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More pictures of the West Indian Day Parade in NYC

September 8, 2007

My previous post took me a long time to get organized and together. This one I’ll put up more quickly with some minor notes (at least that’s my plan).

The West Indian Day Parade was on Labor Day in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. As I noted in the earlier post, I started roughly at Nostrand, then walked westward to Franklin before turning around and heading toward Utica, which is the originating point of the parade.

I took a bunch of pictures during the parade. Unfortunately, I found the overall crowd energy disappointing. The parade is very, very slow and there were some significant waits between some of the floats. On the other hand, sometimes the parade would just halt in front of the area I was in at the time and the participants would wait until given the go-ahead. That’s typical in parades, but 30-45 minutes between floats (that was the longest wait, by far) are unknown in other parades from my experience (I don’t remember ever waiting five minutes). I have to admit I certainly preferred it when they stopped where I was rather than just stand and wonder where the next group was.

The first couple of pictures below were early in the parade.

Over time, I did notice that a lot of the participants had paint and/or glitter rubbed on them. Some, I’m certain had paint (it was blue and they were within 3 feet of me) but others appeared more gold and sparkley. You may have to click on the below picture to really see the glitter.

And others, well, just a lot more colorful. One of the best of the exhibitions were where they’d have separate colored groups following close to one another, gold followed by blue followed by red and so on. I tried to capture some of that, but often there’d be just people from the crowd who weren’t in costume that were walking with the participants. The DJs tried to get them to separate out, but with mixed success.

One of the more interesting moments is captured below. They are up pretty high on a sound truck and the music is blasting away. It was shaking my body and I can imagine how it must have felt to them sitting/standing on the speaker platform. Note the guy holding onto the woman’s ankle. Just making sure she doesn’t get a nasty slip. (You can see her in the above picture, but more in the distance.)

At one of the heights of the music and marchers, I remember turning an photographing this to try and capture the crowd’s lack of exuberance.

I think I did capture it. There’s interest, but not the exuberance that I’ve experienced in other parades.

At one point, one of the large colorful one-person floats (whatever they’re called, I referred to them as “colorfuls” before) broke down. You can see the woman struggling with it.

This was another of the “colorfuls” (or whatever).

At the end of that segment of marchers, the cops brought up the rear. I presume they were trying to keep the marchers moving. The woman at the center was one that I thought of as the unhappiest person in the whole parade. (Click on the picture to enlarge it and catch her expression a bit better.)

They were followed, a little later ’cause it’s a slow parade, with some pretty big and colorful displays. I think this was the single most impressive one I saw all day. It’s pretty cool.

I still have more on the parade, but will make it into a separate post. (After this group, I think I started heading much more quickly toward Utica and then did some exploring in the backstreets. Then I came to the parade gathering area. Stay tuned…)

-H

Categories: Brooklyn, Events, Parades, Wanderings

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Ankling to the West Indian Day Parade

September 7, 2007

Monday morning. Labor Day. Famous Ankles is tired and needs to do some personal chores and absolutely, positively, undeniably needs to have a day off from wanderings and blogging. Until the TV story: the West Indian Day Parade is today! It’s big, it’s glorious, and it’s one of those events you can’t miss! “Oh, yeah?,” I reply. I’ll miss it. I wasn’t going to go all the way back to Brooklyn just to see a parade. No way. I was still weary from Brazilian Day’s wanderings and waitings.

And, then I went to the West Indian Day Parade.

A lot of what you’ll read in the following may be indicative of my state of mind, but I don’t think so. There’s no doubt that the West Indian Day Parade is huge and it has attractions that I really haven’t seen at other parades. But, it isn’t a particularly good parade. The downsides are such that, in the Famous Ankles pantheon of great NYC parades, the West Indian Day Parade ranks near the bottom.

That’s a bit of heresy, I guess. Overall, I didn’t enjoy the parade. Yes, the colors were eye-blinding. Many of the women were wonderfully attractive. The music was so loud that it shook my bones more than the Puerto Rican Day Parade did (and that’s saying something). But….

