I wanted to show her CI and I usually attend the Siren Festival every year and its always a good time and Coney Island in the Summer time is the best.
However today was not only the hottest freaking day of the year, it may have been in the running for one of the hottest ever. Freaking stroke inducing.
We get off the subway and into the heat, and their is no cover anywhere, and are trying to enjoy the street performers and sidewalk fare on our way to see our first band of the day: The band Ponytail who are part of that wave of awesome talent that’s been coming out of Baltimore as of late.
We check them out for a bit but its not long before Spanish Eyes maintains her motif of constant hunger, and hello we were 10 yards from Nathan’s Hot Dogs, and we were at Coney Island, so is their more of an obvious choice? – Nathan’s is the very spirit of CI and the site of the World’s Hot Dog Eating Competition (that ironically took place just the previous weekend). So we step out of 98 degree weather and into a kitchen that had to be over 100 degrees. First their were sooo many people packed into this sweat locker, and with the grill and steam it was stifling in there. Normally this has an adverse effect on me (as I NEVER drink water) but other than just being a bit warm, I was fine. My Spanish companion however..? – Not so much – I can laugh about this now, (and it was funny) but as it was happening I was more concerned than entertained. I had alot to carry with two LARGE lemonades and our food so I went to give her the drink and go back for the rest. When I came back, as funny as this looked haha, she was dizzy and stumbling like a drunk person and falling fast. Before I could say “Hey, are you alright?” – down she went! – The normal apathetic New York public even looked on with a little concern as I rushed to keep some napkins to swipe the condensation from our drinks and apply it to her forehead and neck. My memory of this is largely hilarious, and made for the joke of the day and the next.
So what’s the natural next step from coming this close to a pukey heat stroke? Walk 10 more yards to one of the most famous rollercoasters in the world and the jewel of Coney Island – The Cyclone.
Now to know, you will know that I am not afraid of shit, but you also can’t miss my historic stomach issues and hyper-sensitivity to motion sickness. However I wasn’t gonna let any of that get in the way of us having the fun you are supposed to be having at Coney Island. So onward we march and conquer that sucker. An odd occurrence happened while in line. An especially douchbagger from last Summer says hello to me – whom I previously had envisioned would come to blows if I ever saw this fucker again – oddly the person that introduced us, I ran into her at Monotonix just the night before and she said that they were having a party soon for said douchbag and that jokingly, I should come. So today I see him and also mentions the party, and non-chalantly tells me that the party is designed as condolence as he’s been recently diagnosed with Lyme Disease. Fucking weird and couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy.
So after I nearly puke off the side of this safety hazard we head to the mainstage right next to us to see the always fun Matt & Kim.
These two live down the street from me so I see them often and I would never be in the mood to listen to their music outside of the live setting, but in concert, what a blast. It could be said that alot of people came just for the festival, but it seemed everyone was there to see them and look how many came!
So what does one do after a long and super hot and sweaty day? – Go to another concert! Before we had met, the senorita had already planned to attend and purchased a ticket to tonight’s after-party at the Music Hall of Williamsburg with We Are Scientists. I didn’t have a ticket, but I can usually get around these things. We get there and I have blogged and lamented at length my feelings towards the entire staff of elitist rabble that run this place and tonight the problems only increased. I really didn’t give a shit anyway, so I told her to go on and I went next door and had a beer and checked email for the duration of their just over an hour performance.
So a few days later on our final night, a la Before Sunrise we had a gorgeous day and evening. We spent the whole day at one of my fave places in NYC, the Natual History Musuem and to hit a few other places I wanted her to see. At dusk we hit a perfect sunset while riding the Staten Island Ferry.
