A Day for Doppleganging
Have a double, a twin, a mirror image, a doppelganger, a spitting image – who do you look like? Today, April 20th is officially Look-Alike Day and is the perfect opportunity to dress up as someone else. Dress up like a celebrity, sports star or musician whom you think you most resemble or just dress up in matchy-matchy style with your best friend. In fact, you don’t even have to particuarlly look like your “look-alike”, it’s just fun to copycat them on this silly day.
Have you ever had anyone come up to you and mistake you for someone else, ask for your autograph or say “you look just like a young so-and-so”? If you don’t know who to pick, just ask a friend or family member to give you some suggestions on who you bear a resemblance to. If they fall short of ideas, there are actually web sites devoted to helping you identify your celebrity look-alikes – try the “look alike meter” at MyHeritage.com or Facedouble.com. Once you decide who you resemble, or better yet – who resembles YOU, you can pick out the perfect outfit, makeup and accessories to play up the similarities.
Halloween costumes are a great place to start; you’ll find all the famous folks we’re all secretly longing to be. From Marilyn Monroe to Marilyn Manson and George Washington to George Clooney, you can put together a look-alike costume that is sure to make heads turn, jaws drop, and elicit whispers of awe and admiration. If you don’t think you look like another single soul on the planet, just grab a friend and dress up in a pair of the same exact costumes – the two of you can be whomever you please. Or, celebrate Look-Alike Day by suiting up as a set of famous twins; costume ideas include Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum, and Fred and George Weasley from Harry Potter. If you actually are an identical twin, perhaps you’d like to just skip Look Alike Day and play down the sameness!
If you absolutely adore being a look alike, why limit the transformation to just one day? Celebrity impersonators make a good living entertaining others at parties, grand openings, and other public events dressed as their chosen doppelganger. Some of the most popular celebrities to impersonate, dead or alive, include Elvis, Madonna, Cher, Michael Jackson, and sports starts and presidents. Plenty of Halloween costumes can be found to make a metamorphosis as one of these pop stars or politicians. If you bear a decent resemblance to your double, you can often get the look down pat with a wig and special make-up techniques.
Crazy Costumes Keep Austin’s Cap10k Weird
Austin, Texas prides itself on not being normal; in fact, the town’s unofficial slogan is “Keep Austin Weird”. With hundreds of live music venues, outdoor festivals and eclectic events, there may be none more super-sized and strangely memorable than the annual Statesman Capitol 10,000 a 6.2 mile fun run through the heart of the city. As a rite of spring for the silly and the serious alike, this event showcases the freedom of individual expression that has made Austin so unique.
The next running of this "largest 10k in Texas" is tomorrow and 8,000 chip-timed runners along with thousands more fun runners and walkers are expected. Of course, there will be the speedy elite runners up at the front, but what makes the race even more fun to watch is the sea of regular Joes and Janes running in waves of crazy costumes. From larger-than-life armadillos and running Elvis’ to homemade renditions of the free-tail bats that so popularly live under the Congress Avenue Bridge, every type of outrageous costume imaginable will be spotted jogging down the streets.
In fact, local grocer HEB sponsors a costume contest to encourage folks to dress up with their best costume ideas. Zany headgear qualifies a runner entry into the Mad Hatter category; forget about visors and baseball caps and head out into the stratosphere with balloon sculptured toppers and way-beyond-basic bonnets. The Best HEB Dressed category encourages runners to dress up as the beloved store mascot, HEBuddy, or their favorite store-branded product, perhaps a big bottle of hot sauce or a juicy beef brisket. Finally for the tree-huggers (and there are plenty in Austin) there is a group category that looks for entries reflecting the green initiatives of the store and Austin in general.
When looking for costume ideas for running there are several factors to consider. The first is chaffing, because there literally isn’t anything worse than being “rubbed the wrong way” when running. Check out where the fabric of the costume meets the friction points on your body, especially the thighs, upper arms and chest. A layer of protective clothing in between or some good, old petroleum jelly should fix any problems. The heat is another factor to consider when choosing a costume for running; avoid overheating by wearing loose, lightweight fabrics and avoid face-paints that can drip down and sting the eyes.
Chuy’s Kid’s Giving to Kids Parade – Austin, Texas
Chuy’s is the iconic Tex-Mex restaurant in my home town where everyone goes to get their weekly fix of kitschy décor, margaritas and enchiladas. This dining establishment spreads holiday cheer each year with it’s “Kid’s Giving to Kid’s Parade” that supports the Operation Blue Santa Program. Operation Blue Santa is a charity arm of the Austin Police Department that provides holiday meals and presents to more than 3,500 needy families per year. Typically held in downtown Austin on Thanksgiving weekend, this always anticipated event draws thousands of families who come to watch the elaborate parade floats, hear the festive marching bands, and gawk at the inflatable character balloons. Everyone is invited to bring a new toy to donate to underprivileged children when Santa’s sleigh rolls by.
Anyone who’s ever been to one of the Chuy’s locations knows the joint loves to love Elvis. The velvet paintings of the King of Rock and Roll are always a high note in the restaurant as are the many Elvis-inspired dishes like the yummy potato-chip crusted chicken. So, it wouldn’t be an honest-to-goodness Chuy’s holiday parade without the legend himself showing up on the back of a big-finned convertible! Don’t get all shook up, there is no mistaking the man in his white Thunderbird Elvis costume, gold rimmed glasses and mutton-chop side burns.
Actually, you’ll find plenty of folks dressed up in Elvis costumes and almost everything else you can imagine (as well as some costumes you never could have imagined until you see them!). The city’s motto is, after all, “Keep Austin Weird”! Volunteers dressed up in reindeer antlers or in holiday elf costumes help with crowd control and keep the spectators entertained. We’ve even seen parade participants wearing every type costume you can image, not just holiday costumes such as Christmas trees, candy canes and Victorian Carolers. Happy parade marchers also wear many outfits considered Halloween costumes such as Spiderman costumes, Batman Costumes, Curious George Costumes, Bob the Builder costumes and more! And, why not? The event caters to the kids and reminds them of their favorite playtime toys!
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