“My aesthetic in purely musical terms is the idea of counterpoint. This is the one invention of Western music that is truly incredible, and counterpoint is the fundamental business of improvisers, too… When you’re playing on stage, there are bizarre things going on, and I couldn’t tell you what is happening, even though I programmed it. The audience certainly can’t. I think in terms of pure musical phenomenon.” –Jon Rose interview
Biography
Jon Rose is an Australian violinist born in the UK in 1951. Rose began playing violin at age 7 after winning a music scholarship to King’s School in Rochester. For over 35 years, Rose has been at the sharp end of new, improvised, and experimental music and media. A polymath, he is at much at home creating large environmental multi-media works as he is playing the violin on a concert stage.
His works merge history, environment, sound and improvisation to create provocative pieces. He has lived in England, Australia and Germany and preformed around the world.
Central to this practice has been ‘The Relative Violin’ project, a unique output, rich in content, realising almost everything on, with, and about the violin and string music in general. Most celebrated is the worldwide Fence project; least known are the relative violins created specifically for and in Australia.
From a variety of sources.
Video Performances
Fences- an overview
Fence 2 at whitecliffs
Wogarno
Exmouth
Barbed wire
An aural map of Australia
In this video Jon Rose gives an overview of some of the different sounds and types of music that he has heard in his journeys travelling around Australia playing fences. From the Western Australian Chainsaw Orchestra which begun as a protest against the logging industry in that state to fruit and vegetable instruments this is an aural introduction to the other sounds of Australia.
Perhaps in the sonic map Jon Rose has made of Australia’s fences, we have a clue, a picture, of why music affects all of us so deeply. Perhaps our personal distinctions between music and noise reflects (and affects) our internal map of the borders we cultivate within ourselves and then project back upon the world we experience. Perhaps music is not just a movement of air that triggers emotional reactions in us, but a magnifying glass which makes us stand in relation to our notions of “self” and “other,” value and worthlessness, transcendence and the mundane, and re-evaluate them. Perhaps music compels us to rethink the maps our lives make out of the complex phenomena of the world around us. More here:http://www.steveelkins.net/Writings/Aural-Maps/23337840_nSKxjT
The great fences of Australia
Fences can be seen as analogies for the old binary battle between our species and nature, or our culture(s) and the wild. The desire for exploration, control, and exploitation of resources are fired by fences – indicating a frontier history of extreme hardship, violence, and getting. They also mark the notion of belonging, friend or foe, certainty and uncertainty, knowing and unknowing. Fences mark the boundaries of cultures and political systems, the perceived civilized and the great unwashed, a sense of the private and public, a hierarchical statement that says “I exist” and the rest – eh – somewhere over there on the other side. In a few places, the fence today is even used to protect the natural world from our own excesses the rest can be read here:http://www.jonroseweb.com/f_projects_great_fences.html
Out there
For nearly 40 years Jon Rose has been at and the sharp end of experimental, new and improvised music both in this country and on the global stage. He is a violinist, instrument maker, software developer, composer, performer, provocateur, innovator and inspiring mentor to three generations of music explorers.
Central to his practice has been ‘The Relative Violin’ project, realising almost everything on, with, and about the violin – and string music in general. Most celebrated is the worldwide fence project, but there are more than 20 relative violins, experimental string instruments created for and in Australia. Beyond instrument making, the project has involved writing books, making radiophonic works and films, the creation of the fictional Rosenberg family, and many multi-media performances.
His recent projects have included interactive ball projects and ‘Pursuit’, an orchestra of mobile, bicycle-powered musical instruments combined with wireless transmission technology. These are some manifestations of Jon’s desire to create music which can be considered democratically as belonging to everybody – anybody can do it. Read and listen to the rest here:http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/summerfeatures/summer-features-jon-rose/4363608
By-
Fences of Israel
Over three days I played a total of eight fences in Israel. The old 1967 border fence with Syria, suitably perched on the edge of an uncleared mine field, attracted the first police interest. I was informed that the mines were sliding down the slope, under my feet, and would blow me to kingdom come. Udi and Victor, my Israeli guides for the day, thought it was nonsense too. However nothing would have persuaded me to play the fence from the other (mined) side.
Also on the Golan Heights, a performance on a Kibbutz fence had the owner in a panic; a neighbour had telephoned to say that someone was sawing down his fence (saw, bow – it’s all the same you know.) After Victor had explained what I was doing, the guy walked slowly backwards away from us, speechless, got in his car, drove off at speed. This is all very different to playing fences in outback Australia. In over 35,000 kilometres of playing fences here, only one person has ever complained. On the contrary, there is usually advice as to where to go and get even better sounding fences (even from the Coober Pedy police). The rest can be read here: http://www.jonroseweb.com/f_projects_israel_fences.html
language of improve
The history of Improvisation however is something other than jazz and has not run into a dead end. In fact since Free Jazz, the practice of improvisation (free or otherwise) has exploded into a myriad of styles and languages. A veritable Tower of Babel.
