Video Storytelling for the Web

Transcript

Adam Rinn:
In three, two, one.

Ten years ago it was really becoming a lost art.

Somebody has got to keep this tradition, this sideshow tradition alive, so that we have a future, so that the sideshow doesn’t die out.

Oh no, the show’s about to begin. Right here at Sideshows by the Seashore. Come one, come all, come big, come small. You’ve got 45 seconds left on that special promotion, the friends of Adam, the first real man, promotion. Right here. Thank you very much, because laides and gentleman, it’s showtime.

Mazeltov. Center the pile a bit. [Walking on glass] Yeah, that’s what you want. You want the grinding, that crunching.

Laura Moran:
Ooh, it’s misty.

I’ve always loved the freak show.

Adam Rinn:
You’re going to take it, hold it about a foot from your face at an angle like that. [Spits]

Laura Moran:
There’s this constant subversive element sort of acting out against the mainstream you know normality. [Blows fire]

I’m really glad to carry on the freak show torch.

Distant voice:
Fry her. [Distinct laughing]

Adam Rinn:
Coney Island is the great equalizer. We don’t see color, we don’t see strangeness, we don’t see gender, we don’t see sex type, you are what you are and everybody here is embraced.

Julie Hugonny:
At the beginning of the 20th century, those things, like sideshows were big. And even if Coney Island changes a lot, this stays really kinda like a turn of the century place. It’s kinda like going back in time.

Adam Rinn:
This is gone. Thunderbolt is gone.

New York is not a city that cares about its roots, that cares about its history. New York will bulldoze and put up new.

You know, no matter what happens around us, whether it’s development or destruction, we will be here holding that torch, carrying the flame, and saying yes, you know, it is good to be a freak.

Adam Rinn:
You ready?

Alison Heller:
Yes.

[Blocks breaking]

Now, you’re gonna clean it up. Grab one piece for your diploma.
—

Coney Island has seen many changes since it opened its first sideshow in 1880. Theme parks have been developed, bulldozed and redeveloped, newer vendors have replaced old businesses, real estate has been bought and sold to high end developers and the list goes on.

But there are some places at Coney that are determined to keep the tradition alive. The Coney Island Sideshow School is one of them.

Professor Adam Rinn, who grew up in the area, teaches students how to eat fire, walk on broken glass and carry a charge in an electric chair.

The school usually teaches two four-day sessions per year. Students sign up and pay an $800 tuition. Rinn says the cost will deter curiosity seekers, but for those who really want to perform sideshow acts, they’ll make up the tuition costs in a gig or two.

There were five students in the spring 2012 graduating class. Two students were from an amusement park on the Jersey Shore and planned to take back what they learned to perform there. Another student was writing her doctorate dissertation on freaks and freak shows and thought the class would help her research. Another student was a stand up comedian and wanted to incorporate some of these acts into her performances.

In his own small way, Rinn is helping to preserve the sideshow and an important part of Coney’s history.
—
Video by Anika Anand and Kenneth Christensen
Editing by Anika Anand
Music by Stars, “Your Ex-Lover Lays Dead”
Archive photos courtesy of Bain News Service, George Grantham Bain Collection (Library of Congress)
Special thanks to Bob Sacha and Wonbo Woo

————

For more information on Coney Island and sideshows:
coneyisland.com/sideshow_school.shtml
coneyislandhistory.org/index.php?g=about
sideshowworld.com/2-Our/ourgoal.html
—
Behind the scenes:
“You’re like cockroaches,” said Adam Rinn, the Sideshow School professor. He was referring to student journalists who pop up year after year, vying for his attention.

Coney Island Sideshow School has been covered by major television networks as a 30-second eye-catching filler piece and by student journalists as a one-of-a-kind project for show-and-tell.

So how did I want to tell this story?

It was a four-day class, but we could only shoot the last day (due to our schedules). That meant understanding the story, what shots to get and figuring out the “universal hook” all in a few short hours. It was challenging for a mere cockroach like me.

Adam, used to media attention, was great about forgetting we were there and letting us shoot wherever and whatever we wanted (with the exception of any shots that would give away trade secrets).

