The blog of author Dennis Cooper

私はなぜあなたのジェットコ-スタ-を示している日本からあるか。 I don’ tは知っている。

Takabisha
Fuji-Q Highland Park, Fujiyoshida, Yamanashi

‘A Japanese theme park has unveiled the world’s steepest roller coaster, with a 121 degree incline and speeds of 100 kilometres per hour. The ride, which cost a whopping $40 million to build, is found at the Fuji-Q Highland Amusement Park in Yamanash, and has been named ‘Takabisha’ – which means ‘dominant’ in English. Takabisha, which has Mt Fuji as a backdrop, is packed with jaw-dropping features including seven twists, blackened tunnels and a 43 metre high peak. But the most impressive thing about Takabisha is the freefall at 121 degrees, which is so steep it’s Guinness Book of Records-worthy.

‘Relying on a combination of gravity and a set of linear motors attached to the cars, you’ll be strapped in and flung down the incline at 100 km/h, experiencing a feeling of weightlessness as you go. The roller coaster has seven major twists and turns along 1,000 feet of track. The average roller coaster that has a turning sharpness angle of 45 degrees. This roller coaster has a tilting level with an almost 90-degree angle. The current Guinness World Record-holding roller coaster is the UK’s Mumbo Jumbo ride at Flamingoland in Yorkshire. This ride has held the title of “The World’s Steepest Roller Coaster” since July 2009, but with an incline of just 112 degrees, Takabisha will be an essential 9 degrees steeper.’ — The Malaysian Insider

 

____________

Hollywood Dream – The Ride
Universal Studios, Osaka

‘Each of Hollywood Dream’s 5 trains carry 36 riders in nine cars, each having a row of four seats. All trains have an on-board audio and lighting system, with each seat having a headrest stereo sound system capable of playing one of five songs selected by the rider with a control panel inserted into the seat’s restraining lap bar. The on-board audio and lighting system animates LED lights that are built into the trains’ sides and front riderless pilot coach. The lighting program varies as the train moves, with different animations for different track sections and the station. The lighting pattern used for the park entrance track section gives the effect of a Comet with a sparkling head and glittering trail of light.’ — JTA

 

_______________

Slope Shooter
Nagoya Higashiyama Zoo

‘The very unusual Slope Shooter is a trough coaster with logflume-like cars that run on wheels on a concrete surface. It looks much like a sidefriction coaster *, but without any supports, for it is located on the side of a hill. It’s like a cross between a coaster and a log flume without any water. The Slope Shooter looks like it was made in someody’s back yard. It has goofy cars with big rubber wheels running down concrete and asphault chutes. The entire layout is like the hairpin section of a mouse. There’s a really quick and fun surprise jerking as the lift chain engages.’ — European Coaster Club

* A side friction roller coaster is an early roller coaster design that does not have an extra set of wheels under the track to prevent cars from becoming airborne. Before the invention of up-stop wheels, coaster cars were built to run in a trough, with wheels under the car and side plates to help keep the cars on the track. Because the cars were not firmly anchored and could derail if they took a corner too fast, the largest side friction coasters required a brakeman to ride on the train and slow it down when necessary. The invention of up-stop wheels in the 1920s allowed much more scope for height and speed in coaster designs, leaving side friction coasters to quickly fall out of favor. Only two have been built since World War II, and none since 1951. Today, there are only nine left in the world.

 

______________

Zaturn
Space World, Kitakyūshū

‘Zaturn opened approximately 1½ months after Stealth at Thorpe Park, and was almost identical to Stealth. However, Zaturn took 2.3 seconds to launch, whereas Stealth takes only 1.9 seconds. In addition, Zaturn’s average top speed was 0.3 mph (0.48 km/h) faster than Stealth’s, while being 0.9 feet (0.28 meters) shorter. Also, the ride’s maximum G-Force was 0.5G higher than Stealth, at a total of 5G. On December 16, 2016, Zaturn was announced as closing alongside the rest of Space World in December 2017. It closed on the 31st and was dismantled in early 2018.’ — roller coaster fandom

 

______________

Skycycle
Washuzan Highland Park, Okayama

‘The Japanese are known for their wacky inventions, so it’s no surprise that they have come up with the ultimate green rollercoaster. It’s called the Skycycle, and it’s a pedal-powered rollercoaster that allows people to “shoot for the sky” as they ride side-by-side in bike-themed carts. The Skycycle is one of the most thrilling amusement park rides at Washuzan Highland Park in Okayama, Japan.