Improvising musicians talk about language and vocabulary in the context of musical style. The old axiom about music starting where language stops can easily put a stop to debate and understanding about the processes going on; a reluctance to debate doesn’t help in trying to understand the wealth of differences in sonic material generated by the contemporary improviser.
In any discussion of music as language, there are a number of issues that can be taken as general context, common notions within which all music operates – although applying universals to styles of music is often too simplistic.
p.s. Hey. ** Misanthrope, I think a Moreau Island ride was designed but never built at some point by some park, I can’t remember which. Maybe John Waters could be coerced out of retirement if he spent an afternoon at your house. Lucky Kayla. Not only is our vaccine situation a mess, as I’ve said, but tonight we’re going back into confinement for the third time, with govt. permission required to even leave my apartment, etc., the whole deal for at least a month. Talk about the joy totally being sucked out of you. ** David Ehrenstein, Yes, I’m reading about that. Shocking is hardly even the word. Everyone, FaBlog takes on the recent spa killings in the US of A right here. ** _Black_Acrylic, Hi, B. I can’t disagree with you. You doing okay or hopefully much better in your cyber-blocked world? ** Dominik, Hi, D!!! Oh, it’s only very cool for me to get to spread the word. Shit, sorry about the horrid second half of the project assignment. Is it out of your hair now, I hope? Nice word, maybe even better than varicose. Since we’re going back into confinement here tonight, and since I’m feeling depressed about that, the only love I can imagine this morning is a button that fast-forwards the world, or at least Paris and Budapest, so let’s put our fingers on that love button and double push it, G. ** Chris Kelso, Hi. Yeah, I’m pretty sure the word punk being in Cyberpunk is what got me interested. No, I don’t know that Alasdair Gray book. I’ll find it somewhere. I have read something(s) or other by him, and I remember liking it/them. Very cool and thanks for including our interview in your book. Apocalypse Party is a great press. You’re in excellent hands, not that I probably need to tell you that. Thanks, man, and you stay safe too. ** ae, Hey there, ae, great to see you! Thanks about the post. Yeah, unbelievable that that Eiffel Tower ride was actually almost built. Mickey’s Dick Smasher, however, wouldn’t get too far. Sadly? I’ve never heard of that Krishna theme park, wow, and I’m pretty on the money about theme park history and lore. Fascinating. I’m going to go google the shit out off that. Krishna food is so good, yes. Uh, given that we go back into confinement tonight, things aren’t so hot here and with me, to be honest, but I’ll live. Great you got your vaccine. No, the vaccine rollout in France is a sluggish mess, a big national scandal. I don’t think I’m even close to getting mine. It’s ridiculous. I know two other books called ‘Exquisite Corpse’ that are about entirely different things, but not that Black Dahlia one, so I’ll search for it. Thanks. The package? Uh, I don’t know. What was in it? Sorry, my brain is out of sorts this morning due to imminent confinement gloom. Thanks for sending it, no matter what. Right, it’s the weekend, isn’t it? Please have a spectacular one! ** Right. Today I have restored a quite old post made for the blog by a long lost d.l. who went by the moniker Paradigm and who I believe was an Aussie about the pretty curious and fascinating musician/composer Jon Rose who, among other things, makes music using wire fences. Dig in, please. See you tomorrow.
