Like most years, I hit the West Indian Day Parade recently over Labor Day weekend. It was the usual mix of fantastic food, happy people, and good music. However, this year the parade seemed extra disorganized as it took literally an hour between the first and second bands passing our location on Eastern Parkway. (I’m sure the Tokyo Carnival has better scheduling!)

Oh well, I should remember to check it out again next year and hope it’s run a little better.

With the West Indian Day Parade in just a couple of days, it’s easy for my mind to linger on all things Caribbean. It’s such a great feeling to be able to go just a few blocks away and have such a mass of people from all over the West Indies, all the fantastic roti, all the great sorrel, all the ginger beer, all the maubi, all the music, all the colors, all the dancing and, of course, all the women in their tiny outfits jumping up to soca booming out of the flat bed mounted speakers in their bands.

What I didn’t know is that Japan also has it’s own fete! This one, called the Asakusa Samba Carnival, has a bit more of a twist… 99% of the participants are Japanese!! (Could you imagine if in New York they held the same thing will all the music, dancing, etc… except that 99% of the people were white?) Anyway, this is just another reason to go back to Japan. I simply would have to see this to believe it. Until then, these photos on Flickr and a video on CNN will have to do.

I have to remember to get over there next year!

(Photo by Olly Denton)

I went to St. John the weekend before last. This was the first time I had been back in my home of the USVI during “season” otherwise known as “when all the pale mainlanders come down.” Yeah, I thoroughly enjoyed my long weekend recharge, but I couldn’t help but feel like I shouldn’t be returning to places I’ve been when there’s a whole wide world out there to visit. So, I promised myself, no St. John trips for at least 2 years. (Though those direct flights to St. Thomas make them so easy!) Anyway, we’ll see how I do.

I need to remember to visit as many places as possible before I keel over or get too old or get a rug rat.

Last Thanksgiving I took a photo of a burning tire repair shop as it lit up the night sky and thrust huge flames over adjacent buildings. I thought this was a pretty cool photograph, so I posted it to Flickr.

Within 24 hours, Gothamist had run a story on the fire using my photo, The Brooklyn Papers contacted me for usage of the photo in their publication and the photo’s views shot up to around 150 views. Over the course of the next couple days, the views continued to rise and after about 4 days the photo slowly crested the 300 views mark. It took about a week for the views to stop coming in, leaving the photo at around 360 views.

In the months since then, it’s gotten around 15 views. Today, one of the better photos I feel like I’ve taken is hovering around 385 views.

Last weekend I posted another photograph, this one of a woman wearing a small bikini standing in front of a blurry sky and sailboat. I posted it because I liked it. I thought it was kind of a cool photo.

Within 5 minutes the views were at 25. Within an hour they were in the 80’s. A day later it was at 245 views! Two days later it was at 365 views! (A feet it took the fire photo about a week to accomplish.) Now, 3 days later, the photo has 426 views!

When I first started to notice the rapid rise in views, I thought about taking the photo down, but decided I was being silly because upon closer inspection, there was nothing lewd or unsavory about the photo. It was just a small black bikini bottom and a hand and a boat and a sky. Of course, the old adage “sex sells” is true, but the attention paid to this unremarkable photo is astounding to me. I mean, what’s the big deal?

I need to remember to put bikinis in all advertising projects I work on…

I need to remember how great it is to head out to St. John for a long weekend. All it takes is leaving mid-afternoon Thursday, then coming back late Sunday to make months of work and aggravation disappear. The weather was fantastic as usual (although we did experience a Saturday afternoon shower), the food was excellent (mmmm…. roti from Sogo’s), the accommodations at Gallows Point were just as fantastic as I remembered from having stayed there before and best of all, the whole thing was easy.

Unfortunately, there was getting stuck as usual in Puerto Rico for a night because the airport there has simply the worst service of any I’ve ever been to… ever! But we did manage to make the most of a bad situation and enjoy a night in Old San Juan. I can’t wait until Jet Blue starts flying directly from New York to St. Thomas (something that should be starting soon). Then I can finally say goodbye to going through San Juan and American Eagle.

I should remember to frequent St. John and my new favorite beach!