Eblo

Venetian Night

Hey, look what I got!

Anyway, last night, we went to Venetian Night, a boat parade on Chicago's lakefront where people deck out their craft in cheesy party lights and costume themes. We packed up some snacks, road-tripped down through a bizarre swarm of those tiny green bugs that can fit through your screens and buzz your TV set, and met some friends down at Monroe Harbor. Luckily, only the fringe of the bug swarm had gotten down there, and there were plenty of dragon flies around to keep them under control.

We've always managed to miss Venetian Night, and after this year, I don't feel bad - we didn't miss much. What was more fun than looking at the boats themselves, was making fun of the boats, and coming up with our own ideas for themes. A few of those ideas are top secret, lest we get around to buying/renting a boat and entering it in the future. Trust me, you'll know which one belongs to The Freaks. Think of the closing scenes of Animal House.

One idea we had though, which I'm glad to share, is the notion that Venetian Night SCREAMS for the support and assistance of the gay community to help it live up to its potential. One boat came close, and we suspect they may have had some gay consultants, if not participants. The boat was done up in a Love Boat theme, featured a dancing skipper with his shirt open, plenty of sailors, and a few feather boas (though those might have only been on women). Real potential. Put a techno beat behind the theme song, shove the women overboard, and you've got a winner. Oh, and two more words: DISCO BALL.

In addition to the luv tub, there were three Gilligan's Island themed boats, one Popeye, quite a few pirates, one Noah's Ark, a shark, and more than one lamer with nothing but a few strings of white lights. And the ultimate in lame, one boat had nothing to show but its running lights. What a waste of a captive audience.

After the parade were the WXRT fireworks synced to some boating/island-themed rock and roll. Despite sitting under a tree, the show was pretty good, if short. There were a few fireworks I'd never seen before, the most impressive looked like dandelion poof-balls. One of my favorite things of watching fireworks on the lakefront is hearing the echoes off the buildings behind you. I don't know why - call me easily amused.

So despite the lameness of the boat parade, the threat of nasty weather (which missed us, but provided us with some cool lightning), and a swarm of tiny green insects, it was a good time with some fun friends, pretty lights, lots of boom-boom, and way too much food.

Posted by oblivion at August 3, 2003 10:40 AM | Technorati Tags: