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The Mermaid Parade
Coney Island, 2006
The first Saturday of summer. That means The Mermaid Parade. And
the skies were dark and soggy. I’ve never done the parade in the rain.
The weather was crappy a few years back and I opted to stay home. That
was a mistake. I heard that the folks who went had a blast, bonding in
the downpour, and I vowed never to miss another rainy Mermaid Parade.
So when the forecast was for showers I forged ahead. Ruth, Jamye and
Leslie arrived at my place early to get our mermaid on; I’d sewed fins
for all four of us and we pinned and primped. We’d decided to do a
Seussical theme. Ruth and I were Mermaid 1 and Mermaid 2, a take off on
Cat in the Hat’s Thing 1 and 2. Jamye and Leslie were 1 Fish and 2
Fish. Sorta. Around 11 my friend Nick arrived and he chauffered us out
to Coney. Nice! We arrived right before noon to find many marchers
already lining up. I love the fact that there’s practically one
photographer for every mermaid!
The intermittent drizzles didn’t dampen anyone’s spirits, though it
might’ve made a few feathers droopy. Kostume Kult was there in full
force as Cirque de Sea-Lay, an aquatic take on Cirque de Soleil. They
had mer-lions and mer-acrobats, with Costume Jim as the mer-ringmaster
and mer-lion tamer. He was pulling their papier maché ass-biting
mer-lion. Hilarious! We watched as a large group of Egyptian zombies,
“Fishtails from the Crypt,” rehearsed their dance routine to Michael
Jackson’s Thriller. Wow! Choreography! Now that’s organized! They wound
up winning Best Marching Group. Kudos! There were a number of
impressively crafted pulling floats with pirate, Treasure Island and a
couple of Egyptian themes. Ya gotta admire the dedication, especially
given the fact that they were probably all cobbled together in small
apartments!
The gathering crowd of photographers and participants went wild when
Bambi and Whitney arrived. It was like a movie star with the
paparrazi! In a swirl of glitter, boobs and, in Whitney’s case, stage
blood—she always shows up with the scariest and most fabulous
frightfest makeup!—they made their way through to their parade
position. Bambi, Coney Island’s very own Mermaid, was this year’s
Parade Queen. The King was Lucky Diamond Rich, the World’s Most Heavily
Tattooed Man. Babmi’s always the queen in my book! The parade stepped
off just after 2pm, with spectators lining the boardwalk, cheering us
on. I was impressed by how many people showed up in the
less-than-delightful weather, with nary a sad sunbather in sight!. They
were all so appreciative.
Since the rain meant The Cyclone wasn’t running, after marching we all
went straight to Ruby’s. Rumor was the place would be bulldozed by this
time to make way for gentrification. Thank goodness that didn’t happen!
The crowd outside wasn’t quite as big as usual, but that meant the line
for the bathroom was way shorter! When it really started to come down
we all went inside where it was hot and sweaty. Of course, never one to
just stand around, I became the troublemaker. I’d invite cuties to
dance on one of the tables until the biggest bartender would come and
get them down. I’d run interference to give the gyrators more time in
the spotlight. And then I’d do it again! The florescent-lit bar smelled
like grease and sweaty mermaids and the packed place held a couple
hundred of us, all drunk and singing along to the ridiculous jukebox.
It was heaven!
From there we motivated over to The Mermaid Ball, for AC, cleaner
bathrooms and live music. I can’t recall much, but I do remember
chatting with Taylor Mac, one of the most amazing drag queens ever!
(Look for an interview with him here sometime soon!) There were DJs,
some bands and the usual burlesque suspects. I was busy getting (more)
bombed…
And when we tired of that scene we were chauffered back into Manhattan
for more fun at the Delancey, followed by Love’s Whoville, where Ruth
and I thought we had a lock on winning the Seuss Realness contest.
Sigh. Some woman in a polka dot dress won instead. Who (ville) knew it
was a voguing thing? Cause it didn’t get a whole lot more Seuss
Realness than Mermaid 1 and 2! Ah well, it was a blast making it almost
a full 24 hours in costume! I’m already excited about next year!
[Written July 2006]
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