In town for a story about that new Disneyland opening? Working with colleagues at the Los Angeles Herald Examiner? Maybe you stayed here. Across the street.

It was the Case Hotel, at 11th and Broadway. The year was 1955.

Photo from the USC Digital Library

On the Inability of a  French Post-Modernist to Enjoy the Magic Kingdom

At least once every 365 days, I take some time out of my life to visit Disneyland. This week, I journeyed back into Magic Kingdom to exploit the fruits of a free birthday pass (I turned 14), and titillate my insatiable addiction to churro smell (not taste). So, while wandering around the all-too-real reality of Disneyland’s stroller-pushing, teenaged mothers and churro-eating masses, I, of course, remembered the words of my, and undoubtedly your, favorite postmoderist, poststructuralist Frenchie philosopher, Jean Baudrillard:

Disneyland is presented as imaginary in order to make us believe that the rest is real, when in fact all of Los Angeles and the America surrounding it are no longer real, but of the order of the hyperreal and of simulation.

The late Baudrillard apparently had a complicated time at D-Land–he even calls the parking lot a concentration camp– but he penned this (perhaps pretentiously) hilarious treatise on the why Disneyland is, like, soooo PoMo. I’ve posted the short excerpt from Simulacra and Simulations after the jump. If only Baudrillard was able to experience fully the Russian doll, So-Cal microcosm of California Adventure…

Put this in your pipe and smoke it…

Read the rest of this entry →

Hello friends! Yesterday, Mark and Steve made the trek out to Disneyland to enjoy the midnight show Wall-E with some friends at Downtown Disney. After trying out the amazing new ride in California Adventure, we decided to check out the new Indiana Jones live action show where we discovered a crowd had gathered around another brand new attraction; a fallen tree branch!

The rather large branch fell right in the middle New Orleans area and Cast Members were busily diverting traffic, pointing into the air, blathering into walkie-talkies and eventually some guys with chainsaws came and began chopping the tree up.

Click here for some more pictures and speculation as to what caused the incident!

Hello, friends! In part 1, and 2, of our report on Fangoria’s Weekend of Horrors!, we captured celebrity images, met Joe Dante, fought bugs and braved the wormhole that would ultimately bridge the inter-dimensional rift that separates the L.A. from the O.C.

When you last left your heroes, they were about to embark on a honey-soaked nightmare through the Hundred Acre Wood!

Click here for the stunning finale!

Hello friends! In Part 1 of our Fangoria Weekend of Horrors! adventure, we waded through enormous crowds, recycled wisely and saw at least enough cult icons to play four-on-four on a half-court.

Just as our ongoing expedition up the mountain of good times was about to reach it’s peak, we caught a snag that sent us plummeting hard and fast, matched only by the graceful nose-dive Mr. William Shatner performed in the opening scene of Star Trek V.

Read on to see the true horror revealed and limits Mark and Steve are prepared to test in their ceaseless pursuit of a truly magnificent Sunday.

Warning, do not click if bugs, sudden changes in scenery or grown men holding hands terrify you.

Click here for the exciting continuation of our gripping 3 part adventure!