Comments on: When keeping it real goes wrong

By: brooke

brooke — Thu, 24 May 2007 04:31:38 +0000

Continuing my conversation with myself from #4, I just came across this awesome Disney movie about copyright. Enjoy.

By: miller

miller — Wed, 23 May 2007 21:22:54 +0000

Funny, Disneyland has always been a very, very dark place for me. My first experience was when I was five and my family came to visit from Michigan. My uncle came very close to sexually assaulting Cinderella, and I was extremely traumatized by my first ride ever: Snow White. For the record, that ride is much too horrific to be marketed towards children.

When I was in junior high and early high school, it morphed into the best place to smoke weed and drink. I’ve heard stories of sex in the bushes (X-induced, no doubt), blow jobs on Pirates of the Carribean, and mushroom trips gone horriby awry on Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride. “The Happiest Place on Earth” for many Southern Californian kids was the best place to get fucked up under an innocent pretense–Heart of Darkness (or what that an Apocalypse Now reference?) indeed.

So I think sneaking a little booze is perfectly okay, but watch your step if you pass by rustling bushes…

By: brooke

brooke — Wed, 23 May 2007 19:52:39 +0000

I can’t think of Walt Disney, Disneyland or any of the Disney characters without cringing. The reason is that Walt Disney (the man and the company, I presume) was/is a central force in making Copyright Law one the most abused clauses in the US Constitution.

Disney is inextricably linked to Steamboat Willie (the prototypical Mickey Mouse), a character that was created by Disney in 1928, and, like all works ever published since then, are *still* not in the public domain.

I don’t know why this works me up, but it does… So when my kids ask me to go to Disneyland, I’m going to punch them in the face and take ‘em straight to the library.

By: Bryan Waterman

Bryan Waterman — Wed, 23 May 2007 17:07:42 +0000

don’t forget, jeremy, it offers a great american freakshow in the other “guests.” we were constantly in awe of the bizarre people congregating and were so relieved when a stray family with visible tattoos or rock and roll t-shirts stumbled into the mix.

when we went last year, one of the people in the group who went with us (know to some of you west coasters, but name withheld to protect identity) talked about going there as a high school student and tripping on psychedelics through the more bizarre rides. i would think it could be terrifying! it’s already trippy enough on its own!

By: Jeremy

Jeremy — Wed, 23 May 2007 17:02:13 +0000

Wait. Adriean had a “plushie” gig at Disneyland?

Great post, Ruben. And I’m glad I’m not the only one who’ll cop to youthful DisneyTrauma. (Incidentally, my students all talk and write about Disneyland as if it truly is the happiest place on earth and have nary a critical word to say about it, which I always find odd–Baudrillard aside, that place really is “just so weird”…)