Mr Blobby & family at Crinkley Bottom Theme Park 1994
'He attracted nearly 17 million television viewers at the height of his fame, and even had a number one hit, but today Mr Blobby's empire is a mere shadow of what it once was. The Mr Blobby character shot to fame on Noel's House Party in the early Nineties, and the Crinkley Bottom theme park, also known as Blobbyland, created in his honour, opened shortly after his hit single 'Mr Blobby' in 1993.
'New images of what was the Mr Blobby theme park in Somerset show a depressing ruin covered in weeds and trashed after all-night raves. The ravers should have more respect for Mr Blobby. He was a hero to a lot of kids and the thought of them taking drugs and having all-night raves in his house is completely disrespectful. The park closed its doors in 1999, after the popular Saturday night television show Noel's House Party on which Mr Blobby featured was axed by the BBC.
'Noel's House Party host Noel Edmonds licensed three Blobby-inspired theme parks at the peak of the chubby character's popularity. The Crinkley Bottom theme park in Morecambe, Lancashire, closed just 13 weeks after it was opened in 1994, while another in Lowestoft was also closed after the character's popularity faded.'-- collaged
Derelict Crinkley Bottom 2012
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Gulliver's Kingdom, Kawaguchi-machi, Japan (2007 - 2011)
Take a tour of The Land of Oz
'At the top of a winding North Carolina mountain road is the entrance to Oz, a 1970s theme park abandoned less than 10 years after it opened. In the same way the Wizard of Oz created the Emerald City to wow his subjects, entrepreneur Grover Robbins dreamed up the Beech Mountain theme park as a way of attracting families - and money - to the resort town. Using local craftsmen and entertainers, Robbins and designer Jack Pentes built their grand interpretation of the popular 1939 film over 450 acres.
'The park was designed originally to walk tourists through the story, starting with the farmhouse, where Aunt Em could be found in the kitchen. As the sound effects of a tornado began, tourists would be ushered into to the storm shelter with one of several Dorothys who worked at the park. A door in the cellar would then open on to a tilted version of the farmhouse, to recreate the storm damage, and a pair of striped stockings and ruby red slippers of the Wicked Witch of the East, would greet the visitors as they left the house.
'The Yellow Brick Road wound its way through the park, leading tourists to a replica Emerald City. Dorothy's house, the castle of the Wicked Witch of the West and the Munchkin village were all faithfully recreated. The men behind the project even set up a balloon ride made out of a ski lift, so that visitors would get a winged-monkey's eye view of the park nestled in the mountains before they were whisked back to the real world.
'The park opened on June 15, 1970 by Debbie Reynolds, accompanied by her then little-known daughter, Carrie Fisher. In its first summer 400,000 visitors came to the Land of Oz, according to Watauga Lake Magazine. Sadly, however, Robbins never lived to see his masterpiece, dying at the age of 50 of bone cancer only six months before the park opened in 1970. More tragedy was to beset the park, when a fire destroyed Emerald City and part of the museum collection, including dresses worn by Judy Garland in the movie.'-- collaged
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road: eerie abandoned Land of Oz
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Dogpatch USA, State Highway 7 between Harrison and Jasper, Arkansas (1967-1993)
"She died of leukemia": Santa's Village and Halloween, 1960
'Yesterday I went to look at Santa's Village Open house which is up for sale for asking price of $2.75 million. Monica was the broker in charge and made sure only serious potential buyers came on to the property. There was only my dad and me and five other people who showed up. We were shown into the second floor of the entrance building were alot of blue prints were. They were all Walt Disney era blue prints from the mid 1950s. The most interesting was an expension plan to add "Holiday Village" [likely a themed shopping center much like what Universal Studios today has Universal City] to the front of Santa's Village and shift the parking over to the east of the park. She was nice to deal with and gave a little insight as well into the property and including issues involved.
'Santa's Village itself is about 90% intact with one collapsed building south of the good witch's bakery and some missing rides. I could not find the christmas tree ride or the bob sled ride but they may have been moved. I know the carousel was sold and the area were the cars are we never got to because of too much ice. Same problem with the mirror fun house. It's there but cut off from ice. The monorail which is the feature ride is remarkably great condition, almost no peeling paint. What did disturb me though was despite the buildings great condition on the outside, much of the interior's were ravingly destroyed by gutting. I asked Monica why and she told me the kids or relatives of the family were trying to remodel it and get it open again but gave up. I hope to save this great piece of history and make it more magical and wondrous then ever before but I will need help and support to make my ambition come to fruition.
