My title for this post may sound like something negative, but it is most definitely not! Quite the contrary in fact! I am myself a photo nerd, so to see so many people enjoy their immense interest in certain movie/game or book characters and dressing up as them was a delight. More nerdery is a good thing!
I guess an explanation is in order though. I was at the annual Nerd Parade in Malmö, Sweden, put on by the local Science Fiction Bookstore (which is a dangerous place to walk by…there’s a black hole like gravitational pull on me that pretty much requires me to go in there to have a look….fortunately for my wallet I have resisted most calls for purchase from the book shelves for some time…I’ve got plenty of books in my To Be Read pile that I want to go through first!). One of the reasons for this parade (as if there was a need for a reason to dress up?) is that it’s Towel Day or the day the author Douglas Adams passed away. Since he’s a favorite of mine I am fine with this “excuse”.
The people taking part in the parade met up outside the City Library where I encountered two rather perplexed older ladies from one of the parties taking part in the European Parliament election held today. When I told them what it was all about they seemed fine with it, but I couldn’t help thinking they’d rather have the nerds get going so they could hand out their propaganda in peace, rather than having to try out voicing the band playing various science fiction and fantasy related music pieces.
One of the organizers telling everyone the rules for the parade before they got going.
Eventually the gang got going to the tune of the Star Wars Imperial March and the Superman theme to name a few and the outfits turned quite a few heads among the Saturday shoppers on the streets of Malmö. An eight foot Chewbacca tends to do that when he comes lumbering through the city (impressive stilt work on that guy!).
Once the parade had passed me by there was at last time to sit down and swap the exposed roll in my Kiev 60 camera that I had shot all the 12 shots on at the start of the parade. I haven’t developed those shots yet, but I hope there’s a few keepers among them!
My friend Dennis Pauli captured me in mid swap of a roll on my Kiev 60 camera.