--Photo by Frank Jang
It rained all day Saturday, Feb. 19th, the day of the San Francisco Chinese New Year Parade. I have a special interest in the weather on parade days, since I've been co-hosting the TV coverage of it since 1997 (year of the ox). When the rain falls, people stay home and watch us on KTVU, and the ratings soar. But I'd rather have good weather, see a great turnout on the streets, and see the floats, marching bands, and dancing, karate-kicking kids in all their costumed glory...and not under plastic raingear and tarps.
Anyway, the rain kept some people away, but we still had a great crowd around Union Square, where KTVU's broadcast tent is perched. Julie Haener, the news anchor who's been my partner for 10 parades, brought extra blankets, and we forged ahead. And guess what? About 10 minutes in -- around 6:10 p.m. -- the rain stopped, and stayed stopped. Thank you, Ma-Tsu, Buddha, or whoever.
In recent years, I've brought my Flip camcorder to catch behind-the-scenes moments. So here's a link to this year's video & photo montage. Sorry about the volume peaks & valleys; I just aimed the Flip at the TV monitor for the bits from the parade itself, and the volume is lower than the on-the-scene stuff. Enjoy, and Happy New Year! Here's the link: SF Chinese New Year Parade 2011
To promote the broadcast, Julie & I go around to a bunch of morning radio shows the day before. Here's Kevin Brown, of KBLX ... --Photo by Mona Fox/KTVU
