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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 21, 2010 6:17:08 GMT
I have a friend in San Francisco, an extremely kind woman in her mid-sixties. As "the kid" in her small neighborhood, she is frequently roped into taking the elderly ladies to the casinos. They're quite demanding about it, & my friend has zero interest in going, but does it anyway.
When we lived on the boat, we tied up a couple of times at the Biloxi (Mississippi) marina, which was next to one of the casinos. As a non-gambler, I would watch in amazement as all these nice, wholesome-looking country people would arrive. They had the most avid looks on their faces!
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Post by hwinpp on Jan 21, 2010 6:52:04 GMT
Didn't even know there were casinos in the Bay area. Or are they in Indian reservations?
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 21, 2010 6:55:54 GMT
I don't know, HW -- she just talks about taking the old ladies to the casino.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 27, 2010 23:02:59 GMT
Every morning, in Miami ,this man man rode around and around the block outside the Cuban cafe where I had coffee, carrying on about,"Long Live Fidel Castro".No one gave a second glance to, so,apparently is very much part of the local color. I was hoping he had some leaflets from the 1960's to hand out.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 28, 2010 8:02:51 GMT
I'll bet if you'd been in Miami longer, you'd have accumulated tons of local color and characters pictures. Florida has those things in abundance.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 29, 2010 11:17:16 GMT
I'll bet if you'd been in Miami longer, you'd have accumulated tons of local color and characters pictures. Florida has those things in abundance. There were quite a few Bixa,you're right. I didn't always have my camera ready to catch them all. I saw this woman and her 'wares' all over the place,she got around real well.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 29, 2010 17:31:35 GMT
Wow. Is that a velvet dress? Do you know if she was selling the animals, or if they were her own?
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Post by Deleted on Jan 29, 2010 18:00:53 GMT
Oh, I am really going to have to track down my "Christmas tree lady" and get a shot of her in my neighborhood.
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Post by lagatta on Jan 29, 2010 18:52:13 GMT
Did any anti-Castro Cuban hardliners beat up the Castro fan on the lovely old bicycle?
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Post by Deleted on Jan 29, 2010 20:02:53 GMT
Yes,it was a velvet dress,and she is indeed selling the plush animals to the tourists along Ocean Drive. I saw her everywhere. The Castro loyalist on the fine old bicycle(my first thought too!)seemed quite at home in his surroundings and no one seemed to bother him that I could tell. (My husband,ever the conspiracy theorist that he is,when he saw the man on the bicycle said,"Maybe Oswald does live..."( :
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 29, 2010 20:13:17 GMT
*guffaw*
That was my thought, too! "Where are the pamphlets?"
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Post by Deleted on Jan 29, 2010 21:47:23 GMT
*guffaw* That was my thought, too! "Where are the pamphlets?" They are in his bike basket! Can't you see them? (Hint: They are RED)
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 30, 2010 3:34:14 GMT
I would like to spend enough time in south Florida to find out what is really the attitude of people from Cuba who settled in the US. That first exodus to Florida happened over 45 years ago, meaning that people who weren't even born then might now be grandparents. There's the popular image of all the native-born Cubans coming to the States and becoming successful businessmen and staunch Republicans, but is that anywhere near the truth?
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Post by rikita on Feb 2, 2010 21:43:07 GMT
here is a near-by street during a festival:
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Post by bixaorellana on Feb 2, 2010 23:07:47 GMT
Nifty, Rikita! What was the occasion?
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Post by Deleted on Feb 2, 2010 23:16:37 GMT
Rikita,is that your neighborhood? Looks like it could be here(NOLA) as well, during Jazz Fest or up on the river.
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Post by spindrift on Feb 3, 2010 0:00:19 GMT
This is a very interesting thread. I am loving it. Casimira - great pics of the old man and the old lady.
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Post by lola on Feb 3, 2010 15:34:36 GMT
Yes, me too, spindrift.
My hometown's Cuban Spanish teacher came to the US in maybe 1963 or so. She was from a wealthy family and hated Castro always. (When I visited her in her later years she told me how offended she had been when my mother expected her to help wash up after Thanksgiving dinner at our house; a pampered maiden to the end.) She didn't agree with the ongoing embargo, though.
