Undefinable Musical Taste...and there are amusment parks in England???

[shadowkat]

1. Define Your Musical Taste in Five Bands or Less.

CANNOT DO IT!

But will try.

Pink Floyd, The Beatles, ABBA, Green Day, NY York Philharmonic

Eh. No.

Rolling Stones, ABBA, The Decemberists, RUSH, and PRince & The Revolution

Nah.

Billie Holiday, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Lush, Lady Gaga, The Civil Wars

Nah.

David Bowie, The Beach Boys, Nine Inch Nails, Peter/Paul & Mary, Arcadia...

I give up.

Defining my music taste is impossible. I basically like a little of everything, but not too much of any one thing...it's usually the extremes that make me crazy.

2. Mother: You're cousin is visiting England and taking her kids to lots of amusement parks in England and London.
Me: Wait. England, not to mention London, has Amusement Parks, now? Like with roller coasters and stuff?
Mother: Yes.
Me: When did England get amusement parks? Does England even have enough room for amusement parks? I did not know they had amusement parks in England.
Mother: We didn't visit amusement parks in England, why would you even want to? I get wanting to do something fun and all...but it is England, a foreign country. There's other more interesting things to see.
Me: Well, they didn't have amusement parks when we were there. I don't think so at any rate. We visited in the 1980s. It was sort of a novelty back then and kind of exclusive to the US. Not that England needed them..

3. Mother: You do realize Bret Kavanagh is your generation, right? They had drunken orgies in college back then and frat parties..
Me: Yes, I know. I went to college with a lot of drunken rapists. This is not news to me. Trust me.

4. Work made me crazy, so I decided not to do laundry. It was an aggravating day. Not helped by lack of sleep and possibly too much chocolate. I chose not to interact with the internet fandoms and well FB in general. I found it aggravating after a quick scroll. I may watch the Great British Baking Sho to relax.

Comments

[jesuswasbatman]

Alton Towers and Blackpool Pleasure Beach are older than the 80s.

[oursin]

Dreamland, Margate, dates back to 1880.

[shadowkat]

The joke sort of is the fact that I'm oblivious to there being amusement parks in England and don't see the point of visiting them, when you are coming from the US. (It's a joke targeted at myself. I am making fun of me, not England.) I can see the point of people coming to the US and seeing Disney World back in the 1980s...Disney was a novelty -- it was a "theme" park and about the size of a small city.

[oursin]

Rather different from DisneyWorld! - these days I think there may be a bit of a nostalgia factor in reviving them.

[shadowkat]

Me to Lando (coworker this morning): I'm amused by my conversation with my mother...who said my cousin was visiting amusement parks in England. It blew my mind that there were amusement parks there. Then the Brits online tell me, yes, we've had them since the 1880s. Lando: You have the same fixed view of Europe in your head that I do of Kansas in mine. Me: Except I've been to Europe, I have no excuse. Lando: While I've never been to Kansas...I see rumbling tumblewees and rolling dusty hills and trees falling into desert. Me: It's not a desert. Although I've no clue where they were hiding the amusement parks when I went to England, because I didn't see any. They certainly weren't in Wales or London when I was there.

[oursin]

I've just looked up Battersea Funfair and see that it closed down in 1974, so no, there wouldn't have been any permanent ones in London in the 80s, only temporary fairs on Hampstead Heath etc. Funfairs were always more part of the seaside resort experience (Our Island Nation).

[shadowkat]

That's sort of what my mother told me about the States when she was growing up. They had Carnivals and Fun Fairs...but nothing like what we had in the 1980s in the US or have now. Disney sort of invented that with Disneyland and Walt Disney World -- the theme park. Hershey followed suite - with a theme park. Several Rollercoasters, etc, around a theme. Prior to that people had ferris wheels and county fairs with a few rides and maybe a wooden roller coaster.

[shadowkat]

And when I visited England in the 1980s, I didn't really go to any seaside resorts outside of Bath (which didn't have them) and seaside towns in Wales, which also didn't have them.

