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Nov. 1st, 2006 02:07 pm
Halloween on Halsted
I guess we can basically write this day off. I'd wanted to do some running around, but I was up too late watching cheesy horror last night (there was nothing like the selection I expected--I meant to NetFlix something good, like Shaun of the Dead, but I got the timing wrong) and was prevented from sleeping in by some neighbour's home improvement project. Bastards! So now I'm not sure I'm up to anything much beyond watching more Ugly Betty online and baking the parkin cake for this weekend.
At least last night was worth it. We met up with Diego and Gus and a couple of their buddies at Bucks and had a drink before watching the parade. Wow; you'd think an event couldn't be more poorly coordinated than the Pride Parade, but they definitely managed it. There were two rows of barriers along the whole street so, naturally, we clustered at the one nearest us. After waiting for a while in the cold, we saw a noisy zombie horde trundle by; a little bit later, they raced back. Next, some guys came and told us we all had to move back because the parade would be turning back and our barriers actually marked the middle of the thoroughfare, not the edge. But, bizarrely, they only shooed away the first hundred feet or so of spectators, ending just past us. So after more standing around like dorks, I led a slow return to the fence.
I don't remember this much fire in the last couple of parades; we welcomed it almost as much for the warmth as the spectacle.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
rollick will probably do a bigger write of the costumes, so I'll just mention how surprised I was to see only one Steve Irwin/stingray getup rather than the half-dozen or so I'd been expecting. Gus was the only Ugly Betty we saw (a false positive turned out to be a Rosario from Will and Grace) and he was a massive hit in his homemade poncho. At one point, the father of some diminutive marcher pointed him out saying, "Look, Ugly Betty!" and the precious tyke stopped waving to the crowd long enough to look up at Gus and say "Uncle Betty?"
Afterwards, we hiked up to North End for a drink where it was less crowded and I got into an argument with one of Diego's twinkie friends about U2 being (inprinceofcairo's words) "a third-rate American band". Unlike monshu and me, none of them had taken today off, and soon after they skedaddled we did, too--but not before monshu exchanged words with a fellow tartan-wearer dressed in "generic Stuart".
At least last night was worth it. We met up with Diego and Gus and a couple of their buddies at Bucks and had a drink before watching the parade. Wow; you'd think an event couldn't be more poorly coordinated than the Pride Parade, but they definitely managed it. There were two rows of barriers along the whole street so, naturally, we clustered at the one nearest us. After waiting for a while in the cold, we saw a noisy zombie horde trundle by; a little bit later, they raced back. Next, some guys came and told us we all had to move back because the parade would be turning back and our barriers actually marked the middle of the thoroughfare, not the edge. But, bizarrely, they only shooed away the first hundred feet or so of spectators, ending just past us. So after more standing around like dorks, I led a slow return to the fence.
I don't remember this much fire in the last couple of parades; we welcomed it almost as much for the warmth as the spectacle.
rollick will probably do a bigger write of the costumes, so I'll just mention how surprised I was to see only one Steve Irwin/stingray getup rather than the half-dozen or so I'd been expecting. Gus was the only Ugly Betty we saw (a false positive turned out to be a Rosario from Will and Grace) and he was a massive hit in his homemade poncho. At one point, the father of some diminutive marcher pointed him out saying, "Look, Ugly Betty!" and the precious tyke stopped waving to the crowd long enough to look up at Gus and say "Uncle Betty?"Afterwards, we hiked up to North End for a drink where it was less crowded and I got into an argument with one of Diego's twinkie friends about U2 being (in
princeofcairo's words) "a third-rate American band". Unlike monshu and me, none of them had taken today off, and soon after they skedaddled we did, too--but not before monshu exchanged words with a fellow tartan-wearer dressed in "generic Stuart".