‘So, how does this whole pedal-powered thing work? It’s actually quite simple. Visitors strap themselves in with seatbelts, they put their valuables in the cute pink basket that’s in front of the cart and then they start pedaling. Those brave enough peddle their way through this towering bike trail which, aside from lights used to illuminate the path at night, uses zero electricity. Even though the Skycycle isn’t as white-knuckled a ride as the others in the park, many visitors have expressed a deep fear of a particular stretch on the course that they call, “The turn of fear.”‘ — bordom.net

 

______________

Hakugei
Nagashima Spa Land

‘On January 28, 2018, Nagashima Spa Land’s gigantic wooden coaster, White Cyclone, gave its final rides. Built in 1994, White Cyclone was one of only a handful of wooden coasters in Japan, but also the nation’s largest at 139 feet in height and more than a mile in length. In that quarter century, maintenance demands and lower ridership were a couple factors in closing the ride (but not the only ones). Enter Hakugei. The transformation of the former wooden coaster into a Rocky Mountain Construction IBox track creation is Japan’s first venture into the latest trend. The height of the coaster has grown to 180 feet, but the length has been shortened slightly to just over 5,000 feet — still a substantial length. Top speed hits 66 mph. Now named Hakugei, the name change translates to White Whale. “I have to comment on the structure. The massive wall of white wood with the blue track, it looks great. The track just pops,” says Jake Kilcup, COO, Rocky Mountain Construction.’ — Amusement Today

 

______________

Fujiyama
Fuji-Q Highland Park, Fujiyoshida, Yamanashi

‘Fujiyama inadvertently attracted attention in 2000 after an article was published in the journal Neurology. The article discussed the possible relationship between riding roller coasters and the occurrence of subdural hematomas. The primary case study cited by the authors was a woman who had reported severe headaches after riding the Fujiyama roller coaster. Upon investigation, it was discovered that this woman did in fact have a subdural hematoma. Subsequent research, however, has maintained that this risk remains low and is not unique to this particular coaster.

‘When Fujiyama opened in 1996 it was the world’s tallest roller coaster at 259 feet (79 m), and had the largest drop in the world at 230 feet (70 m). Fujiyama was also the world’s fastest roller coaster for a year of its operation. As with many Japanese roller coasters, Fujiyama has a maximum rider age (54 years old) and a separate entrance fee (1,000 yen). It incorporates many of the elements that are typical of this coaster design, including a large first drop, “headchopper” elements and a series of small “bunny hills” near the end of the coaster’s course.’ — Theme Park Review

 

_________________

Fire Bandit
Yomiuri Land, Tokyo

‘Fire Bandit is a steel roller coaster located at Yomiuriland in the city of Inagi, near Tokyo Japan. Built in 1988 by the TOGO company, it was the world’s tallest and fastest roller coaster before the opening of Great American Scream Machine at Six Flags Great Adventure one year later. The first drop is 256 feet in length and reaches speeds up to 68 mph. There is a sign saying that you can now see Tokyo’s Sky Tree from it on a clear day. Spot the Sky Tree and you are supposed to have good luck. In its summer incarnation as “Splash Bandit,” riders are shot with Super Soakers at the start and fire hoses at strategic parts of the track.’ — crystaltjapan

 

______________

Vanish
Cosmoland, Yokohama

‘A unique, visually impressive coaster with some fairly big drops and an intense helix. The name of the coaster refers to the fact that this coaster “dives” and “vanishes” into an underwater tunnel, accompanied by a large spray of water. The track measures 2,440-feet in length and each ride lasts for approximately 1-minute 58-seconds. Vanish is the first dash-into-water type jet coaster in the world. The moment cars dash into the pool of water, they make a tremendous splash and disappear for an instant. It is a full-scale jet coaster that is presented in a sensational way unknown until now.’ — Coaster Force

 

________________

Acrobat
Nagashima Spa Land

‘The attraction which is called Acrobat. The train that takes them on a 1021m-long roller coaster ride , reaching top speeds of 90km/h. Acrobat restrains riders in the prone position.’ — Nagashima Resort

 

________________

Eejanaika
Fuji-Q Highlands

‘Eejanaika is a steel 4th Dimension roller coaster at Fuji-Q Highland in Fujiyoshida, Yamanashi, Japan. Eejanaika, designed by S&S; Arrow, is a “4th Dimension” coaster, a design in which the seats can rotate forward or backward 360 degrees in a controlled spin. This is achieved by having four rails on the track: two of these are running rails while the other two are for spin control. The two rails that control the spin of the seats move up and down relative to the track and spin the seats using a rack and pinion gear mechanism.