Take a look at the pictures. I’ll give some commentary; but look to see what you don’t see.

I took the subway down to Nostrand Street and found that the parade had already started. However, it’s a very slow parade (as you’ll find out), so I didn’t miss much.

There were colorful women.

The parade is held on Eastern Parkway. As you can see, it’s a pretty wide boulevard. The cool thing about having the parade here is that the parkway is paralleled by a sidestreet on each side. Vendors were jammed all along the pathway.

Incidentally, curried goat generally sold for $8. I didn’t partake (I’ve had occasions where street food has caused…difficulties. I’ve mentioned that I seldom indulge). The interesting food item that I haven’t seen before was a type of fried fish. It seemed to be a fish, head and all, that had been rolled in a light dough and then fried to a crispy brown. I don’t know about the bones and such. I didn’t partake.

The first spate of marchers went by pretty quickly. There was a delay, so Famous Ankles started to take a walk. I first headed west and caught up to, and passed, the earlier marchers. But I was heading toward Grand Army Plaza. Been there, done that. I wanted new ground. So I reversed and headed into the heart of Crown Heights.

The crowds were big. I had heard that 3 million were expected. Now, I eventually walked most of the parade route and I saw a WHOLE bunch of people. But 3 million? I didn’t keep track so I’ll have to let the official counts (whereever they are) be my guide.

I will say this. Lots and lots of cops. This event can have a violent side. I later heard that three people had been shot. As far as I know, not at the parade. I didn’t see any suggestion of violence and I went everywhere. But the parade is just part of the larger festival so it may have happened over the different evenings. Maybe that’s where the rest of the 3 million were.

Traditional costumes. Yeah, that’s what they were…traditional costumes.

Like I said. The parade was slow. There was a lot of waiting around.

So, I kept up my walking. Famous Ankles is peripatetic, so it was off to the sidestreet and continuing on to the source of the parade: Utica Street.

Lots of music and spectators on the side. This group was actually a bit lively. And loud. Oh yeah, loud.

And the parade actually seemed to have stopped. I noticed that it had been something like half an hour since I had seen/heard any marchers. I took a long look down toward the direction they were to come from.

Nothing. I began to wonder if the parade was over. It wasn’t. Not by a long shot. Maybe after 45 minutes total, they started up again. This time, with a lot more colors and brightly dressed women.

Rhetorical question. Do you not see what I wasn’t seeing? Ain’t it amazing? (Okay, two questions. But look at the crowd. That’s where you don’t see it.)

I didn’t know how to classify these costumes. In my notes, I just called them “colorful” or “colorfuls”.

At this point, the parade of “colorfuls” became jam-packed. They all didn’t have the full huge costumes, but they made up for it in numbers.

(Do you not see it again?) The music was loud. In the Puerto Rican Day Parade, the music would thud throughout my chest. Here, that plus through my skull.

I was wearing earplugs. Good earplugs. (That’s one of the prime rules of parade-going. If someone tells you to take earplugs…TAKE EARPLUGS!)

I guess when they call it the West Indian, some people take “Indian” more seriously than the “West” part of it. Okay, there is the American West.

Others just loved the regalia, whereever it came from. Yes, those West Indian Vikings are the stuff of legend.

I’m going to end this post. It’s just too long with too many photos so far. I’ll continue with more photos in a later post.

However, here’s the solution to the thing you didn’t see. Crowd excitement. There was none. None. Even during the music, I really didn’t see enthusiasm. I’ve brought up the Puerto Rican Day Parade several times. In that parade, even at well before the beginning when the crowd was just standing around, there was whooping and shouting and, well, excitement. Flags being waved (seldom seen in the West Indian Day Parade even though most people seemed to have one in hand). Whistles being blown (I only heard one at the West Indian). People with horns and other sound-makers (unnoticed by me at the West Indian). The only times there was excitement was when one of the DJs on the float would demand the crowd wave their flags or whatever. They tried (the DJs, that is). The only place with some excitement was the sidestreet. They were having a good time….but not a Puerto Rican Parade kind of excitement either.

