The Doo Dah Parade in Pasadena was originally formed as a ridiculous antidote to the traditional formalized affair of the Rose Parade.  It's a celebration of all things ridiculous.

After walking for two consecutive and tiring days at the NAMM Convention in Anaheim, I joined founder Jeff Boynton, his wife Mona, and the other insane members of The Highland Park Thursday Evening Gentlemen's Society Circuit Bending Marching Band And Ladies Auxiliary at his home.  He has an extensive collection of circuit-bent toys and keyboards and Roland MicroCube amps.  From there, we took the Metro to the Doo Dah Parade in Old Town Pasadena, playing the circuit-bent toys on the train ride.

The Doo Dah Parade was strictly run, with stormtroopers there to enforce the rules. Not really. It's actually an absurd, largely haphazard affair, as it should be.  The Doo Dah Parade features many absurd participants such as the BBQ & Hibachi Marching Grill Team, The Shopping Cart Drill Team, The Back to Disco Drill Team, The Men of Leisure Synchronized Nap Team, The Marching Lumberjacks, Claude Rains & the 20-Man Memorial Invisible Man Marching Drill Team, and the Committee for the Right to Bear Arms, a group that marches in precise formations while carrying mannequin arms, and the band "Snotty Scotty and the Hankies, still the Official band.

The first time I went to the Doo Dah Parade, Mary Jean, the singer of a former band of mine, The Holy Sisters of the Gaga Dada, was the Queen of the Parade.  I was immediately invited to fall in as part of her court.

Ann Lau was the recipient of the Thorny Rose Award, bestowed to the city's biggest civic pain-in-the-rear.  Ann Lau is a human rights activist and the loudest critic of the China float entry in Pasadena's Rose Parade.  Lau rode in a vintage car, flanked by

The woman in front dressed like the Statue of Liberty appeared at all the Los Angeles and San Francisco Tibet protests that I was at in 2008.  However, I had no idea she was that flexible.