_______________ ‘Back in the late 1990s and early 2000s, Disney’s Imagineers worked on many concepts to ease guests’ disappointment about the shuttering of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea: Submarine Voyage at the Magic Kingdom. One of these was Fire Mountain, which was to headline a new sub-land in Adventureland to be known as Volcania. It was to be a roller coaster based around a mock mountain – hardly an original concept for Disney. However, the actual ride system was to be truly revolutionary. Riders would start in a traditional steel coaster, sitting in a car with the track beneath them. Suddenly, halfway through, the ride would transform into a “flying” coaster, with the track above the rider’s headers and “lava” burning beneath their feet. By the time they reached the end of the attraction, the track would have switched once again, so that waiting riders would have no idea what to expect. Ultimately, the costs of achieving this trick were deemed to be too high, and Fire Mountain was reimagined as a simple flying coaster. But it never got the green light.’— Theme Park Tourist
_______________ ‘The Eiffel Tower Bullet was a fun ride proposed in 1891 in which people would sit inside a giant bullet and freefall from the top of the Eiffel Tower into a pool of water. M.Carron’s bullet capsule would be released from the top of the interior of the Tower, about 1000 feet high, and released to fall into an excavated pool 150’ across and 200’ deep. The idea was that in addition to the springs inside the capsule, the water would act as a “shock absorber”, and so “the shock felt by the occupants on landing will be in no way unpleasant”. The thing would have hit at 178mph or so, and, assuming that the whole thing didn’t get completely crushed on impact, I’m not so sure that 200’ of depth is very much wiggle room for the thing to come to a halt (if it didn’t deform). Also it would have to not have any wind deflection so as to not veer off its perfect entry into the water. And so on. Calculating the force of impact is difficult without knowing how far down the bullet would go, but hitting the water at 80 m/s and stopping at 30 meters would yield something like 28,600,000 KE and 1,274,000 N. There are lots of problems. The thing that made this so appealing is that for the 20-francs that got a person a seat in the bullet, they would each have gotten to go twice as fast as any human had ever traveled before ( 65 miles per hour was about the speed of the fastest train constructed).’ — collaged
_______________ ‘During the early 1980’s, Bally was developing an interactive Ghostbusters-themed ride called The Hauntington Hotel, for Six Flags theme parks. The modern movie-branded take on Disney’s classic Haunted Mansion attraction would have been the first interactive video game/theme park ride. Six Flags guests would climb into a “Ghostmobile”, a track-set ride vehicle with a drop down lap bar with ghost-busting guns mounted on it. Recruited by the Ghostbusters Agency, park guests would be sent on their first job, to take care of the ghosts in a creepy hotel called The Hauntington Hotel. The ride was expected to last two and a half minutes and would feature a variety of high-tech and low-tech gags for the scenes. Every target would react to being hit, and guests would get to find out their score when exiting the attraction. The whole thing was created, designed, engineered, and prototyped at Sente, and the ride system was in the hands of a prominent roller coaster engineering company, Intamin. But before it could be rolled out in the Six Flags parks (1st one was slated for Six Flags Magic Mountain in Southern California), Bally sold the Six Flags division in 1987, and the project fell into a corporate black hole, never to be seen again, which is too bad, as it was really pretty cool, even by today’s standards.’ — Slash Film
________________ ‘The Orlando, Florida project Hurricane World was supposed to be both a serious hurricane research center, and a tourist attraction featuring giant simulated storms complete with 100 mph winds. The developers wanted to build this $5 million tourist attraction on U.S. Highway 192 in Osceola County next door to Walt Disney World.’ — collaged
______________
‘Phoenix, Arizona is one of the largest metropolitan areas without a major theme park. All of that was supposed to change when Decades Rock ‘N’ Roll Theme Park has received $750 million in funding from the Arizona state government. Decades was to be built between Phoenix and Tucson in Eloy, Arizona. In 2008, then governor Governor Janet Napolitano’s approved the creation of a “regional attraction district” between Phoenix and Tucson in Eloy, Arizona. The legislation authorized up to $750 million in new bonds to pay for project costs. As the name implies, Decades would have featured “interconnected Lands and Districts that represent each decade of rock music – the 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s in its first phase – with interactive thrill rides, live music and other attractions where audience members can step back in time to the sights and sounds of each era.” Developers planned to open Decades in 2012, but plans were put on hold and probably dashed entirely when newly elected governor and firebrand Jan Brewer, denouncing the park’s theme as “anti-family values” rescinded the government funds shortly after taking office in January 2009.’— The Coaster Critic
