Animatronics

I’ve added animatronics to my personalized hell. My new hell would be stuck on “…it’s a small world” with animatronic clowns singing a commencement speech (in musical) to the tune of “…it’s a small world” with the only chance of escape is to grade giant stacks of freshmen papers on the topic of globalization. Maybe to boot would be having one of the real life Disney princesses (which is difficult at times to distinguish from an animatronic) as my ferryman/ferrywoman to my hell.

Despite the inherent creepiness I find in much of Disney, it’s still a kick ass place to go. Maggie was able to do much more this time around and we covered most of the Animal Kingdom and Magic Kingdom easily. It’s interesting to see where Disney is headed: Country Jamboree by the hillbilly bears (it baffles me that is still running) verses Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor. The Monsters Inc. is our hope to conquer the animatronic. The Laugh Floor is digitized puppetry with real improv comedians working behind the screen, creating real interactivity—no mawkish puppetry, no pneumatic hisses when turning, no clicking eyeballs and klacking mouths here.

In recent weeks Maggie has been into “scaring” (I use the quotations on purpose here), and being scared. She has also become truly skittish on some things so we weren’t sure how she would react to some of Disney. She went through the Haunted Mansion reserved and skeptic. At the end she turned to me and said “more ghosts?” That’s my girl.

I started reading Diane Shoemperlen’s Forms of Devotion. Not really a Disney time kind of read, but it is a book with pictures. Usually I don’t like books that juxtapose images (most look like eighteenth century anatomical or religious sketches or engravings) with its prose. The distance she creates between the two is rather nice. Many times one (image or prose) doesn’t seem to foreground the other, nor do they seem wily-nilly. Much to go in the book though. Luke warm on it at the moment.