New York's Village Halloween Parade

New York's Village Halloween Parade is one of the most extravagant, artistic, diverse, and enthusiastic Halloween celebration in the world Anyone with a costume can take part in the parade and people travel from all over the globe to take part in the parade.  Every year on Halloween these revelers dance up 6th Avenue celebrating New York's creative minds, whacky characters, and of course ward off the evil spirits of All Hallows Eve.

The parade started as the brain child of mask maker Ralph Lee.  It began as a production of Theatre for the New City.  It was meant to be a mile-long "theatrical event" celebrating masks, giant puppets, and musicians.  As it wound through the twisty turn windy circuitous streets of the village, the parade took residents by surprise.  Fortunately is was a delightful surprise and many onlooking even joined in the festivities!  So successful was the parade that it was revived the next year and won an OBIE award!  The Village Voice said it awarded the parade an OBIE "to recognize its artistic achievement and to encourage it to become an annual tradition."  And become a tradition it did!  The next year the parade gained not-for-profit status and was awarded grants to help fund it.  

This year, after being "Frankenstormed" out by Sandy last year, the parade will celebrate its 40th year.  The theme is "Hallelujah Halloween Revival."  It almost didn't happen at all!  Hurricane Sandy did more than dampen the 2012 Parade, it dampened the funding for the 2013 parade as well.  So the Parade did something unprecedented, it launched a kickstarter campaign.   At the last minute, the parade SURPASSED its goal of $50,000 and was even able to raise enough to fun a new float honoring Sandy Relief Helpers & the Cornell Weill Transplant Center.  

This year the parade will feature giant puppet, including the return of the crowd favorite, Basil Twist's "Clock Tower Spider" which last made its parade appearance in 2009.  Dancers, musicians, floats, puppets, masks, and revelers will dance up 6th Avenue beginning at Spring Street and 16th Street.  Anyone with a costume can join in at Spring or Canal Street.  Vehicles must pre-register.  More importantly anyone and everyone who wishes to capture the spirit of New York on Halloween will be watching the parade if they are not in it.  It will be crowded.  It will be crazy.  It will be one New York experience you do not want to miss!:)  See you there!


P.S. Fun Fact.  My very first year in NYC I was IN the parade.  A seamstress friend of mine made me and all of our friends costumes.  We were "Famous Works of Art."  I was the Winged Isis.    Here are embarrassing and incriminating photos.  See if you can name the different works of art we represent as well.

Awesome things happening this weekend - Halloween Edition

This is a very exciting weekend in NYC as its the start of Halloween.  First of all, there are THREE dog costume parades this Saturday, October 26th!   The Battery Park City Dogs Halloween Parade kicks things off at 11:30, followed by the most famous Tompkins Square Halloween Dog Parade at noon, with SEEPAWS Halloween Costume Contest rounding things out the the South Street Seaport at 2 p.m.  Basically if you love dogs in costumes, Saturday is your day!  New Yorkers love their dogs and creativity runs rampant.

Oh wait - and there is another mini-dog costume contest on Saturday at PUMPKIN FEST in Central Park!  Pumpkin fest is a super fun fall festival in Central Park with live music, pumpkins, and delicious food.  Make sure you get there early though, supplies run out relatively quickly.  

The Saturday event that honestly looks the most intriguing to me is the Haunted Highline Halloween.    This is mainly because I'm a big history nerd and I love the idea meeting historical ghosts while walking down the old elevated railroad.  Pony rides, trick or treating, haunted train tunnels and hay-bale mazes don't sound half bad either.  

Sunday at twilight in Central Park there is a giant pumpkin flotilla/pumpkin sail.  I wish I were free to observe this - it sounds so magical!  

If you're not feeling Halloween-y just yet, you're in luck.  There is a pickle festival happening on Sunday!  12-5 p.m. eat pickles and watch pickling contests.  Follow the link to the Lower East Side Pickle Day.  

