Quondam Dreams

Monday, December 24, 2007

A Parade Photo

You may have noticed the lack of Hollywood Christmas Parade review in my blog this year. This is for two reasons (which you may wish to skip, because they're not as good as the picture):

First, there technically was no Hollywood Christmas Parade this year. Sure, there was a cheesetastic parade down Hollywood Boulevard on the evening when the Hollywood Christmas Parade would normally be held -- but this was the new Hollywood Santa Parade. It seems that after last year's shark-jumping edition, the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce realized that putting together a tacky parade wasn't as easy as Johnny "Johny" Grant made it look, and got out of the holiday parade business while the getting was good. As fall set in, the L.A. City Council apparently realized that the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce was serious, so they threw together a parade which was only distinguishable from previous years' because all of the marching bands were local. The late scheduling meant that there was no live television coverage. As luck (?) would have it, I had to do some stuff in Hollywood that evening. And I do have this lovely new-ish camera.

Secondly, I just couldn't work up the enthusiasm to get all the photos organized and captioned. I've been otherwise busy, with the day job and with a project you'll be hearing about very soon. I'll get to them at some point... maybe this week; maybe by Labor Day.

But there is one photo that I just had to share with you now, a snapshot of some universally-loved parade participants.

Was it... one of the marching bands, playing one of about four approved songs? No.

The fire trucks? Warmer (no pun intended).

One of the many Disney and Nick kids' series actors? I think they were universally-loved by the kids, but no one over the age of 14 knew who the hell the people were.

Shirley Jones and Marty Ingles, celebrating their 30th anniversary with another trip down Hollywood Boulevard? Eh. The miniature horses? Closer. Fred Willard? Nope.

Dear reader, I present the high point of the Hollywood Christmas Santa Parade....

Christmas Llamas!!



Hope you're having a wonderful whatever you may be celebrating. I'm sure the llamas would concur.

Monday, December 17, 2007

Reaction to the Mitchell Report

In re: Report to the Commissioner of Baseball of an Independent Investigation into the Illegal Use of Steroids and Other Performance Enhancing Substances by Players in Major League Baseball:

Gee, ya think?