Gapers Block published from April 22, 2003 to Jan. 1, 2016. The site will remain up in archive form. Please visit Third Coast Review, a new site by several GB alumni.
✶ Thank you for your readership and contributions. ✶
Sunday, February 16
Medusa, in honor of my curly hair.
no costume probably... my cousin is getting married halloween weekend (which just dawned on me about a week ago).
last year i was log lady from twin peaks.
im wondering if theres some way to dress up at the wedding and not upset my cousin (whose idea of a dream wedding is completely formal).
no costume probably... my cousin is getting married halloween weekend (which just dawned on me about a week ago).
last year i was log lady from twin peaks.
im wondering if theres some way to dress up at the wedding and not upset my cousin (whose idea of a dream wedding is completely formal).
Greg, you are my hero. Take pictures for me, please?
I'm going as a character from my favorite TV show, Firefly. My best friend is doing the same, as is my fiance. We're going to be a trifecta of geekdom.
Jocasta (from Oedipus Rex) after she hung herself.
(last year I was Ophelia after she drowned... there's a theme in my costumes)
Greg, if you really are going to be that, I might change my mind and dress as this.
I hate thinking of costumes! Last year was my best- a ghost. Ghosty in the traditional white sheet with eyes and mouth cut out and white tights. I looked like a real cartoon ghost (in my mind).
This year, Mary-Kate/Ashley Olsen looking like ET is one thing I'm considering. Britney being a wreck is another. Or, sexy lobster/frog/sea urchin would be funny, too.
Great costume idea, Andrew. Everyone knows bananas are super-scary and perfect for Halloween.
I stopped doing costumes as a kid after I asked my mom to make me a mummy one year. She wrapped me in one continues sheet and for some reason stuffed clothes in them (I guess she thought mummy's were fat). I trick or treated all night with clothes falling out of my costume and picking them up and stuffing them back in. The final insult was the costume judging at the local park district where I won a prize for my "karate man costume".
Well, as Holloween falls on Wednesday. I think I will pass. I wish RedMoon had not sold out and left logan Square. I miss the All Souls Night they use to have on the Blvd.
The missus and I are going as Fry and Leela, of Futurama.
She researched various options for doing the one eye thing, and concluded that she'll just have to be the Leela from the episode where she has plastic surgery and has two eyes.
It is really hard to blame her.
@Andrew: that's definitely my costume...if you find it worthwhile to complement my
(so using a carat for its mathematical purpose gets treated as a tag. okay. continuing...)
...my less-than-$5 get-up with a rental of your own, I'm not going to stand in your way.
LOLcat
...although I did find a big rubber Krusty The Klown mask/head in a resale shop window for $4 so that might play into any possible costume ideas.
I'm 99% sure i'll be Spencer Tracy.
I should be going as Warren Beatty, tho.
Peter Pan. Only because I bought a hat at German Fest and I need to work that into my costume. It was either Peter Pan or Pinocchio.
i need a clever travel/international themed costume idea...help, someone?
Bret Michaels of Poison fame. Three lovely ladies are going to dress up like the women from his reality TV show to make it a group costume.
dick-in-the-box guy
sorry, I believe it should say 'dick-in-A-box guy'
zoenotcool...
The Roaming Gnome?
60s stewardess?
Anthony Bourdain?
Steve Fossett?
Amelia Earhart?
I usually just pin on a pair of devil horns and a tail for trick-or-treat door duty.
I don't have a costume party to go to this year, but if I did I have a pretty racy bustier/short frilly skirt combo that makes me look a bit like a sexy circus acrobat. I'd wear that to answer the door, but it's a little too revealing for the wee kiddies.
ZoeNotCool--How about a suitcase covered with luggage labels? You can buy a set at stationery shops or online. Slap em on a cardboard box and off you go!
Hey Sam, I am going as a LOLcat too!!!
another baked vegetable (au gratin) requires a lot of aluminum foil, though.
or maybe i'll dress up as a battered social security card with 666 in the middle.
zoenotcool- how about you dress up as the guy that got quarantined after traveling all over the world with TB.
or maybe a piece of meat (tainted with mad cow disease)
what about a recalled toy with lead paint?
I have this old Heidi-Ho costume with an insanely short skirt which I usually just pair with some jeans and sneakers and go as a half-German, half-American. Which I am. It's easier than going as an Afro-Latina (which I also am). I am not inventive at all, ever since my dream of going to a party as a toothbrush was crushed because I wasn't slutty enough. Although attempting a slutty toothbrush costume might be kind of awesome.
I have short red hair and loads of freckles and my name is Annie and I've never been Little Orphan Annie, that is, until this year. The boy and I were at Salvation Army over the weekend and this perfect little red dress with a boy and all was just sitting there with a $6 tag and I grabbed it. Now I need to find white ankle socks with lace. and a cheesy gold heart necklace and i'm all set.
Starbuck from Battlestar Galactica. I've already got the dogtags, so all I need are some BDU's and a backwards tank top.
OMG, what a dork I am.
Im going as a member of the polyphonic spree
This.
