The New York Times published a great slideshow of images from the NY subway last night. I was on the Montreal métro heading to and from choir, and saw quite a lot I would have liked to photograph too, but even on Halloween night, French privacy laws make it difficult to take pictures of people in public. Nevertheless, I stole a few shots. My own neighborhood was full of little ghouls and goblins, but what amused me the most were the adults hosting the trick-or-treaters; on one porch a tall fairy in blue wings arranged her pumpkin lanterns and bowls of treats, and then settled into an armchair to wait for her visitors; across the street a pink-wigged witch and a shark stood in their doorway, handing out candy. And outside the Mont Royal metro, a large pod of forty or fifty zombies danced in slow motion to music the living couldn't hear.
Looks pretty normal in this view: what you can't see are her fluffy pink ears and matching shoes.
And in Montreal there's always undressing to consider.
Like our clothes at other times, Montreal Halloween dress-up tends to have a fairly dark flavor, though I did see a man in a bright orange tuxedo and top hat through the window of a blue train, and rued the fact that my camera wasn't in my hand!
We are so accustomed to these ridiculous juxtapositions in urban life. Good "catch" on this photo.
Posted by: Hattie | November 01, 2013 at 04:45 PM
Thank you for the "treat"! I think if you're dressed like a shark and handing out candy, privacy laws ought not pertain.
Posted by: Duchesse | November 01, 2013 at 08:58 PM
Ian Hislop, editor of Private Eye, berated an American guest on yesterday's TV satire programme, Have I Got News For You. Told him we had absolutely no need of Halloween, the imported US festival. Before then, he said, we'd been perfectly happy with our own home-grown event (November 5, Guy Fawkes night) where we "justifiably burned a Catholic". Too gritty for Canada?
Posted by: Roderick Robinson | November 02, 2013 at 02:59 AM
Really like the design and colors in the waiting-for-train photo, and the way the giant semi-naked woman is all oiled and heeled and ridiculous-as-marketing, hanging over the head of the tiny man, who is not paying the least attention to her Brobdingnagian self.
Posted by: marly youmans | November 03, 2013 at 10:59 PM