A day with the Rose Parade Floats – 2012
A day with the Rose Parade Floats 2012
Hello everyone and Happy New Year! I hope you make twice the money you made in 2011 with half the hassle. Since the year started on a Sunday it has taken me a while to get my balance. On January 3rd I took my mother to see the Rose Parade floats the day after the parade. The parade was on a Monday this year because the first was on a Sunday and they do not have the Rose Parade on Sunday. As a result this week will be short like last week. I could get used to short weeks how about you?
Memorial Garden
Anyway I started off this year by taking my mother to see the floats the morning after the parade. This was the first time I had gone to the post parade display since the 1990’s so I did not know what to expect. They had a special time set aside in the early AM for seniors so we went at that time. We headed for Pasadena at 6:30 AM and made it pass downtown LA pretty quick in the car pool lane. Once we were pass downtown there was no traffic as we were headed away from where everyone was going. When we made it to Pasadena we drove east on Colorado Blvd, the parade route. There were still remnants of the parade around, many of the fences and grandstands were still up. I have often thought about actually going to the Rose parade, after all people travel from all over to witness the parade and I live right here and the best I can to see the rebroadcast on channel 5 in the afternoon
look at the size of those things
Perhaps I will go someday but it’s just a thought. For now I will just go and look at the Rose parade floats the day after. As I drove down Colorado I noticed some of the grandstands were small and stuck between buildings I could only see the grand stand when I was directly in front of it which means the people in the grandstand can only see the part of the parade that is directly in front of them. However when I got to Pasadena City College there were large grand stands with a great view. Plus the grand stands were on the south side so the sun is behind you and you can see the parade without looking into the sun. So if I ever go to the Rose parade I will sit there.
Dog Surfs Backward
In the past I always parked near the floats and just walked but since I had my mother with me I did not want to take a chance on having her walk with her cane a long distance so I parked at Pasadena City College and we took the shuttle from there. We boarded the little bus for handicapped passengers. I think it could carry about 20 people. This bus was slow. It had two speeds slow and slower than that. It stalled twice on the way.
Dog surfing on a warn day
Finally we made it to the floats. One thing you forget if you have not seen them in person for a while is the size of the floats. Some of them are huge. The volunteers working near each float were outstanding; each one I spoke to or heard taking to others viewers are very friendly and they knew there floats. There manor was natural not canned and phony. As we walked in my mother made sure she wished everyone she saw a Happy New Year and she received warm replies from all around. Because we arrived early many volunteers were standing around but they still paid attention to us as we entered the display area.
great detail
Now back to the Rose parade floats. The last time I saw the floats not only did I not have a cell phone but I did not know of anyone that had one. Now as you are looking at the floats there is a number you can call on your cell phone and get a recorded description of each float as you look at it. I’m sure they have had this for years but as I said it has been a long time since I’ve seen the floats.
My mother made the calls to get the descriptions while I took a few pictures, 505 pictures to be exact. There were only 42 floats so I had no idea I took so many pictures. I told my mother I would print the pictures this time but I think I will only print a very select few.
I do not have a favorite float this year. I got to see the dogs surf and that was fun to watch but in the end all the floats look good and they all show great creativity and innovation. It is hard to say that one is so much better than all the rest. I guess that is why there are so many categories for floats to win a trophy. I saw very few floats that did not have a sign telling everyone what they had won. There were the floats for the schools in the Rose Bowl game and the one that carried the queen and her court comes to mind I do not recall any others.
By the time we had made our rounds and took all the pictures we could take. It had started to get very warm and crowded. I could see why they have a special viewing time for seniors and the handicapped because when it gets crowded things can get crazy. I walked in front of my mother to clear the way and we stopped at the first aid station (as suggested by a volunteer) so she could take a seat and get some water as it was getting very warm.
We made it back to the shuttle stop and did not wait for the little bus for the Handicapped my mother felt she could handle the higher steps on the big bus so off we went heading back to the car and home. On the way back we saw many homes with damaged roofs from the wind storm we had here a few weeks ago. The Pasadena area was hit hard.
So that was how my day went as I went to see the Rose parade floats the day after the parade. There are so many things to do here in the Los Angeles area and this is one I would suggest you try at least once especially if you live here
Day of Action -Occupy Los Angeles
On November 17th 2011 I was in downtown Los Angeles for the day of action. This was my first protest in over 30 years. I did not know what to expect. I must admit I did have some preconceived notions of what to expect however, as soon as I caught up with the march and saw the people. There was such a cross section of America marching, carrying signs, and shouting slogans.
