Are they really naked if they're painted??

Happy Solstice Everyone!

This Saturday was the famous Fremont Solstice Parade, so as new locals I decided that it was our duty to go see it and boy am I glad we did!! You might remember Fremont from an earlier post of mine that included the Fremont Troll statue in which I explained that this is the artsy part of town. You might also be like me and think that the best people watching was in airports. Boy Howdy was I wrong!! Welcome to Fremont everyone!! :)

So the celebration starts off Saturday morning with a parade. Now you all know what a giant band geek I am and thus I think I am not overstating my expertise when I say I am a bit of a parade connoisseur. Folks. This was like no parade I've ever seen. Maybe it's the altitude, maybe it's the extreme political leftness, but probably mostly because of the hippieness, but whatever it is it makes for an interesting weekend for this southern peach! The rules are quite simple I guess - anyone can be in the parade (no matter what you are wearing or what you are not wearing) as long as you do not use anything motorized or display any written words or logos. There were a couple of small marching bands, many randomly dressed (or undressed) people walking or dancing to their own beat, and several "floats" each with its own theme and agenda. For example, it took us awhile to figure out what the huge red, white, and blue boat looking structure was that about 5 people were hoisting up high down the parade route until we figured out it was a 6 foot long doobie with about a 6 foot diameter (silly us for not expecting such a thing out here...). I'm still not sure what the meaning of the guy wearing an orange prison suit while carrying a huge cross as a guy in camo carrying a big fake gun followed him, but then again I don't think I want to know.

And now for the real stars of the parade: the naked cyclists. That's right folks, about 50 men and women painted either a little or a lot wearing nothing but paint. Really. N-O-T-H-I-N-G!! (ok that's not entirely true, many of them had piercings in various places, but I kid you not, that was it). Surely it can't be comfortable and they all must be huge exhibitionists, but whatever the case they clearly all look forward to this all year long and spend much time planning out their "outfits". (As a side note it's really funny to see them try to gain speed by standing up to pedal and thus exposing berries of all kinds and areas on their tooshies the approximate size and shape of the bicycle seat where the paint had rubbed off). Here is one example to the right (there were lots of girls in fairy themes), but note she is only wearing that sash b/c we were in the beer garden where covering of some kind was required around the waist. But believe you me, as soon as they headed out of the beer garden it was 'au naturale' again!


We definitely marveled at the unabashed lack of self-consciousness that (literally) ran amok. I'm telling you it was people watching at its best!! So the parade ended at "Gas Works Park" where there were lots of food and drink booths, bands playing on stages, and people everywhere. It was a blast. The pic to the left is Clay with a coworker of mine Vanessa (the one from Florida - surprise, surprise I get along with her best of everyone here at MS - she's a smart arse southerner of sorts as well!). Third in the picture - I know what you're all thinking, but the man in the middle is not Jesus from the parade, but is in fact Vanessa's husband. They are both tons of fun and I'm definitely glad I met Vanessa here!


So I have soooo many pictures from the event but I'll only post a few here (for all of your benefit, I'm leaving out the one of the old man who was one of many who decided the paint wasn't necessary at all and just went buck for buck's sake - oh and DJ I'll send the naked man painted as a tiger straight to you). So enjoy, and if you like what you see, plan to be here for next year's Solstice - now we know to get to the parade route early to stake out a front row seat!! :)