[shadowkat]

You do realize that I've no idea what are talking about, right? ;-)

Considering I didn't know you had them now.

[cookiegirl]

This post made me Google all our theme parks to see when they opened! :D Surprised to find the first rides at Blackpool Pleasure Beach were open in 1896!! Thorpe Park is near London and opened at the end of the 1970s, Alton Towers was 1980, Lightwater Valley similar sort of time. I think the only one I'd bother with as a foreign visitor is Alton Towers, though, unless you wanted a seaside experience, as it's not near the coast. For little kids though, it'd be worth checking out the Legoland near London which is meant to be amazing.

[shadowkat]

Well, cousin does work for Legoland in Florida ...so she most likely took her kids there. Although you'd think she'd be sick of it by now. LOL!

They went to Dragon Land, Harry Potter, and somewhere else.

Are they really theme amusement parks or carnival/fun fairs? Theme parks tend to be really big. Like the size of a small town or city.

[cookiegirl]

Well I wouldn't say they are the size of a city, but yeah, some are pretty big. Alton Towers is about 4 kilometres according to the internet. Definitely not what I'd class as a funfair, it has parks, hotels, water parks, lots of restaurants, theatres, etc. Massive rides. Blackpool is possibly more what you're thinking of, though still big. I don't think we have any near the size of DisneyWorld though.

Harry Potter is more a studio tour and museum than a theme park, I haven't done it yet but I'm hoping to this year, and that's something that is worth doing if you're coming to England and a Potter fan because you can't get the studio tour and the Great Hall etc anywhere else! There's no rides there though.

[shadowkat]

Yeah, I can see doing Harry Potter. That's different, and has the actual costumes and sets from the movies. It's similar to the Universal Studio Tours.

I'm admittedly not a huge amusement park fan -- so it's not surprising that I did not know these existed. But...it's odd that they are there. Granted England's about the size of Florida, and Florida has a ton of theme parks. Disney World, Universal, Sea World, Busch Gardens, Harry Potter, Animal Kingdom...it goes on.

Apparently England has more than Alton Towers and Blackpool...it also has Dragon Land and a Safari Park with Wild Animals. (Cousin went to those). The one's you mentioned are the ones that my mother didn't. (She's been following cousins travels on FB.)

I should Google this myself, shouldn't I? LOL!

[shadowkat]

Yeah, I can see doing Harry Potter. That's different, and has the actual costumes and sets from the movies. It's similar to the Universal Studio Tours.

I'm admittedly not a huge amusement park fan -- so it's not surprising that I did not know these existed. But...it's odd that they are there. Granted England's about the size of Florida, and Florida has a ton of theme parks. Disney World, Universal, Sea World, Busch Gardens, Harry Potter, Animal Kingdom...it goes on.

Apparently England has more than Alton Towers and Blackpool...it also has Dragon Land and a Safari Park with Wild Animals. (Cousin went to those). The one's you mentioned are the ones that my mother didn't. (She's been following cousins travels on FB.)

I should Google this myself, shouldn't I? LOL!

ETA: I did. Jeeze. There's a lot. I did not know there was enough room in England for all those parks, but apparently there is.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/family-holidays/uk-best-theme-parks/

[shadowkat]

Eh, fell down the rabbit hole. You would not believe the insane rides some of these countries have. England has this ride called "Saw - The Ride" at Thorpe Amusement Park -- which appears to be a horror film and teleivision theme park. And they had to close a couple of rides at Alton -- too dangerous. The Prodigy was put out of commission.

Also, Japan has one that goes under water. And Spain has one that is based on wine making.

Las Vegas have two...that make me wonder about the point...one goes off the edge of a 250 story building and spins about, it had an accident a while back, where everyone was suspended for an hour and half upside down off the edge of the building. Yeah, no.

[trepkos]

England AND London?!
I wouldn't go near an amusement park - they have too many accidents.

