Updates Abound (05JUL10)

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Not Opining One Little Bit

A subject of solicitude for me, as lower-middle class as I am, is the waterfalls beneath the Wonder tower at Disneyland Hotel.

As a child, my mother and I would frequent anything free to do in Orange County. The Disneyland Hotel was a favorite of course. When my parents were still together in the late 70s, we even stayed in the 'Oriental Gardens', which was a kitchen-suite. This had to have been right before the Fantasyland re-dux, since most of the area in the Park was just a series of painted drywall at the time. (Another area gone was the fish fry on Captain Hook's restaurant - now Dumbo.)

The Hotel up through the late 80s had a bustling center, including an international themed bazzar (many of those shops would make their way to Adventureland, or vice versa). The west facade of the arcade is still visible - which used to house the crystal blowers and a series of small shops with items from the 'Orient'. All of which was surrounded by a faux series of docks. Older kids would take their dates, find a secluded area to make out.

The docks of course sat on the southern end of the central lagoon, now the Neverland pool. The lagoon allowed for paddle boats, the RC boats, and, sunken on the north end of the lagoon, a recessed arcade. Imagine how cool it was in the 80s to go to one of the best arcades in Anaheim, under water. Yes, that's what I said.

The hotel lounges were 60s up-scale, so very basic lines and very light colors. A piano was played. Lapping pools of clear-toppped water outlined the main lounge. In its center was an asian themed bar. It was very posh, I'm sure just a decade before.

At one time, across from the Spaceport entrance, you had the Monorail Cafe, the Hotel store, a bar, a pool, and a series of small shops. Including the coolest toy store, since it wasn't the 'box', but really a toy boutique.

The Shipyard Inn, a great seafood restaurant, sat further down from the stores, a top the water. I still can't find a creamy, chunky lobster bisque like the one they used to serve. The service and atmosphere was terrific in a time when most up-scale restaurants were closing.

The problem of the Hotel, is something that has happened in Orange County in thirty years. The late 70s were an economic nightmare, the 80s were a period of struggle for the most part, then the 90s and now are 'reinventions' of everything. Especially where money can be made.

The simplistic idea of the Hotel was never to make it a destination. It just was a destination. Now, it's fallen from disinterest from the very thing it wasn't trying to be. Ironic, no?

Like Vegas, sometimes you have to create something that isn't trying to be special. It was special because it was there and it was free. How revolutionary is that?

I'll miss the dreamer who wandered the docks, the waterfall caves, enjoying a drink while pretending to be a world traveler in the lobby.

Leaving Las Vegas and I Just Showed Up 4/12

Lucky as I was to see a lot of the late 70s Vegas before much of it made way for the 80s I can't say I've eagerly awaited the "upscale" millennial changes. My uncle from the UK came last summer and was disappointed. "What was different?", thinking that he would've come back impressed. "All the neon is gone. It's dark"

It took me back when they visited back in '79. My memory is not that sharp that far back. But I remember the million miles of neon tubing that stretched from one end to the other. The Tropicana was the southern end if I remember correctly, then going north, the Flamingo, Desert Inn, and the Sands. The Sands impressed me the most because it looked the cleanliest...and it was a reference point for many tv shows. That is, until Caesar's opened and became the focal point.

El Rancho and Circus Circus were mainstays for so long. As was the Stardust, Riviera and the Frontier. I can't go that far back, but the interesting thing about hotels of the late 50s until the changes in the 80s had pools open to the street - hell, everything was more open. The hotel rooms opened out into miles of desert in all directions.

Interesting again to see what I saw last week: for the first time in decades, I felt I could breathe in Vegas. It was fairly empty. Only the major hot spots had people - but there were a few times it was me and a buddy strolling through, with only bored card dealers staring off in the distance. It wasn't a bad thing...at least for me.

I can imagine early Vegas, with its smaller venues, open air parking, etc as being more of an intimate experience. Now it feels like a series of malls. I'm not knocking Vegas: I have never failed to have a modicum of fun no matter what the visit. Now the town's gotten bigger with it's City project. They're trying to compete with Dubai and, without cash, it simply can't support it.

A simple barometer for the economy is Vegas, and the massive underpinnings are showing stress.

...systemic failures...(05MAR10)

...thinking simply that "when the world stops reading, the world stops turning". One thing that the Culture hasn't done in the last three decades is turn its eye upon itself. It's wrapped itself in the culture of me, then hyper-me. Don't get me wrong: I'm a product of that fallacy - but I temper it with enough (I pray) to not actually believe it. The question for you, fair reader, 'do you believe in the mirror or what lies beyond'?

There's so many examples in my life right now to see an entitlement culture, a super-ego culture - an empty culture.

What do we do? I say, for the normal person, is pick up a book and read. If you haven't already done so, pick up Twain, pick up Orwell, pick up Rand, Boorstin, Shakespeare, Poe. Sit for two seconds, turn off the phone and the social site.

...and then a year goes by (10feb10)...

Finished up the book "Founding Brothers" by Joseph Ellis and started on "1776" by David McCullough. Considering the political upheaval inflicting our nation now, going back to the roots of Democracy, the roots of individualistic Liberty, the struggle against Tyranny - all run parallel to the themes we struggle with now. It's hard to force perspective on the giants of the Founding - these men were living legends at the time and, as a lover of history, seem to become more gilded with time...at least to me. Of course hypocrisy abounded, when the multiple blights upon the momentum of Liberty were not realized for a century after the ink dried on the greatest document. Nevertheless, the freedom we enjoy as the fruit of that age is undeniable.

