Continuing with a tradition started when I was about six, my parents and I journeyed to the Upper West Side the night before Thanksgiving to see the balloons being blown up for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Like all things in New York, through the years this has become quite popular and it is now a heavily policed and organized event in NYC. I remember a time when there were just crews of people actually working and you could stop and watch if you chose to — oh the good old days.

Dispite the circus it has become, it always proves worth it. I love the bright colors against the night sky and the great abstraction of these giant symbols of American kid pop culture — contorted consumerism in a very strange way.

This year I was really surprised to see the new Keith Haring Balloon (pictured below). Apparently the Keith Haring Foundation worked in a partnership with Macy’s Parade Studio to re-conceive one of Haring’s ink on paper drawings, Untitled (Figure with Heart), 1987, as a 48-foot tall helium giant. Of course, I liked what the the float stands for and celebrates (arts, gay culture, aids awareness, etc) and the venue is appropriate considering that World AIDS Day on Dec 1, but I also question popularizing of art through such commercial venues. Although Haring’s work was always about being accessible to the public…