Rose Parade, part 1
Jan. 3rd, 2007 08:30 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jainaHappy New Year, everyone! I hope it was a great one. I spent mine up in Pasadena, helping out with the Rose Parade. On Saturday I worked on the Star Wars floats, and then on Sunday and Monday I was part of the dressing crew, along with Debby and Tree, for the queens on the Naboo float.
I started typing up an entry about the weekend, but so much happened that it'll be a million pages long if I do it all at once. So for now, here's Saturday, with accompanying photos taken by![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
miana_dude because my camera's battery died. (I'm the one in the purple sweatshirt. But maybe I shouldn't tell you that, cause I look like crap in these photos. Float decorating is hard work!)
Saturday-- float decorating
I had signed up for the 9-5 float decorating shift at the warehouse in Azusa, which meant I had to start out from SD at 7 am. Blech. But I made it safely there and foundmiana_dude, aka Rachel, who was coordinating all the SW float volunteers. We were gathered together by one of the float company employees, who asked us to divide into two groups, people who wanted to stay on the ground, and people who didn't mind going up on scaffolding. I said sure, why not, I'll go up in the sky. Be fun, right? Well, it was mostly fun, until you saw that the scaffolding was a foot wide and had no railings. Then it became about equally fun and scary. :)
Five of us went up about 20 feet to glue pumpkin seeds on one of the Theed Palace domes (the top two rows here). Our "crew" was Rachel, myself, Diego from the SDSWS, Sterling the LFL Film Archivist, and Tracy, a local fan who heard about the decorating through the LA Fanforce boards. Aren't we pretty? We pretty much stuck together all day. Once the pumpkin seeds were finished, we moved on to pinning the greenery that wound around the balconies and covered the bottom of the Naboo float. It didn't involve any glue, but in trade we got the oh-so-charming tiny, sharp thorns that covered the stems of the sprigs. I'm pretty sure I have three still stuck in my thumb. It was a nice opportunity to be somewhat artistic, though, even if most of it did eventually get covered by flowers.
I sawscendan, which was a nice surprise because I didn't know she was coming down! She got a picture of me when I was way high up decorating the dome, which hopefully she'll post! Kim and Jos were also there. From the LFL side of things, Bonnie showed up to take pictures, and Steve Sansweet came and even did a bit of decorating himself, apparently. :) Oh, and I met Rachel's lovely mom, Konnie (sp? I know it's with a K).
Interesting float fact-- the "stones" around the feet of Charlie the Endor Unicorn-Goat-Thing are actually potatoes, nailed right into the float! Too awesome.
When my shift ended at 5, I called Debby and Tree, and they reported that they were at our hotel, the Sheraton Universal, and had checked in, so I drove over to meet them. The lobby of that hotel was truly a sight to behold-- troopers everywhere, in and out of armor; Grambling band members with their jackets and baseball caps; and a bunch of very bewildered party guests in formalwear. Debby, Tree, and I went in search of dinner at Universal CityWalk, which is pretty much just like Downtown Disney, but with fewer toy stores. Oh, and there was a massive USC rally going on while we were there. Joy. We ended up at Buca di Beppo because they had the shortest wait. We had yummy tortelloni and manicotti, then went back to the Sheraton, stopping at the sock store so we could all buy fun socks.
We hung out in the lobby for awhile, and Debby bought me a drink that I promptly inhaled. :) We saw Kelsey and Matt and said hi, and I met Ian, the CO of the Golden Gate Garrison. He was really interesting to talk to. But we had a 4:30 am call time the next day, so we went to bed early. Or tried to, at least; there was some really loud music going somewhere and it made me very cranky.
