Masks
Created | Updated Mar 15, 2002
Masks are amazing bits of jiggery-pokery. You have one on; you're someone else. You can be an African priest, a Hawaiian god, Richard Nixon. Wearing the Internet you can be a dog. Ok, maybe wearing the Internet isn't using a mask in the strict traditional sense, but it's the same idea: You use a mask made of a bit of paper and some feathers and glitter or wood or rubber or whatever you like (including electronic transmissions) to imply that you are something that you normally are not.
Masks can reflect what you are, but in a more specific way. Ok, part of you really is a swashbuckling adventurer, and when you wear that eye patch and the funny mustache, there you go, swinging your paper cutlass at the office Halloween party like a corporate raider. Doesn't matter that normally you hide in your cubicle and are too shy to chat up the perky blond receptionist, put on that mask and you are Zorro, daring hero!
Masks are an act that you literally put on. They are like a shortcut to you id, letting you bypass all those inhibitions that generally get in the way of having a good time. This is good, because the other classic de-inhibitor, alcohol, is sometimes hard to drink through a mask. Properly designed masks, of course, allow beverage consumption of all sorts, which can make a party doubly interesting.
There are two kinds of really good masks:
1) Those fabulous distorting Italian things of papier mache they still use at Carnival with the absurdly long noses and overgenerous eyebrows and
2)The ones that you wear all the time that no one else can tell you have on. Ultimately, those are the ones with the biggest potential surprise factor.
There are shockingly few opportunities to wear masks these days. Robberies are still popular venues for mask wearing, but they tend to have unfortunate repercussions. Kiddie parties and Halloween also provide a few mask-wearing options, but the best way to get a good opportunity to wear a mask is to slyly persuade a friend to throw a costume party with some completely ridiculous excuse for a theme.
Masks can reflect what you are, but in a more specific way. Ok, part of you really is a swashbuckling adventurer, and when you wear that eye patch and the funny mustache, there you go, swinging your paper cutlass at the office Halloween party like a corporate raider. Doesn't matter that normally you hide in your cubicle and are too shy to chat up the perky blond receptionist, put on that mask and you are Zorro, daring hero!
Masks are an act that you literally put on. They are like a shortcut to you id, letting you bypass all those inhibitions that generally get in the way of having a good time. This is good, because the other classic de-inhibitor, alcohol, is sometimes hard to drink through a mask. Properly designed masks, of course, allow beverage consumption of all sorts, which can make a party doubly interesting.
There are two kinds of really good masks:
1) Those fabulous distorting Italian things of papier mache they still use at Carnival with the absurdly long noses and overgenerous eyebrows and
2)The ones that you wear all the time that no one else can tell you have on. Ultimately, those are the ones with the biggest potential surprise factor.
There are shockingly few opportunities to wear masks these days. Robberies are still popular venues for mask wearing, but they tend to have unfortunate repercussions. Kiddie parties and Halloween also provide a few mask-wearing options, but the best way to get a good opportunity to wear a mask is to slyly persuade a friend to throw a costume party with some completely ridiculous excuse for a theme.
