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Wednesday, November 5, 2008 - The Mic , hi , ga , n , Dai I I Y
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ABOUT CAMPUS
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ILLUSTRATIONS BY JOHN OQUIST
Halloween as
news commentary
How the year's biggest
stories became costumes
On the surface, Halloween is an
excuse for students to wear some-
thing outrageous - or even just
something outrageously skimpy
- and drink more than they would
dressed in their usual weekend
attire.
But take a moment to look past
the fake blood and bare knees, and,
the holiday can be a window into
campus's collective consciousness.
It's important to point out that
the low temperature on Friday
and Saturday night stayed in the
mid-forties, which was generally
interpreted as a divine mandate for
barely-there costumes. It's also sig-
nificant that this year Halloween
fell on a Friday, the night that Necto
holds its weekly gay pride night,
which meant a stream of men wear-
ing heels on Liberty Street.
But as any Halloween veteran can
tell you, skimpy costumes and drag
queens are always part of the festiv-
ities. The real point of interest is the
ways that students embodied the
year's big stories through makeshift
party ensembles. From a multitude
of Michael Phelps and Heath-Led-
ger-as-the-Joker replicas to the per-
sonification of economic theories, -
there's no better place to see what
news matters most to students than
a costume party.
This Halloween season didn't
facilitate an obvious "too soon" cos-
tume - nothing like "zombie Steve
Irwin" that offensively stalked the
night. But being it's an election year,
political caricatures were a common
sight last weekend.
Despite the high interest in this
year's presidential race, students
might have shied away from can-
didate costumes out of sheer diffi-
culty.
Just as The Daily Show's Jon
Stewart has struggled to satirize
Barack Obama, the too-cool Demo-
crat is difficult to capture though
costume. Even black men couldn't
do much more than weara well-tai-
lored suit without an American flag
pin. At least two people wore Obama
masks at Rick's on Friday, but in the
realm of costume caricature, a rub-
ber mask is not only uncomfortable
but a cop out.
John McCain's almost-combover'
and Joe Biden's toothy grin are also
challenging to recreate, which left
Sarah Palin as the only candidate
who translated easily to costume.
There were two main ways that
lastweekend's masqueradingPalins
took to recreated the Republican
veep nominee. Women who some-
what resemble Palin could stick to
a faithful representation, a la Tina
Fey, with a vibrant lady suit, bru-
nette beehive and glasses. But any-
one who wasn't a lookalike could
just as easily take the symbolic route
and evoke the Alaskan governor
through telltaleprops.
Switching fromthe Supergirlcos-
tume she wore at the Michigan Stu-
dent Assembly meeting last week,
MSA President Sabrina Shingwani
went to Rick's on Friday dressed as
an Alaskan pageant-circuit Palin
with a red bikini, sash and shotgun.
Butitwasn'tjust Palin's signature
hairdo and folksy mannerisms that
turned into Halloween fodder: any
person or topic that made a splash
in campaign coverage was turned
into a costume.
Joe the Plumber - the easy "I
follow politics" costume for any
dude with a flannel shirt and a toi-
let plunger - was seen more times
on campus than the real one has
appeared on McCain's campaign
trail. Bonus points for the guys
who donned bald caps, but many
didn't bother.
A pair of friends on Lawrence
Street took another note from the
McCain campaign - one dressed
in pastels and the other wearing
a black ski mask, they went as "a
WASP who associates with terror-
ists."
But just as the economy has
become the key issue in the presi-
dential election, fiscally minded
costuming was the prevalent politi-
cal theme of this year's Halloween.
Investment bankers abounded, and
generally fell into one of two groups:
1980's Wall Street or post-financial
crisis of 2008.
More ambitious masqueraders
took on the task of personifying
abstract concepts.
For his "economic stimulus"
costume, one guy covered himself
in money signs and wrote out fake
checks to people at a Lawrence
Street party. His companion, a
woman wearing, pearls, a grey suit
and a gold backpack, represented
the "golden parachute" - a term
used to describe cases when corpo-
rate CEOs get sacked with nothing
but a multi-million dollar benefits
package to break their fall.
While next Halloween's politi-
cally minded masqueraders won't
have the low hanging fruit of presi-
dential election, it's sure that they'll
again find ways to reduce big news
stories to costumes. Here's hoping
for a political sex scandal or a celeb-
rity freak out.
-JESSICA VOSGERCHIAN
AND LISA HAIDOSTIAN
The Statement is Thel
Daily's news magazine
sted every Wednesday
academic year
THE EDITOR'S NOTEBOOK with JESSICA VOSGERCH IAN
A look at the big news events this week and how important they really are. Conveniently rated from one to 10.
TELL US HOW TO LIVE
E-mail new rules to TheStatement@michigandaily.com
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LET'S GO BLUE!
Barack Obama tookswing states Pennsyvania, Ohio, Florida and Virginia to secure the pres-
idency before 11 p.m. Directly after, a flash mob formed in the Diag and preceded to parade
down State Street and South University Avenue chanting "Obama, Obama!," "USA, USA!"
and "Let's go blue!" University students haven't had much opportunity to chant that last line
in earnest with Michigan Football's dismal season, but let it be some consolidation that on
Nov. 4 most of the nation did, in fact, go blue.
STOCKWELL GIVES IT UP
Stockwell Residence Hall, which has been a women-only dorm since its opening in1940,
will house both men and women starting next fall. The move cuts into the University's
glut in all-women's housing: Over the past five years, less than a third of students in
women-only dorms asked to be there. Watch out, Martha Cook - your tea party is
almost over.
LIBERALS: WE'LL TAKE IT
Michigan voters passed two ballot proposals that bring good news for victims of major
diseases: Proposal1, which allows the use of marijuana for medical reasons, and Proposal
2, which lets researchers create new stem cell lines for researching diseases. Medical pot
passed by an overwhelming margin, while the stem cell proposal, which had been the tar-
get of a wildly misleading ad campaign, barely squeaked by. With Michigan's history with
Proposal 2 in previous years, we'll take what we can get.
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LLUSTRATION BY LAURA GARAVOGLIA