Easter, New York Style

I have come to believe that in New York City people like to dress up. And an opportunity to strut is an irresistible calling. What I wonder is that folks seem to pay no mind that their outfits must look pretty outrageous as they travel about on mass transit getting to the venue. And the tourists, what do they make of a world seemingly gone mad. I remember one Halloween when a couple of tourists were cowering in their seats peering cautiously over the top of their map at all the outlandish costumed riders that clambered onto the subway car.

Astro-turf man

Easter festivities are on Fifth Avenue near St Patrick’s Cathedral and Rockefeller Center. Made famous from movie and song, everyone’s mission is to wear a hat and parade your stuff. There is no form and the crowd is ‘come as you like.’ So from about 11AM until dusk anyone can wander up or down Fifth Avenue. Come early, most of the photographers are there and you can be assured of being photographed into internet immortality. The headdress varied from simple bunny ears to virtual gardens atop some of the more ambitious participants. There are no rules.

Some old standbys appear. It seems that several people make it a habit to be in every parade gathering. Same costume, same shtick, it’s familiar but beginning to get worn – different day same person.

At all parades - see Chinese New Year

No themes and no organizers so there is little in the way of coherence. Some folks were really decked out. One thing I noticed this year, there were a lot of period costumes from the turn of the century. And for some reason it is attractive as a great venue for gays to be able to parade in front of St Patrick’s. There were many transvestites. Be sure to watch closely as it’s hard to tell some of them. Others were too obvious. Because you are virtually ‘eyeball to eyeball,’ a wide angle lens and close cropping were needed to isolate people. This year’s crowd was larger than I remember, perhaps because of the good weather. It was great entertainment and rich with photo ops.

You can fool some people

Slideshow and Gallery follow:

Up, Up in a Hot Air Balloon

I discuss hot balloons in my other post. (see Blog Roll: PhotoBackStory)

The gallery that follows fairly summarizes the event. I have taken pictures of hot air balloons from several events. This is one trip. We were at a country fair with friends whom we have known for many years. The eight of us made our own individual decisions and some serious injury waivers were necessary. Five of the brave went up. It’s not that I’m not brave…but someone needed to drive the chase car. Briefly, up is easy and landing is a bit tricky. Steering is not reliable. The landing zone is influenced by wind, speed, and altitude. You will see that there was a very picturesque barn in a field of tall grass, rats, and horseshit. Hence, there is care to keep the balloon off the ground. There is the a last shot of the evening glow with the balloon tethered in the sunset, to encourage the next group of would be adventurers to sign up for tomorrow.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.