The Master is maybe the best American two-hander of the 21st century but for me the defining scene of it is this moment where one of Dodd’s most faithful believes in him so much she spots a discrepancy and in earnestly seeking to reconcile it this happens youtu.be/WPa_XrE6tbU?...

Gonna eat a lot this week.

I thought maybe they picked up the prototype RailRyder from the S&S plant, which would be a pretty big deal for this small park, but no it's a custom RMC Raptor! Finally a reason to return to Myrtle Beach for the first time since 2008.

a thing that has bedeviled me for some time now is how much space Netflix occupies and how little new it has contributed to our shared cultural language and that’s one of a few things I wanted to get at here

Cancelled for rain! Might try again another day before it closes.

This could have been a really nice poster design, but the first thing my eye is drawn to is the familiar shape of the Vekoma Boomerang's cobra roll, which... lol.

NEW MCMANSION HELL: CHUD ATLANTIS mcmansionhell.com/post/8002175...

Part 1 is out! I had to split it up because it's such a big topic. Good news is Part 2 is already half written open.substack.com/pub/tommythe...

Riding inside underground tunnels in Florida built by a vain billionaire is giving me strong Titan submersible vibes.

Random, kinda cool discovery in Google Maps: would you have guessed that the roller coaster with the largest footprint (measured between the two farthest points) at Six Flags Magic Mountain is still the Revolution? (Yes, even including the recently shuttered Superman!)

Responding to free falling attendance and revenue with stock buybacks and real estate liquidation is not the action of a company that has any belief in its own future. Somehow the same week that Six Flags closed one of their parks, they still seem in a marginally better position than United Parks.

Congrats to David and Sophie of @inklingwood.bsky.social on the release of Foolish Mortals! It was almost exactly 12 years ago David and I first met up in California at the start of both our careers. Amazing to finally see this long awaited passion project come to life. I can't wait to play!

Zootopia: Better Zoogether literally tells you the shit before your eyes isn't shit. Boy, that says it all. (Photos by @blogmickey.com)

Got my flu and Covid vaxes today. As I was sitting down the pharmacist gave me a canned statement that the CDC recommends it's not necessary if you're under 65. This caught me off guard for a moment until I remembered what world I live in.

One last Halloweeny thing before the season ended last night: went up to Magic Mountain to take advantage of the free haunted house wristband I have on my legacy membership. Only stayed for 2.5 hours, but was able to do a handful of coasters plus one maze.

I was looking up flights to DC all the way until Saturday morning. Unfortunately my first paycheck with a new gig doesn't arrive until later this week. Hope everyone had a good time and documented lots from this now lost park.

At least one more haunt of the season. Somehow I haven't been here since 2021. Way, way overdue.

Spending Halloween in Burbank. There's a stretch of commercial and residential along Magnolia that goes all out for the season. We started with perusing some of the spooky shops like the Horror Boo-dega.

People in the Dark is a creative immersive theater haunt in DTLA that starts as a walking Hollywood ghost tour before one of the ghost stories turns real. The storyline is heavily inspired by SUNSET BLVD. It's made with a low budget but a lot of care. This is their final weekend; it hasn't sold out.

"If everything is spooktacular, then nothing is spooktacular." —Friedrich Nietzsche

I didn't get to do any of the Halloween stuff I wanted to do this weekend, but that just means next weekend will have to go extra hard. But I did get to drive by the Spadena House, aka the Witch's House, in Beverly Hills.

Things are going great in the amusement industry.

One thing that kind of offsets the cost of living in LA is getting to go to free movie screenings, often before their general release. A couple weeks ago I did one for GOOD FORTUNE, and despite arriving an hour early was one of the very last admitted in, sitting in folding chairs in the aisle.

Both Disney and Universal seem to be exhibiting buyer's remorse when it comes to many of their 3D implementations but refuse to accept that ripping the tech out of purpose-built attractions leaves you with an incomplete, lackluster experience. We're all poorer for it.

It's amusing to read Joe patiently answering a set of generic pre-scripted questions, and then later unilaterally decides to skip the Q&A format and just launch into an extended manifesto about design philosophy. attractionsmagazine.com/joe-rohde-di...

I'm always impressed at what a long, well-paced ride this is given the tight footprint.

Savoring one of the handful of days each year of fall weather in LA.

I just rewatched Diane Keaton in FATHER OF THE BRIDE last week. She seemed like one of those actresses who would just always be around and give you that happy comfort whenever she turns up. I can't believe she didn't outlive her ANNIE HALL co-star. Very sad day.

I had to turn down a good job offer last week because it required immediate full-time relocation to Florida. I might have taken it if there was some remote work flexibility for the remainder of this year, but California's labor regulations meant doing anything from this state was a no-go for them.

Our hand-drawn, full-length, fully voiced point & click adventure game Foolish Mortals releases November 5, 2025! 👻 www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0rN... A wedding... vanished. A treasure... lost. A heart... broken. Wishlist us now! store.steampowered.com/app/1848440/...

First time seeing a performance at the Bob Baker Marionette Theater, doing their annual Hallowe'en Spooktacular. Really cute show with some amazing hand coordination by the puppeteers. A lot of vintage cultural touchpoints seem to mostly be kept alive today by children's entertainment.

I went to Disneyland to track the long, strange history of Disney and New Orleans—and how each has taught the other how to be. gardenandgun.com/feature/the-...

The Haunted Mansion

Glad I got to experience these right before most of them shut down in their peak season! And this isn't the first time I've had to plan visits to national parks around a government shutdown. Seriously, if you have to plan far in advance, avoid the start of fiscal quarters.

It’s not psychologically sustainable to spend every waking minute both terrified and embarrassed. It’s like being a civilian in Gotham when the villain on a tear is the fucking Clock King.

Feels like my brain is cooking sous vide in its own cranial fluid grappling with Hegseth announcing “I am so sick of fat, effeminate men” to warm up a crowd of generals for a planned loyalty pledge to DONALD TRUMP, the show tunes president currently dreaming of a ballroom the size of the Taj Mahal

There's maybe no more legendary lost coaster than Busch Gardens Williamsburg's BIG BAD WOLF – a suspended, swinging Arrow classic that turned a generation into a rampaging storybook creature terrorizing a German village. #ParkLoreArt #LayoutTuesday

The 2023 Southeast U.S. Tour concludes with today’s chapter to the Otherworld immersive art experience in Columbus, Ohio. If you haven’t heard of Otherworld, it’s essentially a Big Box Meow Wolf in more ways than one (complimentary). OTHERWORLD: www.rollercoasterphilosophy.com/2023/otherwo...

This past weekend I was in Utah and, in 2.5 days, visited three national parks, two national forests, and one state park. It was a lot in a short amount of time. I want to share some pictures and thoughts on the excursion, which we did at the end of my wife's work trip in Salt Lake City that week.

The 2023 Southeast U.S. Tour concludes with today’s chapter to the Otherworld immersive art experience in Columbus, Ohio. If you haven’t heard of Otherworld, it’s essentially a Big Box Meow Wolf in more ways than one (complimentary). OTHERWORLD: www.rollercoasterphilosophy.com/2023/otherwo...