FLOWER POWER FLOATS, BANDS HIT THE RIGHT NOTES WITH LEGION OF AVID SPECTATORS.Byline: Gene Maddaus Staff Writer PASADENA - In a precision display of beauty, harmony and high technology, Pasadena sent the world a simple message Thursday with its 115th Tournament of Roses parade The Tournament of Roses Parade was established, and first held, on January 1,1890, in Pasadena, California, eight miles (13 km) northeast of Downtown Los Angeles. Rooted in tradition, this parade is broadcast on multiple television networks, watched by upwards of one : Look what we can do. With 23 marching bands and 49 floats piping notes to advance the parade theme of ``Music, Music, Music,'' the quietest thing on Colorado Boulevard Colorado Boulevard (or Colorado Street) is a major east-west street in Southern California, United States. It runs from Griffith Park in Los Angeles east through Glendale, the Eagle Rock section of Los Angeles, Pasadena, and Arcadia, ending in Monrovia. on New Year's Day New Year's Day, among ancient peoples the first day of the year frequently corresponded to the vernal or autumnal equinox, or to the summer or winter solstice. In the Middle Ages it was celebrated among Christians usually on Mar. 25. might have been a few hundred feet above it: the eerie trio of stealth aircraft that made two flyovers up and down the boulevard before banking north and disappearing over the mountains. It was 40 degrees and cloudy at 8 a.m. when a V formation of white police motorcycles, festooned in roses, cleared the street of stragglers and made way for the pace car. A pair of 8-foot gong drums led the parade, rattling shop windows on Colorado and raising the hair on some spectators' forearms. ``I had goose bumps goose bumps or goose pimples: see gooseflesh. ,'' said Wendy Peters, a Canadian who has watched the parade on TV for years and saw it in person for the first time Thursday. ``She had tears in her eyes,'' said her friend, David Quinn David Quinn can refer to:
The crowd especially enjoyed the La Canada Flintridge float, an array of animatronic cacti singing the Sons of the Pioneers hit ``Cool Water.'' The float won the Bob Hope Humor Award. Spectators oohed and aahed at the Farmers Insurance Group float, a 75-foot glowering glow·er intr.v. glow·ered, glow·er·ing, glow·ers To look or stare angrily or sullenly. See Synonyms at frown. n. An angry or sullen look or stare. dragon that won the award for animation. ``Cool!'' shouted 4-year-old Miles Parsons, not at all intimidated as the dragon made the turn onto Colorado. Burbank's ``Moosic, Moosic, Moosic'' won the Queen's Award for most effective use and display of roses. Police estimated the crowd at 1 million, but the Pasadena Convention and Visitors Bureau offered a more conservative guess of 300,000. With the nation under a heightened terror alert, more than 1,000 federal and local law enforcement officers fanned out among the spectators and stood behind bleachers. Authorities also deployed bomb-sniffing dogs, video cameras and helicopter surveillance. No specific terrorist threats had been made against the parade or the Rose Bowl football game. ``It's amazing how many people care about this,'' said Natalie Wilson, 21, of Moraga on her first viewing of the Rose Parade. The two-hour spectacle featured both flower power and military muscle, with millions of roses, orchids, delphiniums, irises, daisies, carnations and other flowers, and the first-ever flyover by F/A-22 and F-117A stealth fighters, flanking the boomerang-shape B-2 bomber. Police Commander Marilyn Diaz proclaimed the flyover ``the most incredible, awe-inspiring sight,'' while others said it made them feel ``reassured.'' ``When the planes fly over, it makes you feel proud of your country,'' said Johnette Ragsdale of Pasadena. Crowd favorites in the parade included the first 100-foot-tall float, Disney's ``Tower of Terror The Tower of Terror may refer to: Amusement park rides
The band traveled 2 1/2 days from Puebla to attend the parade, and band members slept both nights in their tour buses. The Temple City High School band did not have to travel nearly as far, but it, too, made a debut appearance in the Rose Parade. ``I love to see all of this,'' said a beaming Joy Hinckley, a retired teacher for the Pasadena Unified School District The Pasadena Unified School District is a unified school district that is responsible for the schools of Pasadena, California. As of 2005, it has 5 high schools, 3 middle schools, and 24 elementary schools. . ``It means music's still alive in our country and they haven't cut all the money for school programs.'' Grand Marshal Grand Marshal is a ceremonial, military, or political office of very high rank. The term has its origins with the word "Marshal" with the first usage of the term "Grand Marshal" as a ceremonial title for certain religious orders. John Williams This biographical article or section needs additional references for verification. Please help [ to improve this article] by adding additional sources. Unverifiable material about living persons must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. , composer