_______________ ‘Geyser Mountain was an attraction developed for Disneyland Paris to be on the Tower of Terror ride system, but it was run in reverse … descending deep into the ground, then exploded upward, riding atop a powerful thermal geyser. After entering the mine building guests would queue through exhibits and displays that set up our elevator journey deep into the tunnels and caverns below. ( Such an elevator exists at Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico ). The elevators would first descend into the mine tunnels where various mining operations would be observed as the elevator doors open onto different levels. Then the car descends deeper into the fabled “Rainbow Caverns” where the doors reveal a breathtaking sight. The elevator operator is then given “safety clearance” to continue down to the deepest caverns where “thermal activity” sometimes makes visits impossible … but today of course we are “lucky” … we get to go!” As we descend, ominous rumblings increase and guests are able to briefly see the glowing heat-fed fissures before massive thermal eruptions force the cabin back upward and all the way to the top of the mine shaft tower. The elevator cab thrusts upward and slips back downward…the ever increasing thermal geyser belching out steam beneath the cab (like the 1959 version of Journey to the Center of the Earth). We break free of the earth and bob precariously at the top of the tower…steam escaping from all around below the cabin. Then like a cartoon … the geyser stops with the cab motionless for an instant. Then we fall back downward landing deep in the earth on a pillowy cushion of receding steam. The operator is able to regain control of the cab, and brings the elevator back up to the entry level on the side of the mountain. The reason it was never built was largely technical: much of the attraction was housed underground as it would be impossible to disguise a 13 story tower in the existing Paris Disneyland Frontierland. Thus all the mine scenes and caverns were created in basement structure, leaving the ultimate height only about 70 feet (20 feet lower than the nearby Big Thunder Roller Coaster). The problem ended up being that of capacity. Tower of Terror has 4 to 6 elevator entries and it would have been very difficult to create a scene that looked believable and made room for all those mine elements.’ — Disneyandmore
_______________ ‘Kong: Skull Island, the close to billion dollar upcoming ride at Universal Studios’s Islands of Adventure Park, is scheduled to open late in 2015. However, one of the most innovative and anticipated aspects of this ride has recently been cancelled after testing proved the idea was too dangerous as well far too technically complex and expensive. Until the cancellation, the ride’s vehicle, an off-road safari truck (originally a topless truck for the best viewing), would have featured a female driver who, like the old Jaws and Kongfrontation attractions, would also have served as the narrator for your journey. The tech involved here would have had to be flawless to make this work, but the finale Kong figure would have been able to reach out and GRAB your driver from the truck and off with her. Your truck would then have rolled slowly to a stop in the next room, where crew members would have met up and evacuated you out of the temple, and then sent the empty truck on to the loading room for the next group of guests. I’m just not quite sure how this would have worked, but it certainly would have been an amazing finale unlike any other if Universal had been able to pull this off.’ — Screamscape
______________ ‘Disneyland has, at various times in its history, focused strongly on unique gifts. In the 1950s and 1960s, doing your Christmas shopping at Disneyland was quite the thing in LA (in those days, there was a separate, low charge for admission, and ride tickets were extra, so it was very cheap to pass through the gates in order to shop). But Walt’s vision for what the company at one point called “merchantainment” was more ambitious than anything yet realized inside the berm. Page one boasts of a “mail order catalogue” that will offer everything for sale at Disneyland. This catalogue was to feature actual livestock, including “a real pony or a miniature donkey thirty inches high.” Once we get to True-Life Adventureland, we learn of even cooler living merchandise: “magnificently plumed birds and fantastic fish from all over the world…which may be purchased and shipped anywhere in the U.S. if you so desire.” The park’s original prospectus promised “slidewalks,” robotic open kitchens, and kids were promised that they would return home with “scientific toys, chemical sets and model kits, and space-helmets.” Tomorrowland promised the Kaiser Aluminum Hall of Fame (a giant tin telescope, a tin pig, and exhibits about the role of aluminum in American industry); a Dairy of the Future that featured models of cows with IVs in their hocks gazing at videos of pastures; the Dutch Boy Color Gallery (exploring the future through paint mixing), and a big-top tent housing the special-effects kraken from the film of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea; it was to be staffed by a little person who hid inside it all day, making the tentacles wave. Finally, the prospectus makes a big deal out of a fifth Land that was never realized. It would have been a miniature walk-through land, Lilliputian Land, where “mechanical people nine inches high sing and dance and talk to you.”‘— BoingBoing
________________ ‘The Harry Potter Quidditch Match Coaster was conceived and seriously considered in the early stages of development for Universal Orlando’s Harry Potter park. It was to be a part coaster part shoot-em up thrill ride. As you rode what seemed like a coaster, you entered a quidditch match only to end up in a interactive ride play through of a quidditch match.’