Hundreds of mermaids wash ashore in Coney Island!

Hello everyone. Welcome back to By Amara. This is a weekly news show where we'll discuss some of the weird, strange, and downright odd things that have happened this week in the art and history fields.

I'm your host and personal curator, Amara Andrew. This week, it is a very weird week. We're going to be talking about a Stonehenge discovered in the Netherlands, a mysterious creature spotted in the Manhattan skyline, and hundreds of mermaids washed ashore in Coney Island.

We have all that and more coming up on this episode of By Amara. So let's get to it.

So genuinely, I'm very excited for this episode. I didn't think I would be, but I am. So hello.

Welcome to the show. This is yet another episode of By Amara. This is episode 39.

That is wild. Next week is going to be episode 40.

I'm spitting, I'm so excited. I can't believe it. I always just like to start the show with some updates.

So, personal life updates, really nothing, unfortunately. Okay, that's a lie. I do have a couple of things.

Sorry, my voice. Hold on, let me take a sip of water. So this week we went to the beach, which was really fun.

I have a whole little mini vlog on my social media's just because, I don't know, I want to get better at mini vlogging. I just find them so fascinating when people do them. And I just like seeing the documentation of what somebody's day was like and how different people live.

I don't know why it's so fascinating, but it just is. Just to watch people's processes and how they do things. It's just, I don't know, it's just fun.

So anyway, we went to the beach and then we went to this, it was Montrose Beach in Chicago. Chicago actually has like really pretty beaches, you wouldn't think it, but they have like really nice beaches. Some better than others, but that's subjective.

But we went to Montrose Beach, which I really love, even though Osterman Beach is definitely my favorite, so we should have gone there, but I digress. So we went there and then we went to Unabridged Bookstore, which is a really cute little bookshop if you're ever in like the Lakeview kind of area. It's so cute and it's like one of my favorite bookstores in the city.

And I got The Creative Act by Rick Rubin. I'm very excited to read it. I'm only a chapter in because I have a whole stack of books.

I always do this where I like I am just working on like one book for a little bit, but then I'm like, "Oh, I need to read this, this, this, this, and this." And then I have like 20 different books at my library and they're like, "Hey, fuck face, can we get your books?" And I'm like, "Oh my god, stupid books!" And I don't I don't I do that all the time where I just I have so many books I want to read, and I wish I could read them

Quickly and just like have them implanted in my brain, because I love reading, but I just I don't have a lot of time. Even now, I'm just fucking like talking, and talking, and talking. So anyway, got that book.

I love it so far. I'm very excited. It actually inspired me to start something.

In my Etsy shop, at byamara.co, in my Etsy shop, soon I will have cute, little mini greeting cards, and I'm so excited to actually finish them. It's something I've been working on this week and like during the weekend, and I'm waiting on my mini envelopes that are supposed to come so then I can sell those with the cards, and oh my god, I'm so excited.

I can't wait. So that's coming to my Etsy shop. That's just been something I'm working on, been working on rather.

I feel like every time I record, it's like super hazy and dark outside, but today, it's actually dark because of the wildfire smoke. Like, I live in Chicago and I guess it's from the Canadian wildfires, which is terrible. I chuckled, but it's just like, "This is insane." and the entire sky is just so dark and you can actually see the smoke over like trees and houses and buildings and stuff like that.

It's really creepy. And it's supposed to be nice and sunny, and it has been nice and sunny, but every time I record, it is cloudy and gross outside, but this time, it's actually because of the wildfires, which is terrible. So, everybody be safe out there.

I do also have two updates for the show. The first one is very sad. Last week, we talked about, obviously, the Titan submersible, I almost said submarine, like a sandwich.

I meant submersible. The Titan submersible and unfortunately, like I said I would have an update, unfortunately, that imploded, apparently, just because of pressure and all that fun sciency stuff that I don't understand, but it is absolutely tragic and terrible, and shame on you if you're making fun of people who died in this.

Like, it shouldn't matter who the people are, just it's not cool. Anyway. I went on a tangent last week that I actually edited out because I was like, went a little too far, so anyway, I might just edit this out, also.

It is very sad to hear. Thankfully, I guess, everybody, I say thankfully, but thankfully, everybody within the submersible died immediately, it sounds like, so you didn't have to suffocate slowly or die of hunger or thirst, which I know many people in the world do, and that is absolutely terrible, and if I could save everybody, I would, believe me.

