October | 2013 | Amusing the Zillion

Archive for October, 2013

Photo of the Day: Sunset at Coney Island Pier by Bruce Handy

Posted in Photo of the Day, Photography, tagged Bruce Handy, LTL Architects, pier, Steeplechase Pier, sunset, Triton Structural on October 8, 2013| 2 Comments »

Steeplechase Pier, Coney Island. October 6, 2013. Photo © Bruce Handy

Last Wednesday, Steeplechase Pier, which was closed for reconstruction after Sandy, reopened nearly a year after the storm. Over the weekend Coney Island photographer Bruce Handy and his friends returned to their gathering spot to take their first photos of sunset from the new pier. “Last August we started taking photos from the pier. I picked out a spot and returned to take the same photo, to watch how the sun moved across the sky from the same spot,” he says. “Sandy changed our plans but did not stop us. The pier is back and so are we.” The one posted here is a beauty!

The redesign for the reconstruction of the pier, including the fabulous wave-shaped lounger seen in the picture, is by LTL Architects and won Special Recognition at the 31st Annual Awards for Excellence in Design by the New York City Design Commission. The wood on all the benches as well as the handrail wood is reclaimed ipe from the old decking that was on the pier. Vibha Agarwala of LTR Architects told ATZ the construction is complete but there will be some final touches, including bait cutting stations. “We have noticed that people have been cutting on benches and railings but bait cutting stations are in the process of being installed,” Agarwala said. The construction was carried out by T.B. Penick & Sons/Triton Structural, which worked on a number of projects to refurbish New York City’s storm-ravaged beaches. Kudos to all!

Astrotower Stump Is Centerpiece of Creepy Coney Graveyard

Posted in amusement park, tagged Astro Tower, Astroland, Astrotower, Coney Island, Halloween, Luna Park on October 7, 2013| 8 Comments »

The AstroStump, all that remains of the Astrotower, decorated for Halloween at Coney Island’s Luna Park. October 5, 2013

ATZ’s award for the creepiest, most inappropriate Halloween decoration goes to Luna Park for a bizarre attempt at paying homage to the demolished Astrotower. Formerly wrapped in a tarp, the AstroStump is all that remains of the tower, which is now bedecked with skeleton props as the centerpiece of a faux graveyard for the park’s Halloween celebration. Seeing the blackened, blow-torched edges of the chopped down icon for the first time was very unsettling. It’s like seeing the tortured corpse of a dear departed friend who would have been 50 years old next year. They got the date wrong on the tombstone–the tower debuted in 1964, not 1962.

What were they thinking? Well, the original All Hallows’ Eve provided one last chance for humans to propitiate the restless dead and for the dead to gain vengeance before moving to the next world. Not sure if dead landmarks have restless spirits, but the Astrotower was practically human since it used to sing. It’s been three months since the genuinely horrific July 4th Week when the 275-foot tower was cut apart with blowtorches in a marathon demolition following hysterical claims that it was swaying more than usual had closed most of Coney Island. The tower’s cut-down sections were carted off to the Cropsey Avenue junkyard while the stump was hidden from view by a tarp and fenced off like it had the plague.

The Astrostump is all that remains of the 275-foot Astrotower. July 7, 2013. Photo © Tricia Vita/me-myself-i via flickr

Considering that not a trace remains of Astroland at the site of the former Astroland except this stump, it would have been more appropriate for Luna Park to put up a real plaque after the demolition. It’s distressing that a recollection of a tragic episode in Coney Island history, especially one that happened just three months ago, is reduced to a fake graveyard for Halloween.

However, not everyone agrees that this Halloween decoration is in bad taste. One Coney Island fan tweeted that the idea was “extremely clever.” Also in the faux graveyard are tombstones of long dead Coney luminaries such as Tilyou, Feltman, Handwerker and Mangels as well as a gravestone for Astroland Park. What do you think?

@LunaParkNYC Extremely clever idea to make the ruins of the AstroTower into a special Coney Graveyard! That was my favorite part of the day

— AnthonyMark (@anthony0358) October 6, 2013

Video of the Day: The Down Home Daredevils

Posted in film, sideshow, video, tagged family, Jill Fleet, Lucky Daredevil Thrillshow, sideshow, Thrill Kill Jill, Tyler Fleet, Tyler Fyre on October 6, 2013| Leave a Comment »

“You want to go to the circus? Good news, you live in the circus!” says Tyler Fleet aka Tyler Fyre at the beginning of this sweet documentary short “The Down Home Daredevils.” Tyler and his wife Jill, whose stage name is Thrill Kill Jill, are the doting parents of two adorable little boys–Hank Lightning and Duke Dynamite. They’re also sword swallowers and fire eaters, and in Jill’s case a snake charmer, with the Lucky Daredevil Thrill Show.

The film by Corcoran College of Art new media photojournalism students Ben Dorger, Jenny Harnish and Emma Scott follows the family from their home in West Virginia to the Hell City Tattoo Convention in Columbus, Ohio. Hank, who is a toddler, joins dad onstage to do a make-believe straitjacket escape and Duke gets his first taste of applause as a babe in mom’s arms. “What the kids do in the show is up to the kids,” says Jill. “We’ll nurture them right into the show. It’s the family business.”

The film premiered at this year’s Coney Island Film Festival and was among “ATZ’s Top 10 Coney Island Film Festival Picks.”