“the largest hot air-balloon gathering[…]”  via

The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade is a national holiday tradition, and has been so for the past 83 years, and this year the tradition continued.

This year, the parade route returns to its roots with it ending at 34th street right in front of the Macy’s store. This is different than it has been in recent years.

 There is a list of performers that include Katharine McPhee, Jane Krakowski, and we have Spiderman, Kermit and Spongebob floating down the parade route. Ziggy Marley, the son of the legendary Reggae singer Bob Marley, performed a song with his daughter on a float decorated as a pirate ship.

Ziggy Marley and Daughter awaiting performance at Macy Thanksgiving Day Parade today

 Ziggy performed his new song ”It’s Family Time” while holding his daughter in his arms so she could reach the mike…very cute.

Katharine McPhee, sporting her new sassy blonde ‘do, performed her new single “Had It All.” Jane Krakowski performed a Christmas tune. She may play a ditzy spoiled celeb on “30 Rock,” but in real-life Krakowski is quite the songbird.

Teen superstar Miley Cyrus made an exuberant appearance waving to her throngs of excited fans that lined the parade route waiting patiently for the international superstar. She looked great, in light of the bush crash tragedy that killed her long time tour bus driver this past friday. Today was much happier times for her.

The Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade aired on CBS and NBC at noon ET/9 am PT.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING…NOW GO EAT….

A man in a hot air balloon realised he was lost. He reduced altitude and spotted a woman tending to the flowers in her garden. He descended a bit more and shouted, ‘Excuse me, can you help me? I promised a friend that I would meet him an hour ago, but I don’t know where I am.’

The woman below replied, ‘You’re in a hot air balloon hovering approximately 30 feet above the ground. You’re between 40 and 41 degrees north latitude and between 59 and 60 degrees west longitude.’

‘You must be an Accountant,’ said the balloonist.
‘I am,’ replied the woman, ‘How did you know?’

‘Well,’ answered the balloonist, ‘everything you told me is technically correct, but I have no idea what to make of your information, and the fact is, I’m still lost. Frankly, you’ve not been much help at all. If anything, you have delayed my journey.’

The woman below responded, ‘You must be in Management.’

‘I am,’ replied the balloonist, ‘but how did you know?’
‘Well,’ said the woman, ‘you don’t know where you are, or where you’re going. You have risen to where you are due to a large quantity of hot air. You made a promise of which you have no idea how to keep, and you expect people beneath you to solve your problems.
The fact is you are in exactly the same position you were in before we met, but somehow it’s now become my fault!’

“Fizbo” and…

“Here Comes My Girl”

November 25th, 2009

Thanksgiving is a holiday about family, which when deployed in television does one of three things. The first is to emphasize the cohesiveness of a particular group of characters who work seamlessly when brought into the same setting. The second is to emphasize the sheer chaos that results from the show’s personalities coming together, to either comic or dramatic purposes. The third, meanwhile, is to demonstrate that the show is a convoluted mess where bringing the characters together is a futile exercise that will fail to provide interesting television.

What’s helpful for ABC’s 9pm comedies is that both of them have built their identity around the idea of family, to the point where bringing the gang together is like second nature to the two shows. Cougar Town has really started to charm me as of late, and “Here Comes My Girl” is yet another fine episode that brings together this group of individuals into a family of sorts that’s just an enormous amount of fun to watch bounce off of each other. And “Fizbo” is perhaps my favourite Modern Family episode yet, taking advantage of the chaos at the heart of this family and bringing things to a satisfying (and also sort of sweet) conclusion.

It made for a really comforting hour of television comedy, which is what the timeslot has been providing (on average) all season.