'I want to open it again but it won't happen without some considerable help. I need investors and people who will help support my creative cause and ambitions to get this place open again. I want to make it infact better than before utilizing the full 189 acres of land and not just the fifteen acers it originally utilized. I also want to have a year round massive led light display that will dazzle millions of people who flock to see it year round and I will have all the original rides plus addtional rides that are both great for kids and adults. It would have shipping, lodging, time shares, ice skating, entertainment and the world's largest art park featuring my giant recycled robots. It will have new and ever expanded added attractions each year so people will always have something to look forward to year after year and they will not ever know what to expect in the way new and exciting things.'-- hamblin1325
I Want To Re-Open Santa's Village In Skyforest California
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Ghost Town in the Sky, Maggie Valley, North Carolina (1960 - 2002)
Joyland Wichita - Whacky Shack Dark Ride
'Joyland, home of the Whacky Shack was one of two amusement parks that were in Wichita during the middle of the twentieth century. The downtown area contained a kiddieland park while Joyland was located on the outskirts of the city. Like many other parks around the country, Joyland noticed vandalism and theft in the darkride soon after it opened. The park started noticing that people were walking the midway wearing parts of the ride, like the vines! One innovative ride operator thought that he had the answer to this problem so he hid barbed wire in the vines! The park's owner soon put an end to the solution and had the barbed wire removed. Like some other parks, they eventually installed fence between the riders and the scenery.
'While the ride opened with standard darkride cars, they were eventually changed to rotating type Pretzel cars to add some additional surprises. As at some other parks, maintenance concerns and people with motion sickness ultimately forced the park to weld the cars to stop the rotation. One operator relied on the heavy weight of the car and the darkness to help him add some surprises of his own. He would hide in the darkness and jump on the rear bumper of a car as it rolled by. He then would whack the young men in the head with a piece of rubber hose! The park owner noted that not one of them ever said a word about it when they exited the ride.
'As the years went on, some changes crept into the ride. The ride's designer, Bill Tracy, was into thrills, not maintenance. The two dips that were originally built into the ride were removed and replaced with level track. The barrel that the cars traveled through in one portion was built by the park but it never worked quite right so it was removed. Another minor problem was that of operators losing track of the cars in the ride. The first solution was a simple one, don't send in a car until you see one come out! In its final days, a computer prevented the cars from getting too close together, if they dis the ride stop, the lights came on and the doors opened. The ride also shut down if someone got out of the car and ran ahead.
'Due to economical troubles and safety concerns Joyland had to close for the 2004 season. Since its closing, it has been subjected to numerous incidents of vandalism and looting. Nearly every building is covered with graffiti, and the vintage sign from the top of the roller coaster has been stolen. The administration offices have also been destroyed. Park owner Margaret Nelson was quoted as saying "We're sick. Our hearts are just sick. It's not easy, not easy." Interest in the park sparked again in 2006 when a Seattle based company, T-Rex Group, leased the park to restore and open portions of the park. After financial concerns with the park, the T-Rex group did not open the park for another season. Joyland has now sat since 2006 without any maintenance and continually deteriorates.'-- collaged
Abandoned amusement park Joyland - exploring the Whacky Shack
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Spreepark, Berlin, (1969 - 2002)
Camelot Theme Park official Promotion Video 1989
'Camelot Theme Park, located near Charnock Richard (about 3 miles from Chorley in Lancashire, UK) was a theme park inspired by the Medieval legend of Camelot. Opening its gates in 1983, Camelot Theme Park’s rides and attractions were aimed towards children and families, and the Park was a popular draw for school trips (including my own). Gradually, over the years, thrill rides and roller coasters were added to the mix.
'At its height in 1995, Camelot attracted 500,000 visitors seasonally. However, in 2005 this had declined to just below 340,000. The Park went into receivership in early 2009 (during the off season), but eventually opened for business in May of that year. By this point, the Park was receiving mixed reviews, with cleanliness and general maintenance cited as lacking in some areas. It’s also fair to say that the Park was not a patch on Alton Towers in terms of thrills, and Gulliver’s World in Warrington was also a draw for families and children. In 2006, Camelot came joint bottom in a poll conducted around healthy food at UK visitor attractions, scoring one point.
