Once again we are fortunate that October 31 falls on a Friday. That means two full days of Halloween, and New York Halloween never disappoints. Here are a few things for you to do this weekend:
During the Village Halloween Parade, I’m not sure which year, I once glimpsed a person stroll up Sixth Avenue as a human-sized penis, extending and contracting its erection whenever it passed by a policeman. And that was one of the plainer costumes on display at the annual march, which draws more than 60,000 participants and hundreds of thousands of spectators. If you have never experienced the parade and you love to see the contingents of New York zombies, vampires, gigantic Rubik’s Cubes, headless socialites, every species of bird, and blown-apart politicians stomping up the Avenue, you really should try to make it this year. This one is the biggest and the best, and despite the crowds jammed in to see the ocean of creative haberdashery, it is totally worth it. The parade begins at 7 pm at Spring Street and runs up Avenue of the Americas to 16th Street, probably extending north of that as well. After the parade, every bar and restaurant in the area will be packed with costumed heathens. The rest of Manhattan as well. And don’t expect even the appearance of good taste in the street: I wouldn’t be surprised to see an enormous, worm-like Ebola virus among the revelers. http://www.halloween-nyc.com/index.php
If you are in desperate need of a full-scale heart attack, New York also hosts an array of haunted houses, which are already open for business. In each of them, dozens of actors try to outdo rival Palaces of Creep in the hope of giving attendees the most gloriously sickening and gory experiences of the year. Some include physical contact between actors and patrons. One of the most famous and well-attended is Nightmare New York (http://nightmarenyc.com/), which opened at the end of September and runs through November 1, located at the Clemente Soto Velez School at Suffolk and Rivington Streets in the Lower East Side. Other notable haunted houses include Blood Manor at 163 Varick St. (http://bloodmanor.com/) and Jekyll & Hyde’s midtown attraction at 216 W. 44th Street (http://www.jekyllandhydehauntedhouse.com/). Bring a date, depending on whether or not you’ll have a second date: it could go either way.
Finally—because Friday night will be insufficient stimulation for a full weekend Halloween experience—you’ll need to pull out your second-night costume and get yourself over to Drom, at 85 Avenue A in the East Village, for RussianMix’s Gypsies & Pirates Party, starting at 10 pm and with DJ’s Poodlecannon (yours truly) and Vovan (Mr. RussianMix himself) and featuring the voluptuous and incredible Sarah Screams, whose tag line is “An Opera-Singin, Burlesque-Dancin, Blow-Up Doll lovin gal with mad booty.” What’s not to like?