‘According to the Guinness Book of World Records, Eejanaika is the roller coaster with the most inversions in the world. Throughout the ride, the riders go through 14 inversions. However, most of these inversions are accomplished by spinning the seats rather than actually inverting the track. This has led to some controversy in the roller coaster enthusiast community concerning the legitimacy of Eejanaika’s claim. The Roller Coaster DataBase does not acknowledge these seat inversions for the purpose of record-holding.’ — rcdb.com

 

________________

Thunder Dolphin
Tokyo Dome City Attractions

‘Thunder Dolphin is a steel roller coaster at the Tokyo Dome City Attractions amusement park, which is part of Tokyo Dome City in Tokyo, Japan. The ride was designed and constructed by Intamin. At 262 feet (80 m) tall, Thunder Dolphin is currently the 6th tallest continuous circuit roller coaster in the world, behind Kingda Ka, Top Thrill Dragster, Steel Dragon 2000, Millennium Force, and Intimidator 305. Thunder Dolphin’s 3,500 feet (1,100 m) long course passes through both a hole in the LaQua building, and through the Big-O, the world’s first centerless Ferris wheel. Thunder Dolphin’s maximum speed is 130 kilometres per hour (81 mph).’ — coaster-net

 

_______________

Jupiter
Kijima Amusement Park

‘Although Japan has had numerous notable roller coasters—including coasters that have held the record of world’s longest, world’s fastest, and world’s tallest roller coaster—it has had relatively few wooden roller coasters. This resulted from Japanese earthquake engineering regulations that restricted the construction of tall wooden structures. Jupiter was built by Intamin AG out of Norway spruce lumber and it cost a total of 2.5 billion yen to construct. The coaster was also the last to be designed by noted roller coaster designer Curtis D. Summers before his death in 1992 and it was one of only two coasters that he produced with Intamin. The roller coaster Jupiter is also notable for briefly appearing in the 1994 science fiction kaiju movie, Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla.’ — coasterpedia

 

________________

Dodonpa
Fuji-Q Highland Park, Fujiyoshida, Yamanashi

‘Dodonpa is an S&S; launched roller coaster located at Fuji-Q Highland in Fujiyoshida, Yamanashi, Japan. It opened in 2001 and currently has the highest launch acceleration of any coaster in the world at 2.7G. The name “Dodonpa” comes from the notes used by taiko drummers. In the queue line, you can hear these notes. At launch you hear a voice in Japanese running through a checklist and counting down before the launch. The dialogue occasionally changes, and, to surprise the riders, there is often a “false” countdown and “failed” launch followed by an “accidental” launch. The four trains are painted with different faces; a “father”, “mother”, “brother”, and “sister”.’ — rollercoaster.wikia.com

 

_______________

Steel Dragon 2000
Nagashima Spa Land, Mie Prefecture, Japan

‘Built by Morgan Manufacturing, this gigacoaster opened, appropriately, in 2000—”The Year of the Dragon” in Asia. It debuted only months after Millennium Force at Cedar Point, and surpassed that as the world’s tallest complete-circuit coaster. It lost these records in height in 2003 when Top Thrill Dragster opened at Cedar Point. It also took the record for the longest track length—8,133 feet 2 inches (2,478.99 m)—which it currently holds.

‘On October 19, 2003, one of the trains lost a wheel, resulting in a guest in the water park suffering a broken hip. The ride was “Standing But Not Operating” (SBNO) until sturdier wheels were installed and the ride reopened in 2006. The building of Steel Dragon 2000 required far more steel than other coasters for earthquake protection. This put the cost of the coaster at over $50 million. Unfortunately, the multi-million dollar price increase to manufacture the ride, due to the large amount of steel required to build the ride effectively put Morgan out of business.’ — Coaster Kingdom

 

______________

Bandit
Yomiuri Land, Tokyo

‘Once the fastest roller coaster in the world, Bandit does not disappoint roller coaster fans. Bandit is special as it was built to follow the contours of the forest-y Yomiuriland, which means that rides will pass through hundreds of treetops during the ride. Try to visit during Hanami, when you’ll be riding through the cherry blossom.’ — tripzilla

