Stacy Horn

I took a bunch of pictures and a movie. I’m going out of my mind trying to compress and save the movie in a way where you can still see some of the great stuff in it. But first, pictures! I took this on the way to Pumpkin 4, where my band, Manhattan Samba, was told to line up.

There was one huge group of people dressed like sparkly witches. Here are three of them relaxing before the parade started.

This is what it looks like for us from within the parade.  We’re walking up Sixth Avenue.  I tried to capture everything, the city we see uptown, the crowds, but we were moving almost the whole time so it was tricky.

Some of my band friends, Ellen and ohmygodIforgetthisguysname.  And he’s really nice too.  I hate myself.

Here’s the spider which goes up and down the Jefferson Market tower every Halloween.

Here I tried to give a sense of the crowds.  I should have shot at the intersections, where the crowds are the biggest.  You just wouldn’t believe the hugeness of them.  It’s just so exciting, it’s almost impossible to describe.

And here’s the video!  I’m unhappy with the quality once it’s compressed. I wish I knew more so I could do this better, but this does give you some idea.

UPDATE! I just put in a longer version of this video. I put two clips together, so my description below is of the second half. The first half is just earlier in the parade, as we’re passing by the old Waverly Theatre, now the IFC theatre.

I got a girl dancing on the roof, and you can kinda see our dancers, who are at the front.  I think they come out best at the end.  I even got a shot of the spider!  The guy in the white at the beginning is Ivo, he leads the band.  You’ll see him giving us hand signals which tell us what to play.  Then you’ll see Glenn mirror Ivo’s hand signals for those of us in the back and for the short people. I was both in the back AND short.

[Special sidenote to Aly: I don’t really believe in life after death so I’m not really talking to Aly, but I wasn’t going to do the parade this year.  This was for you.  Thank you for jumping up and dancing that night all those years ago.  It gave me this, one of the most fun things I do.]

I was hearing things like, “Stop.  Stop.  STOP!!  STOP IT!!  Oh God, oh God. Too late.”  I looked down, and nobody was missing an arm or anything.  But they opened up a fire hydrant to clean up something.

 
This is what I got for $43.12 at Balducci’s: A container of stuff from the salad bar, a mozzarella sandwich, potato ships, Half & Half, blackberries, two macoun apples, goat cheese ravioli, puttanesca sauce, and walnuts. That is good for three meals I think, plus the walnuts will be my snack for the next week. Oh, and the Half & Half will last me a few weeks.

Maybe I’m wrong and this is not a bad haul for $43.12.  

I eat well in any case. There’s that. The potato chips are my indulgence food. They weren’t selling pumpkin pie by the slice though, so I’m suffering from a food deficit.  I won’t be at peace until I have pumpkin pie.

Right? This is the pose you see in a million Halloween black cat representations.

Boo!

I am feeling lazy beyond belief today. I don’t even feel like drumming in the parade, but I’m afraid not to. Aly’s dying has me in “seize the day” fear. Live while you can and so forth.  Am I having the time of life?  Which doesn’t allow for sitting at home watching scary movies on tv, it seems.

Oh!  Here are the latest instructions from Project Bueller.  These are the people who are going to re-create the parade scene from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off at the parade.  Once again, this sounds like it will be the funnest thing EVER:

When and where to show up?

If you want to be an audience agent, we recommend you arriving early to get a good spot. This means 6:00 if you are near the beginning (Spring and 6^th Ave) and 8:00 if you are near the end (21^st and 6^th Ave). Where you and your friends decide to station yourselves is up to you. (Do what you feel like doing!!Except jumping the police barricades, don’t do that, instead show up early and march with us. See below!)

The TV Crews are stationed at 10^th and 6^th Ave and even though we’ll be repeating the routine throughout the path, we’re really going to rock the shit out of this block in particular. You should probably stake out good spots there as early as 6pm.

If you want to be part of the float crew, (this is open to the Beer Maid Brigade, the Stair Dancers, and anyone who feels like they have exceptionally captured the essence of a character from the film) Arrive between 6-6:30 pm at Broome and 6th Ave and find our float on 6th Ave between Broome and Spring – give the password “Ferris Bueller” and you will be let into the area.

BRING BALLOONS EVERYBODY!!!

I was walking home from new sneaker buying when I saw this line of people lining up on Broadway to buy costumes. That’s Grace Church on the right, where my choir sings. Pretty amazing line there.  Also amazing is how last minute these people are.  It’s the day before Halloween!!

Fuck.  I just remembered.  I want a pumpkin pie. Where am I going to get a decent pumpkin pie? One by one my favorite bakeries have closed down while the worst one persists, with an assist from Sex and the City. Sorry bakery, no offense.  What can I say?  I liked the place on Hudson better.  And Little Pie Company.  Damnit.  

These crows are on Perry Street, a block from me.  I’m seeing a lot more decorating this year.  I wonder why that is.  End times sign?  Or the beginnings of joy because a smart guy is going to be president soon?  I saw Obama on tv yesterday discussing with easy intelligence some finer points of the constitution.  Couldn’t imagine McCain or Palin talking this way. Anyway, I was photographing one house and the guy told me to come back tomorrow because they put up their best deocorations on Halloween itself and what I was seeing was only a preview. Maybe I should just walk around with my camera today.