of the ``Jaws'' theme and conductor of the Boston Pops, presided over a very musical procession before conducting the national anthem for the crowd of 92,000-plus at the Rose Bowl. There were other high-profile parade participants, including Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton Gale Ann Norton (born March 11, 1954) served as the 48th United States Secretary of the Interior from 2001 to 2006 under President George W. Bush. She was the first woman to hold the position. , who rode horseback. Quite a bit of recognition and applause went to Trista and Ryan Sutter, stars of ABC ABC in full American Broadcasting Co. Major U.S. television network. It began when the expanding national radio network NBC split into the separate Red and Blue networks in 1928. reality shows ``The Bachelorette'' and ``Trista and Ryan's Wedding.'' A wave of excited cheers went up as the newlyweds passed by on the romance-theme FTD FTD Financial Times Deutschland (German sister newspaper of the Financial Times) FTD Frontotemporal Dementia FTD Fitted FTD Federal Tax Deposit FTD Flight Training Device FTD Fastest Time of the Day float. A nonfan started yelling ``Get over it.'' Another man joked, ``It should be me up there.'' ``I wish she would have looked at us,'' said Katie Barker, a La Canada High School senior, who likes Ryan a bit more than Trista. ``She just spent the whole time fixing her dress.'' Ryan waved, thrilling the teenage girls in the crowd. ``I love him,'' Barker said. Her friends agreed: ``He's polite, and he's a firefighter, and he played football ... and she just walks all over him.'' Barker and her three friends made T-shirts of themselves with their friend and classmate Stephanie Barnes, a Rose Princess. The girls stood and screamed as their friend rode by with the five other princesses and Queen Megan Chinen, each extending a professional Rose Court wave. When Stephanie spotted her friends, she blew them kisses. ``It was everything I imagined, but a little bit colder,'' Queen Megan said at the end of the parade. Some vendors offered disposable cameras for $20 during the parade, but the market price had dropped to $12 by parade's end. One camera hawker was stuck with a bunch of extra inventory as the crowd dispersed. Asked how much she was charging, she said, ``Make me an offer.'' Carl Smith and Barb Lowder, visiting from Albany, Ore., said the parade is on a bit bigger scale than the annual Portland Rose Festival The Portland Rose Festival is an annual civic festival held during the month of June in Portland, Oregon. It is organized by the volunteer non-profit Portland Rose Festival Association with the purpose of promoting the Portland region. in his home state. ``This is big-time,'' Smith said. ``This is incredible.'' Jane and Ken Ballo said they decided three weeks ago to fly to Southern California just for the parade. The Pittsburgh residents retired from the phone company earlier in the year after both worked there for 30 years, and have been meaning to take more trips. The couple got on the cutting edge of Pasadena traffic management when they took a 40-minute Metro Gold Line ride up from their Los Angeles hotel. ``We didn't have to worry about traffic,'' Jane Ballo said. ``I rented a car, but we haven't used it once.'' By the end of the parade, a large-scale public service campaign to get parade-goers to use the new Gold Line seemed to be working almost too well. A long line stretched down to the Senior Center on Holly Street from the Memorial Park station, and MTA (1) (Message Transfer Agent or Mail Transfer Agent) The store and forward part of a messaging system. See messaging system. (2) See M Technology Association. 1. (messaging) MTA - Message Transfer Agent. officials advised riders they could get to Union Station quicker by taking a shuttle bus. The Associated Press contributed to this story. CAPTION(S): 6 photos Photo: (1 -- 4) Rose Parade Queen Megan Chinen waves to the crowd during the parade. The city of Torrance float ``America the Beautiful'' makes its way past onlookers while the Whiskas float ``Purr-fect Harmony'' keeps its eyes on the butterfly. Below, University of Michigan (body, education) University of Michigan - A large cosmopolitan university in the Midwest USA. Over 50000 students are enrolled at the University of Michigan's three campuses. The students come from 50 states and over 100 foreign countries. marching band keeps in step with the parade theme ``Music, Music, Music.'' (5) La Canada Flintridge's award-winning float featured animated cacti singing the Sons of the Pioneers hit ``Cool Water.'' The float won the Bob Hope Humor Award. (6) Subway Restaurants' ``Thanks for the Memories'' float paid homage to old Hollywood with its film memorabilia theme and Bob Hope's family as guests. Photos by Walt Mancini and Leo Leo, in astronomy Leo [Lat.,=the lion], northern constellation lying S of Ursa Major and on the ecliptic (apparent path of the sun through the heavens) between Cancer and Virgo; it is one of the constellations of the zodiac. Jarzomb/Staff Photographers |
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