 

______________

Venus GP
Space World, Fukuoka Prefecture

‘Circling an enormous model space shuttle, the Venus GP roller coaster makes it onto our list purely because of how surprisingly intense it is, and of course because it features both a vertical loop and one of the most twisting, helix-packed tracks in Japan. And as you can see from the video, it certainly doesn’t dawdle either!’ — sora news

 

_______________

Ultra Twister
Nagashima Spa Land

‘The car goes slowly through the station, loads riders, and then flips the car straight up, into the lift hill, which is partially very slow, but soon speeds up as the car is almost at the top. As the drop, into an airtime hill, and then up into a heartline roll, a very small hill, and then a brake run, going down into two heartline rolls, and then a magnetic trim brake run allows a car to go slowly back into the station.’ — WizLand

 

_____________

Gao
Mitsui Greenland

‘Gao is a massive dinosaur-themed roller coaster from Meisho Amusement Machines that has operated since 1998 at Mitsui Greenland Theme Park (now just called Greenland) in Japan. This mammoth coaster is 5457ft long and reaches speeds of up to 61mph.’ — davidjellis

 

_____________

Looping Star
Nagashima Spa Land

‘Leave it to Nagashima Spa Land to sport a priceless Schwarzkopf Looping Star and somehow distract us with even shinier toys first. Nevertheless, Looping Star was an obvious highlight of the day. It was my first ride on the beloved production model, Sean’s 2nd (after his childhood Thunder Loop at Slagharen). Of the 6 remaining Looping Stars (8 manufactured), Nagashima Spa Land boasts the only model still occupying its original location. Thrity-six years in the same location would yield a larger volume of mature vegetation were it not for a steady stream of typhoons splintering most trees of size.’ — The Coaster Kings

 

_____________

Pyrenees
Parque Espana, Shima, Mie

‘The train departs the station and immediately climbs the 147 feet (45 m) lift hill. Once the train has crested the top of the lift hill, it banks to the right and drops at 62.1 miles per hour (99.9 km/h) into a vertical loop. Exiting the vertical loop, the train then soars through a zero-g roll, and then another vertical loop. Coming out of the second vertical loop, the train makes a highly banked speed turn to the left and travels up into a cobra roll. Leaving the cobra roll, the train travels onwards into a right hand helix which goes through the center of the second vertical loop. Pulling out of the helix, the train enters the mid-course brake run (which does not slow it down). Flying off the mid-course brake run, the train drops down into a corkscrew which leads into a wide left hand banked curve. Speeding through and out of the curve, the train then soars over an airtime hill, and into a sharp upwards helix the left and onto the final brake run.’ — Alchetron

 

_____________

Titan V
Space World, Fukuoka

‘Thirteen visitors were injured Monday when the roller coaster they were riding at an amusement park in Kitakyushu, Fukuoka Prefecture, stopped abruptly, local police said. The six-car Titan V roller coaster at the Space World amusement park stopped at around 1:40 p.m. as a safety system activated after a joint between the third and fourth cars came off, investigators said. The injuries suffered by the visitors, who are mostly complaining of back pain or sickness, are not believed to be serious, they said. [The ride closed on December 31, 2017 alongside the rest of Space World.]’ — The Japan Times

 

_____________

Moonsault Scramble
Highland Park, Japan

‘The defunct Moonsault Scramble Roller Coaster that used to reside at Fuji-Q Highland park. was a world record coaster as the highest in the world and also the highest G force which led to its demise. Moonsault Scramble was known for producing extremely high g-forces on its riders. As of 1998, it was cited by some to exert up to 6.5 gs on its riders. It was one of only three roller coasters to exert such extreme forces on its riders. The pretzel knot element (compromising two inversions) that produced these high g-forces was the only such pretzel knot inversion ever implemented in a roller coaster until the opening of Banshee at Kings Island in 2014.’ — tripatlas

 

_____________

Zokkon!
Fuji-Q Highland

‘Get on this super futuristic, motorcycle-type ride that specializes in speed acceleration. Bound to provoke some excited screams and keep you at the edge of your seat, this ride has an abundance of turns and tunnels that accelerate at different, unexpected speeds. There’s also an unexpected ‘reverse run’ where the ride will accelerate in speed but move backwards! You’ll also hear Sekai No Owari’s new original music during the ride, as they’ve produced exciting and fun sounds that add to the experience. It feels like you’re riding a motorcycle, so hold tight and enjoy the ride!’ — Farah Bassyouni

