Masks loosely based on Disneyland's Haunted Mansion...

...and some directly based on it.

The two main Disney Geek fanzines, The E-Ticket, and Persistence of Vision. The former is still publishing, the latter hasn't updated since 1999, however, it does have some nice RealAudio audio clips, like this.

Gay Day at Disneyland!

Gay Day at Walt Disney World!
(and Lesbian Gay Day Events at Walt Disney World !)

Gay Day at Tokyo Disneyland!

Gay Day at Disneyland Paris!

Gay Day book!

Another Gay Day book!

Gay Day T-shirts!

Gay Day blog!

Gay Day at Knott's Berry Farm!
(Gay private party at Knott's Berry Farm!)

Gay Day everywhere else!

(Here's a link to a related post, Gay Days at Disney Gone Wild video.)

(SPECIAL NOTE TO BAPTISTS: Click Here!)

A Vanity Fair caricature of Sir Hiram Maxim.
(Note the "Captive Flying Machine" in the background. )

Hiram Maxim was an interesting character in the history of amusement parks. He was an American who became a British citizen; he invented the machine gun (beginning an era of mechanized slaughter), and he built Sir Hiram Maxim's Captive Flying Machine, (beginning an era of mechanized laughter). Captive Flying Machines are still built today, and one of his originals is still in operation at Blackpool Pleasure Beach.

When does a theme park (claim to) not have to pay taxes? When it's Holy Land Theme Park in Orlando, Florida. Religion and theme park discussion at the Skeptic's Anotated Guide to the Bible.

It's a Small, Small World:

“The scientists took the words of the song 'It's a Small World' and translated it into a code based on the four 'letters' of DNA. They then created artificial DNA strands recording different parts of the song. These DNA messages, each about 150 bases long, were inserted into bacteria such as E. coli and Deinococcus radiodurans.”

Follow-up on the Disneyland cast members being held hostage by Pirates.

Grim, Grinning Goths Come Out To Socialize!

You may notice a paucity of carousel links on this blog. This is because most carousels are so BOR-ring. Not so the Totally Kids Carousel in New York.

A cute Shockwave bumper car game, Backlash.

Autoscooter is a board game based on bumper cars, but HOLY COW, it costs anywhere from $60 to $100! (And the publisher seems to be out of stock.) Reviews here.

Yeah, that's what kids want out of Disney's California Adventure, really slow bumper cars. Check out the video links to see just how slow.

A little bit of San Diego amusement park history.

Wait a minute. How can they have the groundbreaking ceremony at Hong Kong Disneyland when the castle has already been constructed? I'm being cheated, right now!

Or is it a large-scale model of the future fake castle? Because in that case, I'm impressed.

Roland Fargo Crump was a designer who worked on Disney's Haunted Mansion, it's a small world, Enchanted Tiki Room, the Walt Disney World version of Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, and Knott's Berry Farm's Knott's Bear-y Tales. Here is a transcription of a speech he gave in 2000, in which he tells tales of riding a motorcycle through the Disney studios, wrestling with a cave woman, flirting with Madame Leota, handstand races, and, oh yeah, designing rides.

The strangest, most disturbing amusment park story published in the New York Times is almost certainly “Once a Site of Death, Now a Whirl of Fun”. It seems that Azady Park in Sulaimaniya, Iraq, is an amusement park built on the grounds of what used to be “headquarters for Iraqi military and intelligence services, known as a place of incarcerations, torture sessions and death.” The notion of building an amusement park rather than a memorial park on the site just astounds me, and points out how different cultures deal with grief.

According to the article:

“It is a 500-acre testament to Kurdish resilience, as well as a case of imaginative redevelopment in a region that has tried to separate itself from the image of Saddam Hussein. Kurds speak of this park as a symbol of possibility for all of Iraq, a sign of just how drastic change can be in territory wrested from Baath rule.”

“...Now and then, as when digging an artificial lake or planting some of the 12,000 new trees, laborers stumble upon more bones. The remains of 28 people were discovered in the late 1990's under a spot where bushes have been arranged into an outdoor maze....”

“...The next winter, runoff from a rainstorm exposed a shallow mass grave just outside the garrison's fence, not far from where the Ferris wheel now stands.”

You'll have to read the article yourself to decide how you feel about it. It'll cost you to use the NYT archives to read the full article, but someone archived it here (use the find feature on your browser and search for the word "whirl").

In order to de-program Zippy the Pinhead, who is obsessed with gigantic roadside icons, Griffy intervenes by taking him back to Coney Island at the beginning of the 20th century. The story begins here.

(Thanks, and a tip o' the pin to Carl Houston)

So tonight, I get to see The Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl for free, and I will be reviewing it for The Portland Mercury later this week. Actually, I'll be writing the review tonight, because the deadline is tomorrow.

While I'm thinking about Johnny Dep's swishy costume and eye makeup, why don't you check out the Butt Pirates of the Caribbean?

Here is why you won't be hearing about the animatronic A2W2 in the upcoming Ric Burns documentary on Andy Warhol.

(Another Danny's Land post on the subjecthere.)

A group of German businessmen want to build the world's largest Ferris wheel in Singapore. Why? To lure tourists after the SARS scare.

Peter Purcell, chief executive of the Singapore project's development managers, Orient and Pacific, said the wheel would be a huge engineering feat, not just a "carnival attraction".

Acknowledging that the city-state's wheel was a copy of the London version, he said he did not know of any modern piece of construction that had not followed on from other ideas.

"I stand accused and plead guilty," Mr Purcell conceded when asked whether the plan had imitated London's wheel.

More here

Step Right Up!

It's Coney Island, USA!

Some evil cheat codes for Roller Coaster Tycoon.