A brief overview of my halloween adventures from this past weekend. All of which were planned by the GF because she is a ginormous halloween super-freak.
Clubbing as Pirates
Ordinarily I'm not much for the Club scene. It's loud and usually smokey, but the GF introduced me to this little hole-in-the wall club downtown that is usually frequented by the goth crowd. But every now and again they do fun theme nights - such as this past thursday when they did "dress like a pirate pay no cover" night. It's fun there because these nights usually attract a bizarre cross-section of Chicago people. Some folks *really* go all out and dressed like they were extras from Pirates of the Carribbean, one guy went the ironic route and wore a bandolier of CD’s (presumably a “music pirate”). Then there was the preppy pirate from Lincoln park – button down shirt, sweater, khakis, and an eye patch. Not sure if they allowed that but maybe he had a wedding to go to later and so he had to go minimalist.
Trails of Terror
On Friday the adventures continued with a trip to a haunted trails-type thing set up in a park on the northwest side. Designed as a fund-raiser for the park they apparently recruit dozens of junior high kids, dress them as monsters and then groups of about 10-20 people go through one group at a time – being a spooked by said junior-high monsters. The GF and I, through a twist of fate, ended up being in line right behind the “guides” assigned to our group – with the rest of our group straggling behind us. Because we were so close to the front, none of the monsters attacked us because they all wanted to wait until the manority of the group arrived. So on multiple occasions we would watch as the monsters walked right past us on their way to scare the group. It was kind of hokey and fun through, if for nothing more than getting to watch 11 year old kids growling and being scary.
Costume Party
We also met up with some friends of the GF’s and went to a super-cool Halloween party at a local old mansion that is serving as artist loft space. Everyone was in costume, some more successful than others. For example:
For the most part however it was a party full of fun and smart people. How smart, you ask? Well the GF and I were dressed as super-cheezy tourists (Hawaiian shirts, adventure hats, sunscreen on noses, socks and sandals, and light-up American flag pins) but I had at least three people ask me if I was Hunter S. Thompson. And I got my ass grabbed by a pretty drunk and very gay man. He said he was sorry, but the GF totally picked up on it and said “No he wasn’t.” She didn’t seem jealous at all – so much for my visions of her defending my honor.
Dog Parade
Since the GF is a big fan of Halloween and a bigger fan of dogs, we went and watched a little doggy costume parade on Saturday. It was cute and fun. I was amazed that the dogs seemed to be perfectly content wearing costumes. I mean, they can’t find it natural to dress up as Elvis or a hot dog with mustard (both of which were present in the parade) can they? While we watched dog after dog pass buy, I thought the best costume for a dog would be to dress up as another breed. For example a Chihuahua dressed up as a bulldog would be funny and that maybe the dogs would enjoy it more, because they probably dream of being different breeds more than they do a caveman or a lion.
That’s only part of my Halloween adventures this weekend. We also went to see Nosferatu (with live organ accompaniment) and toured Graceland Cemetery (where all the famous people of early Chicago are buried – almost every headstone is also a street name in the city somewhere, or a character in Devil and the White City). Both of which were totally fun but this post is already too long and I’ve got other stuff to do today.
Clubbing as Pirates
Ordinarily I'm not much for the Club scene. It's loud and usually smokey, but the GF introduced me to this little hole-in-the wall club downtown that is usually frequented by the goth crowd. But every now and again they do fun theme nights - such as this past thursday when they did "dress like a pirate pay no cover" night. It's fun there because these nights usually attract a bizarre cross-section of Chicago people. Some folks *really* go all out and dressed like they were extras from Pirates of the Carribbean, one guy went the ironic route and wore a bandolier of CD’s (presumably a “music pirate”). Then there was the preppy pirate from Lincoln park – button down shirt, sweater, khakis, and an eye patch. Not sure if they allowed that but maybe he had a wedding to go to later and so he had to go minimalist.
Trails of Terror
On Friday the adventures continued with a trip to a haunted trails-type thing set up in a park on the northwest side. Designed as a fund-raiser for the park they apparently recruit dozens of junior high kids, dress them as monsters and then groups of about 10-20 people go through one group at a time – being a spooked by said junior-high monsters. The GF and I, through a twist of fate, ended up being in line right behind the “guides” assigned to our group – with the rest of our group straggling behind us. Because we were so close to the front, none of the monsters attacked us because they all wanted to wait until the manority of the group arrived. So on multiple occasions we would watch as the monsters walked right past us on their way to scare the group. It was kind of hokey and fun through, if for nothing more than getting to watch 11 year old kids growling and being scary.
Costume Party
We also met up with some friends of the GF’s and went to a super-cool Halloween party at a local old mansion that is serving as artist loft space. Everyone was in costume, some more successful than others. For example:
Overheard at said party:
Girl (as Smurfette): "That's a neat costume - what are you supposed to be?"
Guy (as...well...who knows?): "I dunno, an Alien?"
For the most part however it was a party full of fun and smart people. How smart, you ask? Well the GF and I were dressed as super-cheezy tourists (Hawaiian shirts, adventure hats, sunscreen on noses, socks and sandals, and light-up American flag pins) but I had at least three people ask me if I was Hunter S. Thompson. And I got my ass grabbed by a pretty drunk and very gay man. He said he was sorry, but the GF totally picked up on it and said “No he wasn’t.” She didn’t seem jealous at all – so much for my visions of her defending my honor.
Dog Parade
Since the GF is a big fan of Halloween and a bigger fan of dogs, we went and watched a little doggy costume parade on Saturday. It was cute and fun. I was amazed that the dogs seemed to be perfectly content wearing costumes. I mean, they can’t find it natural to dress up as Elvis or a hot dog with mustard (both of which were present in the parade) can they? While we watched dog after dog pass buy, I thought the best costume for a dog would be to dress up as another breed. For example a Chihuahua dressed up as a bulldog would be funny and that maybe the dogs would enjoy it more, because they probably dream of being different breeds more than they do a caveman or a lion.
That’s only part of my Halloween adventures this weekend. We also went to see Nosferatu (with live organ accompaniment) and toured Graceland Cemetery (where all the famous people of early Chicago are buried – almost every headstone is also a street name in the city somewhere, or a character in Devil and the White City). Both of which were totally fun but this post is already too long and I’ve got other stuff to do today.
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