MEOW? CAW?

 

More passing color at Pridefest. I don't think cats and parrots can be friends. Fashion, however, can create all kinds of genial combinations. Look however you like. You may get attention (and maybe that's the point) but no one here will disapprove.                   

PRIDEFEST IN THE TIME OF PANDEMIC

In normal times this would have been Pridefest weekend. It's usually our best photo op of the year. Now, in terms of Euclidean geometry, I'm as straight as the shortest distance between two points. Still, I hope the day will come when festivals like this will not be necessary because people's sexual preferences are such a normal part of society that there is no need to call attention to it.

The local community came up with a creative alternative. There was a car parade, a Care A Van, with a long line of decorated vehicles snaking through the city, decorated for the occasion. Not nearly as good as the usual crazy annual parade, https://tinyurl.com/y85yx, but in the times we live in it will have to do.               

ROTATING STOCK

Didn't get any holiday weekend pictures yesterday. The weather was gray and hot with intermittent showers. Should be better today and I'll head downtown later.

However, I have tons of photos from last Sunday's Pride Parade. I had a bad back day and eventually parked myself on a cement wall. It turned out to be a good place to shoot the passing parade, the one on the sidewalk, not the street.                     

Proud Volleyball

Three volleyball courts were set up on the lawn at the Pridefest area.  Nothing organized: a net, a ball, sidelines marked with tape. Anyone who wants to play, c'mon over. Some of the action was pretty intense.  

Pridefest STL

It's that time of year again. PrideFest has grown enormously in recent years. What a change from my youth, when you could get arrested for being openly gay, to today, when there was a special pull-out section of the local newspaper about the event. Now, I'm as straight as the shortest distance between two points but I want all of humanity to be treated equally and with respect. It has been a long struggle and it is not done.

I got a fair amount of pictures yesterday, limited by some back problems. The big parade is today. No question that I will be there. Mrs. C is marching with a group of progressive Lutheran churches. Stay tuned. 

     

River Of Color

IF YOU ARE READING THIS ON FACEBOOK, CLICK OVER TO MY BLOG TO SEE THE VIDEO.   

There were Pride parades throughout the US and much of the world yesterday. Near perfect weather and a big turnout here yesterday, although it was awfully bright. The Balloon Brigade is a fixture and always a big hit. The clip below will give you an idea of the atmosphere and my video skills.        

Let's Ease Into This

I spent hours on Sunday shooting the Pride Parade, the most colorful photo op of the year in The Lou. The mood was exceptionally exuberant in light of last week's Supreme Court decision. There were some people who were really out there.

Easier to get into this gradually. Someone was standing on the sidelines holding the world's calmest raptor on one of those big leather gloves. Of course, it is an American symbol of freedom.

By the way, note the bird's eye in the second photo. Does anyone know if they have some kind of odd ocular membrane?                        

If You Want To Put It That Way

Back to the Pridefest Parade for a day: le monde des femmes. And some guy who wants to hide his face.

There are plans for gathering new material today.

                   

Josh Routh And Circus Kaput

Circus Kaput. What a wonderful name. There are days I think my law firm should adopt it.

Josh Routh, seen in these pages many times before, mounted stilts and led their delegation in the Pridefest Parade.

Got a couple of good shots in Chicago last night. Some of it will come around.                      

No Lack Of Color

The skies were dull during the Pridefest parade. The participants were anything but.

Up to Chicago this afternoon for a conference Monday and Tuesday. And it's Mrs. C's birthday. We'll go out to dinner with Andy and Claire, the newlyweds, somewhere in the Logan Square neighborhood.
                               

Oops, I Forgot Something

No material? Um, I seem to have forgotten the Pridefest Parade I shot a couple of weeks ago. It wasn't as out there as some years and I got distracted by the Fourth of July stuff. Still, some good images.

Federal courts have overturned state laws prohibiting same sex marriage in a number of jurisdictions. Not here in Missouri, or not yet. Still, STL permitted a few gay couples to be married in City Hall last month although not yet legally sanctioned. That's Mayor Slay in the purple shirt in the top picture. He didn't get married then. He's already got someone. Maybe it was the men on either side of him.

By the way, about this "Show Me" stuff: each of our states has an official nickname, for some unknowable reason. California is the Golden State. Texas is the Lone Star State. Missouri is the Show Me State. The reason is a story, possibly apocryphal, that over a century ago some old fart senator from here was given a proposal in Congress. He is said to have been skeptical and replied, "I'm from Missouri. You'll have to show me." Or so they say.                              

