Mermaids at large, Coney Island

I'm always looking for an excuse to travel, no matter how lame.

So when I was invited, by a New York friend, to come to the annual Mermaid Parade in Coney Island 

I started planning another trip. I arranged business visits to studios in New York, Katonah and Toronto 

so it became a business trip arranged around a weekend parade.

It's been many years since I have flown the direct Melbourne to New York route. 

And it will be many years before I do it again. 26 hours from home to a hotel. Exhausting.

Not helped by leaving Melbourne in the depths of winter and arriving in the hottest heat wave since 1933.

8.30pm and it was still over 90F.

Saturday arrived with another predicted stinking hot day so I packed a hat and off I went.

My friend, Bruce, had arranged the day with great precision. I was to meet him at the 

Coney Island Station and then we were to go to the gathering centre at the start of the parade.

The pavement was already white hot.

All sorts of mermaids were already gathering even though the parade was not starting for 4 hours. 

It was going to be a long hot day with many people regretting the amount of flesh on view in the

burning sun. At the starting point Bruce got us press passes. These allowed you into the gathering 

area where large backdrops had been set up for portraits of the participants.

Now I always thought that for a press pass you need credentials. 

For the Mermaid Parade a press credential was really just a money raising exercise and an

 excuse for men of a certain age to get close and personal with barely dressed young women.

It was a great place for portraits without the crowds that would be coming later.

Another advantage is that there were washrooms readily available.

This was important for a long day on the street.

I discovered that mermaids came in all sizes, colours and ages.

There are angel mermaids, vampire mermaids and transsexual mermaids.

There was a wonderful community feeling and everyone was there to have fun. 

When the parade started we moved out into the crowd and passed many that were 

still walking down to the collection area.

We found a place on the street where there was a small amount of shade and settled in to 

watch the parade. During the parade one of our group suffered from heat exhaustion and I kept 

having to go back to the washrooms in the press area.

After the parade moved passed us we went down to the boardwalk where the parade was 

going to swing back to. The crowds were so thick that we walked along the sand.

So much flesh was on show that I asked what would happen on a normal Coney Island day 

if someone walked on the beach like that. I was told that they would get fined.

The parade walks passed a table of judges. I wondered how they judged the parade. 

I was informed that bribery has a large part in the judging.

At the end of the parade the participants rush into the sea throwing fruit in to feed and 

appease the sea gods. By now we had been in the sun for 7 hours and needed a break.

Luckily Bruce lived close and we went back there to freshen up before continuing the day 

at the Mermaid Ball. The ball was to be held at the Aquarium which was appropriate.

 I also noted that the ball was adults only.

Mmmmm....it was looking like an interesting night.

The night started with a sea lion demonstration. It was very sweet.

We were then herded out into the aquarium for a band or two then called back into the arena.

For the next hour we were entertained by burlesque dancers, mermaids and synchronised swimmers.

The winners of the parade were announced with a group that had bribed the judges with peanut butter

and jelly sandwiches winning first prize.

Then came some of the best burlesque performers from the area. The first act was a very clever 

send up of the earlier sea lion performance with a woman dressed as a sea lion.

The night was raunchy and fun. A perfect end to the parade.

It had been a very long day and I had to pinch myself to stay awake on the trip back to the city.

It had been a 14 hour day in the elements.

The next day I was sunburned and weary. As it was a Sunday I simply crashed.

for more shots

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dianeworland/sets/72157630306526982/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dianeworland/sets/72157630275447996/

Meandering around Los Angeles

In 2011, Los Angeles Airport was the fifth busiest airport in the world, with 61,862,052 passengers: most of them going somewhere else. Grabbing their bags trying to find connecting flights. Jet lagged and cranky. All in a hurry to get out of Los Angeles.

But there are reasons to stay. Los Angeles is huge. Freeways criss-cross its sprawling 467 square miles. Where to start? Well you can stay off the roads and just meander around.  Here are some of my favourite walks. And they cost nothing.