I just I hate hearing about suffering. So anyway, so that is my update for that. And then I do have a much sillier update, which I want to do kind of end on.

So in Episode 32, we talked about the student in South Korea who ate a banana, and not just any banana, it was a $120,000 artwork. It's Comedian by Maurizio Cattelan. It was featured in a gallery and a student in South Korea went in to look at it, ate the banana, took the peel, and taped it back to the wall, which I should explain Comedian.

Comedian is literally just a banana that is duct taped to a wall. That's it. It's very simple.

They replace the banana, I think, every two or three days, just because, obviously, produce rots. So he took it, ate it, taped the peel back to the wall. I do have a few clarifications for that story that have come out now, because the media, as always, is sensationalizing everything and getting some things not quite accurate.

So, he wasn't an art student, like it was originally reported. He was actually a religious studies student. So, there's that.

He's a religious studies student who has an interest in art, so there you go. He also didn't say that he had skipped breakfast, like was reported. And it also wasn't done to protest.

I didn't see anything about it being said that he was protesting something, but apparently, some news sources said that later on, so I just wanted to clear that up. And then finally, I just thought this was funny. In the clarifications, the student actually said that he ate the banana, and he was virtually nobody before, but after eating the banana, he became a minor celebrity and was featured in The Guardian, which is where this came from, so, anyway, I just thought that was very silly.

So, yeah, let's just get straight into the show.

Archaeologists have uncovered a 4,000 year old sanctuary nicknamed "The Stonehenge of the Netherlands" in Tiel, the Netherlands. The Netherlands. So, the size of this thing, this expanse is about four American football fields in size, and it features several burial mounds with the largest having a diameter of 65 feet.

The dig in this specific part of the Netherlands in Tiel, and I'm probably mispronouncing it, but Tiel is what I'm saying, so apologies for mispronunciation. It began in 2017, the entire dig of this area. So, we do know that Stonehenge is made of stones.

This particular version, which is very similar, and we're going to talk about the similarities in a second, this one, though, was built with wood and soil, and it actually had rows of poles that were along the pathway to be used for a procession. It's still believed, though, that this was a very highly significant place for people, just like Stonehenge is believed to be.

Both I think are believed to sort of be some sort of solar calendar, and a lot of different things related to solstices are found across the globe, which is really weird, but really cool. So, this site also is believed to be highly significant for past peoples. It was, like I said, it had some sort of solar calendar, so it aligned with the sun on certain solstices, and then it also served as a place for performing rituals and for burying the dead.

Archaeologists found human skulls, animal skeletons, and valuable items like bronze spearheads at the site, and it they were perfectly lined up with where the sun would show through at specific intervals, so like the summer solstice, winter solstice, all the all the solstices. What is the plural of solstice? They also found the remains, which this was kind of unclear if these were the human skeletons that were being talked about or not, or the human skulls, rather, but there were also the remains of 60 men, women, and children that were found that would have been like for offering.

A little too metal for me. The site was used for burials also for more than 800 years, so, apparently, the human remains span an 800-year stretch. This was really cool, what was found on the site, though.

They found a glass bead in the oldest part of the burial field, and it's going to get cooler in a sec. The bead was in a grave of a woman who was from Mesopotamia, so modern day Iraq. The bead within this grave is the oldest found in the Netherlands.

That is really fucking cool. Glass also was not made in the Netherlands at the time, so this was probably Could you imagine seeing glass for the first time and being like, "What fucking witchcraft is this? How is it see through, but it also is like a thing?" I don't know.

Just imagine seeing certain material I do that every once in a while where I'm like, "Wow, imagine the first person who like thought of using this or doing this or whatever." And just imagining something so just nothing as glass, like this. This is I'm If you're listening to this, I'm holding up my giant ass water glass.

But imagine seeing this where you could look through it, but it could also hold stuff. Like that would blow my fucking mind. It's just That would be so cool.

I'd be like, "How are you doing that?" So anyway, the this little glass bleed This little glass bead probably just caused quite a ruckus back in the day. So, super brief story. Some of the discoveries will go to the Museum van de Geest in Tiel.

Sorry for mispronunciation. It's very rusty. And then some will go to the National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden.

