The Fremont Solstice Parade, even more than last year, was essentially an anticlimactic epilogue to the hundreds of body-paint bicyclists.

Even the arrival this year of “The Resistance,” a single overriding topic of protest in all its branches and aspects and sub-topics, as the right wing sleaze machine takes near complete control and rushes out an all-fronts attack against literally every good thing in our society (from government aid programs to social civility itself), failed to bring out more volunteer street-theater performers, marchers, musicians, etc.

Last year, there was talk that parade organizers would crack down on the nudes in hopes of attracting more participants in the parade itself, participants who might not want to be part of the same spectacle as all the poons and peens on public pubic display.

That didn’t happen. But the underlying issue remains.

The parade could fade out and die along with the original hippie generation out from which its aesthetic was formed.

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Oh, and the parade got “trolled” by an entrant who showed up with a seven-foot costume puppet of a stereotype black “mammy” figure in a rasta hat.

According to some social-media commenters, the (apparently white) guy who performed in the costume was asked to leave the parade’s Friday-evening prep session. He then crashed the Saturday-afternoon event after it had already started, before again being shooed away.

Still, the Solstice Parade’s organizers have managed for almost three decades to keep motor vehicles, corporations, politicians, and even written signs out of the spectacle. But this thing looked just enough like a regular Solstice giant mascot costume that the guy got to strut it down a large segment of the parade route.

(After all, hippie graphic aesthetics used to include plenty of one-dimensional “ethnic characterizations.”)

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Also troublesome for the parade’s future, it can’t store its floats and costumes in a city-owned warehouse space any more. (Slog) (PI.com)

Friday’s MISCmedia MAIL ponders the Fremont Solstice Parade’s meaning in a year when just about every public act has political import. Also: a beloved fabric-arts store closes; the co-owner of Seattle’s coolest hardware store dies; alt-right dorks come to Evergreen; and a strange floating mega-balloon appears on the Tacoma waterfront.

As you’d expect, we talk a lot in today’s MISCmedia MAIL about Chris Cornell’s life, death, and legacy. Plus: more on the “My Family’s Slave” controversy; Ed Murray’s accuser wanting a trial anywhere but here; Mount St. Helens memories; and the usual plethora of weekend events.

In MISCmedia MAIL: Can there really be such a thing as a new color? Will Ed Murray drop his re-election bid? Can the arts relieve societal future shock? Will Yakima’s city government ever be responsive to its large Latinx population? Can we all move to France?

Another month, another MISCmedia MAIL, and another set of May Day protests. Let’s make this one inclusive instead of destructive, ‘K? We also discuss the recent Punk Rock Flea Market; the Folklife Fest’s serious fiscal woes; one thing that could halt Amazon’s big growth; and a “salmon cannon.”

The UMOJA Peace Center, and its elderly founder, were forcibly evicted from their Central District space, despite community protests against the action. We also look at the successful stopping of Travel Ban 2.0 (for now); a national honor for Re-bar; an additional layer of historic significance to the Black Diamond Bakery; and a travel writer calling Seattle “the city of the century.”

On the day after International Women’s Day, we note a few of the great women who’ve lived here and worked for a better city and world. Nikkita Oliver wants to add to this list of achievers by running for mayor. And we also observe the first details of the big “homelessness levy;” an argument outside the Malheur occupation courtroom; and the deliberate end to a beloved neighborhood tree.

David Schmader responds to the current madness with the power of negative thinking. Paul Constant, in contrast, wants us to proclaim ourselves “proud patriots” out to preserve and extend all that is positive (and, yes, there are many positive things) about this nation. Back in more here-n’-now stuff, there’s an unofficial Seattle population landmark; workers’ comp systems vs. sick Hanford workers; what happens to “swept” encampment residents; and Amazon Web Services going kablooey.

I’m sure Ed Murray’s new speechwriter knew what he was doing when he wrote that we in Seattle are “on our own” these days. And I like to think I know what I’m doing when I talk about the state’s decaying bridges; Daniel Ramirez Medina’s latest legal tactic; a lost opportunity for affordable housing on east Capitol Hill; and Stephen Colbert’s fun with KCPQ’s “exposé” of teen emoji use.

Another weekend of protests included a rally by the extended family that is the Pike Place Market, along with a commemoration of the WWII internments. Our Monday e-missive also delves into a plan to save part of the Ramps to Nowhere; small towns suffering under Tim Eyman’s tax limits; a tragedy in my ol’ hometown; and the snarky heroism of Mark Cuban.

We try to figure out how to mark an upcoming day for honoring the predecessors to someone who’s proven completely dishonorable. And, as well, we explore a still-extant fallout shelter; UW political scientists making a united stand; the sneaky details behind the state Republicans’ school-funding plan; and something called “gaze-assisted object recognition.”

Our Monday e-missive is, natch, mostly about the weekend’s “emergency marches” against the immigrant ban and the Sleaze Machine that devised it. But we also find space to remember a local TV legend and nationally renowned Scandahoovian-dialect comedy singer.

Huskies: Yay! Sounders: Triple Yay! Seahawks: Oh well. In non-sporting headlines, remembering F. Castro and his contradictions; factory robots not going away; another potential oil-export port; and the many non-POCs in the Black Lives Matter march.

Did Seahawks star Doug Baldwin’s testimony bring the “winning edge” when a state task force voted to make police more liable in deadly-force cases? We’ll never know. But we do know about a City Council budget vote; the potential perils of a Canadian oil pipeline; and a quiet end to one of Seattle’s oldest restaurants.

You all know the big story of the day, and how it will have a “half-life” for days and years to come. But we’ve also got more upbeat stuff, like stuff about keeping sewage out of the Sound; a jury’s defiant statement against racist policing; and how “mislabeled” seafood might be better for the planet than the real stuff.