Chicago Gay Pride Parade - Post 8 - Outfits... or the lack thereof (beta) - 6.24.12

Okay, back from my trip down south.  And back to the Gay Pride parade... at least for the moment.  This is clearly a massive undertaking (I did mention starting with 4000 photos, right?)  So I'm going to post this group today and then go to do a few shorter events and then I'll go back to these when I have time.

Every year one of my favorite groups is Folia Brazil.  They're a Samba group and they are so bright and so colorful with so much energy, that to me, they kind of epitomize what the Chicago Gay Pride Parade is about.  They're way more fun than this group from the Chinatown event I went to a while back. Possibly because they fit into the venue, but definitely because of their costumes. And two years later, I'm still trying to understand Samba at Chinatown.

 This girl was very invested in getting the crowd worked up.  It's always fun when the performers have an interest in the observers. ;)

 This was the only guy in the group, but his outfit is amazing.  I can only imagine how that costume makes the dancing exponentially more difficult.  If it were me I'd be constantly worried that I bent a feather or something.  But the visual impact is astounding. He also had fun interacting with the crowd.

 This girl was an astounding dancer.  I have no idea how she could move like that without losing that incredible headdress.

 Here she is again with someone who clearly looks like her outfit was inspired by the sun.  Again, how do you dance in these headdresses without losing them?









I don't think  she was associated with the guy from above, but she also made awesome use of the quail (?) feathers.

 I really do love it when people just look like they're having the time of their lives in the parade.  By the end of the three hours you always see people who really look like they'd rather be anywhere else.  So it's really nice when you get the shots of people who are just *happy* to be there doing what they do.

 Now, I did find this interesting.  You'll notice in the shots above how easy it was for me to isolate individuals.  They had tons of space where they could do their thing and be in the spotlight.  Then there was this group in the back.  The costumes are scaled way down, and they're all in a line.  I'm wondering if this group is the apprentice dancers or something.

And, of course, they come with their own accompaniment.  I'm not sure why, but their drum major decided they needed to stop, right in front of me and play.  I don't know if he was bidding to get their picture taken and posted somewhere, or what, but here they are!  The drum line for the salsa dancers. :)

Okay, so now I'm going to pop out and work on the photos for a few shorter trips/events.  I suspect I could post on this parade for months, but it's time to shake it up.

Chicago Gay Pride Parade - Post 8 - Outfits... or the lack thereof (alpha) - 6.24.12

I found myself editing these pictures on a plane.  I was looking at 6 folders of different outfit categories and trying to decided where to start.  When I noticed the five year old sitting kitty-corner behind me, I realized it would probably be poor form to start with the folders called "a whole lot of skin" or "topless or nearly topless".  The little boy could see my screen after all. ;)

So I'm starting with the costume characters.  People dressed as other people/things, sometimes despite the heat and what had to be a ridiculously hot costume.

 What parade would be complete without an Elvis impersonator?

 This guy cracked me up.  When the float comes through it looks like just another float full of people, waving and tossing out candy...

Then you notice something... "Hey! That guy looks just like President Obama!"  He's just stuck in the crowd with nothing to call your attention to him.

I find that hysterical.

Also, this guy totally should be doing Obama impersonations... he looks remarkably like the guy.  Unlike a few impersonators I've seen.

I'll talk a little more about the composition of this post tomorrow, but this was a party bus full of pirates.  Well, mostly pirates.  Some of them were just people decorated with skulls and crossbones. 

But I love the effect the bubbles had.

This crew... a little more piratey-looking.

Then there was the "mascot"...

This started off as a nice, normal blow up orca.

I have no idea what they made the lips from, but then...

• Blue frisbees for eyes.
• A bikini top (no bottoms...) stuffed with something
• Flip-Flops
• A wig

I'm not entirely sure why... but I guess it is pretty funny.


Another example of reclaiming language...

And the Queeros in question.  Or should I say, "outfits inspired by"?  Because I'm pretty sure the 'actual' Iron Man outfit looks a little different.  And I'm sure, was a lot hotter.  Accompanied by Captain America and Wonder Woman.  I'm not sure who the purple and black character is, but I'm absolutely no authority on comic book heros.

And last but not least, Tofu Man.  Who, you know... looks like a stick of tofu.  I had to think that it was pretty warm in that box.  I did like that if you look carefully you can see the guy behind the actual mask.

So those were the fun and recognizable characters. Tomorrow I'm going to talk for a minute about motion in pictures, but then I'll be back to being amazed (and occasionally dismayed) by what people wore (and didn't) during the parade. :)

Chicago Gay Pride Parade - Post 7 - Signs of the Times (t-shirts) - 6.24.12

Okay, so these aren't technically signs, per se, but it's the text that matters.  So... t-shirts of note at the Gay Pride Parade.

