Hallowe'en 2008: "You can't take the sky from us."

I haven't dressed up for Hallowe'en in a long time. It's not because I consider myself too old, or that the desire to find a costume disappeared when trick-or-treating lost its allure--I just didn't have any ideas that I thought were either feasible or would inspire recognition.

For that reason, I was prepared to go as Simon Tam from Firefly to the Swing Dance Club Hallowe'en party without anyone knowing who I was. After all, Simon needs some context (Kaylee flirting with him, crazy sister, etc.) in order to make sense. However, in talking to my friend Rob at a practice swing dance this past Tuesday, I found out that he was considering going as Wash. Fueled by a synergistic fanboy enthusiasm, we went around doing our best to cajole and persuade people to join us. Through some stroke of serendipity, another swing dancer named Kara joined us quite eagerly, and managed to persuade yet another recent acquaitance to join our crew.

While we didn't get the full crew--we lacked a Jayne, a River, a Zoe, and a Shepherd Book--we still had a great time. It was quite shocking to me how many people knew what Firefly was (I was expecting a great deal of "Huh?" to greet our efforts), and when the group costume competition--of which we had been unaware--rolled around, we actually came in second, losing out to the officers of the Swing Dance Club dressed as Sailor Moon characters. (A pretty predictable outcome no matter how you look at it.)

So Kara and I are already planning for next year. We've got some ideas for the props we didn't have this year, and since she's a costume designer she's looking into making some of the clothes from the show. I don't really need much of an excuse to put on a vest and tie anyway, and considering we came in second place this year--well, maybe I'm hungry for power. A little bit of it, anyway.

Hearing half the room burst into cheers when we announced that we were the cast of Firefly, though--that was pretty shiny. I gotta say.

The crew: Inara (Kara), Wash (Rob), Mal (Bryan), Simon (me), and Kaylee (Cathi).

Mal and Inara were peeved with each other, as usual.

However, they put aside their differences long enough to waltz (this one Mal actually knew).

Kaylee and Simon finally got to dance as well. She wasn't able to find a poofy dress this time, though.






(Looks like we're still flying, doesn't it?)