Favoriting Aerial View: Playlist from October 28, 2014 Favoriting

Aerial View was WFMU’s first regularly-scheduled phone-in talk show. Hosted by Chris T. and on the air since 1989, the show features topical conversation, interviews and many trips down the rabbit hole. Until further notice, Aerial View is only available as a podcast, available every Tuesday morning. Subscribe to the newsletter “See You Next Tuesday!” and find tons of archives at aerialview.me. (Visit homepage.)

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Favoriting October 28, 2014: When I Was Divine
I feel terrible admitting this: I'm a Halloween atheist. I can take it or leave it. Yes, as a child I traipsed around my neighborhood dressed as a "hobo", seeking free candy: I'd be insane not to. It's true I like horror movies and all the ghoulish trappings. But I thought it was a holiday for kids, something I'd leave behind, like my Schwinn Stingray.

Back "in the day" Halloween wasn't a such a big deal for adults, who mostly looked annoyed when you rang their doorbell. Now that I'm a grown-ass man I'm apparently still expected to dress up just to attend a party (see my last "costume", beneath this playlist, in a painting by my wife, Janet. I'm also expected to decorate my house and to shell out $$$ for that Socialist redistribution of wealth known as Trick Or Treat (which is why I'm now the adult looking annoyed when my bell rings).

Like most holidays in our culture, the original idea of Halloween - using "humor and ridicule to confront the power of death" - has been thoroughly obliterated in an effort to sell you something. But maybe I'm down on Halloween because of the year I dressed up as Dawn Davenport from the John Waters movie Female Trouble, almost got into a knife fight with a biker over a woman who wasn't even my girlfriend and then, on the way home, got pulled over by cops who proceeded to ridicule me and ogle her. That might be it.

I'll tell that story tonight and I want you to call 201-209-WFMU and tell your Halloween stories, good and bad. On the good side? At the 2005 Weird New Jersey Halloween Party (Stone Pony, Asbury Park, NJ) I met the woman who became my wife. Happy Anniversary, honey!

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Listener comments!

Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:09pm
the Master:

Female Trouble ranks as one of my top 5 films of all time. Dawn is my hero.
Avatar 6:09pm
Revolution Rabbit Nov63:

...okay - I'm in Retail (okay - thriftstore) - so Holidays begin @ least a Month before -uh - the Holiday. By the time it rolls around - I'm so done awlready. Also: this means that for me - they feel like the Lennon sequence in 'Magical Mystery Tour' where he's a waiter shoveling spaghetti to the fat lady: just shoveling - things - to greedy insatiable people...& okay: it started w/ being Done w/ Xmas - especially after Black Friday became a reason for people to Riot & be Violent: I click the Opt-Out box @ that point
...but now - the End of Year Holidays just blend together - one long Retail FreakOut - Oct.-Jan. ...I dressed as a Wizard the whole month of October there for three years (see?: wfmu.org... ) - The Whole Month - for Three Years. I'm done.
- Besides: No one's got good candy on my block : ( ...
  6:10pm
Philly_Tim:

Yep. Glenn Milstead.
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:11pm
dale:

rev rab - are you dressed as a wizard or rick wakeman?
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:12pm
Greg from Bloomfield:

JW's Role Models is one of my favorite books EVER.
Avatar 6:12pm
Revolution Rabbit Nov63:

@dale: which would be Trick & which Treat ? Someone else said Roxy Eno...which I'm good w/...sorta...
  6:13pm
Peanut:

Im in my mid 30s and can't dress up for halloween anymore for parties. its just like meh...
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:14pm
dale:

last time i went trick or treating a neighborhood lady said 'aren't you boys a little big for this?' - my heart sank and my childhood ended. yes, it was about 12 or 13.
  6:15pm
marmalade kitty:

my friend and I were mugged by older kids who took almost all of our nights earnings :( bastards!
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:15pm
dale:

@rev- nothing wrong with wakeman - great member of yes and strawbs.
Avatar 6:16pm
Revolution Rabbit Nov63:

A year or two I put my hair back & wore a suit. It works if you know me. I shouted @ a girl @ the pub dressed as a 'hippy' to get a job. Don't think she dug that...
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:16pm
dale:

marmalade - that's cold.
Avatar 6:16pm
Revolution Rabbit Nov63:

...Trick - deffo...
Avatar 6:17pm
Revolution Rabbit Nov63:

...I would give you candy...
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:17pm
Greg from Bloomfield:

The Nerds are playing at Maxwell's, because of course they are.
  6:18pm
Peanut:

How are the Nerds still around
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:19pm
dale:

is that where kate bush got the song 'hammer horror' - from hammer films?
Avatar 6:20pm
Revolution Rabbit Nov63:

...she could 'do' the Hammer Horror girl look ? How quickly can I dress like Divine for her...
@Dale: yes. Very Brit.
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:20pm
dale:

one halloween i got nair on my ball sack and it. burned. like. HELL.
  6:20pm
Julia:

I haven't dressed up since I was little, but here's why Halloween has always been the best holiday: no family obligations or religious connections. Now that's a holiday.
  6:21pm
Peanut:

Thats a good point Julia
Avatar 6:21pm
Revolution Rabbit Nov63:

