Unclassified Info: The float shows no imagination

Since it looks like we are lumbering down the path toward building our New Year's tribute to — whatever — I have but two more observations on the matter. After this, I vow to put this topic aside for the remainder of 2011, barring any unforeseen dramatic or comedic turns of event.

First, how exactly does an elephant and a cart titled “Stepping out in style” have anything to do with the parade theme “Just Imagine”? I've been in the creative world my entire adult life and for the life of me I can't link the two. Can whoever approved this design step up to the microphone and clear it up for me? Please?

Let’s put the issues of animal cruelty aside for a moment and assume all animals in circuses are treated with nothing but kindness. With that out of the way, can we get to the bottom of how this concept embodies the parade theme?

Are we supposed to join the parade theme with the title of our float so that it becomes, “Just Imagine…Stepping out in style”? If this is the case, I am more lost than ever. I’m not trying to be obtuse. I really don’t get it.

The two halves of the puzzle are not making a whole. We could just have easily said, “Just Imagine…Eating eggs on top of the Eiffel Tower!”

It comes down to this: as parade participants, our city was challenged by the Tournament of Roses to come up with a float that embodied their parade theme, not that the theme itself was an intellectual revelation. All we had to do was find a way to use chicken wire and flowers and visually express the key word, “Imagine.”

And all we could come up with is an elephant?

To me, this is the real problem. I’m sure this makes me a sadly shallow individual, but when I think of our float, the first thing that comes to mind isn’t animal cruelty, it’s lack of imagination. Ironic, all things considered.

Yes, it’s easy to sit back and take shots from the cheap seats, but I do it for a reason. If we are going to continue to put ourselves out there for others to criticize, we should be willing to scrutinize the product we produce before we release it for general consumption. Why? Because more than anything, I’d like for us to be represented by something that makes the rest of the world think Glendale is knocking the concept out of the park instead of just presenting something middle of the road.

I remain an idealist, I suppose.