 This guy was with the anti-circumcision group I wrote about the other day.  (That may have gone without saying, right?)

Okay, I tried to get a shot of the whole text of his shirt, but I missed.  It says, "Bump. Set. Spike. Bang. Repeat." And then there's a little volleyball under the text.

Now, I played volleyball in school.  Bump, Set, Spike... all terms I'm familiar with.  I don't know what 'bang' is supposed to mean in that context, but I can tell you how it would be interpreted at a Gay Pride Parade. ;)



 


These shirts were from a group celebrating the progress made in the 43 years since the Stonewall Riots.












Believe it or not, that doesn't say, "Start a Boot Riot."  It says "Booty Riot".  I'll leave it up to you to decide if that's much better or not. :)

 Okay, this guy wasn't actually in the parade.  He was just heading down Broadway before it started.  I'm not sure I'd wear a shirt labeling me as "Psychopathic".  That said, I first read it as "Psychopathetic" which was even more of an interesting thought.

She wasn't in the parade either.  She was across the street from me.

I just love this shirt.  All I could think was, "When I was a kid, there was no way in hell people would walk around in a shirt like this."  So, yeah.  Awesome.







Yay!  Done with signs/text oriented stuff.  Now we'll get to some of the really *ahem* fun stuff. ;)

Chicago Gay Pride Parade - Post 6 - Signs of the Times (epsilon) - 6.24.12

So I was mentioning that there was one more set of signs, that were all from one group.  It's a group, that in about ten years of going to the parade, I don't remember ever seeing before.

It's a GLTB (I'm assuming it's all inclusive, even though everyone in the parade was a guy) sobriety group.

Talk about people who could be in a closet in a closet in a closet...  So I think it's pretty cool that these guys got up and marched in the parade.

 Right down to your undies... at least as far as we can see. ;)

 I find the one on the left interesting.  "You're only as sick as your secrets".  I can't decide if I have a problem with it or not.  I think sometimes we need secrets.  But in their context, I guess it's not quite as... problematic.  I don't know...

The guy on the right has one of the weirder signs.  It says (since I'm sure you can't read it through the glare), "I texted what to whom last night?!"

 Not much to say here, other than, "You go!"

 Another one where I didn't really get a good shot of the sign.  It says, "Grateful to be sober, Proud to be Gay."

"Where's my car?"  I'm guessing if you don't know, you aren't sober enough to be driving it, so...?

But what's interesting is the juxtaposition of some of these signs.  "Where's my car?" guy is right next to "You'll never have to be alone" guy.




Anyway, I thought their signs were interesting.  Mostly because about half of them were so incredibly serious... the other half were decidedly not.

T-shirts tomorrow, then I think I'll start on the folder I have labeled "Outfits or the Lack Thereof". ;)

Chicago Gay Pride Parade - Post 5 - Signs of the Times (delta) - 6.24.12

Okay, one more set of random signs.  (Then a set of less-than-random signs, then t-shirt 'signs'...)  I'm starting to get the idea I could be posting this parade until Halloween. :p

 Okay, so this group is here every year.  I guess as a female I don't really get to have an opinion on this, but it seems that the only time I hear about this (supposedly) massive movement to leave little boys intact is at the Pride parade.  Is it that big of a deal?

I will say this: they have a bucketload of information on their signs, which typically go by pretty fast.    So apparently there are two websites about restoring a removed foreskin and two on how to end circumcision.   But the fun stuff is in the small print.  On the left, "Over 200,000 men are restoring their foreskins."  And all I can think is, "Right now?  This second?"  And how do you even *get* stats like this?

On the right it says "About half of US boys are being left intact.  Two-thirds in the four Western states."  Which has me going, "Why do we need that geographical breakdown?"  And also, "Is Alaska the fourth?  Or Hawai'i?" I'm assuming the first three are California, Oregon and Washington.  But then I come back to... why do we care about the geography of it all?

 This sign gets the pendant in me all worked up.

First of all, how do you ask a baby? Second of all, little girls don't even know that the body part in question even exists, so I can't imagine they have any opinion on the matter at all.

And then the whole "Male is not a diagnosis" thing.  I'm pretty sure no one is saying it is.  Since circumcision is cosmetic surgery, of a sort, that would be like someone who says a woman who just decides she needs breast augmentation is saying that 'female is a diagnosis'?  Does that make sense?  Not to me.

But like I said, it's not a debate I wade hip deep into since a.) I don't have the body part in question and b.) I don't have a son I need to make the decision for.

 Okay, back to the less controversial.  More cool signs by the ACLU.  At least I think it's ACLU.  It could have been part of the PFLAG group.

 I do love that for all the very carefully prepared, fancy-pants signs that we get at the Pride Parade, we also get someone who just has an opinion and wants to share it.

