Photos of carnies. Very nice.

The Oregon Vortex is for sale! Read all about it at USA Today, the Mail Tribune, The Oregon Vortex House of Mystery and place your bid at John L. Scott Real Estate. Danny's Land is interested in obtaining this property. We will even match your bids dollar for dollar (limit one dollar) should any of our fine readers wish to purchase it for us.

DANNY ADDS: As much as I respect James Randi, he devoted a whole lot of space to debunking the Vortex on his online newsletter. The article was recycled into his column"Twas Brillig" in The Skeptic magazine. Somehow, I don't think a roadside attraction is worth all the skeptical brickbats, but the Amazing Randi, you gotta love him, gets pretty riled up. What's next, debunking Oregon's Enchanted Forest?

Somebody's not looking at his email...

How Effective is Michael Eisner's Brand of Micromanagement?

Source: Kim Masters's "Keys to the Kingdom: How Michael Eisner Lost His Grip" HarperCollins, 2000.
(Current edition is titled "Keys to the Kingdom: The Rise of Michael Eisner and the Fall of Everybody Else")

"(Robert) Wise had never been especially drawn to Star Trek, but his wife and father-in-law were big fans. When Wise brought home the script, they read it voraciously -- and then recoiled in horror as they realized the character of Mr. Spock didn't appear in the film. Wise told Eisner and Katzenberg that Spock was a necessary element. At first, says an executive close to these discussions, Eisner didn't see the point: 'Michael would say, "Who gives a **** what the guy with the ears does?" He would tell Robert Wise, "just make the movie!" ' "

(...)

"The studio tested the picture (Star Trek II) again, and the audience roared with applause when it ended. For (Harve) Bennett, this was 'one of the most joyful events of my life.' He walked into the alley behind the theater, where he saw Eisner. Ready for the pat on the back that he felt he deserved, Bennett asked, 'What'd ya think?' To his surprise, Eisner was fixated on a special-effects sequence in which a dead cave suddenly becomes lush and overgrown. 'That matte shot is terrible,' he said, referring to the effects work. 'You've got to fix that thing or it will ruin the picture.'

" 'Goddamnit, what about the picture!?'

" ' Oh,' Eisner replied. 'The picture's great!' "

(...)

"Before Star Trek II was even in the theaters, the studio had decided to go ahead with the third installment. Still concerned by the ineffective matte shot in the second film, Eisner called Bennett. 'I've been thinking about it, and we should not have any matte shots in Star Trek III,' he said. 'Why risk it?'

" 'I don't want to be condescending,' Bennett remembers replying, 'but if you're saying you can't have a matte shot, you're saying we can't have a special effect.' The two terms were synonymous, so obviously it was impossible to make a Star Trek movie without a matte shot. But after a couple more conversations with Eisner, Bennett realized that he could not get Eisner to abandon his idea that matte shots were trouble. He told his staff that instead of writing 'ILM matte' in the script, he would use the words 'effects shot -- ILM elements.' Later, he says, Eisner congratulated him for making the film without a matte shot."

From "Welfare Mouse: How Michael Eisner succeeded in turning Disney into the subsidized kingdom" by RiShawn Biddle:

"Few have panhandled for taxpayer dollars as successfully as Disney during Eisner's reign. It has received at least $4.5 billion in subsidies, low-interest loans, land grants and "joint venture" investments from governments in Florida, Pennsylvania and Hong Kong. It even managed to get a handout from the French government—not exactly a fan of things American—which sold 4,800 acres just outside of Paris to Disney at a 90 percent discount so the company could build Euro Disneyland. Disney has gotten even sweeter deals closer to its home base in Southern California. In Glendale, just a short trip from its Burbank headquarters, Disney's 125-acre Imagineering campus and studio development is being financed with the help of the city's redevelopment agency. Further away in Anaheim—home of Disneyland—the company got the city fathers to fork over another $550 million on new roadways and create a special tax district in exchange for building its now-floundering California Adventure park."

And here's little more Disney magic at Reason.

DAY ONE: WHAT ARE YOU DOING? WHY ARE YOU DOING THAT? WHY HAVE YOU PAINTED THE TANK PINK?

DANNY ASKS: "Is that a Pink Panzer?"

Disney Daughter Says Eisner Should Leave (LA Times, requires subscription)

"Walt Disney's sole surviving child broke her silence Tuesday on the growing furor surrounding the empire her father founded, saying Michael Eisner should resign soon as chief executive. 'It's time to step down and let someone else come in for the future,' Diane Disney Miller said in an interview. 'New leadership is necessary.' "

“Since they are claiming it is a true story, it’s astonishing that neither Disney nor their scriptwriter have even bothered to check records in established museums and archives or tap a single credible academic.”

"The days of bungee jumping are over, this'll be the next big thing".

"Your Concept Car is a car designed by and for women. 'The main focus is ergonomics -- making sure the car works for drivers other than tall men. The seats and pedals automatically adjust to the driver's height. There are even grooves in the headrests for drivers with ponytails. Engineers also created lots of storage space for cellphones and shopping bags. They also installed gull-wing doors for graceful exits. 'Sometimes you have clothes that are not really easy to move around in, so we wanted it to be good for any day,' YCC exterior designer Anna Rosen says with a laugh. Volvo says its YCC is designed to be virtually maintenance-free. There's essentially no hood. The front end's design allows it to be opened only by mechanics. When service is needed, the car will send a wireless call to a nearby service station, which will then call the YCC driver to set up an appointment.'

Do women really want to not be able to fix their own cars?

DANNY ADDS: They're pitching that as a feature and not a bug?

"No Chaos Theory for You!" : Disneyland slows the spinning speed of the Mad Tea Party (aka Teacups).

The Space Mystery Deepens: This morning, Danny's Land got an email from Jeff Winner, the researcher who worked on the book and CD of Raymond Scott's MANHATTAN RESEARCH INC. Here's what he had to say about the Futurama II soundtrack:

"...I assume you read my track notes in the MANHATTAN RESEARCH book regarding my theory that the "Space Mystery" track may have been the soundtrack to the Futurama ride -- but, as I stated in the book, we were unable to confirm this.

"Since we published, however, I found a trade magazine from the mid-'60s with an article about Raymond Scott's electronic work, & this article mentions that Scott did indeed do the soundtrack for the ride... So, as you can imagine, I'm more confused than ever!

"Do you think it's possible that James Fargas provided (traditional) music, while Scott supplied what would be considered (electronic) 'sound effects'? "

Just based on the evidence of my ears, I would say no. I didn't hear any electronic sounds, but then again, it's a hissy field recording made on a reel-to-reel recorder. I think the fellow who recorded it, Ray Dashner, held the mic right up next to the seats' built-in speakers, so it's possible that there were sounds coming from the displays themselves that his recorder couldn't pick up, and that those source sounds were possibly electronic burbles created by Raymond Scott. Maybe. If anyone wants to compare the two tracks, they can buy the Scott CD from Amazon and a the Futurama II soundtrack directly from Ray. Anyone with more evidence that Scott wrote the Futurama II soundtrack is encouraged to contact me or Jeff. I'm willing to be proven wrong -- after all, Ride Theory is a science, not an art.

I told you the bootleg ride soundtrack trading community was crazy. We're passionately debating who wrote the music to a ride that hasn't been in operation for about 40 years! Clearly, I'm nuts.