According to the West Indian American Day Carnival Association website, this is the largest summer festival in the United States, with over 2 million attending. Brooklyn has a huge West Indian population, so it not surprising that the Caribbean carnival takes place there. Now it in its 40th year, the event culminates on Labor Day with a parade along 15 blocks of Eastern Parkway from Utica Ave. to Grand Army Plaza (read about the parade’s history here). There are a series of events leading up to the Labor Day extravaganza, such as Dimanche Gras, which features a costume competition.

This festival/carnival is about food, music, costumes, and the parade. There’s lots of food on both sides of Eastern Parkway for the entire length of the parade route, with barbecuing and tell-tale smoke everywhere. Eastern Parkway is a beautiful, wide, tree-lined boulevard (also home to the Brooklyn Museum). The food is authentic West Indian cuisine, spanning the range represented by the various island nations, with specialties such as jerk chicken, oxtail, macaroni pie, fried flying fish, curry goat, roti, callaloo, souse, salt fish, fried bake, and coconut bread. The music was very loud, from the parade floats, vendors, and the spectators. The festival officially runs from 8AM to 6 PM. Unfortunately, I did not stay long enough to see the best costumes, judging from last year’s photos.

Note: that’s red velvet cake in the lower right photo…

The Spiegeltent is a traveling European mirror tent. These are hand-hewn pavilions built of wood, mirrors, canvas, leaded glass, and detailed in velvet and brocade. They have been used as traveling dance halls, bars, and entertainment salons since they were created in the early 20th century in Belgium. One of the last remaining Belgian Spiegeltents is The Famous Spiegeltent, which travels around the world to various venues, such as the Edinburgh Fringe, the Melbourne International Arts Festival, the Belfast Festival at Queen’s, and Just for Laughs in Montreal, Canada. The Famous Spiegeltent was built in 1920 by master craftsmen Oscar Mols Dom and Loius Goor. Marlene Dietrich sang “Falling In Love Again” on its stage in the 1930s.

There are only a few remaining spiegeltents worldwide at this time (one of the largest is the Grand Spiegeltent). The one in the photo is located at South Street Seaport as part of Spiegelworld. In tomorrow’s posting, I will tell of the spectacular shows I saw there with exterior shots of the tent and the environment they have created…

This photo is from the demonstration in Union Square on Friday, July 27, which was sponsored by Picture New York, accompanied by the Rude Mechanical Orchestra, Critical Mass bike riders, and Reverend Billy and his Stop Shopping Gospel Choir. Click here for a photo of a demonstrator who was brandishing quite the T-shirt.

As I wrote in the posting on Reverend Billy, there is pending legislation proposed by the Mayor’s Office of Theater, Film, and Broadcasting that would require a permit for photography and videography in New York City. Permits and $1 million in liability insurance would be needed for a group of two or more people who want to use a camera in a single public location for more than 30 minutes, as well as for a group of five or more people who would be using a tripod for more than ten minutes. According to a New York Times article, although officials have indicated that the rules are not intended to apply to amateurs or tourists, there is nothing in the proposed ruling that specifically exempts them. The fear is that this could lead to discriminatory enforcement.

Many demonstrators were brandishing cardboard props modeled after a 16-millimeter Bolex camera (see here). And in an interesting sidebar, this guy was arrested for riding his bike on the flag (click here). NOTE: The city is accepting public feedback until August 3…

I imagine by now that most have heard of the release of the 7th Harry Potter book. There were events worldwide for this yesterday, with bookstores participating in numerous ways – contests, raffles, street parties, costuming, face painting, wand and potion making, performers, etc.. And the biggest fete of them all was the block party put on by the publisher, Scholastic, themselves. An entire city block was closed off to traffic – Mercer Street between Prince and Spring Streets in SoHo – with a huge banner that proclaimed it to be Harry Potter Place. The Scholastic building (click here for previous posting) runs through from Broadway to Mercer, so the street festival abutted their Mercer Street entrance – very convenient for this mega-promotional event.

There was a range of activities and performers – jugglers, stilt walkers – and the requisite countdown clock. There was a stand displaying a copy of each volume in the series, including the newest one, all under glass. People were in line for nearly three city blocks from early evening for the 12:01 AM (Saturday) release of the book. Waiting in line half of the day to buy a book (which will be easily purchased today, I am sure) seems like sheer lunacy to outsiders, but when it comes to cult phenomena, excessive behavior is to be expected. This event parallels the iPhone release, which I previously wrote about. Add to the mix the fact that this is essentially a children’s book, along with indulgent parents, and you really add some fuel to the fire. Ultimately, fun was had by all, and this event fills the desire many have to be part of something and make connections with others who share a passion…