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Back to the Dinosaurs
launch date: likely never
'I'm revealing today the Dinosaurs attraction concept that I designed seven years ago with Jeff Burke, who was the Frontierland show-producer at Disneyland Paris. This was not developed to be a WDI project so don't expect to see it one day in a Disney theme park. For many reasons, beginning by the cost of the project the attraction is not yet built but who knows what the future is made of, so anything can happen! ...
'What I always expected from a dinosaur ride is to send me back in time 60 millions years ago, and to see Dinosaurs on a big scale. In two words to have the illusion I'm really back to the Jurassic or Cretaceous era. This means huge decor, real size dinos, etc... but as you will see there is nothing impossible to achieve, it's only a matter of money - as usual - and of course you need a huge facility, in our case around 8000 square meters which, I admit, is really a big "box".
'The other thing that Jeff and I tried to do was to create a "classic", i.e a ride that guests will be always happy to ride and ride again, forever. To do this it's important to understand what makes a good attraction. If someone was asking me the question I will answer that a good attraction is a ride where guests will experience different kind of emotions and not only one. Let's take the example of Pirates of Caribbean, the "classic of all classics": There is not a lot of thrill moments in POTC, only two falls, but the story telling, the AA animation, the lighting, the decor and the humor of each scenes makes a ride which is as successful now as it was more than 40 years ago. ...
'The attraction project that Jeff and I designed in 2003 was called "Back to the Dinosaurs". It was a project title and this one could change but at least it says clearly what the ride will be: guests will be back to the Dinosaurs era. As you will see below two different beginning were envisioned: in the first version guests would enter inside a pavilion with a design like the one you could find at Epcot and a time travel company send them back to the Jurassic era. There was a pre-show scene before that and during the ride itself "time tunnels" were there from a scene to another one to keep historically correct the transition from a kind of dinos species to another one, as all were not living at the same era. I was also happy to found a new species of dino never used before for the "villain" part. Generally the T-Rex is the "bad guy" - and he also appears in our ride - but this one, a Therizinausaurus who really existed, was not bad at all with his giant claws.
'Then I began to thought that the Time Travel company idea was a bit too easy and also has been used in other dinosaurs ride. So I found a new way more complicated and more "hard to swallow" to send guests back in time.' -- MiceChat
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Real World
launch date: never
'For years in the 1990s, Peter Gabriel was involved, with Laurie Anderson and Brian Eno and others, in developing an “experiential theme park” — a sort of Disneyland for arty types that sadly never found a sponsor.' -- Times Online
Peter Gabriel: 'The idea of Real World began some twelve years ago. I imagined that, in the near future, people would be allowed a different kind of access to art and entertainment - that it would be possible to climb inside a book, a piece of music, a film, or a painting and experience it as a real world. These experiences would appear to be alive and respond to the person inside. With the rapid developments in information technology I believed that some strange hybrid would arise out ofthe convergence of communications, arts and entertainment and education. This could provide the raw material for new experience centres in the home, in domestic systems, in urban experience centres - the art gallery, amusement arcade and church of the future - and in large scale purpose-built "experience parks", of which Real World might be the first.
I dreamt of a beautiful landscape with water, trees and hills that would betray no sign of the underworld of experiences and adventure concealed beneath this calm natural environment. The idea began to obsess me. In many countries I set out to meet people whose work was heading in this direction, and began to explore and expand these ideas. In 1985 an outline proposal for Sydney's Darling Harbour was created with architect Will Alsop and meeting with sympathetic minds became a regular event. Film-makers, musicians, psychologists, painters, comics, architects and technologists were invited.
Armed with food and several glasses of wine, the Dinner Club, as it became known, started to generate many wild and wonderful ideas. Laurie Anderson and Brian Eno, whose work in many media was a source of inspiration, became regular participants and I invited them to get more involved in making Real World real. In April 1989 we were introduced to the City of Barcelona and were invited to make a presentation of a scheme for a site on Montjuic which took advantage of the topography of the old stone quarry. In 1990, work began on a second design for Real World, on a site which the City believed would be suitable, located in the Vall D'Hebron. This design is now in its third phase and has involved the expertise of professionals from many disciplines as well as the continued input from our creative team.