[shadowkat]

Yeah, I know London is in England. But...it's sort of like NYC is in the US. It's possible to just visit London and not see anything else. And being an international city...it's not really representative of the rest of the country. It's equally possible to visit England and not see London. At least I think it is. ;-)

Hence the England and London. I'd say New York City and the US, or Istanbul and Turkey, or Paris and France, or Hong Kong and China, for pretty much the same reasons.

I wouldn't go near an amusement park - they have too many accidents.

Right there with you regarding the "roller-coaster" or "thrill-seeking" rides. I watched a video about the top 5 rides that have been banned and you can no longer ride, then a couple about the weirdest and the most dangerous rides in the world. The UK had three of them. Las Vegas had two. And Six Flags parks in the US two, and the rest were in places like Japan, Netherlands..etc.

After watching that, I thought, eh...zip-lining was enough for me, thanks. (I did amusement parks when I was much younger, and the last one I did was Six Flags in the 1990s. After I did it, I screwed up my back and my physical therapist told me that I was not permitted to EVER ride a rollercoaster or a thrill ride -- again.
I'd destroy my back. I thought..."okay". Considering I am perfectly capable of hurting my back just by picking up boxes or sitting wrong, I figure I don't need to wrench it on a thrill ride as well...for $50-$60 a pop.

Well there's a few that aren't a problem: Legoland in Windsor (which apparently is listed among the top in the world), and Harry Potter Studio Tour. Although when we went to Windsor as a kid, we went to well, Windsor Castle but Legoland also didn't exist in the 1980s (anywhere).

I think Disney created the huge theme park or non-roller-coaster family friendly amusement park idea. Prior to that I think most amusement parks were associated with thrill-seeking rides. (But I may be wrong about that. It's possible it pre-existed Disney but in much smaller form.)

I googled amusement parks last night and fell down a bit of a rabbit hole.

[trepkos]

I'd destroy my back. I thought..."okay". Considering I am perfectly capable of hurting my back just by picking up boxes or sitting wrong, I figure I don't need to wrench it on a thrill ride as well...for $50-$60 a pop.

EXACTLY! I don't get why people would pay to be terrified. I was harassed into going on a fairground ride where the cad when round a big wheel and turned over and over - I thought I was going to die. And that tea-cup thing - *shudders*. I guess my otoliths can't cope. I can get vertigo just sitting down.

[shadowkat]

I can get vertigo just sitting down

Yes...and the vertigo thing sort of rules it out for me as well.

The upside down, turn over and over, corkscrew rides which are designed to disorient and make you dizzy -- make me ill. I can get vertigo just from a sinus headache.

I don't get why people would pay to be terrified.

I think there's a lot of people out there who don't get scared easily. Or they love the adrenaline rush. (Aka Adrenaline Junkies).

I'm prone to anxiety, so really do not require help in the adrenaline department. I can get there on my own. I require help in calming down and not getting anxious. So I pay for a mindfulness app that 'calms' my nerves.

Just looking at these rides on the internet gives me an adrenaline rush. I think being on one of them could very well kill me or do serious damage to my physical well-being at this stage in my life.

To be fair -- they aren't really designed for anyone over the age of 45. They are designed for teenagers and folks in their early twenties, who think they are immortal. People in their 40s, 50s, and up, know they aren't immortal and the stupid body is a fragile thing. People in their teens, twenties and early thirties don't tend to get that.

[trepkos]

To be fair, I've never, at any age, been keen on thrill rides, but reading my diary from 30 years ago, I do wonder how I survived ...

[jesuswasbatman]

The amusements in Battersea Park in London that oursin mentioned above were removed after a fatal accident on the rollercoaster.

[shadowkat]

Yeah, I fell down a rabbit hole last night checking out amusement parks in the UK and world-wide, and discovered quite a few had been removed or banned due to frequent accidents.

The reason I was oblivious -- was that I don't like amusement parks. And for some reason thought the Europeans were more sensible and didn't have them. LOL!
(I don't know why -- my cousin has gone to London twice for business, because she's head of HR for the LEGOLAND. )

Amusement parks are dangerous. I was told to avoid them by a physical therapist in the 1990s, haven't been back since.