Perhaps the strongest individual element of the episodes were the show’s fully taking advantage of the strengths of a pair of supporting characters, in this instance Dan Byrd’s Travis and Eric Stonestreet’s Cameron. The two characters have been strong overall, but this episode allowed them to take things to another level. With Travis, this means going beyond his sarcasm and awkwardness to the heart of his relationship with his mother, resulting in Jules losing her sense of self-control and failing miserably at being anything close to “cool.” The result is a really honest, but funny, story of a son coming to terms with the role his mother will play in his adult life, and while it had its broader comic moments (the balloon gag) and its quippy one-liners (the rolling pin would make me feel self-conscious too) it was more about that moment at episode’s end (set to, thanks to the sleuthing skills of Mrs. Sepinwall, Noah and the Whale’s “Give a Little Love,”) where Jules and Travis share a quiet moment preparing Thanksgiving dinner. It was a wonderful piece of acting from Cox and Byrd, and totally sells that Travis is more well-adjusted than Jules but is nonetheless believably awkward. It was a heartfelt and funny little story that really sold me on the relationship.

As for the genius of Fizbo, I don’t really know where to start. Stonestreet’s Cameron has become the show’s breakout character: while Ty Burrell’s Phil stole the pilot (Lion King moment notwithstanding, even, I’d argue), Cameron has been able to show more dimensions and has a slightly better foil in Jesse Tyler Ferguson’s Mitchell. Fizbo was a stroke of genius because of both the sheer commitment of Stonestreet and some legitimately amazing directing choices. Look at the dramatic angles the show uses to introduce the character as Cameron puts on the nose/eye makeup, or the amazing shot of Fizbo’s foot stepping out of the car when Mitchell’s about to get attacked at the gas station. The show worked to create the legend of Fizbo, and while Stonestreet was nailing the smaller moments (like the “something”/”nothing” gag with Jay) the direction was establishing just how epic this ass-kicking, balloon-animal machine really is. It didn’t have the emotion of Cougar Town’s storyline, but it didn’t have to: who needs sentiment when you have legend?

Cougar Town was less interested in creating such a huge sense of destiny, but I thought the comic rhythms the show has established in recent weeks were working in overdrive: there were a number of fantastic scenes with Ellie and Laurie playing off of one another, the dynamic between the three men was as strong as it always is, and both broader scenes (the “Hi Kylie” song and the basketball games) were executed to their full effect. I also like that they came right out and pointed out that both Bobby and Grayson are at the point in their lives where Jules is the perfect woman for them, and that they used this for both comic and dramatic effect. There was a joke to be had in Grayson’s suggestion of buying it deep inside and avoiding it, but it’s also kind of true, and the characters have a strong enough dynamic for me to buy things going slowly. Some shows I’d wish that they’d get the usual storylines out of the way, but I’m so enjoying just hanging out with this family that a Thanksgiving dinner can simply hint at some things before just being about spending time together.

And perhaps the best thing about “Fizbo” was that this same theme wasn’t hammered into our heads. The conclusion did end on a note that Luke got a great birthday after all, one where he (and not the holiday) was the center of attention and where the whole family came together, but it came to be through a series of hilarious circumstances. After complaining about V’s in media res opening this week, it was great to see one where the views into the hospital scene made us on alert for potential maladies, and the result was a lot of brilliant comic tension as you had both legitimate threats (the scorpion, Dylan’s mayo allergy, the crossbow) and hilarious phobias (Phil’s fear of clowns, which was a great piece of acting from Ty Burrell) pulling us in various different directions. When things eventually go terribly wrong, with Manny becoming the great hero (“My dog’s still in there” was a cute touch) only to have Luke end up breaking his arm after slipping on Claire’s “comb sheaves” beads was the sort of wonderfully fitting climax that the show should do more often. The show earned that scene in the hospital in a way that previous episodes haven’t earned their tidy endings, and the result was a really great half-hour of television.

Overall, two families I’d be glad to have Thanksgiving dinner with, so long as there’s no crossbows involved and Fizbo is invited.

