Anybody watching the Rose Parade?

[mnhtnbb]

I ask because I was struck with the start of the parade. Very military/industrial complex oriented. Starts off with huge corporate
sponsor (Honda) and followed with a fly-by of military aircraft (two F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and a B-2 Spirit Stealth Bomber). Then the marching band for the Marines. The Grand Marshall this year is well known Republican right-winger, Gary Sinise.

Yes, Pasadena is fairly conservative. Always was. My dear uncle and aunt--huge Democratic Party supporters--lived there for many
years until their deaths. So, I know more than a little about Pasadena.

Just wondering if anyone else is watching and struck by the nature of the start of the parade.

[Eyeball_Kid]

1. Nope. Always a waste of time. Cui Bono?

It's an advertising and propaganda show.

[greymattermom]

2. Yep

How can a band from Alabama be all white?

[MineralMan]

3. Nah. I'd rather watch DU.

However, as a Californian, I used to. My high school band, with me as Drum Major, marched in the Rose Parade in 1963, though. It's a long-assed parade and the waiting time in the staging area is even longer. It was not the band's favorite parade to have participated in.

Still, we got on the TV, which counts for something, I suppose. But, that was before folks could record things off the TV, so it's all gone now.

[BumRushDaShow]

12. "that was before folks could record things off the TV, so it's all gone now."

From a quick search - Didn't completely watch all of the above and there is probably more 8mm footage out there posted, but most showed the floats and not the bands at least from what I saw. Still some memories available for ya (as reference I hadn't quite turned 1 year old yet )!

[MineralMan]

20. Thanks. I did that YouTube search, too, but

didn't see our band in any of them. Most people, I suppose, filmed the floats, since they didn't have any sound capabilities on those old 8mm cameras. I did see the U of Wisconsin band on one, though, but not our high school band. We got to participate in lots of things for a tiny little high school. Our school was always happy to load us on a bus and send us somewhere. So, we took advantage of that and applied to be in just about everything. We even marched in a Disneyland parade once.

Being a band nerd was a good thing back in those days. Still is, I'm sure. I ended up as Drum Major for my last two years in high school for two very special reasons. I was a tall, skinny kid who fit into the Drum Major's uniform they had, and I played the oboe, which doesn't march well. It was tons of fun, really.

[mnhtnbb]

22. My youngest son played quints in his high school marching band.

They never traveled to any major parade functions, though.

[MineralMan]

30. No such thing in our band. That's a later drumline addition.

Our band director hated marching band. Detested it. When he told me I was going to be drum major (not asked), he handed me a couple of books on halftime shows and said, "Here. Do your best." He didn't even come out on the field during halftime show practice after school.

So, I read those books, and some others, and figured out how to get a marching band to march in step, etc. I had a couple of years of being in the band, so I had learned some of it as a marcher. It was something of a challenge, to be sure. By the end of the first football season, we were doing OK with halftime shows and not screwing them up too badly. The second year, I studied more books on halftime shows, and started designing my own.

We were better the second year. There were no competitions back then. You just showed up at the home games and put on some sort of show for the crowd. A couple of ours were pretty weird, but then, I'm pretty weird. We did one that was an Atomic Band Show. It started out with the band forming Einstein's famous equation and ended with the band forming a mushroom cloud at the end. Music was chosen for it's appropriateness to the formations. The mushroom cloud was done to a funeral dirge. I must say that I got in a wee bit of trouble for that one, but the band kids loved it, so I didn't care.

The band director didn't care what we did out there. He knew I was a prankster and just shrugged off anything that caused controversy. He was really good at getting the band to sound good, and that's all he cared about. It was a fun couple of years for me, and for the band, too.

[BumRushDaShow]

25. Have a niece who used to play in her college marching band

and she played the french horn. I think it's a great experience for a youngster!

[Alice11111]

54. Drum Major, wow!

I played 2nd clarinet, pretty much in Grades 4 through 11.
Graduated early to leave the conservative, boring isolated place.

[MineralMan]

55. I only got the job because the Drum Major uniform fit me.

Seriously. The band director thought it would and had me try it on. "Congratulations. You're the new Drum Major." That was it.

[Alice11111]

58. You are Woody Allen funny

[samnsara]

4. i forgot it was on..

..even tho every year my mom reminds me I got to see it in person was I was an infant as dad was stationed there somewhere.

[NightWatcher]

5. I missed the start but just saw my UGA Dawgs march!

[onenote]

6. Have you never watched it before?

The flyover isn't anything new.

And Honda has been the corporate sponsor of the parade since 2011.

