Zoltan_Kodaly

Mmm I saw Andrew Bird last month, and while he isn't the most "fast-paced" of musical acts, (and not enough people care about beautiful music these days) it was the most incredible experience of my life. He just had one backup person looping synths and a drumkit and little percussion things and organs etc, while Andrew just looped himself over and over and over again on the xylophone, violin and guitar, while whistling and singing, and sounded like an orchestra backing up an electronic rock band with tons of pre-recorded effects, but nope - it was ALL done right before my eyes and was simply STUNNING. CHECK HIM OUT if he's coming to your area!!!

Me and my roommate on Christmas, all alone in our cold apartment. Trying to replicate a "Sears photo".

Mmm... Opa is also the name of a Greek fast food chain. Damn, the thought of that coaster makes me hungry for some Souvlaki.

^I've got it! A big sandbox! Wait, too expensive?

^Um, the joke was that Calaway is so cheap that they would fit the ENTIRE rapids ride into that trough. Like, 10 feet long, and advertise it as "Mother Nature's Ride" because you're on water! Yay! And the log ride is also the most popular ride in the park. And yes, Mindbender will always be one of my absolute favorite coasters. That thing is just crazy.

Hey nice job! I tried to accomplish the task of displaying Calaway in all it's pathetic glory on opening weekend, and my camera battery went dead after 4 pictures! I bought a season pass, but that was the only day I even went! I'm moving to Toronto in 2 weeks, and I can't wait to get away from that nightmare of a park, although I'm sad I won't get to ride "Mother Nature's Thrill Ride!" Although, seeing that picture, and knowing Calaway, they'll probably fit an entire river rapids ride into that little trough. Oh, but they had one of those barrel-loopy rides, that was new since I was last there a few years prior, those things are hard to find and lots of fun! ^^And I wouldn't call this place the "Cypress Gardens of the North", I assure you that any trees or grass you may have seen in those photos are the ONLY ones in the park!

http://www.holidayworld.com/holiblog/2005/09/some-dark-details.html Well, there it is, everyone was pretty close with the "capture the escaped turkeys!" guessing game. Except no guns are used, you have to go check out what you'll be capturing these things with... it's outrageously awesome!

^^^Also, in Calgary there's a "historic village" that has a vintage train, steamboat, ferris wheel, carousel, caterpillar, and yes, a whip. (Though I hope the other whips out there are run at a bit faster speed, it isnt' too exciting a ride!)

Well for quite some time now, my homepark, Calaway Park, has been saving up money and laying out the plans for a 500-foot inverted stand-up woodie shuttle that's 9000 feet long with a splashdown finale. My park is so cooler than your park.

^Ruggedone, I would strongly recommend against any park-going on July 1st, Canada Day is our Independence Day, and that would be like going to Disneyland on the 4th of July: you just don't do it if you want to have any fun at all.

Robb, Elissa, somebody, just lock this topic! It needs to stop! Aah! I'm not helping! -Michael "Agrees with Elissa Alvey that we need to just get along" Meharry

^ ^ I think that post could've been written a bit more sensitive, you just kind of attacked heterosexuals and Christians, while they were very civilized during this thread, only one or two comments maybe a bit out of line. There were only a couple of people who had "issues" with it, but I do agree that most people were way out of line with the "femmy" boy thing, I can bet none of those people have actually met and talked with one. I used to work with a boy that is the most flamboyant piece of work I have ever seen in my entire life, but he was an absolute sweetheart, and the funniest person I've ever met. And no, he wasnt' a slut, he lived an extraordinarily normal and healthy life, just like the "normal" gays. But I think the main issue we had here with Gay Days is the "misreprentation" of gay people as a whole. Besides all the straight people reciting, "Well I don't have anything against gay people but I wouldnt' want to be there during it", our problem is that Gay Days is a very public, and very well-known display of homosexual debauchery, with a weeks of sex and drugs and dance music. It seems like all the "loud" gays in the world gather there, making for yet another fine display for the public eye to see just what all these "homosexuals" are about, while all us "quiet gays" quietly sit at home, pining for a time when it is not just one dimension of the gay community that is in the spotlight, when people will one day understand that gay people are just as diverse and dissenting to each other as straight people are. And until that day comes, we pretty much are left with these pointless 6-page discussions that go nowhere!

It's so beautiful! Even the parking lot is pretty compared with most parks these days! Awesome job!

^Dude, Michael Jackson's sunk so low that that wasn't even a blow at all. I do think he's perfectly innocent as far as raping children goes, but even without the allegations he does enough sinking of his own. And it's just funny that it's Jessica cheating, she's always the perfect little pop princess who's all, "My marriage is perfect and if Nick cheated on me I'd cut his balls off!"

^ Sign me up!!

http://www.stereogum.com/archives/001548.html#comments This doesn't seem to spreading very rapidly, I thought within hours everyone would be talking about it. I think she did, the dirty daisy.

^Damn, that Mr. Mistoffoles just seems to be raping all the kids nowadays! As a gay man I would purposely avoid GayDays like the plague, and I am so fed up with this limited, narrow view of gay people presented in the media. Will & Grace and Queer as Folk, while mildly entertaining, do absolutely nothing to positively portray the silent majority of gay people who live shockingly normal, quiet lives. And I don't see how Disney could possibly let it get any more out of hand without starting to promote it; come on, through the whole gay week they have "special parties" in Pleasure Island, and have a massive midnight rave inside Typhoon Lagoon! These people are not making political statements, they're just being plain silly and making complete idiots of themselves.