 

 

*

p.s. Hey. ** Adem Berbic, I don’t think I’ll ever get what the big deal is about Dustan. But I knew him a little, and what an arrogant asshole. Anyway … Word of mouth is what it’s all about. I’d be self-publishing without it. Nice, iow! Never seen Cixous talk. I did meet her at an Avital Ronell lecture. She was/is classy. ** Carsten, The problem is that the accounts of serial killers are largely either uninterested in serial killers’ troubled and/or confused motivations or else don’t know how to represent that or don’t want to take the time to try, more likely. ** Dominik, Hi!!! Thank you for the thanks. No, no favorite brand, it’s just that for some reason the French don’t seem to understand what makes a muffin pleasurable in the only way muffins can be. The French don’t really do ‘cakes’ well in general and rarely even try. But then Americans can’t seem to make a decent croissant. Strange. I did have a super muffin in Amsterdam. Here’s hoping Marilyn Manson didn’t rape or psychologically abuse anyone backstage at the concert, but I guess love would never know if he did. How was it? Love inventing a great indoor roller coaster, which does not currently exist at least in my experience, G. ** ⋆˚꩜。darbbzz⋆˚꩜。, Thanks, pal. I did read and really like ‘Terminal Boredom’, which is strange since science fiction novels/stories are by far my weakest point. Sub-categories forever. ** Bill, Hey. I love the album/track. It’s gorgeous. It’s gorgeous to hear you work with the great noise. Thank you from my ears (and brain, of course). Right, you saw ‘Cupidon’! I forgot. Someone or somewhere in the States really needs to mount that work. It’s a no brainer. I’ll have a think. Enjoying/surviving the humidity and its friendlier aspects? ** Steve, Their charm, indeed. Silly hippie music is a genre that needs reviving. Interesting: the Debord observation. I’ve been thinking about that. I hope the rain did its magic atmospheric trick. ** DonW, I got the list, thank you so much! Holy shit, they did my possibly two favorite Pavement songs — ‘Grounded’ and ‘Starlings in the Slipstream’ — back to back! And ‘And Then (The Hex)! Never would have imagined that. What a top to bottom great show. Pavement and The Fall are two bands where if I listen to one track they become quicksand. Well, and GbV, duh. Take care on your end too. ** Thomas Moronic, You get here on Sunday. Ace! I can’t wait to see you. Prayers that the recent lull between heatwaves here extends to the day you leave. ** Diesel Clementine, Hi. No, not insulting in the slightest. I think about that issue all the time. I think there’s nothing but things happening in the offing. But the future hypnotises me. No festivals forthcoming, just a couple of screenings and possibly a couple more before we put the film to bed, projection-wise. ‘RT’ will be streaming and on BluRay before too long, but I don’t have a launch date on that yet. News when there is (news). Thanks! Hi galore back to your husband and the ex. If there was an emoji for ‘galore’ I would have put it there. ** HaRpEr //, ‘Histoire(s) du Cinema’ is incredible, yeah. Godard’s greatness is beyond. Nice, the Autechre completism. I’ve studied their work a lot and tried to transfer what I learned into fiction’s process. I’m not sure that I have, but their lesson definitely made a big difference. ** laura w, There does seem to be a surge of interest in Cixous in France right now. I didn’t realise it extended outside the borders. I’ve only ever written about things that scare me (among other effects). If some idea doesn’t scare me, I get bored. A doctor told me that whatever it is in your skin that absorbs light often changes as you get older. I don’t know, though. It’s nice not to burn. I haven’t played ‘Mario Odyssey’ yet. I really need to ge back to my Switch. I don’t know what’s holding me up. Hugs! ** Carter Potter, Whoa, Carter, you’re here. Hi! You’re coming to Paris? I definitely want to see you. Give me your coordinates and schedule when the time is right. On Instagram or wherever. How cool! ** Okay. Today I’m giving you simple task of examining and daydreaming about Japanese roller coasters. See you tomorrow.

10 Comments

  1. Dominik

    Hi!!

    Japan is not fucking around even when it comes to roller coasters! Some of these look terrifying. Takabisha and Zaturn must be (and have been, RIP) brutal—in a very intriguing way. And Fire Bandit looks awesome too. Which one(s) would you most like to try?

