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Archive for December, 2010

Photo of the Day: Demolition of Coney Island’s Shore Hotel

Posted in Photo of the Day, Redevelopment, tagged Coney Island, demolition, Lindsay Wengler, Shore Hotel, Thor Equties on December 10, 2010| 4 Comments »

Shore Hotel Demolition. December 9, 2010. Photo © Lindsay Wengler/Single Linds Reflex via flickr

This week Thor Equities’ demo crew continued to wreak havoc on historic Surf Avenue. By Thursday afternoon, they had knocked off the top story of Coney Island’s approximately 107-year-old Shore Hotel. Photographer Lindsay Wengler also got some apocalyptic shots of the rubble that once was the Bank of Coney Island and a bulldozer poised to attack on Henderson Walk. War is hell. Oh wait, we mean Coney Island redevelopment is hell.

For photos and stories of the Shore Hotel in its glory days as well as its seedy days, see Vanishing New York’s post from August 2009. Thor’s ownership destroyed the building. As VNY wrote: “Plywood went into the windows in the summer of 2007, as Thor and the city aimed to blight Coney in preparation for its demolition. When the City’s Plan goes through, a massive high-rise will stand here.” The City’s rezoning of Coney Island, passed by the City Council in 2009, allows four high rise hotels of up to 27 stories along the south side of Surf Avenue.

In the other out-with-the-old in Coney news story of the week, this morning’s 10 a.m. court date for the eviction of the “Coney Island Eight” was adjourned till January 10, 2011.

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Children’s Book Tells Coney Island Carousel Carver’s Story

Posted in Books, Reading & Writing, tagged book review, carousel, Children's Story, immigrant experience, New Book, woodcarver on December 8, 2010| Leave a Comment »

During the golden age of the carousel, Coney Island had as many as 12 or 15 hand-carved carousels spinning at the same time and many of them were manufactured here in Brooklyn. Master carousel builders and carvers included Charles Looff on Bedford Avenue, M.C. Illions and Sons Carousell Works on Ocean Parkway, and Stein & Goldstein and William F. Mangels in Coney Island.

Feivel’s Flying Horses, written by Heidi Smith Hyde with illustrations by Johanna van der Sterre, is a work of historical fiction that pays homage to Jewish immigrant woodcarvers like Marcus Illions, Solomon Stein, Harry Goldstein and Charles Carmel. The picture book takes its inspiration from the American Folk Art Museum exhibition “Gilded Lions and Jeweled Horses: The Synagogue to the Carousel,” which explored the previously unexamined association between Jewish immigrant woodcarvers and the American carousel industry.

The hero of Feivel’s Flying Horses journeys to America with five dollars in his pocket in search of a better life. Having made his living in the old country carving the reading desks that held the Torah scrolls and other ornate objects, he finds work as a furniture maker on the Lower East Side and then as a carousel carver in Coney Island. Memories of the family he left behind fire his imagination. Feivel dedicates a carousel horse to his wife and goes on to create horses for each of his four children. He carves their names into the saddles. By the time the carousel is finished, Feivel has earned enough money to send for his family. It’s touching how he declines to go for a first spin until his wife and children arrive in America and can join him for a celebratory ride on their Coney Island carousel.

Carousels remain the classic children’s ride and are a delightful subject for a children’s picture book. Feivel’s Flying Horses adds ethnic and cultural interest by telling the story of the making of a carousel through the immigrant experience. The folk art-inspired illustrations are warm and nostalgic. At the same time, the details convey the resplendence of the Coney Island style carousel. Author and illustrator previously teamed up on Mendel’s Accordion, the winner of the 2008 Sugarman Family Award for Best Jewish Children’s Book. The publisher specializes in books with Jewish themes, including other works of historical fiction such as Annie Shapiro and the Clothing Workers Strike and Zishe, the Strongman, based on the life of circus strong man.

Feivel’s Flying Horses by Heidi Smith Hyde with illustrations by Johanna van der Sterre. Ages 5-9, Grades K-3. 32 pages. Published by Kar-Ben Publishing, 2010. Hardcover, $17.95. Paperback, $7.95.

Art of the Day: Freak Taxidermy Skull by Takeshi Yamada

Posted in art, tagged Carnivorous Nights, freak skull, gaff art, rogue taxidermy, Takeshi Yamada, taxidermy on December 7, 2010| 1 Comment »

ATZ asked Coney Island artist and rogue taxidermist Takeshi Yamada what he is bringing to tonight’s 5th Annual Carnivorous Nights Taxidermy Contest presented by the Secret Science Club at Bell House. Last year, Yamada was awarded “The Most Twisted Prize” for his family of freak show babies made from his own skin. In 2006, he won the Grand Championship of Taxidermy for his 6-foot-long mummified Fiji Mermaid.

“I am planning to bring several freak skulls for the contest,” Yamada confided to ATZ. “Here is an example. I do not want to spoil the fun by showing all of them.” If you plan to go to cheer on Coney’s very own rogue taxidermist, get there early and bring your camera. Later this week, we’ll update this post with links to photos of Yamada’s collection of alien skulls.

The Japanese-born artist and Neptune Avenue resident is one of Coney Island’s most recognizable eccentrics. In the summer, you’re apt to find Yamada clad in a black tuxedo and Mardi Gras beads strolling the Beach and Boardwalk with his taxidermied sea bunny Seara. If you haven’t seen Yamada’s long-running “Museum of World Wonders: Cabinet of Curiosities” yet, the exhibition is on view through Dec. 31 at the Coney Island Library.

The Secret Science Club presents the 5th-annual Carnivorous Nights Taxidermy Contest, Tuesday, December 7 at Bell House, 149 7th St. (between 2nd and 3rd Aves) in Gowanus, Brooklyn. Doors and Pre-show at 7:30 pm, Taxidermy contest at 8:30 pm. $5 cover charge. 718-643-6510. Subway: F to 4th Ave; R to 9th St; F or G to Smith/9th.

UPDATE December 8, 2010:

From Nadia Chaudhury’s flickr set of last night’s contest…

Takeshi Yamada with Freak Taxidermy Skull at Secret Science Club's 5th Annual Taxidermy Contest. Photo © mysticchildz/Nadia Chaudhury via flickr

Yamada steals the show in City Room’s entertaining report. He took home the prize for “Best Bones”…

Mr. Yamada of two-headed-baby renown was a heavy favorite for this year’s top prize. He strutted on stage to James Brown, wearing a black suit and felt beret, his neck heavy with Mardi Gras beads, and displayed his collection of meticulously fashioned, Hollywood-caliber “space alien skulls,” which he called a “creative interpretation of rogue taxidermy.” The crowd roared in approval.

Backstage, while the judges were making their decisions, Mr. Yamada, 50, revealed that he keeps a cabinet of curiosities and taxidermy in his two-family house in Coney Island. “I have an eight-legged dog, a four-foot centipede and a 32-foot sea snake,” he said, laughing. He added that his sense of humor came from being raised in Osaka, the “comedy capital of Japan.”