Activity Report: A very good self-guided international food stroll along Roosevelt Avenue in Queens Particular restaurants were chosen from a truly infinite selection of international mom & pop restaurants, but it felt like the whole world in a day.
We chose IHOP as our starting point because that’s where Roosevelt Avenue ends, but it was TOO hoppin, so we hit up the Paris Baguette across the street.
My favorite food was probably the down home cooking from the Philippines at Renee’s Kitchenette, where i was already so full we only had room for Sausage & desert, but all the food was good, and an unexpected highlight was the awesome array of restaurant soundtracks. Our original plan was to go all the way to the waterfront on Greenpoint ave (another couple of miles) but we got rained out.
Still tho- a truly great day, and I think we’ll do it more than once a year in the future.
Life was great as Kool-Aid Man, but things took a dark turn at the end.
Before I suited up I had wondered aloud whether anyone under the age of 30 would even know who Kool-Aid Man is.
Turns out EVERYONE knows who Kool-Aid Man is. In Chinatown? OH YEAH Kool-Aid man is a star. In the parade? Kool-Aid man is stopping traffic because people want to take pictures and maybe hug.
I have never felt more beloved than I felt as Kool-Aid Man. I realized that this experience was the culmination of billions and billions of dollars of global advertising directed towards impressionable children over the course of decades. It felt great. Money well spent, both for my personal experience on halloween and I’m sure for selling Kool-Aid. The people love Kool-Aid man. OH YEAH!!!!!
I am yelling OH YEAH all night long like a broken promotional record. I delivered priceless brand value for somebody at Kraft, if only there were a way to measure and surface all the photos and count the impressions.
Apparently Kool-Aid Man also made some notable cameo experiences on the family guy? A lot of people were yelling OH NOOOOOOO!!!! in a type of call and response. No matter what anyone said to me there was only one thing to say. OH YEAHHHHH!!!
Anyway, there are probably thousands of pics of Kool-Aid Man from halloween parade. I got so many hugs, so many high fives, and probably a few low grade assaults (born of love and longing and good humor I am sure) that I couldn’t really see or understand as they were happening bc the costume was so big. At some point a small child ran up to me and beconned me back to take a picture with his family. We walked pretty far to get back to them. I walked along the fence, and gave a long line of high fives. Even when people got up close, I had a lot of personal space in my joyous red bubble. I felt safe and delighted to bring joy to so many. It felt like a very fun obstacle course inside a balloon. No one could see me through the suit, but as Kool-Aid Man, I felt SEEN. OH YEAH!!!
After the parade, we stopped to take a lot more pictures and after a few blocks I was feeling ready to get out of the suit. I stepped over towards a sort of doorway to take a picture w some girls, but also get out of the flow of traffic, which was a bit chaotic as all the costumes people get out of the street and onto the sidewalk.
All of the sudden, some guy ran through yelling and laughing and grabbed me and sort of pummeled the suit and it popped. Suddenly I am very alarmed and swimming in red nylon. The joyous bubble had been rather forcefully burst. Had someone stabbed Kool-Aid Man in the face??? The beautiful and kind ladies who I had just taken a picture with when it happened were yelling at the guy with “Hey that is not cool! that’s a girl in there!!!” or something like that, and definitely implied a certain deliberately extra untowardness from the assailant. It happened really fast and my halloween companion in a dragon mask doesn’t really have great visibility either, but he said it was a fully grown man in a white hoodie who ran off into the night. It was quite shocking to me and everyone around me, and I think people were rattled that somebody would do that. I definitely was.
Even though I got out of the suit fast, it was obvious that fixing Kool-Aid Man would not be a straightforward tape job- the seam had blown out around the plastic that forms his nose. It was hard to go from feeling like “wow this is the best halloween ever!! this might be a top 10 greatest night of my whole life lol! OH YEAHHHH!!!” to wondering whether I had just gotten stabbed in the face.
I really, really, really wanted it to be dumb hijinxx not deliberately destructive violence. I loved being Kool-Aid Man! Everyone loves Kool-Aid Man! I got so many high fives! And then some random jerk ruined everything in an instant. We took off our costumes and started the long,quiet walk home through manhattan. I don’t think either of us knew what to say really. (oh no)
Looking at the tear in the morning, I’ve concluded it’s pretty likely that the explosion was an accident. I’ve had to mend inflatable costumes before and I think if it had gotten deliberately pierced with a sharp object, it would have destructed differently. The nose is blown out on one side and then it’s a straight cut extending from top and the bottom of the nose. Like maybe the guy came in for a bear hug and just squeezed just too hard? Or a joke punch for the camera and the suit didn’t have enough surface area for the air to escape because i was up against the door? Maybe he was wearing an unseen ring that hit the seem just right when he popped kool aid man in his nose, and then he was so embarrassed he ran off into the night?
Thats’s what I have decided to believe anyway. I refuse to let it spoil the experience because up to that moment it was extremely joyous and fun. a+++ would Kool Aid Man again, I was very much looking forward to it, in fact!
In the end, I remind myself that it’s just an inflatable halloween costume, and that people do go too hard sometimes on this day. (and every day! people learn how to act right challenge ugh!!!) I am fine, just got a bit of a nasty shock after all that awe.
Unfortunately this particular Kool-Aid Man costume is discontinued, so I’m looking into tent tape and kite tape to patch up my guy. He’s gonna have a face scar like Michael K Williams, and next time I Kool-Aid Man I will do so in his honor. Oh yeah. Resilience Baby.
Because a linked list posted publicly to your own tumblr is still the best way to keep an easily accessible collection of links on your phone. Complied from the links i liked the look of in the Culture Study Soup Extravaganza thread,
HelloHello!!!
I'm :Danielle Strle.
This blog is the #1 best source for news about the things I like and the stuff I'm doing. Get in touch: DS@uppercasesmileyface.com