Yellow windbreaker, check. Red hat, check. Branch from tree with white glove on the end, check. Cardboard platter, check. Green stuffed pig, check. Fork, check. Now just need to make the eggs -- two tennis ball halves and some white paper.
More like this actually (why I need the branch).
THE QUEEEEN OF FRANCE.
Years ago I bought a T-shirt with a skull on it from a store in New Orleans, Road Kill and a matching infants shirt, intending to be Goth Madonna and child. Never did it. Finally going to do it this year, but the idea has changed. I'm shavin' my head, y'all and goin' as Train Wreck Britn'y 'n one o' her tater tots. Ding, dang, where'd ah put the other 'un? Whoopsy!
clarke - that's amazing. a-maz-ing. hopefully you'll run into some little kids so that they can also appreciate the realization of dr. seuss's imagination.
re: my own costume, I've been pretty negligent of the holiday in the last few years. that will not likely change this year, as I will be in so. cal for a friend's wedding the weekend of all of the festivities. perhaps I'll convince myself to eat something pumpkin flavored the day of...kind of lame, but other than 'poor grad student,' I have nothing on standby.
How about a headless CTA bus driver - for when, you know all those cuts go in to effect.
I am trying to think of a costume that reflects all the violence the cops are inflicting on innocent people. Maybe a cop with a screwdriver?
I like costumes that have social commentary.
Dorkin' our as one of these guys with a friend, thanks to the Worldwide Thriller Dance going on next weekend.
probably same as last year, not a big halloween guy:
Black shirt, black hoodie, jeans and my black chuck taylors..... as....."that guy from that band".
of course it's not terribly different from my daily work outfit, but i'm not in a band... so there's that.
Wearing a t-shirt that says: 2-28 ARM, interest only, zero down, no income verification, borrower credit score
The dreaded subprime mortgage. Lame, yes, but so can you.
Lunesta butterfly or a Saltine.
I was a White Castle a few years back.
kate, I always thought the QUEEEEN OF FRANCE would be a great costume. No, really. Then you can do the dance, too.
(For anyone who doesn't know what Greg, Andrew, kate or I are talking about, here you are.)
Here's the thing: This year I decided I would not do what I've done in recent years, which was to be lazy about Halloween. So about 4 or 5 weeks ago, I came up with a (supposedly) awesome Halloween costume. Problem was, I'd had a few cocktails when I did so, and now for the life of me I can't remember my original idea.
Of everyone I was hanging out with at the time, I can recall everyone else's ideas were -- but not my own. No amount of brainstorming and lateral thinking has been able jog my memory. And I suspect that it was something so elaborate that I won't be able to pull it together even if I do remember it was this late in the day.
So, a default? Not sure. I guess there's always the option of being a hypothetical clueless sixth memeber of the Village People -- as inspired by the first 30 or so seconds of this.
Fluffy stole my idea - i really heavy (filled with lead) thomas the tank engine.
My best costumes in the past were Roy (of Siegfried & Roy, post tiger-hugging), and Elliott Smith.
This year, I am going as Sen. Larry Craig...stall and all.
It's been done, but the Morton Salt girl. Yellow's my favorite color and I have a yellow coat that looks close enough to her dress. I need opaque white tights and yellow mary janes. I haven't had a bob haircut in ages, but I can improvise.
It's also a very Chicago thing to be. And I love salt.
I was thinking about a box decked out to look like a bathroom stall and greying my hair to look like Sen Craig peeking over the top of the stall.
In honor of the recently departed "Match Game" regulars, my fella and I are going as Zombie Charles Nelson Reilly and Zombie Brett Somers.
Kevin....nice......, don't forget the wing tips
Here's a question: I was thinking about going as Rorschach from the comic "Watchmen."
Is that too obscure? It's that or Apollo from Battlestar Galactica (with my girlfriend as Starbuck).
Does it even matter if it's an obscure reference like that?
In recent years, I have been Eleanor Rigby, the "One", a beat-up U of M cheerleader (my roommate was a beat-up MSU cheerleader) and a devil in a blue dress.
This year I wanted to go as Eagleman and even carry an egg w/ insurance rates, but I couldn't pull it off. Feel free to steal that idea. So, I'm going as Buffy this year, a wooden stake and all. Oh yeah.
I was going to be Seven of Nine from Star Trek Voyager, but I think I'm too lazy to make the necessary Borg implants.
Since I'm not 6, nothing.
Todd Stroger
I've been working on a Ghostbuster costume, but I don't know whether I'll get it done in time. I have no Halloween plans, so it's just as well.
Urban Ethos [26]
What is Chicago's "urban ethos"?
Cool Glass of... [16]
What're you drinking?
Supreme Decision [22]
What's your reaction to the Supreme Court's decision on the Affordable Care Act?
Taking it to the Streets [20]
Chicago Street Fairs: Revolting or Awesome?
I Can Be Cruel [9]
Be real: what is the meanest thing you've ever done?
Andrew / October 17, 2007 10:47 AM
I think I might be a toy monkey with cymbals. We'll see.