Tag Archives: BeLo3rd

Mr. Wonderful aka Santa Claus at Hudson’s Winter Walk

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Several weeks ago Mr. Wonderful, in a moment of irrational exuberance at a BeLo3rd meeting about Winter Walk, volunteered to be Santa Claus. The Tanzey girls immediately volunteered a Santa suit, assuring me that “my husband is bigger than you” in answer to the question, “Is the suit big enough”.

wig from Matthew Tudor-Jackson

The Santa outfit was inexplicably lacking a beard. A quick call on the local Web for help brought this offer from Matthew Tudor-Jackson up the street (left).

My first reaction was that this was something from a run amuck costume show for Louis XIV. On further consult with the fashionistas of BeLo3rd it was determined to be BeLo3rd!

So, I was ready for my outing as Santa for Winter Walk, December 3rd.

I dropped the big wig and just went with the ZZ Top length mustache beard combo.

Mark orton as SantaYou can see more pictures of this at the Davis Orton Gallery news page.

I was very busy with lots of little kids and not a few babies for three hours. I was amazed that the Santa myth continues merrily along despite the enormous seemingly every larger maw of commerce.

I discovered that kids in the 3 to 4 yr range know who Santa is but don’t know yet that they are supposed to tell Santa what they want for Christmas. I stopped asking and quickly moved the conversation to the imminent arrival of a candy cane. I guess that 3 and 4 yr olds are a blind spot in my life’s experiences.

7 to 10 yr olds wanted lots of electronic games and Ipod Touches (very specific about those). 11 to 12 yr olds wanted a phone. I foolishly asked the first few if they wanted a cellphone? They looked at me quizzically until I realized that they did not know that phones used to have wires coming out of them. What most surprised me is the persistence of some old toys. A significant number of 4 to 6 yr old girls asked for Barbie dolls and accessories. Only one girl requested an American Girl doll.  Their male counterparts asked for trains. Bicycles and scooters are also still popular.

One girl, age 12, (I asked each for their name and age) told me that she wanted a Merry Christmas for her family. I asked how many were in her family, “Two, Five, how many?” She thought for a moment and said “Forty”. “Oh, a merry Christmas for the extended family?” “Of course.” she replied.

 

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Taste of Hudson – great weather, great crowds, big success

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Belo3rd’s Taste of Hudson street extravaganza came and went today. The weather was great from beginning to end; lots of restaurants brought their offerings; and lots of people showed up to munch and graze. Here are a few photos of the event.

Tent frame

Tent frame at 8:45am

tent frame with roof

Roof goes on 9am

view from 3rd street

View from 3rd St.

Taste of Hudson ticket sales

BeLo3rd Bucks move briskly

Savoia food

Food work at Savoia's table

-sacred-heart church

Sacred Heart Church table with popular eggplant parmesan

musiciansWest Indies Natural Food

Tanzys Breakfast and Tea

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Hudson Pride Parade and Rally

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Most parades, like the Hudson Flag Day (6/12/10) (noted earlier here)are at best droll affairs with a somewhat cookie cutter format, content, and purpose. The Hudson Pride Parade, Rally and Tea Dance was quite different. It was a fun event. Along with the recent Prom King and Queen election at the high school (reported on here in the Register Star) it is clearly a marker of a maturing public acceptance and engagement with a wider range of people as they are, not as some might wish or imagine them to be. Davis orton Gallery with Pride Day flag

We were a sponsor of this event through the gallery. And so we had our Hudson Pride flag out along with our usual BeLo3rd Open flag.

Karen was not available to take pictures and make movies, so you have to settle for my photographic efforts.

The parade was notable for its many groups of people with simple banners, paucity of floats, and almost complete avoidance of the usual herds of fire trucks and rescue vehicles. I admit to only being surprised at the large contingent from the Capital Area Pride Bowlers.Pride Day - County DemocratsHudson pride Day - Capital Region bowlersHudson Pride day - marchers-tot-in-carHudson pride Day - crowd at Promenande Hill

I particularly liked the crowd that gathered at the end of Warren and up onto Promenade Hill. Right size space and right size crowd. Still in Hudson instead of visually cut off down in Henry Hudson Park.

You should visit the website for the event, HudsonPride.com, and note the endless list of sponsors.

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Hudson’s 13th Annual Winter Walk – a review

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120509-fireworks

Fireworks begin - 114 Warren to extreme right of photo.

Yesterday was Hudson’s 13th annual Winter Walk, a three hour event up and down Warren St.

Our BeLo3rd business group made a number of efforts to attract the crowds down the street. For the first time Warren St. was car free its entire length. The parade started at Front St., instead of Third St. Merchant windows below Third featured special custom window displays by local artists following the 12 Nights of Christmas theme. Music was offered in one gallery and the wine bar. BeLo3rd even bought radio advertisements in the two weeks leading up to the event. One idea seemed compelling but turned out to be a complete flop, lining both sides of the street with candles on the curbs in white paper bags. Unfortunately between the snow and the ambient light, the effect was less than underwhelming. But, all these efforts to move people to visit the bottom third of Warren could not overcome the inertia of thirteen years in which nothing happened below Third. My theory is that next year we will save the  money spent of the radio ads and hire a noisy rock band to play at Warren and Front St., at the very bottom of the street. Build in a little light show and and all of this ruckus will surely brings the mobs to our end of the street.

Still, we had a good time on Winter Walk night. We had a few interesting folks show up and our visitors from Cambridge thought the whole event was fun.

Polar Bear and Ginger Bread men - unrelated - visit the Gallery

Polar Bear and Ginger Bread men - unrelated - visit the Gallery



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