I also like her opinion. :)

Ah!  This is the other ACLU sign picture I was thinking of.  So I guess the one above was PFLAG.












Alright... that's all the random signs.  Tomorrow is signs from a new group (at least that I don't remember seeing before), then t-shirts with opinions. :)

Chicago Gay Pride Parade - Post 4 - Signs of the Times (gamma) - 6.24.12

More signs.  I think there are three more posts worth of signs.  And then one of t-shirts.  And then I go to the next big folder.

I really love that balloon sign.  Actually I loved most of the balloon art, but this just struck me as the kind of thing that should be on a book cover or DVD cover of the parade.

 Even in a subculture, there are subcultures.  This is just one of them.

 I liked the visual here.  It was the back of a jewelry shop float.  I don't think I've seen an *actual* wedding car with tin cans on it in years, but I kind of love that theses guys painted the cans to just make them part of the decoration.  Very cute!

 I mentioned yesterday that there's been some reclaiming of words and expressions that have typically been viewed as offensive.  I kind of love the twist on that idea used here.

And to leave off with today... there was this weird thing from an anti-Romney group.  The sign says "Free haircuts from Romney".  I think I missed a joke somewhere.  I'd get it if it were a John Edwards joke, but what's the connection between Romney and haircuts?

I do get what they're doing with the guy in the cage on top of the car.  It's a bit... odd... to play it out with a human who isn't even dressed like a dog, but there it is.  I love the safety precaution of the guy wearing a bike helmet.

It's a theater group's presentation, but I'm not sure it really says anything to me about their acting or their shows... it just tells me they don't like Romney.  Which, you know, cool... but also?  A but weird.

More signs tomorrow.

Chicago Gay Pride Parade - Post 3 - Signs of the Times (beta) - 6.24.12

I'm still working on the signs.  There are... many.  So I'll toss up a few more before I go to bed tonight.  The heat in Chicago this week has been ridiculous.  It was 101 yesterday - our first actual 100+ degree day in 7 years.  They were talking about heat indexes around 114.

So when they say tomorrow will be a high of 87 it doesn't sound quite so bad.  So I'll probably go out early and hike the Magic Hedge... and get even further and further behind in my posting of things recent, but my break from work is very short and I do want to get in as much shooting as I can before I have very, very little time.

Anyway...

This one confused me a bit.  Clearly the comma is important - the sign is in the comma shape.  But a comma means, "I'm going to say something more in just a second"... but they don't.  Or God doesn't or... something.

And were they thinking there was a group somewhere who had decided God was done talking?  Like forever?

Like I said, I didn't quite follow.

This is very sweet.  I have no idea who Dawn is or what happened to her, but the sign is a nice sentiment.  (If you can't blow the shot up for whatever reason, his sign says, "Dear Dawn, We wish you a speedy recovery. Feel better soon!")

The Green Party's group.

Now, I have no idea if this girl was actually, like, elected as some sort of representative or if there was a pageant or if she just crowned herself, but she's apparently the Green Queen.

So... they're the party that says neither the Democrats nor the Republicans are liberal enough... yet she thinks a monarch is a good symbol for a more representative government?

"Car chalk" was a bit of thing this year.  I'll show more of this entry later, but this was a van from a cat rescue/rehoming operation called The Tree House.  They do awesome work.  And I found this car hysterical.  Some of the commentary is a little grown up, but that's okay.  I'm over 21.  :)  I find it hysterical that someone colored the door with the ICanHazCheezeburger.com "Nyan Cat" running joke.  If you've never heard of Nyan Cat, google it.  It's... weird.  Harmless and inoffensive from everything I've seen, but weird.  He's part Pop-Tart, part cat.  So... yeah, whatever.  Anyway, there's Nyan Cat and then every 'pussy' joke they could think of.  "You'll love our pussies,"  "Best pussy in town"...  You get their drift.

I work in an area where there's frequently discussions of 'reclaiming' certain offensive terms.  I hadn't realized that that attitude had moved into the LGBT community until I saw this sign.









Okay, that's five.  Tomorrow I should have more time to do more sorting and editing so that I get back to posting on a more regular basis.

Chicago Gay Pride Parade - Post 2 - Signs of the Times (alpha) - 6.24.12

I took over 1500 pictures at the parade.  Fifteen. Hundred.  Eight gigs worth. 

Even once I tossed them in my iPad and got rid of the utter crap, I still had 900 shots that had value of some sort.  Now some of them are marker shots for me.  The picture of the group sign so that when I go to post the picture that I actually want I can reference the right group, things like that.  But still, sorting and labeling and cropping and color adjusting... it's gonna take a while to get through all this. :)

And then I had to find a starting place. I'm not keen on just going chronologically.  If people wanted that they could just go to the parade (or watch it on the news/Youtube/whatever if Chicago isn't geographically convenient).

