Tag: Parade
50th Annual Celebrate Israel Parade
My wife and I went to the 50th annual Celebrate Israel Parade on 5th Avenue on the 1st. It was a lot of fun. I was particularly struck by the amount of pride and patriotism that the participants displayed. It stands in stark contrast to the attitude Americans seem to have about America.
We didn’t realize it at the time, but the Philippines National Day parade is held on the same day, one street over, every year. We missed out. Next year we’ll do a double-header and catch two parades in one afternoon.
We didn’t stay for the entire Celebrate Israel Parade. It runs from 11 AM until 4 PM. We were there until about 1:30 and then took a walk through Central Park before heading uptown to a nice a Indian food dinner in the neighborhood. It’s amazing how many cultures one can partake of in a single afternoon in this city!
Please check out the rest of my photos of the parade in full resolution in my Flickr Gallery: 50th Annual Israel Day Parade – 2014
A Dance Parade, Protesters, Painters & People Stealing Garbage
Today, there were all sorts of things going on in Union Square. We just happened to be walking through and saw a crazy guy dancing, another crazy guy stealing a bag of garbage from a public trash can, had a conversation with a guy that wants to make it big as an artist, and then wandered into a dance parade. It was a lot of fun, and the random, amazingly entertaining things that you can just stumble into is one of the reasons I love New York City.
You can see the rest of the parade photos, in a higher resolution in my Flickr gallery by clicking HERE.
2010 New York City Halloween Parade Pictures
I hope everyone had a Happy Halloween! I spent my evening out on 6th avenue watching the annual Halloween Parade, which is said to be the largest Halloween event in the country. I’ve gone to see it once before, in 2007 when I was here in the city on leave from Kuwait to visit family.
It was pretty chilly out there, really crowded and it smelled funny. Maybe it was just the area I was standing in, but I heard a few other people complaining about the smell as well. There wasn’t much I could do about it. I showed up an hour early and still was standing behind 3 rows of people. I figured if I moved I might not get a spot as good as that anywhere else, so I just put up with it. I didn’t hang around for the whole thing. After the better groups of parade participants walked by, I figured I’d beat the rush of the crowd. Getting jammed around by a crowd of mostly drunk people isn’t my idea of a good time.
I was hoping I’d get some better pictures this year, but most of them still turned out poorly. I’ll share the better ones though:
Barbie thought she was special so she was walking by herself.
This is the head of a skeleton horse, and it’s front hooves, if you’re wondering, plus some dead fish swimming around in the background.
Yes, they are naked and covered in body paint while dancing to the beat of a tribal drum.
This little girl was walking on stilts all the way down the parade route from Spring Street to 16th Street.
These two guys were dressed as the stop and go signals for pedestrian crossings.
And that’s about it. By this point I was starting to really feel the cold and my legs were starting to get tired, so I decided to head back home. I hope you enjoyed the photos, and hopefully I can get some better ones next year!
Chingay Fiesta Tampines 2010 Floats
My wife and I went to Tampines 1 last night to have dinner at Manpuku. There’s a stall there called Hokkaido Aoba Ramen that’s really, really good! We always get the Sho-yu Cha-shu Ramen and a side of wafu gyoza.
Anyhow, on the way in we noticed that the field by Tampines 1 and the MRT station was filled with a stage area and the round-about area where the Giants / Courts shuttle bus usually picks people up was filled with floats. After a little walking around I saw a sign announcing that it was for the Chingay Fiesta Tampines parade.
There were quite a few people there, and after my experience with the crowds at New Year’s Eve and Chinese New Year’s Eve, I wasn’t in the mood to try to put up with it again, especially on an empty stomach.
So, I did the next best thing. I took a look at the floats, snapped some photos, enjoyed part of the show on the stage area and then went to dinner! I didn’t have my camera with me unfortunately, so I just used my iPhone, but the pictures came out pretty well anyway.
Have a look:
I was really impressed with how much effort went into the floats. As we were getting ready to leave we saw a woman show up in what appeared to be traditional Indian garb. I think she was going to accompany the float that had the big head (pictured above) on foot.
What impressed me more is that this much effort was put into a regional parade, considering that the official Chingay parade had already taken place. If you’d like to see some really good shots of the actual Chingay 2010 parade, please click HERE to see a beautiful Flickr set. The following photo is a sample from the set:
Bradley Farless 