1. Window gawking. Whether it’s the crazy wig shops or the lingerie stores on Hollywood Boulevard. There’s always something to photograph.

      For something trendier wander around Melrose Avenue.

For the outrageously up-market go to Rodeo Drive. An easy way to get to all these places is to use the ‘hop-on hop-off’ tourist buses as a taxi.

2.Watch a movie being made. Being Hollywood there is sure to be a movie being made close at hand. The Roosevelt Hotel is a favourite location.

3. Get up early and wander down Hollywood Avenue before the shops open. You’ll find plenty of debris, both human and non from the night before but the shop shutters will still be down and have been painted to honour Hollywood royalty.

4.Visit a cemetery and commune with the dead. Hollywood Forever Cemetery, originally called Hollywood Memorial Park Cemetery, is one of the oldest cemeteries in LA. It is located at 6000 Santa Monica Boulevard adjacent to the back of the Paramount Studios. Among those buried or entombed in the cemetery are a number of important personalities and famous persons. Rudolph Valentino, the De Mille family, Peter Lorre and Dee Dee Ramone to mention just a few. 

      Another cemetery worth visiting is the Woodlawn Cemetery at 1847 14th Street Santa Monica. Woodlawn has views of the Santa Monica Mountains and the Pacific Ocean and manicured lawns. It is very calming and green and is a reasonable walk from Santa Monica.

5. Experience the fun of the fair. While you’re at Santa Monica walk along the pier and have a glass of Californian wine while watching the world go by.

      Or just go for a ride at the amusement park.  If you have a lousy plane connection at LAX and have a few hours to kill it’s simple to get out of the airport and catch a cab or bus to Santa Monica for a breath of fresh air. The simplest way to get there is to catch the big Blue Bus: the Rapid 3 line runs between the Aviation Green Line Metro Station and downtown Santa Monica with additional stops within the city. From the transportation islands at the airport, shuttles run to and from the Green Line Station (Route G) and to the LAX City Bus Centre transit station (Route C) at Parking Lot C, which is the best place to catch the Rapid 3. Fare is $1.

6. Visit the beaches. There is a shuttle bus between Santa Monica and Venice Beach but if you have the extra time walk between them. 

      Visit the skateboard park and graffiti walls along the waterside.

      Avoid the sick waiting outside the Medicinal Herbal Clinics.

7. Take in a market. The Farmer’s Market can be reached by the tourist buses and is worth visiting for a cheap feed and shoulder rubbing with the glitterati. It is also reached by the Metro Local Line 217 from Hollywood Boulevard.

The Grove at Farmers Market is an attractive out-door mall that is connected to the market by a Trolley but it is an easy walk.

8. Get some culture with a view. The Getty Center at 1200 Getty Centre Drive, Bel-Air is perched on a hill with a wonderful view from the street of LA to the Pacific Ocean. Entry is free and there are marvellous gardens to stroll through.

      The building itself is a work of art designed by Richard Meier. I found the architecture and the gardens more inspiring than the actual collection. The Getty Center is served by Metro Rapid Line 761, which stops at the main gate on Sepulveda Boulevard.

9. Art Deco spotting. Downtown Los Angeles boasts an extraordinary collection of Art Deco buildings, luckily some are still intact. There are great examples along the Miracle Mile, on Hollywood Boulevard and around Santa Monica.

10. Smell some history. The La Brea Tar Pits are a cluster of tar pits in Hancock Park, in the urban heart of Los Angeles. Tar has seeped up from the ground in this area for tens of thousands of years. You can smell methane gas that bubbles up through the tar. Step back in time with a visit to the Pleistocene Garden, a prehistorical landscape in Hancock Park that represents the vegetation of the Los Angeles Basin 10,000 to 40,000 years ago.

11. And just to revisit my favourite Los Angeles activity. Go window shopping again.