There’s been plenty of coverage on the Weeki Wachee mermaids in recent years, and Jack Burke isn’t trying to break any new ground here. But he does manage to bring to life the weird underground theatre where the mermaids have danced for decades, beautifully evoking the wonder of celestial blue light and sparkly tails. Burke’s piece is a gentle homage to “this weird little relic from another age”—a time in America that belonged to the hustlers and the dreamers.
I eventually find a seat in the auditorium, just as a video of Mr Margaritaville himself, Jimmy Buffett, crackles onto the wall-mounted televisions. He launches into a rendition of Fins, featuring a quartet of smiling and costumed Weeki Wachee mermaids being wheeled on stage to backing-dance from their seats. Around me are grandparents in visors, sunburnt dads in fishing shirts, and little girls in glittering mermaid tails clutching plush dolphins.
The lights dim and a syrupy-voiced MC asks us if we’re ready for the mermaids. Inevitably, we are not quite ready enough, and are encouraged to express our excitement a little more vocally.
The dusty blue satin curtain slowly winches itself open, to reveal a thick wall of glass, behind which lies the famous spring itself. A water so clear and turquoise it hardly looks like water at all. Schools of tiny fish drift lazily across the scene. A turtle paddles past with supreme indifference.
And then, rising out of some deeper part of the spring, comes a mermaid.
More picks on American culture
Jeremy Spoke in Class Today
“On guns, MTV, Stephen King, and the nightmare from which we cannot awake.”
How Cookie Jars Capture American Kitsch
“A friend of mine was like, ‘You’re the only person I know with 100 cookie jars and not a single cookie in your house.”
Why Everyone Loves Macaroni and Cheese
“Popularized by Thomas Jefferson, this versatile dish fulfills America’s quest for the ‘cheapest protein possible.’”
The Fighting Azov Dolphins
The Mariupol, Ukraine Dolphins play (American) football seven miles from the front lines — a weekly chance for “three hours of American way of life.”
How America Lost Its Identity
From the outside looking in: reporter Holger Stark, who spent the past four years as Der Spiegel’s Washington correspondent, asks “What led this once mighty nation into decline?”