[PasadenaTrudy]

7. I've lived here 53 years

so I know Pasadena quite well. It's much less conservative than when I was a kid. More diverse and young professionals moving in. Still old, white, and wealthy around S. Orange Grove and the S. Oak Knoll Ave area. I wouldn't say the Rose Parade represents the city of Pasadena that much. It's for tourists.

[mnhtnbb]

19. My aunt and uncle were students at the Pasadena Playhouse

after WW II. That's where they met when my uncle returned from serving in the Pacific during WW II.

When my aunt died in 2010, my uncle sold their house on Linda Vista overlooking the Rose Bowl that they had
bought for $60,000. way back in the 60's. I helped him clean out the house. From the time I moved to California in the 60's
until I left in 1988 and would visit them until he died, I've been a frequent visitor to Pasadena.

The Rose Parade was founded with the intent to promote the good weather and charm of the community way back in 1890, so yes, it was founded to promote tourism. But it is mostly run by volunteers. Hundreds of thousands of volunteer hours make the parade possible.

I just think it's sad to see yet another amazing American tradition become dominated by corporate names and presence of military influence.

[PasadenaTrudy]

37. My parents

moved out here from Chicago after WWII. So glad I didn't have to grow up in a part of the country that gets so damn cold!

[Brother Buzz]

24. Have you ever attended the Doo Dah Parade?

The Rose Parade’s Twisted Sister

The Original Doo Dah Parade celebrates it’s 40 years of madcap revelers parading along the streets of Pasadena. Local zany pundits, mutant art cars, lone wolves, steam punks and more will take to the streets of East Pasadena. Bring a lawn chair and enjoy the fun.

History

It all began in 1978 at Chromo’s Bar and Grill which was once located near Ernie Junior Tacos in Old Pasadena. The area was considered a creative playground for famous and not-so-famous artists. Soon to be legendary bands played at Chromo’s, Vitale’s, Hazel’s Bar and the Loch Ness Monster Pub. From this setting came what is now known as The Original Doo Dah Parade.

[Hortensis]

32. We went once. So glad to hear it's still going.

We're watching the Rose Parade, but easily my absolutely favorite part was a Dalmatian on a float honoring firefighters. She was strolling around alone on a platform, and like a Rose princess was wagging her tail at the crowds on both sides the whole way along. What a sweetheart!

[klook]

33. That sounds like a ton of fun!

The Rose Bowl Parade is a giant snoozefest, as far as I'm concerned. Glad to hear some creative lunatics have an enjoyable alternative.

[PasadenaTrudy]

35. Oh yes...

My brother was friends with the guys who started it. He was part of the Chromo's, Vitale's crowd, and was there when they came up with the idea for the parade. We are still friends with the remaining members of the Hankies...Scottie RIP. I'm pals with Tom Costner, the guy who runs the parade now. I haven't been in a few years, don't care for crowds.

[Brother Buzz]

49. Chromo's has a way with God's unwanted

[trackfan]

50. I think I probably spent a majority of Thursday nights in the 1980s

at the Loch Ness.

[pangaia]

26. And all those super Chinese restaurants, although almost all

are down in San Gabriel, Alhambra.. along Valley BLVD

CHENGDU TASTE !!!!!!!!!!! ( 2 locations) maybe best Sichuan in the USA...
Shaanxi Gourmet
Spicy City
Long Xing Ji Juicy Dumplings


NEW YUNNAN GARDEN on W. Las Tunas

[PasadenaTrudy]

36. Yep.

I hear they are all good, I haven't checked them out.

[pangaia]

52. Chengdu Taste OH MY !!!!!!!!!!! Either location.

The one on West Valley Blvd for some reason comes up as GOLDEN SHANGHAI on Google Maps..-- which was the previous restaurant

[underpants]

8. The Trader Joe's float was pretty good

[mnhtnbb]

21. Yes, it was!

[jalan48]

9. I watched a little. There was a marching band from Ronald Reagan High School in San Antonio.

One of the announcers made a disparaging comment about Reagan and the other followed up with the question, "Do you think there will ever be a school named after Trump"? It was great to hear.

[mnhtnbb]

13. I'm watching it on HGTV. No commercials.

Every once in a while they plug an HGTV show, but no breaks for commercials.

I was struck by a marching band from a high school in Alabama. I really looked closely at the faces of
the kids marching: 99% white.

On the other hand, there was a float with The Forum in Inglewood, with a platform that rose up to feature the band,
Earth, Wind, and Fire. Cool.

