Hello all. Hope you had a great weekend. I’m on a real roll with crappy weekends over here, so I’m hoping to break that next weekend, but there’s a whole five days of hellish work before I can even give that a try.
Let me talk for one second about parades. What the F? Who the F goes to parades in this day and age. I can see where a parade was once an exciting thing…but now? In 2008?! What the F is the draw?
Perhaps you can tell I had a nasty run-in with a parade on Sunday.
On my way to writing group I grabbed a cab since I was running late and in what should have been a simple 10 minute (and eight dollar) cab ride across town, everything was shut down because there was a stupid f’ing parade starting and all of 5th Avenue was closed from the mid-50’s all the way to the upper 80’s. For those of you not familiar with New York, I live on the Upper East Side and Central park is in my ‘hood. There are only a few streets that cross the park, in the 60’s, 80’s, and 90’s. Because of where I live, I usually cross over at 86th Street, but since everything was closed, my cabbie ended up having to take me down to 45th Street and then up and around the park, costing me more than 20 bucks and making me almost 40 minutes late for my meeting.
All because some stupid morons wanted to walk around in the hot sun in a line and other morons wanted to stand in the hot sun and watch those morons walk around in a line. It made me hate everything. Sunshine, People, Love, and Happiness. What a way to end the weekend. I guess one man’s happiness parade is my personal hell.
Sidenote: I have no issue with whatever the parades might be about (in this case I think it was an Israeli Parade) but it could be a parade for Atheist Feminisit Comic Book Enthusiast Women Writer’s of America and I still would hate the people particpating with the heat of a thousand suns.
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A parade for Israelis? Only in New York. Maybe they should build a road/street where they can have parades anytime. No traffic allowed. Just floats, antique cars, and marching bands.
For me, parades lost their luster when I grew up. Seeing the Macy’s parade in the movie Miracle on 34th Street is awesome. Seeing it today on TV, it sucks ass. Standing on the curb as a kid to see the local Christmas parade (and freezing my toes off) was great. Doing so today, not so fun. I’d rather stay inside with some hot chocolate, a good book, and a hint of holiday music in the background.
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I’m glad I’m not alone on the whole “what the f is the draw with parades”.
I think my rage was boosted by the fact I actually had somewhere to go and things I had to be doing, and the city was made absolutely incompatible for simple travel by something as silly and unimportant as a parade. It’s the most road rage I’ve had since leaving LA, and I wasn’t even driving!
Oh – and I absolutely support your “parade only street” – can we build it in timbuktu?
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I don’t really get parades, but I guess I get them enough in that a bunch show up in some of my short stories. They are a good place for drama to happen.
But yeah, a mass of people…mmm, no thanks! Let’s all move to Morocco and drink fruity drinks and do nothing all day long! 😀
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Paul: It’s funny you’re not into them yourself but they show up in your writing. Interesting. I guess it is a good instigator for things/people to be forced to crash into one another.
You’re forgetting the most important part of our move to Morocco…which will be the constant worshipping of yours truly. 😉
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I would only worship you in Morocco if you played piano at Rick’s Cafe Americain.
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Hilarious. I can feel the venom in your words. I hope you had some free-writing time in your writing group that night, would’ve been good fodder. So do you also hate marathons? Because at least in a parade you have music and the floats kind of linger, whereas in a marathon you’re watching watching watching and then whoomp! the person you’re there for passes in a flash.
I like your comics. I draw cartoons too — if you get a free sec click on my name link and check them out.
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Hi Madrugada: Welcome. And thanks for the great comment/compliments.
I think if I’m honest I have to say that I probably hate marathons too, if only because I hate being around large groups of people period. No matter what they’re doing. But at least with a marathon the hate is less because it’s certainly good exercise, and it’s almost always for a good cause.
I checked out your site and you have some great ideas and bits in there. I’m an idea girl myself. I’d always rather see a great idea and not so great art (like mine) than a lame idea and the most beautiful art around. But this is what got me (barely) a B in Illustration a hundred years ago when I was in college. Good ideas, weak execution. Some things never change!
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Thanks for your kind words. I’m getting back into drawing after a number of years away from it and I’m just having fun with it. I have no pretentions about wanting to be a great illustrator. Most of my favorite comics of all time weren’t/aren’t drawn great (Far Side, Peanuts, Pearls Before Swine), but they had/have an over-arching sensibility I like. Thanks for visiting my blog and I hope you’ll be a regular visitor. I’m looking forward to your future comics and blog posts.
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I totally agree. Far and away my favorite comic book artist/writer is Jeffrey Brown, who is never going to be known for his “beautiful artwork” though I find it to be gorgeous and wonderful. But really what works for me about his work is the combination of his words and the rawness of his art – it’s wonderful.
Sensibility is what it’s all about.
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