Yikes! I woke up a short while ago and realized that it is the weekend before Thanksgiving. You know what that means? The Doo Dah Parade!
It is the antidote to the (sometimes nauseatingly wholesome) Rose Parade that takes place at New Year’s, or the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Here is what I said in a blog post last year:
I can’t go into just how excellent it is due to lack of time, but just imagine you were filling out the application form to enter a float into the Rose parade, or the Macy’s Thanksgiving parade, etc. Imagine the sorts of floats suggestions that might get you immediately disqualified. (Not lewd stuff but clever stuff…. ironic stuff…wicked stuff…stupid stuff). Well, those are the floats that will be there!
Some of my favourites I’m looking forward to seeing again?
(1) Claude Rains and the 20-Man Memorial Invisible Man Marching Drill Team
(2) The Bastard Sons of Lee Marvin
(3) Barbecue and Hibachi Marching Grill Team
(4) Men of Leisure Synchronized Nap Team
It is a lovely warm sunny day, so perfect for a parade. If you’re in Pasadena, or in the Los Angeles area at all, you should go! Here is a post with some pictures that I took last year.
It starts at 11:30, but you’d better be there at least 45 minutes before in order to find a seat by the street side. Bring cushions or low collapsible seats. Here is their website.
I’m going to see if I can go, and try and get my Pasadena physics buddies Marc Kamionkowski and Caolionn O’Connell to come along too! I will try to report on the events if I go.
And no… I did not get around to implementing my idea (mentioned last year) of having a “scientist” float. Maybe next year. I shall have to plan an idea and get it up on the blog in advance to get supporters and possible participants….
[Update: – I jsut heard on KPCC that there will be a funeral float for Pluto, sponsored by JPL, so I guess the “scientist float” idea is close to coming to fruition in that way….]
-cvj
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Report coming up in five seconds….
-cvj
This is the kind of parade that needs more publicity. Why was I not informed earlier?
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Hi Christina….
Great to hear from you. You’ll have a great deal of fun with Prof Bickers’ class, and learn a lot too. You’ll get a class from me later on (probably) if you major in physics. There’s some physics on this blog, but a lot of other stuff too. Look through the archives (see sidebar or click here) and look under the various categories. If you want to join in our community here, you can bring out some of the physics that interests you too… since we have a lot of discussions from time to time, about lots of things.
Gosh… I’m really looking forward to one of those dinner. Sorry I missed the String one…. did you see my post on the blog in the archives about Superstring beans? Silly, but a bit of fun….
Best,
-cvj
HEY MR. JOHNSON! (or Clifford? i dont know which one you prefer!) this is totally off-topic from your most recent post, but i just wanted to comment and say hey! i really enjoyed talking with you a couple wednesdays ago…i know string theory like the back of my hand now! 🙂 i was wondering if this was the blog you suggested we “check out”…i guess i was kinda expecting to see more physics! after that talk, i have been so excited about my physics course next semester(especially about having professor bickers), altough i wish i could have the opportunity to have you as a teacher as well! i hope that your life is full of fun and super exciting things…especially the thanksgiving holiday were about to have!!! hope to see you around soon….dont forget that youre still required to come to one of our “professors dinners” at new/north! haha. i cant wait! 🙂
So many reminders of some of those classic good ol’ days being in the university in the 60’s. I first heard whole album tracks of the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah band on the first LA pirate FM station KPPC. Broadcasting from the Pasadena Presbyterian Church basement, the station featured the very best dj’s of the period, several of whom had been in England during the early 60’s. They brought us Python and Doo Dah Band material and so much more. In some ways this Thanksgiving tradition honors them in the best possible way, and thank you for reminding me of that period. The following is a brief history of the station and its amazing eclectic collaborations.
How some of the mighty have changed. Elliot Mintz is now the private publicist for Paris Hilton; Harry Shearer is a voiceover on the Simpsons (and lots of other productions); David L. Lander was Squiggy on Laverne and Shirley; and sadly several of the above mentioned are dead. But in those days, sandwiched between the DooDah and the Python were such wonderful segments such a Gonzor’s morning meditations with Alan Watts, Steven Clean’s bathtime with Bach, TD’s first US releases of some of the greatest albums in rock-n-roll history, and so forth.
Sigh … sometimes I really miss living in Pasadena. Thanks for sparking the memories, Clifford!