Coney Vid "Island" With Orignal Music

Island (Original Song)

Description:
A song I wrote. I edited some scenes from the creative commons film "Coney Island" for the video.

Posted by xnotes [YouTube]

Coney Events: Burlesque At The Beach

It's time for the burlesque at the beach to start.

From the Coney Island USA website:

Season Premiere- Sealboy swims with the Mermaids!

The Great Fredini hosts as Bambi the Mermaid and Bunny Love welcome in another season with special guests Mat Fraser, Pinky Special, and More!!! They'll twitch it and twatch it while you watch it!


Burlesque At The Beach
Friday May 9th
10pm
at the Sideshow By The Seashore
Corner of Surf and West 12th Street

$15

Spider Man At Coney Island?

As found by Switchback and posted on the Coney Island USA message board here are shots of Coney versions in the animated on Kids WB "The Spectacular Spider-Man"

Arquitectonica Designs Not So New

It seems the designs posted yesterday that were found on the Arquitectonica website (which are now, probably, going to be taken off their website) are stale. CIDC president Lynn Kelly and EDC senior project manager Nathan Bliss have informed Kinetic Carnival that these drawings no longer represent to new city plans. The map below shows the current city plan and is also compared with the Thor Equities plan for the area being called Coney East which, a precentage of it, will consist of the amusement core.

The City plan leaves 9 acres for amusement which many consider still too small.

(Click image to enlarge)

As already knows the Thor plans even cuts the amusement zone further.

(Click image to enlarge)

Architecture Firm Dishes Up Designs For City's Coney Master Plan

Arquitectonica was tapped by the New York EDC to draw up some fresh plans to study the revitalization of Coney Island in making it a year-round destination.

Arquitectonica website states:

Coney Island Urban Revitalization Plan
Brooklyn, New York, USA

Arquitectonica was selected by the New York EDC to master plan and develop zoning guidelines for over thirty blocks between Surf Avenue and the Boardwalk in Coney Island, Brooklyn. The goal of the study was to revitalize Coney Island by turning it into a 365-day a year destination, with retail and attractions, while still maintaining the character of the area. Arquitectonica's recommendations are currently being used by the city to revive the area in a sensible manner.

More 'Coney' Screen Shots From Grand Theft Auto IV

Here are some screen shots and video clips from the new console game Grand Theft Auto IV (from Rockstar Games) inspired from Coney Island. The amusement zone here is called Firefly Island which is part of Liberty City.

The stills and vids that follow were found and posted by Switchback on the Coney Island USA message board. You will find references to Nathan's (here called Johnson's), Lola Staar, parked school buses, the Shore Theater (here called the Firefly), the old bank building, Coney Island USA, Astroland, and even Sea Gate (here called Beach Gate). In the game version it's the middle of winter and so everything is closed - which is also a time when the area radiates with mystic and charm.


Beach 1


Beach 2


Beach 3


Beach 4


Videos Posted by coney112006 [YouTube]

Take A Walk Around The Blog With Us Here At Kinetic Carnival

"A Walk Around The Blog" is series that profiles Brooklyn bloggers. It is a part of the news magazine program Brooklyn Review that airs on Brooklyn Independent Television.

In this episode Ben Nadler of Kinetic Carnival talks to some of the folks at Surfside Gardens in Coney Island about the future of their community garden as development plans threaten to convert their beautiful garden to low-cost housing.

Threatened Community Gardens
Brooklyn Independent Television

Coney Vid: Another Look At "Fatty" Arbuckle's Coney Short

The Voyages Extraordinaire website brings us the "Fatty" Arbuckle comedy short "Coney Island" (1917). If you haven't seen this one before, there are a few shots of Luna Park. You can see all three parts.

Voyages Extraordinaire writes:

After our look at the historical Coney Island amusement park, a turn-of-the-century icon of American entertainment, it is only fitting to present the 1917 comedy short Coney Island. This film stars Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle and his then-partner Buster Keaton, but is as notable for both The Great Stone Face's emoting and its scenery of Coney Island.

The Gowanus Lounge Celebrates Birthday With New Look And Site

Happy Birthday to one of the best blogs around. The Gowanus Lounge has proven to be a dynamic source of news and information covering Brooklyn - one of the most interesting places in the world. While doing so they were sure to never fall short of their keen passion for Coney Island.

