With the 119th Tournament of Roses Parade just around the corner and the 31st Occasional Pasadena Doo Dah Parade not too far behind, I feel it is only fitting to make a comparison between their two queens. If I may indulge you:
Rose Parade Queen Dusty Gibbs vs. Doo Dah Queen Naughty Mickie
AGE
Dusty: 17
Mickie: Old enough to know better, but young enough to still get away with it
HOMETOWN
Dusty: Arcadia
Mickie: Covina, with a second home and her heart in Pasadena, plus a penchant for her birthplace- Hollyweird
SPORTS
Dusty: Softball and track
Mickie: Riding motorcycles and making handsome men succumb to her charm
AUDITION
Dusty: Picked from more than 1,100 area teens
Mickie: Picked from 17 assorted entries of all ages, ethnicities and assorted orientations (1st runner-up is noted drag queen Erica Valentine).
BIG DAY
Dusty: Rose Parade 2008 – Jan. 1
Mickie: Doo Dah Parade 2007/2008 – Jan. 20 … and the day she warbled her first Black Sabbath tune
NUMBER
Dusty: 90th Rose Queen
Mickie: Auditioned as 666
APPEARANCES
Dusty: 150 official appearances
Mickie: 13 lucky official appearances and counting (every day she goes out is an appearance- believe it!)
JEWELRY
Dusty: $100,000 Mikimoto crown
Mickie: Whatever is on sale at Hot Topic or Mix It.
INSPIRATION
Dusty: Her mother
Mickie: Morticia, Ronnie James Dio and Emily the Strange
CAREER GOALS
Dusty: Physician’s assistant and work with pediatric cancer patients.
Mickie: Rock star and world domination.
Mickie’s motto: Don’t dream it… do it!
HAH!
Charles Phoenix’s slide of the week is fitting:
http://www.charlesphoenix.com/the-rose-queen-and-her-court-pasadena-ca-1956/
You rock!
Pasadena is one city that has accomodated both parades with class and a certain aplomb. We are blessed to have such choices in our town and applaud the Patrician as well as Plebein efforts.
It was a gay community that the original idea of having drag queens, in the doo da day parade. The homosexual community has been serving drinks, in bars for 70 years on colorado blvd. The hespanics, have it now, but originally it was a mix of white cowboys,and compnys and cities who pay for their floats,on major television. The doo da day parade is pure parody, but its roots are in the gay community. Bars like “the Office” and old closed ones, called “my place” or blvd,.or lesbin bar mouses,in the 1970’s,that originally created it. It was all american, once, in the 1920’s the Rose Parade, now its, a mess. I am the real queen of drag. The cities should feed the homeless instead of wasteing lots of money building, the expensive floats. All for what advrtising.
I applaud the Doo Dah queen. We need more Doo Dah queens and fewer lattee-swilling, late-for-the-tanning salon Rose Parade queens. Let’s put it this way: Which one would you rather have to talk to for three hours?
Thank you all for your kind words and, Stan, thank you for the history lesson. I hope to see each of you at the Doo Dah Parade and, please, don’t hesistate to come up to me and say hello! As Kevin suggests, I definitely could find something to discuss with you.
Queen Naughty Mickie