Language level: Advanced
Source: http://www.speakup.com.br
Speaker: Chuck Rollando
Standard: American accent
A CONEY ISLAND OF THE MIND
Coney Island has been called “the world’s playground.” This historic amusement park in New York City was the birthplace of many modern customs, while in recent years it has been a symbol of urban decline. Yet today it seems to be undergoing a revival.
In order to find out more about the significance of this place, we asked Dick Zigun, artistic director of Coney years ago Island USA.
Island USA:
Standard: American accent
Coney Island is part of New York City, it’s actually in Brooklyn, one of the boroughs of New York City, and it is famous amusement park in the United States of America. It is New York City’s amusement park, it is the place where a lot of tradition in amusement parks were invented. The idea of enclosing a fence around a collection of rides and changing one admission price to go in is invented in Coney Island; the rollercoaster is invented in Coney Island, the hot dog is invented in Coney the terrible American informal tradition of standing up and eating, while you walking around, having no manner, is a Coney Island invention. We are very proud of this. Soft ice cream like frozen custard is a Coney Island invention, so the change in America from very British, Victorian, proper ways of behavior to informal ways of wandering around on the beach in a bathing suit, bumping into a young man or woman who you don’t know and flirting and asking for a date: the introduction to the world of the light bulb, the introduction of movie theaters, all happened in Convey Island.
HARD TIMES
Yet Convey Island went into decline after the Second World War, as Zigun explains:
Dick Zigun:
Coney Island, for 40 years now, has been in decline and…(it has) got smaller and smaller, a lot of people thought it should be attacked and closed, but some people defended it, my group, an arts group started 27 years ago, and we did things like invent what is now the biggest art parade in the United States of America, called the Mermaid Parade every year on June.
THE FABULOUS FREAK SHOW
At the moment there are major plans to revive Coney Island. Zigun says that he has mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, he is favorable towards the idea of building more attractions and hotels, but he is less happy about schemes for building condominiums.
Whatever happens to Convey Island, it will remain a fascinating place. That it forms part of American collective consciousness is evident in the fact that it has appeared in films by directors as diverse as Woody Allen and Spike Lee. Yet the greatest tribute probably came from Beat Generation poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti, who published a volume of poetry under the title of A Coney Island of the Mind. Perhaps it is fitting that Convey Island’s biggest attraction these days is “The Freak Show:”
Dick Zigun:
We have six performers who do the 10 different acts, as some people do two acts, so a castoff six and they are a very special group of people. There is a young gal only 19 years old who is the youngest female sword-swallower in the world, she is very pretty, she is very hot and sexy. There is a fellow from Oklahoma who juggles a chainsaw, he hammers nails into his head, there is a gal with her face all tattooed who is our fire-eater, there is a fellow, who’s been working with us from Germany who has his ears pierced and he hangs bowling balls from his ears and twirls them around.
Sometimes we try and make the cast international, if we can, but very unusual performers and a very good show.
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