative. My love of Oingo Boingo and Day of the Dead are well known, and I collect calaveras. I have a thing for happy bouncy death. I like the contrast. I like the happy bouncy stuff but it needs a counterweight, a darkness and an anger to it without which it flies away into Pokemon happyland.
So you'd think I'd be really into Halloween.
Similarly, my colors are orange and black, purple and lime green, red. I love things that glow in the dark. I like dressing up in ridiculous outfits, and elaborate makeup. I like big boots and flouncy skirts and strange hair. I like dressing up to go out.
Hell, my room is decorated with "Halloween" lights - strands of blacklight purple and bright orange, and a garland of lights shaped like eyeballs.
The truth is, I love Halloween *stuff* - decorations, Jack o Lanterns, stripey socks and witch hats and all that - but I'm not super fond of the actual holiday itself.
Like New Year's, Halloween is a big holiday for expectations. I want to be doing something intense and magical and fun and strange, and it's hard for anything to live up to that. This is not to denigrate any plans I have or have had, just that this desire born of a thousand bad movies makes it really hard to just enjoy stuff without wishing it was all more ...cinematic. This isn't even to say I haven't had a few of those amazing and cinematic nights, just that they're *really* hard to plan in advance. Cinematic usually has to sneak up on you at least a little bit; trying too hard is a quick way to ruin it.
The other thing that's hard for me is the whole costume angle. I love dressing up in ridiculous outfits, but they're very rarely "a costume." Halloween usually requires that you are "a thing" - a cowboy, a ghost, a cop, a pirate. I have a lot of clothes and a lot of them are strange going out sorts of clothes, but hardly any of them fit nicely into a single noun explanation. I'm not a cowboy or a ghost; I'm a me who wanted to look fabulous while still being comfortable, and blend in ok at that club night or that festival or that convention or that party.
A friend posted to Twitter last night: "Welcome to San Francisco! You will need: a dirndl, a Santa costume, a pirate costume, a steampunk costume, a clown costume, a hobo costume.." While he was kinda joking, he was also not wrong. The SF freak scene has a lot of events to which costumes are appropriate if not necessary. I think I might find next Halloween less frustrating if I spend the year collecting a fairly high quality set of four or five costumes. Fox and I had been kinda talking about needing to start costume trunks already, but like many things that has been on hold as we've been sorting through our things and organizing our house, and getting our finances back in order after my summer of unemployment.
On a purely practical level, Halloween is frustrating because there are so many fun-sounding things happening at the same time and it's hard to pick. It's hard to know which event is going to be the best for what you're wanting at the time, and hard to get a sizable number of friends to pick the same event. This year there are at least three things I can think of that I really want to go to, another couple that I'd definitely enjoy but don't make first tier, one thing that a ton of my friends are doing but I'm pretty sure I'm not up for, and a couple of things I think I've heard about that sound awesome but I haven't seen concrete details.
For some reason, I am feeling a lot more "bah, humbug" about it this year. I'm having a hard time coming up with a costume idea that I'm excited about, and I really hate going to costume events without being in costume. Wearing a meh assemblage of stuff out of my closet isn't really appealing, but I don't want to go buy a ton of stuff either. I'm sure I'll figure something out, but I'm feeling a little dispirited about it at the moment.
What about you? What are you doing for Halloween this year? Costumes? Events? What are your thoughts on the holiday?
