Werewolf Bar Mitzvah — Boys becoming men / Men becoming wolves

I was Katy Perry last year for Halloween. And by “I was Katy Perry,” I mean super-short sequined skirt (which I borrowed from former MOVE editor Natalie Cheng), a stuffed bra with whip cream cans super-glued to the front, fake eye-lashes and a blue wig from Walmart. It was a legitimate costume.

Besides having to side-step some frat-house stand-offs, people loved the costume. They couldn’t get enough of it. There’s this weird boy dressing up in barely enough to resemble the current pop star and people weren’t threatening me or making snap judgments at me (at least to my face) but instead were coming up and giving me compliments. This might sound like some sort of ringing endorsement for America’s values in letting you be whoever you want, but it’s the kind of the opposite: it’s a ringing endorsement of Halloween for letting you dress up and pretend to be whoever you want — without any real consequence.

I grew up in a fairly censored Christian home and Halloween was pretty much viewed as this evil day that plagues the world. My childhood was spent at alternative church functions instead of going door-to-door begging for candy. I still dressed up and got candy, but it wasn’t anything like the legends of lore that my other friends fed me. There was no gallivanting around in the night, telling dirty jokes and then eating buckets of candy while watching movies about some guy that kills you in your nightmares. Not to knock my parents; I was their young and they raised me how they wanted, BUT, now that I’m older, I’ve pretty much fully committed to the “evil” of Halloween (“Joel, why is there a bra in your closet?”).

So, anyway, this is the Halloween issue of MOVE. I tried to fill this issue to the brim with all the stuff this “holiday” is all about, which is to say trying to scare yourself to death, gorging on candy and dressing up as whatever you can dream up — be that Mia Wallace, Aaron Rodgers or Wonder Woman. Halloween has become one of my favorite days of the year, because it’s just this huge celebration of weirdness. And I think everyone wants at least one day where they can pretend to be someone they’re not (not to say that I have a deep desire to be Katy Perry).

So, happy Halloween, everyone! Do something crazy!