The Slower Road

For a decade now, Lexingtonians (more and more of them every year) have gathered on a night near Halloween to watch zombies stagger down Main Street and break into the “Thriller” dance at intervals along their route.

What started out as a recreation of the “Thriller” video has, over the years, turned into a HUGE recreation of the “Thriller” video (this year there were three separate “Michael Jacksons” and more than a thousand dancing, stumbling, shuffling zombies) plus a Halloween parade. And the event attracts thousands of spectators, many of them in costume as well.

Admittedly, the camera on my phone isn’t very good at the best of times, let alone at night, but I hope you can see enjoy these photos from last night’s Thriller parade:

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before the parade, "dead" zombies were lying all over the sidewalks along Main Street

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"Michael Jackson" (one of three) and a group of dancing zombies

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in the parade itself: a zombie bagpipe band (every parade needs a bagpipe band, right?)

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bringing up the rear in the parade (after the Michael Jacksons, a thousand zombies, a few hearses, a few floats, "Pee Wee Herman" on his bike, the bagpipe band, and a zombie marching band: the Headless Horseman

As you may have read here recently, the Kentucky Horse Park’s International Museum of the Horse unveiled its latest blockbuster exhibit last weekend.

Click here to read (or listen to the audio from) a radio report by our local public radio station.

A.J. and I were walking to the farmers’ market on Saturday morning and, there, in the grassy vacant fowntown lot known as the CenterPointe block (it’s a long story): a bunch of jumps. And Alltech flags. And people … and horses!

It turns out that it was all to promote the upcoming National Horse Show, which has moved as of this year from its perennial home in New York City to our very own Kentucky Horse Park. If you’re in Lexington from November 2nd through the 6th, you can find the horse show plus vendors, parties, and music, all in the Alltech Arena.

The riders who were downtown on Saturday did a little bit of walking and cantering about, a little bit of jumping, and a lot of visiting with passersby, while volunteers talked about the National Horse Show and handed out brochures. A rather brilliant promotional effort, I think.

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It would appear that a bright red, horse-drawn fire-fighting vehicle is one of the first things visitors to the KHP’s International Museum of the Horse will see when they arrive for the museum’s newest blockbuster exhibit, “The Horse: How Nature’s Most Majestic Creature Has Shaped Our World,” which opens this Saturday (Oct. 22) and runs through April 6, 2012.

The museum staff prepared this photo montage / video of the vehicle and its descent to a doorway large enough to accomodate it:

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As usual, if the embedded video won’t work on your computer, click here to go directly to YouTube.