Sunday, February 10, 2013

tower mardi gras 2013

so, we went out to the annual mardi gras parade in the tower.  we walked down the street and found a nice spot in front of the landmark where we had a good view and it wasn't too crowded.  i've been laughing at the flyer for the parade for weeks because it's soooooo phallic.  heather & i were joined by our friend abigail nolte, who helped us make jokes throughout the parade.  also, heather & i were playing a game of trying to find older versions of ourselves in the crowd.

(click on photos for bigger versions)


the first float rolled by, and they were jamming.  love music in parades.


you'll notice a lot of space ships and such, according to the rocket ship theme.


this was a cool tall guy, but a terrible picture


glad to see neighborhood thrift representing.  i'm a little surprised more tower businesses don't have floats, or even the businesses that weren't open today. weird.


so, this pirate group was there promoting their upcoming event. that's fine.  promote your stuff. what i thought was weak was they were actually walking around from their float and passing out flyers.  and not throwing beads.  what?  you're in a mardi gras parade and you aren't throwing out beads? for shame.


this truck cracked me up. again with the phallic rockets


mofo party band - good music, lots of bead throwing


these next two surprised me because they were protesting verizon & at&t.  not too often do you see some protesters in a mardi gras parade.  or at least i haven't.



our friends over at sawyers vintage service.  i teased @sonicfoundation on twitter because i watched him throw beads from the back of the truck directly into the tree.  in fact, that happened right after i took the photo.


to me, this was the best group in the parade.  they are a samba association of some sort, but they were killing it with a bunch of drummers and a dude with a whistle. simple, but awesome.


i think this float was from valentino's, and they were rocking a star wars theme.  you can see princess leia in white.

this next float had nidal from fresno life magazine on bass, and landmark folks on it.


so, i liked that this float had a dj.  but even better, the lady by the speaker was winging beads into the crowd with force.  like, you could hurt somebody force.  as they went by, i'm pretty sure she zipped one right into the face of the person in green (lower right).


dusty buns new little postal jeep


not surprisingly, there is a raiders fan club here.  but, they had a float, and were throwing out candy along with beads.  nice touch.


so, this haunted corn field maze had a float.  you can't seen the super creepy pumpkin head on the person right there.  the kids in front of us were legitimately frightened.


also, they had a bunch of krampusses.  krampi?


i'm a bit surprised there weren't more car clubs in the parade.  there was a vw club though.  we wondered where doucheland is?


i say doucheland because they were throwing out zero beads.  what the heck? why be in the parade if you're not throwing beads?  maybe they ran out, but we were maybe half way down the route.  also, this bug had a rooster on top.


overall, we had a good time.  and, i think maybe fresno pub quiz should do a float next year.