New York Aquarium | Amusing the Zillion

Posts Tagged ‘New York Aquarium’

Flooded Aquarium’s Toy Drive Moves to Tom’s Coney Island

Posted in Events, News, tagged Coney Island, local, New York Aquarium, Tom's Restaurant, toy drive on November 23, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Donate Here: Toys (New Only) for Coney, Tom Restaurant, Coney Island. November 17, 2012. Photo © Tricia Vita via flickr

Last weekend at Tom’s Restaurant on the Coney Island Boardwalk, ATZ spotted this sign for the Wildlife Conservation Society’s annual toy drive. A hand-lettered note says “Toys (New Only) for Coney” and there’s a donation box on the floor. From November 17th through December 31st, the WCS is accepting new, unwrapped toys at the Bronx Zoo, New York Aquarium, Central Park Zoo, Prospect Park Zoo and Queens Zoo. Due to recovery efforts at the Aquarium, which was flooded by Hurricane Sandy and remains closed, donations in Coney Island are instead being accepted at Tom’s.

“Thank you for joining the New York Aquarium along with the newly formed Alliance of Coney Island to collect toys for families in need this holiday season,” says a post on the WCS website. “Toys donated will benefit families in need as a result of Hurricane Sandy. Donations can be dropped off at Tom’s Diner on the Coney Island boardwalk.” Donors will receive one free general admission ticket to the Bronx Zoo for every donated toy.

Tom’s Coney Island is open daily from 8am till 5pm with weekend hours till 7pm. The new restaurant, which opened only a few weeks ago, was miraculously spared damage from Hurricane Sandy and is one of the few stores in the area with electricity. Owner Jimmy Kokotas was able to quickly reopen and be here for the community. Tom’s has served as a command center for volunteers and a host for breakfast meetings about storm relief for Coney Island business owners.

Tom’s Coney Island, 1229 Boardwalk (at Stillwell Avenue), Brooklyn, NY 11224. Phone 718-942-4200

Coney Island Valentine: Get a Sea Lion Kiss at New York Aquarium!

Posted in Animals, tagged aquarium, Brooklyn, California Sea Lion, Coney Island, Julie Atlas Muz, New York Aquarium, Norman Blake, Photography by Norman Blake, Sea Lion Encounter, Valentine's Day on February 7, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Julie Finds a Friend © 2007 Norman Blake. All rights reserved. NB Photo Flash via flickr

ATZ is celebrating Valentine’s Day with one of our fave portraits by contributing photographer Norman Blake. That’s Coney Island mermaid Julie Atlas Muz getting a smooch from a sea lion after her annual swim in the New York Aquarium’s tank on Mermaid Parade Day.

This Valentine’s Day and all year long, you too can get a sea lion kiss at Coney Island’s New York Aquarium! From ATZ’s inbox…

Catch one of the aquarium’s daily Sea Lion Celebrations in Aquatheater, and afterwards, book a Sea Lion Encounter to ask questions and get up close with our sea lion celebrities. Visitors will receive a meet-and-greet session with one of the aquarium’s California sea lions. Encounters occur every day after the Sea Lion Celebration show. Participants will learn about these magnificent animals, ask questions, and finally get a sea lion kiss. Sea Lion Encounters cost $20.00 per participant.

The Aquatheater demonstrations are included with general admission to the aquarium and take place twice daily. Winter shows are at 11:30 am and 3 pm. “Our pinnipeds (the scientific term for sea lions, seals, and walruses) also make great teachers,” says Jon Forrest Dohlin, Aquarium Director. “You’ll learn how to make seafood choices that are healthy for the planet, why predators like the great white shark are essential to maintaining a balanced food chain, and how the WCS [Wildlife Conservation Society] is helping to save threatened marine life and habitats around the globe.”

The New York Aquarium is open 365 days a year. Admission is $13.00 for adults, $9.00 for children ages 3-12 and $10.00 for senior citizens 65 and older. A general admission ticket allows you to explore the New York Aquarium and attend all animal feedings and demonstrations. Admission on Fridays beginning at 3 pm is pay-what-you-wish!

New York Aquarium, Surf Avenue at West 8th Street, Coney Island, 718-265-FISH

Coney Island 1969 by Edwin Torres: Fave Poem from Parachute Festival

Posted in Reading & Writing, tagged Alien Stingers, Coney Island, Coney Island Performance Festival, Edwin Torres, jellyfish, New York Aquarium, poem, poetry on September 27, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Poet Edwin Torres Reading at Parachute: The Coney Island Performance Festival at the New York Aquarium. Photo © Edward Hansen

If you’re looking for something to read on this rainy, “as summer into autumn slips” kind of day, ATZ recommends this poem by Edwin Torres. The autobiographical “Coney Island 1969” was written especially for Parachute: The Coney Island Performance Festival. Torres debuted the poem on September 12, the first night of Coney’s Island’s first annual performance festival. The Alien Stingers exhibit at the New York Aquarium proved to be an inspired setting for the event as the parachute-like jellyfish danced in the water behind the human performers. Now if you’re looking for somewhere to go on a rainy day, ATZ recommends the Alien Stingers at the Aquarium, which is open year round. The adult jellyfish is called the “medusa.” How poetic is that?

CONEY ISLAND 1969       

My father was the manager of Nathan's Hot Dogs on Coney Island
A memory inside a beach ball
My cousin reaching below the surface
Water in my lungs
Gagging
Blue sky
Technicolor white
Where skin should be

        My father watched me walk the cracks
	From our bedroom window
	In the Bronx
	Asking me
	What I thought I was doing
	How a line is straight when you walk it
	How a man knows exactly where to go

My father took us to Nathan's at Christmas
Company party
Santa
A thousand presents for each and every child
The boardwalk was cold
The rides empty
Coney Island winter
You had to warm your fingers
By hiding them from the ocean

	My father gave us hot dogs and fries
	Between his affairs
	He gave me animals
	To show his love
	I had a beagle, a turtle, 3 guinea pigs and 2 java rice birds
	I loved them
	So I loved my father

My father took me and my two sisters to the Statue of Liberty
He told me it was made of Limburger Cheese
I loved him
He never hit me
He never hugged me
I had to walk straight
That's what he told me

	When I visit my father
	At St. Raymond's Cemetary
	I find his gravestone
	I have a son I tell him
	Winter is our time
	When he left
	When all those presents at Nathan's were opened
	All those families

My father towered over me
Laughing in his eyes
You're my little man he'd say
From up there
The bumper cars
The mirrors
All those reflections

	a location's intuition
	will be to remain
	long enough to be found

	in a relationship with scale
	the chance to leave
	will follow its pull

	calling to catch
	what will does
	to weight

My father was never Coney Island to me
He never knocked on the door
That morning in the Bronx
My mother didn't open
No cops told her nothing
She didn't hide her face in her hands
No silent tears
	cover her mouth when she snore
No floor I play my indians on

	No roller coaster tell me no turn
	No question come from long legs
	No mean kids
	No skinny mirror
	My father had yoga thumbs
	Look what I can do I'd say
	Leaning out just far enough
	To make you catch me

        -Edwin Torres ©2009