Everything's Coming Up Roses

I traveled to Los Angeles over the New Year's holiday weekend, for a bucket list trip to attend the Rose Bowl and Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena.  With the Iowa Hawkeyes playing (Standford) in the bowl game, I figured I wouldn't have a better chance to go, along with 30,000 or so other Iowans (some of whom I knew and bumped into there).

My observations, in chronological order:

* The Santa Monica Pier, and surrounding city and beach, was a great place for us Midwestern tourists to gather.  Seeing the sunset over a beach on New Year's Eve isn't normal, but I could get used to it.

* Pasadena is a tree-filled, skyscraper-less suburb that could pass for a thousand other college towns anywhere in the America.  (Cal-Tech is at its center.)

* The parade exceeded my expectations.  The route is 5.5 miles long, so it isn't that hard to find a spot to watch as long as you aren't near the start.  Standing among the locals around the parade mid-point was perfect.  The colors, the music, the floats, the celebrities -- it was all very cool, and the two hours went by very fast.

* If you go to the parade, and then the game, there isn't a lot of transition time between the two.  Driving or shuttling to the game was almost impossible with the traffic, so most parade attendees made the 2+ miles walk.  Couple that with extremely tight security at the stadium gates, and it takes a while to get to your seat.

* The Rose Bowl Stadium experience was second-to-none.  Not sure there is any other 100,000-seat stadium in the world in such a park-like setting.  Factor in that I'd seen it on TV dozens of times on New Year's Day, but always in the cold and dark of an Iowa winter, when it looked like it was on another planet.  The game outcome may have been awful for Iowa football fans, but at least the Stanford band was entertaining.

* So many freeways, so many cars in LA.  And this was a holiday weekend.  Let's just say that Google maps and traffic came in very handy.

2014

As with last year, let's review the things I said I'd like to see in 2013, with my new notes in ALL CAPS:

-Me take more time off.  A repeat.  Hoping it happens this time.
(I'M GOING TO STOP WRITING THIS ONE.)

-Compromise in the U.S. Congress.  After all, it's not an election year.
(NOT COUNTING THE ALLEGED DECEMBER BUDGET COMPROMISE, TEA PARTY REPUBLICANS TOOK US FARTHER FROM COMPROMISE, NOT CLOSER.)

-A reduction in U.S. government spending and subsidies
(SMALL REDUCTION OF WIND AND ETHANOL SPENDING, BUT THIS IS A FAIRY TALE.)

-Fewer reality TV shows starring hillbillys.
(COULD NOT HAVE GONE MORE IN THE OPPOSITE DIRECTION.  THEY ARE MORE POPULAR THAN EVER.  JUST LOOK AT MY PREVIOUS POST.)

-Successful planning and execution of all family weddings.
(NAILED IT.)

-An end to the central U.S. drought.

(A LESSER DROUGHT IS NOT AN END TO THE DROUGHT - BUT FARMERS BROUGHT IN A RECORD CROP SO I GUESS IT DOESN'T MATTER THAT MUCH ANYMORE.)

-The siding on my house to be repaired.
(GOT DONE IN OCTOBER, BUT ONLY THANKS TO MULTIPLE CALLS THROUGHOUT THE YEAR.)

For 2014 I'd like to see:

The (continued) fall of the so-called Tea Party conservatives.

Less Kanye / Less Miley.

Apple TV.

NCAA basketball Sweet 16 trips for either Iowa and Iowa State.

Better football from the Cyclones and Vikings - the bar is incredibly low.

Warmer Spring weather, at least where it doesn't snow again in May.

More legalization of marijuana beyond what's happening in Colorado on 1/1/2014.

A la carte cable TV channels.  It's only a matter of time before cable providers will have to do this to compete with computer streaming.  Why not in 2014?

Cyclones, Hawkeyes, Elephants, Donkeys

Over the past two weeks, the Republicans and Democrats wrapped up their respective national conventions.  These things have really changed over the years.  Everything is so scripted and made-for-TV now, there is no potential for any surprise.  And the broadcast networks only show the last hour of each nigh - back in the day, it was the only thing on TV the entire evening, and since there was no cable TV then, you were stuck.

Over the past week, another big event soaked up media time in Iowa.  Specifically, the Iowa - Iowa State football game.  These games have also changed a lot over the years.  In the '80s and '90s, Iowa would routinely win big.  Now the game is more competitive, with Iowa State winning the last two, and 9 of the last 15.

Now, why write about these seemingly different things?  What do these events have in common?  Plenty:

• Each party/team has some passionate supporters.  People who will vocally and monetarily back their party/team regardless of how good the actual product is.

• Each party/team has some extremist supporters.  People who will take whatever action necessary they believe will help their party/team to win, including lies and even violence.

• Each event rarely lives up to the hype.  They are small parts of a longer effort to achieve a larger goal, and the event itself is forgotten in a few months or weeks.

Oh, and one more:  There is lots of partying before and during each event.