Decom NYC: Create-Participate
Chengwin Homecoming: Extreme sport
Halloween Marathon, 2004: Now What?
|
Something grows in NYC
This
thing is fresh, different and alive. It's definitely not lame. 
This new culture of create/participate manifested itself again at the recent NYC Burning Man Decompression event in lower Manhattan. Planned annually as an opportunity for east coast attendants of the annual Burning Man arts festival to "decompress" from their often magnificent summer experience, this year's event was no disappointment.
Themed "Astral Slide", this was an all day into night participative party binge in a large club space with three floors of lounges, interactive art instillations and, by day, some kid friendly activities. Throughout, hipster DJ's spun great tunes.
The party was organized be a team of gods & goddesses and volunteer minions. "Theme camps", including our group Kostume Kult and frisky neighbors Orgasmateria, arranged pre-planned interactivity areas while Disorient pumped the music. A most fantastic bubble room was created featuring loungey, bubbly comfort all decked out in white. Balloonhedz inflated huge balloons that people could climb into. Mangina offered body impression art. Singers sung, hoopers hooped, odd people did strange things. Childish fun was everywhere.
So
the day became night and the night became morning. Throughout was the subtle hum
and occasional spike of excitement. Around every corner was a different experience,
a new encounter, a silly interaction. For those who participate (costume or make
other efforts), this type of event offers a community experience like none other
that has come before.
There were many rooms with different purposes. There were art installations, chill spaces and several musical environments. The main stage pumped and was eventually turned into a mad, sweaty dance floor. Kostume Kult offered costumes, accessories and colorful scraps. Facepaintings were doled out by the Galaxy Girls and, at Orgasmateria, massages and ticklings circulated amongst a frisky puppy pile. All offered their services for free with enthusiasm and creativity being the primary currencies.
The participatory culture
is growing on the back of this new vibe. These are people that have grown tired
of a rapidly homogenizing, consumer-driven society. They prefer self-crafted to
store-bought. They think social networks over clique-ism and respect local heroes
over artificial celebrity. Generous, optimistic and non-judgmental, it's a movement
that is springing forth from many wells. 
With Downtown and Brooklyn creatives leading the charge, New York City is growing as the place with the widest variety of participatory events. With many others covered by this webzine and new events being planned by many groups *New York City is hot again*. Hot with a new vibe that is not retro anything, not invented by monied interests, and not usery in expense. This a positive, refreshing new option.
Artistic efforts encouraged, communities coming together over fun projects, shy people being offered supportive environments to be participants and leaders. Ideas abound, meetings take place, visions are pursued. Yes, there can be wrangling and hairpullings, but a passionate community is a vibrant one.
Vibrant and growing.
Stay tuned.
|
It was a fine fall day…
Anticipation was growing as a large crowd gathered at the corner of Houston and Lafayette Streets in Greenwich Village, NYC.
The next chapter of the Chengwin vs. Chunk saga was at hand. It was time for the Homecoming Football (sorta) extravaganza and the battle for the hand of the lovely Chove.
To recap, this particular family of costume-puppet creatures are all products of interspecies love involving chickens. The good Chengwin is a chicken-penguin hybrid while his evil half-brother Chunk was conceived in an alcohol-lubricated union of Chengwin's chicken mom to an indigent skunk. Chove, the object of both Chengwin & Chunk's affections, is a half-breed chicken-dove.
In
a prior episode, Chengwin had disrupted the almost marriage ceremony between Chunk
and Chove and had made off with the bride. Now, not one year later, Chove's 'favors'
were up for grabs again offering her hand, as the Homecoming Queen, to the winner
of the event. Moral values notwithstanding, the competition was on and the crowd
was psyched.
As Chengwin has become a most endearing feature of the NYC street theater scene, the crowd awaiting the arrival of these "ch" characters was bigger then ever. As the fans waved pom-poms and socialized, Homecoming Queen Chove was the first to arrive.
With the accompaniment of several vice-queens, Chove swept through this hectic intersection and led the rabble in an unauthorized Homecoming Parade down Broadway, blocking traffic during the middle of a busy Saturday shopping day.
Tourists and jaded NYers alike watched in amazement
not knowing what to make of this most comical procession that included a 6 foot
puppet, a marching band and hundreds of pom-pom waving, traffic-stopping scofflaws.
As the procession surged south, Chunk and his goonsquad merged into the scene shouting obscenities and throwing elbows at all who dared to dally in the path.
Several minutes later, Chengwin and his entourage of shoulder-padded hotties joined the march bringing their excitement and positive vibe to the parade.
Arriving at Kenmare Square near Litle Italy, we found a makeshift field, complete with costumer goalposts awaiting the crowd and the teams. The Chengwin Cheerleaders inspired the crowd while the Chunk folks sulked.