— Season Pass
______________ ‘Here, this project imagine vertically stacked theme park in the middle of the city. With the minimum footprint on the ground, this Vertical Theme Park will itself become skyscraper. Theme park is the place where somebody can experience extraordinary altitude, speed and unexpected events. When people are tired of conventional suburban setting of the theme park, we may have to place our theme park in the urban setting.-for example, in the middle of Manhattan. “Density” of the existing urban conditions will make theme park more exciting place. At the same time, “Height” of the vertically stacked theme park will also help to enhance theme park experiences to the visitors. The classic rides, such as the Ferris Wheel, rollercoaster, and carousel are all re-imagined for a vertical experience. The park is distinguished into five major areas that comprises Vertigo World (carousel and observation deck), Fast Land (flume ride, rollercoaster), 360 World (Ferris Wheel, sky promenade), Abyss City (deep city diver), and the Elsewhere Universe (space exploration, science center). As the Vertical Theme Park will be open 24 hours, many businessmen can come join, after office hours, the Urban Bungee Jumping with their suits and ties to relieve the stressful workdays. Deep in the night, the scattered lights from the other tall buildings will shine like the stars.’— Ju-Hyun Kim
_____________ ‘Project Phoenix, a project by designer S.W. Wilson, was to be an attraction in a 700 million dollar theme park called The Secret Island, planned to open in the early 1990s on the site of Disney’s defunct mini-theme park Pleasure Island. Project Phoenix would have incorporated several rides inside a simulation of a an enormous arctic ice cavern housed inside a very large, “active” volcano that would have been the main geographical feature of the Secret Island park. Project Phoenix would have included a circlevision train-simulator, a family ice-luge coaster, and an explorable cave system, providing a respite from the Florida heat. The Secret Island park was cancelled in 1994 due to lack of financing.’— Twittering Machines
_____________ ‘When the Little Mermaid was released to critical and commercial success in 1989, Imagineers imeadiately started coming up with ideas to bring the Ariel & friends to the Disney parks. The most ambitious was a Fantasyland dark ride for Disneyland and the Magic Kingdom. A very similar was also planned for Disneyland Paris’ (then called Euro Disneyland) phase 2 plans. Unfortunately, this ride suffered the same fate as most of the ride proposals announced as part of the “Disney Decade”. Reason for cancellation: The financial failure of Euro Disneyland. What was eventually built on the proposed site for the ride in Disneyland: Mickey’s Toontown.’ — retrojunk
_____________ ‘Designer/artist Bruce Bushman was hired at some point in the late 60’s or early 70’s to do some concept drawings for a possible Hanna-Barbera Land. These were recently auctioned on ebay by the Howard Lowery Gallery. The park would have included such attractions as a Flintstones Freeway, a ride based around Space Ghost, a Jetsons outer space ride, A Yogi Bear restaurant and ride, and even a Winsome Witch Haunted House.’ — a sampler of things
______________ ‘Islands of Adventure was originally envisioned as a “Cartoon World” theme park that would’ve included areas for DC Superheroes, Looney Toons, and Dr. Seuss characters (the latter being the one that came to be). At one point, the DC Comics area was going to be just about Batman and Gotham City. On Batman Island, a five-story statue of Batman would tower over the entrance, with a flowing cape straggling out behind him. The headline ride would be the Batcar Interactive Dark Ride. Yes, the cars were referred to as Batcars, and not Batmobiles. These would zoom around the city and through the Axis Chemicals plant seen in 1989’s movie version of Batman – the one where Jack Napier became the evil Joker. Another major attraction was to be the Batjets, a roller coaster that would circle the entire Gotham City area. Riders would board via a station located in City Hall, which was also host some dark ride elements. Nearby, the Gotham Opera House was to host a show starring Batman and Robin. Various themed shops and restaurants were also to be included, along with one very unique feature: a Bat Signal, shining high in the sky.’— TV Tropes
______________ ‘In 1960, Jack Haley, the actor who played the Tin Man in The Wizard of Oz and a devout Christian, teamed with Donald Duncan of Duncan Yo-Yo’s. Together they planned to build a new theme park in Cucamonga, one that would rival Disney in its ambition. They even hired two former Disneyland designers, Nat Winecoff and Bruce Bushman. Bible Storyland was their dream. “They wanted to create it in a heart shape,” says Jordan, “which supposedly represents God’s love of humanity. And the park was going to be divided into 6 different lands. You’d be in the Garden of Eden, then Rome, then Egypt, then Israel, and Babylon. And each place would have rides relating to the Bible. “Take Noah’s Ark, a double carousel. It would be a typical carousel, but built inside a large ark and filled with zebras and camels going around the carousel. That’s a very biblical theme, of course. But to the left of it is the Carousel of Mythical Beasts. You see this girl riding on a half horse, half mermaid, with dragon feet. The mythical beasts! I never found that in the bible myself.” And neither did the local clergy. Todd Pierce, a Cal Poly San Luis Obispo professor who’s currently working on a