We woke up late. And rather hung over. Seems appropiate for Halloween, really. Took the L to Manhattan and spent most of the day walking about and sporadically shopping. As I'd expected, Carrie is a big fan of H&M. But she found several other stores she liked too. Here's a video (Download VID00004.AVI) of her at a discount store on Broadway, where she got a very cute, ultra-80s t-shirt with a gold print drawing of a woman on the front.
Continuing down Broadway, we came across a bunch of crusties staging a joint anti-Bush/anti-Bloomberg rally in City Hall park. It's nice to see City Hall hopping again - guess Bloomberg don't mind the ranters like Giuliani did - and the concert/rally was fun. But I have to question the political acuity of anyone disposed to equate Bush and Bloomberg. I mean, like him or not, Bloomberg is essentially a liberal Democrat, pretending to be a "Republican," right? Seems like they'd be well advised to stick with Bush. But then again, they didn't strike me as the policy wonk sorts. So maybe they aren't so concerned about the "nuance" thing.
We'd hoped to take the Staten Island ferry. But all that walking (and shopping) took way too long. So instead we looked at Staten Island (&c.) from Battery Park. And went back to Williamsburg. The question was whether we would go to the Halloween film show at Ocularis or to the Tender Forever show at "TBA." Luckily, when we got out at Bedford, there was Steve Silverstein! And he knew where and when TBA was. Unfortunately, the answer was "not close" and "about an hour ago." So we went to the film show.
Or rather, dinner and then film show. And first, we picked up a roll of tinfoil, to make our Halloween costumes. Carrie was an antenna (here, sipping a polynesianesque cocktail)...
...and I was a crackpot, wearing a tinfoil hat to repel her nefarious rays. To which I'm obviously quite susceptible. Of course, according to a few curious MIT students, all I accomplished was to make myself marginally more vulnerable. Apparently, tinfoil hats accomplish exactly the opposite (to a miniscule degree) of what so many ranters expect. 1-800-conspiracy, I guess! Thank goodness all that expensive technology is used for something entertaining and unusual. And god bless MIT!
Here I'm doing my best to repel Carrie's mind-bending emanations. Her smile says I lose. The film show was quite good. Especially Trick or Treat Pony by Ben Coonley, a live-ish video performance, in which the artist spoofs artschool-talk with the help of a plush hobby-horse and a video camera. Not so much psycho-analytic as psycho-schizophrenic, halloween becomes a football metaphor. Or vice-versa. And our redoubtable narrator talks us right through the play diagrams and costume changes. With sound effects. And hell, just like the horse, I like getting brushed, too. That's for damn sure. And The Skulls, and the Skulls and the Bones, and the Bones by Jim Trainor was great, too. A super-simple documentary of a friend who collects the remains of whatever animal crosses his path, its a raw version of what Jim distills into perfect expressions of beautiful, inexplicable perversity in every one of his films. And then too, Afterlifers: Walking and Talking by the Halflifers (Torsten Burns and Anthony Discenza), in which they do a kind of Charlie Rose for the Undead (Unliving?) set. I still don't quite get the helicopter, but it feels right (Carrie said, they just did it for the helicopter ride!) and I love the discussion of why Tony's (un-)breathes so well. And then Mother-in-law descending a staircase by Kent Lambert - well, basically everything Kent does is great. His band, his videos, &c. And this is no exception. Anything including the mostest Halloween costume ever is bound for perfection.
The tinfoil costume concept - and the roll of foil - got passed around real quick. I think Donal had the best of the (many) variations. Simple, but effective.
Eventually, Carrie bestowed her antenna on a friend of Jill's.
But I like this picture better.
Theoretically, the whole reason we were at the show was to meet Marianna (pictured). She made herself a costume too, and made friends with Carrie. It was really good to see her again, after her 2 year stay in England. Thankfully, she was the same old Marianna, as sweet and cheerful as ever! Which made me even sorrier I'd forgotten to copy the keys to Marie's place for her. Oops. Well, film show as a consolation prize, and we'll deliver 'em later.
Surprisingly, the costume-quotient was low, low, low. But hey, quality over quantity. And this baby-themed couple went all the way. And even hammed it up for picture number two. Thanks!
On the way home, we ran into Marianne Shaneen and her friend Eric. A welcome surprise!
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