Overall, I’m not at the parade to see the floats (most are boring). Nor the politicians. And not even the music. I’m there to share in the experience, and when people are bored…it’s not a great experience.

-H

Categories: Brooklyn, Events, Food, Parades, Wanderings

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Ankling to Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in New York City

September 6, 2007

It’s FASHION WEEK…and Famous Ankles didn’t get an invite…again. I don’t know how the fashionistas could have overlooked me this year. I even have a blog.

Fashion Week is actually a big deal here in Manhattan. It brings out the glamour in the town and I sure can’t object to that. I’m always looking for something new and odd…and that’s Fashion Week all over. If only they’d invite me. If only I actually cared about fashion.

Typically, I go through Bryant Park once a week or so. It’s sort of on my way to Church and it’s a very pleasant park. Pretty small with a large green open area in the middle. It’s located right behind the New York Public Library at 5th Avenue and 41st Street and it goes to 6th Avenue and 42nd. Fashion Week involves building a series of temporary buildings all over the greenspace and letting the rest of humanity surround the area and hope to see the occasional celebrity and model.

Here’s the main entrance at 6th Avenue.

The crowds were there at rush hour (5:45pm) on Friday.

And here’s a shot of the temporary buildings. This is actually over a hundred yards behind the main entrance.

I had been near this spot last year and apparently it turned out to be one of the “back entrances” used by celebs. There’s a few discrete car park areas for loading/unloading. There’s also a nice hotel back here. I didn’t see anyone using it this year, but I only passed by.

Back at the front, I did get into waiting and watching for about 20 minutes. Just in case…

And of course that’s why we all were waiting. It’s interesting to see how the attendees handled it. Most didn’t even acknowledge the crowd’s presence, while others rushed up/down the stairs as if they didn’t want to be mistaken for someone, and others did love it.

And, as the woman sitting across the way shows…it was a hit with the rest of us.

To keep crimes of fashion at bay, the cops were ever-present.

Walking around, it was easy to spot people who were probably part of the show, whether models or former models or wanna-bees. I’m not one for asking for poses so I really didn’t capture any of them. (Actually, last year there were groups of models parading around with mock protest signs to advertise hair care products. I coulda photographed them without any embarrassment.)

Nevertheless, I did capture one young lady who looked approporiate for the week, but she sure could use some of the GURU energy drink she was advertising.

-H

Categories: Celebrity Points, Events, Manhattan, Mid-town

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I’m a star in Brazil

September 4, 2007

The title of this post actually comes from an e-mail I sent to friends and family last year. Kind of the pre-blog days. In it, I talked about the annual celebration that is held on Sixth Street in Manhattan. It’s called “Brazilian Day”. On Sept. 2, it happened for the 23rd time.

I had known it was going to happen, but had put it out of mind. On my way to Church, I noticed a lot of parked trucks near 44th Street and as soon as I got close, I knew it all. Last year’s celebration was big. This one seems to have dwarfed it. Lots and lots of people and a huge street fair going up to around 57th Street.

In my 2006 missive on the event, I talked about being near the boom operator and eventually being rousted by the cops who didn’t want anyone standing near the boom operator. Well, the boom operator was back, I was back (but positioned differently), but it was a different cop who did the rousting.

But, I’m getting ahead of myself. For the 23rd time, NYC hosted Brazilian Day (or maybe it’s Brazil Day, which is what I’ve called it for the two years I’ve been going). It seems that almost every street in Manhattan has a second name, and the second name for East 46th Street is “Little Brazil”. And when there’s gonna be a festival to celebrate all things Brazilian, what better place? None.

I had known it was going on, but hadn’t thought about it for days and didn’t expect it. Imagine my surprise when on my way to Church (we had, I think, 15 at the service), Brazilian Day beckoned me. I was happy to oblige, after Church of course. Actually, it’s better to have gone to Church than wait. In fact, I would have preferred going to the next two services at my church rather than do what I did do: wait. And wait. And wait.

