Iguana lessons

so one of my favorite things to do in Aruba is to go to Queen Wilhelmina Park by the seaport and chase lagadishi (small lizards) and iquanas (iguanas in English) with my camera. I feel like the late great Crocodile Hunter trying to catch up to them. I have gotten some great shots, though.

These lizards walk around in the sun the same way our North American squirrels do in the USA.

I got an especially great shot of an older grey iguana (like humans, they turn grey as they age) in the manicured bushes outside the movie theater.

Here is someone else's photo of an Aruban iguana. This one is literally young and green:

http://www.mccullagh.org/image/d30-3/iguana-closeup.html

all the way up Hooiberg!

My brother-in-law's brother and I climbed up Hooiberg today. Hooiberg, which means "Haystack" in Dutch, is a mountain that sits in the center of Aruba and has 562 steps up the side of it to the top. It is 165m and 541 feet high (vertical).

So we climb all the way to the top and look all the way down to Aruba. Apparently, you can see Venezuela from up there.

Here is a picture of Hooiberg:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hooiberg

Bom bini (welcome)

so tonight my sister, niece and I attended the weekly Bom Bini festival. Bom bini means "welcome". This festival is held in the local historical museum by the seaport.

It was fun. The local dancers came out and did several different types of dances, with lots of costume changes. The wals (waltz?) was slower and nice, then the tumbas, which used the fast-paced dances featured in Carnival season in February. It was all a very good time!

In faaabulous Aruba

so yesterday, I flew down to the Carribbean island of Aruba, where my sister lives with her husband and child. Yes, people actually live there!!!

We haved been having a great time so far. I am even driving down here, which I like. More details to come ....

good super pals

At W. 37th Street and Broadway, at 6:30 pm, I saw 4 guys dressed as Superman, Batman, Mr. Incredible, and some Scottish guy, walking down the street, clapping their hands on each other's shoulders, like they were going to Happy Hour.

El magico -- Dios mio!

I was on the 6 train back from the photo shoot when a Spanish-speaking magician entered the train. He took his hat, showed us that it was empty, then tapped it with his wand, chanting 1,2,3.

He then released a white dove from the previously-empty hat into the air. It flew a foot, then turned back and landed on the magician's hand.

Everyone on the train clapped and paid the guy $1 each. The greatest show on earth, folks!

My first official shoot

I was cast in an ad for a major computer company today. I had to be in the Financial Distraict by 5 am (not a typo) to get in a trailer with 7 other multicultural models. And who would have guessed that one of the others was a member of the Y???? Considering we were selected out of thousands?

But all in all, I had a terrific time. The others, who are veterans of such things, say it could have all been pretty mean, but everyone from the photographer to the other models to the bus driver were cool, fun people. And we had catered breakfast and lunch, which was delicious!

I was paid $1500 for basically 45 minutes of actual work. The other time, I hung out in the trailer as we drove from shoots in the Financial District to outside Grand Central Terminal to Yonkers, NY to White Plains, NY. I got released at 3:30p.

I really like this work!

Not a donation

I live near Astoria Funeral Home and, early in the morning a few weeks ago, somebody was sleeping on its steps, wrapped in a sheet. I was really horrified, thinking someone had just dumped a body there, and thought it was strange that they had not taken him/her to the emergency room of Mt. Sinai of Queens directly across the street.

I had the hospital security guard go with me to make sure the guy was alive. He was. WHEW!

Rubik's redux

I always have hated Rubik's Cube, that cube of colors that I could never get all 6 sides perfect. Each side had to be all one color, and you twisted and turned that the blocks to do so. I don’t know anyone in real life in the 1980s who managed it. Rubik’s Cube nearly drove me insane 20 years ago.

So today on the 7 train, I hear some annoying constant clicking sound and look up to see some guy working a Rubik’s Cube! All these memories come unrepressed. And I don’t know if I am more annoyed that he is working the cube or that he seems to be (almost) successful. Grrrr.