It’s cool, dreary, and overcast with occasional rainshowers. My kind of day. I got up and couldn’t figure out what I felt like doing and realized it’s been forever since I’ve wandered through Central Park. So, off I went. Without my camera (so no new pictures).

I took the bus up to East 72nd Street and started to wander over to the Park. I immediately spotted something interesting: people walking around with runner numbers over their shirts. It turned out that there had been a big fitness run in Central Park and I was getting there too late to see anything of it. Well, except for one or two hundred ex-runners wandering the streets of Manhattan. No big issue, but mixed amongst them were men in kilts! Not with runner numbers…but with musical instruments. Mostly drums. (I would have loved to see bagpipes, but didn’t notice any.) I’ve never heard of bands going along with a fitness run. I realized something else must be going on. Then I started noticing people in identical shirts. Lots of them. Lots and lots of them.

I had accidentally run into the terminus of the annual labor union parade. I don’t know when and where it started, but it was being terminated at 5th Avenue and E. 72nd Street around 11am. The cops were sending the floats in one direction and the marchers in another. The marchers were wandering off toward home (I presume). I started noticing a lot of signs promoting their unions and Democratic Party politicians. No Republicans need apply around that group. I did notice one of the politicians (I recognized him from one of the posters) hugging various marchers. I think I remember his name, but I won’t guess it here.

So I stopped to watch for a little while. There was one good band with cheerleaders, but the rest was pretty boring. No, it was actually very, very, very boring. This and the St. Patricks Day Parade have to be some of my least favorite parades. Just too “municipal government-oriented” for my taste; although I have to point out that a number of the paraders were not associated with the City government. But a whole lot were. I think that if I had stuck around, I’d have seen a very similar contingent to the St. Pat’s grouping.

I did stick around for about 45 minutes. I don’t know why.

Then I entered the Park. Ahhhh! Very pleasant. I didn’t stray too far from a beeline across, but I did get to the sailboat pond where people rent remote control sailboats. There was some sort of birthday party or story-telling going on near the Lewis Carroll statues. Only two sailboats being operated, but both were being controlled pretty well. At least up until the users started using the little engines on them and they started going very quickly and ruined the casual ambiance I was feeling.

I left there and went by the boathouse where you can rent real rowboats. I didn’t see anybody out on the lake, though. The most fun thing I’ve always noticed about that place is that when a man and woman rent the boat, the woman almost always does the rowing. I don’t know why, but that seems to be the standard.

From there I went to Bethesda Fountain and saw a wedding that was just finishing. I always see brides and grooms around there on a weekend.

I did a little more wandering and decided to head out to my favorite Manhattan Street: West 72nd. It hasn’t changed over the past year or so. At least to my eye. I found a little aquarium/tropical fish store and spent a while going through there. I was actually slightly tempted. But my place is way too small for a decent aquarium. And the dead fish smell (probably starting within days of my purchase) would be too pervasive.

I went to Broadway and saw that my old favorite open-air bookselling place is still going strong. Street vendors with used books are always there. I went up Broadway to 51st Street or so and had a hamburger at Nick’s. It wasn’t as good as I remember, but the ambiance is absolutely unchanged. It is the quintessential greasy spoon and is always jammed with stoves, tables, and people.

Afterward, I went home. It was just about a 2 hour jaunt, but very pleasant.

-H

James T. lives next to Washington D.C. That’s the current capital of the United States, but I wonder if he knew that New York City used to be the capital of the United States. When George Washington became president of the United States, this is where he took his oath of office. It is called “Federal Hall”.

Falls Church Virginia is named for its famous “Falls Church”. When he was president of the United States, George Washington would go to Church at St. Paul’s Chapel in New York City. They have saved where he used to sit. Here’s Flat Stanley in front of it.

Actually, George Washington was president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. New York City was the capital only from 1785 to 1790. So George Washington wasn’t in New York City for all of his time as president.

St. Paul’s Chapel is very old (it was old when George Washington went to it). But it is famous for other reasons than being old and being where George Washington went to Church. In 2001, after the World Trade Center was destroyed, St. Paul’s Chapel served as a headquarters for the rescue teams. There are lots of memorials for what happened there. Inside St. Paul’s Chapel, one os them is made of badges from firefighters all over the world who came and helped.

-H

My next stop took me to a very famous location New York: Wall Street. That street is famous for the New York Stock Exchange which is where lots of people buy and sell shares of stock. When lots of people are buying, it is called a “bull market”. That’s always viewed as a good thing on Wall Street, so an artist created a statue of the bull. It was built in 1989. It is 11 feet tall and weighs 7,000 pounds.

Flat Stanley also posed in front of one of the entrances to the New York Stock Exchange.

