Halloween on the Boulevard: 2009

Living in L.A. means the opportunity to take part in the West Hollywood Halloween Carnaval, on Santa Monica Boulevard between Doheny Drive and La Cienega Boulevard. It's a good opportunity to see what's big in pop culture. My report below.

Costumes of the moment:
1. Alice in Wonderland (a TON, everywhere, particularly Mad Hatters, Alices, and March Hares)
2. Where the Wild Things Are (a LOT), some very lazy Maxes among them (paper crown, long johns)
3. Watchmen (a few, but only one Dr. Manhattan [surprisingly for Santa Monica Blvd. not nude or semi-nude, but in a suit]
4. Lady Gaga (although it’s frequently hard to tell whether or not it was meant to be her!)
5. Indiana Jones. Yup, give ‘em an inch… the (hopefully last) sequel was last year, but these guys couldn’t stop themselves….
6. Sully Sullenberger- at least one
7. Bruno- didn’t think there’d be one, but there was one guy…
8. Up! There were three guys but one guy (the first one I saw) did it amazing. This first guy had the full rainbow-colored balloons with a miniature house, and his girlfriend was dressed as the little boy. The second guy was alone with a flat cut out of the house and the full balloons. The third guy literally had THREE balloons: completely missing it (lame!)
8. Balloon boy: would have been a little better say if it it didn't turn out to be a fraud!
9. Octomom.
10. SOOOOO last year award: Joker (hang your heads in same people!)

Other costumes:
Batman Family- very cute, Dad as Batman, Mom and young daughter both as Batgirl, little boy as Robin
Ghostbusters (of course). Now there is even a sexy girl costume version
Nightmare Before Christmas- a LOT. It’s quite boring at this point
Muppets- and always in a group—SOOOOO boring at this point
Rice Crispies in a “bowl” (inflated kiddie pool)—kind of a pain to walk around
I’m sure I’ve seen it, but a guy in a red hoodie, with a small bike and milk crate with ET in it is STILL a crowd pleaser—had to smile

Sexy costume for chicks this year: Snow White (don’t know why: lots of them), bumblebees/butterflies too
Fun costume—girl as Mary Poppins (loved it)
Surprisingly no one dressed like Michael Jackson (that I saw). His music was everywhere though. (No Adam Lamberts or Susan Boyles that I saw either)
Retire it already! Award: Captain Jack Sparrow (wouldn’t you be embarrassed to wear this?)

This year: WOW a lot of tourists!

What Will Be the Halloween Costumes for 2009?

Happy Halloween!

Halloween on Saturday, should prove eventful. What will be this year's big costumes (for us adults)? Some definites from the music world: Lady GaGa, Adam Lambert, Susan Boyle... and (really clever!) Michael Jackson.

What of the summer blockbusters? A lot of retread: Transformers, Harry Potter, etc. Bruno didn't do well enough for anyone to bother, I think. I expect some oldsters will try their hand at Up.

Other movie ideas: Anything Where the Wild Things Are, of course. And will anyone brave a Dr. Manhattan? Julia Child?

I can see "swine flu" getting some kind of treatment....

And TV? Have yet to really see it, but a group showing of 30 Rock or The Office seems inevitable. I wonder if It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia has gained enough of a following for a group thing too?

Halloween on the Boulevard

Living in L.A. means the opportunity to take part in the West Hollywood Halloween Carnaval, which takes place on Santa Monica Boulevard between Doheny Drive and La Cienega Boulevard. It's a good opportunity to see what's big in pop culture.

As expected there were many Sarah Palin costumes as well as Jokers (more than half, of course, in the nurses uniform). I only saw one McCain (with a Palin) and no Obamas (but I heard there was one couple as Mr. & Mrs.)

One of the best costumes I saw was a dead ringer for Robert Downey Jr. in Tropic Thunder. I'd forgotten about this possibility. I also had forgotten (although I had thought about it in August) that there might be a Michael Phelps-- saw a couple.

There were at least two Indiana Jones's and I was happy to see that they were older guys-- which made it acceptable. Thankfully, there were no Captain Jack Sparrows!!! Although, unfortunately, some dude thought Austin Powers would be a nifty Halloween '08 costume choice-- I'd rather have seen a Love Guru.

There was a lot of "blast from the past" costumes-- particularly '80s ones: Ghostbusters, Donkey Kong, a girl in a big Rubik's Cube... even a Richard Simmons!

The choice for sexy-girl costumes was spread evenly among the usual ones, with sexy cop maybe just slightly in the lead this year.

Naturally there was a bunch of "No on 8" related costumes (re: a proposition on this year's ballot in the state of California to repeal gay marriage).

The most elaborate and clever costume I saw were two guys dressed as Russians on raised shoes (representing a shoreline) and big chunks representing Alaska around them-- the costume was the Sarah Palin Neighborhood watch. Really wild.

What Will Be the Halloween Costumes for 2008?

Happy Halloween!

Another Halloween-- and on Friday, so it'll be crazy. What will be the "big" costumes this year (for us adults)? The two obvious ones are Sarah Palin and Heath Ledger's Joker. And of course Barak Obama and John McCain, et. al.

I'm hearing that Amy Winehouse is a popular choice for the ladies (again).

What about the summer blockbusters outside of The Dark Knight? I bet they'll be a few (thin haired) Indiana Jones's out there. I think, unless you buy it. Iron Man will be a bit too complicated. I can easily see the ladies dusting off their Sex and the City duds from their summer movie outing. I can see a few goofball WALL•Es and Kung Fu Pandas coming out too-- but not many.

TV isn't giving us much in the way of Halloween costumes these days. Possibly a Mad Men contingent might form, although you'd have to have a group to really pull it off.