@dale: ...also deffo Trick...
- that's the counter-argument Julia, yes...
  6:23pm
Philly_Tim:

No religious connections? You mean I've been lighting all those fires for nothing?
  6:24pm
Peanut:

This story sounds akward as hell.
  6:24pm
turtle boy:

I was more than happy to watch my ex-girlfriends cats while she went to a halloween party dressed as a black widow/scorpion hybrid with a tail that shot redhot liquor out the end. The cats and I laughed and laughed...
  6:25pm
Peanut:

gotta love this show
Avatar 6:30pm
Revolution Rabbit Nov63:

...stabbed by a Biker for the honor of a lesbian 'girlfriend' whilst dressed as Divine - Trick to live thru - Treat for a storyteller...hahaha...
Avatar 6:32pm
Revolution Rabbit Nov63:

Hammer Horror girls:
www.bing.com...
- including [bones liquify - puddle on floor] - Caroline Munro...
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:34pm
dale:

the officer wanted to eff her too.
Avatar 6:36pm
Revolution Rabbit Nov63:

...so - let's get beat down like Rodney King & go to Jail dressed like Divine...
Avatar 6:38pm
Revolution Rabbit Nov63:

...jayzus...
  6:38pm
Peanut:

oh HELL no to this story
  6:39pm
Peanut:

sounds horrid!
Avatar 6:39pm
Revolution Rabbit Nov63:

- so much better than watching the News tonight...
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:40pm
dale:

last time i went out on new years eve was with a bunch of women and the bouncer let all the women in and kept me out. they all went in and left me. then a cab driver wouldn't take me to brooklyn cuz he would lose money on the retrurn to manhattan. my joy for going out on holidays was destroyed.
Avatar 6:41pm
Revolution Rabbit Nov63:

- never ever got into NewYear's. Above my station.
Avatar 6:42pm
Revolution Rabbit Nov63:

...NewYear's & St.Paddys - the two nights to *avoid* the Pub...
  6:43pm
Julia:

What...? That should be a great memory, Chris. Forget the cop thing. You scared the pee out of some douchebag biker talking trash about your date. In drag. Brandishing a knife. Guaranteed he never forgot that.
Avatar 6:44pm
Revolution Rabbit Nov63:

- awlright - turnaround ! Halloween Karma.
...You're describing the Mexican 'Day of the Dead'...
  6:45pm
Ike:

I really liked the newsletter this week. And hey, my aunt Cookie was in some of those John Waters movies. One Chloe Griffin just wrote a book about her. I much prefer reading Cookie's writings than watching her movie roles though, if I'm honest....
  6:45pm
JakeGhould:

Halloween is a great holiday for kids. But that said, I just have fear-filled memories of childhood Halloween in Brooklyn. Where egging, shaving cream & even Nair (yes Nair hair remover) were used as weapons in an attack. Mixed feelings on the holiday as a result.
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:45pm
Ken From Hyde Park:

RIP Marcia Strassman, 66, who was on Welcome Back, Kotter.
Avatar 6:47pm
Revolution Rabbit Nov63:

- you really did Trick in Brooklyn !
  6:48pm
Jervix:

Halloween Candy is for anyone, any age, who dares to retrieve it. What other holiday allows one into the homes of strangers? Pooh, I say, Pooh, sir!
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:53pm
Mike East:

I hate halloween. When I was a kid, I wore the same home made pumpkin costume one year too many and the older kids made fun of me. Since then, I say screw halloween.
Avatar 6:54pm
Jeff:

Frolicking?
  6:55pm
Julia:

Yeah, frolicking in the woods is great. I'm talking about a 3-hour midnight mass.
  6:55pm
dave in Vermont:

There was a house that, although decorated for Halloween was completely dark on Halloween night. Everyone was scared to go ring the door heel and trick-or-treat. Eventually a friend's mom came to pick us all up and drive us home. Before driving home there was one last chance to trick-or-treat this house. Eventually I was convinced to do it. I thought I was so brave and that it would all be fine. Everyone waited in the car. I walked up to the house. As I was about to ring the doorbell. The stuffed Frankenstein monster on the porch began slowly and silently rising. Needless to say I was scared shitless and ran back to the car terrified.
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:56pm
dale:

i think you wanted 'cavort'
Avatar Swag For Life Member 6:56pm
chad from oregon:

My final Halloween was also 12/13-ish. I went out as The Punisher, which was essentially being dressed all in black with a white skull on my chest. At one house, I recall an older woman asking me what/who I was... and that's when it happened. I was over Halloween. I wanted to avoid the explanation and sheepish replied, "A... skull...". And that was it. It was over.
  6:58pm
JakeGould:

The Brooklyn Halloween I remember is really just an amplifier for neighborhood bullying bullshit. The last I saw something like that was actually in Carroll Gardens in Carroll Gardens Park. The whole place was covered with shaking cream. Everything smelled like cheap menthol. It was horrifying & amazing to see as an adult.
  6:59pm
thatsyourtrouble:

Yes, might have been near the reservation in West Orange (you said it was close to Pal's Cabin), where there's a very good view of Manhattan. I actually live a few blocks from where this may have happened....
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