    I have a similar problem with bakeries here. Cookies and cakes tend to be good, but pastries are so different from what I was used to in Hungary. They just don’t hit that sweet spot.

    I can’t speak to Manson’s behavior backstage, but onstage, he was surprisingly… professionally friendly. It was a very “live performance 101” type of thing—“Hello, Vienna, are you guys having a good time? I can’t hear you!!” I expected him to be mean or arrogant or visibly bored or something, haha. All in all, it wasn’t a memorable show by any means, but I enjoyed being there, being part of the audience for that one night.

    An indoor roller coaster sounds like a challenge. But then who else would be better suited to tackling it than love?

    Love learning that there’s a town called Dildo in Canada, Od.

  2. Adem Berbic

    That tracks with what I’ve heard about him as a person, but ouch. His writing is still tickling me, but I’m mindful that his style is a lot more novel to me in French than it would be in English – and like I said yesterday, I seem to be able to project what I want to read onto things in French. Plus I’m still a few books off from what’s been described to me as his descent into megalomaniacal pseudo-experimentation.

    Cool, excellent. I’ll hope the mouth keeps running its word. The second chunk of this new thing is starting to fall into place, in terms of letting its textures amble into view and forcing myself to sweat through their presence. I’ll be happy if I can get the mental landscape ready in time for Croatia, so that I can actually start writing while I’m by the, uh, seascape. I think this one will be harder to write. I think the tone I want to hit and the affects I want to create in the reader are all going to be very delicate. Sort of spectral, but also not.

    You’re reminding me that I really haven’t lived yet when it comes to rollercoasters. The closest I’ve come recently is Anish Kapoor’s gaudy red helter skelter, which isn’t very close at all. Although, credit where it’s due, it did make my spine feel like Hulk Hogan was doing chiropractic on it.

    @HaRpEr, I’m catching Autechre live for the first time in October-ish – I don’t think I’ve seen a show done in total darkness before. I always see them and Aphex as having done this weird double pirouette thing, where they moved towards more abstract means of representing emotion over time and he moved away.

    • HaRpEr //

      Oh, lucky. I saw the ad for their London show but forgot about it. I guess this is the post-postmodern Autechre era where the album is a thing of the past.
      Yeah, I think Aphex Twin has changed quite a lot over the years, but he’s less of a perfectionist than Autechre seem to be, who seem to have this vision in their head that they’ve spent years going down different alleys trying to perfect or take to extremes. RDJ likes fucking around quite a lot (AE do as well, for the record) and a lot of his best albums like ‘Drukqs’ are all over the place. I will say that his ‘emotional’ tracks are distinctly separate from his more abstract, chaotic pieces, whereas AE seem to want to find a way to merge those things together.

  3. _Black_Acrylic

    I would pick Jupiter from the selection here, just because of its wooden construction. Always makes for a more intense experience, I find. The 1st coaster I remember here was at Flamingo Land near Leeds and that was a wooden thing too. Old school, baby!

  4. Thom

    Heyyyyy Dennis… Great last few days, hard to find time to properly compose comments right now… from nudes I really loved the Juan Rivero stuff, strange power in those images, hard to say what kind of flat-ish art its subconciously reminding me of… also I’m usually undecided on Paul Mcarthy, but the piece with those guys humping the tree/ground was really cool…

    Do you have a favourite Suziki film?

    Also, yayyy coadters! The big white cyclone coaster is making me feel something idk why… great coaster post today!

    Lotsa projects to get to, dipping into every form of DIY rn it seems… zines to print, website to work on, zine/press launch on Sunday, me and my friend are doing a guitar-less set in August so we gotta practice more, ummm got some posters to hang for that gig… lots to do, see ya!

    Oh yeah now its been Oregon’s turn to get hot/smoky/weird feeling days, well see how long it lasts… k bye!!

  5. Ezra

    The idea of roller coasters both intrigues and terrifies me. I had never even seen one in person until 2 or so months ago, when a friend picked me up from a fabulous party at 8am Sunday and convinced me to go on a drive across the NSW and Queensland border with him, cos he met a hot guy on Grindr but didn’t want to travel alone. There’s a famous area just across the Qld border catering to tourists, and there are a handful of theme parks there, which are visible from the highway. They are much bigger in real life than I imagined (I say imagined as someone with total visual and auditory aphantasia, who has a vague concept of imagining things, but zero actual understanding of it), I am pretty sure you could see them from a plane, I doubt you can see them from space though.