Whee I love the swinging Sun Wheel! Interesting that you went to so many parks, and hardly rode anything - if I lived in California, I'd be doing the same thing! (Especially at Knott's.)

Yeah, looking at these pictures Vortex does look really nice! For some reason when we were there, though, it looked really ugly! I think it was the purple station that ruined it for us.

Here in Cowtown, aka Calgary, Alberta, we pride ourselves in the Calgary Stampede, and '88 Winter Olympics, Spruce Meadows, the Rocky Mountains and Banff, as well as Lake Louise, and a wonderful assortment of old buildings and boutique shops. We do not, however, pride ourselves in our local amusement park, Calaway Park. I personally had not been to my own homepark in many many years, simply because I was spoiled by annual trips to Disneyland, Magic Mountain and Silverwood, I felt no need to bother with this place. However, I only held the fondest memories of Calaway. True, they only have an Arrow Corkscrew for a credit count (the kiddie coaster does not allow any adults), but I always remember a wonderful assortment of flat rides, good food, short lines, and lovely little ponds and lakes and trees everywhere. Wow, how a child's imagination can fool you. I honestly don't think that it's my wonderful memories playing tricks on me; I feel my homepark has gone from a casual getaway into a total trash hole. The crowd was nothing but screaming babies and teeny-boppers, there was peeling paint and protruding pipes everywhere, there were tire tracks and mud and dirt everywhere, etc. etc. etc. Not all things are bad, they have several new flat rides since I was last there, including a Chaos (which we didn't ride due to long lines), and one of this Hamster-Wheel rides, I don't know the official name for it, it was wonderfully painful good fun. The park was not ugly everywhere, but when it was, wow. They took out a beautiful playground and put in it's place the most hideous, pastel-colored plastic maze that's two stories high. The ponds were full of garbage. This year, they added water guns to their bumper boats! Very cool, except the beautiful pond the bumper boats were once in is now a very ugly plastic pool surrounded by a field of dirt. How exciting. The theming of the main street has always been ugly, as it is a bad, garish ripoff off the Flintstones, with a very cartoon-y "caveman" aesthetic, with the gift shop being called "Hudstones". Also, to celebrate Alberta's Centennial Year, they renamed the coaster! Huzzah! Now, instead of being Corkscrew with a color scheme of old rust, it is now called The Vortex with a color scheme Barfy-Slime Green, though I much prefer this to the rust. I know once the summer rolls around however, and the opening-weekend frenzy is gone, I will have fun visiting Calaway Park, as I bought a season pass ahead of time for $25.95, very cheap! As I am moving to Toronto in October, this season will contain the very last visits of my life to the park I grew up in, because there's certainly nothing here to lure back once I am moved. Everybody loves a Corskscrew! Just to bore the heck out of you, more Vortex! Now apparently, these plastic tables in front of the Vortex are a "Stage", where a show will be performed throughout the summer. Riiight. This was the best thing in the park. But even it's rotting. The park's caveman theme somehow is legit for the 1920's car ride. No, the name of the ride is not "Gas", though that'd be way cool. Somehow I got a shot from the Observation Tower that makes the park look pretty! This is the only shot I could really get with both the Vortex and the mountains. "ACK! There they are now! -Hey, do I hear The Nightmare Before Christmas on the speakers?" Tara says, "Noo! Don't make me go into the rotting Haunted Mansion that's actually a blacklight-lit cave inside! I'm scared of the pianist spiders!"

^Let me rephrase. -Michael "I would gladly kill someone to go back in time to the 80's to see Talking Heads live and then kill yet another person to come back to the present day because Talking Heads was one of the only saving graces of that wretched decade" Meharry

That was Rufus Wainwright with David Byrne! I didn't know they did a song together. Very nice, I am all about contrast between audio and visual, and I liked the fading. It wasn't this furious, angry, punk-rock "Woot! I'm craaazy!" video, it was relaxing and laidback, very very good. -Michael "I would willingly kill someone in order to go back in time to the 80's and see Talking Heads live..." Meharry

^Every restaurant in the world has tea, Chinese or not, but that's hilarious he had to double check that it would be 'hot'.

Taken from coastergrotto.com- "The family of Tamar Fellner, who died after falling out of the Raven roller coaster at Holiday World's Stark Raven Mad event two years ago, has filed suit against Holiday World and PTC. Investigations at the time indicated that Ms. Fellner may have unfastened her seatbelt and stood up on the ride. The suit brings claims for negligence, strict liability in tort, and breach of implied warranty against Philadelphia Toboggan Coasters and Holiday World's parent company." This makes me really, really, REALLY angry.

Someone needs to upstage him. You and Robb should just call up the parks, and be all, "Robb and Elissa Alvey wish to be red carpet media representatives for your upcoming event - the coverage will be earth-shattering! What do you mean, you don't know us? We're only the biggest thing in the coastering world since gravity!" For some reason I think it's that tactic that got Paul Rueben and George Lopez their celebrity status in the first place. Especially George Lopez. He just appeared one day, saying, "As a celebrity, I love doing charity work."