Posts like this usually start with some kind of "oh, it's another newsletter for you to subscribe to" comment, a crack about passing the same $5 around, some small self-effacing joke recognizing how overcrowded this scene is, and, by extent, how miserable the media industry has become. (If we weren't all underemployed most of us wouldn't be writing these things, obviously.) So hey: that's what that was. We can move past that now. We've made it through. Let's start for real.
Hi! Easily Amused is, yes, another newsletter / blog hybrid thing, and another one devoted to theme parks. I wrote about parks like Disney World and Universal Studios for a place called Paste for over a decade, and then for a place called The A.V. Club for like a week, and now I'm doing it here. And elsewhere, too, when I'm able to get paid for it—look for some stuff coming up at Kotaku and Laughing Place soon—but it will probably most often be here.
Why now? Well, it's a big weekend for theme parks. It's D23 in Anaheim. It's the media preview of NightFlight Expedition at Dollywood in Pigeon Forge. It's… an average late summer weekend at Universal and Knott's Berry Farm and all the various Six Flags parks scattered around the country. That all made this weekend feel like a good time to finally launch a new home for my theme park and immersive entertainment writing, something I've been planning to do for months. But then, when wouldn't be a good time? This weekend is, above all else, a weekend, any American weekend, and millions of Americans will be heading to theme parks, amusement parks, carnivals, fairs, and attractions of all stripes over the next few days, like millions of Americans do every weekend, hoping to let off some of the stress of work and school (yeah, we're somehow already back in school down here in Georgia) and feel like they're somewhere else for a few hours. Because who wouldn't rather be anywhere but here, wherever "here" may be?
That's part of the power of theme parks—that sensation of being transported somewhere that doesn't or couldn't or even shouldn't actually exist. Whether it's the past, like Pirates of the Caribbean, or a fictional setting, like the Isle of Berk at Epic Universe, or an utterly adorable phantasmagoric dreamworld of otherworldly delight (and possible death), like the picnic hosted by Southern monsters in a grand antebellum home in Six Flags Over Georgia's peerless Monster Mansion (I'll be mentioning that ride a lot), a good theme park attraction puts us where we can't be, and sells it so convincingly that it briefly feels real.
I try not to get too lost in that when writing about theme parks, though. Gotta keep a clear head. These are made by people, obviously, and the work of those people needs to be recognized. Acclaimed, even, when it deserves it. A theme park attraction is ultimately a work of art, one created by a team of high-level artists with different skills and disciplines; and although the attraction experience is what resonates most immediately with me, and what makes me love these places, what most fascinates me about them as a writer is the creative process behind that experience, the craft and artistry that goes into them—the decisions made and the work performed. Yeah, you'll be able to tell when I'm really excited about something; I've got no problems raving about an attraction that truly deserves a rave. But I'm constitutionally incapable of fanboying out about pretty much anything—my wife says my deeply-set reluctance to ever seem too excited in any situation is the most Gen X thing about me—so if you're looking for writing about theme parks that probably takes itself too seriously and tries to say more than "OMG this is fun" this probably isn't the place for you.
Again: this is a big weekend. I'll be at the NightFlight Expedition media preview at Dollywood tomorrow, and hope to watch the D23 "Horizons" stream about the Disney parks on Saturday night. My D23 thoughts will live here, and I'll have some photos from NightFlight as well. If I have anything else to say about Dollywood's new ride, beyond what I'll be writing about it for two other sites, that'll be here, too. This place is basically a blog, but I aim to keep it at least semi-pro; I'll only be posting here when I've got something worth posting. (Like, to the extent that anything I've ever written is "worth posting." It's a pretty low bar.) If you've read my stuff elsewhere, you'll know what to expect. If you haven't, here are a few recent examples from a site that actually still pays me; there's a lot more of that kinda mess to be found over at Paste and The A.V. Club, and maybe some day I'll stop feeling weird about those sites and start linking to them again.
Okay, good chat, let's catch up soon, and hey, have fun out there at the parks this weekend.