Naturally Newport

Life in New England requires a very special relationship with nature. On the Navy Base, we have a large population of geese. In fact I would guess that between OCS and War College classes, the geese outnumber the humans here! The geese are lovely at first, and it's been fun to watch the babies hatch and grow this spring. There have been at least two rounds of goslings to experience. BUT, the geese POOP everywhere! Walking anywhere on base we all must keep an eye to the ground - you literally have to watch every step. Gross. At work we each have "clean-up" jobs that we take care of everyday, for example I clean the ladies locker room, third deck head, and the library. My friend Carlton has the honor of sweeping goose poop off the sidewalks around the property. It's the glamorous Navy! He also is the keeper of our fake Coyote, "Wiley" who is perched outside the band hall, supposedly to scare the geese away.
Here's how well that works: (phone camera)

Now that I have a car, another annoyance the geese bring is that they take over the road at times. One morning walking to work I took these pictures of the geese "roadhogging" as usual!

Plus one night a family of the geese came over to grill steaks at my place:
The other part nature I am getting to know in New England is the WEATHER. It can go from 82 degrees and pouring rain to 40 and dry in minutes. In Newport, even on the warmest days we have an onshore breeze similar to San Diego. But as you know thanks to George Clooney and his fellow fishermen, New England is host to some of the craziest storm systems in the country. Today we had flash thunderstorms, hail, and rainbows all along the horizon. It was scary and beautiful at the same time. I look forward to the colors of autumn and even the harsh, wet winter. I think my experience of Chicago winters will serfve me well this year! Here are a couple shots from my camera phone today - it was breathtaking!

(That's my cutie car in the middle)

Until next post, be well, and for goodness sakes don't be taking pictures on your phone while driving across bridges...!

The Dogs of Bunker Hill

Today NBNE marched in the Bunker Hill parade in the Charleston section of Boston, Mass. It is a long parade which winds up, down, and around the Bunker Hill memorial, lined with colorful row houses, gas lamps and green trees. Instead of marching "air clarinet" today, my Senior Chief had the brilliant idea of letting me take photos of the band instead. So I did, almost 300 pictures! While shooting the band, I started a side project of capturing the many dogs along the route, and found that to be much more enjoyable, so here is a little sample before posting them on my photos site.

And a couple of the band, I guess...
Go Celtics!!

Viva Puerto Rico!

Hello and welcome to my latest update!

This past weekend at Navy Band Northeast we had an exercise in parade EXTREMES. Let me explain. On Saturday we left Newport for Charleston Massachusetts, where we marched in a VFW parade through a corporate park. It was 90 degrees and humid, and there we were playing Anchors Aweigh while marching through the parking lots between various office buildings. There were about 12 people there to cheer us on.

Then, we drove straight down to New York City and checked into the Hotel Pennsylvania for the night. Some friends and I revisited an Irish pub that our band frequented during Fleet Week, and I enjoyed a festive round of strange and various drinks with friends. Meanwhile a heat wave was really settling in around Manhattan, and walking home to the hotel we knew the next day's parade might be a bit hot.

So, on Sunday morning we muster at 1000 to form up for the Annual Puerto Rican Day parade. The parade runs north up 5th Avenue, from 46th street to 91st, including the entire length of Central Park. It's a long one. And its 95 degrees and rising. We are wearing dress whites, that's long sleeve polyester, ladies and gentleman. I thought I was going to melt into the Subway grate and never be seen again.

If you have always wanted to experience Rio's Carnival, or Spain's Running of the Bulls, you may not have to travel so far -- a parallel experience is this Puerto Rican Parade. Over 2 million spectators and a few thousand participants converge on 5th Avenue every year to proudly and loudly celebrate the Puerto Rican community in New York. We were warned about rowdiness and violence, but the 2000 policemen and 5 miles of barricades insured our safety.

So we are staging our band and ready to join the mayhem at 1100. Not until 3:30 PM did we step off!! We had to wait almost 4 hours for our spot to open up in the parade, that's how big this thing is. Every Puerto Rican has some kind of noise maker, from whistles to air horns, to a super loud Latina scream, and they use them unabashedly. No disrespect of course, the culture is obviously passionate and excited to be from the Carribean island state, and that's cool with me. Here are some photos from the event, then I have more to share below.






Marching up 5th Avenue was actually really fantastic, despite the constant stream of sweat running down my spine. I imagined such a parade in 1945 for V-day, with sailors, soldiers and marines returning from Europe to a mayhem of ticker tape and adoring women. Then when it got really hot I remembered how beautiful 5th Avenue is at Christmastime, with the giant illuminated snowflakes strung across the wide avenue, ice skating at Rockefeller, Christmas windows in the stores, and fresh snow on the ground. I will definitely be back in December to witness the magic this year!

So that was our two extremes in the art of performing a parade. It was a crazy weekend.

And... yesterday I bought this car! It's a Saab 9-3, and I think I'm in love with it. Be blessed.