Every day I'm hustlin'
My friend Divine asked me which day I was going to wear my costume for Hallo-ween — Friday or Saturday?
My answer,” Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday!” Yes, short of saying it’s holidaze season, the nightmare before Christmas known to us as Halloween is getting its well-deserved extended long-play album airtime.
It all started when I was a kid. Close to midnight, I saw my elder siblings huddled in a frenzy, decking themselves out in fabric and face paint. Always wanting to be in on the action, I told them I wanted to join. “But you’re not in costume,” my sister said. Another sister got her stockings, wrapped my face with it and got a gold ribbon and tied up the ends of my hair. I was a gift, and this was my first Halloween costume ever.
This “gift” was no match for the competition that we were about to face. From the other side of the house, our house helpers had formed their own coalition. At the stroke of midnight, we were to meet at the garden, where a scare-off would ensue. Flashlights, brooms, bottles of ketchup had other uses that night. Good thing I didn’t grab the Baygon. Hmm, I guess that’s where the game “Plants versus Zombies” got its idea. And boy, did I get the scare of my life! Until now, the “Regal-shockered” image of Poleng, my trusty yaya with her brains spilling out, still gives me the creeps. God bless her soul.
Fast forward to now, Halloween still gives me the goosebumps — no I’m not afraid of zombie-looking yayas anymore, but I don’t want to be the kid who just wore a stocking (I’m an adult now, and wearing just a stocking would be...quite weird). There’s more pressure, right now (thank you, Janina San Miguel!). Year after year, you gotta top your previous year’s costume — and that’s hard when you’ve already been carried into a club just to fit into your costume, or transported by a pick-up truck just so everything would remain intact. Arriving in a coffin? Been there. Flying around with hydraulics around the Halloween party venue? Done that.
This year, I just decided to play it safe and come as the Twitter bird. I would have arrived with a hard fiber-glass shell egg for a more dramatic entry plus a whale costume I would have had my trusty driver Abet wear, for the “over capacity” Twitter icon, but we lacked time. But a million tweet thanks goes to designer John Herrera and his team for putting 300 twitter birds unto one outfit.
Going back to Abet, during Halloweens of years past, Abet came as an eight-foot-tall Megatron, as dynamic duo partner for my Optimus Prime. And yet another time, he came with me dressed as a gorilla. You can’t buy loyalty and devotion like that.
Some people say Halloween is an excuse for girls to be slutty and for guys to be scary. I think we don’t need an occasion for that, but for the sake of, why not? Or maybe it is now the other way around, as there were guys who came as Team Jacob and wore their abs on their sleeves, plus a couple of Lady Gagas spotted going around, meat dress not included.
At Planet Republiq, we went for the theme sci-fi sexy, as we are always excited for the future and how it blends the past and the present. UFOs, aliens and rocket scientists mingled with Playboy bunnies, fashion royalty (Karl Lagerfeld, Anna Wintour, Alexander McQueen) met comic book legends and fairy tale players. Liz Uy came as Maleficent, Georgina Wilson and Divine Lee as Playboy bunnies, Victor Basa as Hugh Hefner, Carla Humphries as Wonder Woman, Belle Daza as Zorro’s love interest, Erik Cua as the Madhatter.
It is interesting to observe how our local scene plays up its Halloween looks, as you can see on our Supreme Halloween costume round-up. Some go for their alter egos, play the superhero, act like the villain, while others just want to show more skin than normal. Whatever it is,whether fetish or fantasy, it’s your call. “Walang basagan ng trip.”
And so November is upon us, and it’s a wake-up call to reality — the reality that by next week, Christmas trees are gonna be up all over the city, Yuletide carols will be on heavy rotation everywhere.
Now, where did I put that Santa costume again?
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It’s in the air, count with me at twitter.com/iamtimyap.
