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Easter Parade in NYC Part 2 of 3

March 25, 2008

More pictures from my 2008 Easter Parade wanderings on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan.

The above was one of the few “grand but weird” hats. They just didn’t seem to be as numerous as usual. Maybe I left too early for others, but I don’t think so.

There were some, though.

The picture below captures some of all types.

Some of the more formal hat-wearings that I enjoyed.

And, yes, there were dogs.

Perhaps the most unique person in the parade was the Queen of Hearts. Oh, yeah; she’s on stilts. She just towered above everything.

Take a couple of kids and put hats completely over their bodies, tack on some fake small clothes much lower on their bodies and….

The guy below is at all of these events, along with his dog.

But the little girls are still the better subjects.

Some more formal wearing-types. Quite a bit exaggerated, but that’s fine.

Another shot of the crowd. This was the group taking photos of the people above.

Some were utterly shameless in trying to grab attention. Tennis tog wearing women with dogs…and then the women started to play a sort of badmitten game with each other.

It’s a man under all that hatness below. I’m guessing he agreed to wear a hat if it obscured enough of his features that would prevent his ever being recognized. Well done, sir!

More of the more-formal-type-hats. Not truly formal, but more than normal over the past few years.

Tomorrow, I’ll finish the posts. There’s really not much to say: you mill around and spot someone in the distance with a hat. You work your way over there and find a few hundred others are doing the same thing.

-H

Categories: Events, Manhattan, Mid-town, Parades, Wanderings

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Easter Parade in NYC Part 1 of 3

March 24, 2008

Every Easter, at least every Easter for the past three years, I’ve been out to the “Easter Parade”.

It isn’t a real parade. Or, if you prefer, it is the most democratic parade there is. Everyone is part of it. And anyone can be a star. That isn’t any sort of exaggeration. If you want 15 minutes of fame and the attention of thousands, just join the parade. The only qualification: wear a hat.

The bigger/grander/wilder/cooler the hat, the better.

People without hats are desperate to find and look at people with hats. Heck, you can even buy them there and change from the hatless anonymous one to a famed hatted one. But those aren’t the really great hats. But you can borrow a really great hat. Just for asking.

A typical hat brought and worn by a typical wearer.

From about 46th Street up to around 57th Street, Fifth Avenue becomes a mass of hat-searching photographers and voyeurs. And Famous Ankles is proud to be one of ’em again this year. I’ve never worn a hat to it, but it was a pretty cold day with a touch of wind. Not enough to make me wear a hat, though.

Generally, the hats are not on the expensive side, as you can note.

Photographers are everywhere. The woman below was being interviewed when I walked by, you can see the cameraman in the foreground.

I was down there at around 11am to 1pm. The event generally lasts until 4pm or so.

People just mill about on the street. When you see a hatted person, take your picture ASAP.

And the crowd was biiiiiiiiiigggg!

One thing I saw more of this year than usual were men in hats.

Dogs in hats are…old hat. Ouch. I know I’ll catch some grief for that one.

It’s generally the friendliest crowd you’ll ever see. Wanna pose with someone? Just go and pose. Wanna take someone’s picture? Just point your camera. If they spot you, they’ll pose or they’ll grab their friends and all will pose.

The woman above in the big hat was everywhere. After 2 hours, I knew every hat in the place, but I kept seeing her posing alone or with others. She’s a real trooper.

There were other attractions besides people in hats. Below was a gospel duo singing some Easter riffs.

Another thing I spotted more of this year were people doing more of a dressy hat rather than a funny hat.

The first year I went to the Easter Parade, I saw one person with a formal hat. This year, dozens. I really like the trend.

But it was mostly mock-pretention type hats.

A puppetteer…with a hat out for donations.

A group saw me point my camera…

Below are some hats made from discarded “metro cards” (used to go on the subway and buses in New York).

People were lined up to pose with them on. I don’t know if there was a charge or “donation” to use them or if they were there as a promotion or community service. They were pretty popular, though.

