Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Obsession?

Disneyland has done a lot of things for different people. It presents a world where you can forget yourself and just be whatever you want to be. Sadly, a lot of parents take this opportunity to get into an attitude of "I HAVE TO MAKE MY CHILDREN ENJOY THEMSELVES, OTHER GUESTS BE DAMNED!" That's another story for another time.

For me, I found inspiration in a place that I would have never expected. Recently, a staple of Main Street USA opened back up. Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln was a presentation that was a combination of a tech demo of Audio Animatronics technology and Walt's love for Abe Lincoln. The speech has changed from being a "Best of" to the Gettysburg address and back again.

I went in with the notion of checking out the future of the technology that makes Disneyland classic rides awesome and found myself floored by the words of our 16th president. Now don't get me wrong, seeing it come from the man himself is strong enough, but I went back in for a second viewing even closer. It has now become a must-do on my Disneyland Annual Passholder Visit list. As Abe puts it, his words "aroused me as I had never been before." (Stop snickering)

Since this first visit, I haven't really been able to get away from him. In my cultural geography class, an article about Disneyland written by a nihilistic, emo bastard (my pet name for him) discussed the most negative thoughts about this attraction. Seeing as I had just been moved by our former presidents words I could not stand this man's accusation of it "creating an alternate reality where Lincoln never died." As a result, I read the entire speech from the attraction in front of my class and got a strong reaction of support for the attractions existence.

That same week, one of my new favorite websites, TeeFury.com, had a Lincoln related shirt. The idea behind TeeFury is that it has a shirt available for a day and then that's it. It's only about 11 bucks with shipping, so it's a great deal. The shirt I proudly wear can be seen below.



It also goes without saying that I eagerly await to get my hands on a copy of "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter", especially after seeing this promo for it.



Aside from that, I feel like my obsession with this great man has come in the form of one of the things that I love most, theatre. I'm in a directing class this semester, which is one of the necessary classes to graduate and usually one of the last. We had our choice for the scene, but I had a lot of trouble trying to find a scene to do. I didn't come into the department with a vast knowledge of shows, only the ones I had done and others by similar writers. I was about to go back to my drama teacher from High School to catch up and talk to him about borrowing a copy of "The Odd Couple", but then I remembered that I had a book of plays that I borrowed that belonged to him. I looked through the book and guess what I found? "Abe Lincoln in Illinois." I found a great scene to do and I am currently pending approval from my professor, but within the course of two months, I have surrounded myself with the awesomeness of our 16th president.

I don't know where it's going to go from here, but it can only get more awesome.

Bottom Line - Lincoln FTW

ThEnd

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