i woke up this morning at 9am to go to the chinese new year parade happening in chinatown at 10:30am. i'd only gone twice before, back in 2019 and then again in 2020. 2020 was especially interesting, on the eve of the global pandemic, very few people were masking yet, but the chinese community was especially wary of an outbreak, so that year very few people showed up to the parade. that was great for phototaking because basically i had all of chinatown to myself.

i packed my 55-250mm telephoto and my 10-22mm wide angle. i filled my tumbler with hot black tea. i left around 9:30am. temperature was much like the past few days - hovering around freezing with a wind chill that made it felt like in the 20's. i wore my parka jacket and by the time i got to the longfellow bridge i was already sweltering underneath. the heavy jacket wasn't ideal for biking but i'd need it later when i started walking around in chinatown.

i parked my bike at phillips square on the top of harrison avenue, across the street from kaze shabu shabu. there was already a large crowd surrounding an erected platform, so i wasn't able to bike through and i didn't feel like going around.

the boston chinese new year parade is unusual in that it happens after chinese new year is already over, since it needs to be schedules on a sunday. and it's not so much a parade as a makeshift performance that's played up for visiting dignitaries and the press, and not really so much for the spectators, as there really isn't a good place to view it all. then what happens is various lion dancing troupes will go visiting the local businesses and do a little performance. supposedly this is to bring good fortune in the coming year, but it's really for these dance troupes to solicit money in the form of red envelopes. there's a lot of drumming and food tossing (oranges and cabbages) and firecrackers being lit. it's quite the sight if you've never seen it before, but in all the times i've lived in boston i've only been to the "parade" recently simply because it didn't seem all that interesting.

the past two times i came i got some good photo opps, so this is one of the earliest photo events for the new year. i decided my strategy would be to shoot with the telephoto lens and use my camera phone for wide angles. but i did switch lenses a few times, when i knew i'd be in a crowd and needed the wide angle to capture everything. but many of the better action photos i captured today were on my phone, because it's easy to hold it over a crowd, or between two people, and quickly toggle between photo or video. i realized much later i had my camera on the wrong setting: i was shooting aperture priority mode at f/8 but i forgot to bump up the ISO so instead had it on automatic. i ended up shooting mostly in lower ISO, which produced a lot of blurry photos. even someone like me who take a lot of photos can make mistakes!

it was much crowded than the last pandemic parade. i overheard a cop saying that in the 10 years he's been detailing the chinatown new year's celebration, this was actually the most crowded he's ever seen it. yes there were asians but surprisingly many of the people who came were non-asian. a lot of families too, parents with kids. the cool thing to do is to have the upper body strength to let your child sit on your shoulders otherwise there was no way they could see anything with the crowd.

the parade was pretty disorganized. dancing lion troupes would show up unexpectedly down one of the the streets, and a bit of the crowd would break off to watch them. then in the distance you'd hear firecrackers. after a few times, i decided to chasing after the firecrackers sound. that turned out to be the smart move, as that's where the action was, as the lion dancers solicit the various businesses for red envelopes.

terms of cameras, of course a lot of people were just taking photos/videos with their phones. i could see what they were shooting and a lot of them will be disappointed when they get home and see they just got a lot of heads. some people had their phones on selfie sticks, and i did see a few gopros mounted on extension poles. i didn't see any 360 cameras though, those would've been nice. there were also the dSLR shooters. there were a handful with the long cannon lenses. i also saw a lot of film cameras for some reason. that's a trend i've been noticing where people are reacting to the proliferation of digital by going analog with film. full metal body with manual focus lenses. i even saw somebody pulling out a rollei medium format. why you'd waste such expensive film stock on a janky parade is a mystery. finally i saw someone pull out a mini 3 drone from a bag but i did see where he was launching from.

i'm starting to wonder if i have the kind of face that makes strangers come up and ask me things. 3 different people did that today. 2 girls who asked me what was going on. i filled them in on the details, said they could just wander around if they wanted to see the lion dancers. one of the girls told me she used to live in san francisco and they had a bonafide parade there. then an older guy approached me randomly, started introducing himself. he asked if i was a street photographer, and asked if i wanted to join his photo collective. i listened to his pitch politely (he kept bringing up how he was waiting for some government grant to fund his art project), but i had zero interest giving away my photos for free.

