Shenanigans
A fan friend came in from Arizona, and I took her on a 4th of July walk through a lot of the city. In the sun and high 90-degree weather. She was fine, but I bit off a bit more than I can chew. Still, we walked from Bryant Park at 42nd Street, into Grand Central Terminal, up along Fifth Avenue for the window displays and some churches, and then into Central Park, coming out on the west side at 72nd Street. In Central Park we saw a puppeteer with egg-headed marionettes, a duo playing classical music at the Bethesda Terrace Arcade, a guy making giant bubbles, a wedding couple and their photographer, and a group of disco roller skaters.
We also saw a really overheated guy half-dressed as Elmo sitting on a bench and I think it actually was the Elmo guy who went off on an anti-Semitic rant in Central Parks days ago that went viral when a recording went up online. The photo in this New York Times article looks a lot like the guy we saw. At one point that guy had started a pornographic Web site called "Welcome to the Rape Camp", which gives you an idea of how just anyone can buy or rent a children's character costume and approach you and your kids for tips. I'm glad I didn't attempt to take a photo of me, because who knows how he'd react....
But before we made it to Central Park I got to see that Bergdorf Goodman has new windows up, a delightfully kooky bird-themed series. I was so thrilled that I returned by car hours after dark to get a reflection-free night shoot. The city was so deserted that it only took me an hour to drive from Queens to Fifth Avenue and 57th Street, take a round of photos, drive allll the way down to Canal Street to drive back to Queens via the Manhattan Bridge, and get home. I was able to drive so fast that I had to slow down because it was getting dangerous. *g*
You can see my photos at my Flickr and my deviantArt, but here are a few more photos for you guys (click on image to embiggen as usual):
The feathers are attached to the dress at the ends of beaded strings.
More of a look at the skirt.
Close-up on the white rooster in this window, which reunites a lot of the avian props from "The Seasons: Spring," an all-time favorite window display of mine. I just realized that the rooster itself is an avian prop from a different "The Seasons" window, "Autumn"!
Antique cameras in the corner of this window display.