6/22/2008

Mermaid Parade 2008

This seahorse squirted water (look closely!)!

Another year and another Mermaid Parade has marched down Surf Avenue. You KNOW I went! I started out on the boardwalk, even though it was quite packed it was eerily quiet, it was like a silent parade, it was strange, I didn't like it. So with great difficulty I made back to Surf Avenue where it was more lively. I just love listening to parade M.C Chris T's running commentary. I salute you Chris on your ability to maintain entertaining witty banter for over 2 hours! Did you know that Chris was in lengendary early 80's NY hardcore punk band The Nihilistics? They had a local smash hit that all the kids were dancing to called "Kill Yourself". It was also rumoured (and it might of been true) that they all worked in a graveyard. Later Chris was in controversial lower east side "noise" band Missing Foundation. Does anybody remember those upside down cocktail glass looking graffiti that were all over town? I think all those building eventually lost their foundations and have been replace by "luxury" condos. Something that MUST NOT HAPPEN TO CONEY ISLAND AS WELL! There is a lot of rock and roll history in the mermaid parade that many may not be aware of, the early ones were MUCH LESS family oriented, there was WAY more nudity and way less children. I even saw that guy Chet who has been in the parade since the early days and who used to do performancy stuff with that other NY scum rock band Alice Donut walking down Surf Avenue in a diaper. Lookin' good Chet!

So my camera lost it's juice but I got a few shots in. Zombie Mermaid!Best seat in da house!Pirate Girl
I later chatted with this pirate girl at the new Freak Bar which is open even though it is underconstruction. It's nice and spacious, can't wait to see the finished results! I took a bunch of photos of her with my 35mm FILM camera of which I have to HAND DEVELOP the film in a DARKROOM! I HOPE TO GOD they come out! This is my way of telling you that F.I.B has started grad school. I'm gonna be an art teacher! I actually have already started teaching and I love it. So I have a feeling the blog posts will be even less frequent than they have lately, but then again, maybe not.

Check out some of these sites for excellent parade photos:
Forgotten New York
The Kingston Lounge
Brit in Brooklyn

3 comments:

Richard Nickel, Jr. said...

Wish we'd known you were going out there; we could have all met up! The parade was a blast!

KBBKTproductions said...

one time at a parade i got to drive the float it was awesome. make sure to check out my blog and thier links

Anonymous said...

I was at the Mermaid Parade ... and while I enjoyed the sights, it didn't have the same ambience as the Halloween Parade. (Maybe it's because you have to pay to participate, or perhaps the parade route is much shorter.) Anyway, I'd hate to see Coney Island become gentrified ... but given what's happened to other neighborhoods in Brooklyn -- like Williamsburg, Red Hook, and even Bed-Stuy -- I'm not surprised by this latest turn of events.