i got there around 10am and finally left by 11:30am. my feet were hurting from standing out in the cold for so long. my time in chinatown wasn't completely over however, i still needed to ride down to ming's market to get some supplies. it's one of the greatest local ironies that there are no longer any decent asian supermarkets in chinatown proper, and the only ones left are on the outskirts (with c-mart on the chopping block due to developer greed).

ming's market wasn't too crowded. that time my father and i came must've been when several shuttlebuses of seniors got dropped off at the same time. it was also right before chinese new year, so buying was at a fever pitch. i got some bokchoi, chinese cabbage, garlic, and baby cucumbers.

i finally left chinatown around noontime, took me half an hour to bike home. instead of getting onto the esplanade then meandering back onto longfellow bridge, i took a slightly scenic route, going back through chinatown proper, then cutting through downtown crossing and the financial district to get onto cambridge street heading back to cambridge.

it was 12:40pm before i got back, my t-shirt completely soaked in sweat. i stripped out of my clothes and took a shower before getting dressed again and leaving for belmont by 1pm. i had to stop at the cafe briefly because my sister didn't put away the tea eggs and leftover rice in the fridge. i also dropped off the chinatown produce i got.

it was late enough that when i finally got to belmont, my mother suggested i just snack until dinner, as there wasn't anything really to eat in the house.

i asked my mother for a haircut. i can't remember the last time i had it cut, must've been during the spring. it was starting to get long enough that i could tie it up in a bun. the new haircut isn't anything special or stylish, just short.

my sister showed up with esmei in the late afternoon, before heading to decordova museum. i don't know why they go so late, the outdoor museum closes at 4pm, and getting there by the late afternoon means less sun and colder temperature. i threw a stick with esmei in the backyard. she also bit me a few times on my leg, just little nips, but a few times she actually hit hard. i think because she hasn't been able to play with other dogs because she's still in heat has made her play a little rough with her human caretakers.

my parents are leaving tomorrow morning, so i watered the plants in the basement grow room today instead of monday so i wouldn't have to come back tomorrow. i started by first taking the two jasmines and osmanthus from my father's bedroom and spraying them outside with 70% alcohol. they already seemed much improved since last weekend, and i didn't see any mealybugs other than a few wet spots, but i wanted to spray anyway as a preventative measure.

i then moved on to the basement plants. i did some spot treatment with alcohol, but i did have to take the right farthest corner jasmine outside and spray with alcohol as i noticed a clump of mealybugs. the flower spikes on the smallest orchid has started to produce actual flower buds. i did notice a few aphids on the spikes which i removed manually, but i'll need to keep an eye on the orchids to make sure they're aphid free.

my parents have been packing for weeks now but today they finally sealed up their 4 suitcases, wrapped them up with colorful straps to make them easier to identify.

while my father went to the accountant in arlington to get their tax returns before they leave for vacation, i drove to burger king to get some takeout for dinner. i have never seen an employee more than once: their turnover is so high, every time i come it's a completely new crew. there was a chatty hispanic man (colombian?) who spoke spanish to the cashier. i didn't even think the cashier was hispanic but he spoke spanish in return. the man took forever to order, like he was trying to create some kind of custom meal. he had a rambunctious daughter that kept running up to the cashier desk then running anyway. at one point a child was screaming in the dining area. this is how you know i don't have children, because i didn't even move, while the man craned his neck to see if it was his child making the noise.

i got back with the food order before my father came back. my mother and i both had a whopper along with some onion rings. she said she hated onion rings, though do admit they're probably less fatty than french fries. my father did eventually come back.

i pedaled home just in time to watch the NBA all-stars game. i immediately regretted getting my haircut earlier. unruly as my long hair was, it provided a bit of winter head insulation that was now gone. as for the game, it was mostly exhibition, not really that competitive. nobody played any defense, so the final score was 211-186, eastern won.

feeling kind of nervous tonight. my parents are coming to pick me up early tomorrow morning so i can go with them to the airport and drive the car back. i don't like driving to and from logan airport. this also marks the official beginning of their vacation, which means i have to work the cafe every day for the next month (actually, just 5 days a week, but more hours than i'm normally used to).