Brian Eno: 'Theme parks to date have been commercial enterprises, characterized by a high entertainment ratio and a low involvment ratio: complex tricks and a passive audience. We believe that a theme park is potentially a great new art form, an art form in which all sorts of threads that have been gradually converging in the 20th century can finally come together. We are really looking at three major areas. The first one is the relationship between man and culture . We want to see a situation where there is not a simple distinction between artists and watchers: where people can choose their level of involvement.
'The second big area is to do with the relationships between culture and nature. We are making a park. A park is a very important statement that a society makes about how it relates itself to nature, to environment. We are looking at a time where artists have begun to work with the world, where artists are starting to ignore the separation that has traditionally existed between the works of man and the works of nature. We are increasingly aware of the manifold connections between our behaviour and our environments. Many of the artists we're involved with are interested in this area.
'Thirdly, we're looking at man and nature. That is different from culture and nature. We want to make a place where people who live in the city have a chance to be confronted with nature in a way that is both more organised and less organised than they are normally likely to encounter. So we want to present nature as wilderness, as art work, and as an extended self Now of course with all this there is a technological aspect. The important point to make is that it must be kept in relationship to making a park, we don't want to just build a crowd of buildings with lots of clever tricks inside them. What we really want to start here (but it is a secret!) is a new system of education. We want to make something that people love to go to and during which they have real learning experiences, but we want them to think that they are having fun. That's all.'
Laurie Anderson: 'I see Peter once in a while in New York, but I don't know if it will ever happen, or if Peter would really like to build it. The closer it gets to being real the more he likes to re-think the basic issues. I think it's a wonderful dream but actually to build it would be an anti-climax.'
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Ratatouille Dark Ride
launch date: late 2013
'The long awaited Ratatouille dark ride, expected to open at the Walt Disney Studios outside Paris in 2013. The artwork above shows how the area will look and, as you can see, when WDS guests will enter the Ratatouille area they will see Paris building facades as well as a fountain. You'll note also the Gusteau sign on the top of the left building, identical to the one we saw in the animated movie. On one of the building a "patisserie" sign might indicate that a food store will be here but this can change. One thing is sure, there will be a restaurant and if there is a logic it should be a table service restaurant with a decor identical to the Gusteau's restaurant. Note that this is my own thoughts about the decor but once again this would be a logical choice. Close to the restaurant, on the right, the entrance of the Ratatouille dark ride.
'The last of the documents below are perhaps the most interesting as it shows the whole mini-land in 3D. As you can see the main building - which will be used mainly for the ride is really huge, not only in length but also in height as it's even higher than the four storeys Paris facades. Even if the part in the foreground is kept for the restaurant and shops the main building is really big and the question is: why is it so high? Will the attraction vehicle go up and down? We'll know more about this in the future but for now let's have a closer look at the entrance - on the bottom right - where we can see that an outside queue area has been designed to protect WDS guests from the rainy days that can happen in Paris in the winter.
'Now, when will Ratatouille open at WDS? Of course it all depends of when the works will begin. And the sooner will be the better as i've learned that WDI Imagineers needs apparently two years to build everything and one year to install and test the ride. One full year to install and test the ride might seem a long time to you but i remind you that Ratatouille will use a trackless vehicle system, will have a lot of 3D projections effects and that, basically, it's a new kind of ride for WDI Imagineers. LOgic says the ride will open in approximately the summer or early fall of 2013. And the cost? Well, from what I've been told, the Ratatouille budget - for the whole area including the restaurant - is close to $165M, if not more.' -- Disney and more
Alain Littaye: 'Forget about Splash Mountain, Indiana Jones Adventure or the Little Mermaid, the next Disneyland Paris big E-Ticket will be the Ratatouille attraction! This awaited E-Ticket which will be build at the Walt Disney Studios has been approved by the park’s management and it’s now confirmed – not officially, of course – that Ratatouille will be DLRP 20th anniversary E-Ticket.
'Of course expect on the outside some Paris decor, but also inside the building as the queue line decor will put the guests on the rooftops of Paris with breathtaking height feeling, thanks to forced perspective. Guests will then board in what will be probably LPS controlled vehicles – the same technology used at the TDL Winnie the Pooh attraction – and will be “reduced” at the size of Remy. No Mighty Telescope here, but a ceiling probably as high as the one inside Pirates of Caribbean as WDI imagineers will build giant decor to give us the feeling that we are as small as a rat.
