Who Were You Underneath?

Here's a question for everyone: What did you wear for Halloween? And why? Some friends and I did a group thing this year that we called the "Department of Homeland Insecurity". Pictures are posted on my blog. There were five of us. Three of us were in black suits, the other two in black SWAT gear. And we had spent some time putting up props throughout the venue for the party, mostly fake cameras and a bunch of signs about how we were "watching for our security". I should say a little bit about the event itself. Telluride's Halloween party is sponsored by the local radio station, KOTO, which is an entirely community-sponsored station (no advertising or underwriting). Usually, they have done this party in a place that holds 750-1000 people and EVERYONE who is in town during fall slow season shows up. This time, it was in the Sheridan Opera House, a 40x40 ft room with a balcony that holds a total of 250 people. So this particular version brought out the cream of a very crazy and creative community. As important to the costume as what we wore was what we did. Our job was to go around the party looking for "suspicious activities", which basically meant stopping everyone in the party and checking out their costume, playing out a scene with them and putting a sticker on their costume to indicate they had been "cataloged and filed in the database". The stickers said things like "suspicious", "known threat", "extremist", "unconventional", etc. By the time the night ended, there was hardly anyone that wasn't wearing one of the stickers. We also had one of those small format polaroid cameras that we used to take pictures. The pictures were posted on a board in the chill out room. The group ended up winning first prize in the costume contest, which somewhat surprised me, since I thought that the "Swing States" (a bunch of folks that showed up wearing carboard cut-outs of the too-close-to-call states in the election) deserved the group award and the amazing individuals are far too numerous to mention. But as one of the judges said to us as we went off stage, "You guys were the whole package: All the props, all the details, the whole act." So I'm basking in the glow of a bit of home-town fame and fortune, at least until the next party...