First, here are some pictures, ’cause I gotta show pictures! Here’s some stuff during the setup.

The above were shot around 8:30am or so. It got a little more crowded (okay, a lot more crowded) as the day went on.

And there were the occasional props that I found lying around.

I haven’t the foggiest who it’s supposed to be. I think a soccer player.

And, as any good parade will have, there were characters. The guy below is from the Philippenes. He was posing for everyone. I talked with him for a moment and he seemed a great guy. I saw him off and on for the next couple of hours until the crowds overwhelmed everything.

And the “heads” started to appear.

The area I was in was right next to one of the cameras they used to film the crowd. I found myself right next to it. As soon as the boom operator started moving it, the crowd went crazy. It was just a little odd standing within about three feet of it for a long, long time.

Oh, and here are the boom operators. I had stood near them last year when I first saw Brazil Day and it was like old home week for me. I recognized the guy on the right as the main operator, but I don’t know if the guy on the left was the same operator as last year (that guy didn’t have a beard, but he could have grown it).

And the crowds began to gather…

And the boom operators began their work.

And the crowd showed its desire to be on camera…

Capturing the entire crowd was tough. Every so often I’d see a nice vignette.

A bit blurry, but the look they both had was too good not to include.

Here’s what it really looked like to me most of the time.

While I was standing here, people began cutting over to the sidewalk near me; bypassing the intricate structure that the cops had set up. Last year, I had stood near the boom operators in a little area that bypassed the intricate structures the cops had at that time. One had finally come up and chased me and a couple of others away in a huff. (It was hilarious that he was so upset that I had found a niche they didn’t spot during their setup.) I knew another cop was going to spot this year’s problem and I kept waiting to see if the same cop would come up and roust me again (this year, I was perfectly in the proper spot, but the crowd was shifting the barricade inch by inch). I eventually left, and just seconds after going I saw a cop striding puposefully to the area. It wasn’t the same cop though. Yeah, he did shift everything all over again.

I left the area and did some wandering. There were some sights that you would have expected from the Brazilians.

And finally the music started up. In honesty, it wasn’t my cup of tea. I had expected some sort of jazz/carioca sort of music and this was more of a traditional song standard. But the crowd knew every word and they got into it.

I left soon after it started. I had been there way too long just watching the crowd and experiencing the rush that comes from a well-done festival like this. I left the actual festivities to the Brazilians. And, I think they had a good time.

-H

Categories: Celebrity Points, Events, Manhattan, Mid-town, Times Square

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Ankling to the Pakistan Independence Day Parade

August 26, 2007

Today was the celebration of Pakistan’s 60th year of independence. Technically, the anniversary was Tuesday, August 14, so you may have had your own celebrations earlier. As part of today’s celebration, there was a NYC parade and Famous Ankles, a known habitue of such parades, couldn’t have been kept away with a stick. Okay, maybe if it were a big stick, but then I would have missed an enjoyable time.

The parade was held on Madison Avenue between 41st Street and 27th (the parades on Madison Ave. typically go north to south). My home and office are in the general area so it was a very easy commute to the site.

What did I expect from the parade? My favorite parades are always the small ones and the biggest point is to see things other than the parade itself. My “Famous Ankles” name comes from the Greek Independence Day parade in which my ankles became relatively famous by being next to two adorable little girls who received more pictures taken of them by official parade photographers (and people on the floats with cameras) than I could count.

As odd as it may seem for a Christian, my two favorite parades of all time are related to Moslem issues/countries. First, the Shiite parade last year on Park Avenue was amazing for the intensity, friendliness, and neighborliness of the participants (several people in the march came to me, the most northern European of all spectators, to let me know what the parade was about, what everything symbolized, the history of the issues, and everything). Second, the Persian Day parade from earlier this year had me interviewed by a Persian film crew who were thunderstruck that I knew why the parade was going in (they celebrate their New Year at the vernal equinox) and that I was delighted to see the incredible panoply of Persian culture including dancing girls and Zoroasterians.

