beyond the deep warmth and companionship from dear friends JSD, EL and DW we have two contenders today. in the transcendence department, we have being slowly but surely descended upon by santas and other sundry be-christmased folk on the train this evening and in the realm of the aesthetic we have brooklyn--the myth, and the meaning.
my santacon experience began sometime friday night when i saw a tweet that said "SantaCon" and thought nothing more of it. then around 4pm a noticed a girl getting book giftwrapped whose cute christmas elf outfit was a bit much for just hipness but not a full on costume either. it finally registered when around 630pm I saw 2 then 5 then 7 then 12 santas and associates converging in soho. and by the time i got on the R train up to astoria, queens, it was clear. santacon was all hurbling and burbling all around me and i had nothing to do but giggled and gape.
favorites:
-Santa Khan, tall and lanky in a long, red regal cape with his name elegantly stitched in and a beautiful mongolian-lookin' crown on his pun-loving head.
-Santa on Stilts...rememeber... R train to Astoria--pretty great.
-Bacon Santa
-Santa whose fake eyebrows were as full and lustrous as his hair and beard (and who also turned out to be my friend EL!...w00t! oh man...you should have seen the santas hoot n holler about that love connection--truly cinematic--flash bulbs, "awww"s from the crowd, heartfelt hugs...the whole deal.
-Regular Santa who decorated the train car in garland and candy canes and gift bows while they rode from prince street to times square.
then there was the very old woman i sat beside through all this who said things like "i guess new york city wasn't loud enough for them" and "i bet they're all from jersey...or maybe pennsylvania" and "if i went to where they lived and made noise like this, i'd get arrested" and finally "well merry christmas, anyway, my dear"
and at the very, very end all the way in queens there was the rambunctious little boy grabbing for candy canes, fairly leaping from subway seat to subway seat and then a bit later the reserved little girl who got up from where she was sitting with her grandma, but didn't go so far she'd get in trouble, and looked pensively and for a long, long time at the decorated train car properly bemused and entranced and wondering.
i'll get into the brooklyn myth another time. tonight, that santa-ed subway ride had it all: the beauty of transformation and chance and semi-earnest, semi-postmodern goofyness swept me up into itself and then faded just as quickly.
transformation is beautiful...however fleeting.
good night, all.
