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Flickr Slideshow of my Santacon NYC 09 photos
Here I am. I’m holding my north pole, which usually had my camera mounted on top. Photo by Santa Becky Nordmann.
I started out with the multitude of Santas in Greenpoint, inside and outside the Warsaw bar on Driggs Avenue. (more…)
With the rain melting the paper mache, the mechanism for making my jaw hinge up and down lasted until 14th Street. But the costume still gathered a lot of appreciation.
The rain thinned out the numbers of participants and audience, but the parade was still well attended.
Zombiecon NYC 2009 – Pt.1 – Getting Bloody from GammaBlog on Vimeo.
I have over an hour of video to edit. Part 1 takes place outside of The Carriage House on East 59th Street where the Zombies get bloodied up.
It’s a love fest for the Zombies in Bloomingdales.
No Zombie Love at the W Hotel.
The Zombies invade Grand Central and do the Chiller Dance.
The Zombies hit Times Square, Sephora and Halloween Adventure.
I’m hoping Saturday, Zombiecon day, will be cool and clear, and that the stores we invade are not too warm. This costume is really made for outdoor use in the Halloween Parade. Indoors, I’ll definitely be sweating. The illusion should be fairly effective in daylight, but up close inspection will likely reveal the puppetry tricks. The jaw and arms are operated by my hands under the cover of the robe.
But the forecast is for rain on Saturday, I might fall back to just make-up for Zombiecon, and save the puppetry for the parade.
Captures from the video.
The Seattle Cardboard Tube Fighting league hosted a tournament: Saturday in Philadelphia on the Art Museum steps (made famous in Rocky),and Sunday in McCarren Park, Brooklyn, New York. It was a free event, and the League provided the lightweight cardboard tubes. You want your tube to survive the duel while your opponent’s is destroyed. This is a pretty random process, as when tubes clash yours is as likely to break as the one you are striking. The real agenda is to have fun. I came home with a few scrapes but was otherwise unharmed.
Armor Cam: I made hole in my cardboard breast-plate so I could safely place the camera beneath my armor to capture the action. Unfortunately I had my camera set on the lo-res setting. Oops!
The Melees, a free-for-all after the competition.
My epic battle, see me cower from the vicious tail slashing dragon. Captured by Anonymous Agent:
Update: Now with more Santas, part 2 of the video is embedded below.
Both videos are mildly NSFW, mostly for language.
I regard Santacon and other roving gatherings as street art, people expressing themselves in public. I was torn between capturing the event on video and dancing down the street. This year I pretty much sacrificed the dancing for the capturing. Maybe next year I’ll attach my camera to a Santa helmet and just go for it. Though if I wasn’t having fun shoving my striped pole in the air like a crane, I would have put the camera away, had a drink or two, and joined the dance.
Bill Cunningham in the New York Times stumbled upon the event and has an audio slideshow. He was greatly amused.
Part 1 finds the Santas in midtown completely covering the steps of the General Post Office on Eighth Avenue,
and then traipsing over to Grand Central Terminal.
Full Screen (Link to YouTube, click play in high quality and then hit the full screen button on the player)
Santacon NYC 2008 Part 1 from GammaBlog on Vimeo.
Part 2 takes the Santas from Rockefeller Center, to the South Street Seaport, and the Staten Island Ferry.
Full Screen (Link to YouTube, click play in high quality and then hit the full screen button on the player)
Santacon NYC – 2008 – Pt. 2 from GammaBlog on Vimeo.
The pedal-powered stripper pole at the South Street Seaport. I mostly shot video during this year’s massive NYC Santacon. I have eight and a half gigs of it to edit into something worth showing.
Warning if you go to Santacon dressed as a panda, you will likely get whacked in the head with a candy cane by feisty girls!
55º Fahrenheit in Tompkins Square Park this afternoon. Probably an NYU student film. It had a large crew, even more than you can see in the video.
Greenwich Village Halloween Parade 2008 – From the Inside from GammaBlog on Vimeo.
The 2008 parade from a participant’s point-of-view.
The arms go up and down, they are operated like a puppet.
Speaking purely from my experience last year, the best subway station for access to the participant’s holding pen is probably the C or E at Spring Street. It probably won’t require much too much walking. Make sure you exit on the east side of Sixth Ave. Last year, I had to walk all the way from the West 4th Street station to Canal Street along 7th Avenue in order to get in. I suspect even if you get off on the east side exit at W 4th you will have to go several blocks out of your way to get in the pen. If you are coming in late Canal street stops might be the way to go.
The official website says:
For all those in costume is on 6th Avenue South of Spring Street and North of Canal between 6:30 and 8:30 p.m. Alert ! ONLY enter the line-up on 6th Ave. from the East and South between Canal and Spring !
Start Making your Costume NOW ! Then,
JOIN US on 6th Ave. South of Spring St.
starting at 6:30 until 8. The Parade starts
promptly at 7, but takes 2 hours to fully leave the
staging area. Pick out your favorite band, make
a space for yourself once you get started.Logo
Play to the crowd !
www.halloween-nyc.com/
I got a comment on my Flickr stream asking for a scythe. I made a baby one, anything larger would have been too much for the arm to lift.
I added brains and hair to an old bald cap I’ve had for years. Pretty disgusting. All this is for the Greenwich Village Halloween Parade tomorrow night.
Brain Death is a McSame supporter.
Zombie Invasion – NYC 2008 from GammaBlog on Vimeo.
This is a 90 second unedited clip of the Zombies coming down the escalator in the mall where Gimbels used to be. You can see a Flickr slideshow of my photos here, but mostly I shot video. I caught a lot of wacky stuff, there were few slackers, everyone put on a show.
EV Grieve The Lo-Down East Village Local NYT NY 1 RSS of Gary Null’s Blog
