I would have enjoyed walking around
taking pictures of the crazy sights, but about the time I took these
pictures the parade monitor found me and told me to go stand where the
Green Party contingent was supposed to be. That would be near the back
with World Can't Wait, the San Francisco Mime Troupe and Plea For
Peace. I was the first one to show up, so I stood there for about half
an hour before this other guy showed up. A bit later Jean-Marc showed
up with the SFGP banner. Then he decided that something needed to be
done. He disapeared.
Plea for Peace is a bunch of young punk
rock activists working against domestic violence. They were giving out
black and white stickers that said "PLEA FOR PEACE" and "VOTING IS
SEXY", and a punk rock compilation album with stuff from various
artists titled "PLEA FOR PEACE". One song that struck my eye was Santa
Clara County. Listening later, I found it to be fast and loud. If
you want my copy, tell me where to mail it.
After a while Jean-Marc came back and
said that they had decided to join Supervisor Mirkarimi's entourage.
The three of us went up there, a couple of blocks higher in the pecking
order.
The Veterans for Peace also joined
Supervisor Mirkarimi's float. They were giving out ribbons with
"JUSTICE FOR VIETNAM'S AGENT ORANGE VICTIMS" on them. After what seemed
like hours of waiting, the parade went by quickly. We had to march fast
to keep our distance from Mirkarimi's car down. Susan King and I
carried the Green Party banner. The crowd reaction was great.
After that I spent hours and hours
walking around and looking at the
sights. There was a huge number of people everywhere. The event covered
something like six city blocks. It seemed like every street had a theme
and a crowd that resonated with it. One block was Latin, one block was
Leather, one block was for Lesbians. Everywhere people were having fun
with gay themes.
AT&T has finally figured out a good
thing to give away, phone charges. That "CHARGING STATION" was an array
of mailbox sized compartments. People would walk up with dead phones,
write their first name and a word or two of description on a piece of
paper, and give them to the woman working there. She would open a bin,
find the right charger, plug it into an available mailbox and send them
on their way with the key. Other times they would give her a key.
She would use it to open a mailbox, look at the description tag, look
at the person and give them the cell phone. There wasn't even a trash
can anywhere nearby.
About then Leslie
found me and gave me an attitude adjustment. After that I found an area
near the back of Civic Center Plaza where people weren't moving too
fast and my sticker thing worked. I did my thing there until the
shadows started getting long.
Then I watched the main stage for a
while. It was a good show.
Not only was Anita Cocktail's look
dramatically ridiculous, the performer under the makeup has a good
voice. The dancers were also fun to watch.
The vixens went through costume changes
with remarkable speed. I don't think the stage kept the same look for
more than two minutes for the entire time they spent on it.
That show had a surprisingly revealing
climax, but unfortunately my camera was off at the time. It didn't last
long enough for the thing to wake up.
Walking away from the event, I was
struck by some nice homes I saw. Somebody put a lot of time into
painting them.
These were still on my shirt when I got home.
