Daily post 31 Oct 2006 09:29 am

NY Tricky Treat

- Coming up out of the subway, at 7am this morning, I was greeted by the specter of Halloween. An adult video store just at the mouth of the subway exit/entrance had a skeleton dressed in a natty tuxedo – the doorman to its own hell. (It looked highly varnished – I’m not sure if once a real person might have occupied those bones or if I was not awake enough to recognize that it was made of plastic.)

But then NY has become Halloween central these past dozen or so years. Now that I am situated in the West Village, I notice that it dominates the area for a few days. Streets have already been cordoned off with those blue wooden horses Police use. There’s going to be an extravagantly excessive parade marching all around this area tonight.

This parade of costume wearers used to be the provenance of the gay crowd in this arty neighborhood. It used to be more fun back then with its low-budget creativity designed to make you smile. Now, it feels as if the New Jersey crowd crosses over to participate. Lots of teens and young twenties, drinkers and parents come to make noise and crowd the streets in preparation for a party night. Somehow, it also seems to have lost its innocence. At least, there doesnt; seem to be as much laughing.

Regardless, the streets are set up for a lot of police to inhabit the neighborhood and a lot of people to come fill those streets at sundown. It’s funny, now, that this morning I’d thought the extra police in the subway were a sign that another terror alert had taken place. (It is a week before the election, and the Republicanistas do like scaring some of us.)

Silly me, it isn’t an Amber Alert; it’s orange and black.

Subscribe to the comments through RSS Feed

Leave a Reply

eXTReMe Tracker
click for free hit counter

hit counter