The blog of author Dennis Cooper

Mine for yours: My 40 all-time favorite amusement park rides (in no order)

Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride (Disneyland)
Anaheim, CA

 

Fabeldyrene (RIP, Kongeparken)
Ålgård, Norway

 

Ninja Mystery House (Toei Studio Park)
Kyoto, Japan

 

Le Defi de Cesar (Parc Asterix)
Plailly, France

 

Radiator Springs Racers (Disney California Adventure)
Anaheim, CA

 

Droomvlucht (Efteling)
Kaatsheuvel, Holland

 

Dodonpa (Fuji-Q Highland)
Fujiyoshida, Japan

 

Badewannen Fahrt (Erlebnispark Tripsdrill)
Cleebronn, Germany

 

Taron (Phantasialand)
Brühl, Germany

 

Flight to Mars (RIP, Pacific Ocean Park)
Venice, CA

 

Den Flyvende Kuffert (Tivoli Gardens)
Copenhagen

 

Juvelen (Djurs Sommerland)
Randersvej, Denmark

 

AtmosFear (Liseberg)
Gothenburg, Sweden

 

Harry Potter and The Forbidden Journey (Universal’s Islands Of Adventure)
Orlando

 

X2 (Six Flags Magic Mountain)
Valencia, CA

 

Indiana Jones Adventure (Disneyland)
Anaheim, CA

 

Tornado (Bakken)
Klampenborg, Denmark

 

Speed Monster (TusenFyrd)
Vinterbro, Norway

 

De Vliegende Hollander (Efteling)
Kaatsheuvel, Holland

 

Arthur (Europa Park)
Rust, Germany

 

Gasten Ghost Hotel (Liseberg)
Gothenburg, Sweden

 

Adventure Thru Inner Space (RIP, Disneyland)
Anaheim, CA

 

Vandrotten (Bonbon Land)
Holme-Olstrup, Denmark

 

The Haunted House (Tokyo Dome City)
Tokyo

 

Journey to the Center of the Earth (Tokyo Disney Sea)
Tokyo

 

Haunted Mansion (Disneyland)
Anaheim, CA

 

Mystery Island Banana Train Ride (RIP, Pacific Ocean Park)
Venice, CA

 

Ghostrider (Knotts Berry Farm)
Buena Park, CA

 

Blå Tåget (Grona Lund)
Stockholm

 

River Ride (RIP, The Pike)
Long Beach

 

Nightmare (TusenFyrd)
Vinterbro, Norway

 

Black Mamba (Phantasialand)
Brühl, Germany

 

Eejanaika (Fuji-Q Highland)
Fujiyoshida, Japan

 

Ghost Hole (RIP, Coney Island)
Brooklyn

 

Star Trek: The Experience (RIP, Las Vegas Hilton)
Las Vegas

 

The Great Movie Ride (RIP, Disney’s Hollywood Studios)
Orlando

 

Euro Mir (Europa Park)
Rust, Germany

 

Symbolica (Efteling)
Kaatsheuvel, Holland

 

Davy Jones Locker (RIP, Pacific Ocean Park)
Venice, CA

 

Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man (Universal’s Islands of Adventure)
Orlando

 

 

