What to wear, what to wear?
“Don’t be fallin’ out of your house with no needle and thread in your hand”
-- An Indian Chief heard early one Mardi Gras morning on WWOZ
My good friend Brian, having no kids of his own, has never given up on the Mardi Gras of our twenties. He always had MoMs tickets and went to their Captain’s Party. His costumes were always wild and outrageous. He had gotten a ticket for me to MoMs every years for the last two decades, only to have to give it away to someone else.
And he reminded me: I needed a good costume to get into MoMs--unless I wanted to go in with no pants.
The kids Mardi Gras day costumes were easy. For the day, my son could wear the fairly elaborate pirate’s costume we had just purchased this past yea for Halloween.. (I have sublimated my Carnival spirit into Halloween for many of the past 18 years). I told him if he didn’t wear the eyepatch, he could be Diego Montoya (we rather like the Princess Bridge)
My daughter is in a dance school with competitive companies, and has a closet full of competition and recital costumes. She will wear the red one from last year with the blond page boy wig that made them all look like little clones of Carol Channing.
Me, I had long planned to return to Mardi Gras dressed as Captain Beyond, the cover art character of a studio band of the early 70s that put out some serious rock. This was not a simple costume to assemble, and I was not sure I could pull it off.
I am a great fan of the author Charles de Lint. I was reading Greenmantle at Xmas break.
Suddenly it occurred to me.
I’m going as the Green Man.
This is not a hard costume. A few silk plants from the Hobby Hut, a fresh bag of glue sticks, a mask and some base camo clothes or tights, et voila..
My now thirteen-year-old daughter lays down a rule: I am not allowed to appear in tights in any pictures with her. I explain to her that I used to wear tights as part of costumes all the time; that I learned the hard way that guys with hairy legs should never where white tights.
She is not convinced.
So, I dredged out the pair of loden green chino’s I used to stuff a ghoul last Haloween into the house, and start glueing on leaves and moss to go with my mask and camo shirt (also with some leaves glue-gunned on;the fancy 3-D, structured camo ready made is just too pricey).
As my daughter said as I came out of the bathroom last Sunday dressed out for the first time, “Oh my god, you’re a tree!”. Mission accomplished. I shed $2-a-bag hobby hut Spanish moss wherever I go, but I’m bringing the rest of the moss and leaves, and the glue gun.
If I start to come apart at MoM’s (and at 47 and on a Strict Alcohol Diet, I just might) I’ll have time to put myself back together on Monday.
-- An Indian Chief heard early one Mardi Gras morning on WWOZ
My good friend Brian, having no kids of his own, has never given up on the Mardi Gras of our twenties. He always had MoMs tickets and went to their Captain’s Party. His costumes were always wild and outrageous. He had gotten a ticket for me to MoMs every years for the last two decades, only to have to give it away to someone else.
And he reminded me: I needed a good costume to get into MoMs--unless I wanted to go in with no pants.
The kids Mardi Gras day costumes were easy. For the day, my son could wear the fairly elaborate pirate’s costume we had just purchased this past yea for Halloween.. (I have sublimated my Carnival spirit into Halloween for many of the past 18 years). I told him if he didn’t wear the eyepatch, he could be Diego Montoya (we rather like the Princess Bridge)
My daughter is in a dance school with competitive companies, and has a closet full of competition and recital costumes. She will wear the red one from last year with the blond page boy wig that made them all look like little clones of Carol Channing.
Me, I had long planned to return to Mardi Gras dressed as Captain Beyond, the cover art character of a studio band of the early 70s that put out some serious rock. This was not a simple costume to assemble, and I was not sure I could pull it off.
I am a great fan of the author Charles de Lint. I was reading Greenmantle at Xmas break.
Suddenly it occurred to me.
I’m going as the Green Man.
This is not a hard costume. A few silk plants from the Hobby Hut, a fresh bag of glue sticks, a mask and some base camo clothes or tights, et voila..
My now thirteen-year-old daughter lays down a rule: I am not allowed to appear in tights in any pictures with her. I explain to her that I used to wear tights as part of costumes all the time; that I learned the hard way that guys with hairy legs should never where white tights.
She is not convinced.
So, I dredged out the pair of loden green chino’s I used to stuff a ghoul last Haloween into the house, and start glueing on leaves and moss to go with my mask and camo shirt (also with some leaves glue-gunned on;the fancy 3-D, structured camo ready made is just too pricey).
As my daughter said as I came out of the bathroom last Sunday dressed out for the first time, “Oh my god, you’re a tree!”. Mission accomplished. I shed $2-a-bag hobby hut Spanish moss wherever I go, but I’m bringing the rest of the moss and leaves, and the glue gun.
If I start to come apart at MoM’s (and at 47 and on a Strict Alcohol Diet, I just might) I’ll have time to put myself back together on Monday.
posted by Mark Folse at 1:45 PM
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