Those quintessential Berkeley experiences

Initially, I am repulsed, thinking
of the looks I get when I tell people I am from Berkeley. Yet I am drawn
too, knowing that I will only be here a few years, and wanting the soak
up all the new experiences I can. I liken it to wanting to go to Germany
and watch yodeling. Sunday, we were leaving for a trip to Half Moon Bay,
but had to stop at Katherine's lab to check on her "slut" flies to make
sure they hadn't been "raped" by the males yet. (I think Katherine gets
into this fly culture a bit too much, she already thinks they're cute....flies....cute...nevermind.)

The point is that we were delayed by a parade in downtown Berkeley. We
had not heard of this parade. I don't know how so many other people did.
Then again, we nearly missed another one of those quintessential Berkeley
experiences that draws nearly 60,000 people merely a block from our house.
Apparently, we are not "plugged in" to Berkeley culture. But this was
one of many festivals going on this day. We picked a bad day to leave
town.

Our first glimpse of this parade was what I can only call a "Berkeley-mobile."
You may have seen one of these before in your life. Someone has a car
so old and worthless that they just completely give up on it and turn
it into "art." But in Berkeley, these are quite common. I have
seen a dozen or more of them since we have lived here. Apparently, half
the population of upper Berkeley keeps these hidden somewhere until this
parade comes around. There were probably a hundred of these cars lined
up for the parade. Cars that had been turned into music machines with
trumpets and speakers, hippie cars, lovemobiles, cars with little characters
all over them, cars of every artform, sculpture, impressionism, cubism,
etc. There was even one with an elaborate nativity scene on it.

Then came the political causes. You name it, you got it. It is Berkeley
after all. The place where Student Government Seats have hundreds of candidates.
They actually assign them numbers (vote for Scott Sales, #137) to help
you keep track.

Then came the performers. My favorite, and probably the most famous of
these, is Pink-Man. He’s famous enough that he actually has impersonators.
It’s a middle aged guy in a hot pink leotard with a silver cape
that rides a unicycle. He’ll ride into a bar and flap his arms and
yell “I am PIIIIINK MAAAAN” and then he rides back out. He
looks like a total flamer, but I’ve heard he’s actually a
relatively normal married guy who just does it for kicks.

Anyway, I wish I had my camera. There will be more chances to share this
with you though. We didn’t stay since we would have missed the parade
by the time we found parking. We checked Katherine’s flies and then
went on our way to Half Moon Bay, where we did some Christmas shopping
and read a book on the beach while the surfers played in the waves next
to us.