It was fun shooting all the tricks, but I think the most rewarding part was at the very end, when Kenny and I were exhausted, ready to go home but needed to get some interviews with the students before they left.

We kept the questions open-ended: “What did you get out of this experience?” and “What does the Coney Island Sideshow School and Coney Island mean to you?” All five students talked about how the traditions of Coney Island were disappearing and they felt like this school was a way to keep the traditions alive.

Yes, the tricks were cool. Yes, the building is old and decaying. Yes, there is lots of fire. But I didn’t want to sensationalize this story. I really wanted to emphasize the teaching, the passing on of tradition and people’s eagerness to learn sideshow skills. So, that’s the story we told.

UNIVERSAL APPEAL
film by Natalia V. Osipova
Christian: The chess shops and the places that I knew where people congregated were not the places that you would want your grandmother to come with her grandson, or your wife to bring, you know, the kids to learn to play chess. They were seedy, they were grimy and grungy… And it just, all around, did not have a family element to it.
MUSIC
NATSOUND:
Christian Whitted, CEO of New York Chess & Games: Grandmaster Howard, did you have a snack?
Christian Whitted, CEO of New York Chess & Games: The original business model was to have a place where people would come to play chess.

But they didn’t come.
There is no gambling, there is no profanity, there is no alcohol. (Laughs) So, you know, ultimately it lead to no chess players.
We tried to find something else, so we started teaching and the teaching just caught on, like wild fire
NATSOUND Ms. Ariel, chess instructor: Go!GO!Go!Go!
Ariel, chess instructor: Best part of the job is getting to know that kids have learned something.
Knowing that you taught them that they will carry for the rest of their lives
George Harris, customer: I started coming here like, almost a year now.
You know, I have never really exhibit patience, and I have never been as observant as I am now. And that’s thanks to chess.
If I see Christian, I definitely to have a game with him. Because I know, I will learn something.
NATSOUND:
Christian Whitted, CEO of New York Chess & Games: You have to move there, I mean. I don’t know if you liked it. make a move!
George Harris, customer: I don’t know. Should I have taken the one with the Bishop?…
George: He is like the Yoda of chess to me.
MUSIC
Christian Whitted, CEO of New York Chess & Games: I watch the people who come here either socially or, you know, as a client or as a customer, I watch them making progress, I watch them persevere and dig through, you know, adversity. I watch people who used to lose all the time, all of the sudden, become tough people.
MUSIC
NATSOUND:
Ms. Ariel, chess instructor: Holy-moly ravioli, did you just beat me?
Christian Whitted, CEO of New York Chess & Games: I see children who were intimidated by the game, adults who were intimidated by the game become confident people…
NATSOUND: “Good game, good game”
Christian Whitted, CEO of New York Chess & Games: What is does for me personally is vindication, a validation that my life has some real value, and I love that. You can’t put a price tag on that feeling. That’s great, you know
NATSOUND: “Peace and love”

