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Andrew brought over the Disney World pictures tonight. He's gonna resize them and put together a gallery, which I'll host-- it really was a phenomenal trip-- but as a tiny taster, I present-- whoops-- my Broadstreet Mittens:

It's the only shot I have of them, it's not very good, but you kinda get the idea. And, no, I didn't have to wear them in Florida; that picture was taken at LaGuardia.

And, presenting, my favourite picture of all time:

Which reminds me of something I've been meaning to address for a few days now. Namely, I got to the Epcot mention in Down and Out and feel the need to address it. This is the passage in question:

When Epcot Center first opened, long, long ago, there'd been an ugly decade or so in ride design. Imagineering found a winning formula for Spaceship Earth, the flagship ride in the big golf ball, and, in their drive to establish thematic continuity, they'd turned the formula into a cookie-cutter, stamping out half a dozen clones for each of the "themed" areas in the Future Showcase. It went like this: first, we were cavemen, then there was ancient Greece, then Rome burned (cue sulfur-odor FX), then there was the Great Depression, and, finally, we reached the modern age. Who knows what the future holds? We do! We'll all have videophones and be living on the ocean floor. Once was cute-- compelling and inspirational, even-- but six times was embarrassing. Like everyone, once Imagineering got themselves a good hammer, everything started to resemble a nail. Even now, the Epcot ad-hocs were repeating the sins of their forebears, closing every ride with a scene of Bitchun utopia.

I'm not denying the truth nor the validity of this point of view, particularly within the context of an exciting technological wonderland of the future; nevertheless, it irked me for personal reasons. Namely, in describing not Spaceship Earth but rather a specific amalgamation of Spaceship Earth and Horizons, it condoned the closing of the latter, which, I have repeated ad nauseum, is (was) my all-time favourite WDW ride. It basically reaffirmed the arguments that led to its closing in the first place-- outdated, creaky, no longer reflecting our collective vision of "The Future". Which pisses me off because, yeah, it's my own personal childhood they fucked with, and, okay, it was no longer a vision of their idea of "The Future"-- but it was, nevertheless, more visionary than anyone thought: it captured the Culture of Nostalgia that seems to be such a driving force in our little Po-Mo world. Seeing the future in terms of recycling the past-- in Horizons' case, past visions of "The Future"-- what's more visionary than that?

So ends my Horizons rant. Of the moment.
Anyway, that's pretty much the only nerdy nit I have to pick with Cory's book, anyway. It rocked.

Why are you in Tavie's head? 11:36 PM | shower me with attention