Wand removal

[Kwahati]

No, he ruined the moment.

Not the first time I've heard that...

I figured as long as I was in college, I could experiment and it would be ok.

Well, that philosophy worked out pretty well for the president...

Now that I know he's male, well, that just screws everything

Hey, just because I'm a 20-something year old male and I'm in my sexual prime, doesn't mean I screw *everything*...although, I sometimes do have an ulterior motive when I ask "are you gonna eat that?"

up cause although I could convince my hubby to videotape the chick/chick thing (he's oriental, he's got the camera and would be all into that), the me/male thing wouldn't be so easy.

Okay, there's an obvious joke here about Asians with squinty eyes and the possibility of me talking in a higher voice, but I don't need to crack that joke. Quite frankly, I'm above that. :p:

Damn this whole happily married thing.

Yes, and damn other forms of happiness too! Damn rainbows! Damn sunshine! Damn friendship!

I think in my next life I am going to marry someone I don't really like and not worry about screwing around.

Well, that philosophy worked out pretty well for the last president...

Unless I come back as a marcupial....do they mate for life????

Be careful what you ask for. The FSM has a sense of humor and might send you back as a possum which is fine until some wayward Texan is driving down the highway near your tree one day...

So on my way home from work today, a song came on the radio that made me feel kinda funny. I'm sure some of you all have heard it, it's the one by The Killers and it goes:
Somebody told me
That you had a boyfriend
Who looked like a girlfriend
That I had in February
Of last year...

I feel like this thread gives that a whole weird new meaning...

[darph nader]

would me saying "i have no opinion" constitute me having an opinion? What a conundrum...I must ponder this a bit (the fact that my not having an opinion being an opinion, not the wand thing, I don't give a shit about that)

I think in honor of Darph and I, they should have a giant Mickey hand holding a pilsner of beer....

That's a DAMN GOOD Idea, not that we can ever afford to go to FLA (damn lottery) :(

[ktulu]

I think you are female (you are farrrr too witty to be male...lol) and not sure of your sexual identitiy, as that really doesn't matter to me when talking to a person. I could care less if someone is gay/straight/trans, ect. My responses to you would still be the same. But I'm pretty sure you are female. I have yet to meet a male as witty as you (besides Ktulu, but, he doesn't count, he's a texan, lol)

HEY! I wasn't born in Texas, I just got here as quick as I can :D:

Three cowboys — from Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Texas—are sitting around a fire. The Oklahoma cowboy gloats, “Just the other day, a bull gored six men in the corral, but I wrestled it to the ground with my hands.”

The Arkansan replies, “Oh, yeah? Yesterday a 15-foot rattler came at me, so I grabbed it, bit its head off, and spit the poison into a spittoon 15 yards away.”

The Texan stays quiet, slowly stirring the coals with his penis.

[darph nader]

Thank you for making me choke on my beer,ktulu.

[Zazu]

Not much has been said here about the departure of Epcot's wand....

Any comments?

A few. Stand by, I'm going into lecture mode. :lecture:

I suppose it's time that I weighed in with my opinion on the Wand's removal. In short, I'm in favor of it, but perhaps for different reasons than y'all might suspect.

The problem with the Wand, in my considered professional opinion as a Show Quality Monitor and storyteller, is that it trivialized Spaceship Earth.

Prior to the millennium, one got occasional glances of the geosphere as you approached Epcot. These looks were brief, often obscured by trees, and had nothing else in view to offer any sense of perspective. This was a deliberate design decision. Because of this lack of comparison, arriving guests had no way to know if it was a small geosphere close by or a large one farther off. I know that on my first visit, I had to keep increasing my estimates of size and distance as each look raised the lower limits. You thus arrived at the Park entrance with a sense of awe that had slowly increased as you approached.

Perhaps the best impact of the Wand can be found in first-time guests' casual comments to their families. Where once was heard, "Damn that's a big golf ball!" the refrain became more often, "Damn that's a big wand." While this may have been the intent, the design distracted attention from a unique structure and keynote attraction toward a flashy signboard with an unremarkable and frankly industrial look.

By removing the Wand (and the stars), Spaceship Earth will return to it's undefined size, and the sense of wonder that I think we all recall from our first visit will be encouraged to return.

One of the challenges of designing Spaceship Earth is that the earth, like the geosphere, is immense -- but it is at the same time very small and fragile. The cozy confines beneath the geosphere and in the boarding area suggest this closeness, while the mirrored column suggested that the support for our spacecraft was yet small and fragile. These design decisions were not random, they were carefully chosen to help tell the story even before you boarded your time vehicles.

It worked for me, in many ways. The Wand, though a fun icon and one I approved of as a one-year stunt, does not contribute to any of the stories that Epcot in general -- and Spaceship Earth in particular -- are trying to tell. And as any good storyteller will agree, any element that does not contribute to your story detracts from it.

I like change, in general. Sure I'm sad, even distraught when a favorite show or building disappears, but I know that Disney shows are no more immortal than my friends, who also occasionally frustrate me by dying -- usually too soon. Change also brought us the entire Epcot park -- a diversion from the Disneyland/Magic Kingdom design that took a lot of courage for the corporation to commit to.

So I would urge those disappointed by this change to embrace it, to keep their memories and photographs of the Wand online and available to historians, and to move on. I would urge those cheering it's fall to do so quietly that they don't further disturb those who mourn it's passing.

Disney Parks are storytelling tools. They will continue to be sharpened, replaced, retooled, and adjusted as long as there is imagination left in the world.

... and Imagineers to design them.

[Zazu]

HEY! I wasn't born in Texas, I just got here as quick as I can :D:

The Texan stays quiet, slowly stirring the coals with his penis.

Reminds me of what we used to call Texas when I lived back in California ... Baja Oklahoma.

[Randy B]

Zazu wrote:

By removing the Wand (and the stars), Spaceship Earth will return to it's undefined size, and the sense of wonder that I think we all recall from our first visit will be encouraged to return.

I agree. When I first visited Epcot, the "ball" looked huge and even when standing under it the impression was of massively large. But after the hand went up (and the Legacy "graveyard" went up infront) it seems to be much smaller. The wand and graveyard seem to have diminished the impact of the SE ball. IMHO

Randy

[ktulu]

Reminds me of what we used to call Texas when I lived back in California ... Baja Oklahoma.

That's a good one! We just call it North Texas :)

The wand does hold one memory for me, and that is when it said 2000. That was the year my wife and I got married, and we honeymooned at Walt Disney World. I like my SSE Wand and Star free, but at the same time I liked what it said for that brief period of time.

[Big Wallaby]

For once, everything I think has been said, along with the other comments that make me think outside my normal box. Thank you all.

[Cranbiz]

The wand really never bothered me.

I looked at the way I look at other changes, Walt always wanted the parks to change or evolve. The wand was a change, maybe not the best change, but a change.

However,I would not be shedding tears if that Big F**king hat at Studios was to disappear.