    I should have been in bed at least 5 hours ago, since I have a uni lecture at 8am, if someone had told me at 20 that at 40 I would still decide that cocaine on a Wednesday night with Thursday obligations, I would have laughed , yet here I am.

    At least all I do now when I’m high is read for as long as physically possible. Much more enjoyable than being in a loud bar with annoying drunk people!

    I hope you have a Wednesday as enjoyable as mine has been!

  6. Travis (fka Cal)

    Hey Dennis, sorry about my belated reply, I tend to struggle with timeliness. I’ve been decent overall. Unfortunately there have been a lot of deaths in my life over the last couple of years ranging from family to friends to friends of friends, which has been a lot at times. The only benefit being that I’ve gotten some writing/art out of them. I feel like I’m constantly creating but really struggle with how to get my stuff out where people can see them, or even just finishing the damn things. I’ve been lurking on your blog from time to time and it’s always a great place to learn something or see something interesting. So thanks for your continued efforts with it. Glad to hear that the weather eased up on ya. The heat here in Texas just keeps getting higher and higher as the weeks go on. And I work outside lol. Off to the swelter I go. Much love to you

  7. HaRpEr //

    Hey. Going on photos alone, Jupiter looks like my favourite here, though I doubt a wooden rollercoaster is destined for longevity. Strangely beautiful and bleak, like the remaining frame of a building that’s burned down.

    Speaking of impractical creations, the writing I’m doing is so difficult right now, but I invariably always get stuck in the moments where I forget what I’m doing. I guess I’m describing it as a list of descriptions rather than a regular novel, a list where it seems like there’s something big missing. I’m trying to make a composite of something, and layer in conflicting information towards the end. I’m doing a survey of particular cultural artefacts, like ABBA for one, and also this medieval diagram called ‘The Wound Man’ that I’m really fascinated by. I’ve got so much cognitive dissonance running through my head from all of the different wires I’m trying to fuse together that I’m in a bit of a delirium. Well, I’m also sleeping badly and don’t know why, and I’ve got so much stress going on in the background right now that I’m not in ideal writing circumstances, but those never exist anyway. I hope it doesn’t since I’m so wrapped up in it, but the writing might have to go on the backburner for the moment while I try to sort some things out in my life. I think I’ve been in a fever dream for too long and I need to get back to being among people. I think I got a bit carried away, though some of it was necessary.

  8. Bill

    Really appreciate your enthusiasm and kind words for Flue, Dennis!

    I can’t say I’m a fan of roller coasters; I’ve developed more trouble with heights in recent years. But I’d certainly try Skycycle if I’m in the vicinity.

    There’s a possibility that one of those summer monsoons will pass through this weekend. If that happens, it will take care of the humidity for a time; and also of the little new music festival, unfortunately.

    Bill

  9. laura w

    roller coasters! i confess to not being much of a coaster fan- the only one i’ve ever really loved is the barnstormer at disney world (and i think they killed it/toontown in general? it’s been years since i’ve been back, though). a dumb baby roller coaster, but fun.

    i highly highly recommend odyssey! i bounce between it and galaxy as my favorite 3d mario, though galaxy is mostly because the wii was my childhood console so that whole era of nintendo has me in a choke.

    today i found out one of my coworkers is a fucking snake, so that’s fun. a work friend and i were talking about issues she was having with her manager, who is evil and bad at her job, and i guess that coworker is tight with that specific manager and told her about it so i got mildly in trouble for “gossiping”. the thing is, i’ve worked there for two years and he acts like i don’t fucking exist so… whatever.

    i wish insecure men would stop making their insecurity everyone else’s problem…

    i like the idea of writing what scares you (also i have to say that when i read frisk it freaked me the fuck out, but not so much that i couldn’t appreciate how smart it was, particularly the use of first person omniscent). when i write, i like to employ metaphors that make me twitch, like “potato-peeling my fingernails”, because i like the way they jar sentences. i remember being 17 and reading lolita and coming across the wonderful simile “like a gyncologist groping for a tumor” and though i have mixed feelings about nabokov (on one hand, he was a literary blowhard with some serious hang-ups that tended to leak into his books for the worse, on the other hand, my brain does like his dense, flamboyant prose) it’s stuck in my mind ever since.

    delightful to see japanese on instagram this morning, though i think you confused some folks. i hope your day was better than mine! xoxo

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

© 2026 DC's

Theme by Anders NorénUp ↑