sent from: London, UK. destination: Cherry Hill, NJ

I need not tell you that Halloween is a much bigger holiday in the USA than the UK. Whatever religious aspects are largely gone (except perhaps in the intergration of Mexican ‘Dia de los Muertos’), but it is a testaments to the creativity and expression of their [American] secret selves. I don’t think I fully appreciated this until seeing what London people pressed up in tonight. Ok, there’s the usual collection of slutty nurses and bloodied butchers, skeletons and face-painted ghosts… but where was the cultural commentary? Where was the satire? No Dr Who/Amy Pond/Tardis group costumes? No Sir Jimmy Savilles (RIP)? Where was the steampunk, the victoriana? The man dressed as a working phone box? The occupy Wall Street commentators?

I’ll never forget my first visit to the Santa Monica Halloween Parade, where groups of men dressed as the Brady Bunch called themselves ‘The Brady Witch Project (this was the year of the Blair Witch Project) asking everyone ‘Where’s Marcia?! Where’s Marcia?!’ Pop culture mashed-up, re-configured, combined, transformed into something new.