This was my favorite costume pairing on a Halloween where many of the shops between party places were really decked out with gnarly and not so much pretty antiques: An older man dressed in thick, striped prison inmate garb who also had pulled over its top a Wisconsin Badger red, not black and white, jacket. Related?
Two blocks up, a longtime antique shop featured a pair, again with the theme, of white ceramic dogs — not Led Zeppelin’s Black Dog — wearing tinseled necklaces, so to speak. They are facing each other, in an about face. A duo of dogs of doom, or hounds of hell, another time musically referenced?
— You’ll want to chat ’em up! I saw this flyer in of all places downtown Hudson on the sidewalk right outside the Cream of the Crop art gallery, and it was on their window too, around the time said exhibit opened in early October, running regularly from 6-9 p.m. To wit: Its called Beyond the binary, drawing power from androgyny. These are new drawings by CL Martin, (with smirk), and there is artist talk tonight, as an added perk. Its all at Supercharged Printmakers Studio & Casket Arts in a suite on 17th Ave NE across the way in Minneapolis. —
Another sort of pairing — “but wait now there’s two!” — this time while serving deadly, diabolical drinks to non-diners: A couple of servers, working only blocks apart, Laine and Lexi, lol as far as their letters, both wore tastefully well-strung-together corsets, one black in color and the other white. A toned theme here? Hundreds carried on with such tints at The Moose, too.
Worn on the Ziggy’s coworker of the first one, going as a bright white ghoul, I recognized her tied-up-high blond locks, bunched on each side of her head, but that was about it. Others too did not immediately know who they were beholding, so stop in more often? Is she true Type O Negative, with the long streaks of fake blood over her face and neck? And it only took her an hour to get ready, she said. That’s professionalism.
A vampire, also a bartender on a previous night, put up with a bad joke on my part: “I’d love to have you suck my blood, but I’ve met too many vampires tonight, so I’m fresh out.”
A man dressed as a superhero was asked, by me, jokingly, if those of his type never have to pay for their drinks? “Never,” he said, lol.
Also funny, if unintentionally, was a trio’s twist on what you’d wear at the cop shop. The lead “officer” wore Aussie gear and sitting next to her was another “inmate” in the typical orange jumpsuit, and also with a hat, his of a sports team. “Pirates” to go into lockup, or lockdown, Depp into the deep? A more typical-looking police officer brought up the rear.
The coolest character, outside, was Gumby in green, his T-shirt short-sleeve. That was a newer turn, on the floor, rather than so many flapper dancers on The Moose sidewalk.
The downtown had shown off, often, off-white although not quite oblong pumpkins, or could they be gourds, as to borrow a marketing catch phrase, you are gourd-eous, although in evil makeup. Even she said that the other fright night. But we have just recently seen yellow pumpkins, too. And on all kinds of different fronts, there has been flashy orange on a black background, the Halloween colors beheld.
At a different party, was a woman as a rocker, and not Joan Jett, although that was one she referenced. I thought Slash, with stovetop hat about two inches shorter — although she nixed that — or Alice Cooper, who was shown again on the back of her coat. And a magician she follows, and why do I want to say Serengeti?
I did get into gear myself, going as what I called a bad rooster, such pictured with a green crest that was actually a glove, deformed since I was in an evil persona, but held in place to a degree with bent metal. Wire hangers? On my face, a bit of toothpaste, which I wanted to make into a set of cheeky arrows, but they smudged way too much.
All to give candy to the trick-and-treaters who passed by my patio. I found I had to explain what was wearing to those dressed … normally as this was early … to the point where if I saw an adult sans child coming by, turned my back and my face under my collar, then walking away.
So this puts the wraps on Halloween, in these pages. Hope you had some scary fun, whether like me on the prior Thursday or Saturday, or Tuesday … or even on Monday for the second party for this holiday at Dick’s Bar and Grill, with the ’80s the first theme. They started doing this there all the Mondays of the month of October, and these were the spooky themes: Dracula’s veiled Vampire vigil, Beyond the grave with the Mummy, Frankenstein’s monster mash, and lastly the Wolfman’s haunted howl.