-H

When I got to the southern tip of Manhattan, I found two nice kids who were happy to pose with Flat Stanley. (The girl had just finished reading Flat Stanley’s book and was a big fan of his.)

The problem with the picture is that the Statue of Liberty is very far out, so it isn’t very big on the picture. I didn’t want to spend about three hours to get out there, so I needed to find a quick solution!

So, I found another Statue of Liberty just a one minute walk away. There are lots of “street performers” who do strange things in Manhattan, and this is one of them. She poses for pictures all day long with tourists. She wasn’t 305 feet tall. Actually, I’m not sure she was 5 feet tall. But she was very nice.

You always know the ones that aren’t the real Statue of Liberty because they like to wear sunglasses. And they aren’t 305 feet tall.

-H

The first thing I did was take Flat Stanley to see the United Nations Building. It is often called the “U.N.” and it has hundreds and hundreds of people from countries all over the globe. You have to have a special pass to get inside, so we only looked from outside.

Nearby, there was a small park called “Tudor City Greens” where there was a lot of music and singing going on. It was a concert featuring a lot of singers called caberet singers. Flat Stanley liked it. Especially the singer right behind him in the next picture. Her name is Julie Reyburn.

After she sang, she came out into the crowd. Flat Stanley and I asked her if she knew about him, and she said “I love Flat Stanley!” She even posed for a picture with him.

Stay tuned James, for more adventures.

-H

Remember, it isn’t a real parade.  The police cordon off 5th Avenue between 49th St. and 57th St. and people mill about.  The minority wear hats.  The majority have cameras.

The place was jammed.  Biggest crowds there that I’ve seen before (this is my fourth or fifth of these).

Every so often, someone decides to do it nicely…or at least over the top in a more elegant manner.  The below were the ones I spotted this year.

But it is almost universally a silly-hat-day.

I liked this kid’s “bucket head” enough that I’m putting in two of him.  (The one below includes his mother(?) who didn’t quite go the buckethead route but kept her’s nice plus another person who went the hat-height method).  But the picture above was my favorite for the day.  So two of him in this post there shall be!

You know, I really didn’t spot any absolutely-new-and-improved hats this year.  It all seemed a little derivative of earlier hats.  I guess that the tried and true route was the one everyone was really going for.

But one thing was a little different from earlier years.  I’ll wait to the end to disclose it.

Yes, there were lots of stuffed animals on hats.  And adorable children in colorful hats.

And there were others who also took the “good” route.

The weather was cold and windy. That’s sort of typical.

The closer you get to St. Patricks Cathedral, the greater the crowding.

An issue in the parade that happens every sunny year is that the shadows can really play havoc with pictures.  There are four carrot hats here.  The fourth one, on the left, sort of faded into the shadows.

At this point I was in very close to St. Pat’s.  You can see it in the background of the next picture.

I still had a number of pictures to take (I’m only halfway through with this post), but this just shows that the hat-wearers really hung around outside the Church.

The next picture was a sort of traditional picture: dog with hat. In this case, the poor dog was surrounded by photographers and had put its head down and was completely unmoving. I looked at it for about 10 seconds and couldn’t figure out whether it was a real dog or a stuffed animal with a hat. Then the dog came to life and barked at someone near me. Yeah, it was a live dog. I took this picture just after it barked.

Just more pictures of the hatted few.

The next one was more imaginative than virtually all of the rest. Chia Lady.

Down a block from St. Pat’s, there were some more commercial attempts at costumes. There were a small contingent of people dressed in bunny costumes and handing out eggs. I don’t know their reason for it, but I got the feeling that the eggs were promotional gifts. Maybe, maybe not.

But the next guy was in it for the money. He did say something about how we could put money in his hat.

Others seemed just to be heading up to the main crowd at St. Pat’s when all of us with cameras slowed them down.

And when you pose with a costume character while 20 people are taking your picture…well, your picture ends up in places like this.

Sometimes it was more difficult to tell the store-bought silly hats from the let’s-make-it-at-home silly hats. I hope this was just a family project as these 3 or 4 were amongst the most colorful of the day.

Just as I was leaving the area, a bunch of people showed up and started to pose for us.

And my last picture of the day. Once again, the shadows made picture-taking difficult for amatuers like me.

Okay, all in all it was a little disappointing. A lot of that is because I was there until about 11:30am and there was still a lot of time left for the truly interesting ones to show up. But, this timing was pretty typical of my other trips so I don’t think that’s it. It was a lot colder than the last year or so and the wind was brutal. So that may also be part of it. Maybe I’m just getting blase about the Easter Parade.

I did note one difference from my earlier attendances: men in hats. The first time or two that I came, the only men in hats were those who had latched themselves to their wives as if to say: she made me do it! This year I seem to have noticed a lot of men just wandering around in their hats. Make of it what you will.