'The ride will begin inside Gusteau’s restaurant kitchen where we will be chased by some of the cooks and especially Skinner, the chef. I don’t want to tell you too much about the storyline to don’t spoil you the ride, but what i can tell you is that the ride itself will not follow the chronological order of the movie scenes, although WDS visitors will be pleased to find some of the key scenes from the movie.
'Of course we can expect Audio-Animatronics figures during the ride. As guests are supposed to have the size of a rat, any rat Audio-Animatronic will not be a problem (in terms of dimensions), but what about human figures which in all logic should be gigantic to respect the proportions. Well, WDI imagineers found an intelligent answer to this problem and sometime we will see – just like Remy in the movie – only the legs of a cook…'
The road that will lead to the Ratatouille darkride at Walt Disney Studios Park.
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Peter Pan's Neverland
launch date: never
'In 1997, Michael Jackson and Prince Al-Waleed - Disneyland Paris' biggest private stock-holder - created a company called Kingdom Entertainment and purchased 50% of Landmark Entertainment, giving the company a huge infusion of cash. Prince Al-Waleed had 45% and Michael had 5% of the shares. I remind you that Landmark is the famous company directed by Gary Goddard which created the Spider-Man ride at IOA and the Jurassic Park and Terminator 3D attractions at Universal Studios. So, what had to happen happened, Michael asked Landmark if they could design a theme park, a real one, not only for him but a park where anybody could go, just like Disneyland. And this theme park would have been named Peter Pan's Neverland!
'The park would have started with a grand London entrance including a replica of Kensington Gardens, where anyone could see the famous Peter Pan statue, as well as Big Ben and the House of Parliaments in the background, not to mention horse guards at the entrance, all of which would have set a stunning replica of the Victorian city. From that point guests were supposed to go to Neverland Island, and Landmark designers had designed two different way to go there, both of which were attractions. The first one, which would definitely have been an E-Ticket attraction, was... to fly to Neverland! The take-off was over London, with a fly over Big Ben and other famous London landmarks like the Tower Bridge (note that on the artwork Big Ben and the Tower Bridge and then, lead by Tinkerbell, they would fly all over Neverland, the Mermaid Lagoon and Skull Rock and finally land near the Lost Boys home and woods.
'The other way to reach Neverland would have been by boat. During this short boat ride the boat would have go through mysterious caves before arriving to Neverland Island with its lush vegetation and waterfalls. Once at Neverland, guests would have had the choice of six different areas: "Lost Boys area" would have been a fun play area for young kids with slides, jumping fountains, a tree house but also a great roller-coaster with tracks going all over the land. In "Mermaid Lagoon" guests would have had the choice between a boat ride going through Neverland Island caves or to enjoy a meal at a beautiful restaurant located underground with a huge window looking towards the lagoon where a Mermaid show was envisioned. Close to Mermaid Lagoon, the "Indian Village" would have been another area of Neverland where a raft ride was envisioned. On the other side of the huge Neverland rock, guests would have find "Pixie Kingdom", a great area for young children with giant mushrooms playground and re-themed carnival rides. Another major area - not so far from Pixie Kingdom - would have been the Pirates village with Skull Rock nearby as well as Captain Hook's ship.
'Peter Pan's Neverland was not designed to be as big as Disneyland, but it certainly would have been a great theme park where all the "Peter Pans" living on this planet would have rushed! So what happened? Why this Peter Pan's Neverland theme park was never built? Well, some years later, Michael Jackson and Prince Al-Waleed ended their association, and considering the cost of a concept like this one, it was very unfortunately the end of the Peter Pan's Neverland project. Although Michael lived in his Neverland Ranch, he never got to walk in this "real" Neverland. However, years later, Landmark designed for Michael a great statue showing Michael as Peter Pan!' -- The Michael. michael jackson
Michael Jackson and Prince Al Waleed announce the creation of Kingdom Entertainment Co.
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Tron: Legacy, the Ride
launch date: 2013?