I decided to go downtown and see what was going on after watching the channel 5 TV coverage of the march earlier in the day on Figueroa St. Near the end of the broadcast someone mentioned the second march starting at noon. So I decided to go downtown and see everything first hand
I drove near downtown and parked near Trade Tech College and took the blue line into downtown. I did not know where the marchers were so when I came up from the subway I just looked to the sky and followed the helicopters. My strategy worked and after going down Angel’s flight for the first time in my life I caught up with the march at Grand Central Market. From that point on I walked with the march.
inside angles flight
Drummers At L.A. Day of action march
The march was loud the marchers got the attention of everyone in the area. There were drummers and everyone was shouting slogans. For the most part the spectators seem to approve or at least tolerate the march. Some people honked their car horns and waved their hands out of car windows to show support for the marchers.
5th and Grand st
Near the Los Angeles main library building on 5th and Grand St the marchers walked in the crosswalk in all directions and there were no complaints from motorist at that intersection. The march then proceeded to the Bank of America building where there was a short rally. At this point many people started setting up tents in the park by the bank.
Tents go up in park near Bank of America
I wish I could have stayed longer so I could give a complete accounting of the rest of the events of that day however I had parked the car on a street where it would be towed between 4 and 6 PM so I had to catch the train to get it. What I can say is the police were out in force and at the point of my departure a empty police bus had arrived so it is safe to assume the police was ready to take someone to jail.
As I said earlier I did have some preconceived notions of the people participating in these marches. Having never seen a march in person my opinion was based completely on what I had seen on TV attending “the day of action” march as given me a broader prospective. Normally when I think of protests and marches I think of young people out to change the world. I can now say the people in the this march to not fit my preconceived stereotype
Yes there was a lot of young people in the march but there were many people who can remember when the first space shuttle was launched because they watched it on TV (I was at the first landing). This march had a mixture of ages, races and cultures and that says a lot about the people affected by the current economic situation in this county.
During the morning protest the channel 5 news team had a reporter walking through the crowd asking marchers why they were there. That seemed normal; however some of the follow-up questions seem harder than necessary. One of my favorite questions was “do you think it is the government’s job to create jobs or the private sector”. I do not remember how the marcher answered that question however I will answer the question now. The purpose of the private sector is to make money. If I could generate one billion dollars in income without hiring a single employee I would.
Businesses are always looking for ways to cut costs and keeping a lean workforce is one of the ways businesses keep profits up. Corporations squeeze out as much profit as possible to keep stock prices as high as possible. Therefore it is not wise to expect the unemployment rate in this country to lower based solely on the actions of the private sector.
The government is responsible for looking out for the welfare of the people and in times of high unemployment it is up to the government to take steps to lower unemployment. There should not be tax cuts for the rich because they are not job creators they are simply rich people, some of which made their fortunes by eliminating jobs not creating them. I would like to see a reward based system where companies are rewarded for hiring
Giving the top income tax payers a tax break will not create more jobs it will only create donations to the politicians that promote the agenda of the top income tax payers.
My day at the Los Angeles county fair 2011
Sunday October 2nd was the last day for the Los Angeles county fair and it was the first chance I had to go this year. Going to the fair is one of my favorite things. There is so much to do at the fair and I thought I would miss it this year, but I’m glad I had a chance to go. So here is a brief review of my day at the fair.
We drove up from the city meaning we went east on the 10 heading toward Pomona. Unlike last year traffic was clear all the way until we got to Pomona. Here is a tip to remember if you are heading to the fair from LA and you see a lot of cars at that first off ramp that says “Fairplex” keep going. Go two off ramps further and get off at White Blvd. it will be marked “fairplex” too and we got there much quicker than we did last year going with the herd at the first off ramp.
This year we went with VIP parking for the first time and got a great parking space in the first row and just walked up to the ticket window we did not need to take a tram. The disadvantage of taking the tram is when it’s time to go home and there are a lot of people waiting to get on those small trams. So if you do not want to walk as much getting to the fair as you do while in the fair I would suggest you go with VIP or preferred parking,
Fried Cheesecake
OK when you go to the fair you are going to eat and the fair offers so many things that you rarely have a chance to try such as deep fried watermelon, or fried snickers. I had fried cheesecake. Now I have never had a bad slice of cheesecake so I wanted to see if the frying process wound mess it up, but it did not. It was simply cheesecake with a crust. My companion for this trip prefers not to be mentioned on the internet so I will call her “Ann”. She had a smoked turkey drum stick and cross cut fries. Of course she could not eat even half of it so being a gentleman I helped her out.
People watching from up above
Next we did some people watching as we made our way over to check out the large model railroad display over near the rides for the kids. It was a warm day so we had a lot of interesting people to watch. Los Angeles has a great mixture of people and it is nice to see them all strolling around with their families, friends and turkey drumsticks
Model Railroad display
Ann and I both really like model railroading so the model railroad display was a must see for us. The members of the organization that build this display really did a lot of work. It must have taken a lot of time and imagination. Of course we went to see the goats, pigs and horses, in fact when we arrived at the fair the Clydesdales were headed for their trailer.
