shepp

I was there the day before you, and saw poor Kong on his next-to-last day of life. Sniff. "It wasn't the airplanes, it was hot asphalt that killed the beast." This being my first visit to USH, though having been to USF a number of times, I was looking forward to the tram tour, but it was a big disappointment, Kong or no. Jaws, for instance, was a pale shadow of its Florida version, and since I don't watch Desperate Housewives, it was hard to get excited about riding a big tram down a suburban street, fake or not. The Earthquake segment was down, the parting of the waters a joke. For those interested in an actual studio tour, I'd highly recommend both the Warner's and Paramount tours. They're small (8 people per group at Paramount!) and you actually get off the trams and walk around the hospital from ER (WB) or the soundstage for Everybody Hates Chris (Paramount). Plus I got to see beautiful-but-evil Kimber from nip/tuck filming just six feet away. The Simpsons, though, is totally great, by far the funniest ride I've ever been on (with the possible exception of Psyclone). Much better (and smoother) motion simulation than BTTF. Amazing detail everywhere. As Homer says, let's ride it again!

So I'm back from L.A. The word from the op I asked was that I could ride Tatsu with strapped glasses "at my own risk," which I did twice, no problem. Amazingly though, KBF, which I already knew bans specs from Xcelerator, now has a firm no-glasses policy on Pony Express!!! Go figure.

Ah, well, looks like it's the luck of the draw, and the whim of the ops. Like I said, first time, OK, 2nd and 3rd, no. Guess I'll give it a shot, but keep the case ready, just in case. Thanks!

You can find these darkroom bars in almost ANY city in the world, Amsterdam isn't the exception. It's gross, but it exists everywhere. (Even in ::gasp:: AMERICA!) Amsterdam is an absolutely beautiful and cultured city, there is so much to do and see. Most tourists think of the city as only a place to do drugs and have legalized sex with prostitutes, but it's so much more than that. I find it quiet sad that people who haven't been there see only the negative aspects of the city. Actually, I've spent a total of over a month in Amsterdam. I see nothing incongruous about enjoying the Rijksmuseum AND the Argos, but that's just me. Frankly, I find the fact that the USA jails a large number of people for possession of marijuana to be quite sad (and a good deal more gross than sex in a darkroom). Oh, by the by, here in San Francisco, bars that allow sex have frequently been shut down by the powers that be. Just FYI.

It's easy to get all your SFDK credits pretty quickly, assuming they have all the coasters up and running. Longest wait has tended to be on Kong, tho since Tony Hawk is new, that'll probably be crowded. Medusa often opens a bit late. V2 is rarely crowded. And if you really have to ride the Boomerang, there it is. On a normal weekday, you should be able to knock off all the coasters in a coupla hours either day, no worries. Edit: Hell, I skipped Roar, for some really obscure reason. Lines are highly variable on that one. But it's in a far corner of the park, so if you hustle, it should be no problem - assuming they're running more than one train.

Sorry, didn't intend my post to have a negative tone. Was just being clear about why I asked the question in the first place. Peace.

Dude, I fully intend to abide by park policy. I just want to know what current park policy is before I spend an hour or three queuing for a ride where I'll have to ride without being able to see. Oh, and if I do have to store my glasses, I want to be ready, instead of stuffing them caseless into my pocket at the last minute. That's why I originally asked the question. Clear?

It's not just a matter of more relaxed attitudes toward hash, either. A'dam has well-known darkroom bars where you can have male/male sex; prostitution is, of course, legalized; and it's legal for a 16-year-old to have sex with a 12-year-old. Yet God steadfastly but oddly has refrained from raining down fire and brimstone on the Netherlands.

Really? I can't be 100% certain, but I'm pretty certain it wasn't the policy on S:UF or Batwing when I rode 'em. The first time I rode Tatsu, there was no problem, as the glasses were firmly strapped. The next time, I was already in the harness when the op made me take them off and stick them in my pocket, where they could easily have dropped out. I could understand the rule if everyone were searched beforehand and made to leave their cellphones on the platform, but take it from me - my glasses ain't gonna come off unless my head falls off. However, things sometimes change. When I first rode Speed:The Ride, it had a no-glasses rule. When I rode this past year, it had been revoked.

It's a long shot, but anybody know whether eyeglasses with straps are still banned on Tatsu? My faithful Croakies have gotten me on darn near every ride I've ever queued for (with the exception of Xcelerator), but last year the Tatsu ops were adamant about making me take them off and stow them very insecurely in a pocket, where they were much more likely to fly away. That idiotic policy still hold sway?