[jalan48]

15. EWF is one of my all time favorites. I miss Maurice White.

[dalton99a]

14. Yep. Good one

[pangaia]

10. Rose Parade? Was 'at?

[Ferrets are Cool]

11. I saw just enough of it to get angry at how they waste our tax dollars

to spread the propaganda of how much military we as a nation needs.

[Loryn]

16. I'm watching it with my 88 yo mother.

While reading DU on my tablet. We both loved Earth, Wind & Fire at the Forum float.

[Enoki33]

17. Watched once in my 13 years in that area. There was a public tennis

court on Del Mar that was more fun. Plus the floats could viewed afterwards minus the tourists.

[BumRushDaShow]

18. You should be watching the Philadelphia Mummers Parade

Struttin' in temps the opposite of Pasadena (temps are in the teens right now).

http://www.mrmummer.com/watch-mummers-parade-online/

[a kennedy]

23. Im still pissed that they took the Rose Bowl FROM THE BIG TEN.....

It used to been the Big Ten Championship, now it’s the National Championship.

[mnhtnbb]

28. Me, too!

I had a colleague when I worked at Childrens Hospital of LA who had connections to the Tournament of Roses (he lived in South Pasadena).
In 1984 when UCLA (the alma mater of me and my brother) played U of Illinois (alma mater of my father), my colleague was able to score
three tickets to the game for us. On the 50 yard line. I gave the tickets to my brother (also a UCLA grad) and dad at Christmas at my brother's house. You should have seen my dad's face! He couldn't believe it was real.

Of course, UCLA bludgeoned U of Illinois: 45 to 9. My dad was still happy he got to see it.

[maryellen99]

39. They rotate every year and its their turn for a playoff game

Next year it will be back to a big ten pac 10 matchup.

[a kennedy]

60. Thanks, I did not know that.....still pisses me off though.

[MurrayDelph]

27. I marched in it 50 (or 51) years ago

and don't really have any interest in it (Although my wife, who marched in it a few years later loves it, and has it on).

We are both from LA originally, though we have moved to Oregon.

And while the coverage of the parade has apparently degraded significantly since Bob Eubanks and Stephanie Edwards retired from KTLA, it's still not CNN/New Year's Eve sucky.

[Sneederbunk]

29. I suppose if you watch long enough, you can find something to complain about.

[procon]

31. I'm recording it so I can skip over most of it and just see highlights of

the parts I like; the trophy winners, the mounted units, and some of the marching bands. The parade is so commercialized now it's like a stage show production that exists just to showcase corporate branding.

We went in person several times when the kids were still home, schlepped a ride in my BILs RV for an overnight trip with a big BBQ party. It was a fun excursion back in the day. Security wasn't the big issue it is now and after the parade we walked around all the floats to see the beautiful floral work, and I remember the scent of so many flowers, it was like that scene from the Wizard of Oz when Dorothy & Co. was getting high walking through the poppies, the aroma was almost overwhelming in its intensity.

[oasis]

34. What no George Putnam on horseback?

[LWolf]

38. I just got done watching,

and was trying hard, and failing, not to be offended by all of the militaristic gushing.

I desperately wanted Bob Eubanks and Stephanie Edwards back, with Bob telling me all about the various horses represented (and, of course, the people too, lol.)

The worst was the clip of Sinise talking about "making a difference" in local communities, making them better, by reaching out to veterans. Not that veterans should not be included in community outreach, of course.

I was thinking of the rest of the non-military community, and the need and devastation in communities across the nation, and thinking that if we'd been reaching out to ease those needs as a nation, if we'd focused our resources on those communities instead of on perpetual war, empire, and global bullying, if our young people in economically depressed communities had more local opportunities beyond minimum wage retail and the military, perhaps there wouldn't be so many veterans, and others, in need in those communities.

But that's just me.

Let's make our communities, our nation, and our world a better place with empathy, kindness, gentleness, generosity, unselfishness, and policies that reflect those values.

[MontanaMama]

40. Had the parade on while

cooking breakfast. The announcers are syrupy sickening and whoever that anchor guy is, he has been drooling over the B2 flyover for the whole show. That said, there’s been a lot of reference to diversity and welcoming all people to Pasadena and California in general for the whole parade. Many of the prewritten scripts for the floats have mentioned the colorful ethnic backgrounds of those represented in the entries. Wink wink nudge nudge! We commented that if the Dotard is watching, he’d likely have his undies in a bunch over it. That’d be sweet. 😉

[aikoaiko]

41. CA loves it's military-industrial complex

Big money.

[mnhtnbb]

63. Bingo.

[SoCalNative]

42. The aircraft flyover has been a part of the parade for decades

Used to be the Blue Angels that did it evey year (I know because I'm in their flight path to tha parade). And Honda has been sponsoring it for some time also.

