Oct 31

Oct 31 It's Halloween

Donald Trump, New York City, Performances, Protest, Public Declarations, Signs and Posters, The Age of Trump

“It’s Halloween, it’s Halloween
It’s time for scares, it’s time for screams
It’s Halloween, it’s Halloween

The ghosts will spook, the spooks will scare
Why, even Dracula will be there
It’s time for games, it’s time for fun
Not for just one, but for everyone”

— It’s Halloween (the Shaggs)

It’s Halloween by the Shaggs from the Philosophy of the World (1969)

As regular readers know, I love spectacle, be it a circus, a fireworks display, a magic show, a carnival, a convention, a demonstration, a march, or a parade. One of my favorites is New York City’s Annual Village Halloween Parade. First held in 1973, the parade was the brainchild of puppeteer Ralph Lee, who staged a neighborhood walk for kids. During the ensuing 52 years, it has grown into the largest Halloween parade in the world. In addition to over 50 bands, puppet brigades, and floats, somewhere between 50,000 to 60,000 individuals don costumes for the 25-block procession up Sixth Avenue to 15th Street. Procession suggests orderly elegance, but in reality, the parade is organized chaos.

I attended my first parade in 2009 as the culminating event in a three-day photography workshop. What I remember most is the torrential downpour. I was soaking wet, as was everyone else. I assumed I would need to replace my camera, but somehow both it and I survived the two-hour storm. Absolutely a blast.

I decided to return in 2021, and have photographed the parade each year since. I typically arrive in NYC a few days early so that I can photograph the Halloween decorations throughout the city. I am always amazed by the effort and the expense that the West Village residents expend on decking out their homes. This year, as I was photographing, a lady was in front of her brownstone directing an electrician as he gave life to the spirits haunting her patio area.

[Click on an Image to Enlarge It. The Images Are Not Necessarily in Exact Chronological Order]

**A Halloween Salute to the Great Books (Scylla and Charybdis from Homer’s *The Odyssey*)**

**A Canadian Mountie Rushing Inside to Escape the Ghoul at the Foot of the Stairs**

**Played Forward with the Knicks Before His Demise**

**The Hip Dead Goddess Offering the Hug of Death**

**Giving Me Those Carol Channing *Hello Dolly* Eyes**

**An Apparition Peering Out the Window**

**Swingin' While Waiting for Death to Claim Her**

**The Bride of Frankenstein Making Her Appearance**

**Jesus Delivering Cotton Candy on Halloween**

The parade steps off at 7:00 PM, but for me, the spectacle begins at Noon, when I have my pre-parade lunch before stopping at the HERE Theater (Dominick Street and Sixth Avenue) to pick up my media credential. The puppets line the Dominick Street, waiting for their masters to arrive later in the day.

I then head back to my hotel (Nomo Soho), where I pack my camera bag and then try to grab a quick power nap—I never succeed in dozing off because I am too excited. At 4:30 PM, I head back to Dominick Street and Sixth Avenue, where the floats, bands, and parade participants are beginning to assemble on the side streets. Around 6:30 PM, I walk north on Sixth Avenue.

In prior years, I stationed myself at 6th Avenue and 4th Street, where basketball courts line the eastside of the street and the IFC Center occupies the westside. I kept to past practice this year, but I eventually moved further south to the intersection at Houston and Sixth Avenue—I liked the positioning of the traffic islands.

**It May Be Halloween, But There Still is an Election (Notice the Halloween Coloring)**

**My Next Stop After the Parade—More Spectacle and In Halloween Colors**

**Best Not to Ask Any Embarrassing Questions**

**Not Forgetting to Look Under the Hood for Spooks**

**His Parents Gave Him This Car When He Turned 16 in 1968**

**Even the Police Walk Gingerly Around this Ghoul**

**Serving Spiderman's Head Up on a Platter**

Headed toward 4th Street, I knew the parade was about to begin when I saw the police horse brigade moving toward me. And as is the norm, the horses were followed by the pooper scooper, who may be the single most important person in the parade.

Some parade participants take a topical approach to their costuming. In 2021, I saw people dressed as Covid molecular structures while others carried gigantic syringes. Last year, Donald J. Trump was in vogue.

Given the last ten months, I had assumed that I would see dozens of people dressed at ICE agents. Whether they would be accompanied by others costumed as migrants in handcuffs was an open question. Much to my surprise, I saw no one masquerading as an ICE agent. Nor did I see dozens of Trumps—just two in orange prison jumpsuits walking together. In retrospect I suspect most participants were looking for relief from Trump’s nonstop onslaught, which would explain why I didn’t see Jeffrey Epsteins, J.D. Vances, Marjory Taylor Greens or other ghouls associated with Trump’s regime. People apparently needed a respite from Trump’s chaos, which meant no politics tonight.

As usual, Chucky, the Joker, Freddy Krueger, Ghostface, Jason Voorhees, and Michael Myers were out in force. Many of those coming as horror film characters build their costume around store-bought masks. To their credit, however, they do a fantastic job of embellishing the mask’s effect with clothing and detailing that they assembled from stuff found in thrift shops or their attics. I always wonder whether those dressed as Leatherface (aka Ed Gein) are carrying prop chainsaws, or whether they stopped at Home Depot to pick up an authentic saw.

Many participants prove that nobody ever dies once a persona enters pop culture’s domain. A few years ago, Gilligan and the Skipper made an appearance. I thought I saw Thurston Howell and Lovey this year. My favorite cultural replay this year was a guy dressed as Rerun from the What’s Happening sitcom (1976-1979). Along the way, I ran into Superman, Edward Scissorhands, the Exorcist, Randy “Macho Man” Savage, the Ghostbusters, John and Yoko, Cinderella, SpongeBob SquarePants, the Mona Lisa, Vincent Van Gogh, Gort (from the Day the Earth Stood Still), Little Red Riding Hood, and dozens of characters mined from our collective past.

As usual, I missed the photographer favorite—the Michael Jackson Thriller float and Zombie dance routine. Every year, more and more photographers gather in front of what has to be the parade’s most popular entry. As the Zombies arrived, all I saw was a two-deep line of photographers stretched in front of the chain separating them from the Zombies. I did manage to capture a few images from the side, but even that was difficult. Whoever puts this together each year, does a helluva job. Hard to believe the video is now 43 years old, proving once again that once something enters the cultural zeitgeist, it never dies.

To photograph the parade, I walk against the marchers as they head northward. Every year, I have high hopes of attending the afterparty—this year it was held at the House of Yes in Brooklyn. Nine stages were rocking until 5:00 AM. Sounds like a great rave, but after close to three hours of people streaming at me, I was once again exhausted when the parade wrapped. It is such an intense experience, producing sensory overload.

As I have done each year, I headed to Tribeca for a late supper at Odeon. When I arrived this year, the hostess seated me despite no reservation. She remembered me from last year. Why do I return each year to Odeon? The streets in Tribeca are empty and this restaurant has the best shrimp cocktail and roasted half chicken in the city.

Rather than rattling on, I’ll let my photographs speak for the parade, my experience, and themselves. While they provide a sense of what the parade is all about, the only way to experience it is in the flesh, which is a bit risky because there are lot of flesh-eating beasts out on Halloween.