The Gowanus Lounge writes:

The time has come. We've gone live with our new GL site, gowanuslounge.com. Please reset your bookmarks or get used to typing in gowanuslounge.com and leaving out the blogspot. Most important, please, please, please reset your RSS feed. We apologize for this one-time inconvenience and really hope you'll stay with it. We think the new look is better and easier to read and give us a lot more functionality. GL will still be here, but other than reminders to move, we won't be putting up new posts here. The archives, of course, will remain, but we've also migrated them, in full, to the new site.

Happy Birthday Gowanus Lounge. We look forward to your next year and thousands of daily postings!

Charles Denson on The New Plan

The city's revised plan was first announced two weeks ago in a New York Times article. It's therefore only fitting that the best criticism of the plan should be found in the Village Voice's Neil deMause article:

Coney Island historian Charles Denson was shocked to hear, in a phone call the night before the Times piece ran, that the city was switching gears. "The original plan was a compromise, and I supported that completely," says Denson. "In exchange for saving the amusement area, they were allowing 5,000 condos at the outer edge. Now it's such a reversal --although it does preserve a small amusement area, it's so completely different from what they'd initially proposed that you have to wonder what's going on behind the scenes."

Locals Fear City Will Destroy Coney Island In Order To Save It [The Village Voice]

- post by Ben Nadler

Roller Coaster Pioneer Honored With Street Corner

The corner of Stillwell and Mermaid Avenues has been dedicated as "Granville T. Woods Way" in honor of a prolific African-American inventor of the early Twentieth century. While Woods is best known for creating subway safety technology, he is most important to Coney for his contributions to the creation of roller coaster technology. A true Coney Island hero, if ever there was one.


Recchia Announces Street Renaming To Honor Technology Pioneer [Brooklyn Daily Eagle]

- post by Ben Nadler

Coney Events: The Surf Cafe Grand Opening

Coney Island's newest edition celebrates their 'official' grand opening this Saturday.

From 12 - 3 pm we will be giving away:
Ciao Bella Gelato Samples
Corona King Ices
Balloons
Coupons

Tickets For Dinner Cruise around NYC
Tickets to Hot 97 Jam Concert

Plus Big Bird, Elmo, Dora and many other characters will be there!




So, come on out to the Surf Cafe, brought to you by Karen & Christine. They're directly across from Nathan's.













The new Surf Cafe Grand Opening
Saturday, April 26th, 2008
Noon - 3pm giveaways
1317 Surf Avenue

Sideshow School Registration Now Open

From the Coney Island USA e-mail announcement:

Have you ever dreamed of running away with the circus? Did anyone evercall you a freak? Well, now's your chance to become one! Coney Island USA will be offering three different programs during this summer's Sideshow School sessions!

Sideshow Skills will be offered during the summer for the first time!See dates, times and enroll for class here

Before This Coney Blog There Was Another!

As with typical Coney tradition - well before the Brooklyn blogosphere exploded onto the scene a couple of years back, there was already a Brooklyn blog right here in Coney Island. And we thought Kinetic Carnival was the first Coney Island blog.

Direct from Coney Island USA, in early 2002 with a couple of posts, the Coney Island News and Events blog began. Though it lay dormant and floating out there in the world wide web, it has now been revived. This April, the blog has been started up again as a construction blog - posting about the Coney Island USA building renovations currently taking place. They also invite you to come inside and see for yourself the transformation in the process. Below are photos from the space that used to house the recruiting office.

The Coney Island News and Events blog writes:

All New And Improved Blog!
You probably didn't even know this existed, did you?

It's been years since anyone updated this, but I'm going to jump back into things now, with a series of updates about our building project. As reported in the news, we here at Coney Island USA bought our building last year and we're starting the renovations necessary to move into the storefronts on Surf Ave. It's not a huge project by the standards of most businesses, but it's a pretty big step for us and it's going to make a HUGE difference on Surf Ave. and to the Museum.

Aaron Bebe writes:

I guess one of the problems with working in a cave-like office with no windows or climate control deep in the bowels of an old building in Coney Island is that you forget how little the people outside actually know about what you're doing.

That's why this blog is such a great idea.

The project is expected to be completed by mid-May with a grand opening party. The new expansion will give the museum and Freak Bar a bigger presence on the street to draw in the crowds. Also new will be the Coney Island Lager on tap, along with a few new sideshow beers, as well as brand new merchandise for sale at the giftshop.

Visit the Coney Island News and Events blog for all the inside exclusive information!

