DIPPETY DOO DAH: A Parade Album of Celebratory Anarchy
Boo Boo Kitty. Photo Credit Liam Bean.
The flamboyant, farcical Doo Dah parade was founded in 1976 as a sassy retort to Pasadena’s prim and proper Tournament of Roses. Think Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade meets Burning Man—and if your synapses don’t short out, you’ll have an inkling of the madcap revelry unleashed when over 1200 free spirits gambol down Colorado Avenue.
Photo Credit Liam Bean
The motley crew of over 100 parade entries included political activists along with marching bands, floats, wacky cars, and the wildest variety of homegrown satirists and freedom-loving members of the counterculture imaginable.
Photo Credit: Liam Bean
To cook up some delicious Doo Dah jambalaya, just stir in a Star Wars Stormtrooper, a Chinese dragon, the Bastard Sons of Lee Marvin, and CSI scientists sporting signs that ask, “Come the Rapture, can I have your car?” Then spice it up with a quartet of nearly nude nymphs in pasties, carrying a bed of roses, and mix well!
Photo Credit: Liam Bean
Before the parade, I chatted with the lovely Erica Valentine, runner-up for Queen, “always the bridesmaid, never the bride,” who towered over my fairly respectable, five feet, six inch, height.
Nina Hagen. Photo: Richard B. Ressman, MD
As the participants in this year’s 31st Doo Dah Parade lined up in preparation to begin their march, the legendary Nina Hagen took her position with the Kucinich for President supporters.
Photo credit: Mary Pinga
Spotting Nina, a member of the Back-to-Disco Drill Team, ran up to her, gushing, “WOW! What a great costume! You look JUST LIKE Nina Hagen!”
Nina Hagen. Photo: Dianne Carter
To which the “Mother of Punk Rock” responded, “I a-a-a-a-a-am Ne-e-e-e-e-ena Ha-a-a-a-a-agen.”
Nina Hagen. Photo: Dianne Carter