Tibitan Protest on 2nd Avenue

March 22, 2008

I’ve been under the weather recently and was recovering nicely, but still hadn’t stepped out of my place all day today. And then I heard whistles and shouting coming from the direction of Second Avenue and 42nd Street. I have a very minor view of the street from my window and peered out, knowing I’d see something.

And I did. Cops. There was a protest afoot. I left as quickly as I could and, by the time I hit street level, the noise volume was very high and my doorman was trying to figure out what was going on.

It was a protest. It looked a bit “thrown together” with minimal planning, but the cops were cooperating.

It wasn’t tiny though. Okay, it was relatively tiny, but it was a fairly good protest march. It was the Tibetans protesting the Chinese. (It’s always a little strange when I see a protest where one nationality is protesting another and the US is sort of left out of the equation. But that’s neither here nor there.)

The cool part; where else are you gonna have enough Tibetans to have a good protest? These aren’t your college students who sign petitions several times a month. These were mostly Tibetans in exile or just otherwise here.

The cops were leading them down 2nd Avenue on a single lane. The group was perhaps four blocks long. I didn’t try any sort of count, but I’m guessing less than a thousand. It sounded louder though.

As you can see, the cops were out in force, but mostly to make sure they stayed in their designated lane. The cars in the side streets weren’t being let in and you could see them backing up.

The Tibetans did have people on both sides of the street handing out literature. Their protest was centered on the Chinese crackdown to protests in Tibet and they were calling for the release of prisoners there and an international investigation into what is happening.

Of probably more import to the Chinese is their call for boycotting the Olympics.

-H

Categories: Events, Manhattan, Mid-town, Parades

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FUBAR Disaster update

March 16, 2008

As promised, I went up to the general area of the crane collapse. I knew it would be blocked off well away from the actual site, and of course it was.

The crane collapsed between 1st Avenue and 2nd Avenue on 51st Street. Here’s a scene from 48th St and Second Avenue.

I could get as high as 49th Street before they shut down the street to traffic (including pedestrians).

At 49th Street, there were a number of newscrews doing interviews.

I don’t know the station or anything. I did see a truck from Macromedia doing some satellite sort of broadcasting, but no one was around the truck.

The only good news from this is that the death toll hasn’t seemed to grow from the initial four, although there are another four in critical condition.

The sobering picture of the moment (St. Patrick’s is tomorrow and we need some of that, I’d guess).

If you can’t read it, that the Mobile Command Center of the Medical Examiner. And there’s an empty gurney outside of it.

Another sobering sight was a truck from the Salvation Army. They had set up facilities to get residents places to stay. I don’t know if they allow anyone in neighboring buildings to stay in, but the idea of having 2 blocks evacuated in every direction is horrible. There are a lot of people living there. Many thousands, I’d suspect. Hotel rooms…$300 to $500 a night for a decent place.

Oh, I do need to mention this. In my previous post, I said I hadn’t heard more sirens and helicopters than usual. Well, last night the helicopters never seemed to go away. I kept changing the local channels and seeing live broadcasts from them, too. It’s still a little weird for me to hear sounds outside the window while watching broadcasts of the events on TV.

UPDATE 3/17/08: The death toll has risen to seven.

-H

Categories: Events, Manhattan, Mid-town

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FUBAR Disaster on 51st Street

March 15, 2008

I was out in Greenwich Village today doing some wandering, and whilst I was there, a crane in the Upper East Side collapsed and destroyed a building that included “FUBAR“, a bar that advertises itself as offering “a heavy drinking atmosphere”. At least four are known dead at this time.

The mayor has just announced that the bar was not open. That’s amazing and completely unexpected as it is St. Patrick’s Day weekend and I’ve walked past I don’t know how many groups of “21 year-olds” who are loudly proclaiming their intention to drink.

For me, the most bizarre part is that I’ve been home for about the past two hours and haven’t heard more than the usual amount of sirens and helicopters. It’s only 10 blocks north of me, maybe a half-mile.

I don’t remember ever seeing the place, but it’s located just a block south of a grocery store I go to quite often.

The way that NYC works, I wouldn’t be able to get close to the site under any circumstances. If I can, I’ll post pictures later.

-H

Categories: Mid-town

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