Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Coney Island Mermaids

Here are just a few pics from the Mermaid Parade at Coney Island this last weekend...

Mermaid Parade

Do you think she's ordering calamari??
Mermaid Parade

My personal fave...
Mermaid Parade

Mermaid Parade

Mermaid Parade

You can see more photos here.

And a farewell to Ruby's...I really don't know if I'll be back this summer before they (and all the other Coney Island boardwalk businesses) are put out to sea.  This is how I'd like to remember it.



YouTube link.

8 comments:

  1. Great photos and video! How sad that both Mars Bar and the Boardwalk at Coney Island are disappearing in the same year.

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  2. Thanks, Marty.

    I admit I didn't put much pep into this post as I wasn't really feeling it. Coney has been dying a slow death, which has been depressing, and now we're watching so much of the EV disappear. It all seems to be happening at once and so quickly. I hope the Mermaid Parade goes on, but part of me never wants to go back to Coney as I want to remember it the way it was - alive, wild, crazy, fun, outrageous, grimy and covered in hot dog grease.

    Ruby's also has the BEST jukebox around. I really should make a list of everything that's on it.

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  3. i feel what you're saying. i haven't had the heart yet to go out this year.

    (an aside: my verification word for this comment is "relevasm." somewhat provocative--define?)

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  4. I went out at the very beginning of the season - beautiful, but melancholy. As ever, brilliant photographs, Goggla!

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  5. When they took the batting cages down, I vowed that I was done with Coney forever. On Father's Day my dad asked to go to a Cyclones game this summer, so I'm gonna have to break my vow; I'm not much of a photographer, but maybe I'll bring my camera and take some photos of the body before it is completely underground.

    Anyhow, glad I found your site - they are wonderful photos/video.

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  6. @JAZ - I have to say, Cyclones games are fun. The stadium is small, you can see the parachute drop, smell the ocean, hear the screams from the Cyclone...it's a great way to spend the afternoon, even without being a baseball fan.

    But, yeah, the rest of CI is hard to take, especially without my favorite, Shoot The Freak.

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  7. Yeah, I just loved Shoot The Freak, even though I never shot him myself. Just the non-stop soliciting coming from that spot "shoot the freak - shoot him in his f**king head", combined with all that graffiti - it was just such a New York thing.

    Now I am feeling really nostalgic about Coney - as a little kid I remeber there was a space where they had these little square scooters with bumpers around the side that you'd sit on and just bounce off of other kids.

    Half tempted to head down to Nathan's after work - if only noticing everything missing (like the demolished old bank building)wasn't so deflating.

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  8. I was not born in NYC, but I knew about Coney Island before I ever saw it. My first time there, I was blown away by 1. the crowds of people on the beach and 2. Shoot The Freak. I'd never seen anything like it anywhere -ever - and I found it horrifyingly delightful. That's the CI/NYC I love and will miss.

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