Hippo Day 2020

Today, February 15th, marks the celebration of Hippo Day and I'm once again honoring it by giving a shout out to this amazing animal! According to a number of sources (including my 2/15/2018 blog post), hippopotamuses love water, which is why the Greeks named them the river horse.

While hippos love water, New Yorkers  and a few artists seem to love hippos!

Why do I say this?

For one thing, sculptures depicting this animal type of animal can be found within a playground in Central Park known as Safari Play Ground. A picture of one of these works of art is featured in the set of photographs atop this entry.

In Honor of Hippo Day 2018

Today marks a holiday known as Hippo Day! One way that I am celebrating it by paying homage to Happy Hippo, whose likeness has been rendered into a ballon that has participated in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, as seen in the pictures directly above this entry.

Tuesday Truths WK 55: This recent red light will not stop me!

Hello, and welcome to the fifty-seventh week of my Tuesday's Truths series which I'm posting at night! I apologize to readers who might've been expecting me to publish an entry earlier in the day, which is my standard — at least for my Tuesday's Truth series.

The truth for this week is that I'm in the middle of embarking on a new path after having received a red light for a book project that I was helping Cam's daughter with. Ever since June 9th 2017, I've been going back and forth with a big company, in order to get their permission for Cam's daughter to use images that I took over the course of a couple years of their public event (a parade), which is very well known by people all over the world.

Therefore, even though the pictures which Cam's daughter wanted to include in her story, are all taken by me, I had to get their permission, as their event is considered a trademark. Most folks had thought I would not have a problem, and that Cam's daughter could use my photos under a clause for fair use, but it seems that's not the case.

The Hippo Ballerina isn't the first NYC hippo!

It's been nearly three weeks since Bissera Antikarov posted an image on her FB Page of NYC's hippo ballerina featured in the photos atop this entry which I took this past Thursday, when I went to visit the statue.

The first image of mine features a view of the hippo ballerina that is similar to the photo that Bissera Antikarov posted. And the following picture of the dancer,

features her gazing at the Lincoln Center building where the ballet is performed. I imagined her to be wistful about opportunities to perform there, but the sculptor, Bjørn Okholm Skaarup, had a different character in mind,

I LOVE A PARADE! Photographs & Musings: Macy's 2016 Thanksgiving Parade Part One

Well, well, well, after my many blog posts during the pre-Macy's 2016 Thanksgiving Parade, it finally happened today, and it certainly did not disappoint! What a treat it was to witness the good man, Charlie Brown, lead the entourage of Macy's balloons down Central Park South in NYC! Charlie had a make-over for this year's Macy's Parade, which allowed him to have his kite!

People Watching is for the birds & balloons: 03 DAYS UNTIL THE PARADE

Smurf, when rendered into a balloon for The Macy's Parade, can be quite the voyeur! This is evidenced in the image above, where he can be seen looking into the window of a NYC residential apartment building as he made his way along the parade's route on Thanksgiving Day in bygone years.