Pippi Longstockings came into your world and conquered

Halloween.

For those reading from abroad - oh. my. GOD. You honestly have absolutely NO idea what this is like in America. NONE. I don't think I have ever been as visually stimulated my entire life. Yes, yes, there are pumpkins everywhere and all of the cafes have cobwebs and spiders as their window displays (albeit, some are more humorous like lines of McCain heads mocked up as skulls), but last night went one step further.

I have Marielle staying with me at the moment because she was kicked out of her apartment (another story) - she's the girl who I'm mini-me-ing. She was the intern before me at ACP and she's being teaching me the ins-and-outs of the job. And there are a LOT of them! (I don't want to talk about it too much because I'm not sure how much I'm legally allowed to be saying and such. But it IS insane. I was handling $300,000 worth of paparazzi photo cheques on Thursday) So Marielle and I really clicked quite quickly, as she's in the same place where I will be in a month! And she's a Sydney-sider, so even more reason to be going up there every few weekends!

I had an idea for my Halloween costume about 4 days ago. I didn't have enough time to go out and buy a costume, nay, the money either (thanks economy!). So I was thinking what I could whip up with the resources I had... And I turned myself into a friggin awesome Pippi Longstockings! Mismatching knee high stripey socks with sewn on stars, bright blue tights, crazy skirt, layered fluro jumpers, red pirate boots, and of course - the freckled faced, red haired do... It took half an hour, but I braided my hair around an old coathanger so that it stood up a half meter away from my head! Add some huge eyeliner freckles, and a monkey puppet that I bought, and you had me... And I KNOW it worked because I was getting pointed at and laughed and and asked for photos and 'HEY PIPPI!!!' or 'FUCK THAT HAIR IS COOL' or 'OH MY GOD SHE HAS A MONKEY' etc etc etc. I'll definitely use the idea again back home where I can display it to a different crowd.

But the crowd last night... Jesus Christ I really can't put this into words properly. And that's saying something for me! Georgia Frances King is lost for words for once!

The New York Halloween parade started 2 blocks from my apartment and went all the way up to 28th. And I think that everyone in New York and the surrounding boroughs, and Jersey were there. And EVERYONE was dressed up. But not just a wig, or devil horns, or a mask or anything. I mean FULL THROTTLE costumes - cardboard box men, Stewies, parrots, too many Jokers (RIP Heath), lots of cross dressers, bumble-bees, pieces of toast... Everything.

Marielle and I had been invited to what was called 'The Danger'. It is a guerilla-party. If you don't know what that is, it's like a guerilla-gig. If you don't know what that is, it's essentially an impromtu party where you meet at a designated place, and then get told where the party is going to be, and everyone mass transits there! Half the party is in the actual process of getting to the party place.

And a process it was.

There were too many people to try and meet at the meeting place, so we decided to get to the second designated point (that was emailed out to us a day beforehand in secrecy) which was in mid-Brooklyn. The subway ride was a hoot! I sat next to a zombie.

But when we got there, we were actually too EARLY because the police had tried to shut down the mass gathering or something. So a small group of us formed, and we literally wandered around the backstreets of industrial Brooklyn until the gathering started. And when it started, hell, it started.

2,000-3,000 people dressed up to RIDICULOUS degrees. One of the more original was a Mia Wallace from Pulp fiction, complete with Uma Therman's black bob, a white shirt and black pant combination, blood trickling out of her nose and a huge needle sticking out of her breastbone!

So it was essentially a huge gathering. And then the fun really started on the streets. Men on stilts, acrobats, fire twirlers... Giant gongs and drum processions... We went on exoduses around Brooklyn just WANDERING and picking up people... There were opera singing demonstrations, giant sharks with boom-boxes...

It was just insane.

Eventually, at about midnight, we ended up at the actual warehouse. By this stage we had been wandering since 9ish, and just wanted to be at the party! And a party it was. 4,000 in an abandoned warehouse that had video art installations on the walls and giant interactive sculptures and 5 bars and 4 dance spaces and DJs in every corner and people still wandering around on stilts and everything... And I reiterate, EVERYONE is in crazy costume... Super Marios dance with girls in pikachu get-ups, Gesishas with parasols dual with Chewbaccas with lightsabers, a man in a blue lycra jump suit that covers his head fights with a girl in a bikini that has painted a skeleton on her blackened body. It was INSANE. INSANE INSANE INSANE!!!

We hung out there for a little while, but Marielle was getting claustrophobic (very easy in the space), and so we ended up heading back to Manhattan. She went home, but I decided to kick on to another friend's party in the upper East Village. I got there by about 1.30am and spent the rest of the night learning how to tango with a Mexican, talking politics with a mail order bride, and eating candy corn with Mario Lopez...

Marielle, who had my keys, couldn't work out the trick to opening the door (it's a bitch), and so was locked outside on my stoop! Luckily, she'd picked up a cute boy on the train, and could use his phone to call me so that I could come home to let her in! But naturally, by the time I had got back down to Soho, someone else in the block had walked past and let her in anyway :)

But it was a nice end to the night! I'll definitely be experiencing this one again in the near future. It was one of the craziest nights I've had, without being crazy myself. I didn't need to. the town did it for me.