Every customer and staff person of this corner shop at Flatbush Avenue and Dean Street in Brooklyn has a story about how it changed their lives.
At this place people say they find kind of wisdom, improve self-esteem learn patience and engage in fair competition. It happens on a chessboard.
The main rule for instructors students and clients: “You must have a good time,” said the owner of New York Chess & Games Christian Whitted. The shop specializes in making chess fun and easy to learn.
A train conductor for 16 years Whitted, 43, started his business four years ago. His teenage daughter was becoming more independent, and he needed something new for fulfillment.
As it turned out, he found even more than he bargained for.
Whitted said, he never did anything as challenging emotionally, physically, spiritually, financially and creatively as managing his own business. It was almost as raising another child.
“There is a lot of joy, a lot of sense of accomplishment that goes along with making a difference,” he said.
What’s important to Whitted is not just that teaching customers of all ages to play or to play better, but lessons that go beyond the board.
George Harris, 41, a fashion stylist and the client at New York Chess and Games for more than a year, said, he has never patient and observant as he is now thanks to chess. He said, once saying without thinking even cost him a job. In conversation with competitor, he was criticizing his company.
“After I lost my job I was just like, you know, I am unemployed, trying to clock on unemployment, but all I had to do was just think ahead,” he said. “I wish I was playing chess then.”
This Brooklyn chess shop is kind of a place where visitors can see a universal appeal of a black-and-white board. It doesn’t matter where you came from, what degrees you have and if you speak English or not, said Whitted. “What matters is what you know and what you do on a chess board. And sometimes what you didn’t do and what you should have done,” he said.
Students and instructors say they learn from each other and feel valued for who they are. “We are like a family here,” said Whitted.
BEHIND-THE SCENES:
For my second Videostorytelling class project, I wanted to do a story on a chess shop. I have always been attracted by the game because it requires a balance between intellect and emotions. My professor Bob Sacha recommended a chess shop that he found on a weekend stroll in Brooklyn.
Spending just two days there, I learned a lot even without playing a game. I remember the morning when Christian was teaching his student Jeremiah, who comes to help him at the shop in exchange for chess lessons. That day the lesson was about the confidence. Christian was saying that no matter how much you know, what matters is how confidently you operate.
At that moment I thought that this is exactly what often stops people of my culture from succeeding. We Russians love to overthink, imagine roadblocks in anticipation of possible problems. And often we forget simply to try and play around with the skills that we have.

Links:
The shop website: newyorkchessandgameshop.com/
A story on the Ladies’ Night event at New York Chess and Games at The Brooklyn Paper:
brooklynpaper.com/stories/31/50/31_50_sp_chess.html
A story on the New York Chess and Games prodigies:
24-7pressrelease.com/press-release/brooklyn-youth-thrive-at-the-new-york-chess-and-game-shop-99448.php
Christian Whitted in the video tutorial on how to set up a chessboard:
youtube.com/watch?v=ZbZtDPKKU50

Lauryn Tacoronte: I’m Lady Fingers and I skate for the Brooklyn Bombshells and I block primarily, but today I’m going to do a bit of jamming.
This is kind of our battleground. Before you get here, it’s just a regular old college gym, and then you throw on your skates and weigh down the track, and now it’s an epic battlefield.
The whole room right before the whistle goes really silent. It’s like *wawawawawa*
..and then that whistle blows, and it’s just like a light switch goes on, and then you are just in the game and that’s it. It’s you and the other people on the track, and there’s no one else there.
Margot Atwell: Roller Derby gives me a community. I’ve got a hundred people who care how I’m doing and say “Hey, how’s your day?” when I see them a couple times a week, and that’s pretty invaluable.
I love the physical challenge of it. There’s not much in adult American life that’s physically hard. And I find as someone with a really intellectual job, I find being able to challenge myself and push myself physically a really great tonic to the stresses of my work day.
Things I’ve learnt as a player have changed who I am in my daily life. I’m a lot more confident. I try to be more straightforward. Whether I have my glasses on or off, whether I have my skates on or off, I’m the same person. Roller derby allows me to – it give me an outlet to express frustration or anger that I might feel otherwise, but I might not express.

Gotham Girls Roller Derby is a non-profit, all female, do-it yourself league that is made up of four home teams. They are the Bronx Gridlock, the Brooklyn Bombshells, the Manhattan Mayhem and the Queens of Pain. The League’s mission is to create a space to promote the physical and mental strength of amateur female athletes.
This space allows skaters to come and let their hair down and escape the drabness and monotony of the daily grind.
Roller derby is played with five players per side. There are three blockers, a pivot and a jammer. The jammer starts out behind all of the rest of the players and tries to get past all of the opposing team. The blockers’ job is to make sure the jammer does not pass them. The jammer will receive a point for every opposing team player they overtake before hitting the start line again. The pivot calls the plays and directs traffic.
A game, or bout, is played over two thirty-minute halves. Each bout is made up of many sets called jams.
The Gotham Girls Roller Derby opened their season on March 31st with a bout between the 2011 champion Brooklyn Bombshells and the Queens of Pain. Brooklyn were ahead most of the game, except for a couple of tense instances in the second half when their Queens rivals tied it up. The final score was Brooklyn: 178, Queens: 162.
—-

Links:
gothamgirlsrollerderby.com/
facebook.com/GothamGirls
derbyaccess.com/
_______________________________________________
Something that struck me while filming this was how popular this offbeat sport is. Gotham
Girls Roller Derby has an extremely devoted following (especially for an amateur sport), and have hundreds of people involved with the organization. A sold-out crowd of more than 900 people came to watch the home opener at the Hunter College Sportplex. Tickets were $25 a piece.
Gotham Girls Roller Derby encourage anyone to strap on skates and join them, but skaters must try out in order to win a spot on one of the four teams. For those who do not make it, there is still a rec league.