book about early theme parks, says the designers didn’t really put much thought into what their audience would think. “They hired people with minimal contact with religious communities,” says Pierce, “to create a theme park for Protestants and Catholics. Nat Winecoff talked about the trip to hell, and he would get so animated and excited about seeing Satan and the sulfur baths and fire fountains. And then you could go to Circus Maximus and see a recreation of the lions and the Christians played out on stage, and then afterwards you could eat lion burgers. So there was this type of cavalier attitude, this junkiness to it, that smacked of religious profiteering.” There was the the Garden of Eden Boat Ride, which looks a lot like Disneyland’s jungle cruise, with scenes of Adam and Eve standing side by side with cavemen and dinosaurs. And there was a ride into King Tut’s Tomb, which has nothing to do with the Bible at all. “It was supposed to open on Easter 1961,” says Pierce. “In the summer of 1960, the Catholic clergy were organizing to picket the construction of Bible Storyland while earth movers were out there grading the land and getting ready to build.” The project was called off.’— scpr.org
______________ ‘In the early 1980s Universal Studios Hollywood developed a concept for a dark ride based on Casper the Friendly Ghost. This would have seen guests riding on four-poster beds, and able to steer their path using a candelabra located at the foot of the bed.’ — Theme Park Tourist
_______________ ‘An addition to the Casey Jr. Train Ride in Fantasyland, Candy Mountain was supposed to be a mountain, that looked like it was made out of rock candy (and other various types of candy, such as licorice, lollipops, and candy canes), with a glossy, translucent appearance. Planned for the 1957 season, Candy Mountain would have been the first mountain attraction in Disneyland, years before the Matterhorn had been dreamed up. The planned Rainbow Road To Oz attraction, was supposed to go underneath the mountain, and the ride would be inside it. It was cancelled due to Walt Disney being concerned about how they would be able to maintain and clean the mountain “because of all the smog” that came from around Anaheim, California.’ –– collaged
_______________ ‘Featuring scenes from several of Stephen King’s stories, including The Shining and It, this never officially titled but planned dark ride for Universal Studios theme park in Florida would have featured a false ending. Riders would approach an unload platform and hear a spiel, then the lights would flicker, and a river of blood would pour from the doors at “unload” platform (a la The Shining). Pennywise the Dancing Clown would then emerge from the control booth to attack the riders, who would narrowly escape as their vehicle lunged forward.’— Theme Park Insider
_______________ ‘The Haunted Forest was to be the perfect place for Teens and Young Adults; the ultimate “thrill ride” and “scary place” for those who look for that kind of thing. Strange sounds emanate from the forest at all hours, mixing in with the screams and shouts of those brave enough to ride with the Winged Monkeys or to traverse the River of Doom. The idea was that the entire forest was always dark and scary. The continual darkness was due to the fact that were going to place an immense and very high “shade roof” (or series of roofs) over the entire land so that sunlight would not penetrate. Since you are journeying “deep into the forest” we would stage the trees in front to hide the roof top above, while having the trees get thicker and thicker, blocking any view of the roof as you journey into the Land of the Wicked Witch. Ahead, as you started the journey, was the Witches Castle built in forced perspective. You would lose sight of it once you were in the forest itself of course, so that by the time you arrived in the courtyard, the scale would match what you imagined it would when you first caught glimpse of it at the forest’s edge. Along the way there would interactive experiences as well – most of them smaller mini-events, but little show areas one could discover if you went a bit “off the beaten path.” If you followed the signs that say “THIS WAY” and “THAT WAY” all of them take you into a short circuitous route that leads you back to where you started. THE WINGED MONKEY ride departed from this upper level in the Castle, where each guest would appear inside the LARGE CRYSTAL BALL that the Wicked Witch observes as she sends her Flying Monkeys (and you) out on the mission to find Dorothy and her companions. After launching from the Chamber of the Wicked Witch, riders would shoot high into the air, following projected images of seemingly hundreds of Winged Monkeys as they are taking flight. THE WINGED MONKEY Hanging Coaster would depart from the Witches Castle at a higher level, and proceed up even higher before rushing headlong into the Haunted Forest where it would whip through trees, fly over the River of Doom, and cascade through and above the higher walls and turrets of the Castle.’— The Goddard Group
______________ ‘The original plan for the DinoLand U.S.A. area of Disney’s Animal Kingdom included a major thrill ride themed around a former sand and gravel pit. The site would feature an enormous piece of leftover machinery: The Excavator. This ore car circuit was to form the basis for a huge, heavily-themed, mine cart-style roller coaster that would be one of Disney’s Animal Kingdom’s headline thrill rides. The storyline would be that paleontology students had once again restarted the Excavator, using it to transport dinosaur fossils. The Excavator was dropped from Animal Kingdom’s opening day line-up due to the spiralling costs of building the park’s zoo attractions.’ — Theme Park Tourist
_________________ ‘When Islands of Adventure opened twelve years ago some rides envisioned for the Jurassic Park Island were unfortunately cancelled. One of them was the Jeep Safari Ride which would have been great as you will see on the renderings below from artist and former WDI Imagineer Scott Scherman. You can see jeeps entering a Jurassic Park camp before they move inside the land where the AA dinosaurs are. Things become serious as the jeeps would have gone right under a giant Brontosaur. Before moving under the Brontosaur the jeep would have enter the land through the famous Jurassic Park gates and moving under a kind of giant net where probably others effects or animals would have await the guests. Then you can see clearly a jeep being attacked by what seems to be Velociraptors. The arrows on the drawing indicate for sure other kind of effects and i wish i could tell which one, if i only knew… What i know is that others renderings exist and that in another scene a T-Rex would have “stepped on” the guests jeep and spun it in a way similar to the scene in the movie! Apparently this ride was planned for the area behind Thunder Falls and was scrapped for its similarity to the River Adventure raft ride.’— Disneyandmore
_______________ ‘The early concept of Disneyland’s Pirates of the Caribbean attraction had it designed as a walk-through instead of a flume-ride.’— Disneyandmore
_____________ ‘The owners of the existing Dutch then park Toverland have come up with an idea for a new theme park project called Grand Canyon:Nature Wonder World for the south-east tip of the Netherlands near Brunssum. The master plan is to eventually create seven parks and attractions, themed around the natural wonders of the world, starting with The Grand Canyon. The first park was given initial approval to be built on the site of a former quarry. If everything goes as planned, it would open in 2014 and cost around 800 million Euros. The remaining six parks and attractions would be built up between 2014 and 2035. According to the company’s promotional material, the other six “wonders” are Mount Everest, Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, Victoria Falls (Zambia), Paricutin Volcano (Mexico), Rio de Janeiro, and the Aurora Borealis. The theme park’s future was thrown into serious doubt in December 2011 when financial troubles arose and a planned groundbreaking was indefinitely postponed.’— Screamscape
_______________ ‘In the late ’90s, the theme park attraction design company Sally Corporation produced a dark ride concept based on the original Ghostbusters animated series, billing it as the “greatest dark ride never built.” The vehicles would’ve turned to allow for riders to shoot at the many ghosts that were attacking New York City. There was a themed pre-show room. There would have been huge New York sets filled with shootable targets. The ride’s story appeared to have spanned much of the affected New York City including Central Park. Riders even would have had a close encounter with multiple slimers!’ — Theme Park Review
_______________ In the late 1960s, the Knotts Berry Farm amusement park in Southern California briefly toyed with competing with nearby Disneyland by offering even more innovative attractions. One attraction on the drawing board was a very early simulator attraction that would take guests into a swirling hurricane. A model was built for testing, during which the capsule in which riders would sit was continually destroyed, and the ride was abandoned for being technically impossible to realize.’ — Progress City
_____________ ‘Mini Land 2: A massive, heavily detailed theme park. Multiple coasters, rides, attractions, and more.’ — dvn225
____________ ‘Back in the 90’s Disney was getting into a lot of stuff that wasn’t about the parks. Residential homes, day care centers, state fairs, and even the cruise lines. Back then, Disney had partner with Big Red Cruise to see how the cruise line business was like. One of the ideas they wanted to push was a theme park on a boat that could travel anywhere. The idea of binging Disney park entrainment to other countries might wet the taste of bringing more guest to their land-lock parks across the world.’— Season Pass Forum
_____________ ‘The Nightmare Before Christmas wasn’t a huge success when it came out in 1993. Though it was critically acclaimed, it didn’t do as well in the box office as Disney hoped it would. Since Disney and Tim Burton each owned half of the characters, Disney needed to get Burton’s approval for whatever they wanted to do with the characters. The movie itself finally saw a huge audience when it was release on home video. Hoping to cash in on the movie’s unexpected popularity, Imagineers came up with a Peter Pan’s Flight-type dark ride themed after the movie. It was to have been built right next to “It’s A Small World”. When Disney showed their proposal to Tim Burton, he rejected it, fearing that Disney would overexpose the characters (isn’t that what they’re already doing).’— retrojunk
_____________ ‘The 10-year effort to get approvals to build the $860 million Wonderful World of Oz Theme Park in De Soto, Kan., has officially been tabled by the county government. “Yes, it has been tabled indefinitely,” project founder Robert Kory told AB. “You can say the project died as a result of a vicious, local political battle.” Since the conception of the park in the early 1990s, Kory and his investors have spent $40 million designing, promoting and trying to get approvals to build the park.
