Showing posts with label thanksgiving parade. Show all posts
Showing posts with label thanksgiving parade. Show all posts

Thursday, January 26, 2017

El Paso: The Thanksgiving Parade, Part 3: Moving


El Paso Thanksgiving Parade 2016, El Paso, Texas.


A few years ago, when I started posting marching bands and other parade units onto my Youtube channel, I noticed that members of these units found them and, presumably, enjoyed them. I have come to see these videos as a service, especially to high school students.

In the Riverside High School video below, I smile each time I watch the local news crew march alongside, starting around 0:38:




The movies are a moving snapshot of a moment in the students' lives that they can view as often as they wish, even some day showing their future beloveds.

I laugh out loud every time I watch this Ysleta High School video - at 0:25:



Of course, many parents also shot videos, but if their parents are like most casual photographers, those videos might be looked at a few times on the parents' phones - and maybe a Facebook post - but otherwise, I suspect they slip silently into a virtual shoe box in a corner of a dim closet.

How can I not share the El Paso High School Drum Corps warm up here:



And, gosh, isn't it kinda cool when someone other than your family films you? I mean, your family has to like you.


Here's Andress High School Marching Band, with a bit of drum work that turns my head, literally:





In this post, I highlight only a few of the 2016 El Paso Thanksgiving Parade videos. But if you cannot get enough of hometown parades, no worries, there are 27 of them (!) over here.




Wednesday, January 25, 2017

El Paso: The Thanksgiving Parade, Part 2: The People


El Paso Thanksgiving Parade. Texas, November 2016.

I took tons of photos of the El Paso Thanksgiving Parade, but I've tossed all of them except those in which people are the centers.

Danza de San Juan. El Paso Thanksgiving Parade. Texas, November 2016.

 
There's something special when a person looks straight at me and, forever caught by the camera, there is that wide smile or the model-pose or a slip of a smile or a contemplative, steady gaze or a simple, frank acknowledgement from one person to another. A namaste.


El Paso Thanksgiving Parade. Texas, November 2016.

Every time I look up at the girl on the right, in her sunshine-y shirt, I can't help but smile back. Then I look at the little girl on the left, next to the boy, and I look steadily into her eyes and I wonder about her spirit within.

El Paso Thanksgiving Parade. Texas, November 2016.

There's something Rockwellian about the photo below, a mom, maybe, taking a picture of her daughter, who's engrossed in what's on her phone. Maybe a text from a boy she's crushing on. The anchoring of place(s): El Paso. Anthony. The USA. Space.

El Paso Thanksgiving Parade. Texas, November 2016.


Then below is the real and the pretend, and the present moment awaiting the future one, the look to the distance, off to the side, a man perhaps thinking, wondering, planning, remembering.

Lucha libre. El Paso Thanksgiving Parade. Texas, November 2016.


And below are three playlets on one stage, each unfolding simultaneously, a medley:

El Paso Thanksgiving Parade. Texas, November 2016.


El Paso's mayor. Pausing. The mountain citizen in the back. Baptism.


El Paso Thanksgiving Parade. Texas, November 2016.


Three Texas lawmen.

El Paso Thanksgiving Parade. Texas, November 2016.


The affable, home town newsies.


El Paso Thanksgiving Parade. Texas, November 2016.


A slide show here:

El Paso Thanksgiving Parade 2016

Sunday, January 22, 2017

El Paso: The [Insert Corporate Sponsor Here] Parade, Part 1


Thanksgiving Parade 2016, El Paso, Texas. November 2016.

El Paso has a huge parade on Thanksgiving. Under normal circumstances, I would call it El Paso's Thanksgiving Parade, but that's not what it is. Although, to be fair, it's not what it's not, either.

The official name is the First Light Federal Credit Union Sun Bowl Parade [Brought to You on Thanksgiving Day, oh right, and in El Paso].  Sometimes called the Sun Bowl Parade for short, even though the Sun Bowl is a month after the parade.

The above caused me no end of consternation when I arrived, trying to find the connection between the Sun Bowl (which actually occurs in December), and the Parade Not Called Thanksgiving But Which Happens on Thanksgiving. Because I intended to go, I wanted to be sure to go on the right date and the right place.

Once I got things sorted, I was ready to go! And it was a marvel to be within walking distance of such a huge event (some sources say a quarter of a million people attend the parade), so no parking logistics to worry about.

Thanksgiving Parade 2016, El Paso, Texas. November 2016.


It was a big parade, so I'm going to roll it out over several posts.

Below a video of one of the opening units:



Henceforward, I'll refer to it as the El Paso Thanksgiving Parade, as it should be. 


Thanksgiving Parade 2016, El Paso, Texas. November 2016.