Famous Ankles

General Pulaski Parade / Polish Parade in NYC – Part 2

Posted October 9, 2007 by Famous Ankles
Categories: Events, Manhattan, Mid-town, Parades

The previous post set up the general events around the parade but I’ve barely scratched the surface of what happened. I’m not going to be particularly encyclopedic about the event, but I will cover some of the major points…or at least the ones that interested me.

There was a scene where one character led in a horse and rider. They actually ran past me and most of my shots were not that good. However, the two of them seemed to be having a good time.

I don’t know if the horseman is supposed to be General Pulaski. If you’re not aware of it, the General is considered the founder of the American Calvary. He immigrated to the US during the Revolutionary War, after being recruited by Lafayette. He was killed during the Battle of Savannah in 1779.

The horse display was shortly followed by a bunch of hogs. Motorcycles, that is.

But mostly, the parade was about native costumes and wearing red and white. Sometimes both at the same time. Here are some children from St. Frances De Chantal Church in Brooklyn.

And one young lady from another float. She was too colorful to ignore.

Entire crowds of people in red and white would often be marching. Often, they were Church-related, but sometimes they were just a community group. The crowd below filled up the street. Almost all were just in red and white, except the two that gave such a good photo opportunity.

The people in native dress were all over the place.

And there were dancers. Some actively demonstrating their craft…

And others from Joseph’s Dance Studio who appeared very ready to do so…

And more native dress.

On top of all of this, there were multiple marching bands, small groups of musicians, lots of Church groups, and a group of coordinated flag wavers. There were even a couple of groups of African-Americans, low-riders, and a contingent of kilt-wearing bagpipers.

But mostly, there were lots and lots of Miss Polonias. I’ll have that in Part 3.

-H

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General Pulaski Parade / Polish Parade in NYC – Part 1

Posted October 8, 2007 by Famous Ankles
Categories: Manhattan, Mid-town, Parades

I was late to the parade. I’m never late to parades! But, I was late. Okay, it wasn’t my fault (sorta):

See? It says the General Pulaski Memorial Parade started at 2pm. Nope. Try noon.

Actually, there was a link to the website that I didn’t bother to check, but it would have set me straight. I should never trust the http://www.nyc.gov “City Events Calendar”. They are wrong so often that I should only use them as a first pass.

The Pulaski Parade (or the Polish Parade or the Poland Parade or whatever you want to call it) is actually an old favorite of mine. Almost every parade has something distinctive about it, aside from the group it is dedicated to. With the Pulaski Parade, it is the “Miss Polonia” phenomenon. The Poles love to show off their attractive women and they do it with an odd flair: there can be lots of Miss Polonias. Lots of them.

In fact, I’m going to have a future post dedicated only to them. I have to admit that I find it wonderful and interesting and altogether different in a way that I like. They break it out as Miss Polonia of this place and that place and they also have “Junior Miss Polonia” or, alternatively, “Little Miss Polonia”. This year I even spotted one “Mr. Polonia”. Give me a day or two to write and post the story.

There were three parades this weekend, and each of them has the same issue: the crowds. The Korean Parade made due without a Korean viewing audience. I can tell you that there were lots and lots of Poles in the Pulaski Parade crowd and they have their own way of cheering: they have conversations with the marchers. In Polish, of course. More on that shortly.

I left my place before 1pm because I knew I needed to find a good spot. As I was getting toward 5th Avenue, I started hearing loudspeakers and music and saw a float go past! It had been going on for around an hour by the time I arrived. I felt guilty. But then I ended up staying until after 5:30pm so I think I can credit myself with having been to the parade.

Here’s what I saw at the corner of 41st Street and Fifth Avenue:

This was pretty new to me. They actually had a group introducing the floats over loudspeakers using both Polish and English. This parade, always a big one, has really stepped up to the plate. That’s the New York Public Library behind them. I had planned on getting a place on the steps, but it was jammed so I ended up going a couple of blocks south.

I saw this particular sweatshirt all over the place.

As I went along, I found a pretty good spot…defined as right near a lot of people speaking Polish amongst themselves. I love that kind of immersion.

Once I got there, I saw a Polish military contingent going by. The crowd started calling out to the marchers and the marchers starting having conversations back. There was tremendous good humor and fun in it and this picture typifies the joy I sensed in the crowd and the marchers.

I haven’t the foggiest idea of what they were talking about or what/whom was being pointed out. Okay, I said there was joy in this, but not always and not by everybody. Not a fair statement, but the dourness of this family probably belies something like being overwhelmed by what was going on and knowing they were headed toward the loudspeakers and the BIG crowd.

There was a big crowd, but it wasn’t Puerto Rican Parade big.

The following picture of a marching band is something of a mystery to me. I don’t know if it’s a traditional outfit, a comedy outfit, or a traditional comedy outfit.

There were at least two contigents of scouts. I don’t know if they are Boy and Girl Scouts or just an independent Polish version of it. The scouting concept seems pretty popular though.

