Coney Island | Amusing the Zillion

Posts Tagged ‘Coney Island’

Photo of the Day: View from Stillwell Terminal of Surf Ave

Posted in Demolition, Photo of the Day, tagged Coney Island, Henderson Building on January 14, 2011| 4 Comments »

New View from Stillwell Terminal of the Island. January 13, 2011. Photo © Anonymous Poet via Amusing the Zillion

The view as you come out of Stillwell Terminal beneath the letters that spell Coney Island is rapidly changing. Earlier today, Anonymous Poet sent us this striking image of the Henderson demolition along with the message: “I was awed by the almost art nouveauy beauty of those big metal supports.” The Bowery side of the building is all that remains of the once grand and soon-to-be-gone Henderson Music Hall.

Boardwalk: Photos by Meredith Caliento, Spoken Word by Michael Schwartz

Posted in Photography, Reading & Writing, tagged Boardwalk, Coney Island, Meredith Caliento, Michael Schwartz, spoken word on January 8, 2011| 1 Comment »

Photographer Meredith Caliento, who lives in Sea Gate, teamed up with Coney Island poet Michael Schwartz to produce “Boardwalk,” a slideshow with words.

“It’s tough to choose a favorite photo from the slideshow, almost impossible,”” says Caliento, who studied photography at the School of Visual Arts. “But I am very fond of the far-off lifeguard chair. It reminds me of the very end of the season, those bittersweet weeks when it’s warm enough to go barefoot in the sand, but no longer warm enough to swim.”

The photographer is also partial to the two old ladies. “They represent some of the spirit of Coney Island, and the image makes me think of all the generations before us who walked on the same boardwalk we walk on today.”

Poet and playwright Michael Schwartz’s work is inspired by his Coney Island boyhood. Funded by a grant from the Brooklyn Historical Society, Schwartz delved into the Society’s Coney Island collection that includes postcards, photographs and artifacts to write his own short stories, poems, monologues, and songs about Coney Island. Schwartz hopes to complete and publish his collected works as a book. He has performed at the Bowery Poetry Club, Coney Island USA, and the Brooklyn Historical Society, among others.

Music Video: Strange Powers by the Magnetic Fields

Posted in Music Video, tagged Coney Island, Strange Powers, The Magnetic Fields on January 8, 2011| Leave a Comment »

In one of the first music videos from the Magnetic Fields, circa 1992, a boyish-looking girl (or girlish-looking boy?) traipses around Coney Island, riding the rides and lip-syncing a droll love song…

On the ferris wheel looking out on Coney Island
Under more stars than there are prostitutes in Thailand
Our hair in the air, our lips blue from cotton candy
When we kiss it feels like a flying saucer landing
And I can’t sleep ’cause you’ve got strange powers

Thanks to photographer and film maven Jim McDonnell for the recommendation. Watch for glimpses of Astroland, the Jumbo Jet and the freak museum in the now demolished bank building, he says.

Looking for more info about the song, we discovered there’s a new documentary, also called Strange Powers, about songwriter Stephin Merritt, who has been called “the Cole Porter of his generation,” and the Magnetic Fields. “To some they’re an iconic band. To others, they’re completely unknown,” according to the film’s trailer, which you can watch here.