I'm also going to give some friends a shout out.  I have several friends who give ghost tours of the city. I feel these are great ways to learn about the city's history as well as get into the Halloween spirit.  My friend Amada Anderson gives spooktacular Haunted Broadway Tours.    (Side note: did the person who coined to term "Spooktacular" trade mark it?  They'd be making bank by now.)  A company I used to work for, Ghosts of New York, also has absolutely wonderful ghost tours.  

Also this is the perfect time of year to visit the Merchant's House Museum - New York's most haunted house!  All weekend they will be hosting candle-lit ghost tours of the house and on Sunday they will have an 1865 funeral re-enactment and graveyard procession at 5:30 p.m.  There are guided tours daily.

So get out there and celebrate Halloween New York Style - or eat a lot of pickles!:)

  

Winter Village at Bryant Park

Bryant Park's Winter Village is about to return!  NEXT WEEKEND!

Everyone loves the Winter Village!  First of all there is a free ice skating rink!  Well, it's not exactly free.  If you have you own ice skates and don't want to put anything in a locker, it's free.  They have lockers but you must provide your own lock or rent a "bag" to put your belonging in.  You also have to pay for ice skate rental.  Other than that it's FREE!  More importantly, it is super fun.  You can skate outdoors while viewing the Empire State Building, Bank of America Building, Bryant Park Library, and the Winter Village Shops that have been set up around the rink.

If you prefer watching the ice skating, you can visit Celius, a two-story lounge that is set up overlooking the rink.  You can enjoy fancy cocktails and hip music while watching couples simultaneously try to romance each other while clinging on to an ice skating rink wall for dear life on the skating rink below.  The one time I went to Celius the drinks were delicious.

The holiday shops are usually the main draw.  There are over 125 boutique-style holiday shops set up around Bryant Park. You can buy locally handmade jewelry, Christmas scented candles, giant oversized Jacques Torres cookies and hot chocolates, mittens that look like alligators, Albert Einstein finger puppets, scented salts from the dead-sea to help make your bath time more exotic, etc… Basically if you're looking for fun quirky gifts, get thee to the Winter Village Holiday Shops.  

Here is what the rink and the shops look like at the moment as they set up in Bryant Park!

Awesome Things Happening in NYC

Sorry this entry is rather short -it's hard to be in two operas running in rep, working, and auditioning, but there is awesomeness happening this weekend and I thought you should know about it!:)

If you're walking through the Village - visit the Jefferson Market Garden Festival - they will have pumpkins and Halloween crafts!
http://www.jeffersonmarketgarden.org

FIND A BANKSY!  Accalimed and elusive street artist Banksy is engaged in a monthlong "residency" here in New York City.  Every day he created and unveils a new piece of street art.  After he completes his masterpiece, he posts abut it on residencies official website.  Some pieces are even accompanied by audio guides.
http://www.banksyny.com

Visit a haunted house!  No one does extravagant haunted houses like NYC!
http://www.bloodmanor.com

Visit the South Street Seaport for their Fall Festival.  Gone are the summer days of lobster rolls and Smorgasbar slushies, but never mind, giant pretzels, bratwurst, and beer have taken their place!
http://www.southstreetseaport.com/events/#

HONK!  And extravaganza of global street music!
http://honkfest.org/external_pages/honk-nyc/


Also  - I will soon be moving this blog over to a wordpress page.  I also need a new name for the blog so any and all ideas are welcome!  Let me know!:)

And here's a beautiful photo of the seaport taken from a boat on this perfect afternoon!  

I found a Banksy!

I found the Banksy 9/11 tribute on Staple and Jay!  More on Banksy and street later but I was so excited I wanted to share the news!:-)

Awesome Things Happening this Weekend - October 12/13 edition

Awesome things happening in NYC this weekend!

