For some weird reason, our local ABC affiliate is showing the Philadelphia Thanksgiving parade this morning. It's not getting national coverage: they showed a map of stations showing the parade and it's just the Delaware Valley area, a couple of stations in New Jersey and New York, and us. I wonder why? Is our ABC station manager from Philly or something?
Except for the incessant ads for Disney (which owns ABC of course), watching the parade is fun. It's the 85th year, and everyone keeps saying "The oldest Thanksgiving parade in America!" You can just hear them muttering "...so fuck you Macy's!" under their breath. They've also been showing footage of floats and balloons from old parades. I had to take a photo of this one. They aren't providing any captions or explanations, but I swear it looks like a balloon Cthulu.
The other fun thing about a local parade is local coverage. Everything is just a little less slick, the camera work is off half the time, the news people aren't afraid to look like dorks. Or maybe they just can't tell. Here they are getting their groove on while the Trammps (looking like nice middle-aged gentlemen) lip-sync "Disco Inferno." That's not my sister on the right, it's Kelly Ripa. Who bears an uncanny resemblance to my sister. But my sister is way too cool to sit on a podium and do the electric slide.
Boy, you're right about that balloon! "Cthulhu" was the first thing that went thru my mind too.
either that or it's ET being attacked by 8 lampreys while trying to swallow a fish...
wtf with that balloon? It is either option one or option two - I like the idea of the lampreys, myself.