So I had to sort into thematic groups.  Then decide which theme went first... anyway, an event like this gets a little time intensive when trying to blog it.

I've decided that my first theme will be signs.  If for no other reason than it's a theme I have for so many of the non-nature events I seem to cover.  

 I love the color in this one.  I mean, sure, the sentiments are awesome, but speaking photographically, the colors in these signs really pop.

 If you can't read this one, it says, "1975 - AT&T adopts a non-discrimination policy towards sexual orientation."  AT&T also had one about how early they offered same sex partner benefits, but I didn't get a good shot of it. :(  Anyway, 1975 is pretty impressive.  That's only 6 years after the Stonewall Riots.  Amazingly, in the US, there are still companies and organizations that still don't include sexual orientation in their non-discrimination language. :( - again.

 Legalizing gay marriage in Illinois was a big theme this year.  Last year everyone was celebrating the very recent legislation in New York and this year we had the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" and Civil Unions in Illinois, but that just spurs people into wanting *full* equality.

 Another ACLU sign.

And this sign from Office Max.  It's cute... I just know that it is, unfortunately, still not the world's greatest idea with some employers.

On the flipside, I did love their balloon art.  the big balls are their signature rubber band ball.  The balloon Pride Flag I put up on yesterday's post was theirs too.

Okay, tomorrow (probably several 'tomorrow's) will be more signs.  I'm actually still doing a lot of the sorting and editing, but there were buckets and buckets of signs that caught my interest.  :)

Chicago Gay Pride Parade - Post 1 - 6.24.12

So today was Chicago's Gay Pride Parade.  It's the second largest parade we have all year.  Due to that (850,000 people watching!) they rearranged the route this year, starting it out in Uptown.  More or less just up the block from me.  So, of course, I grabbed my camera, packed a cooler and headed out. :)

Now like the Zombie March, I feel I should give a mild 'warning' to the regular readers of my blog.  The Chicago Gay Pride Parade celebrates all forms of sexuality, all forms of sex and embraces all body types.  To that end there are very frank signs about sex/sexuality, sexually explicit gestures and posters and many of the parade participants are not at all ashamed of their bodies and wear very little.  This can include topless women.

So if you or someone likely to look over your shoulder is sensitive to this sort of thing, you may wish to look away.  I'll try to make sure that at least the first image in each post would make it past the U.S. censors for network prime time, but after that...   That said, this is a family event.  People bring their kids of all ages and the event is broadcast on t.v. so it isn't *that* 'adult'.

The first set of images I've pulled are pretty random, but a lot of fun.  Starting tomorrow, things will get grouped in their regular collections for each post.

 With all the millions of rainbow flags I saw today, these balloon flags were probably my favorite.  They were part of (I think) the Office Max group.  I just love the density of the color and the not perfect straightness of the lines.

Speaking of flags, I really wish this had come out a little sharper.  The two flags and the tons of bubbles?  Very, very fun image.

 And, of course, there had to be a few characters we'd recognize.  For the non-locals, this is Benny the Bull.  He's the mascot for Chicago's NBA Basketball Team.  He was dancing in that outfit, on top of the bus, in the 91 degree heat.  Ouch.  He was really working the rainbow flag cape, though. :)

The little androgynous Android dudes holding hands is always adorable.  Google's been there every year I have, but the little Android guys have only been there the last few.  I love that they're okay with people possibly thinking their little character might be gay.

 This is hard to see, unfortunately.  This is a middle aged woman, twirling a baton as part of one of the (many, many) politicians' groups.  If you make the shot bigger (or squint), you'll see the baton in midair.

 This is one of my favorite groups every year.  The Chicago Cowboys.  They always seem to be having such an amazingly good time!

 Now, we all know I'm not one for portraits, but I really do love this shot.  She was (if I recall correctly) part of one of the first ACTIVE duty military gay/lesbian groups.  I think she's adorable and seems to be having such a good time.

There will be a whole post on the amazing costumes of the samba group, but I really loved the surprised expression on this girl's face.


... And now for a couple of shots that those with certain sensitivities might want to pass by...

 This girl was with a vegetarian protest group.  She has on no shirt.  She is painted.  Someone painted an elephant right on her skin.  It takes looking at her for a second (or from the back) to realize that it's not a bodice or corset, that it's just body paint.

And then this last one gets the award for the most 'head-scratchy' costume.

Look carefully.  His 'skirt' doesn't wrap all the way around him.  There's a gap on his left leg (right side of the picture).  Which means it has to be held up with something like strong tape or spirit gum.  I've used spirit gum in theater.  It is *never* fun to pull off your skin. 

Let me just say, I hope that manscaping goes at least a few more inches south or pulling off that gum is going to take hair and *that* would be really, really, really unpleasant!


Okay, so there's ten to start us off with.  Tomorrow we'll start with things in proper groups. :)