Halloween!

[Civet]

I know it's early, but does anyone else know what they are doing for Halloween already? I'm most likely going to go as Daria Morgendorffer (from the MTV show Daria). It's a costume I've been thinking of doing year after year but always had something a bit more interesting or challenging to make. After last year's costume I think I need to do an easy one this year, though. Last year I went as Toph Bei Fong from Avatar: The Last Airbender. The costume came out great but I got really stressed out over it because it was the most complicated thing I've made thus far. I always get excited over costuming

This is Daria:


She basically looks like me, so this will be easy haha.
I've already found an appropriate coat! Hopefully it will fit me, I'm a little worried it may be too large, but I suppose I'll find out when it gets here:
http://www.etsy.com/transaction/56295088

[SomethingElse]

I love Halloween, but I always prep too late, really! I'm thinking either another Dias De Los Muertos thing, zombies, or I think R mentioned wanting to do 'zombie jock and cheerleader' because she loves American cheerleader outfits and basically wants an excuse to get one (cheerleading isn't very big here, really). But I'm not completely sure, yet. There's also the chance that someone will have a themed party. For example, R and a friend were talking about getting everyone to dress up in uniforms, but old ones (WW1, WW2 kinda theme).

[Sophist]

It's been ages since I've dressed up for Halloween. It makes me kinda wish I had more friends who were into it.

Nowadays I usually just spend it with Manny and/or Andy, make a good dinner, watch horror movies, eat some candy. --Although last year Andy, his brother, and I went to Rocky Horror Show, which was great. Not sure what we'll be doing this year.

I'll probably just go as myself again.

[goddessoflubbock]

Omg I hate Rocky Horror. My name is Janet and everyone thinks they first thought of it. I spent most of high school hearing it down the halls.

That said I love Halloween mostly bc it means cool weather and my favorite holiday is coming.

This is the first year I have no kids trick or treating

[renaeden]

Halloween is not that big in Australia but it is getting bigger. When I lived on my own I always made sure I had lollies to give out but now that I am with my parents, they have no sense of occasion and don't answer the door to anyone! A shame because I like to see what people dress up as.

I haven't seen Rocky Horror Show so I can't make the connection between that and Janet. Is Janet a character in it?

[Civet]

Benji- I love Halloween, too, I think it's my favorite holiday. : ) All of those ideas sound fun. Doing group costumes can be a lot of fun, too, I've done it with friends at anime conventions before and it gets everyone kind of in the right mood for the occasion.

It's funny to think of someone dressing as an "American cheerleader," living in the US myself. I'm not sure if it's the case in other schools but in my high school cheerleaders didn't really wear their outfits around the school much even though they seem to wear them all the time on TV!

Sophist- Going as yourself is no fun . At my last few Halloween parties I've attended mostly we just had food and watched horror movies, and some people dressed and up and some people didn't. So it's still possible to get into the spirit . I know some people dress up just to hand candy out at the door, as well, if they have a lot of kids in the neighborhood.

Goddess- I've never seen Rocky Horror beyond random clips but i know what you're talking about. From what I've been told going to Rocky Horror is more like an "event." I don't know if I'd want to go though as it sounds pretty chaotic.

Renaeden- Yeah, it seems like Halloween tends to be a lot bigger in the US than in a lot of other countries. It is a lot of fun though

[Sophist]

Omg I hate Rocky Horror. My name is Janet and everyone thinks they first thought of it. I spent most of high school hearing it down the halls.

That said I love Halloween mostly bc it means cool weather and my favorite holiday is coming.

This is the first year I have no kids trick or treating

Oh yes, I hadn't thought of that. I can imagine it's not your favorite flic then

damn it, Janet...

I haven't seen Rocky Horror Show so I can't make the connection between that and Janet. Is Janet a character in it?

It's definitely a cult classic. Although I think it's more fun to watch with others than just as a "movie" because there's a whole audience script to yell back at the screen or sing over the song lyrics. And there's the tradition that the first time a person goes to a RHPS event at the movies (must be at the movies, not just watching it at home) you get a big lipstick V drawn on your forehead to signify you're a virgin.

Manny only just saw the movie. Now I have to de-virginize him with the REAL thing. Baxter Theater here in Louisville plays RHPS at midnight on the last Friday of every month.

Goddess- I've never seen Rocky Horror beyond random clips but i know what you're talking about. From what I've been told going to Rocky Horror is more like an "event." I don't know if I'd want to go though as it sounds pretty chaotic.

It's not too bad, but it's much more fun if you know the film well and also are familiar with the audience script. Otherwise, you're not just watching the film but watching and listening to what the other audience members are saying and doing. --Which is entertaining in itself!

[goddessoflubbock]

I saw it at the theater, full of people on stage playing the parts!

