weekend update 08/12-14/05

this weekend, I opted out of the usual "healthy outdoors activities" and instead, took the N Train all the way to Coney Island for a friend's birthday party. It was hot, sweaty and disgusting with no a.c. anywhere to be found but we managed to have a great time anyway. First stop, Ruby's Bar on the Boardwalk (12th & Stillwell) which, rumor has it is soon to be demolished in favor of "some upscale luxury condos" because, you know...we don't have enough luxury condos in NYC. Hung out at Ruby's while everyone arrived from their various destinations...then, in grand Coney Island tradition, they began to, "blow s**t up" (translations: the fireworks started). An old friend related how similar to mortars they were...I was just happy that for the first time since 9/11, I could sit through fireworks w/out hiding under the table or planning a move to parts unknown. The fireworks were massive, loud and best of all...FREE. After the fireworks, the Birthday Girl had plans for all of us to go see a show at the also rumored to be soon to be demolished Sideshows at the Seashore. The show was Fisherman's Love Luau which is part of the Burlesque at the Beach series. Neither of the friends I'd brought with me had ever experienced any of the Coney Island Burlesque shows & I promised them it'd be worth suffering through the BRUTAL heat inside the completely non-ventilated theater. [just a suggestion: floor fans really don't cost that much & they sure would help!]. Though I wouldn't have minded some half-nekked men up on stage too, it was still a great show. Hyped as "Fisherman and Bambi the Mermaid Present the Love Luau! The only night of Tiki-themed Burlesque of its kind in the world! Featuring: Fisherman's Xylophonic Burlesque Orchestra, Bambi, Bunny Love, Julie Atlas Muz, Harvest Moon, Peekaboo Point, Little Brooklyn, Lady Ace, Peaches and Cream, and Viva Knieval". My favorites were Peekaboo Point & Harvest Moon - great outfit & I wanna learn how to do that with a martini glass! I said this to one of my friends a little too loudly & a certain young man offered to help me out later if I'd like to give it a try...ahem. After a good solid two (?) hours of burlesque & a grand finale featuring a bathtub full of red wine (eek! keep that evil stuff away from me!!)...it was time for the dreaded "bathroom line". There is only one bathroom at the theater & the line was ENDLESS...by the time the Birthday Girl and I were done, plans had been made for most of the dancers & one of my friends to go off and play in the ocean by moonlight - or at least the lights coming from the garbage trucks plowing the sand...I opted to stay out of the always questionable Coney Island waves & off the rat-haven beach & instead hung at Ruby's. Two other friends went off to ride the Cyclone (double eek!) and not finding the tilt-a-whirl of my dreams, I sat with the Birthday Girl and discussed the finer points of warm russian champagne (to drink or not to drink), hair dye & denis johnson. By this time it was well passed my bedtime...we watched as the boardwalk was scoured by NYPD and garbagemen & finally, the bathing beauties returned...then it was off to the N train, bemoaning the loss of the old salt water taffy place now that they've renovated the Coney Island station so that it looks more like something a Californian dreamed up (or threw up)...hopefully the rest of Coney won't be bulldozed as per the rumors. Without the seedy sideshow & sticky boardwalk, the stench of day old sausages in onions and decades long drunks at Ruby's it'd just be another dull dull dull East Coast beach boardwalk. ick. The rest of the weekend was spent catching up on movies, reading, writing, phone calls, and the dreaded laundry. When will this heatwave end? It must be at least 110 in my apartment...favorite reads/re-reads of the weekend: Denis Johnson's "The Stars at Noon" and Jeanette Winterson's "Sexing the Cherry"...geniuses both. best movie of the weekend: IRIS...worst movie John Carpenter's VAMPIRES (who said putting James Woods and a Baldwin in a movie together would work?! at least the Baldwin was hotter than his 2 more successful brothers...).