Halloween update: Waldo found!

By Nicholas Weiss


I'm a guy who takes Halloween entirely too seriously. I worked on my Hellboy costume for more than a month and I wore it for more than a night. I still can't get some of it to come off. I was also a too-nude Spartan two years ago and was White Gold from the milk commercials last year, making my own costume for each of the last five years. As an enthusiast and as a writer, I took note of some of my favorite costumes and some of the more common costumes, in hopes that I might encourage more people to really work on next year's outfits.

Let's start with the good. Some of my favorite costumes were worn by people who went as all-out as I did. I saw a handmade red-tunic Link who made a sweet Hyrulean shield to go with his costume. A friend of mine made his own Ash Ketchum costume, using his dog as Pikachu. Another student made a Rufio from "Hook" costume that was so good it looked professional: he dyed his hair red, got his leathers and his feathers and made something beautiful. However, I'm not only impressed by hard workers or big spenders, but also by creativity and good humor; a few more kudos to deserving revelers who made great costumes on a college-kid schedule and budget: Billy Mayes and Vince both looked great and had perfect comedic timing with their costumes, and the Tapatio guy and Cholula girl looked the part and played roles that I hadn't even considered for Halloween. Swig Hall and Alex from A Clockwork Orange both looked good and probably cost less than $10 to make, and Poison Ivy had a great costume that was driven more by good makeup artistry than clothing choice. There was also a great Rosie the Riveter costume and some Tetris pieces whose costumes, like the game they are based on, will never go out of style.

And now, the bad -- perhaps "bad" is the wrong word since some of these costumes were good, but merely overused. I prefer costumes that require some kind of creativity or work, so anything sold by Leg Avenue earns less respect from me than it does from parents of the girls who wear it. Aside from the slutty cat, nurse, sailor and firefighter costumes, which I love for one reason but hate for another, there were a few other common sights. I saw no fewer than six Waldos ­-- was there an inside joke I wasn't clued in to behind this resurgence? Aside from the habitually hidden Waldo, there were also many Native Americans, Angels and Demons, Zombies, Vampires and people who just picked the weirdest assortment of American Apparel clothes they could find. These "costumes" are fine if they make the wearer feel comfortable and have fun, but if people can't go all out just one night a year, it seems to me that they might have some serious psychological issues. Finally -- I don't know how this happened, or even if there is even a single person to blame -- but something at Bellomy got what looks to be blue ink all over me and at least one other party-goer. I didn't like that costume either, though I honestly couldn't tell you what it was.

Nicholas Weiss is a junior psychology and philosophy double major.

Previous
Previous

Men's water polo anticipates WWPA tourney

Next
Next

Sports in Vegas a possibility