Yeah, me too. Not that I ever experienced it.

When I got off the plane in Bombay two years ago, my cousin said “This is a three shift city.” New York’s “nightlife” may be up until 4 or 5, but it definitely sleeps. And then goes to the mall. 

So much for entertainment in the post-industrial economy

Posted by saurav

As for your comment about the party being abandoned by the neighborhood residents, I think that you’re right. Finch, who lives above Castro on one of the teen-numbered streets, worked from home that day, as to avoid the mess, and took a sleeping pill at 9 to avoid the revelers. 

Posted by judevac

Bad situations don’t usually start out with people pulling guns. Usually they start with a bit of name-calling or pushing. In this case there was also supposedly a bottle thrown. (Not that I believe much of that Chron story — based on my knowledge of the situation, I’d say the story was incredibly uninformed.) It used to be that when things started turning sour at Halloween, locals would either get involved themselves and pull people apart and cheer people up, or they’d blow whistles which would attract so many more locals — it was called the whistle brigade — that any gaybasher or gangbanger would be quickly surrounded by people who were ready to protect their neighborhood.

For whatever reason, the neighborhood residents have abandoned their party and let the negative element take over. This affects not only the level of violence but also the type of costumes. I went through last night and the costumes I saw were mostly super-boring. The same shit we were discussing here — sexy nurse, sexy care bear, sexy cop, sexy cat, sexy pirate. Both male and female.

Friends and I instead went to the Extra Action Marching Band  show. Holy smokes. Amazingness upon wow. Real sexy!

About the whole vampiness question: I think it’s great that women and men let out their inner vamp on Halloween. I wish they’d do it more often. I also agree that the social pressure to be sexy on Halloween is stupid. I’ve rarely gone for that crap — last night, for example, I drizzled (fake) blood through my fur, which made it impossible for me to even hug friends without damaging their costumes. Anti-sexy. Again, this is something people can do something about. Mean Girls or no, I know that in my social world, women who choose to dress as something unsexy on Halloween will still get plenty of props. The main thing is to dress up at all.

I totally agree that the disposable aspect of Halloween has got to go. I hate those Spirit superstores as much as I hate how every drug store has to put up an Xmas display by Nov. 27. Again, something can be done: Demand costume supplies year round at your local stores! Cliffs Variety in the Castro carries wigs and boas year-round. Why doesn’t everyone? Because there’s no frickin demand. We must have more costume parties at other seasons!

As far as the weekend vs. weekday question: just as some people take the day after Thanksgiving off to travel and see family, some people take the day after Halloween off to allow more extreme debauchery. And the fact that 300,000 people a year show up at the Castro — and 2 million in NYC — shows that there must be some adults who don’t have to get up early.

Finally I agree with Saheli: Cities should be built with festival spaces. The work that went into the Embarcadero plaza for the millennium celebrations was oriented toward making a festival space, and I think it partly worked. Not enclosed enough for my tastes, but pretty good. Mexican cities all have enclosed squares called zocalos in the center of town with a church, a government building and streets. There are also additional churchyards. Both are great festival spaces.

San Franciscans are good at using streets and occasionally parks as substitutes for proper festival space, but it’s not the same. One requires interrupting the city’s normal flow and the other is too disengaged from the civitas.  

Posted by hedgehog

Posted by judevac

Posted by Saheli

Posted by Saheli

Move to New York, the city that never slept until recently.

Posted by saurav

I don’t think I excessively tart it up on Halloween, but I do think there is something to the notion that it’s a nice chance to step out of character a bit—whichever way you want. That said, I was actually pretty pleased with the non-bikini-ness of my made up superhero costume, and might try to do more with it as a concept later.

Tonight, though I’m just tired, and it occurs to me that Halloween as a leading cultural indicator gets muddied up by the fact that as an adults holiday, it’s only really fun when it falls on some night better approximating a weekend.

As an east bay girl I’ve always been a bit annoyed that everyone has to tramp out to SF for Halloween–wasting so much effort and energy on being crowded onto BART like sardines. Too bad each town doesn’t have its own carnival space for night revelry. In general our cities and towns don’t give enough recognition to the fact that we are often nocturnally social creatures—hence much of this bloggery.

As to your last lament, Hedgehog, I don’t know. I guess we know that right now there’s not much we can do about it, so we think about ourselves. It’s understandable if not ideal.  

Posted by Saheli

Posted by judevac

As for the SF approach to the Castro’s festivities, I think you are forgetting that we’ve got an election around the corner. In response to neighborhood concerns, Bevan Dufty made a PROMISE to his constituents that Halloween would not get out of control this year, with reveler’s getting knifed on the street. That’s why the Po-lice have vowed to shut down this year’s party by 10:30. Some of friends who boycott the ‘Stro on Halloween are waging bets on whether or not the riot cops will be out. Knives, masks, throngs, and alcohol make for a bad mix (it’s one step up from Detroit’s Halloween Eve tradition of torching houses). Not a welcome civic event to me, when not controlled.

Finally, on the whole “International Dress as a Slut Day” aspect of Halloween, I do not approve at all. I don’t see any empowerment aspect here. I think that there are a lot of girls who are peer pressured into conforming in expectations that they have be sexy in that porn star way for a day. One of my friend’s sisters, a size 0, actually steped up her appointments with her personal trainer so that she could look better for Halloween). That they have an option of literally dressing up as a witch or a sexy [insert one of the following: devil, the obiquitous French maid, or most disturbingly care bear ] bugs the shiiiit out of me. Halloween is one of those days that makes me wish that I never have daughters. 

Posted by judevac