well, first, they ain't my photos. camera still broken from when it went skittering across the floor in a Sacramento Old Town bar when my sister tripped while drinking beer and beating my brother's ass at pool and I instinctively tried to keep her from doing a face plant. ain't I a great bro?
second, towleroad.com described Chicago's parade as going off without a hitch. ain't so. that's just an example of a blogger, not a journalist, trying to do a wrap-up with no resources. see, ya still need mainstream journalism. the parade was delayed about 30-40 minutes very soon after starting. some say it was coz a woman passed out. we saw paramedics take someone. but the parade did not parade on. others say a float ran over someone's foot. but that doesn't seem like enough either. whatever happened, the parade was stalled a long time. revelers started leaving, coursing down the parade route, right in the street. the police couldn't control them all. but eventually it got under way again.
I like the cops photo, but by the time the float got to us, it was nearly empty. rain.
yup. it rained on our parade. but we were really cool with it because it was excellent crowd thinner. we started out right at our place, which is 2 blocks from parade stepoff, about 7 people back. as a storm threatened with black black skies to the north, the short Latino family to our side left, and suddenly we were only 5 back. as the rain started, just a few drops, I mean, jeez, more and more left and we were only 3 back. then when it poured, well, we had front row! by then the parade had finally started again and everyone cheered.
the best spectacle was the young topless girl (with stickers for pasties) falling down drunk across the street from us. she was gripping the steel bars of the barricade and pushing her face against the bars. those bars were the only thing keeping her from going completely horizontal. mostly she was a heap. a heap of sick ... soon she started vomiting. it was great! we cheered. it was better when she chucked on herself. the cop who had been tending the crowd in front of us all afternoon went over to her ... but not to help. turns out he wanted her to put a shirt on. ya don't have the freedom to let the titties swing free, but you sure as hell have the right to be falling down drunk and make an arse of yourself.
we had too many, way too many, corporate floats, poltician floats and lame floats. not enough like the one with this dude. at least two idiot entrants drove Hummers. c'mon. Hummers? don't bring a Hummer to a gay parade ... you can get a hummer, but don't bring one. we booed them and told them to go away. didn't work. we also heckled an alderman. not ours, no. he's a gay. no, instead, we heckled the idiot who sponsored the anti-foie gras city ordinance. "We love foie gras. We love foie gras." an aide told him what we were chanting and he colored, embarrassed. ha! idiot. don't legislate against personal freedoms then march in a gay parade.
lots o corporate floats hire models. they don't have many hotties to put in speedos and such. but it looks like Zell cut the RedEye (above) budget this year.
update: forgot the other spectacle. when the parade was stalled, a group of 6 or 8 cops on horseback mobilized to deal with the situation. one horse took a great big poo. ... right across the street from our viewing spot. far enough away to not be gross but close enough to watch the fun. ... what fun is a pile of horse poo, you ask? why, great fun as you watch marchers march through it. ... especially when they did it while in flipflops as one sassy boy did. ooo. cheers and lots of clapping. if we liked someone though, for example, all the drag queens, we waved at them and pointed. no way we wanted a nice dress to get messed. juvenile? yes. but we like our humor simple
