BB pal Bonnie Burton of Lucasfilm says,
Here's my behind-the-scenes look at the
Star Wars Spectacular at the 2007 Rose Parade: 200 stormtroopers,
Grambling State Marching Band, floats and Grand Marshal George Lucas. Lots
of great pics of troopers practicing on the field and having fun meeting
each other from 22 different countries!Here are the images: Link.
I'm also blogging all about it here: Link.
Those float activities commemorate the 30th anniversary of Star Wars. About a million people are expected at the parade today. A really loud, low-flying aircraft passed over my house in LA this morning — shook the walls, scared the heck out of both me and my dog, and seemed to be flying from the direction of the parade. Maybe it was a Rebel Alliance ship heading out to kick some Empire butt.
Here's a related photoset of float prep, with closeups that show how they build these flower floats, from Lorelei: Link (via Wayne's List).
Update: About the low-flying, insanely loud aircraft that gave me instant 9/11 flashbacks and sent my golden retriever running for cover, Wil Wheaton says:
That was the stealth bomber and two stealth fighters. They fly over the
rose parade route every year, and scare the everlivingfuck out of a lot
of people who don't know what the hell is going on. They go right over my house, about 1200 feet above my bedroom.
Update: Wil's brother Jeremy captured the stealth crafts in flight as they flew away from the parade — snapshot below. They look so small and distant in this photo, but trust me: they sure sounded like close-range whupass.
Brian Roller says,
In your section about the flyby before the Rose Bowl game, it was mentioned that 2 stealth fighters and a stealth bomber flew by, along with wikipedia links about them, one of which was wrong. The two aircraft following the B2 are F22s, which are stealth but are not the F117 you linked to. The B2 is actually VERY quiet… however I live near a base that operates F22s and can attest that they are not, which was likely the concern.
The Weak In Rock says,
I read the comments and looked at the pictures on the site and they reminded me of an experience I had back in September of 1995 while on tour with my band. We were driving through eastern Nevada on our way from Salt Lake City to Reno very early in the morning, probably around 6 or 7 am. Our van was pretty much the only vehicle on the road and we got buzzed by a B2.
I kid you not. We saw it coming miles away as a black speck on the horizon, saw it bank and turn towards us and then in an instant it was right on top of us. At that moment four punk rockers who thought themselves very tough and cool came very close to soiling the seats of the van. I'll agree with the commenter who said the B2 isn't loud, but it did cause a pretty impressive vibration and is easily the most frightening airplane I've ever seen. I remember saying to my bandmates back then that all the US had to do was fly a squadron of those things over a city at reasonably low altitude and pretty much most populations would surrender.
Having one fly over you at low altitude is like living through the opening scene of the original Star Wars in real life.
