It's a rainy Sunday and I'm doing nothing all day. I'm going to see "Hamlet" in Central Park tonight so I'm hoping the rain ends.
I went to the Mermaid Parade in Coney Island yesterday. It's really fun. It's such a freakshow. It's one of those things that can only exist in Coney Island and New Orleans. Which is why I love those two places so much.
I had never been to the parade but I know a girl who was gonna be in it. She's a burlesque dancer and I heard the parade was basically topless girls and dancing freaks. Great, right? Welll.... It was hot as fuck and packed shoulder to shoulder. The parade was full mostly of gay men dressed as sailors or mermaids. Gay men LOVE to be in a parade, don't they? My god. They can't get enough of it. And God bless-em for that.
They also love to be mostly naked. I saw a lot of man ass at the Mermaid Parade. I came home and I looked for mermaids online. I saw no man ass. I saw no hairy backs. I saw no chaps. Somehow these all got into the parade. Clearly I'm missing something.
As for the topless girls, well they were mostly over 50. Or 40. And had as many teeth as boobs. But God bless them too. Seriously. I still had lots of fun. Coney Island is amazing.
But this is something I loved: I'm watching the floats go by and the float for Brooklyn Brewery Beer stops in front of me. Coincidentally my friends had gone to get beer so I'm by myself and next to me is a couple who knew one of the girls on the Beer float. So this woman is waving frantically at the float. And the girl (who I guesses to be her daughter) spots the woman and waves back, frantically as well. They're maybe 15 feet apart yelling "HI!" And waving at each other. And the float is stopped so that's all they're doing. The woman waves. The girl waves back. The woman waves again. The girl waves back. And they were SO HAPPY about this they could barely contain themselves. And I was thinking that these two people probably see each other every day, yet here they were waving frantically at each other just cause one was in the parade. I like that. Because I was doing the same thing. I was standing around in the sun shoulder to shoulder with a pack of sweaty people only to watch OTHER sweaty people walk by. Isn't that kinda odd? But that's what we do. Something about us makes us stop what we're doing and watch someone else whenever they put on makeup or get on a stage or something like that. Put someone in a mask or a costume and we look to them to be transported somehow. It's like we expect performers have the key to some sort of grace that's normally missing from life. It's ridiculous to expect that from art of any kind, except sometimes art delivers. That's the magical thing about it. That's why I'm gonna go see "Hamlet" tonight. It's the best we've yet to come up with as a species.
Anyway it's what the Mermaid Parade made me think about.
And special thanks to Lexie for her inspiration.
I went to the Mermaid Parade in Coney Island yesterday. It's really fun. It's such a freakshow. It's one of those things that can only exist in Coney Island and New Orleans. Which is why I love those two places so much.
I had never been to the parade but I know a girl who was gonna be in it. She's a burlesque dancer and I heard the parade was basically topless girls and dancing freaks. Great, right? Welll.... It was hot as fuck and packed shoulder to shoulder. The parade was full mostly of gay men dressed as sailors or mermaids. Gay men LOVE to be in a parade, don't they? My god. They can't get enough of it. And God bless-em for that.
They also love to be mostly naked. I saw a lot of man ass at the Mermaid Parade. I came home and I looked for mermaids online. I saw no man ass. I saw no hairy backs. I saw no chaps. Somehow these all got into the parade. Clearly I'm missing something.
As for the topless girls, well they were mostly over 50. Or 40. And had as many teeth as boobs. But God bless them too. Seriously. I still had lots of fun. Coney Island is amazing.
But this is something I loved: I'm watching the floats go by and the float for Brooklyn Brewery Beer stops in front of me. Coincidentally my friends had gone to get beer so I'm by myself and next to me is a couple who knew one of the girls on the Beer float. So this woman is waving frantically at the float. And the girl (who I guesses to be her daughter) spots the woman and waves back, frantically as well. They're maybe 15 feet apart yelling "HI!" And waving at each other. And the float is stopped so that's all they're doing. The woman waves. The girl waves back. The woman waves again. The girl waves back. And they were SO HAPPY about this they could barely contain themselves. And I was thinking that these two people probably see each other every day, yet here they were waving frantically at each other just cause one was in the parade. I like that. Because I was doing the same thing. I was standing around in the sun shoulder to shoulder with a pack of sweaty people only to watch OTHER sweaty people walk by. Isn't that kinda odd? But that's what we do. Something about us makes us stop what we're doing and watch someone else whenever they put on makeup or get on a stage or something like that. Put someone in a mask or a costume and we look to them to be transported somehow. It's like we expect performers have the key to some sort of grace that's normally missing from life. It's ridiculous to expect that from art of any kind, except sometimes art delivers. That's the magical thing about it. That's why I'm gonna go see "Hamlet" tonight. It's the best we've yet to come up with as a species.
Anyway it's what the Mermaid Parade made me think about.
And special thanks to Lexie for her inspiration.
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xoxo