Coney Island of the Mind

Lawrence Ferlinghetti in l965 (Elsa Dorfman)

Fantasy provides the illusion of both travel and progress. Coney Island of the Mind, the  title of the famous Ferlinghetti poem, says it all. Ferlinghetti's Coney Island takes you on a ride neither the Steeple Chase nor Cyclone can compete with. James Thurber's Walter Mitty is another adventurer who has scaled imaginative peaks that defy the limitations of reality. You might say about Mitty that his feet are planted firmly in the air. You won't find him in Hershey Park or Six Flags. That which doesn't exist "trumps" (a word one is loathe to use) existence itself. Thus there are romantics and vessels in which they're transported on--to the ether of infinite possibility.

and listen to Freda Payne's "Band of Gold"

and listen to Wilson Pickett's "Funky Broadway"