Marche du Nain Rouge

March 24, 2013

This year's Marche du Nain Rouge fell on a bitterly cold day. The march started over a half hour late, and the cold made the delay so much worse. This enterprising young woman's bike trailer "smore" station in the above picture was a great idea. She was kind enough to not stab heat moochers with her prongs.

The only advantage to waiting around so long was getting to see all of the costumes close up. It took me a while to put it together that the monopoly themed crew was naming buildings owned by Dan Gilbert.

I don't know if we were all waiting for the guy with the Nain Rouge costume to show up or what, but the opening speech outside of the Motorcity Brewing Works before the march finally started. Coleman Young Jr. had a part in it, and I found his oratorical skills to be lacking.

The giant walking Franzia boxes jumped into the middle of the march.

They must not have wanted their wine reservoirs to be totally tapped out before the march even began. There was a frenzy of people grabbing cups and trying to work the spigots. Sometimes one of the guys wearing the box would start walking off, unaware that someone was still trying to fill a cup, and he'd leak wine everywhere. I imbibed myself, and even for Franzia it seemed a bit Kool-Aid heavy.

I expected the Nain Rouge's speech to be more cynical. I thought he would say things like "I stole your catalytic converter", or "I stuffed the ballot boxes in favor of buffoons who put off making difficult fiscal decisions for decades". Instead it was more along the lines of "Everytime you don't vote, pay taxes, and or report a crime, I win". Devin Scilliann from a local TV station that I don't care to remember gave the rebuttal speech.

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I'm a dork, I live in the Detroit area, and sometimes I take blurry photos on an outdated camera