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Post by rikita on Feb 3, 2010 23:41:26 GMT
it's not my direct neighbourhood (kiez, as we call it here, which just consists of a couple of blocks) but it is very nearby - about five or six blocks from where i live, right near my train station. the festival is called "karneval der kulturen" (carnival of cultures) and takes place every year during pentecost. afaik it started out as a small initiative by some immigrant groups (latin americans i think) but by now it is huge - hundreds of thousands of visitors, during the whole weekend, including monday, there are food stalls and drink stalls and other in an area a few train stops from here, with four stages for program and life music: one for european and asian music, one for african music, one for latin american music, and one for turkish and arabic music. on pentecost sunday there is a big parade (with over 100 groups) from the place where that picture was taken to the place where the festival site is. so there are groups from lots of different countries, and each year a jury decides which group is best and gets to go at the head of the parade next year... here some more pcitures from the parade, if that's okay (that is, mainly i took them before the parade started when the groups were getting ready, as it is easier to get close to them then) : Ok, I guess I should stop, I have so many more and a hard time deciding which ones to post, but I guess it is getting a bit too many, maybe later I will post more...
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Post by Deleted on Feb 3, 2010 23:47:05 GMT
Wow, worthy of their very own thread Rikita,seriously,would love to see and hear more about this. Had no idea it was so huge,hundreds of thousands! I'm all up for more...fabulous. The origins of it being around Pentecost time and with so many varied cultures involved is fascinating.
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Post by bixaorellana on Feb 4, 2010 1:47:53 GMT
Oh gosh, Rikita -- every single time I see your pictures, I marvel all over again at what a great photographer you are. They're all fantastic, but the first one belongs on the walls of a gallery.
Heavens yes -- if you feel like it, please make a whole thread for these beauties and expand it as much as you wish. I would love to hear more about this. It would be great to know what regions the different clothing represents, for instance, and anything you know about the people from those areas living in Berlin. Really, just looking at more pictures of that fabulous festival would be a huge treat.
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Post by lagatta on Feb 4, 2010 2:12:13 GMT
Wonderful, rikita!!!! Splendid, sensitive photos.
I didn't know the word "Kiez", only "Viertel" and "Bezirk" (larger still, corresponding to an "arrondissement" in French;district or borough in English).
Some of those lovely people are Southeast Asian; hwinpp will probably be able to identify them more precisely when morning dawns in Cambodia. (And in German too!)
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Post by lola on Feb 4, 2010 5:52:16 GMT
Those are great, rikita.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 4, 2010 6:19:32 GMT
Excellent photos, rikita. You really should start a special thread about this.
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Post by hwinpp on Feb 4, 2010 7:56:08 GMT
Interesting pics, Rikita. I used to love our Karneval der Kulturen in Hannover as well. It was a chance to try food from all over the world in one afternoon! Wonderful, rikita!!!! Splendid, sensitive photos. I didn't know the word "Kiez", only "Viertel" and "Bezirk" (larger still, corresponding to an "arrondissement" in French;district or borough in English). Some of those lovely people are Southeast Asian; hwinpp will probably be able to identify them more precisely when morning dawns in Cambodia. (And in German too!) LOL! Not all. Pic 3, hilltribes from Thailand or Laos, the lady on the right and the child in the middle are Akha/Ekaw (the dresses are anyway), the woman on the left and the lower child possibly Hmong, maybe Flowery Hmong as you have those in Thailand (though I'm not sure). Pic 4, mainstream Thai ladyboy dressing up as classical dancer. Pic 5, no idea. Could be a hilltribe from the north of Vietnam but really can't tell. They have some with huge turbans like that... Pic 6 Mongolians.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 4, 2010 8:25:36 GMT
I'm certain that some of them are Hmong.
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Post by rikita on Feb 5, 2010 2:49:04 GMT
picture 5 i think is mongolian too, as she was right next to the people in picture 6, so i think they were the same group...
okay, i will start a thread - though not today, kinda late. but will try to find out a bit about the history and all and post about it, along with photos...
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Post by bixaorellana on Feb 5, 2010 4:12:00 GMT
Consider yourself virtually carried around on the shoulders of grateful AnyPorters, Rikita!
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Post by hwinpp on Feb 5, 2010 10:01:04 GMT
Get started, Rikita!
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Post by suzanneschuelke on Feb 5, 2010 17:12:03 GMT
Ritika - I join the chorus - you are a wonderful photographer. One day while leaving in Al Ain we looked out our back door.
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