Echo Park Community Parade::2010

Every year the Bicycle Kitchen is invited to lead off the Echo Park Community Parade, a neighborhood holiday parade on Sunset from Douglas to Park. The idea is to get a bunch of Cooks and FOK's (Friends of Kitchen) to ride their bikes and whoop it up at the head of the parade. Last year we got rained out and on, but we prevailed and our spirits lifted. You can read about it in last year's blog post.

This year was a beautiful, late fall Los Angeles blue sky kind of day. The kind of day when you realize why people want to come here from Minnesota and other icy places. Sunny and 70s where logic tells you (well, if you're from Alaska or those other places,) there should be snow.

Coral, JP, Kelly and Ryan were joined in the booming sounds of Fred Schneider's Christmas album and the awesome marching bands by Echo Park Film Center's Paolo (we couldn't believe he came back!) and Lisa--in a bear costume! and their friend Tommy from Toledo AND we all joined forces with the Echo Park Time Bankers on bicycles, tricycles, and roller skates clad in cardboard and wielding cardboard swords. Killing capitalism for free! We made quite the rag tag crew and the crowds loved us! Especially, Gigi who steamed full speed ahead on her trike and Abe Lincoln with her "Pose as a Time Bank Dollar Bill." We couldn't go slow enough (see photos--there's a lot of standing around.) But, we had fun, fuN, FUN! And this year we kept our trophy. Next year maybe we'll all make a cardboard float to pull along.