Angels In America

I don't know if this chap had Tony Kushner's play in mind when he got this outfit together but to each his (or her) own. No lack of rainbow color patterns anywhere. Note the second flag flying in front of City Hall. 

There is so much to shoot here over the next few days my right index finger may fall off.

Hi, Everybody!

What can I say? When you're out, you're out. These pictures and the parade in general remind me of the end of an e e cummings poem. But, in just a spirit of political correctness, I won't name it, leaving it as a puzzle.                   

Pridefest

Time for St. Louis' most colorful annual photo event, the Pridefest Parade. It moved downtown this year from its original home in Tower Grove Park and South Grand Boulevard. The crowd was much bigger in the new location, cutting into my shooting room. I got enough, though. For days and days and days.

The second photo suggests a new version of Village People may be forming. The third has St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay with a bystander.               

All You Need Is Love

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The crowd was thick in front of the venomous anti-gay demonstrators at the Pridefest parade. I had to dodge and weave through people to get angles to shoot. The feeling was getting tense. Although the police were nearby there could have been a nasty confrontation. It was then I heard a chant from a few people that quickly spread to everyone in the area: no hate, no hate, no hate . . .

It was infectious. The marchers gathered in groups to have their pictures taken in front of Kansas' worst, full of smiles and laughter. They mocked the demonstrators with their joy. The atmosphere on opposite sides of the yellow police line was, well, something like heaven and hell. Peace, love and tolerance won the day. We don't get to say that often enough.

Hate Speech

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I mentioned there was some unfinished business with the Pridefest parade shots. This is it.

There is a fundamentalist church in Topeka, Kansas, whose members have the most extreme, virulent opinion of homosexuality. They and their allies travel around the country demonstrating like this at military funerals, much to the offense of the bereaved families. They think that God causes the deaths of American soldiers because the country tolerates gay relationships and a few states allow same-sex marriage or civil unions. Holy . . .  If they are indeed Christian, I wonder how they deal with the concept that the same God made them and the objects of their scorn. Reason does not trouble them.

These people enrage almost everyone; I am posting this simply as reportage. The police kept them on a side street but next to the march. Tomorrow's post will be about the crowd's reaction. Here's a hint.

Stepping Away From Pridefest For A Bit

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I'm not through with the Pridefest photos - I could dribble them out for weeks - and I've got some strong stuff to post. Shocking, actually. Not shocking gay, shocking hateful. We'll come to that but for now we will walk off in our rainbow high heels to more festive holiday stuff.

A couple more shots from the Webster Groves Fourth of July carnival for now. Sorry for few if any comments yesterday. Worked late and had to pack last night. Flying to New York today and then a drive over to Ridgewood, New Jersey, to see the family.

Goo Goo Eyes

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Got what's going on? These ladies painted eyes on their upper eyelids. When they close their eyes they look like Betty Boop or zombies. The group was hanging out on the sidewalk by the Pridefest parade. It's a matter of taste, but I particularly like the second and third photos. The bottom one is one of my best group portraits, IMHO. It reminds me of the cover of an old Paul Butterfield Blues Band record I really like.

 

A lagniappe: this is Fourth of July week in the U.S. It falls on Wednesday so the whole week is kind of down the tubes. We're off to New Jersey tomorrow for the annual Crowe family get-together. My town, Webster Groves, MO, started its festivities last night with the opening of the carnival. I present a sample below. There will be more from Ridgewood, NJ, and the streets of New York City, but we're not finished with Pridefest yet. Not by a long shot.

Perpetual Indulgence

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If my guess is correct, these folks are members of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. I met some of them on my first shoot at the Pridefest Parade three years ago and got what may be the best street portrait of my life, I just love the kabuki-like makeup and serene attitude. There was not anyone more photogenic on or around South Grand Boulevard.

A Whiff of Latex

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I've photographed this group at the Pridefest parade for the last couple of years. Don't know who they are - no signs or banners, and I'm too busy shooting to ask someone. They carry ordinary blow-em-up-yourself balloons. If you have ever inflated one, you've probably noticed the odd, not quite rubbery smell of the latex. Now imagine that in a small area, multiplied hundreds if not thousands of times.

The aroma was more prominent than garlic at a cheap Italian restaurant. It made me queasy, but then whatever it takes for the shot.  Anyway, latex is a recurring theme at an event like this.