'Faced with dwindling attendance, Camelot announced that it would close after the 2012 season. The Management cited the Olympic games, Her Majesty’s Jubilee and poor summers as the reason for closure. The owners of this closed theme-park wasted no time in dismantling the attractions and selling off rides to the highest bidder. They are considering other uses for the area, and the site will most likely become a housing development if plans go forward. However, their plans to redevelop the former Camelot theme park site into a 420-home housing estate have been described as ‘disastrous’.'-- collaged
ABANDONED Camelot theme park: Illegal All area access
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Shidaka’s Utopia, Beppu, Kyushu, Japan (1970s - 1994)
A Collection of Bits of Videos About Heritage USA
'In 1986, Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker's Heritage USA was the third most-visited amusement park in the US, behind only Disney World and Disneyland. Much of the park, the area of which once comprised 2,300 acres (9.3 km2; 3.6 sq mi), was built by noted church builder Roe Messner, who later married Tammy Faye Bakker after Tammy's divorce from Jim Bakker. Now the park that once entertained millions of guests is falling to pieces, and looks more like the scene from a post-apocalyptic movie than a place for family fun.
'The facilities included the 501-room Heritage Grand Hotel, Main Street USA, an indoor shopping complex, the Heritage Village Church, a 400-unit campground, The Jerusalem Amphitheater, conference facilities, a skating rink, prayer and counseling services, full cable TV network production studios, Bible and evangelism school, visitor retreat housing, staff and volunteer housing, timeshares and the Heritage Island water park and recreational facilities.
'In the midst of Heritage USA's high point, when it earned $126 million per year, the IRS revoked its tax exemption. Soon after Bakker's federal indictment and public condemnation over his sexual affair, attendance dropped at Heritage. Falwell argued that "PTL's Heritage USA complex in Fort Mill was competing unfairly against tax-paying tourist attractions, and that the tax-exempt ministry should be separated from the running of hotels and amusement parks." Under Falwell's leadership, Heritage USA sought chapter 11 bankruptcy protection with debts estimated at $72 million. The 165,000 people who gave $1,000 to Jim Bakker's planned Heritage USA hotel tower in return for promised four-day vacation stays received $6.54 each.
'Heritage USA opened in Fort Mill, SC, in 1978, and by the mid-eighties drew in six million visitors each year. The park was perhaps best-known for "Jerry's Slide," a 163-foot water slide that Falwell slid down in his suit, resulting in one of the most famous photographs of the televangelist. But those water slides and fairy tale castle were, in part, responsible for Falwell's downfall. After scandals regarding Falwell's fundraising efforts to build the park's never-completed hotel and the IRS's revocation of its tax-exempt status, Heritage USA was hit by another, more physical blow. Hurricane Hugo wreaked havoc on the park's buildings in 1989, and Heritage closed for good shortly afterward.'-- collaged
Heritage, USA - after the fall (1989)
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Joyland, Wichita, Kansas (1949 - 2004)
Splendid China, 1996
'Florida Splendid China, a $100 Million theme park which opened in 1993 on 76 acres just West of the main entrance to Walt Disney World, brought to visitors the beauty and landmarks of China in miniature form. Accurate scale models of some of that China's most interesting architectural and cultural sites, peopled with a motionless ceramic population, were scattered along the park's curving and well landscaped (if not particularly shady) paths. The miniatures included replicas of The Great Wall of China (this version was half of a mile long and built brick by brick), The Terra Cotta Warriors of Xi'an, The Leshan Grand Buddha Statue (in 1/8th scale), The Forbidden City (including a miniature Emperor's wedding procession), Potala Palace (the spiritual center of Tibet and traditional seat of the Dalai Lama) and more than 50 others representing the diversity of cultures within the region.
'Florida Splendid China had no rides, no bright lights, and no frenetic action and flashy stunts like you find at the other theme parks in the area. It was designed for relaxation and contemplation of the beauties of the Orient. On the surface, the park was serenity itself -- but in the background, if you listened, you could hear the sounds of protest... Florida Splendid China presented a peaceful picture of China as it had once been -- the temples populated by quaint, colorful monks, no troops stationed in Tibet, and no tanks in Tiananmen Square. Protestors charged that Florida Splendid China was a tool for propaganda rather than entertainment, and they often staged demonstrations outside the park, and also worked to end school field trip visits.
