A Gay Dazed Parade

Know you’re busy so let’s just get rolling. Let’s peek at the mail for Faisal and find, appropriate for this first issue, a parade!

Hey Faisal!

Lucky me! Roll up your Torah for a while and eat your heart out. Here I am in the Big Ol’ VanQver recording live (and later some notes in learned retro-spect). Yippie! (And they’re here too!) I’m at the very First Annual Gay Pride Parade on Davie St. no less. Besides, I just had to escape T.O. Another falafel and grits at Gretzky’s and I’d have upchucked all over my brand new spats.
Anyway, I got wind of this event from Lulu on Church St at Sailor’s last week and boy did I need a break from those Yonge St rent-a-boys anyway so Mebought a quck tix and here I yam!

Holy Hanna. Had to get up at 6 for a good spot here on the main drag. Got one of those Rainbow Coalition lollypops all sugared up, pocketed some ExTC for the main event and all is Green for Go. There’s a blimp above me but I can’t quite make out who it’s about.

I hear music! Oop. False alarm. It’s the Otis gang doing a sound check piping xmas carols through the open window of the book depository. A real yawner.
9 a.m. Just popped the X. Boy, and already a ton of people. I’m a little squished up against the rope with a horde of barbarians mixed up with cheering queers behind me. Could be trouble. I’m told the theme for this first-ever is ‘tolerance’ so we’re supposed to expect an anything goes kinda gig. I’m down with that.

Here it comes! Float numero uno behind a big brass band playing “When the saints…” I can just make out the banner. Whoa! Right on, bro! It’s the Brotherhood of Union Goons step-dancing to We Shall Overcome or is it Solidarity Forever… I’m not up on their song list but boy can they shake it! This is just too good! Right on brothers! The Sally Ann Band is marching in behind their float renditioning Jesus Loves Me… hey tolerance you know?! Hey wow! This float’s a biggie! Number 2 float is, hang on, I need my glasses… yup, it’s the Columbine Swat Team, somewhat hidden behind these circled wagons, neat effect though. You can hear these popping gunshot sounds in thedistance. Somebody with a bullhorn is yelling out a version of the theme song from MASH. Whoa. That ExTC is on the march. Whew. Take a deep breath. Breathe baby. There. That’s better.