Strange days

It was Halloween Wednesday night. This brought an extra degree of strangeness to our small town. I saw a cop handing candy to some kids, a giant red bear gyrating on the dance floor, and three of the town’s most ambitious young women shackled in binders. Over the past weeks, as elections draw closer, a bout of weirdness has taken hold in the political sphere too. Here’s a round-up of video clips from the bottomless YouTube pit showcasing some of this quirkiness. And, like Halloween sometimes does, it involves sexual innuendos, dancing, small strange men, and tears.

Binders full of Paonia women. Courtesy Andrea Lecos.

First up, Lena Dunham, creator of HBO show ‘Girls,’ talking about her “first time” voting for Barack Obama, which, as she candidly states, turned her from a girl into a woman.

A few weeks back in Washington State, Attorney General Rob McKenna, the Republican candidate who is running for governor against Democrat Jay Inslee, hit the dance floor and put in a solid rendition of Korean pop hit "Gangnam Style" (here’s the music video if you haven’t yet seen PSY, the extremely limber artist forging a new dance routine) at a celebration for Korean Day.

Over in California, Danny DeVito has been showing his support for Prop. 37, a ballot measure that if it passes will require labeling of foods sold in the state containing genetically modified ingredients. Here he is in his latest spot for the pro-labeling campaign, which takes a dig at agrochemical giant Monsanto, the largest financial backer of the anti-labeling camp.

And, finally, a four-year-old girl from Fort Collins, Colorado, was moved to tears after hearing one political ad too many on NPR. The reasons she’s sobbing? She's just plain “tired of Bronco Bama and Mitt Romney.” 

Somehow, I don't think she's alone.

Brendon Bosworth is a High Country News intern. For Halloween he moonlighted as a clown.