Cultural Observations

• Want to take this chance to wish all of my American readers a Happy Thanksgiving – sure, it’s not as good as the real CANADIAN Thanksgiving, but I hear it’s still a pretty big deal and all that jazz.
• There were a number of great Fizbo sight gags, but I think the battle for me is the post-badass novelty clock pullout and the running away from the scorpion like a small child. So different, and so amazing.
• Although there were a few too many Michael Scott style “Make joke and mug to camera” moments for Phil in this one, I liked that the show continued last week’s trend of Phil making fun of Claire as opposed to vice-versa.
• Andy’s “I’ve got a secret” heartburn was a fun bit of comedy from Ian Gomez, and Christa Miller is as lovely as always in twisting the knife.
• My one question from the show: while Bill Lawrence’s usual signature touches (the use of music, the oddball comedy, the physical comedy, etc.) are all in place along with a sense of sweetness that the show was lacking in the pilot, I do wonder if the show is interested in investigating actual sadness or tragedy at all. Scrubs, as a medical show was forced to confront it, but these characters are relating to the point where something happening to a distant relative could be played emotionally, but it definitely feels more resistant than Scrubs (or, for that matter, Spin City) to the idea. Just a thought.

Stage one includes evidence of my work continuing from already completed materials, mainly to do with Fountain.

First is a picture of me with balloon, an excited boy whose ecstatic to see fountain for real possibly? Second is a wall drawing of fountain with hirst dots all over it. Third is a fountain playing a basketball whistle and wearing fetching mickey mouse gloves: A kind of cheerleader for newer pieces of art? Fourth is a wrecked studio, putting across my feelings and attempts to be able not to sell something, a concept. Upon coming in the next day I found Carrie drawing a chalkline around it, making it sellable as it can be measured.

BWI offers many resources full of new designs and products. Let us help you create a world of ideas!

• Online – www.bwi-balloons.com offers many valuable resources.
• Catalogs – Packed full of new balloons and innovative designs.
• Training – The best way to get hands-on experience so you feel comfortable creating your own designs.
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• Workshops – Learn from other industry professionals.

BWI has several other profit building design ideas that can float your balloon program.

Start building your design library. Contact Heather today 1-800-805-7786  x 220

Thought for sure this would turn out to be another “balloon boy” hoax but this family of experimenters looks legit.  Made me wonder if the Drake Maker Club should have pursued our balloon in space dreams after all.  Then I realized that this family had a big chunk of Alberta to use as a launch and recovery site.  Not quite as crowded as our neighborhood.

Stick with the video for the first few minutes  – it picks up the pace.

I can barely say, what has gone through my heart and mind today.  It feels like an entire week and yet only a day.  I went looking around at different things about people who are contacted by ET’s.  I sent my last video to someone, that I never wanted to lose, but never really gained to begin with.

And I tried very hard to stay up.  But when someone pushes you out, then, time to flee.

What’s odd, is, I now feel lighter.  Like a huge burden has just been lifted from me.  Just weighted me down.

I had seen a vision of letting two people go.  I imagined that I let these two birds go.  Except one just flew in circles and the other was so weighted that it couldn’t fly.

Little did I realize till just now actually, that those birds were me.  I literally did not know what to do.  But now that I made my choice for the last time, I understand what the birds were saying to me.  How I spent 1 and a half years going in circles with these people and in the end, I was just completely weighted down.  Couldn’t fly.

I’m a balloon now.

Today, I bring you some photos from our latest get together. We’ve practically finished building the payload; the only thing left to do is create the transmit antenna, gluegun on the UV filter and test it! (Oh, and coat the whole thing in duct-tape). Note: our camera model has changed. Instead of using the Powershot A80 (which broke, the CCD stopped working) we’re now using a Powershot A560, with the Stereo Data Maker variant of CHDK installed on it to make it automatically take photos!

The A560 offers 3.1 extra megapixels, which in today’s world can only be good. However, it takes an SD card instead of the CF we already have, so the CF is going on eBay before we acquire an SD card. Cutting polystyrene without a hot wire cutter proved a slight challenge, but it wasn’t anything a Leatherman and a grindstone couldn’t fix. A titanic step forward has been made on the project as everything materialises into tangible reality as opposed to dreamworld. Once the latex balloon is ordered we can start thinking seriously about launch!

I thought I could just let you go,
but now I know
how the wind itself remembers
this silver thread
connecting you
to me

eternally—

you never needed shelter
and I never detained you
in your flight to the stars,
yet here you are—
following me like the tethered moon
across the pale blue morning.

you are pure helium,
floating and drifting
along the glittering edge
of akasha,
playing in treetops of my highest canopy
where rare birds nest,
whose feet evolved
in spiderweb delicacy
from lack of contact
with the earth—

you are the guardian
of my breath,
home of my laughter,
resting-place of my secrets—

and because of this,
you will always follow me:

I who grasp the thread,

because you ask this of me.