Transcript :

Max (singing)

Instructor: My plan failed. But I see what I can do… Check!

Max (stops singing)

Instructor: He is so good. But he trained online. He plays on the I-Pad all the time and his dad said it’s probably the first or second time he plays with real chess pieces.

Max: Queen.
Instructor: Can I move here?
Max: No.
Instructor: Why?
Max: Queen.
Instructor: Here?
Max: Queen.
Instructor: Here?
Max: Queen!
Instructor: So it is a checkmate. Okay, very good Max.

Max’ father: He has a good attention span first of all. For a kid his age. That’s why I mean. If he couldn’t sit still obviously it would not be happening. I never been to a chess shop like this before. It’s kind of a mystery.

Instructor: This place is very welcoming and I like the atmosphere. Classical music, it’s a nice environment. It’s really chessy. You have a lot of chess pieces, chess stuff. It’s really… makes you like the game more.

Michael Bloom: It really expands your horizons in ways that very few other things do.

Nicholas: You have to pay attention before you make a move.

Avron Soyer: It is very hard to worry about life.

Woman : Hi, how are you doing?

Nicholas: Good, good.

Nicholas: My daughter started playing two or three years ago. She’s good, her focus is very good. This is what I want for now. Maybe when she is 18 she might stop.

You’re always learning something.

Nabi Kiani: It’s a fascinating game, it’s a great exercise for the brain. All the moves go into my head. Why did I not move this? Why did I not move that?

Nicholas: When you make a move in chess you cannot take it back. If there is a mistake people make in life they wish they could take it back. Chess is like life. It’s the game of life. It’s a beautiful game.

When Alexandra Ramanenka from Belarus was little, she hated playing chess. Only when friends of her later started to play and she competed with them, she began to like the game. Soon she started to play in tournaments.

Today, Ramanenka, 25, works as a chess instructor for children in New York City. At the Chess Forum in Brooklyn, she met six-year-old Max from Chicago for the first time, after she has been practicing with him online. Ramanenka said she often is surprised by the ambition of the kids she teaches.

“Some kids are really interested in the game,” Ramanenka said. “Which surprises me, because I was never interested at their age.”

On weekends, there are a lot of parents coming in with their kids to let them have lessons or to play with them. Many of them hope that their kids not only learn about chess.

“I think it’s more like the strategy planning and basically think several moves ahead rather than just one move ahead,” said Max’ father, who did not want to give his name. “That’s what I hope he gets out of it.”

When the kids are finished with their lessons and the day proceeds, the Chess Forum’s clientele changes. As soon as it is dark outside, experienced players occupy the chess tables in and outside the store, competing with others.

Their games are always accompanied by a clock which measures the time a player needs for a move, often deciding who wins and who loses.

“It’s very hard to worry about life when you play speed chess,” said Avron Sayor, an artist who visits Chess Forum regularly.

A little anecdote on another side of the story:

Some of the chess players mentioned that there has been an ongoing competition between the Chess Forum and the other chess shop that is located on the same street. The shops have been fighting over their customers, who regularly switched between the two places when their chess partners switched as well. Recently, the other chess shop raised the prices for games, so more people came back to the Chess Forum.

Links

The Chess Forum

https://chessforum.com/about.asp?menu=about

Link to NYChesskids, an organization for which Alexandra Romanenko, teaches chess. (she now spells her name Ramanenka)

http://nychesskids.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=379&Itemid=94

The “other” Chess shop, called Village Chess Shop

http://www.chess-shop.com/

Salvatore “Sal” Avallone:

Every Saturday, I didn’t get to wake up and watch cartoons, I had to come here and help my dad and grandpa work. I wanted to sit home and watch cartoons – they wouldn’t let me. If I would, like sleep past ten o’clock like every other little normal kid would’ve did in elementary, middle school, they would yell at me, call me a bum, tell me I’ve gotta get up and work…

[phone rings]

Salerno’s.

