Rose Parade
 

Haven't seen anyone mention the Rose Parade.

Overall, meh. No more Stephanie Edwards, and I guess this may have been Bob Eubanks' last year as his contract is up. The addition of an "opening number" and song-filled parade stops are getting nauseating. And the float selection was by and large a big yawn (oh look more butterflies. Gee whiz, hummingbirds. Oh! That one has butterflies AND hummingbirds).

BUT

While on the whole it was unimpressive, there were a handful of standouts. The sea turtles were incredible, as was the reptile float. In a year whose theme led to even more animal-based designs than normal, those two really were the cream of the crop.

The Star Wars thing was...weird. Cool to see Endor, but 6 foot tall Ewoks didn't sit right. And the Naboo float seemed really dull and flat. Where were the vibrant colors? But squadrons of storm troopers marching (poorly) down Colorado Blvd. was pretty cool.

And, of course, the 2 biggies: Fire breathing dragons and jetpack.

The dragons was the best float in a LONG time. Goregous artwork, great animation, and freaking fire-breathing!

As for the jetpack, it was definitely one of the most exciting Rose Parade moments in memory...but I later caught a rebroadcast where I actually listened to the commentary and learned that the thing only holds enough fuel for a 30 second flight. Bleh, how disappointing.

I always liked the Stealth bomber flyover.

I watched about 2 minutes of it (saw the Michigan marching band and a float of a very large woman and the float of some school east of LA). Then I shouted to Lani in the other room: "dammit! the Rose Parade is on three different channels" and then went to a movie.

But it was an improvement over my viewing experience last year when it was raining and I seemed to only catch marching bands while flipping through channels.

I understand it was a lot pinker - at least in the early showings. I hardly saw any of it, but I did take a break from frying bacon to see the jet pack. That was awsome and I'm glad I didn't hear the commentary - to think 40 years ago some guy was flying a jet pack in Disneyland and we still haven't advanced to a state where it would be a personal transportation choice. As cool as the segway is, I'd still rather have a jet pack. Perhaps a personal Zeppelin is still a possibility.

Maybe it was my tv, but did the monorail on the Anaheim float look like the monorail to you?

It didn't look like disneyland's monorail. We thought maybe it was a Las Vegas float until seeing the Angel's "A" and the giant oranges...

Actually I was sitting there thinking to myself, I didn't know that Anaheim had a monorail. :rolleyes:


So Yes. You can put me down for a "No, that did not look like the DLR monorail" vote.

I thought it was the tamest Rose Parade I've seen in years. I have to agree with GD's assesment, the Dragon float was incredible and the jet pack was very cool. Otherwise, snore, back to bed for me.

One of these years, I'd love to see it in person, or at least make it to pasedena to see the floats that won an award.

See it in person and your perspective will change mightily. If you've only watched it on TV you have no idea of the scale of the thing. It's nutty.

Anaheim float - totally a DL Monorail rip off but diff enough to not get sued.

The sound mix was awful on KTLA. In the morning all we could hear was the parade noise, leaving the commentators unintelligible (without Stephanie I didn't care much). We watched a bit of the primetime broadcast and they had obviously tried to fix it, but then the commentators were drowning out the floats and bands. Lame.

I'm super pissed about Stephanie. They could at least acknowledge her many years of service. Instead they pretend she never existed. F'ckers. :mad:

A few months ago, I heard a segment on the radio with the makers of the jetpack and knew that fact. I tried to tell you but you probably didn't hear me mumbling from under NA's covers and kitties. ;)