'The park's critics charged that depictions of Tibet's Potala Palace, Mongolian Yurts, and other landmarks from other cultures as being within China were attempts to legitimize Chinese Communist occupation of formerly independent areas, that the multiplicity of religious sites gave a false impression of religious and cultural tolerance within China when those religions were being oppressed, and that the park was actually owned and operated by the Chinese Government through China Travel Services and was in violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act. Park officials denied that there was any political purpose to Florida Splendid China. The vice president of China Travel Service told The Orlando Sentinel: "We're a theme park. Nothing more."
'Americans never embraced Florida Splendid China. Unlike its sister park in China, Shenzhen Splendid China, which has been a major success with thousands of visitors each day, the Florida park was rarely crowded. It seemed to have been built for a much greater volume of guests; several restaurants built within the park remained empty and closed. In 2002 the Orlando Business Journal called Florida Splendid China "the theme park equivalent of a ghost town." On December 30, 2003, the following appeared on the park's website: "FLASH!!! Florida Splendid China Theme Park will discontinue operations in Central Florida as of the close of business on December 31, 2003."' -- collaged
Drone over Splendid China 2/23/14
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Pacific Ocean Park, Santa Monica, California (1958 - 1967)
Loudoun Castle Theme Park Scotland 2009
'Loudoun Castle Theme Park, near Galston in East Ayrshire, has shut its doors for good with the loss of 11 permanent and 160 seasonal jobs after its managing director said it was "no longer economically viable". The theme park, which opened in 1995, featured 25 rides, a farm area and daily live shows. Dutchman Henk Bembom took control of it seven years ago. The combination of bad weather, increased VAT and the imminent opening of new publicly-funded visitor attractions, including the £21million Burns Centre and the £85million transport museum in Glasgow, which will be free of charge, has created a situation where Loudoun Castle Theme Park is no longer economically viable.
'"Attendance peaked in 1997 at 225,000 but dropped down to 110,000 by 2003," said Benbom. "I always hoped to achieve numbers back up around 175,0000. It wouldn't make a huge profit, but it would be sustainable. From the start, we did invest quite a bit of money in new rides. In 2007 we introduced the Barnstormer, an S&S tower ride, and visitor numbers were on track to surpass our targets for the year, but then disaster struck [Note: A park employee was killed on one of the park's rollercoasters. The company was cleared of all health and safety charges in 2009]. After that tragedy we ended the season around 155,000 and have never really got above that figure since."
'Investment, consulting and project management company Vicon wants to redevelop the castle itself as the "centrepiece" of a development that proposes "a world-class championship-standard 18-hole golf course, clubhouse and educational golf academy, new whisky distillery, homes, retail and a food and drink centre of excellence". The development would be powered by "clean renewable energy", with a renewable energy plan being proposed for the site.'-- collaged
Loudoun Castle Theme Park Air Recon - AR Drone 2.0
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The American Adventure Theme Park, Derbyshire, UK (1987 - 2007)
Enchanted Forest, Ellicott City, Maryland
'The Enchanted Forest officially opened on August 15, 1955, following a preview party the afternoon before — one month after Disneyland Park's opening. Appealing mostly to families with small children, the park had a nursery rhyme theme. The park featured fairy tale buildings and characters, but no mechanical rides originally. Track rides were added later, including the Alice in Wonderland ride with teacup-shaped cars, a Cinderella's castle ride with mice for the cars, the "Little Toot" boat that took children to Mount Vesuvius for giant slides, and the Jungleland Safari which was driven by open Land Rover-type vehicles. Unlike many other attractions of the time, the Enchanted Forest was integrated from the day it opened.
'Admission was one dollar for adults and fifty cents for children. At opening, the park was 20 acres (81,000 m2), but it later expanded to 52 acres (210,000 m2). At the height of its popularity, the Enchanted Forest welcomed 300,000 children per summer season. the park closed for the first time in 1989. After turning more than half the land (primarily the parking lots) into the Safeway-anchored Enchanted Forest Shopping Center in 1992, JHP Development reopened the park for the 1994 summer season, predominantly for children's birthday parties. The park was permanently shuttered in 1995. Part of the John Waters movie Cry-Baby, released in April 1990 and starring Johnny Depp and Ricki Lake, took place in the Enchanted Forest. It also appears in the horror movie Fear Of Clowns.'-- collaged
Abandoned forest, but not forgotten
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Chippewa Lake Park, Chippewa Lake, Ohio (1878 - 1978)
Welcome to Vollmar's Amusement Park
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'Richard “Mike” Hofner, former owner of Vollmar's Amusement Park, one of the last of a handful of privately owned parks in the Toledo area of Ohio that closed in 2000, died of cancer Wednesday in Hospice of Northwest Ohio, Perrysburg Township. He was 92. Mr. Hofner guided the amusement park for more than 25 years, drawing crowds to enjoy its vast facades and rides along the Maumee River in Wood County between Waterville and Grand Rapids.
