Thursday, July 05, 2007

the funky fourth at the doo dah parade

I went to the fireworks last night downtown.

Wow was it packed.

Stuck in traffic forever getting out.

And my photos from last night are totally jenky.

Which made me wonder, are there any recent really nice photos out there of downtown youngstown with the buildings all lit up? If you go to the wikipedia page for youngstown, or a site like clevelandskyscrapers.com, not-so-nice photos are up.

We are way more picturesque than what 2.0 shows us to be.

Maybe we can sponsor a competition for someone to take a really nice picture of downtown, and we can use that on all the open network sites. The only rule is that there cannot be a parking lot or automobiles in the picture.

- - -

in other news, made it down to the annual Doo Dah Parade in Columbus on the morning of the 4th.

The Doo Dah Parade takes place in the Victorian Village neighborhood, celebrating the zany people and politically outrageous events that have happened in the past year.

Everyone in the parade gets dressed up in funky costumes, and if your float is deemed as" too commercial" by the crowd, you get booed.

Here are a handful of pictures and videos from the event for you to enjoy:


The Marching Fidels are an annual crowd-favorite.

I wonder when Castro passes away, will they also retire this routine?

After Bo died last fall on the one day of the year the band performs, the musical group "The Dead Shembecklers" announced on stage their retirement.









I believe "The Dancing Saddams" win the award for the most inflammatory message . . .













It was a great event.

Do you think this kind of thing, on a smaller scale can take place in Youngstown?

What neighborhood is funky enough to host it?

(Go around the circumference of Wick Park perhaps?)

Maybe we should send a goodwill peace contingent from Youngstown next year . . .

8 comments:

The YBI said...

I officially nominate Brooke and her crew from The Stage to launch our own parade next year.

That looked like a lot of fun. But, certainly we have equally creative folks here as well.

Anonymous said...

What a dumb looking parade. Sorry shoutytown, but I am not for promoting a liberal based HIPPY celebration on the fourth.

All your photos showed how liberal and how anti-bush that parade was.

Let's get something patriotic, and if not, just go to Austintown!

The YBI said...

Gee, Guin. I kinda think celebrating freedom of speech and freedom of assembly is about as patriotic as you can get.

Go Penguins!

Youngstown Nation said...

Guin Zone: I think it's the individuals participating in the parade that you take issue with, not necessarily the idea of the parade itself. The idea is cool, I think. Liberals OR "patriots" were free to participate.

I agree, the photos clearly indicate an anti-Bush majority in this instance but that doesn't mean it has to be an anti-Bush parade. For example, why couldn't Ytown keep the creative integrity but restrict political or social messages?

If there was a parade in Ytown where people dressed in Uncle Sam outfits w/ American Flags protruding from circle scooters (1st picture), I'd be there.

Lou said...

Having Lived in Columbus during the Clinton Years, I can say that the Doo Dah parade has always been an equal opportunity offender.

The point is more to poke fun at your regular parades than to promote any particular ideology.

Look at the pictures on Flickr: There's a lot more Camp and fun stuff than just politics

Joe Lowry said...

I think this parade sounds like a great idea. Let me know and I would love to make the drive to attend!

Also, check out downtownyoungstown.com for some great downtown photos, especially at night/lit up and some pretty nice Christmas ones as well.

The Stage said...

i will mull over ybi's nomination to run such a parade...i would love to make it happen eventually!

Anonymous said...

Stage

We'll be glad to Help.

The YBI