2011 NEW YEAR CELEBRATIONS – ROSE PARADE II – Myanmar Gazette Print News Media Forum Network

Rose Parade: Rose Parade wows its crowds under clear skies – latimes.com

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-rose-parade-20110102,0,3018013.story
Pasadena’s ode to whimsy and imagination unfurled its petals under cold, clear skies, with floral floats featuring a skim-boarding bulldog, a girl and her teddy bear riding a rocket into space and a little pig outsmarting the Big Bad Wolf by building his home with Quikrete.
The theme for Saturday’s 122nd Rose Parade, “Building Dreams, Friendships & Memories,” put few constraints on float designers’ creativity. There were fairy tale castles, underwater fantasies, elaborate treehouses — great pieces of heavy machinery dressed up in flowers and seeds.
“I’ve watched it on TV for years, but I never dreamed it would be this amazing,” said Don McDowell, a Discover card employee from Phoenix.
McDowell had won an essay contest to ride on his company’s float, an animatronic state fair with a dunk tank, roller coaster and pie-eating contest, in which McDowell, white napkin tucked in his collar, was preparing dutifully to indulge.
Temperatures near freezing — the overnight low in Pasadena was 39 degrees, according to the National Weather Service, not a record, but still plenty cold — did not keep thousands of people from the annual pilgrimage to camp out on the sidewalks lining Colorado Boulevard. They huddled together under heaps of blankets and sleeping bags, warming their hands over small fires and space heaters, giving the venerable event the look of a refugee camp….

Rose Parade float – latimes.com

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-rose-parade-float-f,0,2122682.flash
hit “play animation” on top right above picture, & numbers etc.

Countdown to the Rose Parade – Framework – Photos and Video – Visual Storytelling from the Los Angeles Times

http://framework.latimes.com/2010/12/30/floats/#/0

Posted By: Times Editors
Posted On: 6:55 p.m. | December 30, 2010
People are lining Colorado Boulevard as volunteers finish floats for the 122nd Rose Parade taking place Saturday in Pasadena. We take you from the parade route, where people are bundled up for a chilly overnight wait, and to a behind-the-scenes peek at where the magic happens at float barns in Pasadena and Irwindale.