Michael Hanscom

Not a bad day at all today. Woke up at about 8am, looked outside, and realized that we were in for a gorgeous spring day — mostly clear skies, bright sun, and just a hint of breeze. Perfect for going out wandering…so wander I did.

I started by heading up the hill and heading down Broadway, keeping an eye out for more stickers to add to my sticker graffiti collection on Flickr. I found a ton of stuff to add — Broadway being something of a center point for much of the city’s “freak” population, it’s got a wide collection of graffiti (stickered and otherwise) to choose from. While I found a lot of good stuff, I think my favorite from the day was this one — a ‘dollar bill’ emblazoned with the text, “Yo, chickens ate my baby!!!” Other favorites include a plea to boycott certain Safeway employees, a reason for the stickers and these teapots.

A couple weeks ago, Prairie and I noticed that a gorgeous old church on Broadway right across from the Seattle Central Community College was due to be demolished. This was kind of a bummer to find out — while neither of us had ever gone there, it was a nice building, and it was a shame to see that it was to be torn down rather than renovated. When I passed it today, the work crews were in the midst of the demolition process. I’ve got to admit — while I hate to see the building go, it was kind of neat to get to watch some of the work (must be my inner six year old).

I managed to find a couple conversations as I continued down the street, too. First was a gent who I saw debarking from a bus wearing a khaki Sport Kilt, which led to a conversation about kilts and cameras that lasted for a couple blocks. Later on, one of the many street kids that prowl Broadway for spare change asked me about the kilt, and I ended up chatting with her and a friend of hers for a few minutes — Leah and Shy were their names, I think, though I could easily be wrong about that, as I’m absolutely horrid with names.

Bailey/Coy Books, one of the bookshops along Broadway, always has a sign out front with the first line from a book. If you know the book that they’re quoting from, you get 20% off — and today, for the first time, I was actually able to identify the quote! Determined not to let this opportunity go to waste I headed in and picked up The System of the World, the last book in Neal Stephenson‘s Baroque Cycle, which I’d been wanting to get since it came out last year. I’ll get around to reading it as soon as I’m done re-reading the Harry Potter series, which I decided to do after Prairie and I had a “Harry Potter Weekend” a couple weekends ago and watched all three films over the course of the weekend.

Once I hit the end of Broadway, I decided to continue on and head up to Volunteer Park, which I’ve never wandered through on a “normal” day (I usually end up there for the Pride Day festivities). After a wander around I started heading back out when I was called over by a small group of kids hanging out at the amphitheatre. “We’re having a parade,” they said, “come and join us!” I wasn’t entirely sure about joining in a parade, but I headed over to chat and see what was going on.

As it turns out, this is something they’ve been doing for the past few weeks, and intend to keep doing — get a bunch of friends together, dress up, find some noisemakers, and go wandering around Capitol Hill in their own little festive parade. Why? Why not? “Everybody gets out to march in protest, pissing and moaning about things — but nobody ever just celebrates a good day,” said the guy who seemed to be more or less in charge. “It’s a warm spring day, we’re here, nobody’s dropping bombs on us…why not have some fun?”

Seemed like good enough rationale to me, so I decided to wander along with them as photographer (not generally being one for random prancing, hootin’ and hollerin’, but still a great supporter or random silliness and fun). After a few more people showed up, it was declared time to go — and we were off.

This little motley group of assorted oddballs (and yes, I most definitely include myself in that) headed up and out of Volunteer Park, down 15th Avenue to John St., down John to Broadway, and up and then back down Broadway, prancing, dancing, twirling, shouting, chanting, singing, banging on gongs, bowls, and other noisemakers the entire way. “We’re having a parade! Join the parade!” they shouted at passers by and into windows of stores and open doors of shops. Some people weren’t quite sure what to make of the spectacle, but overall, I saw lots of amusement on the faces of the people we passed — they might not want to join in (though a few did eventually), but the sheer absurdity of the event was enough to bring a smile to quite a few people.

And in the end, what more excuse do you need to do something silly?

Once the group made it to SCCC they camped out on the lawn for a few moments to decide where to go next, and I took my leave of them. By this point I’d been out wandering around for about five hours, and it was time to head home and rest for a bit. I came home, napped for about an hour, then after a quick chat with Prairie before she headed out to a night at the opera (Central Washington University just got a new music building, and this was their inaugural performance), showered and headed up to the Vogue for a night of bouncing.

Bouncing accomplished, I’m home again, and now that this mini-opus is done, it’s long past bedtime for Bonzo.

“Power in the Blood (Acoustic)” by Alabama 3 from the album Acoustic Power: Underground Acoustic Sessions From the Steam Room (2003, 2:31).