Halloween night I watched part one of the Spiral Q Dracula Puppet Parade! They're doing this thing in three parts over three subsequent years, with each part representing a third of the book Dracula. So this was the beginning!

Heading up the parade was this giant-ass paper mache Nosferatu noggin with outstretched wings/arms.

Then there was a carriage with accordian players playing spooky music, and then some folks carrying Dracula's coffin! Man, if they think they're gonna get that big Nosferatu head in that thing...

While walking to the parade, I got a cryptic text message from Tami that said, "I AM WEARING A SPOOKY COSTUME AND CARRYING A SKULL." I had no fucking idea what this meant, but as the parade strolled past, one of the monsters was wearing Tami's red tights and gray sweater! Hey! I didn't know Tami was going to be in the parade!

More Tami and folks waving skulls around. See, Tami's work, the Prince Music Theater, was co-promoting this event with the Rosenbach Museum as part of their annual "Release the Bats" Dracula Film and Cultural Festival. She met up with the parade at the Rosenbach, and they handed her a skull and invited her to jump in.

Look! It's the ship from Dracula! Haha, and some clown with a candy corn head. Just like in the novel!

There were about four of these giant wolf puppet things, and they were pretty creepy! We were all like, man, where's Ben? He'd mark out for this huge!

And yes, those are people wearing giant garlic costumes. Holy shit. I think I've seen some Japanese websites about this sort of uh, interest.

This guy snuck up behind me and scared the shit out of me! I think I said, "Hey, you guys aren't supposed to be on the sidewalk, are you?" I later learned from Tami that he wasn't part of the parade. Hmm.

Here's Tami after the parade. She and Nosferatu are best buds now.

Stay tuned for part two next year! I mean, wait, that's a long way away. You don't really have to stay tuned.

- Manning