-H

The parade was held on the far west side. Actually, on Pier 84 right on the Hudson River. That’s at about the 44th Street level which puts it mid-town. The announcement said from 1 to 4pm. I got there a little before 1pm and didn’t see much action. At 1pm, I took the following picture of the gathering. I was way too early, but that’s part of my nature.

The parade is for all pets. Got a tarantula? A ferret? Snake? All supposedly welcome. The only pets I ever saw were dogs, though. It was cool (high 40s with some wind) and I doubt the snakes and tarantulas would have enjoyed it. Nor the cats, I imagine.

The next dog also wasn’t too happy. The owners would put the halo on him/her for pictures, but the dog would shake it off as quickly as he/she could. Hey, I would too.

The next dog was pretty popular. Pirate dog! Arghh!

NYC is a land of small dogs. Little ‘uns that don’t need too much picking up after (yeah, they enforce that). It also is a land where the owners love, just love, to dress up their dogs. This little happy gathering included one I never would have expected, a lobster-dog. Two of the others were pretty conventional sweater/collared dogs. The dog in the t-shirt is one I knew would be there: Obama t-shirt dog. It’s NYC, a political dog is par for the course. I’m sure he’s old enough to vote…at least in dog years.

I couldn’t resist this next picture. I like small dogs (and large ones, too), but the next picture shows what I consider as “fake bravery dog”. Look at the guy’s jacket and you can see a second head. That little dog never stopped barking it seemed.

As I was leaving, I ran into a few later-arrivers (it was still early, though). Just a couple of more small dogs here.

And then there was this last one. In terms of parade-quality, this one was top-notch. Yes, it’s dog in a Wonder Woman outfit. The effect was very interesting to see the dog with fake arms and all.

But that wasn’t even the most interesting part of that dog. Look closely and you’ll see it’s a Chow. This wasn’t a particularly happy Chow, either. Chows are fighting dogs and this was an unhappy fighting dog. The owner had just strapped on the outfit and maybe the dog was just out of sorts about it and didn’t want the other dogs to see her like that. She didn’t snap at me or anything, but I got one of those feelings of “just a little bit closer so I can taste those famous ankles!” A bit of an exaggeration. The dog looked great and the owner was friendly. I just had the impression of an unhappy dog.

I left after less than an hour. The parade was probably just starting to get cranked up. I hope hundreds more showed up.

-H

I will start posting again soon.  I’ve been trying to think of ways to make it a little more fresh and interesting.  So far, the ideas just aren’t working out.  Strangely enough, I do have materials for posts as I still take some pictures but it just seems like variations on posts that I’ve done before.  I could just post the pictures, but I really hate putting in a picture without context.  A picture without a story is just somebody else’s picture.  It can be interesting, it can be terrific; but I don’t think my photographic skills are able to carry the post unaided.  Besides, I like to have the context and the story.  I just want to make it interesting for me to detail what I’m seeing and hopefully convey that joy to my readers.

So, in the meantime feel free to enjoy the blog.  I purposely fashioned it so that almost any part can be read without worrying too much whether it is outdated.  The events I’ve covered like parades are actually just moments captured and preserved.  As they should be, at least in my opinion.

I’ll post on occasion.

-H

I have to admit that I’m not particularly thrilled by the whole concept of Fashion Week, but I figure that the well-dressed must have some place to go to; so why not wander around Bryant Park for a week or so.

Yesterday, I wandered by there and found the set ups in place with all the requisite security and people with clipboards noting who to let in. I haven’t checked, but I guarantee that Famous Ankles isn’t on the “send him right on in” list. Last year, I did spend a few minutes waiting around looking for models, but it left me feeling a little…absurd. I hadn’t planned on doing anything for Fashion Week this year, but had taken two pictures of the initial setup. Here’s the better of the two. (Note, it’s Saturday morning around 9am and there’s nary a supermodel in sight.)

So, today I was coming back from Church and I saw crowds gathering. I had my camera and thought that maybe, just maybe, there would be something to see. I didn’t really expect anything. New Yorkers are very much gawkers and it was only noonish.

I was wrong. There was something to see! There was a protest. A pretty fun protest. A pretty weird protest against pretty people wearing fur. I love the sign: Vanity Sucks. If they didn’t have all these very pretty girls passing out literature on their behalf (and, yes, they were very pretty girls) I might have taken them a little more seriously.

That’s not true, either. I don’t take people in bunny suits seriously. Although I do like the simulated blood. (I see dead rabbits. They’re everywhere!)

They were really protesting DKNY. The group, NYC Animal Rights, was nice and loud; and had obviously put a lot of work into their preparations. Good for them. I love a good incoherent protest. It makes me feel all nice and warm. (I don’t know if they’re associated with PETA or acting with PETA or what-not.)