For an oil change? No, it takes about ten minutes. You can hang out inside, have a cup of coffee as we do it and we’ll have you in and out in like, ten, fifteen minutes. Just try to get here before like 4:30.

Thank you, bye.

[hangs up]

So… I like it though.

Salvatore “Grandpa” Avallone:
I’m the one, I start over here. I opened at this station, 1951. I start open by myself, and then I had my son, my grandson, and everybody over here.

Mario Avallone:
Oh family’s beautiful. I used to work for my dad. Sal has it easy. My dad did wild things to me – chased me, wanted to shoot me… (laughs) you know.

[Mario talking to crew]
Yo them tire rods are ready? Sir? Them tire rods are ready?

There’s a sign that says ‘Mario’s way or no way.’

It’s not like, my dad’s not gonna to fire me. I’m sure sometimes he’ll just say, ‘go home, I don’t want you here today,’ but I can never be kicked out of here permanently, you know?

Mario Avallone:
But I just like being fair to customers and people.

[Talking to a customer]
So what’s an air filter? 20, 25 bucks?
(Customer) Yeah.
And you’ll save gas mileage… and better?

Salvatore “Sal” Avallone:
At the end of the day, we always have to deal with each other. But it’s ok.

Mario Avallone:
It’s a fun thing. We all work as a family, and we continue going on.

A Family Affair is a peak into a three-generation owned and operated auto body and mechanic shop on Lorimer Street in Brooklyn. There are three characters – Salvatore “Grandpa,” Mario, and Salvatore “Sal” Avallone.

Grandpa opened the shop in 1959, but today it’s his son, Mario who is primarily in charge. Slightly affected by a recent stroke, Grandpa still hangs out at the shop, greeting customers and reading the paper (in Italian, of course).

Sal grew up at the shop, learning the art of auto mechanics by watching and helping his father and grandfather. While he is only 25 years old, he is being primed to take over the family business. Sal likes using computer programs to diagnose problems, a skill that he says “the old guys” just don’t have.

While Mario still runs the show, he professed, “he doesn’t work so hard anymore,” and spends a good portion of his days in the stock room-turned-gym where he lifts weights and exercises. Still, he engages clients one-on-one and supervises his staff close enough for them to remember that it’s “Mario’s Way or No Way.”

Sure they fight and bicker, but they also joke around and reminisce. Neighbors pop-in just to say “hello” or have lunch, and just about everybody has a story about the Avallone trio.

Some random facts about Salerno’s:
Mario Avallone loves Christmas. Every year, the staff designs and creates an ornate holiday display to literally brighten the streets of Williamsburg. The business also donates toys and gifts to various causes – usually to local schools or hospitals.

Salerno is the town in Italy where Grandpa Avallone lived before immigrating to the United States.

Mario Avallone used to be a competitive body builder. Sal doesn’t compete like his father, but he likes to stay “big.”

The Salerno logo incorporates a Ferrari because Mario Avallone owns not one, but two of the vehicles.

The Avallones rescued the dog in the video. His name is Jet and he was hiding in the back of a police car that was being serviced at the shop.

Want to know more?
www.salernoservicestation.com/
www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0eGxTUzBR4