It's like this: the government was designed with a system of checks and balances in part to prevent majority rule from becoming mob rule, and civil rights are not subject to the whims of the majority. You think when the Supreme Court desegregated schools in 1954, most folks in, say, South Carolina would have voted for integration? When the court overturned the law against interracial marriage in 1967, such marriages were opposed by over 70% of Southern whites. And so forth. I have no idea how you know why most gay people vote the way they do. Actually, I'm gay and have no idea. Perhaps, as members of an oppressed group, we have more sympathy for the plight of others, and support measures that emphasize mutual community rather than greed? Throughout the modern gay movement (which goes back to the 1960s, way before the same-sex marriage controversy), most of the support for LGBT rights has come from the Democrats, while a goodly chunk of the GOP (with a few shining exceptions such as Goldwater) has used homophobia as an electoral tactic. It's safe to say that there is absolutely no advance in gay rights that was spearheaded by Republicans over the objections of Democrats. The GOP stands for the sacredness of private property, but when it comes to what we do with our own bodies, they're a lot less libertarian.

Count me among the less-than-overwhelmed, at least on the basis of the vid. Sure, I'm looking forward to riding it next week, but, as my partner said, "Damn, so that means it's still gonna be painful?" It all seems kinda like the Tomb Raidering of the Top Spin, but not as well thought out. All that hullabaloo over a second-long blast of fire and a soundtrack us commoners will get heartily sick of hearing over and over and over while enduring a 3-hour queue? OK, whatever. I'll remain agnostic for another 7 days. Too bad the most creativity went into the CG ad. If the ride were remotely as cool as the commercial...

For various reasons, I've taken a really, really long vacation from TPR - I think I haven't posted more than a coupla times in the last year or so - and last time I looked, the astoundingly long-running orientation poll indicated 20% gay men. And now, a year later, the very same 20%, though the number of respondents has grown. Is that consistency, or what? It would be cool to assume that one out of five of coasterguys is gay, but of course, the numbers have a self-selecting bias. Still, interesting that the polling percentage hasn't budged.

Well, I'm an old codger who saw Janis, Jimi, and Jerry when they were still alive. But for me, the absolute endpoint was when the Clash popped up on a Jaguar commercial. Shameful. Just shameful. Running a close second? The Beatles hawking Target. I'm pretty sure even my worst acid trip back then wasn't that bad... Oh, and then there's Iggy Pop selling cruise ships. Oh my god, I'm getting so depressed...

^ The park is kind of in the middle of nowhere, hotel-wise. If you don't mind driving 1/2 to 3/4 of an hour to and from the park, there are some excellent priceline deals in the Cherry Hill and and New Brunswick areas. Last month,we pricelined an extended stay hotel in South Brunswick for $35 a night, which more than paid for the extra gasoline consumed.

Seeing as how this thread is still semi-active... Here's what happened: Thanks to the miracle of Rise & Scream, on our first day ET and Medusa were open an hour early for SP-holders. We scored 7 rides on ET in 45 minutes, and could have squeezed in more, but occasionally took a one-train breather. The second morning, ET and KK were supposed to be open, but ET was down. Headed back to KK, rode 5 times, 3 in the front seat, then strolled over to Nitro before the park opened to the GP and the school-trip crowds hit. First row walk-on. BOTH days (this was in early June), an hour before closing, both rides were pretty much a walk-on. Grand 2-day totals, sans Q-Bot: ET 9, KK 8. Not bad. (OK, not as good as the 13-ride S:ROS day at SFNE, but...)

El Toro, 6/12. It was the uncrowded end of the day and I could have squeezed in a couple of more rides before closing, but discovered that someone had picked my pocket, I'm assuming on the boarding platform. (SFGAdv later found my wallet, minus the cash but with ID, SF SP, and CCs intact. Still, missing those last couple of rides hurt.)

OK, I'm really, really, really old, so... Back in August of 1967, post-Monterey but before the American release of Are You Experienced?, Jimi Hendrix played a small club in New York, Salvation. As I recall it, there were cushions on the floor, room for maybe a couple of hundred, and I was there, real stoned and real close to the stage. Definitely the most amazing concert of my life. Other high points: the Velvet Underground at a small San Francisco club in 1969. You can hear it on the live album - almost no one was there. I was. 1971: Aretha Franklin at the Fillmore West when she brought out Ray Charles Led Zep at Kezar Stadium in SF, 1973. 1978: Springsteen at Winterland, before he was stadium-only Radiohead's free concert in downtown San Francisco, 1995, then later that year at the Warfield Theater 2001: Sigur Ros at the Warfield The last show I saw that I really liked was Dimmu Borgir at the Warfield (where I work) a couple of months ago. Not "one of the best," but since I always figured I hated black metal, my enjoying the band was an amazing surprise. Go figure. And...any Nick Cave show I've seen. I was also tripping at Altamont, but that's quite another kind of "unforgettable."