'We’ve been hearing rumblings of a possible Tron: Legacy theme park ride for a while now. In fact, the day before I visited the Vancouver Canada set of the film, Disney Imagineers were on set taking a look at the concept art, sound-stages, weapons, props and who knows what else. At the time we only knew that the imagineers were very excited about the possibilities. We’ve since seen Tron monorails added to the Walt Disney World resort in Florida and a ElicTRONica party experience and World of Clolor TRONcore in Disney California Adventure.
'When I talked with Disney’s President of Production/Tron Legacy producer Sean Bailey at Comic-Con this year, I asked him if there would be a Tron Legacy presence at Disneyland parks. He responded: “We don’t know yet. Look, as a kid, I went to the park like you. Certainly, the idea that something you worked on is ultimately one day at the park, what a thrilling possibility. These rides take a lot of time, a lot of energy, and a lot of thinking to do them at the level our Imagineers so brilliantly do. So I think it’s kind of in the thinking about stage, but man, I would love it if it became a reality one day.”
'It looks like that day is approaching. According to our friends at Blue Sky Disney: “The Imagineers over at WDI have been given the go-ahead to move further into blue sky development on an E-Ticket attraction themed to Tron for Disneyland. This isn’t a green light for the actual, finalized ride, just the opportunity to explore more extensive designs and concepts. Something tells me late 2012/early 2013 could see the beginning of that long talked about, but continually put off remake of Tomorrowland.”
'I’m wondering what kind of ride this could potentially be. Will it be a new track ride/roller coaster? Or a 3D experience simular to Spider-Man or Harry Potter at Universal Studios Florida? We’ll give you more details when they become available.' -- slashfilm.com
Three fan concepts of Tron: Legacy, the Ride
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Western River Expedition
launch date: never
'The Western River Adventure attraction was a Marc Davis project originally designed for Walt Disney World Magic Kingdom. Marc designed the attraction and characters in the form of drawings and models over a five-year period. Although the attraction had a significant cost, Disney executives such as Dick Irvine and Roy Disney both liked the idea when presented with Davis' concepts. Originally, this flume ride attraction was located both inside, outside, and around an architectural feature in Frontierland known as Thunder Mesa mountain. Guests would have enter a cave marked "Western River Shipping & Navigation Co" which led to a canyon in perpetual "twilight" lighting. After boarding in a boat - similar to the boats of Pirates of Caribbean although with a different theming, of course - the boat would have glided softly in the canyon where was located the different scenes. The ride's narrator, Hoot Gibson (an audio-animatronic owl) would have explained first the ride's safety instructions.
'Western River Expedition was an Audio-Animatronic delight with dozens of new AA figures, and certainly as many as in Pirates of Caribbean. Just like in POTC Marc Davis designed scenes where humour was always present. Potential scenes included: a stage coach robbery, banditos where even their horses had bandanas across their faces, an Indian (Native American) rain dance that causes it to rain, other gag scenes with desert animals, cactus, buffaloes, bear... , a western town called Dry Gulch with scenes showing a cowboy on horseback on the roof of the town's saloon - and 10 characters, including a bartender who is trying to shoot the cowboy and his mount off the roof ), saloon girls, and other cowboys hooting and hollering, and a waterfall-drop finale.
'If built, it would have been one of the most complex and expensive (not less than 150 M $) Disney attractions of its time, housed in one of the largest show buildings (a large warehouse that stores the interior of the attraction) ever created by the WDI. Its projected expense is one reason it was never built. The attraction, would have also shared the show building with a "runaway" mine train themed roller coaster. Other features of the pavilion-style WRE would have included hiking trails atop the mesa, a Pueblo Indian village, and a pack mule attraction.
