Todd Stadler's blog

i've grown a-costumed to you

Of course, a Halloween party isn't Halloweeny without people dressed like freaks.

As always, my costume this year started with a trip to the S.C.R.A.P. Project, a community reuse center where people donate all sorts of things that someone else might find useful.

I found myself standing in front of a barrel of thousands of yellow vinyl strips that said "free", feeling the strange attraction of plastic. How could I make a costume out of such a wonderful gift, I asked myself.

The answer was to fashion some sort of chicken costume. But not just any chicken. ChickenMan 2000*! Yes, I could be a superhero, my power being running away at incredibly fast speeds!

The costume was conceptually simple - pin several hundred plastic strips to some cheap activewear from Goodwill - but carrying out the idea near drove me mad. Have you ever pushed four hundred safety pins through vinyl before?

I finished off the costume with some accessories made of red foam. The foam also came from the S.C.R.A.P. Project, apparently the refuse from a foam boomerang factory. I have many many yards of it left. Perhaps the best investment I ever made.

The costume came out pretty well, given the few days I had to throw it together. It even held up to feverish dancing to Outkast's Bombs Over Baghdad.

And, for historical context, here are my two previous Halloween costumes. Because you can't find these images anywhere else on the web.

* For those who care, it's ChickenMan 2000 because there was already another ChickenMan, in the form of a humorous radio play.