yowzah!!

ok, i feel like i just came out of a documentary cave & realized there was a whole world out there. here are some things im excited about now that the Fest is over:
The Coney Island Mermaid Parade. they claim it's a family show, but it's only for boobs-& -performance-art-friendly families. like ours.
the Cyclone coaster is extremely fast & dangerous. nothing says Coney Island like carnies smoking on the platform & barking at you to "GET ON! Move IT!" & then they 'hold' your camera for you while you are worrying that a) your boobs are going to come flying out of your dress atop that first hill and b) [says ct] youre going to careen either into the projects or the ocean. did i mention this 80 y/o wooden coaster is still run by levers hand-cranked by that same carnie that's 'holding' you camera. ride it while you still can.
the Wonder Wheel is also reccomended, especially in a thunder storm, as Maya, Dave, Amy & I learned last year. Mermaid Queen pic by Dave Smooth. I'll let him post the rest of the gems here or on his exceptional photo blog.

Thunders storms are one of my fav parts of summer, and there's one about on now. hopefully the sky will finally pour the rain it's been threatening for the last few days & cool us off. its one of the better things going on the east coast (sorry seattle.)

new Bjork album Volta - i've heard it a little and am anxious to buy it, thou im not sure i'll spring for the Dolby Surround delux version. i do hope i can spring for the tour.

summer = doing nothing. i hope.
summer = random trips to random places. look out Atlantic City. gambling punks looking for a spectacle are coming to your shore.

oh and in hot literature news, JT Leroy is fake. ok that that's hot or news is questionable, but what is news is that Laura Albert, who concocted the whole story/character & essentially used JT as an elaborate pseudonym has been charged with fraud and fined, seemingly because a movie contract was signed with the pseudonym and there was money involved. Now, im no legal expert, but would anyone charge any of the other famous pseudonym-users with fraud (movies have been made in their names)? is this an issue of hurt feelings? or was she truly misrepresenting herself to gain the attention of the world that, in a quest for some kind of authenticity in their fiction, otherwise disregarded her writing?