So, just really cool. I was mostly excited for that little glass bead that's in a that was in the grave. I'm curious what kind of symbolism or special quality that the bead was believed to have.

Like if it did have kind of a magical sort of quality for people and they were just like, "Okay, we need to bury this with the person who brought it here," or whatever. I have no idea. But anyway, let's just get to our next story.

A giant creature was found on the balcony of a Manhattan building this past week. And the work was found near the High Line in Manhattan. This is a giant 12 ft tall humanoid sculpture that has yellow skin, bulging eyes, no hair, cute thick eyebrows, I guess you could call them, and a really round face, and it even has like little nips to it.

Even though it's massive, it is very cute. I really like it. I would actually like to have this in my backyard.

This specific sculpture is literally called A Creature. It is from Creature World. This particular item in its past life was used to market Danny Cole's new fashion brand Creature World back in February.

And Creature World is an NFT project that's been in existence at least for a couple years now. I don't actually quite know how long. But Creature World, it's just all of these creatures that are bald, round-headed figures with different backgrounds and stuff like that.

So this specific sculpture, though, like I teased, it had a previous life where it was at the fashion show, but Danny Cole, who's the creator of Creature World, he wanted to extend the life of the original foam sculpture, so he used the sculpture as a cast, covered it in a hard shell, and then poured in steel, which is exactly what we saw in the Manhattan skyline, we, like I was fucking there, what people saw in the Manhattan skyline.

And there's an entire video of the installation of this on Danny Cole's Twitter, so you can go check that out. I think he's just @DannyCole on Twitter. It is really something.

So Cole and a group of friends, they used a or a group of friends, a group of people, I don't know, friends, foes, whatever, but they used a crane to install this creature on a balcony of the building in Manhattan, like I said, and it's an apartment building, mind you. Allegedly for legal reasons, Cole can't say whether the building was in on the gag or not, but it kind of seems like they were, especially because they issued the following statement, quote, "The building embraces the artwork, and the developer, Jeffrey Levine, concedes it may have found a new home," end quote.

So, it feels like there was some sort of discussion at least about it, or if not, the developers are just really fucking cool, and it doesn't make sense, but whatever. Some people on the team, though, when they were installing the sculpture, they received trespassing charges from police, but quote, "We were able to make it to the finish line," end quote.

Again, a very brief story, but it was this kind of guerrilla style marketing. Like I had seen the Creature's NFT or Creature World, I keep calling it the creatures, but I've I had seen the Creature World NFT project before, and actually, most recently at VeeCon, they had a whole little booth, which was really cute, and they had this little hat thing that had ears, so it looked like you were bald I it looked like a weird Teletubby without the little do-dad sticking out of the middle, and they even had like ugly sweaters that had the creatures on, I don't know.

They're doing a really great job. So, this was yet another style of clever marketing on their part. Additionally, this Cole guy sounds like a trip.

He also did other things, like I think it was in 2021, he covered the O in the Hollywood sign in LA with a painting of a cow that he had made in someone's backyard, which I was like, "That's pretty amazing." they were pursued by police, both on foot and with a helicopter, and eventually landed in jail. This guy sounds like somebody I'd love to party with, just because that sounds like my kind of entertainment and fun.

But yeah, like I said, you can check out the whole video on Danny Cole's Twitter. I just thought it was something really fun. It's something unique to that not a lot of NFT projects are necessarily doing, but I really like the mixture of the digital with the physical and it's just it's very entertaining, I'll say, just because if you're walking down the High Line in Manhattan and then you look up and you're like, "What the fuck is that?" I just thought it was fun.

So, if you have an NFT project, consider doing something fun like that. And Danny Cole, if you want to party, then I don't know. On to the next story.

I should have chosen something a little bit more tropical, and beachy, and mermaid-y for our final story, but, you know, whatever. This really has been the year of the mermaid, because you have Disney with their reboot of The Little Mermaid, there's a Netflix docuseries that I am dying to watch, Jeff is a little bit more hesitant to watch it, it's called MerPeople, and it's supposed to trace like I'm not a mermaid gal, I've never been a mermaid gal, and I don't quite I understand it.

I am not a mermaid person. I am very much not a girly girl, if that makes sense. So, I'm not I've never really been into the whole mermaid thing.

