Halloween Parade in New York

Halloween Parade in New York
Originally uploaded by azakeri.

By all accounts the NYC Halloween parade is attended by 2m people. Why they'd line up in the dark to watch people dressed as tarts, tramps, hookers, monsters and politicians parade by I don't quite understand. You can see more authentic versions of all of the above in many areas of the city despite the Guilliani clean up of yesteryear.

Smut, it seems, like air bubbles behind cheap wallpaper can by moved but not eliminated. A friend of mine who recently attended an S&M club close to her house told me that the patrons there were bemoaning the internet. By all accounts the net had managed to fragment the S&M community into ever more specialized groups - until having one place to meet no longer made sense. Instead the former members of the club now met less frequently, in smaller numbers and indulged in specialties that were ever more narrow.

I imagine that the ghettoizing of Halloween is sure to follow suit one day. A kids parade. A gay parade. A political parade. A covens only parade. A cartoon character parade. And it will be a great shame. There's something about the tension between the bare breasted dykes on bikes and the proud moms of autistic mid-western children that makes for a more electric parade - and a better time.

Of course I'm now banging on about something that makes me seem like even more of a 'fogey' (in my day all the perverts had to march together) but I can't be alone in mourning the fact that we're increasingly alone. That we're living more and more in our heads. That communication is becoming virtual rather than actual. That we have more myspace friends than real friends.

Maybe I am alone - but I'm not alone in being alone. And that makes me feel better.