Mermaids on Parade

Remember aaaaalllll the way back in 2009 when I wrote about Coney Island mermaids sloshing through a mid-June rainstorm and made a promise to never neglect my poor blog again?

Well, it's been a whole year and another 90 posts, which means it's time for more Coney Island mermaids!
This year the sun was shining oh so bright, but I didn't get sunburned because I stuck myself like a little lamprey to people with huge umbrellas, staying shady and protected from large predators. I actually hung around for the whole parade this time, even venturing up to the boardwalk to put up posters for the Village Voice's Siren Music Festival (July 17th, 10th annual, and boy was my mouth tired of saying that after a couple of hours). I ended up hopping the barricade because I got stuck in a tight crowd where I couldn't breathe, and some guy walked way too close to me wearing a huge, live snake, and some other guy spilled beer on me, and two OTHER guys started to fight, and I smelled vomit--anyway, I got all panicky and shoved my way into the parade. I figured that if any cops questioned me, I would tell them that I was with the Village Voice and I was taking picture, both true statements, albeit unrelated. That's how I got this killer shot of these topless women. I was wearing a skirt with reef fishes all over it, so at least I was in theme, and I've learned that if you just walk with confidence wherever you go, no one bothers you. And it's a good thing I jumped into the parade when I did, because just as I cleared the barricade, two cops ran passed me to break up the fight that was brewing where I'd just been trapped.

One more picture for today, and later I'll post a link to my Flickr account so you can see all of the pictures from Coney Island's 2010 Mermaid Parade.

Brass band in a glass box

Apparently November 30th is a holiday: Winter's Eve, according to Lincoln Center and the Apple Corporation. I enjoy holidays and celebrations of most kinds: Arbor Day, May Day, Emancipation Day, Summer Solstice, National Mustard Day--I'll get behind any excuse for a parade and a party. It's in my blood. The City and County of Honolulu once said that they were going to put a cap on the number of parades going through Waikiki because "81 a year is excessive." Eighty-one parades a year? Sweet Santabot, that's more than one parade per week! Over a thousand hours of lion-power a month (estimates may vary)!


New York City seems to have a similar problem. They even have a hotline you can call during the summertime to find out if somewhere, at some time during the day, there's going to be a parade. On our last episode, I spoke of my avoidance of the Big Big Apple Events like St. Patrick's Day and New Years Eve, but I neglected to mention my delight in the Small Big Apple Events: Turkish Independence Day, the Brooklyn Book Festival, the Mermaid Parade, and the New York Anime Festival (small by NYC standards and definitely not mainstream).



Winter's Eve falls into this latter category. I suspect Lincoln Center made up this holiday, though like Cabbage Night in New Jersey, it might just be new to me. That's okay. I got to see the oddly specifically named New York Philharmonic Principal Brass Quintet perform a free concert in the gleaming glass box that is the Apple Store. And they didn't just phone it in either, they played for a solid hour. I thought the tuba player was wearing blush--turns out playing tuba for an hour without stopping will put a glow in a man's cheeks. After leaving the Apple store and it's red-shirted employees, I followed the sound of rhythm and caught a bit of a killer drumline performance by some very nice(looking) young men.

Winter's Eve: next year, I'll leave out shave ice and holly for the Frost Elves in hopes of good tidings and attractive drummers for the coming season.