I appreciate the art form, though, which, we will talk about in a sec. But anyway, there's a docuseries on Netflix called MerPeople, and it looks interesting. I'm very curious.

I just like studying people, because I find it fun. Anyhoo. So, like I said, year of the mermaid, we had Little Mermaid, MerPeople docuseries, and now, there were a flock of hundreds of mermaids that were spotted in Coney Island, of all varying shapes, sizes, and colors.

The 41st annual Mermaid Parade is the nation's largest art parade. I had never heard of this before, and I want to go next year. I am going next year, and I'm going to dress like a fucking mermaid, and it's going to be great.

The Mermaid Parade, so I said 41st annual, and that's right. This started in 1983 as a way to kick off the swimming season, which is an amazing way to start. I love everything about this.

Like, I love how fucking weird and kooky this is, in the best possible way. I say weird, but I'm I love it. Like, I mean that as a term of endearment.

So, anyway, I'm so passionate about this parade, I guess. So, the parade is produced by the community arts non-profit, Coney Island USA, which is the name of it, I guess, alongside the Department of Cultural Affairs, DCLA. Every year, there's a crowned King Neptune and Queen Mermaid, and I guess the Queen Mermaid was the DCLA director, or something, this year, which, apparently, the person is not well liked.

But I digress, I'm I have no idea. The parade route starts on Surf Avenue, the main drag, and then it starts at Surf and West 20th Street, and then it goes all the way up to 10th Street, where then they the mermaids emerge onto the boardwalk, they're washed ashore. They end up on the boardwalk and then they go to Steeplechase Plaza, where the parade kind of like ends and dispands and everything like that.

You need to look up pictures if you are listening to this, and if you're watching the video version, I have pictures up here and you can see some of the costumes. These are fantastic. I really love this.

But if you're listening to this, please Google "Mermaid Parade, Coney Island", and it's fucking It is worth it. It is well worth it. There is a little bit of nudity, so just FYI, in case you're not into that.

Just so you're aware. You see many different bodies of many different people, and it's glorious. So, people are dressed, like I said, in all manner of different things.

Some people are dressed in just aquatic garb, so like they had a captain's hat and a coat and shit like that. Some people are dressed as lobsters. There was one who was on rollerblades dressed as a lobster, which I was like, "Oh my god, that's amazing." A lot of people dress like mermaids, obviously.

Just varying, anything nautical related, people were dressed in, and in varying things. Like somebody was just literally only wearing a speedo and a fishing net thing, and like literally a net, not like, "Ooh, sexy," but just like a net with like a fucking fish in it. It was amazing.

I loved I keep saying it was amazing, I genuinely loved it, though, just how odd this is. So, after the parade, I think that they said the parade starts at 1:00 and it's like 1:00 to 4:00 is the entire event kind of thing. After they do the parade, party on the boardwalk for a little bit, then they go down to the beach and then there's an official beach ceremony that takes place where the ocean opens for the swimming season, apparently.

So, that is quite a way to start the swim season in anywhere. And I really think we need to bring that to Chicago, also, because that would be fucking amazing. So like I mentioned, this is the largest art parade, and it truly is.

Like, the costumes are absolutely spectacular. I can't I keep saying it, but it just genuinely is. Like, I love seeing all the creativity.

Apparently, a couple of people, they took a couple weeks to make their costume, a couple people took a couple months, which I was like, "This is amazing." So, I don't really have a point, other than, this is just really cool. If you're into mermaids or just want to let your freak flag fly, again, I say that in the most wonderful, respectful way possible, you should go check this out next year.

So, June 17th about is when it looks like it happens, so I will probably be there next year. You do have to pay to get in, I believe. I think it's like $30 or something like that.

So, it's not too expensive, but just keep that in mind and you can register ahead, and they have floats and all that kind of stuff, so, anyway, I will probably be there next year. So anyway, that was this it for this episode of By Amara. Thank you so much for listening.

Please like this episode if you liked it, and if you'd love to be a mermaid, let me know in the comments below, because maybe you can change my mind. And please subscribe if you like this. A lot of people listen to the show are not subscribed, and that's totally fine, you do you, but I would appreciate it and love you forever.

I'll love you forever no matter what, so don't worry about that. So, anyhoo, subscribe, please, and I'm Amara Andrew. Never stop creating.

Pazoopa!