Last two Clydedale headed for trailer
After going on a couple rides we headed to the shopping area. For me going into those crowed halls and looking at all that stuff that I either can’t afford or don’t need is not something I look forward to, but I must admit that this year was different. This year I decided to really get into it and pay attention to everything that was going on in and around the display halls and by doing so I came to realize there is a lot more to see and do at the Los Angeles county fair then I thought. We watched some trapeze performers outside one of the halls and inside another hall there was a stage with what seemed like an endless stream of performers. We could have sat and watched for hours.
Earth Wind And Fire soldout
Speaking of performers the headliner over at the stage on the race track was Earth Wind and Fire. We kind of sort of wanted to go having seen them perform before we knew they put on a good show. However we were trying to stay on budget so we did not want buy two tickets to the show on top of the fair admission. I guess I should say we were trying to stay near budget. Anyway we knew there were free tickets for the show and we knew were they hand them out.
Unfortunately that information is not a very well kept secret. At around 2PM we walked over to where the free ticket window was only to see a sign stating the window will open at 3. That part was alright with me however there had to be 3000 in line waiting for the window to open. For us this would not work we did not want to stand in that line in the heat for the next hour and perhaps still not get a ticket so we went on to other things.
A ride we did not get on
After shopping it was time to head home. We got our hand stamped at the gate just in case there was a reason to go back in. As we walked to the car we noticed some music in the air. It was Earth, Wind, and Fire. We could clearly hear everything they played. So we sat in the car like we were at the drive in and enjoyed to music. We would point out when they played one of your all time favorites like “After the love is gone”, “Reasons” and many others. We would have liked to see the show as well as hear it, but sitting in the car and enjoying the music was the next best thing and a pleasant surprise.
All in all we had a good time at the Los Angeles county fair for 2011 and look forward to 2012. If you have never gone to the fair I think you should give it a try. There is a lot to see and there is loads of entertainment at no additional charge so go for it. See you at the fair.
New Airport Webcam section
Sunday night the airport cam section of the Harris in La website open. It is a modest list of webcams but more will be added soon. If you know of an airport webcam that is not on the list tell us about it. Today we added stumbled upon badges to several pages on the site. If you like webcams we hope you will take advantage of this opportunity to share webcams with everyone.
Of course there are more webcams to come on the site. We are way behind schedule and we keep adding things to the “to do” list as we go along. This website will grow but it will never be finished so stop by from time to time and see what is new. For now take a look at the new airport webcams section
Streaming webcams
Webcams are one of my favorite things on the internet. I started looking at webcams in the 90’s. The Technology has improved since then and there are more webcams to on the internet now. Because if this there are many webcams that are not getting a lot of views. The Harris in Los Angeles website will try and list as many webcams as we can.
One thing we look for is streaming webcams. Streaming cams get listed higher then still image cams. We also like cameras that the user can control. User control cams are fun when you are in control. Of course, when you are not in control it can feel like a roller coaster ride as you are suddenly pulled from one location to another.
One favorite streaming webcams that users can control is the Alcatraz webcam. There is a link to it on the northern California webcams page of this site. This webcam offers a great view of the San Francisco bay. There are presets for the major points on the bay or you can just move the camera around. Try it and come back here and leave a comment. Tell us what you think.
The New Harris in Los Angeles website is up
With no fanfare the new Harris in Los Angeles website went live two days ago. A few of the old pages are still up to redirect visitors to the new pages. The new website has many more categories and a lot more webcams. Plus the new website has this blog so we can talk about our favorite webcams. Stay tuned I will post more info soon. For now visit the new home page http://www.harrisinla.com
Funkin’ in Long Beach – The 2011 Long Beach Funk Fest
On Saturday August 20 2011 I went to the Long Beach Funk Fest. It was the 3rd annual funk fest and sad to say I had never heard of the funk fest before (thank you Facebook). Having never been to a funk fest I really did not know what to expect. I have to say Long Beach and the promoters had things very well organized. I prepaid my parking and had no trouble finding the lot and a space in the lot. I was concerned because the other two lots were sold out. I thought lot 3 would be far from the action. In fact it was right were I wanted to be. Near the Pine St. restaurants and the funk fest.
There were two stages one on Pine St and a larger one in a parking lot about a half block away. There was a narrow alley short cut between the stages. There were a lot of booths and activities going on at both locations. I saw a long line at the fry bread vendor and the beer garden was packed all day. However there were a few people in the crowd smoking something I’m sure you cannot get a prescription for and Long Beach’s finest was sniffing them out.