And they were pretty incoherent/unreasonable on so very many levels. I thought I had a picture of my favorite protest sign, but didn’t catch it. It said “Real designers don’t kill animals.” That sort of statement just boggles my mind. I kept going back and thinking of designers that aren’t fashion-oriented. For example, the designers of the skinning knives and stuff like that. Yeah, it’s a reach, but my mind was just rocked by the idea that this group only thinks of design in fashion terms.

And, of course, I kept thinking of leather belts, shoes, etc. that all but the most diehard of the animal rights people still use. And, mostly, why the writer of that particular sign would imagine there’s a connection between fashion design and non-cruelty towards animals. But, I also just kept thinking that the members of the group were being…well, fashionable in their protest. Nice costumes. Protesting against cruelty (where or where is the group in favor of cruelty I always ask). Situating themselves very well for drawing attention. And they had about 10 or 15 very attractive young women passing out literature. I remember thinking they were very nicely dressed.

I admit that I have never watched an episode of Project Runway. It’s just not something that I have an interest in watching although I know people who swear it is actually an intellectual endeavor that shows how people are forced to extend their creative juices in all sorts of interesting directions, fashionwise. But I promise I’d probably watch if they were to have an episode where the cast had to slaughter, skin, tan, and sew the skins of animals into clothing for supermodels (or just ordinary models).

Lastly, I have to admit having an urge at the sight of them and their protest. I wanted to break out into song. You know, of course, that there’s only one appropriate song. Yep, it’s “Kill the Wabbit” from Merrie Melodies’ “What’s Opera, Doc?”. 

Yeah, it would have been way too over the top and let them interpret it as a threat or something rather than a meat-eater’s humorous poke at their protest.  (What do you wanna bet they wouldn’t have shown any sense of humor at it?)

-H

That made me pretty happy. The Pakistan Day Parade is one of my favorites and last year’s post on it is actually one of the most popular posts I have on this blog.

So, when I left Church, I didn’t bother going home, but showed up on Madison and 38th at about 11:30. I talked with another cop and he said it would be at noon.

And then I got disappointed. Noon came and went. The parade route had cars going north on it unimpeded by the police officers stationed at every corner. I could hear the bands warming up! I figured it was actually a late start or maybe a 12:30 parade. Finally, another cop walked by and I asked and he told me 1pm. It wasn’t worth leaving at that point and I did want to see the parade. So, I waited. Amazingly, at 12:45 I was the only person on my block waiting for the parade. A number of obviously Pakistani people went by (you could recognize them because they all seemed to have flags) but they were heading to the block or two north of me close to the very beginning of the parade.

Promptly at 1pm, the parade started. My block had a few more people, but not many. I looked in vain for the family that I had seen last year and the man who had proved to be the biggest hit of the parade. No luck.

First, came the cops on horses and then the dignitaries came. There was a bunch of ‘em.

This year’s parade was a lot more political than last year’s. Well, it is an election year. I’ve seen this same limo for the candidate before.

There were a couple of marching bands, but the Pakistanis really like to come in floats and virtually every one I saw was jammed. The guy at the front right of the float below was one of the parade highlights. You can’t see the movements, but he was very animated and having fun.

Like most national day parades, there were flags everywhere. As usual, most of the flags were of the originating country, but there were a lot of American flags, too. SM&B Construction’s float had a visual that I really liked.

I didn’t understand the next float. It had the name of Dr. Muhammad M. Haque from the Department of Immigration. I don’t know if it was a float he sponsored or one he is memorialized on. I presume the latter.

The next float was pretty cool. It was a celebration of the American International School System in Pakistan and noted how there are schools throughout Pakistan that use American connections and techniques and supplies to further their education. I gotta support that.

My personal highlight of the parade is something new this year: beauty queens. They are a staple of most parades, but I don’t recall seeing any in other parades so closely associated with Islam. All beauty queens are automatically pictured in Famous Ankles. So here you go, thanks to Wholesale Building Supply.

Last year’s parade was a pretty quiet affair. This year, lots and lots of music. I wouldn’t say this was the loudest, but it was one of the best. One of the DJ’s at the back was dancing in time with the music and it was pretty well done.

Finally, there was this next float. Apparently, it is a limo service.

Okay, why is this one of my favorite parades? It doesn’t even have the “big flag” and only a couple of beauty queens; what’s so great? The answer last year was the “Dad” character and the fact that the entire parade; the whole parade; from beginning to end was about 18 minutes long. This is a town where a two-hour parade is typical and I’ve left one parade after more than four hours while it was still going on!

This year’s parade was much longer than last year’s. It hit the 29 minute mark. Well done and a happy 61st independence day for Pakistan.

-H