Well youve seen the Parade as it appeared to the youngens that were actually performing. Its interesting
but the sites are just a bit lacking. The parents however (specifically the still groggy bunch that rode in with them earlier that morning got a somewhat different perspective on the presentation. And more importantly, we didnt have to hike all over Manhattan to see it. The spectacle came to us.
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Your Patience Will Be Rewarded
Now that The Avenue of the Americas was completely devoid of life, and the sidewalks on either side were a burgeoning sea of claustrophobic humanity
it was time to get the show on the road. Literally. We debated among ourselves as to what site would make the turn onto 6th Ave first.
Several folks carrying a banner
A vehicle carrying the parade officials in it
A police escort
(my guess)
One of the Marching bands
Balloons depicting the Macys Star
Nope
It was a bunch of folks on roller blades.
Followed by a Police Escort
Thats better.
Right behind them was the first band of the day:
The Great American All Star Band
This is an honor band made up of kids from across the country. They go through an audition process and two are chosen from each state. The folks selected get brought to NYC and basically treated like rock stars for a week while performing around the city and then finally leading off the parade. One of the kids in this group was even from our neck of the woods, but was a member of our cross town rivals band.
Next on the agenda was a word from our sponsor followed by the first Giant Balloon of the day
Sonic the Hedgehog
Theres a lot to see in this parade and its going to take me several updates to get it all in, so Im not going to offer up a bunch of pictures of this particular Video Game icon (just yet). Im planning to put in a final update after the parade with more detailed images of all the major balloons though.
But youll still get to see much, I promise ya that.
The first float of the day was titled: Tom Turkey and featured a couple of minor stars form the Cooking Channel along with Avril Lavigne.
Now I dont see Ms. Lavigne in that picture either, but folks around me swear that she was there. And they were certainly playing one of her tunes on the loud speakers.
The next unit was the first High school band of the day:
The Homestead HS Band from Cupertino, California
They were given the job of escorting this float
Titled: Woodland Family Gathering
Grandma Goose headed the table of a vegetarian feast and entertained such dinner guests as Mr. Beaver, Father Fox, wise old Uncle Owl and cousin Church Mouse
The fellow standing at the head of the float was country music star: Rodney Atkins. Or so Im told
I dont know the dude myself and couldnt have picked him out of a police lineup.
Rodney was followed by the next Major Balloon of the parade; a depiction of the main characters illustrated alter ego in the young adult fiction books: Diary of a Wimpy Kid
And that was followed by a float devoted to the characters form Sesame Street.
Now I know all about Big Bird, but some of the other Muppets up there I didnt recognize.
My how things have changes since I was a youngen.
That float was followed by one of the more entertaining of the minor inflatables, of the day.
These contraptions were officially referred to as the Bull Dog & Tough Guy Trike Guys,
Being attached to the back of the bike, it looked for all the world like the Bull Dog character was pedaling along. The Tough Guy was on the other side of the street, so I dont have a clear a picture of him, but he had a similar build, somewhat better dental work and wasnt wearing a hat.
So what were these miscreants up to? They were on the lamb trying to get away from the flat foot that was bearing down of their tails
They went thata way officer.
The next float to turn up was titled: Local Heroes Helping Everyday
A salute to our neighborhood firefighters, doctors, nurses, crossing guards and police officers and all other first responders. They were in the midst of rescuing someones kitty from a tree so that all could return to their holiday feast. Now somewhere up on that float was another celebrity.
This time it was indie-pop artist Ingrid Michaelson.
Yall let me know if you can make out just which one of those folks was Ingrid.
Following along behind that one were a group of parade volunteers dressed in firefighters gear and one little man made up to look like a Dalmatian. Now by this time of day that boy had done walked better than a mile and a half and his dogs were starting to trouble him. When he made his plight know to mom and dad
well
Were all parents around here. Of course they scooped the boy up and let him ride in the big dog seat for the rest of the way
Goes without saying.
The next section of the festivities was lead off by another of the marching bands. This time it was the folks that made up the Dobyns-Bennett HS Marching Indian Band out of Kingsport, Tennessee.