[itsrobert]

43. The parade always has been filled with floats from Corporate Sponsors

Many of them, Defense Contractors. Nothing new.

[FSogol]

44. On HGTV, they thanked Wells Fargo (their sponsor) for their service to the country.

[trackfan]

47. I caught that too.

I think Wells Fargo is best known for ripping off a whole bunch of people.

[ColoradoBlue]

45. I watched it

I watched it and I loved it. The creativity on display is always astounding.

And while there were militaristic things about it, they also had a float that was a tribute to Armenian women and a float from the United Sikh Mission which depicted world’s largest free kitchen at the Golden Temple in Amritsar, India, where 100,000 people are fed each day. Both of these floats won awards.

The theme of the parade was giving back and there were floats promoting conservation, literacy and service.

I'm about as liberal as they come but I found it delightful. Sometimes I think we (people in general) look for things to get upset about and offended by. There's enough actual bad out there without us seeking it out. Find joy where you can.

[R B Garr]

46. SIGH...... It ALWAYS starts that way, as do many other parades and shows. Not

everything can be fit onto a pinhead of some worn talking points about corporations. ALL the floats are sponsored by companies or have their names attached to them somehow. Someone, somehow has to pay for them. There was a float from China Airlines... there was a float about Martin Luther King....

Corporations aren't going anywhere, neither is the military.

[Tikki]

48. Gary Sinise is grand marshall...a known conservative.

But what really shocked me was...

What hypocrisy...Amazon had three manual gigantic
push cart floats to advertise their car show "The Grand Tour"

The theme for the floats was 'making a difference' and somehow watching people push these gigantic floats was suppose to tell you to watch this car show about the most gas guzzling cars, all about speed cars and never mind that at least one of the hosts criticizes hybrid vehicles constantly.

Sorry, Amazon...you lost me on the correlation between your float, the parade's theme and your prime show.

Tikki

[WhiteTara]

51. Are you asking about the stealth bomber that flew over?

I found that incredibly unnerving. Definitely WH influenced.

[R B Garr]

53. SIGH. The stealth bomber routinely flies over the start of the Rose Parade!

This year was a special flyover to honor a deceased Air Force pilot who was an organ donor. They spoke about organ donors being commemorated with a special flyover of the bomber being flanked by two planes signifying the donor and recipient. C'mon now....

[dhill926]

57. thank you....

[mnhtnbb]

59. What does organ donation have to do with military aircraft?

Hundreds of thousands of people are organ donors every year. Are their occupations represented?

All I'm saying is that the military industrial complex was well represented as a NORMAL part of
the parade. I think that's worth noting.

Yay! Let's parade war toys! Yay! Let's parade corporate power! I'm tired of seeing everything renamed with a corporate
logo affixed to it. (Bowl games, for instance). I'm tired of seeing the military paraded out before the start of football games.
It's insidious. And people have become accustomed to it. I don't think it's good.

[R B Garr]

62. Seriously? This is just taking a common and ritual celebration like a parade

and force fitting it into some stale talking points about corporations and the military with no point to it. There was symbolism for everyone to be found at the parade, but to say that the commemoration of an organ donor and the act of donating organs was really about military aircraft is quite a stretch, as is most of this generic griping about corporations.

The Rose Parade is one of the most globally watched events, so there is a military salute at the beginning -- so what. Local towns and cities are featured, as well as marching bands from all over the globe, as well as mounted police, etc. etc. So what if the military is also featured for a brief moment to signify the start of the parade...

It's not about the military industrial complex.

It's just the start of a much-anticipated New Year's Parade. There are more horses in it than airplanes. Lots of horse owners are land owners. Is this a parade for land owners?? You can take that whole whataboutism to extremes no matter what the angle you look at. It's a parade.

The parade is unique in that every single thing is made of flowers. Flowers are grown by landowners. So, really, this parade celebrates land owners -- probably Republicans. Huh. You can stretch the griping to many angles.

It's a great thing to see this event sponsored by whomever will contribute. So what if some corporations get their name out. So what.

The organ donor theme was just a way to elevate awareness of the benefits of being an organ donor, and they used the parade as a way to gain visibility. Isn't that a good thing?? The donor they are commemorating was a young man from the Air Force who died in an accident and saved the lives of EIGHT people through his donated organs. They just used this highly visible event to show how he lives on through his organ donation.

[JHB]

56. Was it notably different than any other year?

I’d had the impression it’s usually like that. At least in this century.

[yuiyoshida]

61. I miss it every year, and just wait till February

When its the Chinese New Years parade in San Francisco!