If you are hungry and want a taste of New York - make you way to Williamsburg, Brooklyn this Saturday and visit Smorgasburg.  (They will be in DUMBO on Sunday.)  No place in the world does street food the way New York City does, and Smorgasburg brings together the best of the best in one lot.  I took a group to Smorgasburg last weekend and they were incredibly impressed with the variety, creativity, and witty names of all the food stands.  Their favorite name was "Bite Me,"  a stand that sold bite sized cheesecakes.  They were intrigues by "Ramen Burger,"  a burger stand that used ramen noodles instead of buns.  They ended up getting smoked ribs from a Jamaican food stand while I got chicken and and waffles from "The Buttermilk Channel NYC."   The last weekend to visit Smorgasburg is that of Novemeber 23+24.

If you are feeling more Halloweeny, get thee to the Pumpkin Garden at the New York Botanical Garden in Brooklyn.  If you can't go this week  there will be a repeat next week where they will even have celebrity pumpkin carver Ray Villafane there carving pumpkins!  

This weekend there will also be free admission to the Edgar Allan Poe Cottage.  Why not check out a former haunt of this spooky poet who at times called New York his home?  Many say his ghost still visits the cottage, so you never know, you may encounter the supernatural!  

And if you don't feel like leaving Manhattan, you can go to the Little Red Light House Festival.  

And if you share my newfound passion for New York street art, go to the City Museum of New York and check out the Live Graffiti Art Demonstration.  

 ***

Images from Smorgasburg last weekend.

Bite Me cheesecakes

Ramen Burgers with Ramen buns.

My chicken and waffles.

Sticky rice in bamboo confections.


***

And on a slightly self promotional note, you can also see a production of Mozart's "Magic Flute" this weekend.  There are five different casts, my cast performs on Saturday, but all casts are wonderful.  It's being put on by Amore Opera which is a continuation of Tony Amato's Amato Opera.  Amato Opera was hailed as the "smallest grand opera company in the world."  Here is a fun backstage photo of myself playing Papagena and my Papageno.

Poe in NYC - a very brief account

Tonight I went to the Brooklyn Winery in Williamsburg to listen to fellow tour guides read Edgar Allan Poe stories.  I am woefully un-read when it comes to Poe, which has always given me a bit of an inferiority complex.  Tonight fixed that as guides read lively renditions of "The Tell-Tale Heart," "The Cask of Amontillado," and of course, "The Raven."  This all happened while I sipped a flight of locally harvested Riesling.

Why do New York Tour Guides love Poe so much?  Well, throughout his short life, Edgar Allan Poe continuously returned to New York City seeking prosperity in the publishing world.  He had hoped to find a welcoming community of artists and writers where he could thrive.  Sadly, Poe never found the immediate success he sought in New York, but its surroundings did inspire him to write works such as "The Cask of Amontillado."  It is also said that his ghost still comes and haunts the many dwellings he inhabited while living in New York City.  Perhaps his ghost is still seeking the recognition of his fellow artists that he sought so desperately during his lifetime.

If you want to seek out Poe's ghost - here is a list of places he lived within the five boroughs.

Places Poe lived in NYC:
1837: Sixth Avenue and Waverly Place
1837: 113 ½ Carmine Street
1844: 130 Greenwich Street
1844: West 84th St., btwn Amsterdam Ave. and Broadway
1845: 154 Greenwich St.
1845: 195 E. Broadway
1845: 85 Amity St. (later it was called 85 W. Third St.)
1846: East 47th Street near the East River in what is now Turtle Bay
1846: Poe Cottage, 2460 Grand Concourse and East Kingsbridge Rd., the 
Bronx

Or you could always just go to Il Buco on 47 Bond Street.  It is said that Poe's ghost haunts the basement of Il Buco.  Waiters will go down to the wine cellar and find corked bottles of wine completely empty!  The only explanation is a ghost came and got themselves a little drink.  During his lifetime, Poe used to frequent the wine cellar at 47 Bond Street, and it was in this very wine cellar that he was inspired to write "The Cask of Amontillado."

Matt Baker prepares to read Poe

Matt Baker reading "The Cask of Amontillado" 

Wine Casks filled with local wine at the Brooklyn Winery.

Me and Matt Baker celebrating an evening of Poe.