Theme Parks and Generations

[Lemanic]

So, this might be a stretch, but Theme Parks often reflect the values of yesterlife i.e the values of a saeculum ago.

What we are seeing now is that Theme Parks now, especially WDW and USW, are incorporating the "Classic Shopping Mall of the 1945 to 1965 format" experience. As malls are are going obsolete now, the format are trying to find a way home and has slowly realized that its future lies in the theme parks. The fact that every ride and section have its own store is a big reflection of this. And it will extrapolate exponentially once "The Mall" isn't the norm anymore.

The future is dire for bohemians though. After this, the thought of a "Woodstock Land" at WDW won't be far off.

[linus]

Yes. I used to go to "Wally World" (Magic Mountain) frequently as a kid, as well as Disneyland, and Knotts Berry Farm. The big, tall wooden roller coaster in "Vacation" has since been demolished (it was called the "Colossus" - they filmed the theme park scenes there, and I rode it many times [the winter was the best: so few people]), and of course it took your friend roughly 36 hours (in stoned time) to drive home to Ventura County (there's time and then there's pothead time, which moves more slowly).

[pbrower2a]

Shopping malls are not yet objects of nostalgia. Disney does incorporate "Main Street USA", an attempt to give recollections of Small-Town America to people who either never experienced it (because they were born in Southern California, which never went through the "Small-Town America" phase as did his own Marceline, Missouri -- which is still a small town) or had little experience with it as orange groves became suburban tracts rushed into existence.

Small towns may have begun as boom-towns at rail stations (like the former ATSF* station in Marceline, which is now the Walt Disney Hometown Museum and stopped growing or have even faded away... and some bloated into larger places. Small town shopping areas evolved over time in part because one store was suitable for other uses as time passed. Thus a car dealership might become a pool-service place, then a stereo shop, then a pawn shop, and then a grocery store as a business became too big for the location, the activity became fashionable and then unprofitable, or... whatever. Shopping malls were far more costly to build and were too rigid in their economic strictures for any businesses not suited for white customers flush with cash and willing to pay full retail. (Shopping malls were built for white customers, with tenants being from relatively few businesses having rigid business plans. It was assumed that any other than white customers were trouble, so non-white customers could be rendered irrelevant through tenants' selections in merchandise. As the surrounding community changed in its ethnic mix, even if such was not a decline, the mall could not adapt. That itself practically ensured failure).

Small-town business was not so inflexible as shopping-mall business. Downtown retail districts in small towns could have their own character, with owners being characters in their own right. Try being much of a character in your own right as an employee of a boutique store -- and you will be fired. The boutique store is one of hundreds, and the manual of operation for Greater Phoenix is the same as the one for Greater Milwaukee.

Disney's "Main Street USA" in Disneyland was of course sanitized and commercialized. There would be no rowdy saloon,,, and you certainly did not go to Main Street, USA to go get your car repaired or see the dentist. Where I live I have had close encounters of the inebriated-pedestrian kind with my car. I have suggested that warning signs about tipsy pedestrians wandering out of bars with excessive pickling be made. Still, Disney wanted us to remember the best while taking a cut on the proceeds from some overpriced food-service place. I will not name names, as I do not give free advertising.

All in all shopping malls, despite their expensive construction, will be a shorter-lasting era in American shopping than the city-center with its small and competitive businesses was. Whenever the economy takes a downturn, the people once flush with cash abandon the malls for box stores that have lower costs of operation. Maybe small towns revive their centers with brass bands and other local talent... and bring in fair-like rides and such things as petting zoos and pony rides. Small towns used to do this; shopping malls never could.



*Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe, which would be awkward in the sentence due to all the commas that there would be)

[Captain Genet]

Imagine a millennial theme park in 2100. You would receive a laptop, go online, comment some kid's photos at MySpace, Facebook or Instagram, vandalize Wikipedia by replacing Donald Trump's face with a penis and finally of course experience an exchange of memes with a chatbot pretending to be an Antifa member. All of this done while listening to EDM from earphones instead of receiving music directly into your brain.

[sbarrera]

(06-09-2021, 04:29 AM)Captain Genet Wrote: Imagine a millennial theme park in 2100. You would receive a laptop, go online, comment some kid's photos at MySpace, Facebook or Instagram, vandalize Wikipedia by replacing Donald Trump's face with a penis and finally of course experience an exchange of memes with a chatbot pretending to be an Antifa member. All of this done while listening to EDM from earphones instead of receiving music directly into your brain.

Reminds me of this ridiculous and very funny VR game:



Job Simulator: The 2050 Archives is a virtual reality simulation video game developed and published by Owlchemy Labs for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Oculus Quest in which players participate in comical approximations of real-world jobs. 

...

Players participate in simulated jobs in a job museum run by robots resembling floating CRT computer monitors with faces. The jobs are represented as tongue-in-cheek approximations of real occupations: "Auto Mechanic", "Gourmet Chef", "Store Clerk" and "Office Worker". Accompanied by a computer character who provides exposition and instructions, players perform tasks associated with that occupation, some realistic and others comical. For example, in the "Office Worker" simulation, players engage in activities like evaluating new employees and transferring calls, but are also called upon to eat doughnuts, share photos at the water cooler, and participate in other office tasks.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Job_Simulator

[pbrower2a]

(06-09-2021, 04:29 AM)Captain Genet Wrote: Imagine a millennial theme park in 2100. You would receive a laptop, go online, comment some kid's photos at MySpace, Facebook or Instagram, vandalize Wikipedia by replacing Donald Trump's face with a penis and finally of course experience an exchange of memes with a chatbot pretending to be an Antifa member. All of this done while listening to EDM from earphones instead of receiving music directly into your brain.

I am satisfied t hat many people will insist upon getting off line -- and especially getting t he kids off line. Amusement parks will be part of that. Seeing a life-size dinosaur is far more impressive than seeing video of one. As an example, some promoters of young-earth creationism (a ghastly pseudoscience, of course) show some impressive dinosaurs along with such stupid ideas that dinosaurs perished in some worldwide Great Flood (some were aquatic, anyway) or that Jesus may have ridden on a dinosaur. (No, there is no evidence that Jesus ever rode upon an ostrich, which is the largest living dinosaur (birds are dinosaurs), let alone T Rex. 

Maybe some poor state such as New Mexico will be the sire of some "Evolution Museum".. and evolution is, all things considered, far more interesting and meaningful.

People will want the thrill rides. People still attend live sports. People see live theater. Great music, including operas and long symphonies (including those of Bruckner and Mahler) will captivate people anew. Getting such experiences will be more of a civic ritual than a mark of elite privilege. Disneyland used to be affordable.   

By the way -- it is best that children have as little experience with electronic gadgetry as is possible. It;s not that it is mindless -- it is that much is better. I remember people who did not have such stuff as kids. If they had hard childhoods then such resulted from exploitation, abuse, neglect, and poverty. I've seen people in their 60's figure out computers, let alone video devices, digital cameras, and the like easily. Children need to hone their muscles in physical play, to read (OK, reading off a Kindle or similar device is no worse than reading a dead-tree edition, and do performance arts. A computer might be a marvelous rool of research, but that is all it is good for for a child. Children do not need X-boxes, Play Stations, and the like.