21 posts from June 2008

I couldn't resist this one.  I submitted, we'll see...

...aka Guido Fest 2008 as a I lovingly refer to it. 

The Feast of St. Anthony Abate comes to Astoria once a year and throws me back to the carnivals that would set up shop in the Biscayne Mall parking lot back home a couple of times a year.   But this type of street fair can only be found here.  They are truly unique.  Incredible food, crazy girl drinks served in novelty glasses, crappy rides, rigged games with carnies yelling "hey pretty lady" every two minutes pacing in front of their obviously off brand prizes, tents pumping out Italian pop music, bizarre merchandise, a stage set up with random Italian performers crooning away...the list goes on and on.  I'll try to let the pics speak for themselves. 

I'm pretty sure the feast is a fund raiser for a local Catholic Church based on the strips of money hanging off of the statue of St. Anthony which gets paraded down the street on the last day of the festival...I think it's kind of funny I've lived here for over 6 years and I've never bothered to find out exactly what this little shin dig is...I just want me some Sausage and Peppers, Zeppole and Lemonade!!  I opted for the chocolate covered marsh mellows tonight instead of the very evil fried oreos.  Mmmmm...fried oreos.  *wanders off for a bit*  OK, I'm back.   Then I grabbed a sausage and pepper sammich to go and  devoured it as soon as I got home.

Without further ado, I present to you a very special slice of NYC.

Share a song you listened to in 6th grade.

Couldn't pick just one.  These two were my faves.

In my experience growing up in the Midwest, the only sorts of Graduation ceremonies that exist are for High School and College, all levels of degrees. 

But in the greater New York area (and I say that because I'm pretty sure some people in NJ, Long Island and upstate do this as well and for all I know it's even more spread out than that) there is a graduation for every level of school you move up to.

The end of:
Kindergarten
Elementary
Middle or Jr. High
and of course...
High School

So what's the big deal?  Why on earth is it considered "Graduation" when you are still within the K-12 realm? 

Education is a very special thing, no doubt.  Children deserve praise for doing well and continuing on in school.  But coming from the perspective of someone who did not grow up with these traditions and certainly does not miss it, this almost seems like a waste of everyone's resources.  Now I admit, I don't have numbers here or stats, I just know that all of the parents in my office talk about these ceremonies because they have to take off work and seem to think that it is the norm.  I don't know how common this is or if all schools are the same or what.  But what I DO know is that our schools are suffering badly in this city and I don't think there is much time for morale boosting and ambiguous goal setting, which is the only thing I can think of to justify these graduation ceremonies.  "Learn your ABC's Susie, you don't want to be the only kid who cannot go to Kindergarten graduation do you?"  If this concept of kinder/primary/secondary graduation is somehow supposed to be helping our kids realize the importance of education  in the long run, it certainly isn't working considering our embarrassingly low High School graduation rates.

Money for caps and gowns which parents may have to pay for (yes, even for Kindergarten - I've seen pictures), "diplomas", the ceremony itself, parents having to take time off of work, no doubt some people feel obligated to throw parties...etc.  I don't get it.  The type of morale boosting and praise our kids need should come from good books, different learning options and decent class sizes - not to mention HOME.  This is what should be given to them in the first place. 

So my question to you, out of curiosity, gentle neighbors, is:  Did you grow up with graduation ceremonies for other levels of school other than high school?  Was this considered the norm and had it been going on for years?  And of course a lot of you are parents - what do you think of this? 

If you're a fan of the show, check it out:

Blogging So You Think You Can Dance

Enjoy!

Maah!!!!

George Carlin passed away.  Story here.

This SUCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Maybe people will stop sending out email forwards claiming he wrote them.  That must've been so annoying for him.

Bless you, you raunchy, brilliant, sweet man.   You will go down in history as having one of the sharpest minds and tongues, never afraid to say what you mean and never afraid to LAUGH.

Thank you for everything.

My parents went to Lupus, MO this last weekend for a music fest/party.  Lupus was a home away from home for me (still is, pretty much) up until I moved to New York.  It was severely damaged in the flood of '93 - every single house had water.  And now, with help from the government, every house is built way up off the ground, like so.  It's sort of hard to tell in this pic but I would guess that our friend's house is 15 ft off the ground:

Lupus is located right on the Missouri River.  It's an old town with a population of about 29 people.  It's an old hippie and artist settlement though a few residents are sort of there for their own thing and have been there forever.  Anyway, we have many friends who call Lupus a second home as well.  I've spent a lot of time there, my last trip being in April of 2006:

So you see that I'm on a river Bluff right?  The drop behind me is approximately 50 ft [ED - mom corrected me, it's 15-20 ft] down and the banks across the river show that waters are at an average level.

Well, this is what it look like as of last weekend:

Yeah, that boat is floating.

And yes that structure is floating and is likely anchored...I don't know the story here, I've never seen this before I don't think....

I love this shot above...I've never seen the water that high in person before (since '93 that is).

This bench sits right around where I was standing in the pic of me above.  It's crazy how close the water is seeping up into the grass and flowers...And those trees across the way are blessed, magical.  This is nuthin' to them, they survived '93!

And now a song from the very precious Bob Dyer who passed away last year.  It was tragic and too soon.  He was a living legend.  He was one of my parent's oldest friends and an absolutely genius song writer.  He's the reason I love folk music.  I remember dancing around with my little hippie kid friends at his concerts in Lupus and Booneville, MO. as a young, young girl.  This song was inspired by the flood of '93.  My fave lyrics:

Could you imagine?  (I know Hubbicula can, he's been there!!)  Kabul, Afghanistan at 5PM in the shade.

And as Greg pointed out: Wait 'til I send you the picture of another thermometer in direct sunlight!  And remember, Kabul is 6,000+ feet above sea level.  If it's 100 degrees that high up, imagine what it's like in the nearby lowlands.

Photo courtesy of Sgt. Greg Papadatos, National Guard Medic

Courtesy of the lovely Concetta Smith...This is Adam and I this last winter on the East River at Gantry Plaza State Park in Long Island City.