Doofus Tourist Man: Hey, what's up with all the Santa suits?
Santacon Man: It's New York! Woo!
New Yorker Woman: (intervening) It's called Santacon. People dress up like Santa and get drunk.
Doofus: Awesome! So they just walk around shit-faced all day? That's awesome.
New Yorker: No, it's not awesome, actually, it's pretty horrible.
Doofus: What are you, Ebenezer Scrooge?
New Yorker: Yes, I am.
Doofus: But it's New York!
New Yorker: (getting upset) You're telling me it's New York? You're telling me?
Doofus: What, you live here?
New Yorker: Yes, I do.
Doofus: But you're not from here, originally.
New Yorker: Yes, I am.
Doofus: So you see this Santa thing all the time?
New Yorker: Yeah. And it gets old pretty quick.
Doofus: (giving up) Huh. Well, I guess it's a local holiday. Like Kwanzaa.
Read a brief history of Santacon at The Grumbler
10 comments:
New York City is not vanishing - it is constantly reinventing itself, continuously evolving. Sometimes it goes little sideways, but eventually it rights itself.
I grew up there in the fifties. Changed? No doubt. Vanishing? No way!
I have nice photos of some Santacons just spreading good cheer--I was walking on tAvenue A and overheard a Mother telling her daughter that all they do is get dressed up as Santa and get drunk. That is not true. See my photos. I asked a lovely Santacon parking her bike by the library if the"drunkeness" was all to Santacon? She responded NO!!She said "this Santacon is bring a book back to the library so it will not be late" Good Santacon.
amazingly, Santacon started as this (Wikipedia):
"In 1994, the Suicide Club in San Francisco staged the first "Santarchy", which was later adopted by the Cacophony Society as SantaCon. Influenced by the surrealist movement, Discordianism, and other subversive art currents, the Cacophonists celebrated the Yule season in a distinctly anti-commercial manner, by mixing guerrilla street theatre and pranksterism."
now its organizers keep it focused almost exclusively on getting drunk.
Great news, Jere! Only 369 days until the next one:
http://nycsantacon.com/
Reading the website, though, I can't see what's not to like (wink). You can "expect...general mayhem," "entertain... tourists, " and even dress like "Santa Palin."
On the other hand, looks like Santa's always been kind of a drunk.:
http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/10/north-pole-noir/?ref=nyregion
Santas all over my block. 12noon. Santas screaming on my block, 4:30. Santas pewking on my block. 12 midnight.
Santas are legendary for stiffing bartenders.
they were spreading the holiday spirit by screaming woo! woo! woo!, instead of ho, ho, ho
If this SantaCon event were made up of black people and they were dressed up in Kwaanza/African robes and were bar-hopping citywide....I guarantee you the cops would arrest them all and shut it down immediately. The fact that these entitled, obnoxious white fratholes get to run rampant through the city, drinks in open containers, puking on the street, harassing people, and generally being assholes AND it's tolerated by the cops and city officials is disgusting. It has become more annoying and dysfunctional every year. They've already got Halloween to act like fools, why do they also get Christmas to disrupt the neighborhoods, too?
Christmas, New Years, Halloween, Saint Patrick's - soon all holidays will be celebrated by public intoxication and other private bodily functions which should not be made public.
Once again, a reminder that everyone else -- those with canes, walkers, strollers, grocery bags, shopping bags, elderly friends or relatives in tow, and basically anyone NOT in a Santa or Elf get-up -- is entitled to their space and to their peace of mind on that day.
It's really a drag in the East Village!!!
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