So, to make a long story short: I was looking forward to the Pakistan Independence Day parade and it didn’t let me down. It was a small item that captivated me, but it was one that I enjoyed thoroughly and hope to be able to relate.

I showed up about 20 minutes before the start of the parade. I was near the beginning of the parade so I did run into the NYC parade starting group: cops and horses.

The first marching group…wasn’t quite Pakistani…it was a marching band…playing Sousa!

Okay, that’s not astonishing. Even now, Sousa has a place at most parades. And to get technical, this really wasn’t a Moslem parade. It was a nationalist parade. Sousa’s good for that: nice marching music.

The next group was a group of police officers, apparently of Pakistani origin. My picture didn’t come out. Sorry, NYPD.

And then the dignitaries. I did get a number of pictures, but I haven’t the foggiest as to who these people were.

There is one item about the dignitaries that I don’t understand. Who are the Black guys on each end? They don’t look of an age that would lend themselves to being long-time supporters and friends of the Pakistani community. They carried themselves more like bodyguards or something. But that makes even less sense.

Another dignitary issue: I’ve been to oodles of these parades. Congressman Anthony Weiner is always a member of the nationality (at least for the day). I know who he is because he loves to have people standing right behind him with a sign saying “Congressman Anthony Weiner”, just to make sure people know. Maybe they wouldn’t give him a bullhorn today (and he does love a good bullhorn). The mayor loves to come to these things. No show today. Both NY senators (Schumer and Clinton) come to them. No show today. It’s enough to make you feel for the Pakistanis. To be snubbed by Weiner… Of course, the obvious answer for all of the politicians is that they may not want to be associated with a country that is so Moslem and run under a military dictatorship. But I would tend to say that today’s crowd would have been receptive to a democratic and tolerant message. Hey, there were a lot of American flags being waved in addition to the Pakistan flag.

And that leads me to my absolutely favorite part of the parade.

As I stood waiting for the start, a family showed up to my immediate right. Among the members were a doting dad and two cute little girls. I had flashbacks to the Greek parade. But, it turns out that the star wasn’t the little girls; it was “dad”.

Being little girls (one being “the girly-girl” and the other being “the tomboy”), they were as cute as you would expect and I asked “dad” if I could take their pictures. He agreed, and even posed.

The second little girl was a lot more elusive, but they did get together and they did get the attention of official photogs.

(That’s “mom” collecting the kids.)

For the most part, the girls just weren’t into the parade, but “dad” was.

In that last picture, note that he has two American flags. That’s the interesting part. During the parade, he called to one of the people handing out placards and the like (they were inside the parade barricades). He motioned her over and started speaking and then pointed out into the street. About 25 feet away to my left was a fallen American flag, apparently dropped from one of the floats. At his behest, the woman went out and picked up the flag and brought it back to “dad”. Once he had it, “dad” didn’t let go of it. “Dad” is a real American. Yeah, it’s a small thing, but it strikes me just right.

The parade had started out on a quiet note. A marching band playing some Sousa and then some bagpipers.

And lots of floats.

I do kinda like the slogan “Life Comes At You Fast”. It turns out to be a Nationwide Insurance Company slogan. I had no idea it was a company float as the people obscured the logo, but it turns out that there is a small “Nationwide” sign there plus the company’s other slogan. But, I didn’t see those during the march and thought the first sentence might be a homegrown/local slogan. I shoulda known. After all, I was on Madison Avenue, the home of advertising.

Finally, someone cranked up the music (which had been loud, but not too loud) and the dancing started.

The dancing lasted…one float.

An item I learned at the parade was who Allama Muhammad Iqbal was: “the thinker of Pakistan”. Actually, he turns out to have been a poet-philosopher who pushed to have a separate Moslem country split off from India. He died in 1938, well before the independence of India from Britain and the partition of Pakistan from India.

And then, it was over. The whole parade was scheduled from 1pm to 3:30pm. The actual parade lasted 18 minutes. Well, it is a minor parade. But it was pleasant.

-H

Categories: Celebrity Points, Events, Mid-town, Parades

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