Coney Island and alumni weekend
Sam and I went to Coney Island several weeks ago to see his creative director, Fred (aka The Great Fredini), swallow swords at the Coney Island Circus Sideshow for Alumni Weekend. It was actually a pretty fun day and it was warm and sunny. I've been a bit behind in downloading all of my photos, not to mention that my USB ports are busted and I don't want to bother getting my cheapo computer fixed (probably a new motherboard).
Anyway, It was a pretty short ride to the Coney Island stop from my apartment and as we exited the station there was this cool mural across the street.
We stopped by Nathan's for lunch, but neither of us bothered to get a hot dog....instead, I got chicken strips and Sam got deep fried ocean platter.
Here's Tyler Fire (fire eater), Thrill Kill Jill (contortionist/sexpot), and Eak the Geek (tattoo man) persuading us to see the Sideshows by the Seashore. This is where we saw The Great Fredini swallow swords, as well as a guy eating lightbulbs, one of the original Oompa Loompas (Jimmy), and the rest of the alumns.
Ahhh....the Wonder Wheel. We rode the non-swinging car since I just wanted a peaceful relaxing ride. We got some views of the beach and surrounding neighborhood...the beach looked ok (i don't know if i'd swim in the water) and the area was very...GRITTY. It had it's charm though....I am a bit of a fan of crumbling brick facades, old warehouse buildings, factory machinery, and general urban decay. I guess I feel uncomfortable when all of my surroundings are so damn new. Must be why I love mountains since they've been around forever. But I digress...
The last ride of the day, the Cyclone, or ye olde rickety wooden roller coaster from ancient antiquity. So it's not that ancient and it's not a ride for your gramma either. It wasn't necessarily that the ride itself was scary...ok maybe it was a bit scary. But I think it was more fear of death by flying off the tracks during the tight sudden turns. And damn does that thing shake! It was fun and I survived....but barely. I got a huge bruise on my forearm from the lap bar.
All in all I had a fun time. I never got the chance to get my cotton candy, but there's always next time. Unless the next time I go it looks like this! Yowza....wtf? It's so commercializeds...and feels like Times Square or Vegas like the author mentions. I don't see why revitalizing Coney Island entails completely changing the character of it. Why does everything that's new have to be so damn neat and tidy? What's with the high rises too? And there's EEK again.....they keep popping up everywhere! Honestly, I'm still glad that I didn't accept a job there.
posted by archijeans @ 6:18 PM
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