Have you mistaken me for the star
you were programmed to seek?

Each time I release you,
you keep returning
with stories of heaven
for which you show no awe—

forsaking its splendors
for the earthly warmth of my hand.

© Sarah Noack 2008

Yep you read that right – I am working on a collection of Balloon Handbags for the website.

Above is a sneak preview of one of the ideas that I have been playing about with although they are likely to be sold in single colours.

Have to say so far I LOVE them but would be beside myself if I can get them so that you can actually use them everyday.

How cool would that be????

The biggest problems is allowing for the weight of all the things that us girls ‘just have to have’ with us.

Actually as I wrote that I think I may have come up with the solution!

Will keep you posted……..but keep looking in our balloon shop for the launch.

In the meantime I would love to hear what you think of the idea

as i fly over this time
Thulani Davis

        for Dianne McIntyre

as i fly over this time
rising over only this
so much painted suffering
unseen grimaces and stares
among spruce greens
these few forests left
all of us trying to be alone
quiet and blind.
*
i see soldiers in bus stations
with colored names
polaroid shots
their girlfriends chew gum
smile wide
*
in all this silver of sky
like stars these wheels
car gears lampshades
electrical refuse
zen oiled and greased
the believers now so many
now so tired of the sad songs
the endless yearnings for war
and more and more
*
dumb cries i sigh
trying to get out of town
i am writing on the wall
it will be painted over
like all the songs
once outside
but as i fly over this time
*
dianne is dancing
touching the far reaches
leaping and teaching
she strokes and struts the air
none of us stumbles
or fears their lives
steel beams and rail tracks
strike an E-flat, B-flat, A
E-flat, B-flat, A
dianne is dancing
no one can handle the hostages
terror is abandoned
because of light
breaking in leaves
because the center is gone
we are still breathing
and the swing is our bodies

Josh Levinger of GroundTruth and I tested our larger 8 foot balloon yesterday, and it was a huge success! We ran all the way through our spool of string, and got some great images before the light got too dim. I rectified them using Map Warper (fantastic!) and we now have a mostly continuous ’scan’ of our flight.

This means this can be a viable way to capture high-resolution geolocated imagery at low cost! I spent under $100 on the equipment – $30 for the balloon, $40 for the camera, $5 for the helium, and a few bucks for string. I bet it could be done for under $50 with a cheaper camera and perhaps trash bags instead of latex balloons. We’ll be trying that soon – I’d guess we need about 10 of these 98-gallon bags. I also turned the ISO way up for this because the light was failing, so the photos are pretty grainy. This camera doesn’t have shutter speed settings, though I’m still playing around with the CHDK settings so maybe I’ll do better next time.

I’m excited to test this in an area that really does not have good aerial imagery, like outside Lima, Peru.

See all the pictures at full resolution here: Balloon aerial photography on Flickr

See some great photos from the ground by Christina Xu on Flickr

Continuing with development:

I liked how all the previous wall drawings looked together; my subconscious working up again.

May develop this later.These two pieces stemmed from the cel idea. They work by playing the character of the fountain against the recognisable mickey mouse. In the first, the fountain is given two ears, in the second the pipes of the urinals make a mickey mouse emblem.

Simply a small mickey mouse wall painting.

The above is a reaction to disney balloons. It is however not a reaction against, but merely a celebration of commercial success.

That is something that must be stressed in my work, it is not to put down anything, it is truthful and happy that disney has become such a huge prominence in society (thats worded poorly, but the jist is that I like disney, and my work is intended to celebrate and appreciate the hard work that the collective minds at disney have produce over the years). bracketed bit is far superior to normal sentence,

(i like the balloon) There’s a certain beauty to something as shiny and reflective as this. It reminds me of Koons work, an artist which I admire greatly and think is along the same lines in regards to opinion to commercialism. The balloon piece has to reference him as his work includes a variety of inflatables. My work is maybe saying that instead of deceiving people with fake inflatable objects, I choose to have the real thing. This maybe says something about me as a person as I trust people and expect people to trust me. I do not wish to play with people’s perceptions.