Transcript:
I mean, wherever you get together for a practice it’s going to turn into a social thing. But yeah, we made a pretty big one.
Ready. Go! Oh alright. Danny, you were losing to her a couple weeks ago. Now you’re showing more control.
The first times can’t believe it. They’re expecting to have a bunch of drunk, big, brawly, egotistical guys, and we’re like, ‘come on in. Arm wrestle the girl first. See how you do.’ And they normally lose to the girl too. But it’s a nice initiation.
Good job bud. Dude, you’re strong man. Seriously.
This place is special because you have the champions here. Jason’s practice is internationally known. People would come here from a different country and know about this practice.
It like, fills a whole bunch of things at once. It’s my way to compete. It’s my way to be strong. It’s a way I can connect with people and, you know, teach them in something. You know, make friendships. Help them. Be some type of leader where they can learn, you know, don’t be cocky, don’t be this, be helpful with other people.
It kind of all comes together. That whole thing comes together, And then up at the table, if you’ve been training the right way, The end result is going to be, along with everything else in your life.
We don’t have cocky, arrogant people here. And humility is — it’s easy to make friends with humble people.
——————————————————–

more info:
Every Monday night, Jason Vale opens the doors to the basement of his Queens home to train with some of New York’s best arm wrestlers. On this night, the final practice before the long awaited Big Apple Grapple on April 28, Jason and the gang get in a few last “pulls” before the big event.
While it might appear to just be a small, dimly lit basement with a few tables, it’s so much more than that. It’s where the legends and champions of the New York arm wrestling scene have gathered for years to train. But more importantly, it’s where friendships are made.
There are no egos here. In fact, Vale makes it a point to keep his practices from becoming too competitive. It is, after all, just practice. It’s a chance for arm wrestlers to get together and learn from each other and make each other better at the sport they love.
Vale says his practices are a chance for him to be a teacher and mentor to some of the younger guys who show up. But more than anything, he feels his practices are a chance to train better citizens who are free of arrogance and willing to lend a hand and some encouragement to their fellow arm wrestlers.

——————————————————–
Behind the Scenes:
Jason Vale has an amazing personal story. From an early age, he was a dominant arm wrestler who competed around the tri-state area and even won a few national titles. He soon earned a reputation as one of the best arm wrestlers in the country.
When he was a teenager, he contracted cancer and soon became too weak to compete. After doing some research, he began working on a home remedy that he swears cured his cancer. He says it’s the only reason he is alive today.
In an effort to share his cure with the world, Vale began selling his cure online. Needless to say, the government caught on and Vale served five years in prison. Since his release four years ago, he’s been using the weekly practices as a chance to be a teacher and mentor to some of the younger guys in the sport.
Links:
nycarms.com/
apricotsfromgod.info/jvale/index.html
youtube.com/watch?v=fsEAyvRq2_Y

Transcript:It’s very meditative. Like, its exercise, but its also spiritually uplifting.
I found out about no lights no lyrca, cause I was living in the neighborhood just a couple blocks away and kind of heard about it word of mouth. I’ve since moved to Queens and so I drive over and come.
It’s a great release, it’s a great way to clear your head. And dance with no expectations, socially or anything like that. You can do whatever you want.
I think dancing is a very primal instinct to want to dance and like move to music.
I just find it such a release, like I love dancing and moving and I like the vibe, its just like you can come be who you are.

more info:No Lights No Lycra is a dance party in a Brooklyn church basement. The dance draws a crowd who wants to dance without the scene that usually comes with it. This means no drinking and no uncomfortable club gear. People come from all over New York City for the 90-minute event that happens every Tuesday.

About the Video:
This is a neighborhood church that serves local residents in a Brooklyn fashion. I’ve been to yoga classes there, a dinner party, food shopping and a concert. And recently I found out they also throw weekly dance parties. Laura O’Neill, who’s day time career has her running Van Leeuwen ice cream, makes the magic happens and sets up the speakers before dancing. It is so so dark that filming was not an option, which I got around with taking 2 second long photos. The song in the video, Genesis by Grimes, was played the first time I came. I love Grimes and knew I found my song when it came blasting through the speakers.
Links
More info on NLNL! facebook.com/groups/110012725696878/
NLNLs around the world!
nolightsnolycra.blogspot.com/
Even New York Times Came!
nytimes.com/2010/08/05/fashion/05Sober.html

