It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood.....

Coney Island is difficult beast to write about aside from recollecting personal experiences from the 12 weeks chock-full of blurry, yet vivid experiences and adventures. Paragraph upon paragraph could be laboriously churned out chronicling it's long and storied history and unfortunate recent decline. A lot of shit has gone down on "Rabbit Island", political and otherwise. Our arrival and residency in Coney Island was purported to be an effort to aid in the revitalization of the rapidly declining neighborhood due in part to a particular real estate dude. There are far too many twists and turns to that particular story and it's already been summarized far better than I could manage even if I attempted to. If you're interested in getting somewhat up to speed, here's one article that sums up some of the drama up to our arrival:

New York Times Article from APR '09

They day after my soggy arrival onto the lot, B and I took a stroll down the boardwalk our first experience of the sights, sounds, tastes, and smells (for better or worse....or much worse in some cases) of Coney Island. A cast of "colorful" characters were scattered about the length of the Boardwalk: Old dudes meditatively stretching, huffing, and puffing on the guide rails, withered and wrinkled sunbathers; shirtless but still fuzzy gray sweater adorned; hobbling schizophrenics muttering to themselves between cacophonous outbursts at everything/everyone and nothing/no one at the simultaneously, gangster thugs sizing us up as we strolled past in case we should haplessly wander back the same way after nightfall, children and adults alike indulging in typical boardwalk cuisine, sporadic hipsters here and there desperately scanning the boardwalk for people who may be checking out how rad they were for hanging out in Coney (without LOOKING like they were doing that of course), and random.....well freaks shuffling about.

Next door to Cha Cha's (a bar I would come to know better as the summer wore on) was the 'Shoot The Freak' game. You pay for a certain number of paintballs, take aim at a dude in the playing field hiding behind a shield, and fire away. It's kind of like nailing the ball boy at the driving range "Pete and Pete 'Rangeboy'" style substituting paintballs for golf balls.



Eventually the already unique sights we had passed had transitioned to something much more Eastern European which marked our entering the Brighton Beach section of the boardwalk. A string of excellent looking Russian cafes unfortunately did not mix well with the copious amount of stomach churning SpeedoKings parading about which justified our hasty retreat back towards the lot.

The lot was stationed next door to an incredible piece of architecture and Coney Island history: The Child's Building.



As we approached our turn off the boardwalk back onto the lot, awesome 80s music could be heard seeping out of this Neptune adorned structure. Continuing to the front of the building the source of the rad sonic vibrations was revealed: The Dreamland Roller Rink.

The place was radness incarnate. Full roller rink, great tunes, and a Coney Island boutique all in one. Very cool t-shirt designs and various other knick-knacks.

I was lucky enough to meet the owner and designer, Dianna Carling (Lola Staar) and hear a bit of her amazing history and received my introduction to what had been happening in and to Coney Island and how the battle to save it had begun. She was quite an incredible person with regards to her creativity in her designs and passionate activism defending and supporting the saving of Coney Island. I recommend checking out the short film about her here:

Lola Staar's Dreamland

Click 'WATCH THE FILMS' then click on 'CONTINUE TO THE FILMS', and then on 'DREAMLAND'

And her boutique website: http://www.lolastaar.com/

More importantly though, that night was also when the Freak Bar and Coney Island Sideshow were recommended to me as a rad joint venue to catch an awesome show/grab a drink. After B bailed back to the lot, I sauntered down The Boardwalk to check out the aptly named "Freak Bar" to experience my first Coney Island Lager and catch that evening's Burlesque show.  Twas to be the first of countless nights (and some afternoons, ha) spent amongst talented and unique new friends.