I started typing up an entry about the weekend, but so much happened that it'll be a million pages long if I do it all at once. So for now, here's Saturday, with accompanying photos taken by
miana_dude because my camera's battery died. (I'm the one in the purple sweatshirt. But maybe I shouldn't tell you that, cause I look like crap in these photos. Float decorating is hard work!)Saturday-- float decorating
I had signed up for the 9-5 float decorating shift at the warehouse in Azusa, which meant I had to start out from SD at 7 am. Blech. But I made it safely there and found
miana_dude, aka Rachel, who was coordinating all the SW float volunteers. We were gathered together by one of the float company employees, who asked us to divide into two groups, people who wanted to stay on the ground, and people who didn't mind going up on scaffolding. I said sure, why not, I'll go up in the sky. Be fun, right? Well, it was mostly fun, until you saw that the scaffolding was a foot wide and had no railings. Then it became about equally fun and scary. :)Five of us went up about 20 feet to glue pumpkin seeds on one of the Theed Palace domes (the top two rows here). Our "crew" was Rachel, myself, Diego from the SDSWS, Sterling the LFL Film Archivist, and Tracy, a local fan who heard about the decorating through the LA Fanforce boards. Aren't we pretty? We pretty much stuck together all day. Once the pumpkin seeds were finished, we moved on to pinning the greenery that wound around the balconies and covered the bottom of the Naboo float. It didn't involve any glue, but in trade we got the oh-so-charming tiny, sharp thorns that covered the stems of the sprigs. I'm pretty sure I have three still stuck in my thumb. It was a nice opportunity to be somewhat artistic, though, even if most of it did eventually get covered by flowers.
I saw
scendan, which was a nice surprise because I didn't know she was coming down! She got a picture of me when I was way high up decorating the dome, which hopefully she'll post! Kim and Jos were also there. From the LFL side of things, Bonnie showed up to take pictures, and Steve Sansweet came and even did a bit of decorating himself, apparently. :) Oh, and I met Rachel's lovely mom, Konnie (sp? I know it's with a K).Interesting float fact-- the "stones" around the feet of Charlie the Endor Unicorn-Goat-Thing are actually potatoes, nailed right into the float! Too awesome.
When my shift ended at 5, I called Debby and Tree, and they reported that they were at our hotel, the Sheraton Universal, and had checked in, so I drove over to meet them. The lobby of that hotel was truly a sight to behold-- troopers everywhere, in and out of armor; Grambling band members with their jackets and baseball caps; and a bunch of very bewildered party guests in formalwear. Debby, Tree, and I went in search of dinner at Universal CityWalk, which is pretty much just like Downtown Disney, but with fewer toy stores. Oh, and there was a massive USC rally going on while we were there. Joy. We ended up at Buca di Beppo because they had the shortest wait. We had yummy tortelloni and manicotti, then went back to the Sheraton, stopping at the sock store so we could all buy fun socks.
We hung out in the lobby for awhile, and Debby bought me a drink that I promptly inhaled. :) We saw Kelsey and Matt and said hi, and I met Ian, the CO of the Golden Gate Garrison. He was really interesting to talk to. But we had a 4:30 am call time the next day, so we went to bed early. Or tried to, at least; there was some really loud music going somewhere and it made me very cranky.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2007-01-03 04:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-03 05:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-03 05:31 pm (UTC)Keep the story coming!
no subject
Date: 2007-01-03 05:37 pm (UTC)looking forward to hearing the rest of the adventure
no subject
Date: 2007-01-03 05:54 pm (UTC)I will be posting pics today. Not only do I have the one of you working high up on the Naboo float, but some GREAT pics of you beside the Padme at the front of the float just before judging. They're really cool. :)
Additionally, I have rehearsal practice video of the 501st to post.
*HUG*
no subject
Date: 2007-01-03 06:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-03 06:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-03 08:45 pm (UTC)Sounds like you had such fun. And it is neat to see some of the detail of the floats, as well as all the hands that helped put them together. I look forward to more reports and pics.
no subject
Date: 2007-01-03 10:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-03 11:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-03 11:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-04 07:00 am (UTC)I wish I could have been there Saturday too! Ah... I'm kind of bummed I never seemed to make it into a group photo. I guess I was just too busy working on my own things, and since I was the only SF Fan Force member there people didn't really know me terribly well. Eh, life goes on. I still had fun.
no subject
Date: 2007-01-15 05:24 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-15 05:25 am (UTC)