Transcript:
I mean, wherever you get together for a practice it’s going to turn into a social thing. But yeah, we made a pretty big one.
Ready. Go! Oh alright. Danny, you were losing to her a couple weeks ago. Now you’re showing more control.
The first times can’t believe it. They’re expecting to have a bunch of drunk, big, brawly, egotistical guys, and we’re like, ‘come on in. Arm wrestle the girl first. See how you do.’ And they normally lose to the girl too. But it’s a nice initiation.
Good job bud. Dude, you’re strong man. Seriously.
This place is special because you have the champions here. Jason’s practice is internationally known. People would come here from a different country and know about this practice.
It like, fills a whole bunch of things at once. It’s my way to compete. It’s my way to be strong. It’s a way I can connect with people and, you know, teach them in something. You know, make friendships. Help them. Be some type of leader where they can learn, you know, don’t be cocky, don’t be this, be helpful with other people.
It kind of all comes together. That whole thing comes together, And then up at the table, if you’ve been training the right way, The end result is going to be, along with everything else in your life.
We don’t have cocky, arrogant people here. And humility is — it’s easy to make friends with humble people.
——————————————————–

The Chess Forum has been a premiere destination for chess-lovers for decades. It’s located on Thompson Street, in Greenwich Village, right next to Washington Square Park. It sells hundreds of chess sets, ranging from basic to extremely ornate.
The location is critical because many people play chess in the park. That’s also why there’s another chess shop directly across the street from Chess Forum. Both places have gone through decline and uprising. People at Chess Forum said that the other chess shop was now filled with gamblers, but they said they used to prefer it because Chess Forum used to be filled with gamblers.
Chess Forum sees all kinds of people walk through its doors. On weekend mornings, it’s usually filled with kids taking lessons, and at night, the veterans come out. The three men in this video, Nabi Kiani, Michael Bloom, and Avron Soyer all come several times a week. They often stay until midnight, when the Chess Forum closes.
Kiani and Soyer are both artists, and Bloom works for New York State as a union intermediary. Chess is how they relate to each other. All men said they viewed chess as a kind of art, a hobby, and an outlet for creativity.
A little bit about Avron Soyer:
Soyer is a local artist. He said the only time he stopped playing chess is when his wife died. Soyer lost interest for a year and a half but said as soon as he started coming back, he felt right at home. Soyer sees chess as an important outlet for him. He thinks it’s one of the only places where he can be himself, and not have to put on any kind of air or attitude. He said he’s spent a lot of his life in academic settings, which he feels are very stuffy. Chess Forum is a place where people, no matter who they are, can come, and play chess. Chess acts as a kind of equalizer for them.

—-
Links:
Chess Forum: chessforum.com/
Avron Soyer’s Art: soyerlaiartspace.com/net/artist/AvronSoyer/main.php
Here’s a video about people playing chess in Washington Square Park: youtube.com/watch?v=MH81Qya088c

