The forty Nine Hour Weekend: 2004 Edition


Crowds...cops...lots of cops.


Costumes...costumes and the phrase "Fuck You. Fuck You. I'm Punk Rock."


Create a prop and watch half the people miss the joke over and over again.


Cloud

The second consecutive weekend journey to Dane County featured the seventh annual Halloween celebration. In 1997, I woke up too hungover to put a costume together. Two hours before going out, I drove to Goodwill to buy some old looking clothes so I could pass as someone...from the past. In 2004, I sewed a cloud from Super Mario Brothers in less than two days with only a few self-inflicted wounds. Ah, how far we've gone. A lot of other events transpired as well. I guess you could say it was a fitting end to Moustache Month and its awesome power.

- In the process of preparing my Halloween costume, I wound up making a journey to the Dollar Tree. I walked into the store and as I neared the wall of spatulas, I noticed that the PA speakers had been emitting crazy sounding dissonant chords. The store was playing a 'Sounds of Halloween' CD over the PA...really, really, loud. At one point I had to step away from underneath a PA speaker because the screaming banshee sound was too intense. Amidst the loud sounds of hissing cats, laughing ghosts, and evil-ish organ music, I could hear babies crying and kids making pleas to their parents to stay close. I looked at the employees and none of them looked the least bit unsettled by this. I walked into the store expecting to drop a dollar. I walked away empty-handed, slightly freaked-out, and with a new-found appreciation for the dollar stores of America.

- I saw Mouse on Mars and Ratatat on Friday night. I feel a little overloaded on that type of music right now but it was a good show. The auditorium acoustics sucked the energy out of the music, but people still danced, kids tossed glow-sticks around, and some girl shook her head at Amanda's red wig. Entertainment quota met.

- Friends and well-wishers not in my Friendster network will probably not understand a word of the previous paragraph. I'm not sure what that means yet.

- The stakes this time around in Madison were much different. We're all a year older, and most of our friends have moved out of the city. Instead of rapping at 1am to a bunch of confused looks, we relaxed in a quiet bar and made only a few tours around the street. The pictures basically capture the fun of the visit. If this is the last Madison Halloween bash for us, I'm glad it went down as a great time.

- Since 2002, every visit to Madison with friends goes like this: we go out; we come back late; we decide to order a pizza at 2:30 am; then we sit and wait while people pass out one by one until the pizza shows up just before 4am. I usually come back to life for a few slices, then return to sleep. In the morning, half the pokey stix are still there. I don't think this practice will ever end.

- I didn't hit me how much of a battleground state Wisconsin is/was until I saw vandalized Kerry campaign signs in my hometown. To see this in a city that prides itself as an 'elite suburb' doesn't surprise me. Things can get funny at times in town built on a swamp. I come from the same city where 10 years ago, the then-mayor once said a certain strip-mall in a diverse corner of the city was 'Schmucksville.' Damn my camera and it's battery eating power.

- According to my dad, the democrats are to blame for the rise in single-parent families, the Aids rate, and just about anything morally wrong with America. I said back: "I heard that the decay of values are the exact same reasons Muslim countries hate America..." I'm always trying to make unique points when I answer back to my dad. That went right over his neo-conservative(read: extreme distaste for Muslims in general) head and I couldn't illustrate my point. After he equated democrats to the devil and said something about how it's bad that I'm starting to think like a democrat, I had to drop the issue. After a while, you can't argue with somebody completely convinced by what they see as the truth because you see everything in a completely different light...and that's how I experienced the polarization of America. How did it happen?

- The cloud costume got bonus mileage as I delivered candy to the trick-or-treaters at the house. Not as many kids knocked on the door as I expected based on the noise in the street. Most kids didn't even bother to say trick-or-treat. One Asian girl showed up by herself and it looked as if her friends were avoiding my parent's house. Adding to the fun was the fact that most kids laughed at the cloud. Only one girl got the video game reference. Two lessons here: (1) kids aren't as clueless as everybody older thinks they are; and (2) I think my parents are turning into the scary old couple in the dark house whom kids are scared of. If only they'd socialize...

. . [~] . 0 (Grumble) Grumbles .