The last bit I’ll mention in today’s post is actually a WWII group that commemorates the Polish contribution. When I first saw it, I first thought about how Poland had been overrun at the beginning of the war (by both Germans and Russians) and then remembered how many of its soldiers had ended up in Britain and fought on the Western Front where they faced execution if captured.

-H

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The Korean Parade on Broadway

Posted October 7, 2007 by Famous Ankles
Categories: Broadway, Events, Manhattan, Mid-town, Parades

It was a Saturday and the Korean Parade was set to go. Therefore, so was I.

The day was bright and sunny and I was interested in the parade in an odd way simply because it was on Broadway and I don’t recall having seen one on that avenue before. (There’s a sort of heirarchy of parades where certain avenues such as Fifth get the biggest and the smaller ones go to other streets such as Madison and 2nd and 6th.) There had been no publicity about the Korean Parade that I was aware of, which for me tends to mean a small parade which is often very interesting. Yet, there really isn’t a big link that I’m aware of between mid-town Broadway and the Korean community. There is a huge community out in Queens and I’m sure many live in Manhattan, but I was wondering why they weren’t holding it in Queens. (On the other hand, I don’t think many Nigerians live on Second Avenue, but their consulate is there and is probably a hub of their social network.) Nevertheless, I expected to see an interesting parade with some very interesting displays.

And I got it.

The parade started just about on time with the usual “cops on horses”.

The parade was from 41st Street down to 23rd. I was at 37th. The day was a bright and sunny day, but I had positioned myself in a shadier area. Later, as the earth kept turning and the sun kept creeping in, the brightness would become an issue.

There were really two signature parts of the parade. Well, maybe it’s better to say that there were two sights in the parade that I found more interesting than the others. First, was what I can only refer to as the “head whirl”. This was a marcher who had a sort of whirligig on his/her head that had a long white ribbon. By twisting the head just right, the ribbon would circle the user. It was a very nice visual.

Later in the parade, there would be a number of the headwhirlers walking together, appropriately spaced out of course.

A common sight and sound during the parade were the drummers. In the below case, wearing a hat/headcovering that was very colorful.

The music was pleasant, the drumming was very good; but the crowd was sparse.

Note that the crowd wasn’t particularly Korean, either. It wasn’t quite as lopsided as the Nigerian Parade (where I think maybe I saw very few Nigerians who weren’t in the parade), but there were very few Korean nationals in the crowd.

The usual dignitaries did arrive.

As usual, I’ve no idea who they are.

I didn’t see a single New York politician participating.

There were a number of social groups that participated. Among them were the Korean-Germany Association.

Another group was the Sygnman Rhee Association that commemorates the first post-WWII Korean president. There were Korean-American police officers, a group that maintains cultural ties for Koreans adopted by Americans, and Korean Air had a nice float (pic below).

My favorite group was this bunch: Korean War Veterans. Technically, the war continues but this group may have taken part in that incredible 1950-53 part of the war.

Getting back to the “signature” parts of the parade, the second most arresting visual was something that was called “The Royal Procession of Great King Sejong”. It took up the entire middle part of the parade. There were two characters who may have portrayed the Great King, but neither was marked as such. Here are some pictures from the procession.

The horns they were playing gave out sort of a kazoo-sound. Actually, it sounded much better than that, but that’s the closest I can describe it.

This section was a very solemn procession, but I did catch one guy showing some personality.

But note the paucity, even the absence of viewers behind him (on the sunny side of the street).

During this time, some of the head-whirlers gave a display. Very well done, but impossible to really capture in still pictures.

And, probably, one of the Great King characters.

Later, another figure may have also been the King.

I often talk about the “men in skirts” phenomenon. They sort of had it here, but they were more robes than a native dress that resembled the modern skirt. I’ve also mentioned a character with a beard wearing a skirt (and parrot and tie-dyed dog): not seen at this parade.

But this was a new one: women in beards.

They looked like they were portraying ancient scholars. I don’t know if they’re being women was important to the storyline or whether they just needed people in the march. Doesn’t matter, but it is still unique in my experience.

Part of the procession had a large drum with one person at each end banging on it. It sounded good. But, once again, note the absence of a crowd watching.

An auto company had a car with a woman in national dress.

There were several martial arts displays. The age ranges were generally pretty young.

The pictures above and below are two of my favorites. It’s all about their attitudes.

Four girls, four attitudes. And the little boy looks ready for any trouble that may come his way.

And the drummers were everywhere.

I liked this character. He was having a grand time.

And cops weren’t the only ones on horses.

But probably my favorite visual was this picture. It just shouts out something very…Korean.

An ancient and deep culture.

It was a long parade with lots of pagentry and color. Overall, it was an excellent display, but to so few of us that it loses a lot of its power. I always say that much of a parade’s appeal is in its audience. The two spectacles feed each other and make each other better.