The
game was afoot.
With a viking ref and an oversized, egg shaped ball, the game soon began. With few rules and no real point, the ball was bashed about until the inevitable Chengwin-Chunk confrontation.
With his hovering black cloud more apparent than usual, it seemed that Chunk's head was never in the game. Making no real effort to secure ball-position, or with seemingly little pride or urge for victory, Chunk seemed listless, his energies bereft.
Spurred on by the
foul-mouthed tactics of the Chunk goons, Chengwin ultimately moved to end this
sorry 'competition' so he could get down to business with the flirtatious Chove.
In a blood-frenzy, egged on by the cheerleaders, crowd and abundance of hybrid-testosterone, Chengwin "blitzed" Chunk at the earliest opportunity. With the ball nowhere near them, Chengwin head-feinted to the left and went straight up the middle landing a vicious peck right between Chunk's eyes.
Chunk went down like a sack of fetid potatoes and then crawled away with the aid of his sicko sidekicks.
And yes, Chove was awaiting the winner in the after-game endzone party. A tad tipsy from libations and a recent groping, Chove was most ready to lavish her attentions on the worthy Chengwin.
It's good to be the winner...
|
With October 31st falling
on a Sunday, this years Halloween was a three-day costumed endurance test like
never before.
For the Costume Network crew and our extended family of inspired creatives, merry pranksters and overgrown adolescents, our dance ticket was full.
With a three-day agenda of parties, booze-buses and parades, this year promised to be the pinnacle of Halloween for the foreseeable future. With our biggest problem being how to prioritize the fun, there would be no rest for us.
FRIDAY
On
Friday the 29th, our schedule included a warm-up party at the wonderful "Chapel
of Sacred Mirrors" studio (www.cosm.org) and then a descent into depravity at
the SMACK!-Fetish Halloween Ball. Sporting our electro-luminescing Egyptian god
costumes Anubis and Horus, the night and many engaging interactions awaited us.
The COSM space, featuring the mystical art of Alex Grey, attracted a socially progressive, spiritually minded crowd who were grooving to the ethereal art and tunes throughout the sumptuous rooms. The glowing Gods were most at home in this place, but, alas, the weekend had just begun.
The big party of the night was that being thrown by the best costume-fetish group, SMACK! (www.smack-fetish.com). With a history of throwing sexy & stylized themed events, Halloween would certainly not disappoint.
As
we entered, the fabulous queen of the costume contest, Baroness (www.baroness.com)
, proclaimed that we would do well in the contest if we stuck around. Looking
around at the hot crowd and great outfits, I wondered. Nontheless, the mix of
creativity, perversity and skin bode well for the night.
Between photo ops, flirtations, a large cash offer for Anubis, and yes, the costume contest victory, the night sailed by before venturing elsewhere.
SATURDAY
Saturday night was to be the borough night as our plan of attack included bouncing from Williamsburg, Brooklyn to Astoria, Queens and then back down towards Park Slope. Along the way we hooked up with the Disorient party bus (Party Bus!!!) and I forgot when method turned to madness, but madness it was.
The most unique costume
memory was at the "Warriors" theme party, which, modeled after the 1979 NYC street
gang film, urged all to come as themed gangs. While their were several great!
groups, I am still chuckling over the 'Hurling Furies' - a most hilarious spoof
of the film's edgy 'Baseball Furies' streetgang. 
SUNDAY (ugh…)
Certainly, no day for rest in Costumeland, Halloween had finally arrived. With festivities planned all day and late into the night, including the annual Village Halloween Parade, the Halloween marathon was coming down the backstretch. For us, it would be our 5th annual Halloween Parade float, this time under the banner of our growing costumer community project "Kostume Kult" (www.KostumeKult.com). For the rest of NYC there were thousands of other options.
Partnering with party & music group Disorient, this year's float
was quite the success. And again, our float kicked 6th Avenue's ass. With DJ Orion
spinning the tunes and a brigade of Star Wars Storm Troopers cutting a path through
the crowd, the float hopped, bounced and shimmied as has become our custom. Master
of Scaremonies, Count Crystofear, screamed enthusiastically, while the cuckoo
juice fueled float crew urged the crowd towards frenzy. 
But… That was not all.
Once the parade ended at the always anticlimactic left turn onto 21st street, the night was still young. More parties, many more costumes, new friends and random adventures. If that was the only night we had done this, I'm sure I could've recounted some stories. As is, it was a kaleidoscopic mush that would've been lost had not it been for the photographic record.
So now what?
With next years Halloween falling on a Monday, this freak of calender won't happen again for a while. Next year Halloween is a Monday, and, methinks, this will give us some breathing room between nights.
Only 361 more days…
|