"Let Us Loose!" (Coney Island Mermaid Parade 2009, Page 1)

Turnout might have been low:  It only took an hour for everyone to leave the staging area, a sad bunch of volunteers trailed the fishpeople holding placards meant to announce the next 100 marchers.  Maybe it was the weather, though what cures a gray day faster than pretty colors and party people?  Maybe folks were just afraid Mermaid King Harvey Keitel would ceremoniously whip out his peen.

But those who turned out were great.  After a glum bit backstage a couple dance groups troupes cranked their music and got folks moving.  Splashdancers - half-welders by day - whipped off their tearaway coveralls and turned into a troupe of leotarded Jennifer Bealses.  And Zoltar!  Dude was riding a Segway in a wired-up booth, it had an intercom and it lit up and everything.  Folks of all species and denominations kept running up to him screaming, "MAKE ME BIG!"

MAKE ME BIG!

The reason I have so few photos this year isn't because there were too few things to take photos of.  It's because Saturday was the day things broke.  First my laptop, then the sky, then my camera.  #2 had a something to do with #3.  The camera's seen plenty of abuse before, but I unwisely decided to keep shooting through a downpour.  Functions started falling away.  What's on these pages is what I could salvage from what I could manage.  There's no way to take bad pictures when the subjects are so appealing, but forgive the soft focus and raindrops and whatnot.  RIP, pea-shooter.  We did some good stuff together!  Have fun in electronics heaven.

More of my photos from the Coney Island Mermaid Parade:

• Page 1 (Favorites)
• Page 2 (Kids, etc.)
• Page 3 (NSFWish, etc.)
• 2008 Mermaid Parade pics
• 2007 Mermaid Parade pics
• 2006 Mermaid Parade pics
• 2005 Mermaid Parade pics

Others' 2009 pics on Flickr and via the Coney Island Message Board

tags: mermaid parade  2009 mermaid parade  coney island mermaid parade  

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