Chasing the Demons Away in a Village Full of Ghosts - The Village Halloween Parade 2008

This past week seemed busier than usual, with a myriad of social events, job tasks (I have four wonderful part-time writing and editing gigs, counting this one), and household duties - hosting a houseguest, dinner out at Gemma, a night of drinks at the Temple Bar with an old friend from my Austin days, several telephone meetings, a myriad of important emails to attend, a terrific meeting at the Antique Café on 26th with a new colleague, two sick dogs (both of whose ailments would make me sick to even describe, but they required trips to the vet), a visit to two NYU galleries to review for these pages, and all through the week, a practice of tossing clothes into a dark corner where I could ignore them until today. Before, in between, and after these social events, I was, like many others, checking polls and political websites for the latest election news. The election talk and my need for updates made me so anxious that I felt like I was acquiring a late-onset Attentional Deficit Disorder. Though I accomplished some necessary work tasks over the course of the week, and I did manage to sneak in a couple of art reviews on this site, I woke up Friday morning with that guilty feeling of being behind. I hate that. Fortunately, the calendar and a beautiful fall evening conspired for the proper witching event last night to dispel some of my non-electoral demons and to ward off most of the petty gremlins that have tugged at me all week. Walking through a night like last night, with an estimated 60,000 souls marching in the Village Halloween Parade and with 1.8 million others descending on my neighborhood to enjoy it, helped me walk off some anxiety. My spirits were lifted immediately when I heard someone yell, "Hey, Andy Warhol just took our picture!," and I realized that the person in the white wig and glasses and the black jacket that they were talking about was me. This morning, after a night in which I continued to hear the sounds of late-night revelers drift into my sleep, I woke up to an uplifting All Saints' Day with a clearer eye, greeted by two healthy dogs with waggity tails.

Images from October 31, 2008, in and around Greenwich Village, 6th Avenue. from Bleecker Street down to Van Dam Street. Even more images of the day and night on Flickr WOTBA.