Movieguy

Well, now I'm really feeling like an ass for chewing out my Pirates the way I did after last season's collapse. Winning 4 straight now, and sitting atop the NL Central! I was hoping they'd still be playing well after the all star break, but this is astonishing! Please god, let this be the year they break the streak!

It's not everyone's thing, but I confess I've always liked the image of the mermaid for some reason. I think it goes back to when I first saw "Splash" as a youngster. Of course, I don't take it to the extent these people do, but I do admire their courage and their obvious joy in following their passion. Of course some people stare and gawk, but I also see lots of little kids who are incredibly entertained by these performers, which is very sweet IMO. Also, the one poster from earlier hit the nail on the head, many of these merphiles are VERY attractive people, physically and emotionally.

Thanks so much for these photos! I remember going to this park in the year Raging Wolf Bobs opened. Funny how I saw those two Arrow rides as so intimidating at the time ( I didn't ride a looping coaster until I was 15). That aside, I love how both double loop and corkscrew were painted simple black, instead of the multicolored mess that double loop got towards the end of the park's life. So 80's in its own wonderful way.

I picked independent. I like the big parks and all for their coasters, but the smaller parks make for a nice change, as they're usually more relaxing, easier on the wallet, and usually have better food. Especially places like Knoebels.

This is from a concert I performed at last Saturday. I have one of the solos in the middle of the video. I'm the bald fellow who appears at around the 5 minute mark, for those who want to skip ahead...

^ Niiiiiiice!

If you ever do another expedition video, you should consider "When Can I See You Again?" from the Wreck-it-Ralph soundtrack as a closer.

Oh yeah, BGW has plenty of good eats to choose from. Even their BBQ is decent.

^ Hey, Mr Universal speaks in my little topic! I'm honored. I linked this topic to my sister in my response. Hopefully she's reading it.

I didn't see a thread dedicated to Universal Studios Hollywood anywhere, so I thought I'd create a topic for this... My sister sent me an E-mail just now, telling me that she and her boyfriend are going to USH this coming weekend. She knows I'm the park expert of the family, and wants to know "what's awesome" about this park. Now, I've never been to this park, so I'll need some advice from those of you on here who've been there. What's currently going on at USH, aside from Transformers, that she should check out as soon as she gets there? Is there anything happening there currently that she should be made aware of? Thanks to any who can help here.

This past summer, I took my Mom to Knoebels, and she loved the place, especially the food. We sampled the pizza, the soft serve, and I had myself an ice cream waffle at one point. Delicious.

I've never been to this park, but I've seen plenty of pics of Colossos. It looks awesome, and I know it as the place where Robb proposed to Elissa, but I've heard its become unbearably rough over the years. That's unfortunate, because I like a steel coaster with a lot of loops, and I don't see too many of those nowadays. It seems to me that the problem is the OTSRs, which is the same issue for a lot of old Arrow multi-loopers. It's puzzling then that Thorpe doesn't seem to want to fix the restraints in some way, either fit the trains with the improved restraints I've seen from other Intamin steelies, or just put in lapbars, like Premier did for Flight of Fear, Jokers Jinx, and the like. There's really no need for OTSR's on standard sit-down loopers, so I wonder why some parks still insist on them.

Of the ones I've ridden, Phoenix has by far the best airtime. I didn't even know what good airtime was all about before I rode that thing.

As a wood coaster fan, I have to say I'm loving the new ideas that are coming from RMC and other designers. Some people call them steel coasters, I like to think of them as wood/steel hybrids. Iron Rattler looks like Gemini on steroids.

"You have our gratitude." Ha! I loved the Kentucky Fried Movie reference for The Dragon.

It really was a case of too much, too soon IMO. SF took this small local park, and tried to make it to something it really wasn't meant to be. Yes, Ohio has parks like CP and KI, but Ohio is not Florida. You can't have two big parks that close to each other, because the market just isn't there for it.

I certainly don't hear a lot of nice things about Mexico in general, but your TR has definitely made me remember the good things I hear about places like Mexico City. It's always nice to see pics from a park that you don't see a whole lot of. By the way, have you ever heard the Mexican national anthem? It's actually pretty awesome.

^ I respectfully disagree. I really don't know why Moonraker gets bashed the way it does compared to other Bond movies...It's dumb, yes, but the fun kind of dumb. I guess it goes back to people thinking that James Bond shouldn't be in outer space...well, it's not like the Bond series was seriously grounded in reality anyway. Frankly, I thought Yaphet Kotto was the only good thing about Live and Let Die, other than the theme song. I found the rest of it rather dull and stereotypical. Plus, it has that annoying Southern Sheriff, who also shows up in The Man With The Golden Gun, which I also found much less watchable than Moonraker. Do I need to even mention Octopussy again? I've never even been able to sit through all of that one.

Oh yes, Dalton definitely got short-changed. He was a great Bond, hampered only by the movies he was in.

Thanks to Skyfall, I developed an interest in the James Bond movies a while back. I now have some of them on Blu Ray, thanks to both Xmas, and a big sale of them at Best Buy when Skyfall came out. Goldfinger- Classic. Nothing else can be said that hasn't been said before about this one. Thunderball- Very solid Bond film. Great underwater scenes, and exceptional John Barry score. The Spy Who Loved Me- Easily the best one of the Moore Era, with a terrific theme song by Carly Simon. Plus, it has Jaws! Who doesn't love Jaws? Moonraker- This one's a lot of fun. It gets ripped by fans as being the worst of the Bond movies, but I think Octopussy is WAY worse than this one. Moonraker's at least entertaining...plus, more Jaws! For Your Eyes Only- Another one of Moore's good Bond movies, and his most down to Earth. I loved the performances from Julian Glover and Topol, along with Sheena Easton's theme song. Goldeneye- The only Pierce Brosnan Bond movie I ever gave two honks about. Brosnan definitely has the suave factor down as Bond, but of all his films, this one definitely had a more interesting story than the others. A young Sean Bean as 006 is a definite plus as well. Casino Royale- The first one with Daniel Craig, of course, and boy does it hold up after 6 years. This franchise needed a breath of fresh air, and this film delivered just that, giving us a hard-nosed Bond, and an environment that is fantastic, yet somehow more realistic at the same time. I'll definitely be getting Skyfall when it comes out too.

Glad to see that USO is focused on more than just Harry Potter. With the re-release of the original movie this April (Didn't know there was a 4th on the way) it coincides quite nicely. It's hard to remember now for our younger readers, but when this movie came out when I was 12, it was a huge phenomenon, with tons of merchandise. I still remember snacking on "raptor bites" to this day.

I now remember the last time I rode Fahrenheit, yelling "loop dee loop!" on the first inversion. Thanks for putting that in my head, Robb.

^ Don't forget Eejanaika.

Anything with a ton of airtime is good by me. Multi-inversion coasters are only good if they don't have OTSR's, most of the time. I understand the need for them on inverts and the like, but sit-down loopers don't really need them, as Premier has proven over and over.

Robb, don't you dare change a thing about your videos. All your expressions when filming a POV are exactly what make your stuff more fun than all of the other coaster videos out there. Some people just want to see the coaster, I want to hear the actual people having fun on it. Ever watch some of those older coaster videos on VHS? A lot of them have recorded screams that are looped over and over on every POV.