Posts Tagged ‘Culture

27
Nov
19

The 42nd Occasional Doo Dah Parade

The 42nd Doo Dah Parade on Colorado Blvd. in Pasadena California on Novemebr 24, 2019.

On November 24th, a glorious Sunday in East Pasadena, folks gathered with expectations in street clothes and ludicrous costumes. They were standing or setting in anticipation of the 42nd running of The Pasadena Occasional Doo Dah Parade. These people were a mixture of participants, spectators, young, old and most specifically counter-culture in nature ready for a day of shenanigans and mischief.

The lure of the Occasional Doo Dah Parade is partially the irreverent unexpected combined with a spark of color, oddly innovative creativity, the mockery, and satire of the soon approaching Rose Bowl Parade. So much like other parades, there is a Queen that presides over the Parade and the day’s events. This year Queen Jesselynn Desmond held court over all the zany insanity.

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Royalty from previous years (Doo Dah Queens and Kings) set at the judges’ table mildly judging or simply being amused as the cavalcade of carnivalesque participants pass by. The parade proved to be one of the most entertaining in recent memory. If you can imagine it you can be it at the Doo Hah Parade. After the parade, there were more celebrations and after-parties to send everyone off in fine fashion for Sunday with another year of Doo Dah as a glorious memory made.

There is a photo gallery here for your enjoyment but if you want to get the full effect of all 189 images for the parade please follow this link to my Flickr Doo Dah Parade Album. They are big beautiful pictures in radian color!

27
Jun
19

A Ramona Otto Retrospective “Do These Stripes Make me Look Political?”

Assemblage Artist Ramona Otto‘s Solo Show “Do These Stripes Make me Look Political? – A Retrospective” has arrived in the Los Angeles Fine Arts Building in DTLA. The Los Angeles Fine Arts Building in DTLA is the perfect environment to enjoy Romona Otto‘s patriotically inspired assemblage approach to art that captures the American spirit as Independence Day approaches for the 4th of July. “Do These Stripes Make me Look Political?” is nestled in the vestibule of the ornate Romanesque Revival architecture of Los Angeles Fine Arts Building also known as “Global Marine House” that was built in 1926. Otto’s 12 pieces will be easily available for public viewing inside this designated Los Angeles Historical-Cultural Monument beyond the 4th.

As Otto puts it, “When I grew up on a farm in Iowa in the 1950s, the American flag was a powerful symbol. I remember the pride we all felt when leading the daily Pledge of Allegiance at Washington #4, the country school a mile from my house…Today, it is often difficult for people to listen to and understand one another. I am nostalgic for conversations that end with a smile and ‘Let’s agree to disagree. Now, where shall we eat lunch?”

“Do These Stripes Make me Look Political?” captures the best sentiments of our country’s ideals by assembling various and assorted pieces like photos, stamps, toys, extracted pieces of printed materials, utilizing a dollhouse as a canvas and more, reflecting on Old Glory and our country’s historic values. Otto’s unique approached to uniting these different objects captures the nostalgia, earnestness, and hope of what America has been and will be to us all again. Otto extracts these pieces, these found objects and assembles them to reflect the iconography of patriotism and national pride by recontextualizes these snippets and pieces that acknowledge there is unity in diversity using both patterns and colors that binds us all together as one. Otto’s retrospective sets the right tone for the upcoming celebration of the 4th of July with an eye on the simplicity of color and form that binds us together.

Ramona Otto’s “Do These Stripes Make me Look Political?” will be on view in the Global Marine House’s lobby through July 7th at 811 West 7th Street, Los Angeles.




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