It is food for thought, to read their words from so long ago - to see their struggle, one that could have ended with the genocide of intellectualism. To even see the parallel of our two party system written in the effect of Adams versus Jefferson. Do we side upon individual freedom and rights inherent within the Constitution or do we expand the Government to be the arbiter of freedoms?

The reason that individualism works is that there isn't an arbitrary entity that can change with the fashions of its age. Government has never been the single lightening rod of success - those of us that are realists (especially that have worked for the G'vt) see the imperfection of a bureaucracy that cannot be flexible enough to progress with the needs of its people. Except! Except where there are the few that cannot do anything but depend on another entity to sustain it.

It would be of interest to see our age thirty, fifty or hundred years from now looking backward. It is so much clearer to see the elegance of the Constitution when it works correctly - when we capitalize upon the strengths of what it holds near in its language.

The question we should ask ourselves in this age is: are our goals, that seem to be dripping passion, clear in our minds and practical in application? I certainly don't think so. We certainly need more elegance in our temperment. And we have to stop politicians that try to please everyone: it doesn't work.

We need leadership as outlined in history: not bad actors trying to make the kids shut up for a little while.

...roadmap...(11FEB09)

Interesting show that 'Destination: Truth' - never caught it until last night. One segment of their 'investigation' involved a forest in Japan, below Mt. Fuji, where about a 100 folks commit themselves to suicide each year. Now, I gotta fact find on that one - that's a boast that's gotta be wrong. Yeah...ok, just hit wikipedia that says it's about 30 per year and overall 500 recorded instances. Apparently, it's second to suicides to the Golden Gate Bridge which doubles Aokigahara forest's count. Never heard of the Golden Gate to be as active, though.

Of course, in true fashion, and from the minor research I did as a child, the Japanese ghosts appear to be more fully developed apparitions than our own. The few paranormal books we had at the local libraries typically referenced very violent Japanese poltergeists. However, if you look at many modern legitimate hauntings - I'm not sure if they are mere spirits or, stay with me, demonic.

The apparitions they spotted in the one night the 'Destination: Truth' team was there they did catch what appeared to be a full-torso white figure appear and, to me, look like it descended down a ridge. If it were a live-blooded human, the features would have been apparent in the night shot light. They had personal experiences, typicall full-bodied shadow figures. Wasn't there, don't know - it pissed me off that they would send investigators by themselves. You simply don't send people on their own - in a pitch-black, unfamiliar forest with rugged terrain? Come on. They are going to get hurt.

The other segment was a trip: the Filipino aswang. If there is a well-known traditional monster in the Philippines, it's the aswang. One of the researchers got caught up in the sounds of the islands, which, especially in the summer nights is extremely loud. They caught a lot of wild animals on tape. But nothing of a large, blood-sucking bat-like thing.

Read a lot of paranormal books in my youth. Real, serious books on the subject. But, unfortunately, the paranormal is difficult to gauge twenty years ago. The biggest modern legitimate case (we're talking 1950s) involved a group of authority figures that witnessed a chair levitate. Now, with a lot of newer technologies, it seems they are getting closer to legitimizing things they are catching on tape, still and video. The stuff trips me out, but, can we ever run to a conclusive piece of evidence? Not sure what that would be...

One of the investigators on Ghost Hunters Intl had an interesting point: he says he does it to show others that there is an afterlife. That's an interesting premise, but, if people don't believe your evidence, they aren't going to reach your conclusion.

...rainy weekend...(06FEB09)

...been steadily coming down. A might cold in South California these past couple of months. Punctuated by dry heat on other days. Generally off-setting - typically I'd love this weather, but something seems quelling under the surface.

There's a general sense in my circles of a 'reckoning'. I hate to think on it: but it's this disquiet. Social disquiet perhaps: hope turned into unsubstatiated dishevelment. Can't put any discernment on it, where I typically have an ability to sense the underlying. Hope should never displace Faith. Need sleep I suppose.

There is a few lines at the tail end of Francis Scott Key's Star Spangled Banner:
"...Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto, - 'In God is our trust,'
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave..."

I'm praying. Not that I've ever stopped, mind you, but thought I'd mention it for those of you out there who may have forgotten it themselves. I received a chaplet of St. Therese from a charity organization (but they neglected the actual chaplet prayers with it). And considering the direct effect of it in the past, I've petioned her as my co-patroness (along with St. Joseph).

I wonder what non-Catholics think of all these seemingly 'charm bracelets' of the Faith? There's too much to explain: it's an ocean. If/when a Catholic attempts to explain a facet of something, it usually comes off as provincial, naive or wanting - like attempting to describe a congregation of lillies: it's there, unwanting of itself and of its obvious beauty. Why try to explain it? It's perfection with little words; drawing you without demanding.

It would take a few (solid) books to explain the communion of saints alone - as much for 'chaplets', rosaries, patrons, etc.

And, hard times lately: what can be done? Just doing my best to stay afloat. Faith is what sustains me. Love the other. Cold, hard logic the next. Charity where possible. There is this dog me and a stranger at work have been trying to get adopted: Pet Harbor

Poor thing: if you can adopt this animal from the South LA Animal Shelter, I'll pay for the license, etc. He needs a lot of attention, that I really can't provide (plus I have a 13-year-old Chow mix that is getting arthritic and needs attention too). Just e-mail me at admin@edwardianjackal.com.

Sorry: just completely scatter-brained right now. And it's almost 1am. Good night, sweet dove, may the Lord continue to bless you...