'The park kept going despite at least one brief closing because of rising costs and competition from bigger parks. Yet he never seemed to grow weary of the difficulties, Martha Rupp, his daughter, said. Even in his 80s, Mr. Hofner supervised preparation of barbecue chicken, served beer, and mowed the grass of the 66-acre park. He also hired students from Otsego High School for summer jobs.
'He bought the park in 1963 and his late son, Joseph, ran day-to-day operations for many years. The seasonal park, which operated seven days a week during the summer, opened on Mother's Day and usually closed in early October. “He could be bullheaded sometimes, but he knew things had to be done a certain way - and that's the way he wanted them done,” his daughter said.'-- collaged
Abandoned Vollmar's Amusement Park 2013 (Part 3)
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Miracle Strip Amusement Park, Panama City, Florida (1963 - 2004)
The extremely creepy Takakonuma Greenland Park
'Takakonuma Greenland Park in Japan today stands abandoned not only by people, but also by joy, hope and the foolish belief that life ends in anything but lightless hollow death. The amusement park first opened in Hobara in 1973 but abruptly closed only two years later. Some say it was because of poor ticket sales, but local lore insists the park was forced to shut down after its rides were responsible for a number of accidental deaths. We don't know for certain because there's virtually no official information available on Takakonuma.
'What we know for certain is that the park opened again in 1986 and remained operational for 13 years, at which point it closed down for good. Nowadays the derelict attractions stand there alone in the middle of nowhere. By the way, we mean that "middle of nowhere" part literally, as Takakonuma can no longer be found on any official maps. It just isn't there.
'In addition to willing itself off of charted Japanese territory, Takakonuma seems to occasionally will itself out of existence entirely with a thick fog that periodically rolls in and completely swallows up the park, providing excellent cover for anyone with a monster mask to Scooby-Doo the living shit out of hapless wanderers. This is provided they can stomach the radiation, seeing as Takakonuma is located just a few dozen miles north from Fukushima, whose nuclear power plant had a spectacular meltdown earlier this year in the wake of the tsunami.'-- Cracked.com
All photos are geo tagged and the location is (more or less) correct
*
p.s. Hey. ** David Ehrenstein, Hi, David. There's also a band called Nine Stories. They're not very good. ** Bill, Hi, Bill. God, I sure hope the location problems will be sorted today. The problem is getting prayers-worthy. We're checking out three possibilities this afternoon. Hot, really? We're wavering between drenched and hours of kind of perfect. SPD tomorrow. Thanks a bunch for including your finery. ** Keaton, Your blog is back in mega-style, awesome! Looks sinuous. I'll give it the olde going over in a bit. Everyone, Keaton, established master of the emo-inflected words and visual music axis, has reactivated his riveting blog with this baby whose preface is titled 'Retarded Gay Midget Sex' and whose actual title appears to be '8==o :'. Click and dig. I still don't get women's fashion hardly at all. I still only like really extreme, weird women's fashion. With men's stuff, I guess I've learned enough to get how something that looks conservative to me has interesting subtleties. I dress like nothing, blah, shit to varying degrees. Someone with a supposedly great fashion sense once told me I dress 'approachably'. ** Paul Curran, Hi, Paul. Your SPD thing arrived in one splendid piece, yes, thank you! Ha ha, he should have. Cohen. ** Chilly Jay Chill, Hi, Jeff. The next step is for me to create the next stage of the text, which will have all the dialogue pretty set in an interim way. Then I think the next step will be a fairly long work session of rehearsals in Halle in February, after which, based on how the spoken texts work and what useful additions the cast bring to them via a reasonable freedom on their parts to improvise, I'll cement the text for next to good. Then I think we'll go into the final rehearsals in the early spring where small changes will still be possible. Then the premiere is in July. I saw your email, and work prevented my cracking it yesterday, and I'll read it today, thank you. Great about the novel polishing! I hope you get an amazing response at this stage, obviously. ** Kier, Kier! Your website is completely beautiful! So exciting! Everyone, the ultra-amazing artist Kier Cooke Sandvik has at long last launched a website where you/we can see his incredible drawings and photos and notebooks and more in glorious color at times and within a beautiful, stately design. You so want to click this. I