Speaking of this, being New York there had be “another”. During the parade, I saw one nearby member of the crowd occasionally going out into the parade and taking pictures. He had a tripod, seemed to “belong” out there, but didn’t appear to be an official photographer. Right after I saw the “women in beards”, he and I talked (I wanted to make absolutely sure they were women because I was seeing them from a little distance, despite my camera zoom). It turns out that he’s originally from Russia and goes to all the parades! Kind of like Famous Ankles (excepting being Russian). We compared stories and it turns out he’s gone to a lot of the same parades as I have, although he’s more interested in the native costumes and cultures rather than the actual parades. His photos are strictly for his own viewing and he takes far fewer than I do.

Nevertheless, we both agreed that the day, although beautiful, was way too sunny and set off too many shadows that didn’t photograph well. I took tons of photos (actually more than 300), but there’s absolutely no room for such volume here.

This weekend has two more parades and we each intend to go to both. I doubt we’ll see each other as they are much, much larger than the Korean Parade.

But, it was nice meeting you Victor. Have fun.

-H

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Ankling Brooklyn’s Smith Street

Posted October 6, 2007 by Famous Ankles
Categories: BoCoCa, Brooklyn, Wanderings

I watch a number of the local TV shows such as “$9.99” and “Cool in Your Code” that detail interesting areas around NYC. Brooklyn is a subject in a lot of these shows and they tend to call every area that they are reviewing a new sort of hipster haven. And it seems to be true. New Yorkers are always looking for the new and the unique. And that tends to mean artists, restaurants, and nightclubs. Recent times appear to have really driven out the artists from Manhattan and they keep moving to Brooklyn (and I’d be remiss not to mention that some of them go to The Bronx, too). Brooklyn’s big and sprawling, but the attractive areas tend to be near the East River. I’ve mentioned places like Park Slope (not particularly near the East River), Brooklyn Heights (right there), and Williamsburg are all those sorts of places. But, I’ve also been aware of another area: Smith Street. Technically, it isn’t an area at all. Instead, it’s a street that seems to go through three significant neighborhoods and all three are on the “cool” radar: Boerum Hill, Cobble Hill, and Carroll Gardens (also known as the BoCoCa district). The odd thing is that I seem to spot “Smith Street” mentioned all over the place, but the BoCoCa area is thrown in almost as an afterthought. Well….not that extreme. I’ll hear something like how good the restaurants are in Boerum Hill, and the address is almost always on Smith Street. Or, I’ll see an ad that mentions Carroll Gardens and the ad will mention Smith Street. Or, I’ll read an article on some new celebrity that’s chosen to live in BoCoCa and I’ll see Smith Street mentioned as a celebrity spotting area or something. In any event, the place just seemed to be asking Famous Ankles to wanders its length.

And so I did.

The furthest south part of the district is Carroll Gardens, so it’s appropo that I got off the subway at the Carroll Gardens stop and started heading north.

First of all, remember that this is Brooklyn. That means lots of things to me. First, it means low buildings and then it means lots of trees. There are tons and tons of brownstones and oodles of restaurants and vintage clothing places. Smith Street is absolutely typical of that. The one item it doesn’t seem to have a lot of are churches. Brooklyn has lots of churches, but I don’t remember seeing anything on Smith Street itself, although there were a number of them when I wandered off the main path.

But, the three-story buildings? Check. Here’s Carroll Gardens.

Oh, yeah. It’s got a nice little farmers’ market on Saturdays. Apparently a very long tradition for the area. The nearby sign said it had been going on for 30 years.

Nowhere near the size of the Union Square market, but not bad at all.

The side streets have lots of nice little brownstores and row houses.

The below is on Wyckoff Street.

I don’t know the prices, but I did see a note in a nearby realtor office that had a 3-story place on the market for $1.3 million. The street on the flyer wasn’t any of the streets that I walked on, so it’s just a rough guess for the above.

As I wandered the area, I did note a significant Hispanic influence just by hearing conversations in Spanish and such things as the following picture. (It isn’t necessarily Hispanic, but something about the area seemed to be very Hispanic although I can’t recall or describe it. I can pretty much tell you flatly that it ain’t Protestant.)

Now, I will say this about Smith Street: you wanna eat? Smith Street has it for you. That is, unless you want fast food. I didn’t see a single McDonalds or other mainstream fast food place anywhere. It warmed my heart.

And, in the distance, loomed Borough Hall.

I finally did decide to stop and eat at a local place.

It’s the Pacifico Restaurant on Pacific Street. It is a little odd why they would name a street in New York after the Pacific Ocean. (They can’t mean “calm street”, hey! It’s Brooklyn!) The place is absolutely, marvelously Brooklynesque. It’s well kept up, but not fancy. The tables and all are cheap, but not horribly so. It wants to say that it is a down-home family kind of place, but who knows about that? In any event, the eating area was in the open area in the middle of the place and I ordered the fish tacos. I’m not a real trustworthy source for food picks, but I liked it. Not real cheap, but not bad.

Overall, Smith Street is a great walk with wonderful amenities and pretty nice people. You can do worse than visit or live in the area.

-H

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