Rumor has it that Coney Island will soon be Disney-fied (read: made into a more glossy, homogenized, and expensive destination), so on Saturday we rode to the end of the N train to visit the historic beach and boardwalk. It's incredible to step off the subway and stand in such close proximity to warm sand and glittering water--both looked to be rather on the dirty side, but no matter. Don lives at the very opposite end of the line, so we actually took the subway from one end to the other.
It's all very seedy, silly, and sweaty, and I'm so glad I got to see it in its present form. We first walked along the water, delicately stepping between bronzed bodies coated in sand and sunscreen. It's such a raucous scene: tattoos, piercings, and flesh in abundance. We walked to the end of the pier and looked back at the coastline dotted with hundreds of bodies. Then we headed over to the amusement park area, where Don and our friend Debbie (in visiting from Nebraska) braved the famous Cyclone rollercoaster; Nora and I cheered them on from below.
Wooden rollercoasters kick up big appetites, so we grabbed fried food from one of the many vendors lining the boardwalk. I am newly smitten with corndogs; I don't think I've tasted one since I was 10! There's something so perfectly nuanced about the combination of sweet corn-like taste with salty-meaty hot dog ... I went back for seconds after everyone else had finished. In fact, my mouth is watering again now.
After wiping the grease from our fingers, we headed back into the city to try to win the
Wicked lottery for Debbie (by the end of the weekend, we were 0/4 attempts, but miraculously she scored a cancellation seat for the Sunday matinee!). It was so bizarre to step off the subway back into Times Square after the cool water breezes of Coney Island. The longer I live here, the more I'm taken with the diversity of the NYC landscape. I have yet to find a swamp, but I'm sure there's probably one lurking somewhere in the shadows of Central Park ...
And speaking of water, my review of the splashy new play
eurydice is in
this week's issue of Show Business Weekly. As I mentioned in
a previous entry, Sarah Ruhl's delicate work is a refreshing, lustrous summer event (and in this sticky heat, it also offers free air conditioning!).
Rumor has it that Coney Island will soon be Disney-fied (read: made into a more glossy, homogenized, and expensive destination), so on Saturday we rode to the end of the N train to visit the historic beach and boardwalk. It's incredible to step off the subway and stand in such close proximity to warm sand and glittering water--both looked to be rather on the dirty side, but no matter. Don lives at the very opposite end of the line, so we actually took the subway from one end to the other.
It's all very seedy, silly, and sweaty, and I'm so glad I got to see it in its present form. We first walked along the water, delicately stepping between bronzed bodies coated in sand and sunscreen. It's such a raucous scene: tattoos, piercings, and flesh in abundance. We walked to the end of the pier and looked back at the coastline dotted with hundreds of bodies. Then we headed over to the amusement park area, where Don and our friend Debbie (in visiting from Nebraska) braved the famous Cyclone rollercoaster; Nora and I cheered them on from below. 
Wooden rollercoasters kick up big appetites, so we grabbed fried food from one of the many vendors lining the boardwalk. I am newly smitten with corndogs; I don't think I've tasted one since I was 10! There's something so perfectly nuanced about the combination of sweet corn-like taste with salty-meaty hot dog ... I went back for seconds after everyone else had finished. In fact, my mouth is watering again now. 
After wiping the grease from our fingers, we headed back into the city to try to win the Wicked lottery for Debbie (by the end of the weekend, we were 0/4 attempts, but miraculously she scored a cancellation seat for the Sunday matinee!). It was so bizarre to step off the subway back into Times Square after the cool water breezes of Coney Island. The longer I live here, the more I'm taken with the diversity of the NYC landscape. I have yet to find a swamp, but I'm sure there's probably one lurking somewhere in the shadows of Central Park ...
And speaking of water, my review of the splashy new play eurydice is in this week's issue of Show Business Weekly. As I mentioned in a previous entry, Sarah Ruhl's delicate work is a refreshing, lustrous summer event (and in this sticky heat, it also offers free air conditioning!).
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