Annual Greenwich Village Halloween Parade Cancelled

For the first time in its 39 year history.  It steps off at right where we are.  On a normal Halloween by now already all kinds of ghoulies and strangeness would be starting to gather on our streets, until by 8 PM it is ruled entirely by denizens of other realms and times.

The theme for 2012 was supposed to be the end of the world as declared by the Mayan calendar.

Mayor B announced he cancelled the parade last night:

Unfortunately, we just cannot spare the manpower from the NYPD and other city agencies to host the annual Greenwich Village Halloween Parade, so we are postponing it to a later date sometime next week," the mayor said, according to NY1. "We'll work tomorrow and figure out what date makes sense given the resources the city has."

Description of this year's theme, from their website:

“This year, as 2012 ticks away the final year of the Mayan Calendar, and visions apocalyptic or euphoric fill our imaginations; we will explore the many embodiments of Time. The sound of ticking seconds reassures us of the continuity of our universe, a mechanical heartbeat, definite yet infinite. But how well do we know Time? We think of time as immutable, yet we know it to be elastic. Some moments pass with glacial slowness, as others speed past us. It bends and stretches, like Dali's drooping watches and Einstein's speeding trains. We think of time as intangible, yet we can know it only through physical forms: swinging pendulums or orbiting celestial bodies. We think of time as infinite, yet modern physicists tell the story of its beginning, and ancient calendar-makers tell of its end. With all this in mind, this year's Parade will be lead by a host of temporal entities. Clockwork White Rabbits will keep time for the procession, as winged alarm clocks sail overhead, incarnating Virgil's adage "tempus fugit". Other manifestations and analogs will abound, from cuckoos to TARDISes, culminating in a grand horlogical dance, as Time goes by.”

It is the end of time for us, down here, looking for and finding no news for the dead zone below 25th street.  All we know still is it is dark and powerless. We have no idea about going home.

el V did his two presentations yesterday.  They were very good.  The students in the music dept. class were sharp, interested, knowledgable and did not text, eat or sleep. At the evening Angola (long) presentation, some older women from out of town who are not connected with the university at all attended.  One of them said, "You know there are so many opportunities to hear something like this.  The school should do a better job of letting people know these things are going on.  Not all of us come to New Orleans for the usual tourist stuff." One of them had books for Ned to sign.  They bought "Kiss You Down South" too. After the reception we were taken to a wonderful dinner with wonderful people and talk at Boucherie. This all took our minds away from that about which we can doing nothing at the moment -- a most excellent thing!

Tonight he'll probably hang with Galactic at Tip's.  Thursday -- conference, all day.