This piece was to emphasise the art as the celebrity, the moving away from the artist as the celebrity. Inside the book is a collection of Duchamp’s most famous works names scribed as signatures. The viewer is encouraged to imagine their own disneyland filled with Duchamp works instead of characters; duchampland.

here sit fountain, portrait of gustav calrod’s mother, jeune homme triste dans le train, fresh widow, and another window piece’s signatures.

L.H.O.O.Q. Mariee, nu descendant un escalier no 2, portrait of Dr R Dumachel’s signatures.

Also nadine:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-wEmGqkYAI

keep on living everyone, I’ll post again soon.

Thisisalloneword is having a bad Christmas Day. He is with friends and they are eating, watching TV and swapping presents. Oh yes, they are also awaiting the inevitable appearance of a massive demon who will come to drag some of them back to the underworld. Someone was trying to keep secret the small amount demon blood that they carried through their veins. Thisisalloneword is waiting and planning both an attack, an escape and a survival strategy for being in hell.
There are small children present and this is the type of thing that can put them off Christmas for life.
But no demon ever shows and thisisalloneword finds himself watching Christmas TV with everyone else. It’s the local news and it’s Chris Coneybeer reporting from some fishing town on the south coast; he’s working on Christmas day, fair play to him, hope he’s getting overtime. Anyway the news story is that a strange canoe shaped speedboat had been seen going really fast along some river/lake and the river/lake had recently that day been bought by corrupt fishermen from China. The boat was actually some sort of fishing boat that had killed all the fish in the whole river/lake within minutes! The waters ran red with fish blood. Local people were very angry.
Chris does his piece to camera which is a bit odd because he stands still but his arms and hands keep motioning from left to right and the camera man follows the movements of his hands so the whole piece is decidedly odd. These corrupt no good people want all the fish right away to sell over the holidays and to hell with the fish stock (no pun intended) after that. Chris then passes over to some sort of expert who proceeds to interrogate two fishermen and ask the opinion of an angry local.
The two fishermen insult the interviewers mother and so he offers to fight them. They except and now we have a live broadcast fight. The interviewer hits one of them with a door and then puts the boot into his head – he soon dispatches them both.
Odd. Most odd.
Thisisalloneword then finds himself in Lymington High Street and the two fishermen are looking for him. They meet on the corner of New St and thisisalloneword duffs them up. But they will be back we more people soon so he starts making his way up the High St towards the church. Four of them attack him now and he punches one a few times and then realises that the man is also somehow a balloon and so he changes tack from hitting to bitting the ’skin’ of his opponent who suddenly deflates and shrinks to the size of a balloon with a slow puncture.
The rest of them chase him and someone who thisisalloneword guesses is on his side, a younger guy with a large afro, to the church. The church is a massive Gothic building with gargoyles and spires and balconies and spikes and in a creepy overgrown graveyard. Thisisalloneword has remembered that he can fly at this point so he nips up to the top of the church awaiting his foes. The afro guy runs inside the church and disappears. Thisisalloneword glides with (and he’s never seen these before) thin wings, down to the end of the graveyard where there is an old shed. He gets caught up in the branches of trees though – damn these wings! – and one of the fishermen finds him…
…as they chase each other around the graveyard they then see a game in progress near the church and they stop fighting and forget all about their differences to watch the game. This involves people throwing a large rock at each others heads – what fun! No-one is angry about being hit by the heavy rock because when hit they forget all about everything and their brains fell no pain. Everyone laughs and agrees to be best friends when they see this fun game and the dozens of happy people playing it…

Bad enough that they used their 6-year-old son in a national hoax (they’re pleading guilty).

Now, Richard and Mayumi Heene may face federal charges stemming from an ongoing civil investigation by the Federal Aviation Administration because the family’s stunt caused some planes at the Denver airport to switch runways while the balloon was in flight.

Source:
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/balloon-boy-parents-plead-guilty-faa-investigating/story?id=9073090