July 18 Coney Island...Baby

Big fucking smile. I spent the whole beautiful day in Coney Island. The Village Voice Siren Music Festival had stages at the boardwalk on W 10th Street and on Stillwell Avenue. In between the stages is my favorite beautifully dilapidated amusement park in the country. The beach, the boardwalk and the streets were packed with people enjoying the sun, the surf and the music. Quoting a favorite t-shirt I once saw about Coney Island, "The Beautiful Freaks Come Out At Night". They were all out today and I proudly include myself in that group. We did ride the world's most famous roller coaster, the Cyclone and got the front seat too. Good times.
It is either The Blue Van or Bear Hands on stage in this picture. We spent the day just soaking up all the seedy fun Coney Island has to offer.

I noticed my favorite stand on the boardwalk, Gregory & Paul's, is now called Paul's Daughter's. Not sure what happened to Gregory or Paul. But this is the quintessential beach front food stand. Everything from cotton candy to raw clams is available here.
I got face to face with this shark at at the Aquarium which is also on the boardwalk right next to the Cyclone roller coaster.
The Wonder Wheel is like no other Ferris wheel I've ever seen. The cages in the middle move along tracks that shift back & forth as the wheel spins. Great views of Coney Island from the top.
Like I said earlier, the boardwalk was packed all day long. The beach was crowded from the shoreline to the baordwalk for as far as you could see. Turns out NYC has had the same crappy summer as Chicago and today was a perfect summer day. The subway had lots of families dragging coolers down to the beach.
There are lots of changes going on in Coney Island. I'll explain it all another time. Here the Peta people complain about the Ringling Bros. Circus on the beach.
Coney Island is all about food. It isn't about eating healthy. I did see some vendors selling fresh fruit in cups, they weren't very busy.
Better to see this guy at the Aquarium instead of the beach.
The most famous hot dog stand in America, Nathan's at Stillwell and Surf Avenues. The city requires the nutritional info on the menu, a hot dog, fries and Coke will set you back almost 2000 calories. But who eats just one hot dog. Joey Chestnut ate 68 to win the hot dog eating contest this past July 4th.