The Rose Parade!

[ltdiver 3]

Okay, so I just got up and turned on the tv to catch the rerun of our 2007 Pasadena Tournament of Roses Parade here in Southern California.
We used to stay overnight and 'sleep on the curb' there on New Year's eve, saving seats for our family and friends. You've never seen such celebration up close and personal as you do when you join the hundreds, no thousands, of revelers swirling around Colorado Blvd at midnight. It's usually frikken cold too!

It's all worth it, though, as this beautiful parade deserves an up close and personal experience at least once in your life. It just doesn't do it justice on the tv...well, except you get to stay warm in your jammies with a bathroom right close.

They again kicked off the Rose Parade this year with a fly over by the B-2 Bomber, flanked by two F-22's. Now -that- makes you stand up and applaud! Such a feeling of National pride takes over when you see that. Makes a lump form in your throat and a smile cross your face experience that.
Join me now and watch something beautiful today. The Rose Parade, although on tv, is something that just brings in the New Year right.
Happy New Year, one and all!

ltdiver

Don't tell me the sky's the limit when there are footprints on the moon

[stitch 0]

Roses are gay.

"No cookies for you"- GFD
"I don't think I like the sound of that" ~ MB65
Don't be a "Racer Hater"

[ltdiver 3]

You do realize that only a small portion of each float has actual roses on it, right? Everything is plant form, though. Seeds, leaves, hundreds of different flowers....My mom used to help glue the flowers on floats when she was a kid. She grew up in Pasadena and her dad had his office just off the parade route. Free parking for the family!
Video Feed of Colorado Blvd last night: http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=seenon&id=4486690 Click on "Thousands Line Rose Parade Route" link.

ltdiver

Don't tell me the sky's the limit when there are footprints on the moon

[ltdiver 3]

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1216/is_n1_v190/ai_13539852

"Where all these flowers come from is a story in itself. Most of the chrysanthemums, which, along with carnations, are among the most common flowers at the parade because of their excellent lasting quality and variety of colors, are grown within a 150-mile radius of Pasadena. Typically, the flower heads are popped off and glued directly to the float. When a float designer's palette requires bright reds, poinsettias and carnations are employed. While some of these carnations are flown in from Colombia, most are California-grown. As the parade has evolved from a small local celebration to a made-for-TV event, carnations have become a crucial parade ingredient since they televise so well. Less telegenic are blue-red roses, which on screen end up looking, in the words of one designer, like prunes. Designers use mostly yellow, coral, and pink roses, and a few orange-red ones as well. As with the carnations and chrysanthemums, most of the roses are grown in California.

Exotic flowers are used sparingly for dramatic effect. They include anthuriums from Hawaii; gladiolus from Florida; gerberas from Holland and California; tulips, lilacs, and forsythia from Europe; heliconia and ginger from Hawaii and Puerto Rico; and orchids from Singapore and Thailand.

The variety of dried materials is similarly staggering. Onion seeds, 9 tons' worth, are bought for their black color and velvety texture. Beans of multiple colors, shapes, and sizes are trucked in from the nearby Los Angeles Wholesale Produce Market. And crushed walnut shells, from various suppliers, are blended with cornmeal to create lighter or darker skin tones. These dried materials are affixed to each float by some 500 pounds of glue."

ltdiver

Don't tell me the sky's the limit when there are footprints on the moon

[matt1215 0]

I saw an episode of Dirty Jobs about the dismantling on the floats. Apparently they all sit in a warehouse and ferment for a few months, get nice and fetid before anyone takes them apart .