A pyrotechnics wiz takes us behind the scenes at the 38th Annual Macy’s 4th of July Fireworks Show — for insight, history […]

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Universal Studios Hollywood will usher in its annual “Grinchmas” holiday season today as Mayor Eric Garcetti tries his hand at Seussian rhyme while presenting a proclamation to Whoville Mayor Augustus Maywho and helping a host of Whos light the curving Whoville tree.

The Grinch — star of Dr. Seuss’ “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” — will be on hand for the ceremonial event, along with his faithful antlered dog, Max, who will be portrayed over the 20-day run of “Grinchmas” by 11 dogs rescued from Los Angeles animal shelters.

“Spy Kids” actress Alexa PenaVega and her husband, Carlos PenaVega of “Big Time Rush,” will also take part in the event, as will actress Yvette Nicole Brown of “Community.” About 200 Los Angeles Unified School District students will also be brought to the ceremony.

The park’s “Grinchmas” attraction will open to the public Saturday and Sunday, and again Dec. 13-14. It will be open daily from Dec. 19 to Jan. 3.

The attraction features cookie- and ornament-decorating stations, story readings by Cindy Lou Who, photos with the Grinch and other Whoville denizens, musical performances, falling snow and the nightly lighting of the 60-foot twisting tree. Admission to the theme park provides access to the attraction.

Also during “Grinchmas,” riders on the park’s Studio Tour will get a view of sets used for the film “Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas,” along with musical performances by the Whoville residents.

The attraction also includes a Whoville Post Office, which features a charitable “Grow Your Hearts 3 Sizes” campaign. Visitors can list their good deeds on a postcard they can mail to the Grinch. For each card sent, Random House Children’s Books will donate a book to a child in need, according to park executives.

Original Location -- http://www.pe.com/articles/inn-755271-lights-hotel.html 

A sea of spectators – as many as 60,000, according to estimates by event officials – roared its approval as fireworks erupted from the roof of the Mission Inn Hotel and Spa in downtown Riverside on Friday night and applauded the energizing of the 4 million LED lights festooning the historic landmark.

The cheers – accompanied by the amply amplified Christmas music – reverberated through the streets surrounding the hotel as the throng celebrated the kickoff of the Festival of Lights’ 22nd season.

For the crowd, it was actually a do-over. The hotel’s light bulbs were turned on briefly about 5 p.m., half an hour before the scheduled start of the event in an apparent test of the system. “Oohs” and “ahhs” burst from the crowd and more than 400 animated pandas, elves, angels and carolers mounted in nooks and crannies around the hotel sprang to life – only to be shut down moments later.

It was the only hitch in what turned out to be a spectacular show, featuring a performance by the Riverside City College marching band and an announcement that the band had been invited to perform at the Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena on Jan. 1.

“It was phenomenal,” Larissa Chavez said of the event, which is one of the city’s biggest tourism draws. “The lights are beautiful.”

Valerie Salazar of Riverside watched the lighting ceremony for her third year.

“I thought it was awesome,” she said. “The fireworks were great. The band was awesome.”

The one difference, she said, was that she thought the ceremony was more crowded. But the fireworks show, which lasted nearly 15 minutes, was even better than prior years, Salazar insisted.

As the lights came on and the fireworks went off, the crowd in the streets seemed to be responding with a light show of its own. Smartphone lights and flashes flickered as visitors held up electronic devices to snap selfies and photos of the hotel.

The streets, especially in front of the inn, were jammed so tight that the crowd could not move. A handful of spectators watched from the roof of a parking structure a block away and photographers perched atop surrounding buildings.

Gloria Muro, 62, of Whittier said she was awestruck by the event.

She came to town Friday to visit a tamale factory and was handed a brochure touting the Festival of Lights when she was turned away from the factory. And, in a nice bit of out-of-towner luck, she wound up with a choice viewing spot in front of the hotel.

Margie Haupt, arts and cultural affairs manager for the city of Riverside, said 12 months of planning went into the logistics of shutting down seven streets in a three-block radius of ground zero, at Mission Inn Avenue and Orange Street, and arranging everything from the positioning of firefighters and police to a host of vendors.

Riverside came up with something new this year, she said: souvenir T-shirts being sold on Mission Inn Avenue for $20.

In the middle of it all was Mission Inn owner Duane Roberts, who mounted a platform and thanked the crowd for turning out.

The festival “increases Riverside’s influence,” he said, “but more than all, everybody is able to enjoy it. This is Disneyland without to having pay (for) a ticket.”

The show goes on nightly through Jan. 6, with live carolers making the rounds of the inn Thursdays to Sundays and the ice rink open through Jan. 3. Reindeer will be on site beginning today and will be housed in a pen on Main Street at what Mission Inn sales director Shannon Walters described as a “looking, rather than petting, zoo.”

Santa will pose for photographs starting Sunday through Christmas Eve.

Contact the writer: dsantschi@pe.com or 951-368-9079

Check out Judy Chicago's awesome "A Butterfly for Brooklyn" from Saturday night! Thank you to our wonderful crew and sponsors for making the show happen! 

Head over to the New York Times ArtBeat to read all about the event. http://goo.gl/bmtOds

Updated with new photos, please see below.

Orginial Post by http://gothamist.com/ -- http://gothamist.com/

Fireworks come in all sorts of scintillating varieties—there are the normal ones, the rainy ones, the crackly ones. Sometimes they form simple images like lopsided smiley faces and off-kilter hearts, massive designs drawn by the hand of some invisible but vaguely stupid child. They don't usually look like vaginas. (Don't Google "vagina fireworks," it won't get you where you think it will.)

Sensing the lack of "feminist" fireworks displays, artist Judy Chicago—best known for her work "The Dinner Party," in which plates are adorned with images of female genitalia—has gone ahead and created one, set to go off in Prospect Park's Long Meadow on April 26. Chicago waffles on whether the images in her work are to be interpreted as vaginas or butterflies, but this is America and we will see a vagina where we want to, damn it, whether it's an actual butterfly or a peculiarly shaped almond or a broken tire iron.

“The butterfly imagery is very basic to 'The Dinner Party,' so I kind of like that idea of that form getting out of the museum, escaping the confines of the plates and liberating itself into the air,” Chicago told DNAinfo.
The installation, called "A Butterfly for Brooklyn," will consist of a 20-minute "fusion of color and dazzling visual effects" in the park's Long Meadow. Chicago has a long history of working with pyrotechnics in her art, though with "hundreds and hundreds" of fireworks, 1,200 road flares and 1,600 feet of LED lights, she said this installation will be her most ambitious to date.

The show will start at 7:30 p.m. Check the Prospect Park Alliance for more information.