Renaeden - Janet is a character and everyone calls her dammit Janet...trust me, my parents said it first!

[renaeden]

I think I would pass on the seeing it at the movies, especially having a V drawn on!

And goddess, having your name linked to it would be annoying.

[Sophist]

You only have to be a virgin once.

[SomethingElse]

Benji- I love Halloween, too, I think it's my favorite holiday. : ) All of those ideas sound fun. Doing group costumes can be a lot of fun, too, I've done it with friends at anime conventions before and it gets everyone kind of in the right mood for the occasion.

We don't often get to do group costumes with theme type things and I don't know many people who are able to make decent costumes so they're usually hired, bought, or not very impressive. I've seen a couple of amazing homemade Ghostbusters costumes, though!

It's funny to think of someone dressing as an "American cheerleader," living in the US myself. I'm not sure if it's the case in other schools but in my high school cheerleaders didn't really wear their outfits around the school much even though they seem to wear them all the time on TV!

It's definitely the film version people go with. Seeing real life cheerleaders isn't nearly as impressive dress-wise. Here we wear uniform in secondary school (and a vague uniform in primary as well - when we're little we have school colours, usually red or blue or green school jumpers over grey trousers/skirt/dress, with white polo shirts, that sort of thing, although when I was little we often also got away with football shirts as long as they were mostly school colours (ours were red, white and grey, so red or claret football t-shirts were usually alright). And in secondary we wear shirts, ties, blazers (my school's uniform was black trousers or skirt, white shirt, school tie, school badge on black blazer, black shoes (or trainers - that was a rule that sometimes changed, one year they'd insist we wore proper shoes, another year they'd say we could wear black trainers)... Whereas in the films, kids in America wear whatever they like and only posh schools have uniforms (here the posher schools just have much smarter uniforms or more old fashioned ones, like the girls have to wear specific socks as well, and I've even seen kids from one school wearing boater hats!). I was in Glasgow recently and saw tiny kids wearing blazers with their school uniforms!

So, whereas there's the whole 'school girl' thing which is supposed to be sexy, the cheerleader outfits in the films are quite popular here, because we don't have that (my school didn't have cheerleaders at all, I'm pretty sure the majority don't). And letterman jackets are quite popular here at the moment, as well, even though we don't use them for teams or anything like that (which seems to be what they are often used for in America? Or that's the impression you get from films!).

R also likes Japanese high school uniform. Again, pretty funny because I think her school uniform was alright for a school uniform, and that my own was just boring and kind of annoying (and uniforms always end up looking rough anyway because you wear them every day! So blazers get really battered really quickly!). But I suppose it's just that anything looks more glamourous on TV, and you become fed up with what you're too familiar with.

Also, in some sixth forms (which are basically colleges attached to the secondary school rather than a separate college, so you can stay on to do your A levels instead of leaving to do them) there's no uniform and in some there's some kind of uniform, and in some there's probably full uniform. In mine we were supposed to wear what we liked but no jeans, but everyone started wearing jeans. I think after my year group left they became stricter, so that people had to come in in smart clothes (boys would still be wearing shirts and ties, but they'd look like they were going to work in an office instead of in school uniform).

[Aspen]

My daughter wants to be Lloyd from Lloyd in Space, which is a TV show that has been off the air for years, so nobody is going to know who she's supposed to be other than a green alien. I think that my husband and I will be the Men in Black, a couple of alien catchers.

[goddessoflubbock]

Benji - school uniforms in the US used to be reserved for Catholic schools and private academies. In recent years however many public schools have switched to uniforms to eliminate the distraction of attire. Or so they say.

Cheerleaders here usually just wear their uniforms on game day, generally Fridays. American football is quite revered by many.

My son has a school or letterman jacket. We bought it in his Frshman year. It is so named bc you get a "letter", generally the first letter if your school name, to embroider on it when you excel in sports, etc. DS will get a letter in marching band.

Halloween! No plans to dress up but candy we got! Got a deal today, 4 big bags of m&ms plus two Carmax lip balm, $3.50 out of pocket gaw I love couponing!

[SomethingElse]

I liked watching Lloyd in Space!

Yeah, our main sport is probably football (not American football, but football ) and most schools have a rugby team and a netball team, as well; R's school was an all-girl's school so they had a hockey team but I'm pretty sure mine didn't (I went to a mixed school).

And obviously here letterman jackets are purely a fashion thing, and some people get their initials embroidered on or they're bought with numbers or letters already on them.

[Sophist]

In the schools I attended, the popular sports tended to be:

Grade school:

soccer (football)
baseball (or softball for the girls)
basketball
volleyball
track and field

High school:

Same as above, but American football suddenly becomes popular as well. And in my (private Catholic all-girls) high school, field hockey and lacrosse were pretty popular too. But I stuck with racquetball and softball.