Pasadena is one of those cities where it is not all that rare to look up and see this:
Usually, it means a football game at the Rose Bowl; it meant that today as well, but there's also the small matter of the 119th Tournament of Roses Parade, which began at 8 am. The blimp was already above us when we left our apartment at 6:30, and it will still be there until after Rose Bowl Game ends, which will be at about 6 pm. According to the
Goodyear Blimp website, it carries a crew of four pilots, but the website is silent on the issue of restrooms. Fortunately for the crew of the Spirit of America, it's only about a 45 minute flight back to base in Carson.
We were up so early because we had the good fortune of receiving invitations from professional associates of Hannah's to view the parade from their offices on Colorado Boulevard. Usually we just walk up the street from our apartment to see the parade from the sidewalk; this year the longer walk paid off in the form of an elevated, indoor view:
Regular viewers of the parade on television may know of the
Norton Simon Museum; its dark tile exterior is usually the backdrop for for the parade floats as they pass by the camera platforms. Our location was just east of the museum (i.e., slightly further along the parade route) and on the opposite side of the street from the museum (i.e., on the same side as the t.v. cameras). The advantages of seeing the parade from here, in addition to the elevated view, seating, buffet spread and open bar, are that what's being described on t.v. is what's passing in front of us, and, more importantly, it's so early in the parade that most of the floats haven't had time to break down yet. We did see one that stalled out just past us; the marching band following had to split itself lengthwise and pass the broken down float on either side before a tow truck could be summoned.
One wouldn't normally expect a Rose Parade float to be the focus of controversy, but this one, representing China and the 2008 Beijing Olympics, was granted a heavy police escort to keep the protestors at bay:
Is it just me, or does a ChiCom float bearing the words "One World, One Dream" make anyone else a little uncomfortable? Those critters around the base of the float's tower are
Fuwa, the mascot characters of the Summer Olympics. Not ones to miss an opportunity, the Port of Los Angeles float depicts a container ship, presumably full of lead painted, asbestos-stuffed
fuwa dolls for the American market:
There were a couple of unintentionally controversial floats as well. Every year there's a global warming float showing how much fun the arctic creatures would be having if only their habitats weren't so, you know, cold. This year it was a penguin on a tropical beach:
And these guys, representing New Mexico, sure don't look like they're here legally:
My favorite float of the parade reminds us all of what's really so exciting about a new year. "Pitchers and catchers report in 44 days":
At this point, the parade goes off the air (or, on KTLA channel 5, it gets repeated all day long). Tessie thought it was all over and tried to help me pack up:
But no! After the last float, band, and equestrian group comes the fruitbat contingent. In case you can't tell, the characters inside the orange fencing are
George W. Bush,
Dick Cheney,
Condoleezza Rice, and
Donald Rumsfeld (Rummy's green, for some reason):
And then there's this bunch, also intent on impeaching the entire Republican Party and using a giant replica of the
Constitution to shroud their cause in patriotism. However, I would wager that if asked none of these folks feel too fondly about the
Second Amendment to that same document:
After the rabble cleared out it was safe to leave the building. I would like to remind you, the reader, that these photos were taken on January first. Note Hannah's attire. This is why we live here:
Lastly, this is what downtown looks like after the parade. This is the famous Old Town Pasadena, looking like a hurricane hit it:
Evidently, the revenue generated from all these slobs more than offsets the cost of cleaning up after them.