*

p.s. Hey. ** JM, Hey! The privilege was and is entirely mine, sir. I hope it was enjoyable for you, and I hope the book’s birth is like a rocket’s. ** _Black_Acrylic, Hi. Good one: the ‘name’ song. Of course amongst Guided by Voices’ million great songs there are a qualifying few, maybe especially this one. Isn’t there a Beyonce name song? The Beatles: ‘You Know My Name, Look Up the Number’. I guess one could go on and on. ** David Ehrenstein, Hi. Yes, Mekas, so sad. France is in mass mourning about Legrand, no real surprise. Jacques Demy was a character in the Christophe Honore play I saw on Saturday, played by a girl. ** Keatongs, There you go. Floodgates. I’ll try the Skynard. Wait, I thought you didn’t like Brussels. You’re mercurial, or, more likely, my memory is. I’m not a fetishist about rock’s sound precision either, but I do notice slight differences, some kind of OCD or something. ** Sypha, Hi. Thanks for big-upping JM. ** Misanthrope, Did it go okay with the court thing? Are your lungs and throat mellowing? Hope so doubly. Oh, god, I feel you on the falling asleep early thing, not right now, but in a few days I’ll get the loveliness of a nine hour time difference to slog through, oh god. ** Steve Erickson, Hi. Yes, I post the blog updates on FB on both the blog’s page and mine every day but Sunday. I never know what to say about the very odd, random blog access problems except to say I’m sorry and that I’m always hoping for a miracle. Ouch, take good care of that important arm. ** Adam Cloutier, Hi, nice to meet you, and thank you very much for doing that. It was a great conversation. Well, naturally I’m going to second how silly it would be for you to miss the PGL screening, ha ha, and Puce Mary is a big added incentive if you need one. She kills it live. Thank you again! ** Nik, Hi, man. The London trip was great, really great screening of the film and brief fun otherwise too. We’re still finagling the poster. We have until the time we split to nail it, meaning before Thursday. We both like what it’s becoming. Uh, the distributor wanted something that popped more than the first poster, suggested it contain a face shot or three, but we had another idea that uses Kier’s drawings (that main character Roman ‘draws’ in the film) as the focus, and, strangely, they liked that, and so we’re building a poster around a drawing. I wish you all the luck in the entire universe re: school starting today if you need it. How did it feel and how did it go? First impressions? The Richard Cheim novel is just fantastic. His writing is dreamy, and I can’t figure out how he makes his prose do what it does, which is very exciting too. Yeah, I do get lucky in that people or presses send me advance copies/galleys sometimes, sometimes in search of blurbs, and sometimes I assume hoping I’ll prop the book on the blog. You have an extremely good one, and, yeah, let me know the scoop. ** Okay. Today I’m yet again indulging my theme park obsession, and I really would love to hear what people’s favorite rides and attractions are so I can put them on my wish list if I don’t already know them. Thanks. See you tomorrow.

11 Comments

  1. JM

    Naw, RIP Ghost Hole & Facade. Not sure how frequently Adam checks in around these parts but he is indeed headed to that PGL screening on the 7th! Hope all is well on your end. First read for Calendar Girls tonight and a real opportunity to flex a (tired, dusty) comedy muscle again before the high verbosity of Boudicca in June. Fly like gangbusters,

    j

  2. David Ehrenstein

    Not at all surprised that France is mourning Michel so massively. He was France’s Gershwin. Here he is with Nan Mouskouri

    Here he is singing the song he wrote for Melville’s “Bob Le Flambeur”

    And here are Grover Dale and George Chakiris in “Les Demoiselles de Rochefort”

    Jacque would have been very amused by Honore having him played as a girl.

  3. kier

    hi denling! i must have been psychically compelled to catch up on the blog today by the invocation of my name! are you seriously making a poster with one of my drawings in it?? thats Craaazyyyy wow! why did you need to make a second poster? if you ever get the chance to snag me a physical copy of that (if it’s gonna be physical) i would be eternally in your debt. a big RIP to fabeldyrene, that thing was there for a really short time right? sad i missed witnessing it. the speed monster is so fun, that’s the one we always try to hit twice when we’re at tusenfryd. i saw that crowd is in oslo 15th and 16th march! my friend who works at dansens hus where it’s being shown says it’s really popular so i should get tickets sooner rather than later. do you have any norway news yet? i was thinking if you’re here for one of the shows i’d totally get a ticket the same day (there’s no assigned seating there). i’m really happy to hear london went so well. how are you doing? what are you doing? i’m in the home stretch on my mfa application, just a few days left to work on it, it’s getting there i think. i’ve started going to the gym again, i can’t do anything really with the whole upper half of my body haha, but it’s good anyway. no big news here really. oslo is very very snowy, it’s pretty but also annoying but i’m trying to appreciate it anyway. big hugs to you and z!

  4. Grant Maierhofer

    I love this. I grew up near Noah’s Ark so the majority of rides I know of are waterpark ones. Made me think of this video though: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVeHxUVkW4w.

    Hope all’s well!

  5. Dominik

    Hi!!

    I’m so glad to hear the screening was such a success, on so many levels. It’s one of the best feelings ever – to experience that your work is understood.

    Oh! I’ve read an article about ‘Les Idoles’ recently. I’m really interested in Christophe Honoré’s film, Sorry Angel, and it led me to the play which also made it onto my list. How was it?

    I went back to feast a little on your Barbet Schroeder post and watched Single White Female and shit…! It’s been a while since a film actually made me react on a physical level. As we talked about it earlier, I’m the most interested in characters when I watch movies and it’s pretty difficult to satisfy me but Hedra (played by Jennifer Jason Leigh) was a creature of and for my mind.

    When do you leave for the West Coast trip?
    Have an amazing week, Dennis!!

  6. Steve Erickson

    My access to the blog is getting worse and more random, for reasons I don’t understand.