‘Kory’s board of directors officially pulled the plug on the park because “it was evident all the political obstacles we had faced had made the project impossible to compete,” he said. Since the project was made public in the 1990s, it has changed locations, amended various parts of its plan several times, raised funds, had funds pulled, had government grants approved, had grants called, and faced constant political pressure, Kory said. The final obstacle was the county’s failure to approve the group’s bid to buy the now defunct 9,000-acre Sunflower Army Ammunition Plant.’— all business.com
*
p.s. Hey. Diarmuid Hester will be talking about my work on the BBC 3 program ‘The Essay’ tonight at 10:45 pm UK time if anyone’s interested. You can listen here. ** Dominik, Hi, hi!!! Indeed, I think. I know SCAB seems have a strong fanbase on my Facebook feed at least because really a lot of people there liked and shared my announcement of the new issue. No, no funding meeting yet, but it should happen very soon. Ha ha, I think that’s the first time I’ve seen the words varicose legs in forever. My mom was paranoid that she would get them and was always fretting aloud about that. I forgot that people still get them. Love in the form of a hot fudge banana split with extra whipped cream because I have a weird craving for that this morning, and, of course, with an extra spoon that has your monogram engraved on it, G. ** David Ehrenstein, Yes, indeed, I certainly agree. When I was a kid, we all wore something green to school on St. Patricks Day, and we got beaten up by bullies if we didn’t. I can’t imagine kids still do that. Well, I can imagine the bullying part obviously. ** Misanthrope, I know I’ve said this before, but I really think your family should be a TV reality show, or at least the basis for an edgy sitcom. You thought ‘Crash’ was a slog? Wow, weird. But interesting. A life without regular amusement park visits is almost inconceivable to me. Although I’m sure it’s a normal situation for a lot of folks, But still. ** Jeff J, Hi, Jeff. He was a really special filmmaker. His dying so extremely young was definitely a giant loss. I do know the doc ‘Troublemakers,’ yes. It’s very useful and quite good, as I remember. I love Dennis Oppenheim. He just died in January. I think I saw his last gallery show here in Paris right around that time. Got your email, emailed you back. Hope we can talk pronto. ** Bzzt, Hi, Quinn. I was extremely lonely during my two years in Amsterdam, but that turned out be just what I needed to finally start the George Miles Cycle books, and that period made me start to enjoy solitary times and see them as gifts in a way. I do think that kind of situation helps, especially to begin with, to train yourself to concentrate. At least in my case, I was able then to put myself in that situation even when I lived in NYC or LA where there lots of tempting distractions. You might try proposing writing about Kier for an ‘Openings’ piece for Artforum rather than launching into it on spec. It’s the regular thing they have in the magazine where writers introduce new artists. I wrote a bunch of them, and they were my favorite things to write for Artforum. Who are you in contact with there? Use my name as a recommender if you want. They like me, and I might even still be on the masthead as Contributing Editor, I’m not sure. I think when we go to Japan, it’ll probably be for a few weeks, if possible. That’s usually how long Zac and I go there for. Where? Tokyo, Naoshima and the Art Islands, definitely Osaka because we’re dying to go to Nintendoland. Otherwise, check out as much as we can. We haven’t been to northern Japan very much, so it would be nice travel there a bit. Japan is really amazing, I very highly recommend going there. Take care, Q. ** Richard Henderson, Hi, Richard. Welcome! It’s very nice to meet you. I’m obviously happy to hear Rice’s films were key for you. And amazing that you got to study with Tony Conrad! You worked on ‘The Trap Door’? Wow, what did you do? Is there other work of yours that I can know about and search out? Thanks very, very much! Have a swell Thursday. ** Bill, I think you’ll like his films, and most of them are online, as you saw. Thanks about the Kier cover. Yeah, it’s cool, I’m happy. I’ll see what ‘Rabbit Island’ is. ** Steve Erickson, Hi. Ah, yeah. I thought maybe October Magazine might have archived their issues online or something. It was the same during Vietnam. Most of the high profile, heavy-handedly topical artworks of that period are just a period examples now if they’re lucky. Um, there’s not exactly that canceling phenomenon here that I know of. I mean there are a number of artists, writers, film directors who have recently been accused of abusing younger people in the past, and there are passionate debates about that and what to do about that vis-vis their work, but I don’t know of any specific works or products that have been pulled off the market or that people here are using their energies to yell about in a pro or con way. Everybody’s pretty busy here fighting to get cultural intuitions reopened — a lot of theaters are occupied by protesters all over the country right now — or fighting against police tactics and so on. Bigger fish, in other words. ** Brian, Here’s to your Thursday being so cool that the word Thursday becomes a buzz word, Brian. Ha ha, yeah, I seem to want to just keep pouring out the undervalued artists in a blog-shaped avalanche for some reason, hoping something will stick with some hungry someones out there. Thank you! Congrats on the great reaction to your ‘ON’ piece! Sweet! Oh, my god, right? Ozon making a movie about the making of ‘Petra Von Kant’? Could there even be a more terrible, doomed idea? The concept itself is totally lame, but … Ozon? Yuck. I didn’t end up going to the ‘Jerk’ filming yesterday for too complicated to explain reasons. Possibly today. So, I just worked and did some pre-‘I Wished’ stuff, etc. Thanks about the cover. Today seems promising in theory, no? I guess we’ll find out. ** Chris Kelso, Hi, Chris. Good to see you here, man. SciFi fiction is one of my very weakest areas. I was never into it when I was young, and I never grew into being very interested in it for no good reason. I mean, yes, I love Philip K Dick, of course. The most I ever got into SciFi lit was being very into the Cyber Punk writers back when they’re new and firing on all cylinders. Otherwise, hardly any SciFi. Weird. I received your Burroughs book just yesterday, in fact. Thank you! I look forward to reading it! Take it easy, sir. ** Okay. It’s been ages and ages since I indulged my amusement park obsession here on the blog, but today it’s back full force. Get on board, guys, won’t you? The post is full of fun — of a particular type — galore. See you tomorrow.
Now available in North America 