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Pasadena, California
No consolation prizes, spit out your lies and chewing gum
As part of what I still consider to be a quite generous Christmas-Birthday-Mother's Day gift, I decided to take my mom to California to see the Rose Parade, something she had always wanted to see. Despite any initial concerns (the two things my mom hates most are large crowds and the strong smell of flowers) all went relatively well and certainly without incident.
Every year a million (or so) people go to Pasadena to see the Rose Parade, an unavoidable fact that starts to confront you close up as you try and squeeze onto that Gold Line train or try and walk down Colorado Boulevard with all the rest of them. What those million (or so) people experience begins with an alarmingly early start on a chilly morning (the parade starts at 8am) and continues for two hours with a truly consistent rhythm (marching band, float, horses, float, repeat) that was occasionally impressive and always interesting on at least some level. The parade and floats came with lots and lots of sparkly gimmicks (stealth bomber flyover, man flying on jet pack, flower covered dragon floats with fireballs shooting out) while impressive bands (notably Grambling State University and USC) filled in the rest of the gaps. Some of the floats and bands were more impressive than others, most of the crowd was in a good mood (except possibly for the war protesters), and despite a severe and unexpected lack of merchandising or available food (you'd make a killing selling hot chocolate) or any announcements telling you what minor celebrities you were waving to on the floats, the experience managed to live up to its somewhat lofty expectations.
These pictures show the view from our grandstand seats (only the best for my mom) right on the corner of Colorado and Orange Grove, strategically chosen since it is where all the tv cameras were and thus the place where all the floats and bands would choose to show off whatever animations or tricks they spent all that time working on.
Not the best picture from the Rose Parade, but probably the one that was most representative of all that was going on that morning. First of all there's a big haired people blocking part of the shot- the grandstand seating (while certainly nice) was still grandstand seating and also certainly not in the steepest grandstands around. Next there's a tv camera in front- again a big part of the experience, as they would occasionally swing around to take close up pictures, waking up the surrounding crowd. There's a few war protestors with their well meaning and positioned sign (they lasted about another 15 minutes before the parade organizers made them leave) standing just beyond the street people who camped out all night in order to avoid paying for grandstand seats and to see the backside of the floats close up. Walking down the parade route are a brigade of Star Wars stormtroopers in honor of the parade's grand marshal George Lucas- in addition to Star Wars, the parade also honored "nature" and the state of Oklahoma, no reason was given as to how all three simultaneous themes were supposed to go together. Finally there's the giant rose covered rose on the museum, one of the rare year to year constants in an otherwise often overthemed event.
Normally a regiment of masked stormtroopers walking through Pasadena might be a cause for concern, but not this time. Every Rose Parade has a Grand Marshall, and this year that Grand Marshall was George Lucas, which means that there was a fair representation of Star Wars content.
There was a LOT going on in this parade, and these pictures are only a fraction of what we saw. Not pictured are lots of bands, performers, horses and whole floats. But what is pictured are two pictures of the same guy flying over Colorado Boulevard. Of all the things we saw, the most memorable may have been him, although maybe not for the reasons that jetpack guy intended. It’s not as if his flight went badly, it’s just that his successful flight points out how incredibly useless jetpack technology really is. It seemed like an awful lot of effort to fly not that far, plus it turns out that having a jetpack on your back is loud. Really, really loud.
We did not stay in Pasadena but instead way out at Universal City, its near Burbank Airport and not too far from the Metro station, Getting there in the early morning was no problem, it was an easy transfer at Union Station to a Gold Line train, and it was busy but we were able to get a seat. As the train headed north, it got busier and busier and busier, well beyond capacity by the time we dot to Del Mar. Which makes sense, considering that some 800,000 people attend the parade every year.
For the way back, I did not want to see my mom crushed by crowds at Del Mar, and made a quick decision to go the other way instead. So we didn’t go downtown but instead rode all the way to the end of the line at Sierra Madre Villa, which was busy but not wait-for-ten-trains-before-you-get-crammed-in-a-train busy. From Sierra Madre Villa, we got seats in the end corner of the train, rode back to Del Mar where all of humanity boarded, and rode back as painlessly as we could to Union Station and, eventually, Universal City.
After the parade, the organizers and volunteers (easily recognizable in their white suits) park the floats at a local high school and charge admission for the 100,000 or so people who think seeing them up close is a still a good idea. And while most of the floats are turned off (no animation, horrible looping music or waving C list celebrities), it is a chance to appreciate up close how an absolutely crazy idea (like covering a giant lizard with flowers) can still be executed successfully. Worth the trouble.