    I saw my dr. today, but I don’t know what’s going on with my arm. In fact, I’m seeing an orthopedic specialist tomorrow. I’m still in a lot of pain and in a terrible mood because of it, and I’m also worried about the long-term ramifications of not being able to type.

  7. _Black_Acrylic

    My fave theme park experience must be Yorkshire’s very own Flamingo Land as that was my first roller coaster ride, which gives it a lifetime special place in my heart. I don’t even know whether that ride is there any longer, I just remember it being this cheap wooden rickety thing and that certainly only added to the thrill.

    I’m organising a bit of stuff for the forthcoming The Call zine. All of its content is now finished and the thing just needs printing on Thursday, but I’m gonna apply for some funding so that Alex can create a website for it too. Plus I’d like to cover printing and postage costs. The Call is a very different beast to Yuck ‘n Yum and I’m still not sure how regular it will eventually be, but I’m very excited about the inaugural issue and cannot wait for it to be out there in the world.

  8. Nik

    Hey dude,

    Wow, clearly a legendary post. I get why the Mr. Toad ride is such an influence now, that’s a total mind bender. My favorite attractions? I grew up in proximity to Six Flags Great Adventure, which is around Jackson NJ. I grew up totally obsessed with it and still love to go, but it’s definetely mostly a “thrill junkie”, roller coaster based park. It’s known for King Da Ka, the tallest roller coaster in the world (at least last time I was there it was). So a lot of the rides are about totally boring aesthetically. Maybe Houdini’s Great Escape would interest you? My favorites were nitro, el toro, and the great American scream machine, which I think they turned into a Batman ride. Those ones are mostly interesting in a kind of “woah, that loop looks really fun” kind of way, which I have residual interest in from playing thrillville as a kid. Hope that helps!
    Oh, dope, I’m happy they’re letting you put up the poster you want. It must nice getting leeway from producer types haha.
    So first impression of school is really good. I only had one class today, but it was comp lit and the teacher is mostly interested in French lit, so the syllabus is crazy exciting. We analyzed that Rimbaud letter with “the wood that finds itself a violin”, and the class had all really smart stuff to say about it. So yeah, really great first day. Also, I went to nyc and saw my “three sisters” director put up her songs at joes pub with a lot of people from the cast. On the car ride home now, and that was really fun, so, overall really nice. How has your day been? Did you get a chance to check out the email!? Obviously no rush, I know you’re days are packed rn.
    Have a great day!

  9. Misanthrope

    Dennis, I’ve only been to three amusement parks, two of which I can barely remember: Enchanted Forest and Busch Gardens. I remember King’s Dominion, but it’s so ho hum.

    All that stuff is tomorrow, sir.

    The doc defo needs to be seen now. Woke up twice overnight and couldn’t speak. Or could barely speak. Had to get something drink and it eased up. Then got worse throughout the day. I sound a bit froggy. Ugh.

    Yes, Big D, await that sleep with open arms. You’ll make it through and be all the better for it! Godspeed.

  10. Jay

    This one’s a very, very unnerving and strange one for me. Up until a few years ago, I loved roller-coasters, and amusement parks in general, though it’d never been to many. The most intense one Id been on, before last year, was the Aerosmith one in Universal, which was pretty fun. But last year my girlfriend took me to the Superman ride in Six Flags New England, and I almost passed out. It was so, so awful and frightening. No idea why. I had an overwhelming awareness of mortality that I knew was misplaced, as roller-coasters are super safe, but still. I was so shaken I could barely walk. Hopefully I’ll find a way to enjoy these things again. I’m barely 23, it can’t be that hard to get in a childlike mindset again. Either way, no intention to sour your post Dennis. Thanks for sharing!

  11. Corey Heiferman

    I remember my favorite amusement park attractions as a kid weren’t actual rides. Like my favorite thing at Sesame Place were a completely ordinary tractor that didn’t even move that you could just climb into and sit in the cab, maybe move around some controls that didn’t do anything. They also had a fake kiddie sized gas station where I would get engrossed pretending to fuel cars for what could’ve stretched to hours on end if my family hadn’t forced me to move on. At nearby Dorney Park my favorite was a water playground set up as a car wash so a kid runs through the different kinds of brushes and gets sprayed.

    I might’ve written this here before, but I think there’s something very profound about kiddie rides that’s some kind of zen take on pleasure-seeking: all just cosmetically different variations of going around in circles, some with an illusion of control like a steering wheel or joystick that doesn’t actually do anything.

    Funny coincidence that yesterday my boyfriend floated the idea of going to Shanghai Disney.

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