The entire sky was painted pink for a few minutes as I walked to the subway after work. This is looking down 2nd Ave. It was really cool. I wish I'd had the digital camera. These are all video stills.

I met up with Chan at Union Square, and we followed my secret plan to go to the end of the parade route.

It worked. We were at the corner of 21st and 6th, where the parade finished, and marchers turned onto 21st. These acrobats were part of the pre-parade entertainment.

A lot of the same stuff as last year. Including horses.

That gnome got the royal treatment.

That coach of the Tampa Bay Bucs or whatever.

Remember this drummer dude from last year? He had the "Dead Sox" jersey. I guess he was a little too depressed to even dress up this year.

I'm glad it's finally a mainstream thing to actually question the "official" story of what happened on 9/11.

Not a great version of the Ghostbusters outfit and not a great shot by me, but, come on, it's Ghostbusters.

I knew what this was gonna be right away...

Yup. And you thought the Steve Irwin costume was "too soon"!

I guess this is supposed to be (the great) Jimmy Carter. As a peach. Impeach. Peach. I guess. [Edit: Okay, I see the apostrophe now. "I'm Peach Bush." It's Bush as a peach. But also...forget it.]

Following in the footsteps of me when I was, like, six. The Greatest American Hero.

This baby was enjoying this baby's self.

Classic. The loner. The rebel. And Velma.

These were supporters of
Brad Will.

More Will stuff.

Evel Knievel turns around to take a picture of...

ZZ Top.

I thought this shark was wildly grabbing at peanut butter. I didn't know sharks like peanut butter. Then I realized the flailing arms coming out of the shark's mouth were the arms of someone getting eaten. I'm smart.

Gay marriage supporters.

Alien dog.

Costume of the year in my book. The effin Utz girl! (But with no red blush marks on her cheeks. TJ.)

That old dude who walks around Yankee Stadium annoying everybody. Or someone dressed as him. But the sign looks like an authentic "Freddy Sez," so it was probably him.

Ron Burgundy and Veronica Corningstone.

Just last night I found out that KISS would be the grand marshalls of the parade. Nice!

I was psyched when they finally came into view. Turns out if was just Paul and Gene (and some Kiss-dancers).





Awkward moment alert: They weren't playing instruments, but Kiss songs were blaring from their float. Right before they reached us, a song that was playing abruptly stopped. Like, "This is the end of the parade, shut it off." Gene folded his arms as if to say, "I didn't authorize that..."



Unfortunately they were turning away from us when they passed us. Still got some nice shots thanks to my zoom. There's something about being in the presence of Gene Simmons that makes one glad to be alive.

At that point, I didn't need to see any more. But I did, as we left the "official" route and went east on 21st, with the marchers alongside. Here was hate and homophobia in individual coffins. I guess the tangible versions of "hate" and "homophobia" are roughly adult human-size.

A big group of people had sperm-looking things on their heads. So it looked like they were swimming along the top of the crowd. I didn't see an egg. Too bad I didn't get a good shot of this, but I got some of the individual sperm.

Speed Racer.

There was Utzie again, on the sidewalk! She looks happy here, but a second later she realized I was taping. She got uncomfortable. Terrible job, Utz. On the cheeks, and on being uncomfy. You're lucky I gave you COTY.

Al Gore and an astronaut.

The mob scene at 21st and 5th.

Borat hugs a sperm

The ESB.

Happy New Month, everybody.

Update, 11:41 AM the day after: TJ by me for not mentioning what a beautiful night it was. 60-something degrees, perfectly comfortable. And the estimated crowd there, I read today, was 2 million.