Yesterday was a fine sunny day, warm and gorgeous, perfect for the 24th annual Pasdadena Doo Dah parade. Unlike that other parade that takes place annually on New Year's Day in Pasadena (but never on a Sunday, oh no!), this one always takes place on a Sunday. The parade entries appear in no particular order, and silliness is the order of the day. Considering all the hooplah about the election, this promised to be a beaut!
[Warning: image heavy page. I've got ascii-chatter in between 'em to keep you occupied while you wait to download 'em all if your connection is slow.]
Breakfast Theatre My friend Lee procured a couple of lawn chairs from a friend of hers that would (barely) fit in the trunk of my little car, and we headed down to Old Pasadena. We found a small patch of unoccupied curb, set up our chairs and then ordered a To Go breakfast from a nearby restaurant. We noshed, visited with other parade-goers and waited for the parade to start.
The Doo Dah red ambulance heralded the actual start of the parade.


A hunka hunka burnin' love! Is that The King playin' the pipes? Oooh eee! skirl it, baby! skirl it!

Snotty Scotty and the Hankies, the band that's been around since way back when and has appeared in damn near every Doo Dah parade.


The Synchronized Briefcase Drill Team.

The Little Old Lady from Pasadena

The Claude Rains Memorial 20-man Invisible Marching Drill Team. (thanks to David Singer for helping me puzzle out that other name on the banner!)

Doesn't the one guy who's all wrapped up do a splendid job leading the others on the drill team? (notice the additional gloved hands along the banner as the other invisible helpers assist carrying the banner.)

By shouting "Show us your beads!!!" to this person, I managed to score a string of green mardi gras beads. Sitting right up front at Doo Dah is totally it!
Hot Dog!!! The Synchronized Grill Team parade entry has two--count 'em two- live, burning Bar-B-Q grills that are pushed along the parade route. The Grills, er, girls in the Grill Team hand 'em out, or, the guys get together and shoot 'em into the crowd.



Men on the Grill Team with their hot dog cannons, prepare to shoot foil-wrapped hot dogs into the enthusiastic crowd of parade watchers.
A Rose By Any Other Name Of course, what Doo Dah Parade would be complete without spoofing that *other* parade?

The Dead Rose Queens

A Dead Rose Queen demonstrates the requisite wave.

The Doo Dah Queen, this year (for a change) the Queen is actually a woman!

The Torment of Roses, which spoofed not the Tournament of Roses, but the other Great Doo Dah Subject: The election!

He's just a twig off the old bush!

Al Gore was getting sprayed with silly string while workin' the crowd

The sign says: "Compassionate Conservative Bitches for No Recount"

Uncle Sam

Bill and the Lame Ducks. . .

. . . those poor ducks hafta use walkers! Awwwwww.
Well, that Bill guy's gonna be a man of leisure soon... there was a Parade entry from the Men of Leisure


Other political causes represented at the Parade:

(This was actually an entry from Amnesty International)
Actually, this wasn't a political cause; it's all about a band called The Nourishment
You already saw Snotty Scotty on the back of a truck. Who else was on the back of a truck?

Tequila Mockingbird and the Doo Dah orchestra.
There was also a rented truck upon which rode a group of people advertising themselves as Lena B's Fabulous Wedding Shower. Hey, if you're going to have a wedding shower in late November, why not make everyone else jealous that they weren't invited?
The Edsel parade entry: Edsel's been given a bad rap.

Another funky cardboard car... this advertising the misinformer comedy web site.

Speaking of a situation with inherent comedy, policemen and women in training (or is that sherriffs in training?) This group tossed out donut holes to the crowd; they had good aim.

Oh, and speaking of tossing, I mentioned the hot dogs; I mentioned mardi gras beads, there were cookies, and donut holes. The Caesar's Palace entry had the best way, though, for distributing marshmallows into a crowd of people: a catapult.

Oh, and there was an entry from someone named "Doctor Dickydo", too:

The Rothenberg Sawasy Architects were there this year, too, with their huddle of houses that would do different things, according to the different signs flashed by the drill team leader: Cul de Sac, Tract Housing, Earthquake, Mudslide, etc.

There were a few marching bands too, including the John Muir High School drum corps (always the final entry). But another repeat visitor to Doo Dah is Humbold State University's own Marching Lumberjack band, whose lineup calls to mind the Monty Python song about lumberjacks:

They gotta lotta attitude. Here's their motto:

Happy Doo Dah day to you, too!!
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