somebody messaged me this week and asked me to put out a list of last-minute halloween costumes. i am doing so because halloween is the best holiday ever for girls who love to engage with their own mythology (not that i would know anything about that…) and i already had the beginnings of a list on the go — i’ve expanded it and added some notes, some reading recommendations, extracurricular multimedia, etc.
i think halloween really is an extremely useful holiday for making the world your psychosexual stage and using overt artifice to disrupt the ever-present, everyday artifice that keeps you shrouded from yourself and others. (i’ve always thought there’s something much more honest about admitting that you’re putting on a show than engaging in the double-deception of supposed “authenticity.”) last halloween i was the girl with the green ribbon, which is a story i had been thinking about all the time; i was falling in love with someone and refusing to actually be with him, torturing us both, because of a pathological fear of what might happen if i were to reveal my blood and guts. i felt like the girl with the green ribbon and so i became her and then we both had a really weird night and said that we loved each other for the first time in a way that didn’t feel extremely painful, and i took a cab home by myself and took the ribbon off while the driver played starships by nicki minaj. this is just ONE example of the many risks and rewards that halloween has to offer you — because, like sex itself, dressing up can be fun and silly and even casual but is nonetheless almost always worthy of being taken seriously.
because this is my list of dream halloween costumes, it’s a very personal and vulnerable thing. i think a great costume is all about being so inhabited by something that you have to inhabit it as well. that dynamic — the dynamic between you and something you love or like or even just regularly notice, wearing each other — has always felt to me like a source of extreme sensuality and magnetism. all this to say that obviously nobody has to be “exploring” or “making a statement” when they’re dressing for halloween, but the costumes that always really sparkle for me are the ones that you can tell are born from real desire, big or small (even when that desire is just “i really want to look like a cool robot” or something). a costume covers you up but it also, when done right, reveals you! in this case i am revealing that i have always been very attracted to tom waits!
NOTE 1: while researching these costumes i also found out something completely insane about carly rae jepsen’s call me maybe music video that has to do with the Canadian trucker convoy, QAnon, homophobia, and a near-death experience in Surrey, British Columbia. so basically i got completely distracted and that’s what the last part of this newsletter is about.
NOTE 2: it genuinely did not occur to me that halloween parties were happening this weekend because all my halloween parties are happening next weekend. if your big halloween party was yesterday i am extremely sorry but bookmark this for next year.
NOTE 3: this post is too long for email, apparently, so you’ll have to read it in the app or online to see the whole thing. xoxo
NOTE 4: if you end up doing any of these please send me a picture <3
“Ms. ‘55”
this is a costume i invented because i always mix up the 1981 Abel Ferrara exploitation thriller Ms .45 and the Tom Waits song Ol ‘55.
Ms .45 herself is obviously a pretty great costume on its own, but i’m in the business of elevation. basically i think the costume i’m envisioning would be the nun costume with a Tom Waits fedora or that other puffy hat he wears. and maybe a cigarette? if you for some reason actually do this one please send me a picture.
or Just Tom Waits
easy.
or, Small Change Cover Art
this couples costume works best for lesbians i think.
90s New England Young Granola Mom
i watched Annie Baker’s Janet Planet recently, which i cannot recommend enough (you should also read my friend Greta’s genius piece on it and also this wonderful essay by Moeko Fujii). it made me think about many serious things — the voyeurism of early adolescence, Susan Fraiman’s concept of sodomitical maternity, how you can feel loved without feeling safe — but it also made me think about the incredible aesthetics of 90s New England new-age quasi-spiritual hippie kitsch. i grew up around lots of beeswax-y granola moms in the early 2000s and i always thought they were the strangest and most beautiful people in the world. tie-dye, linen, drop-waist pants, lots of little braids, patchouli smell, a free tibet keychain, silver jewelry, no bra, no makeup.
i recommended this book all over the place when it came out this summer — i found it really life changing and beautiful, and it has an almost endless amount of kaleidoscopic character descriptions to pick from for a costume. highly recommend this new yorker article about Elaine Kraf for further reading, and of course the book itself.
Alterations and Repairs Woman at the Dry Cleaners
my friend ella gave me this idea — she is a genius writer and has a couple more ideas in this newsletter because she’s the only person i’d trust with interesting costume recs. i really love this one… she’s so sexy …
Karen O Crying in the “Maps” Music Video
WAIT!!!!!! THEY DON’T LOVE YOU LIKE I LOVE YOU!!!!
at this point the story of karen o crying for real while filming the maps music video is cultural canon. she told NME: “They were real tears. My boyfriend at the time was supposed to come to the shoot – he was three hours late and I was just about to leave for tour… I didn’t think he was even going to come and this was the song that was written for him. He eventually showed up and I got myself in a real emotional state.”
i get it karen!!! recently i have been listening to this song every day while walking in circles around my neighbourhood in a haze. i think you could use glycerin tears or eye gloss to make the tears a real part of the costume. other than that you just need one fingerless glove and a side bang.
