A Little bit of this and that...

Coney Island Dreams UPDATE: To: Beth Levin, Sue Prager, Murray Liebman, Marvin Koenigsberg, Sid Beinart, Selma Ost, Bob Smith, Teddy Aronson, Herbie Liebman, Irving Ziller, Eugene Ziller, Sherman Baychik, Harry Brill...etc. etc... Barnum & Bailey, click on link in article on P.T. Barnum for 'illuscinations' a show that will be in Coney Island all summer and then goes on the road across the states. Also 2010 picture of two sunbathers at the beach in Coney island near the Wonder Wheel in the July 5th, 2010 heat wave. I should also get data on the Nathan's hot dog eating contest with the appearance of the past champ's attempt to crash the party. Let me know if any of you New Yorkers like Beth Levin, Murray Liebman, Susan Prager, and Sid Beinart get a chance to visit Coney Island. Beth, my friend Sid Beinart, who is now 88, just sold those prints I showed you a few years back of Jack Foshko. Sid, Beth is a pianist who lives in Brooklyn, who was a friend of Judy Shure, the See more... sister of Jack Foshko who you rescued from Israel a few decades ago. Susan, I assume you met Beth with Marvin Koenigsberg for Beth's concert featuring Bach's Goldberg Variations. She is going to play for Bargemusic, so contact her for dates and stuff, Did I leave anyone out? I could start a new blog called the New York Gang. Murray lived with Jack Foshko in San Francisco awhile back in the late forties or early fifties(?). Jordan



By J. Richman on P.T. Barnum's 200th Birthday on 7/5/10


Do you remember long hikes from 36th street and mermaid Avenue on the the corner of Dick's corner store, (formely Gunner's) to 14th Street and Surf Avenue for two Nathan hot dogs and an orange drink, followed by a small bag of delicious heavily salted french fries? We never, never, ever had more than two hot dogs, let alone 54 in 10 minutes. A roomate of mine at UNM was an anthropologist working with Indian tribes who used peyote. He went down to some border towns in Texas to pick up dozens of burlap bags filled with dried peyote plants which some of the tribes used for their religious ceremonies. The peyote had been cleared by the federal government for them for that purpose. Charley Dustan, that was his name, gave me some 'buttons' of the plant to try out. I can't remember how I took them but I managed to get quite a peyote high. LSD was supposed to be in some ways comparable. Well, as I lie abed at my UNM dorm room under the spell of peyote (I could have begun here) the taste of See more... a Nathan's hot dog tortured me for hours. I had not had one for years. Today, Vita and myself bought two packages of Nathan's hot dogs at our local Safeway store. Now, ain't that progress? Jordan


E-mail to my good friend who tells me she enjoys my blogs: Hi, Thanks for the compliment. As I child growing up in Coney Island I met and knew several people who were excellent violinists. There weren't that many, but the few I met inspired me and then as the bio indicates I had the good fortune to sign up with the Roosa School of Music which I described in the bio. I went once a week except for the summers because they had a summer camp and I had a substitute teacher for the summers. I journeyed by subway for my lessons from Coney Island to Boro Hall, then I took a local to one of the streets in Brooklyn Heights to a beautiful old Brownstone where the school was located. Then I would go on Friday nights to quartet playing where I played a viola they loaned me. There was also at times orchestra practice for the recitals they gave all around town, many in churches. I did that until I was 19. from 13 to 19. It was the heart of the cold war and I failed the exemption test. See more... Actually, I got a 68 on the exemption test, which is a passing grade, but they made it tough by upping the pass grade for the exemption to 78. But all that is another story. My teacher was 75 when I first started taking lesson and 81 when I stopped. After I left for New Mexico and Colorado I returned to New York where I met Vita. I stopped off at the Music repair shop which had referred me to Roosa and I asked about him, thinking he probably had passed away. The violin repairman said, "No, he was very much alive and still playing the violin. I should go up to see him, He lives in Queens." Coney island dreams were all about becoming if not a great violinist at least an accomplished one. I think I got to about half way to that goal. Whatever time I have left goes into figuring why I could not make it all the way. Maybe you can help me with that and other questions like what is going to happen with that oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico? Regards to Harvey and I hope we can get together again soon. Jordan


By J. Richman on Coney Island Dreams on 6/17/10


My dream was to dig a foxhole on the beach and wait there wait until every one left so I could listen to the roar of the ocean and the crashing of the waves and fall gently asleep.