'The Western River Expedition was supposed to be Walt Disney World's answer to Disneyland's Pirates of the Caribbean. When plans were being made for the Magic Kingdom, Imagineers had no plans to replicate "Pirates" for the Magic Kingdom. It was believed by many Imagineers at the time that Florida residents were too accustomed to pirates, as pirates are a part Florida's local legend and lore. Disney management thought that cowboys and Indians would be more surprising and exciting to Florida residents. However, when the Magic Kingdom opened, the most common complaint from guests were "Where are the Pirates?" Disney hastily built a second Pirates of the Caribbean in the Magic Kingdom, thus scrapping plans for the Western River Expedition because much of the budget planned to build the Western River Expedition was used in building Pirates of the Caribbean for the Magic Kingdom.' -- Disney and more
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Simulation of the never built 'Western River Expedition'
part 1
part 2
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*
p.s. RIP: Martin Rushent. ** Armando, Hey. I'll get 'The White Chalk' for sure, thanks. I'm in this phase of not wanting to talk about 'Tree of Life' much because it had a big impact on me and I want to sort through it and its effect privately 'cos it's influencing my thinking about my writing. I mean, it's a very original, ambitious, confrontational film, and films like that often get a rough initial reaction, and I guess I think the divide in the opinions about it is natural and maybe even a testament to the film's greatness. See what you think. ** Shane Le Vein, Hey, Shane! Greatness to see you, man! Oh, I found Bubblegum's link in your profile, so I guess it's ready for its multi-closeup. I just glanced, but it looks amazing, and I'll be all over it, of course. Fantastic! Everyone, the great writer and deviser and much more including d.l. Shane Le Vein aka Memoirs of a Heroinhead has launched a new blog/online project that very happily takes up the slack of his mega-talent after the conclusion earlier this year of his living legendary 'Waiting for John' blog. It's called BUBBLEGUM, and it's a total must from the get-go, so go here, hit 'bookmark', and get on board. No straightening out or squaring up here, no, although I'm hardly the best judge, I guess. Dude, you're definitely doing the right thing with your so-called trash, need I even say? So, yeah, I'll be all gummed up from now on, and do consider opening this trash can as often as your everything allows. Love to you, hero. ** Colin Fitzpatrick, Hey. Thank you a lot for commenting and welcome. Your site looks really good. I'm going to peruse it carefully later. Everyone, new guy Colin Fitzpatrick has a very cool looking, lively blog full of an ever growing amount of what looks to be very cool stuff, so check it out. Thanks again. Come back anytime, of course. ** David Ehrenstein, Morning, David. Your two new FaBlogs both look great. I'll read them back to back in a bit. Everyone, two new, rich FaBlog entries from the master David E.: Sugar Rush has a sparkly surface and considerable depths, and The Normal Larry is moving and rich with important food for thought. Try them both. ** Bernard Welt, Uh, you can also use them to do magic tricks? Fulsome and fun ending to your class there, yes. Are you back in DC yet? Oh, and when do you arrive at the Recollets again? ** Thomas Moronic, Hey, T. First, I loved your Transductions piece a lot! So, that's indicative of what you're working on? Exciting! I just saw your comment here about the Five Years thing now/this morning. I can still do it if you want. Let me know. That's awfully kind of you, man. ** Katalyze, Hi, Kat! Oh, Halifax, I've seen photos in which it looked awfully pretty in both the winter and the non-winter months. I hope your landlord ponies the hell up. Yeah, very interesting move, pal. Lots of new opportunity for you to paint and employ your talent in myriad other ways, I hope. ** Ken Baumann, Ken! Hey, pal. Well, for 'Closer' which also means vis-a-vis starting the Cycle, I did years and tons of experiments like that. The different voices in 'Closer' came from doing cut-ups of pre-existing texts, which ranged from 'Rumblefish' to Nijinsky's diaries, and then evolving the voices that resulted through dummy text try-outs and other experiments. Once I had the basic voice for the Cycle, I did a lot experimenting to get the voice/style to progress through the five books, but there were a lot restrictions because the books needed to cohere, clash, and diverge in a pretty particular, tight way. Since the Cycle, I've had total freedom to experiment between books, which I guess is why the prose styles in 'MLT', 'The Sluts', 'God Jr.', and 'TMS' are so different from one another. Anyway, nice of you to ask, man. ** 'Matt', Hey. Got your email, and you got mine, and so forth, and I'll do my best today. Yeah, it would fantastic if you wouldn't mind putting together a Day about 'Marienbad' and your take