Pride Weekend: The parade and festival...

I'm really bummed. Took all kinds of pictures on Sunday of the Pride parade and festival in West Hollywood and something went wrong with my photo card and very few images survived. Thank God some did and I am sharing those with you along with some of the highlights of my day.

I got up early to watch the French Open final and since that was over way earlier than usual, decided to get over to WeHo to try and find free parking rather than spend $20 to park at the Pacific Design Center like last year. Got a spot on Robertson right near Melrose, a short block from the festival entrance. Found my friend Mark and his group at their usual spot but the parade was still at least an hour away. I decided to walk the entire parade route in order to get to where thne VIPs and floats etc. were setting up. One of the first people I saw was artist-author Thom Bierdz (pictured, above) who had set up some of his fabulous artwork on a table. Thom is a former soap star who wrote the harrowing book "Forgiving Troy" about his mentally ill brother who killed their mother.
So I get to the area where all the parade partcipants are getting ready and see a buncha guys wearing speedos. "What float are YOU on?" I ask one of them. He was on the float for the restaurant-bar Numbers and I decided to get pics of them along the route instead of right then. Big mistake!

Gathering in the middle of the intersection of Crescent Heights and Santa Monica Boulevard were all the city official types like councilman Bernard Parks and City Attorney Rocky Delgadio. That was all a snooze and the only person I found of interest was the famous drag queen Momma (pictured, right) who strode over to the VIP area dressed to kill and filled with confidence and charisma and was only too happy to stop and pose for me.

Momma is so sassy.

It looked like everything was about to start so I decided to hoof it back to the other end of the route near San Vicente where my friends were.

But along the way, I stopped by a viewing party being held by two new friends of mine, Jose and Michael who own the Mijo Hair Salon. We met last month and just clicked. Michael was an extra in the gay wedding scenes on the season finale of "Desperate Housewives."

Apparently an actual ceremoiny was filmed but left on the cutting room floor. Instead, the ceremony between characters Bob and Lee (Tuc Watkins and Kevin Rahm) ended up just serviing as a backdrop for the rest of the plot.

Then it was time for the parade. As I walked back to my viewing spot, I ran into LifeWorks Executive Director Michael Ferrera and his partner Greg (they are bookending Brad Fuhr and a guy whose name I can't remember in the photo on the left)

Anyway, the parade was finally reaching us. I like to stand on the curb and yell to the people I know and cheer for the groups I am especially supportive of like PFLAG, the LA Gay and Lesbian Center, and Lambda Legal. Attorney Gloria Allred,, who never met a TV camera she didn't want to be in front of, is beloved in the gay community and rode by waving regally. It was great to see the gang from "TransAmerica Love Story" including host Alec Mapa and participant Andrea James who I know through my friend, Kenneth Walsh.

Of my parade pics, one of the few to survive was one of Scott Schmidt, better known as blogger BoiFromTroy. (pictured right) I had seen him earlier but didn't realize he was gonna be on a float!

And on and on and on it went. Mark, his boyfriend Jeff and the rest of the group were all spirited and into it but as it got closer to 2 p.m., I was about to lose my mind and said to Mark: "I haven't been to a parade this long since the Rose Parade of '82!" I got so bored with it all that I wanted to curl up on the grassy island across the street from A Different Light Bookstore where we were gathered.

I bid them farewell and hit the festival. Chatted up all kinds of people, had some beer, ate lunch, and snapped pictures. None of them survived. I was due to meet some friends at The Abbey and was going to try and stay until around 8 p.m. or whenever it was that Olivia Newton-John was to perform. But I was dead-tired and decided to call it a day by 5 p.m. My best straight friend James called from Ohio for our usual Sunday recap of our respective weekends and, I kid you not, I fell asleep on the phone.

So embarassing. Pride weekend left me pooped.