We just returned from Disneyland, capped off by -- you guessed it -- the parade. This time our location made it easier to take pictures, since backlighting wasn't much of a problem. I got a lot of nice shots of Skylar and her mom before and after the promenade. But my favorites are from my favorite parade participants: Ariel, the Little Mermaid, and her rainbow-hued, ambulatory kelp forest.

I've often pondered the allegorical dimension to both the Hans Christian Anderson fairy tale and its Disney incarnation. Against the backdrop of Main Street USA, however, the spectacle of Ariel in her clear-walled prison takes on a different flavor. And her retinue's bright colors almost seem like acts of cultural resistance.

No, my dear, as Sylvia Plath intuited, you can't ever be part of that world. . .

Mode: spent
Muse: That song, figuratively