on it! I'd be hugely thrilled and grateful! If you need any advice or whatever re: the making of the post, just let me know, but, in any case, great! ** Steevee, Hey. Cool tip, thanks. Everyone, here's Steevee with a cool find and gift: 'I've found another really good music download blog: awesometapesfromafrica.blogspot.com. I haven't had time to download more than one album from it so far, but it seems to have an extensive range of African music.' Yeah, I guess it would helpful to either forcibly de-shy yourself or to get yourself an aggressively forward intern or collaborator or online persona. ** Misanthrope, So, you must be in NYC right now cavorting with the MIA d.l.s, right? How's it? I'm all better now, thanks. I think it was allergies, as suspected. ** Bill, Hey. I'm not sure if the 3D ghosts bear any relation to Gisele's and my travails, but when we were planning to have human holograms in 'TIHYWD' originally, the problem was that they never didn't look like video projections. Cool stuff in Berlin. It was hot here too, but now it's rainy and okayish. ** Alan, I wouldn't even have known how to get that far with her. ** Mark Gluth, Hey, Mark! Oh, very cool about MANCY's band. I want to hear them. Are there, like, videos or mp3s or anything somewhere? ** The Dreadful Flying Glove, Hey. I'm better, thanks. 'Phoner' was the first thing you read by me? Actually, I guess people have told me that a lot, and of course it makes sense, duh. Answers: (1) Cubby is utterly sincere and honest. (2) I think there's a very strong possibility that he is masturbating during the phone call, yes. Or, at the very minimum, that he is visibly aroused and sorely tempted to go all the way. (3) Coming away from something moved and hence trusting of the thing but not fully comprehending of it is probably my idea of the ideal response. I think that effect kind of defines my favorite works of art, at least when the work resolves and yet becomes ever more confusing on subsequent readings, viewings, listenings, or as one's thoughts about it grow more explorative and in search of common ground with it. Not to mention that incomprehension is a hugely major subject/interest of all my work, and that the effect I just described as ideal is both the effect I'm going for and a reflection of what I feel/think while writing my stuff. So, yes, you could say I'm very into that idea. I think 'Tree of Life' had that effect on me, which is why I'm so overwhelmed by it and in a deep study of it. And I think 'TMS' is my most successful attempt at creating that effect within my own work, and that's why I'm so excited about it. Awfully nice and interesting of you to ask, man. Anyway, does that make sense? ** Schoolboyerrors, Hey. I want to see the Creation doc just for the basic stuff, but it's a shame it's not better considering how great it should be. Sure, of course, send me the details on that mysterious sth, Interesting, and, you know, thanks for implicating me. ** Kier, Kier! Hey! So, so great to see you! Oh, pal, I'm so sorry to hear that about asthmabunny's dad. That's heartbreaking. I don't know what to say. That's so sad. She doesn't know me from Adam, but give her my love and my feelings of support. I'll be taking tons of photos of the show and opening, to be sure, and I'll be piling them up on the blog as soon as I get back to Paris, and I'm sure others will be snapping away too. Wish you could be there, of course, but we'll adore you and yours in absentia. ** Jon Reiss, Hey, Jon! Other than this one mini-game I just downloaded on Friday, I haven't played a game on the computer in, wow, at least ten years. I seem to have evolved in a mostly console gamer. There aren't too many or any erotic games for Wii, although that last Zelda game wasn't exactly prim if you're into Link. I think I linked up your Signorelli-quoting piece here last week or whenever. I'll go find the new one today. Cool. Hm, I have no idea what I meant by not doing bad things. What was the context? Hm, yeah, I'm drawing a blank. ** Sypha, I knew you would have multiple asks for that Duvert book as soon as you said that. Thanks a ton for the weekend. Huge hit, obviously. It was the most 'liked' of my blog posts on Facebook too so far. Can't wait for #3. ** David, Hi, David. Ben Gazzara must have debuted in ... the early 60s? ** Chris Cochrane, Hey, C. Got the email. Going to try to get to the text tonight if I can. That Beefheart thing does sound stellar. Tyler's video ... an official one? No, didn't know of it. I will. ** Slatted Light, Hey! Man, thank you about 'TMS'. I did see your email this morning, and I started reading it before I was coffeed up then quickly realized I need more wakefulness to read it, but I read far enough that I can say you're absolutely right about the ending, and I am fearful about that misreading even though using that trigger is pretty dangerous. Anyway, thank you is hardly a beginning, and I'm kind of dying to read the email when I get back from my stretch of rehearsals today. Fantastic stuff about 'ghosts'. Brilliant! That linked thing is very cool. The guy's narration and delivery is so perfect. Hold on. Everyone, Slatted Light, in speaking of the ghost post, provided a link to this short found video, which is very cool and you'll be glad. Yeah, you're the best, David! More soon from me. ** Postitbreakup, Hey. 