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Birds of Inwood - Visit Teri's new blog about birds!
A visual journey exploring the birds of Inwood and Northern Manhattan

The Surrealistic Spectacle of the Inflatable Shrek, and Other Creatures: Thanksgiving Eve on the Upper West Side (A Slideshow)

Shrek rests. The inflation of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade balloons on the evening before the parade appeals to the surrealist in everyone, and judging by the size of the crowds on hand last night, there's nothing quite like it. Seeing favorite cartoon characters wrapped in their netting while trucks pump tens of thousands of cubic feet of helium into their bodies seems mighty weird. It looked like a fantasy triage unit.

I arrived early in the event, at dusk, and I made my way from the corner of Central Park West and 81st Street west on 81st to Columbus Ave, past the inflating Shrek, Beethoven the dog, Kermit the Frog, Pikachu, and Horton the Elephant, not necessarily in that order. Eventually, I bailed out of the crowd, choosing to see the balloons on 79th St. from a distance. But what fun! (Those of you receiving WOTBA by email may need to visit the main site to see the slideshow.)



Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Images by Walking Off the Big Apple. Wednesday, November 26, 2008.

Comments

  1. Anonymous8:16 AM

    I came across this blog with a collection of historical Macy's parade balloons from back before they were all pop culture-y and some were just big old animals.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for the link. Those vintage balloon pictures are wonderful. I love Uncle Sam and the creature with the huge nose.

    ReplyDelete

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