Coney Island Film Festival Deadline Is Almost Here

The regular deadline for entries is THIS FRIDAY April 25th, 2008 (postmarked). The entry fee is $25 and the late deadline June 25th, 2008 (postmarked). The extended late deadline is July 3rd, 2008 (postmarked).

The CIFF:

Entry categories: Feature, Short, Documentary Feature, Documentary Short, Experimental, Silent Film, Animation, Music Video.

The Coney Island Film Festival is open to filmmakers working in ALL GENRES, SUBJECTS AND FORMATS.

For all the info visit the Coney Island Film Festival website.

It's Time for the Coney Island USA Spring Gala!

From the Coney Island USA website:

Come out and celebrate the 2008 season with us, as we kick off the summer with a big blowout at the Angel Orensanz Foundation. See mermaids, burlesque performers, and practitioners of the sideshow arts while helping support Coney Island USA, the not-for-profit that produces the Mermaid Parade, the Coney Island Circus Sideshow, Burlesque at the Beach and that operates the Coney Island Museum.

On May 21, we'll be celebrating the 4th Annual Coney Island USA Spring Gala with popcorn, cotton candy, silent auction the Mini-Mermaid Parade and some of the best and craziest performers that New York City has to offer. We'll be putting the "fun" back into fundraising!

Tickets are $100 ($80 tax deductible) for regular Gala tickets and $250 ($200 tax deductible) for VIP tickets that include access to the VIP seating area, a gift bag, table service for food and drink, and meet and greets with our performers!


Coney Island USA Spring Gala May 21, 2008
7 PM to 11 PM
Angel Orensanz Foundation
172 Norfolk Street
718-372-5159
david@coneyisland.com

Visit the the Coney Island USA website for more details in ticket information.


See the video of last year's event below

Coney Island USA Spring Gala 2007

Description:
Highlights of the 2007 Coney Island USA Spring Gala. Edited and shot by Alpay Kasal and Dennis Catalfumo of LitStudios.com. Featuring Dick Zigun, Mat Fraser, Julie Atlas Muz, Bambi the Mermaid, Bunny Love, Little Brooklyn, Saturn, Ekaterina, Armen Ra, Todd Robbins, The great Fredini and More!

Posted by fredini [YouTube]

For the Man Who Has Everything

Blogs are not a medium known for focusing on or endorsing neckties. However, it must be pointed out that this parachute jump tie - found on the photostream of flickr user 'toybreaker' - would make a great accessory for any Coney Island aficionado.

- post by Ben Nadler

Coney Events: 2nd Annual Congress of Curious Peoples

This coming week, Coney Island USA will hold it's 2nd Annual Congress of Curious Peoples. As the post-colonial name implies, the Congress is a gathering and honoring of some freak show elder statesmen.

Many great events will be taking place over the course of the nine day Congress. Highlights will include an appearance from the legendary tattoo artist Spider Webb, and a performance by the Bindlestiff Family Circus.


2nd Annual Congress of Curious Peoples
April 25-May 4, 2008
Sideshows by the Seashore
Surf Avenue & West 12th Street

- post by Ben Nadler

Some Thoughts on The New Plan

The decision to allow property owners to maintain control over their properties in the amusement are may not be ideal, but it was inevitable that some sort of compromise was going to have to be made in order for the plan to move forward.

The Vourderis family's Deno's Wonder Wheel Park has been- and will undoubtedly continue to be- an integral part of the amusement area, so it makes sense to allow them to continue to maintain and develop their own property makes sense.

However, things such as the inclusion of the generic corporate monoliths of Dave & Busters and NikeTown, and the construction of hotel towers on the south side of Surf Avenue make a lot less sense. One can't help but wonder if this new Coney Island is going to look like Coney Island at all.

What is most troubling is that the amusement area has been whittled down from 15 acres to 9 acres. Hopefully, this number will not continue to be whittled down as plans continue to develop.


City's Coney Island Design Revised to Break Deadlock [New York Times]

- post by Ben Nadler

Baseball on a Sunday?

This year, the Brooklyn Cyclones will play seven Sunday home games at Keyspan Park here in Coney Island.

According to an interesting article in Thursday's Brooklyn Daily Eagle this would not have been possible in the early twentieth century. The article outlines how Sabbath protecting 'blue laws' forbid baseball on Sundays, and the various conflicts which this caused between baseball fans and Johnny Law.

Blue Laws = Blue Baseball Fans [Brooklyn Daily Eagle]

- post by Ben Nadler