'Madmen' sort of grew on me over the two or three episodes I watched. I tend to really like slow things, so that's no problem. Well, I don't know shit or the details or the plusses and minuses involved, obviously, but when you say you're thinking of applying to grad school, my first thought is a very clearcut 'Do it', and you kind of laid out the reasons why it seems like a great idea in your explanation about why you're not writing. I.e., the NYC thing and etc. You've just got to get that preemptive doubt out of there, like I said. That's the biggest problem, it seems to me. If you were around other writers and saw how common that doubtfulness is and could get/give support/interest from other writers in the same boat, I imagine it making a gigantic difference. ** Inthemostpeculiarway, Hey. At this very instant, it's cloudy and raining in Paris, and in the good ways. There's something particularly sad about a dead turtle with a broken shell. It just seems really unfair. Wow, what interesting series of events with the new guy. I mean, I don't know, but if he isn't into you, I'd be shocked really. Don't you think? Seems like you and him should hang out one on one, no? Sorry to be a cyber-matchmaker. I just thought that seemed awfully sweet and quite promising of something exciting in some way or another. You know? Oh, the insane friend, yes, well, hm, that does sound, mm, complicated. But, yeah, who knows? Maybe it'll work for her? My favorite Didion, hm, I guess 'Play As It Lays' maybe? I like her non-fiction too, like 'The White Album'. She's awfully good. Anyway, what an intriguing weekend you had. Very nice. Mine: Well, my friends are visiting, so I did most of what I did with them. But what did we do, hm. Casey and I went to the Left Bank on Saturday, had a coffee/cafe stint, walked around, went to Shakespeare & Co. where he bought a book about Paris and I didn't buy anything. I showed him the Beat Hotel and Un Regard Moderne and where Rimbaud's Paris apartment was. At some point, I came back here and he went back to his hotel. I did a phone meeting thing re: the Gisele stuff, and then we reconvened with Robin and their kiddo at Hard Rock Cafe where I ate what I always eat there, yum, and they had burgers, as I recall, and it was nice, but the videos were particularly awful (Bon Jovi, the Black Keys, etc.) the whole time. Then we walked back to where I live and had a coffee at the cafe here after which they went home and I came upstairs to my room and did stuff I don't remember doing. There was a huge, great, crazy summer rain storm that night and last night too. Thunder, lightning, and even some hail last night. Nice. Yesterday, I went with my visiting friends and K&O to the Tulleries where we wandered a bit and, yes, had a coffee -- that's what you do in France -- in a shady spot, shot the shit, blah blah, nice. Then we came back this way. The visitors went to dinner at this cool restaurant near here called Enfant Perdu. I came home and watched the last set of Nadal's victory at the French Open on TV, and that was good 'cos I'm his fan. I started thinking about what I need to do before the trip to London on Wednesday, and today I'll start doing those things, and it's kind of tricky because I'm pretty busy all of today and tomorrow, yikes. I hung out with Yury a bunch during the weekend too, of course. He's fine. Hm, okay, I guess that's it. Tell me about Monday please. ** Posing at the Louvre, Hey, J! Obviously, I hope you can catch the last bit of the London show too. In any case, lots of pictures will be yours to peruse, I promise. ** Bollo, Hey! When do you come to London? I'm there from Wednesday afternoon on. I clearly need to make a dive into PJ Harvey. I don't know why she's remained on my outskirts. I can't think of a good reason. ** Joel Sagiv, Hey. Apparently, the Israel thing is still on, it's just getting figured out. Now whatever venue it is there -- I'm not sure - thinks they might want to show 'Last Spring, a Prequel' instead of 'Jerk' or maybe both of them or something. Anyway, it's still in the negotiating phase or whatever. So, the Hebrew translation of 'Wrong' isn't bad? I've always wondered about that. Cool. My pleasure, sir, about your blog. It's totally awesome, and I have some music of yours ready to wash over me as soon I sit still lengthily, tonight hopefully. ** Brendan, Hey. Well, I don't know what to say about the bullshit thing. For me, it's whatever the opposite of bullshit is. Oh, well. All reactions are real. What can one do? ** Okay. Theme park stuff for you thanks to my theme park fascination and my blog trigger finger. Hope there's something there. See you tomorrow.
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