Transcript:Maybe some people are a little freaked out by them because they’re alive, but I mean it’s not really all that different than a lobster. It really is just very similar.
My roommates were born and raised in New Orleans and going to crawfish boils for the first time, and spending Mardi Gras with their families, and sort of learning about culture and Louisiana, from their perspective as well. That’s influenced me a lot.
We bought this restaurant five, six years ago, and pretty much spent all the capitol that we raised on the purchase of the bar. We had to raise money and operate the bar at the same time. We started doing changes to the kitchen first. We were at a little bit of a stalling point, and we needed something to motivate ourselves. I was bored out of my mind. I left my prior job and hadn’t been cooking for about four to six months. And I think it showed in my attitude. So I decided to start doing dinner one night a week on Thursday nights, sort of built a little bit of a following. And then we opened five days a week, which turned into seven days a week, and that’s where we’re at now.
We look forward to it every year. I mean it really was like, ‘this would be fun for us to do,’ because, you know, having gone to boils ourselves, this was just – it’s a good food experience, so, more people should have it.
It’s almost more about – obviously it’s about the food, and it’s really great food, but to be honest, all of the parties that you go to when you’re in Louisiana are around great food. So, it’s really about spending time with your friends and family.
A lot of beer. It’s very casual. You eat with your hands, I mean, it’s not super complicated, it’s just fun.
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Forget the forks. And the napkins. And pretty much any semblance of cleanliness for a few hours. For any crawfish boil, all you need is a roll of paper towels, a few newspapers, and a lot of beer – something Chef Meg Grace knows quite well.
After graduating from Louisiana State University, Meg moved to New Orleans and got her first job as a line cook. She spent a few years learning the basics and honing her skills before moving back to New York City. In 2008, she and two others purchased a bar and began cooking dinner one night a week. As the bar slowly morphed into a restaurant, so too, did the one-time crawfish boil transform into tradition.
Every year, about 300 pounds of crawfish are flown up from Louisiana hours before the boil begins. If that sounds like a tight schedule, that’s because it is – the key ingredient for any successful crawfish boil is live crawfish. While Meg is downstairs adding the sausage, vegetables, and spices, the rest of the staff is getting the restaurant ready. Anticipating a messy affair, the tables are covered in carrier paper, then plastic, then newspaper, and finally topped off with buckets (all the shells have to go somewhere).
Although some people are a little repelled by them at first, overall, New Yorkers seem to like it. Because it’s sold out so quickly in the past, this year The Redhead will host four crawfish boils every Sunday, starting April 22nd.
————————————————————————-behind the scenes————————————————————————
The first time I went to a crawfish boil – well, let’s just say in the phone call home to my mom, I’m pretty sure the word “barbaric” was used. Throwing them live into the pot, peeling them with your hands, sucking the heads – I’d never seen anything like it (can you tell I’m from the Midwest?).
Slowly but surely, however, I warmed up to the idea, and before I knew it, I’d be squeezing crawfish season on my calendar somewhere between winter and spring.
Like Meg said, it’s not really about the food at all. She had her own fond memories of crawfish boils down south, and while she wanted to cook good food here in New York, she was equally concerned about re-creating the experience. And because of that, she explains, native New Orleanians are the customers who seem to appreciate her annual boil the most.
I’m still not crazy about crawfish. But after a few beers (and a few kind souls who will peel some for me), I’ll eat a couple. For me, it’s just a good excuse to hang out with friends.
——————————————————————————-links———————————————————————————–
Want to eat crawfish in New York? Visit The Readhead: theredheadnyc.com/
Want all-you-can-eat crawfish in New Orleans? Visit Crawfest, Tulane University’s annual April event: crawfest.tulane.edu/
Want to boil your own crawfish? Good luck: boilcrawfish.com/pages-cook_crawfish/index.html

Transcript :
[RINN]
Somebody has got to keep this sideshow tradition alive, so that we have a future, so that the sideshow doesn’t die out.

I grew up a couple of blocks away, and as a kid, stumbled upon the sideshow. It was just like a magnet, just drew me in.

[NAT SOUND]
…thank you very much because ladies and gentlemen it’s….. showtime.

[RINN]
New York is not a city that cares about its roots. New York will bulldoze and put up new. Coney Island is the great equalizer. You don’t know who you’re standing next to. I’ve had doctors and lawyers, business people, bartenders and slackers: people who just got nothing to do. You know, it’s like the scene in Freaks, one of us, one of us.

It is sad what’s going on. But traditionally speaking, Coney Island has always been a shady area, so. No matter what happens around us, whether it’s development or destruction, we will be here and saying, yes, you know, it is good to be a freak.
—

The class of 2012 just graduated from the Coney Island Sideshow School. They spent only four days in the classroom, but their degrees–broken pieces of cinderblock painted white and signed by professor Adam Rinn–were well deserved.

Students had to breathe fire, put their hands in rat traps, and push nails into their nostrils. They walked on glass, felt the pulse of a homemade electric chair, and even tried to swallow a sword.

Rinn, of course, is familiar with these disturbing and physically painful acts. As a kid, he dragged people with him repeatedly to see classic acts like Melvin Burkhard, the Human Blockhead, and Mike Wilson, the Illustrated Man. He became a member of the school’s first graduating class and made enough money to live doing sideshow performances. Eventually the school’s founders recruited him to teach.

Rinn doesn’t see his job or this place as a mere means to pass on safe, effective sideshow practices. He passes on a bit of Coney Island’s history and way of thinking. In the past decade, much of the neighborhood of old has given way to the city’s development plans and efforts to boost tourism. The amusement park and boardwalk are being developed and in the meantime old architecture is being torn down.