A Quiet Halloween
Nov. 1st, 2005 12:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jack_babalonI was tired and out of it by the time I got home yesterday, but it was Halloween and I desperately needed to splash my face in the night air. The Big Guy called and invited me to some Push-Push event & the Scholar was doing hosting a costume contest at the Eurotrash Cafe-Midtown. I wasn't really feeling social though and whether I went somewhere in paticular or not didn't really matter to me but I needed an outfit for the ritual of it if nothing else. I improvised. I slipped into my skeleton bodysuit, donned my gray hoodie and decided i'd be Donnie Darko tonight. The costume was supposed to be clever, since this was the same outfit Donnie wears on Halloween at the movies climax. That and the character seemed to fit that level of romantic moodiness that overcomes me, the boy whose already dead, a ghost in his own life. I hopped on my baby and tried to make my way down to Decatur Station. On the way I slipped under the tunnel and ended up on Seaborn Avenue. I originally was taking a side tour to check out some of the spots the Atlanta Jack the Ripper struck (see last Thursdays Creative Loafing article) but I ended up pulling up to the apartment complex where Bud used to live. It was almost ten years ago today that I began my few months of couch surfing here. I remembered the two of us chasing Uriah down the road while he screamed for help and no one listened. Unfortunately I began remembering a little too much, I slipped back under the tunnel and tried once again to make my way over to Push-Push. The air crackled with the smell of fireplaces, the air echoed with sirens & roaring freight trains. I managed to just dodge a yellow Humvee that barreled through a red light over at the Edgewood/Candler Park station was. The passengers let out one of those Buckhead "Woooooo"s at me and threw an empty beer can at me that sailed way over my head. I dialed up the Big Guy and told him I wasn't coming. Tonight wasn't a good night to go exploring Decatur or "Dick-Hater" as the locals keep calling it. I went down Oakdale to where it intersected with North Avenue. The batteries on my front light died down so I had to maneuver through the shadows & the crackling branches and acorns carefully. I went down here and there'd be no back up. I stopped over at my first apartment here in the ATL. It was a two bedroom apartment that ran $400 a month. Split between three people it was a pretty sweet deal. I of course had to sleep in the living room though. The two guys I was living with at one point used to have a contest where they'd put slashes over the door frame to their bedrooms to indicate how many different women they slept with. I'm almost curious if their still there. Years later i'd live next door and in this same exact apartment the Magpie would make his nest here and so the wonderful world of theater would enter my life.
I take the bike trail in the dark and feeling nostalgic I cruise down to Masquerade.
I don't intend to go in really. But I remember when I worked there as a doorguy the fun I had and years later under the aegis of the Secret Room I actually got to be the DJ for one or two of the Annual Halloween Ball. But it was when I was working clean up crew in '96 that I got my coffin that now sits in my apartment as an entertainment center. As I recall some funeral home gave a bunch of shitty coffins to the Masquerade for decorations and I believe they filled them up with Bud or Bud Lite or some other equally foul American Piss-beer. All day while cleaning up I kept bugging the boss if I could have one of the coffins to take home with me.
"What're ya gonna do with it?" He finally asked me exhausted
"Have sex in it & probably use it for ritual Magick" I tell him. He just looked at me waiting to see if the facade would crack. When it didn't he just sighed.
"What the hell" he finally agreed and he helped me carry it over to the loading dock next to the Magic Mushroom. I called Bud from the payphones in front of Hell and we loaded it up the Coffin in the back of a truck he borrowed. We drove it down to Little 5 where we gave away the few cases of Bud sitting in the coffin and then made a straight line to my pad. The look on Larue's face when the two of us came walking in the front door hauling the coffin. Priceless.
