Love Parade!
I went to San Francisco's Love Parade on Saturday. If you've never heard of the Love Parade, think a million people and techno music in Berlin. For some reason (apparently something political) it was held in San Francisco this year.
The weather was glorious. The parade made its way down the Embarcadero, and past the baseball field.
We arrived as the very last float was passing, so we joined in the crowds marching along with the parade and made our way forward. The crowd was smaller than I had expected, but the mood at the parade was very much in the spirit of audience participation. Even people on the floats were as much participants as the audience.
As for parade fashion, I saw a lot of cowboy hats, and a lot of fake fur. I'm not sure why.
There was also just plain general silliness..
The parade finished in a wide U-shaped road past the baseball field. The floats set themselves up at intervals, and I think the point was to have mini-raves in front of each float. We decided to go back home, but I'm told the party got better after dark.
In the evening, I went to the three-Alex apartment party. It was fun. Much nerdiness ensued, including this drunken attempt at an explanation of what computer scientists do better than mathematicians.
