Gay For a Day

A great week to be in LA! First there were the local elections. Like returning heroes, we were hailed with great cheers as soon as we stepped into the polling arena. That's how desperate they were for voters. Very Battle of Thermopylae. Nothing really to vote for — just the White supremacist to vote against. And Propositions 98 & 99 (I won't go into the details because it's the usual political bullshit). Our local polling station is at The International Cinematographers Guild, which is a pretty cool place to vote. Cinematographers are so underrated. To reward ourselves for participating in local politics, we ate a great burger at The Griddle, which is just a block or so over from the Guild, took a long walk on Sunset Strip, and then rewarded ourselves once again with a great frozen yogurt at CeFiore. We're a little worried about them because Pinkberry is about to open right next door and we're not sure how they're going to compete against the Pink bulldozer. Must blog about the different frozen yogurt places.

To go back on topic, our momentous week ended with LA Pride 2008. According to the website, it's the largest pride event for pretty much everyone who isn't hetro. We didn't go to the Festival since the tickets were $15 each but we did go to the parade today. Thus we were gay for a day.

Highlights?

The weather. Absolutely amazing: around 80 degrees with a cool, constant breeze. The street was tree-lined, so plenty of places for shade.

The crowd. Laid back and ready to have mild fun. Some men even came dressed for the occasion, although seeing flabby buttocks framed in leather is never pretty. Luckily, the guy in the all-body netting was pretty fit. Leave it to the pros, boys.

The parade participants. Absolutely game for anything, including a little innocent S&M. At times I felt like I was part of a fertility rite with all the big boobs (mostly fake) and gyrating males in bikini briefs and thongs. In contrast, there were The Politicians. I've always thought it was too bad that they make up about 25% to 35% of all parades. All they do is ride antique cars and wave. Next year, maybe the Pride people can insert them into some of their more interesting displays? There must be enough creativity in Hollywood to fully exploit the potential.

Dykes on Bikes. Probably the most popular parade attraction. Lots of vintage motorcycles, leather and women gilded with chromed testosterone.

And there were freebies galore! I got a Carmen Miranda t-shirt (a promo for the DVD releases), a necklace of chili beads from Chipotle, free water and a CD from the Abbey, a yogurt smoothie and some tiny Larabars from Whole Foods (the Larabar lemon bar was great!), and other miscellanea.

Political Action. The Obama contingency came down the parade route amongst enthusiastic cheer. Until they hit our block. A guy near us started screaming, "Hillary! Hillary! Hillary!" with his thumbs down. This was the guy who'd been cranky the whole time and I thought, "Yup. Figures. The cranky guy is the Hillary supporter. No wonder we lost."