I'm coming down the long hill on North. Masquerade sits in the dip of a valley and the wind is whistling around my hood. I swerve through the glass & potholes that i'm getting more and more used to everyday here. I stop across the street. The Silver "SecretRoom" banner hanging off the railing. The marquee read "Last Halloween". There's a hearse parked outside and already the children of the night are emerging from the parking lot. I needed to see it. This time next year it'll just be another set of luxury apartments. All part of the city's plan to be the worlds largest strip mall. Another gesture towards gentrification so the yuppies won't lose any sleep knowing theres something interesting going on within a hundred miles of their compartamentalized lifestyles. I'll really miss this place. I sit across the street and for a moment I almost say 'What the fuck' and stop in. But i'm not that man anymore. I take a left at the City Hall East and cut through the parking lot of the Home Depot/Whole Foods/Borders parking lot. I can hear a faint voice echoing and I cut through a sidepath in the dirt and pop up in the parking lot for the Landmark Theater in downtown. I cruise over in time to catch the Scholars Costume contest. I go inside and much to my surprise the owner along with my friend spot me right off. So much for my Donnie Darko disguise. I stick around to see the winners and then I head off declining an invite to 93 Estoria. I hop on and cut back the long way down to Samson Street. Where Bud & I held up at her house. She let us hide out for awhile after chasing Uriah down. We sat there making eyes at each other and later I would move out of that couch and into this house with her. Now the place is repainted. Retiled. The weeds pulled out and it looks quiet expensive. Next door a large air baloon scarecrow is lit up with a giant pumpkin head. A giant monster frozen in the dark. I light up a cigarette and head home.
That's enough ghosts for one Halloween!
The attempted costume
I take the bike trail in the dark and feeling nostalgic I cruise down to Masquerade.
I don't intend to go in really. But I remember when I worked there as a doorguy the fun I had and years later under the aegis of the Secret Room I actually got to be the DJ for one or two of the Annual Halloween Ball. But it was when I was working clean up crew in '96 that I got my coffin that now sits in my apartment as an entertainment center. As I recall some funeral home gave a bunch of shitty coffins to the Masquerade for decorations and I believe they filled them up with Bud or Bud Lite or some other equally foul American Piss-beer. All day while cleaning up I kept bugging the boss if I could have one of the coffins to take home with me.
"What're ya gonna do with it?" He finally asked me exhausted
"Have sex in it & probably use it for ritual Magick" I tell him. He just looked at me waiting to see if the facade would crack. When it didn't he just sighed.
"What the hell" he finally agreed and he helped me carry it over to the loading dock next to the Magic Mushroom. I called Bud from the payphones in front of Hell and we loaded it up the Coffin in the back of a truck he borrowed. We drove it down to Little 5 where we gave away the few cases of Bud sitting in the coffin and then made a straight line to my pad. The look on Larue's face when the two of us came walking in the front door hauling the coffin. Priceless.
I'm coming down the long hill on North. Masquerade sits in the dip of a valley and the wind is whistling around my hood. I swerve through the glass & potholes that i'm getting more and more used to everyday here. I stop across the street. The Silver "SecretRoom" banner hanging off the railing. The marquee read "Last Halloween". There's a hearse parked outside and already the children of the night are emerging from the parking lot. I needed to see it. This time next year it'll just be another set of luxury apartments. All part of the city's plan to be the worlds largest strip mall. Another gesture towards gentrification so the yuppies won't lose any sleep knowing theres something interesting going on within a hundred miles of their compartamentalized lifestyles. I'll really miss this place. I sit across the street and for a moment I almost say 'What the fuck' and stop in. But i'm not that man anymore. I take a left at the City Hall East and cut through the parking lot of the Home Depot/Whole Foods/Borders parking lot. I can hear a faint voice echoing and I cut through a sidepath in the dirt and pop up in the parking lot for the Landmark Theater in downtown. I cruise over in time to catch the Scholars Costume contest. I go inside and much to my surprise the owner along with my friend spot me right off. So much for my Donnie Darko disguise. I stick around to see the winners and then I head off declining an invite to 93 Estoria. I hop on and cut back the long way down to Samson Street. Where Bud & I held up at her house. She let us hide out for awhile after chasing Uriah down. We sat there making eyes at each other and later I would move out of that couch and into this house with her. Now the place is repainted. Retiled. The weeds pulled out and it looks quiet expensive. Next door a large air baloon scarecrow is lit up with a giant pumpkin head. A giant monster frozen in the dark. I light up a cigarette and head home.
That's enough ghosts for one Halloween!
The attempted costume