The scariest thing about TTD is that it might go down after you've waited in line for 2 hours.

Point taken...sort of. I certainly don't think anything I said was a flame or uncivil, though. (Do you? And if so, what?) Flame wars are useless, yes, but reasoned arguments - even heated ones - are not. I brought this all up not to be ornery, really, but because I think there's a double standard at play in this society. If anyone says anything anti-religious, he risks being branded as a bigot, while religious people's bigotry is too often excused as "theology." As in: "We don't dislike you - God does." And I'm not just talking about gay stuff, though I am queer. Hell, the Mormons had perfectly reasoned explanations of why black people were inferior, until a convenient "revelation" in the midst of the Civil Rights Era caused the LDS to change their tune. And, of course, many Christians believe that Jews, likable as they may be, will unfortunately be subjected to unspeakable torture through all eternity. Sure, religion is a touchy subject, but so is race, and when that other thread contained statements that a number of posters - mostly people of color - found moderately racist, Robb replied, "I like to say we are an 'equal opportunity offender.' We give everyone crap, so if you or your ethnic group feel singled out, let me know, and we'll start making fun of other races, political parties, coaster groups, sexual orientation, etc, more often." Therefore, I find it odd that a discussion that touches on religion should come with a preemptive warning attached, that's all.

Well, yeah, since Rise & Scream will soon start at 9:00 am, it's safe to say that only fanatics like us will get up at 7:30 to start their day of coastering. And yes, I had a great trip - there were also those 13 rides in one day on S:ROS at SFNE - except for getting my wallet lifted on queue for El Toro. But that's another thread.

Well, my point - as off-topic as it might have been - was that in another recent thread Robb, a straight white guy, cracked a joke about "fags" and "beaners" while telling those who might be upset that they should get over themselves. He, in fact, took justifiable pride in the wide-open discourse on this site. So why should a moderator threaten to shut down a thread on religious matters, just because someone says, for instance, that the Genesis story (two parallel stories actually, as The Big Guy creates woman in both Gen. 1:27 and then again in 2:22) is quite as thoroughly probable as The Wind in the Willows? Perhaps there's a distinction between "fag" and "superstitious fool," but if so, I'd think the former is the more offensive, no? Oh hell, now I'm really going to Hell.... Ah well.

^ Yep. Any SF pass, I was told, will work just fine. Same, by the way, with a parking pass bought at one park - works chainwide.

Permit me to point out that scientists do not "believe" in evolution. They observe facts, posit explanations, then test them against new evidence. That's not "belief." That's the scientific method. There is, however, no more evidence in support of the Seven Days hoo-hah than the "the-Universe-is-the-dream-of-Vishnu" myth, the Gnostic idea that the physical universe is the creation of an evil demiurge, or any other creation myth - Shoshone, ancient Egyptian, whatever. (In fact, Carl Sagan pointed out that the Hindu creation story had a lot more in common with what we actually know about the universe than the Judeo-Christian one does.) It's one thing to say - quite without any evidence - that the universe came into being through the acts of a self-aware, separate creator, something unknowable, unimaginable in fact. But that's not what most folks mean when they talk about creationism. I bet most people who believe in creationism believe this all came about through the actions of their particular sky-god (and, most likely, their parents' one, too), one who looks after them, will prevent them - if they Behave - from being in a plane crash or facing bankruptcy, and will somehow keep their ego from ceasing to be once they die. This may be reassuring, but it is, when applied to other spheres of life - winning the Publishers' Clearing House Sweepstakes, for instance, or getting a bigger organ through something ordered on the Internet - known as "wishful thinking." Oh, and Wes - am I to assume from Robb's cheerful defense of racial slurs in the queue-jumping thread and your veiled threat to shut down this one that ethnic insults are okey-doke, but religion is a sacred cow? Cause if not, I have some choice words to say about fundamentalists, while urging them not to get offended...

Mac 10.4.9 on a flat-panel iMac G5...life hardly gets lovelier than that...well, OK, the back seat on El Toro...