mean, seriously, so. That sigil plus Guided by Voices stint constitutes the prettiest projection in my imagination. Did the former get inked and cast as planned? Me? Yesterday I ... It was all film stuff. Zac and I hung out and talked film plans and necessities in the AM. Then I researched Paris Goth clothing stores because one of the characters in the first scene is a Goth male escort and we need to buy him an outfit, which we will hopefully do later this morning. Then we met with the guy who's doing the sound on our film. He does the sound for Philippe Grandieux's films, among others, so it's going to sound incredible if you know how amazing Grandieux's films sound. That was exciting. Then I did more research re: some music that we need for the scene. Then this and that. It was good. ** _Black_Acrylic, Sorry about all the ongoing waiting on the Art101 project. It'll be cool. But ace about your site update! I'll go check that out shortly-ish. Everyone, maestro of mediums plural _B_A aka Ben 'Jack Your Body' Robinson has ... well, I'll let him tell you: 'For the first time in a while, my benjackrobinson.com website's been updated. Alex has made the homepage smarter and there's also new art, writing, DJing and even a mini ART101 preview.' Go there, dudes. That floating first page is really nice! ** Kyler, Is 6:30 ridiculously early? I almost always wake up between 6:30 and 7 am, but I hit the sack fairly early too. I guess that's the difference. Yeah, thanks for doing the SPD. Enjoy the textual nitpicking! ** Steevee, Hi. Oh, the research missions re: the Cyrus and Bieber things were for my writing. There wasn't a lot to learn. Everything everyone said/wrote was entirely predictable and mostly very stupid and gross. I was just interested in how the attacking manifested itself textually and within the context of website/blog comments and tweets and stuff like that. Sentence structure, emotion-created typos, the one-upmanship and stuff like that. It would have been nice to find insight and revelations and new understanding in the hating, but, apart from getting glimpses of how repressed or lacking in self-reflection and so on the reactors were, it was pretty much a style study ultimately. That was quite astonishing that the new Swans devoted in the Billboard Top 40. I keep thinking that probably says more about what the Billboard Top 40 actually means or does at this point in time than it does about some surge in Swans fandom, but still. Nice to hear the Daney theater piece was so good. I'll hope they remount it over here. ** Misanthrope, Hi. Dig. Pearl Jam just always sounded to me like sludgy mainstream rock, but I don't know. Best to err on the side of believability re: your mom's signed photo. I mean, what good could come from skepticism? Well, yeah, fear is behind just about every bad thing everybody does, right? That's how power structures work. Their offer of organization seduces your fear's disorganization or something. ** Aaron Mirkin, Hi, Aaron. Oh, wow, I know that Isis track you speak of. I liked it. I'm going to go back to it. I think Stephen burned me that album and it's in a pile here somewhere. Ah, too bad about the Serra doc's inadequacy. I kind of figured that for some reason. But, yeah, at least it's an interesting job for you, relatively speaking. Julian Richings' thoughts on film improv are really interesting and make a lot of sense. It's different, of course, but Zac is doing that kind of thing but with physical stuff in our film, like not letting the performers know or see or have an idea about the locations until the shoot, etc. Also in our film, English is a second language for all the performers, and some of them have little grip on English, and we did that purposefully to create gaps between their voices and the language and its meaning. Hope it works interestingly. Thanks a lot, man. That was super inspiring. ** Joshua nilles, Hi, Joshua! Really good to see you! It's been too long! Actually, your no news was plenty of news. Cool. 'Black Cloud' is terrific, yeah, seek it out. Two years isn't so long, is it? My novels usually take two years plus to finish. Curious about that long poem when you get it done. Your talk re: it got me excited. Carla Bozulich, great, I'll definitely check that out. She's awesome. Thanks! ** Rewritedept, If there's a God, which there isn't, we might finally have a location later today. Shit, so sorry about your stressful day. And about your mom and all that. Sorry that 'TMS' is contributing to the problem. Well, a little sorry, at least. My day got laid out to Kier up above. Don't expect to get too excited. Got the SPD thing. It wasn't too late, no. Thanks! I hope your today is a shit-ton better than yesterday, pal. ** Okay. I indulged my amusement park fascination yet again today, and there you go, and that's all there is to it. See you with the SPD tomorrow.