Inside My Velvet Rope

I can see this hanging on the wall, can't you?

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Astroland Kiddie Park
Coney Island, NY, USA
12 July 2008

Yesterday, at Coney Island, I treated myself to a ride on the Wonder Wheel.

Coney Island, looking towards Staten Island. You can see the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge in the distance.
7 July 2008

Moving Right Along

Rearden laughed. "Eddie, what do we care about people like him? We're driving an express, and they're riding on the roof, making a lot of noise about being leaders. Why should we care? We have enough power to carry them along--haven't we?"

Atlas Shrugged, by Ayn Rand

When it comes to my life and my future, that quote addresses people who do dirty work behind the scenes to get rid of me due to their personal vendettas. I don't understand their issues, what they have against me, or what deals they cut to push me out of their way, but I need not waste time trying. I have a life to live, and they are not a part of that life. They cannot handle working with me the way I had tried to work with them, because they are too lowbrow, too petty. They would rather hide behind titles and act out their bad attitudes under cover of their authority, with the help of their stooges and those they have hoodwinked into believing they have done all they could do to fix the situation.

Let them. I have better things to do with my time than worry about them and the things they think about, do to, or say to me.

An Excuse for Nudity

Yesterday I attended the Mermaid Parade at Coney Island. I was expecting something far more creative than what I saw. The parade was little more than an excuse for a lot of people (primarily woman, to the great delight of the men in the crowd) to run around mostly naked. I was quickly bored and sorely disappointed.

Despite my sexually repressed religious upbringing, I admire the naked human body and enjoy the sight of it. I can look at paintings or photographs of nudes all day long. The female body is particularly appealing nude; there is nothing like the curves of a woman's body, no matter her size. What I do not like is a hyper-sexualized caricature of the beauty of the body, and that is what the parade exalted. It saddened me to see so much beauty presented so cheaply, to appeal to the lowest common denominator. There were a few exceptions of people who were artistic in their nudity; those will probably be the only photos I keep. There was one couple I would have loved to photograph in their green and blue body paint. They sashayed along the street in their one or two slips of clothing with as much grace and elegance as though they were wearing formal clothing. They may have been too far away for me to capture with my lens, but they are embedded in my brain.

I gladly escaped to the boardwalk with my friends before the parade ended. The view from there and the beach was far more interesting.

Water Baby
Facing the Waves	Wonder Wheel