Summer to Your Heart
One must either take an interest in the human situation or else parade before the void.
-- Jean Rostand
Sunday, June 22, 1997
Well, darlings, as Kymm would say, I'm back after a brief hiatus. I was so busy getting ready for the Solstice Parade, I didn't write my journal, and rather than now recreate entries for those days, I feel more like summing up in one.
I think this is the fourth year I and the Seattle Cacophony Society have been in the parade, in one way or another. The first year, 1993, I know that Luke and I were there, and maybe the Mystery Chef and one or two others. We didn't have any organized ideas, just impromptu costumes and some mylar sheets taped to bamboo poles for flags. Someone took a nice picture of Luke that I played with in a graphics program. He said that that year he didn't know about pacing himself, and he was wearing an old band uniform and waving two mylar flags as big as bedsheets, so he was quite exhausted at the end!
The second year we showed up and carried a large (maybe 30 feet across and 20 feet high) helium-balloon-filled, white ripstop nylon octopus, each of us carrying a leg and a few manning the pole in the middle that held up the head. This was last minute, again we didn't have anything particular planned to do in the parade, so we volunteered when Luke, by this time very involved with the Fremont Arts Council, said that carriers were needed. I remember my costume was based on an African robe, with a decorated gold mask.
The third year, last year, we actually thought ahead, had a theme and carried it out. Our original idea of having t-shirts with plusses and minuses on them and being electrons, protons and neutrons and acting out chemistry would have required too many people to do anything beyond helium. We decided on being the Chromatic-Geometric Drill team, asked people to wear bright solid colors, and made some signs with large geometric shapes painted on them. The few rules of the Fremont Solstice Parade require no written symbols, no live animals except seeing-eye dogs, and no motors except wheelchairs. Fitting in those limits keeps the parade human-scale and fun.
The Seattle Cacophony Society had decided that this year we would appear in the guise of the Trollsylvanian Heritage Society. This was an outgrowth of an idea for a fake ethnic group that one of our members had earlier this year. We met in April to brainstorm ideas about our culture, our history, and our national dress. We'll be doing a big celebration at a large statue of a Troll in Fremont later in the summer, and it only made sense to leverage our work for the parade.
My area of interest was the costumes. We decided that Trollsylvanians wear stripes like the Scots wear plaid, and that the rest of our garb would be things that we could put together easily, things that would be cheap or that we would already have. I already had a bunch of striped fabric, and started accumulating more. The remnant tables at Pacific Fabric and Ironworks south of downtown were great for this. I made nine vests, and have fabric enough for many more.
I described our hats in my June 10 diary entry. Our other distinctive item was our epaulettes, described on June 15. We also had troll dolls to pin on, and a largish troll doll which I dressed in a coordinated fashion with us.
I really wished that I had done more work ahead of time. I did do some before the film festival started, but I wish I had done more. Everything worked out OK, but it was a bit hectic the few days before. I sewed a small vest for my nephew, and a total of eight more, varying in size and style but all from the same "Trollsylvanian" selection of fabrics, so it looked like we were from the same clan.
The weather was beautiful Friday, but stormed Friday night, and Saturday's prediction was for showers and even thundershowers. The parade would still happen though, so we would go through with it no matter what.
I picked up J---, my nephew, at ten and we drove to the staging area. We checked in, put on our costume parts, and watched all the other people arrive. I put sunscreen on J--- and on myself, since you can get burned even on a cloudy day, but I missed a spot on my right cheek so now I have a distinctive red splotch!
Then I worried about who would show up! Everyone eventually did, (warning, 27k jpg!) but some people waited until just before the parade started, so there was a last-minute flurry of getting people into vests, hats and epaulettes, then trying to choose a place in line.
Nick had been assigned to bring a ball for us to bounce to each other during pauses in the parade. He did, but it was a large beach ball! This worked out fine, but it was a bitch to blow up! Our other manuever was a backwards conga line. Yasha, who was the Mystery Chef in previous years, wore shoes that kept falling off whenever he tried to walk backwards, causing him to give a yelping cry: "My Shoose! My Shoose!" This was entertaining for the crowd, but caused the line to stop and eject him. He'd then try to catch up, only to have the same thing happen again.
The troll doll pins were the only costume item that didn't really work. For the Trollsylvanian Heritage day, I'll need to figure out a better way to fasten the pinbacks to the dolls, since the hot glue doesn't hold up well under stress.
We didn't get rained on in the parade after all, and it was great fun! We ended up in the Fremont Street Fair. After a short time while I was overcome by toothache and thought I would have to take my nephew straight home, the pain faded. The pain was due to drinking a Thomas Kemper root beer on ice -- the cold really made my tooth hurt! J--- really wanted to visit the kids' area of the fair. You have to fight through the crowds to get there. We made it, and this year he decided to attempt the rock climb. You climb up this artificial wall with hand and foot-holds, while belayed on a rope. He zipped right up there, even doing some parts where he really had to stretch. Of course I sprang for the Polaroid picture too! Then the slide and the bounce area.
We looked for and found my favorite fair food vendor, Masala Wallah, and I had a masala dosa. J---, after tasting parts of this, found it too spicy, so we got him a "giant" chicken soft taco. Some of my favorite vendors from years past weren't there, so I wasn't able to add to my collection of earrings and hair ornaments made from ribbon roses in victorian style, and I couldn't get another velvet beret embroidered with flowers and jewels. The beret I bought a few years ago really requires some living up to. I need a whole outfit in the same style to go with it!
After our snack we started walking back to the car, which was quite a distance away. J--- remembered that last year we stopped at Archie McPhee's on the way to the car, which I had forgotten. He even remembered what I bought him, a fake ketchup bottle that squirts red yarn when you squeeze it. This was in aid of his clowning, which is still a big interest. But we didn't stop this year.
So today I rested for the morning, then went to work in the afternoon. I normally don't work on Sunday, but I'll be at the dentist Monday morning and I wanted to be sure I got a good crack at taking care of the bugs assigned to me. It's nice to be in the quiet building. Then off to see My Best Friend's Wedding, which was very nice. Too bad the studio system isn't still around to guide Julia Robert's career! Then we'd have a lot more of her in the type of roles she does very well. Audiences like to see Julia Roberts laughing and happy, the way they like to see Harrison Ford pissed off, or William Hurt in a depression.
It's fun to see Ceej's take on Seattle. Mercer Island! not a characteristic neighborhood.
So that brings us up to the present. Still to come: a bookclub meeting tomorrow, the first Clarion reading on Tuesday, and a party on Friday! I like summer!