OK so I guess I should talk about the music, after all that is why we all found our way to Long Beach right? First of all I was late. It was funk music so I never thought it would start on time, after all I have been to more than one Sly and the Family Stone concert but never one that started any where close to on time. I should also say I was not expecting to hear true very old school funk. I did not expect to hear anything that would remind me of Dyke and the Blazers “Let a woman be a woman and let a man be a man” or Charles Wright and the Watts 103rd street rhythm band doing “Express Yourself” or even Azteca doing “can’t take the funk out of me”. To hear music like that would have been too much to ask. However, it would have been nice if the performers I saw had brought more funk with them to the funk fest. Of the performers I saw Katdelic is the only one that got the funk memo. They were hampered by the sound because the speakers on the smaller stage were too small and set too low, the people standing in front of the stage were absorbing all the sound.
You would expect the last performers to have the most funk. That was not the case in Long Beach that day. Steve Arrington was as funky as Frankie Beverly and I expect Fred Wesley to be sued by the Crusaders for stealing their sound anyday now. Steve Arrington included a rock song and a blues song and then he slowed it down. That’s right he slowed it down. What is your favorite slow funk song? Most people don’t put funk and slow together on the same page. During the slow song a few people in my group were shouting “we want the funk”.
I only stayed for the first six songs of the Fred Wesley set before leaving to beat the traffic. My friends stayed longer. I understand Fred did play a James Brown song but then he played a slow song from the album. My friends left on that song and went back to Pine St where the live DJ was. The party on Pine was one of the best parts of the funk fest because the DJ gave the people what they came for. I wish I had arrived on time so I could comment on all the performers but I did see the headliners and headliners at a funk fest should have all the funk. One thing for sure, I can’t wait tell next year and I will wear the t-shirt I bought this year.
Morning walk in Manhattan Beach
One thing I love to do is get up early in the morning and go for a walk. However I have a bad left foot so I cannot do pavement very often. So I found a spot in Manhattan Beach that has no pavement and is long enough because I do not like short walks. It’s called Veterans Parkway (Hermosa Valley Greenbelt) and I have logged more than a few miles there. I start out at the parking lot near the Fry’s store. I only walk to the one mile maker near Live Oak Park, then I turn around and head back toward my car. I like to walk at least 4 miles, in fact I have never done less than 4 miles.
I have been doing the morning walk in Manhattan Beach for little over a year and I really know the path now. The funny thing is at certain points I feel I’m going up hill in both directions, but that only happens when I have time to walk 8 miles. The people are friendly and I see a lot of regulars. If I miss a few going for a few weeks some will ask me were I have been. I try to finish my walk before the dog walking lady gets there with her canine crew. Not because the dogs are a hassle, I just use her as a time maker for how my day is going. Anyway find your path and get out and do your morning walk. 
The Dodgers need money
It is really sad to see the Dodgers in financial trouble. It is amazing to me to hear reports of the owner struggling to make payroll. The whole thing smells like a year old Dodger dog. I blame it on major league baseball. They should have got a buyer that really had enough money to buy the team. The current owner just doesn’t have the real money it takes to make it in the big leagues.
Don’t tell me it’s because of the divorce I don’t buy it. This guy was simply living beyond his means, and major league baseball wants to keep the books private so if there is an investment group that includes a former player can forget about getting any real consideration.
Of course there is a solution to all the money problems. Dodger stadium sits on some of the most prime real estate in the Los Angeles area. Perhaps the current owner could get a loan to build a nice hotel overlooking downtown Los Angeles. Add a few nice restaurants and movie theaters. After all the Dodgers must keep pace with what’s happening not too far away at the Staple center. Plus, if LA gets a football stadium it’s going to be in the downtown area.
It’s just a thought and I have heard it more than once. Some have speculated that this money thing is just a ploy to get the permission to build on the hill. I hope not for now all I want is for major league baseball to stop inter-league play (it takes away from the world series) Stop using the all star game from determining home field advantage in the world series (Please) and get a owner that loves Los Angeles, The Dodgers, and can afford the team. Is that asking too much?
South Bay Din Din A Go Go
Last Thursday evening I went to the South Bay Din Din A Go Go. It was in the K-mart parking lot just off the 110 freeway. There was about a dozen food trucks there we ate off the “Truck Norris” truck also the “Knockout Taco” truck. This was my 3rd time going to the South Bay Din Din A Go Go and it will not be my last. One of my favorites is a sushi burrito from the Jogasaki Burrito truck. Specialty lunch trucks are a big thing around Los Angeles and I’m not going to complain about it. I’ll just enjoy another spicy tuna burrito