One thing about parades is that some times, depending in where you are camped, the bands may not be playing when they go by your exact location. They need to take a break every then and again to catch their breath (especially being as they are the only folks that are actually performing live music in this pageant). As it happened, most of the units started playing about the time they turned off of 42nd onto 6th and were just about in need of a break by the time they got to us. Thats the way it goes. I got to hear them as they were coming up the street at least, but in general I didnt get very many pictures of these young musicians playing when they were directly in fount of me.
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Incongruence
The staff that goes about designing the parade tries to put like themed floats and units near one-n-other and then stitches those groupings together like a quilt (or a scarf given the length of the thing). Some times this works well. Sometimes youre dealing with things that just dont go together at all (unless you completely bonkers in the cabeza that is). The thread tenuously connecting those themes is usually one of the marching bands which are in turn generally followed by one of the Giant Balloons. That system held true here and the next feature balloon on the scene was a guy that may seem oddly familiar to us Disney/Pixar fans
He wasnt flying per say, just floating
With Style!
After traveling to infinity and beyond (40th Street)
it was time for something else related either to space or possibly to toys right?
Wrong.
Try Hockey.
This float was titled: Frozen Fall Fun. Everyone in our group just referred to it as the Hockey Float. Oh, the fellow standing on the platform
that was Cee Lo Green (a pop singer that just screams hockey if you ask me). The actual ice-rink on the float itself was cool though and the folks skating on the float were more entertaining,
Surprisingly
a fight never did break out.
Go figure.
What are you looking at you hockey puck?
(hummm
maybe there was a slight connection there after all)
So what would you expect to see right after a tribute to Hockey?
Why a duck on a sled of course.
Silly question.
Well, it is related to winter activity at least.
(as for the rubics triangles behind him
Ummmm
)
Anyway... this is an example of what the parade organizers call: a Balloonicle. Half inflated canvas critter (or whatever), and half driven vehicle. Im not certain how the driver was able to see, but I didnt hear about anyone being run over by a giant duck so I suppose that the folks at Aflac didnt have to worry about paying out any cash on this day at least.
Next up
Ummmmmm
well
Beats me folks.
If you have young daughters youre gonna have to help me out here with this escapee form a cotton candy factory.
The title of the float was: Zhu-Niverse!
And it featured several of the major ZhuZhu Pets. I actually looked this up but it didnt help much. Apparently the bigger characters are named Pipsqueak, Mr. Squiggles, Chunk and Num Nums.
Really?
Well on the up side, I was also clueless as to who the celebrity was so my state of bewilderment was at least consistent. Can one of yall please tell me just exactly what a Savannah Outen is and why she was lip-syncing a bubblegum-pop song along with a passel of sappy critters?
Well the next thing in line was more recognizable.
Now Id rather have seen the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man, but I get the appeal (to advertisers at least) of this fella.
It was as I was looking up to take that picture (and simultaneously thinking about a giant marshmallow man attacking buildings) that I noticed these folks
Thats both a great vantage point and a somewhat vertigo inducing precipice. Generally when someone is out on a ledge like this (at least those that aren't also sporting an unlicensed nuclear accelerator on his or her back) there is often a crowd down below chanting:
jump
jump
jump
.
OK, back to the action. The next float in line was titled: Home Baked Goodness
At least it followed the baking theme. The performer this time was Scotty McCreery. I dont really know this guy either but he was lip-syncing at least as well as the other famous vocalists I saw that day.
Right behind that big ol oven we were treated to a balloon trifecta
featuring one of each of the major balloon types; the Hot Dog (novelty/mid-sized), the Kool-Aid Skateboarder (a balloonicle) and a giant sponge.
I suppose that thematically, the idea was that you might find each of these things (though in slightly different forms) somewhere in a kitchen along with the baked goods that lead off this section of the show.
Well
now that Im completely confused (or at least more so the usual).
Im also bearing down on the allotted amount of images I can stuff into a single post. What say we take a pause for a commercial break here (so that I can attempt to clear my head) and then well get back to the action in a bit.
Next up: More Celebrities that I do not know
.