I came across this — a true work of genius — and immediately thought of valued commenter Raven.
Enjoy, all, and have some thread.
This post is in: Because of wow., Open Threads
I came across this — a true work of genius — and immediately thought of valued commenter Raven.
Enjoy, all, and have some thread.
Comments are closed.
J R in WV
Woah !!
FITST? FIRST? somfing like that anyhoo.
TaMara (HFG)
I LOVE her so much! This is whimsical and brilliant.
Baud
The bass need to say “Fuck LBJ.”
Yutsano
@J R in WV: FURSTEST. Or something.
First day back after being off two weeks in and out of hospital is going well. Feel tired but I’m pretty sure it’s just because I’m not a morning person more than anything. So far so good. And it’s nice to be driving again.
LuciaMia
Tony Soprano is freaking out!
Raven
My wife used “Once in a Lifetime” at the end of her retirement remarks!
japa21
The reporter for that is one of my favorite morning reporters for WGN. Finds some of the quirkiest stories out there and he loves roller coasters. Somehow I had missed that one.
KSinMA
Brilliant!
Amir Khalid
I didn’t think the world would ever need a wall of singing plastic fish, but now that there is one I am glad.
Raven
@japa21: I assume you are not old enough to recall Two Ton Baker?
Two Ton also was in demand as a commercial pitch man. Perhaps most memorable was his long tenure as spokesman for the Riverview Amusement Park, which featured him singing a ditty he made up for the commercial and whirling into view jammed into a roller coaster car, singing “Laugh your troubles away!”
debbie
I would never leave the stairs!
Raven
This time next week I’ll be back at the beach for one more week of surf fishing!
japa21
@Raven: I am a little older than you. Yes, I remember Two Ton and going to Riverview.
Raven
@japa21: NO!!!!!!
When my dad was a kid he was at the top of the parachute ride, something broke and he was up there for 2 hours!
SiubhanDuinne
LAUGHING TO THE OUT LOUD!!
japa21
@Raven:
That’s how I feel.
SiubhanDuinne
@japa21:
Jeez, I spent half my young life at Riverview. The rest of it was at Brookfield Zoo.
Raven
@SiubhanDuinne: What about Kiddieland at 1st and North??
mrmoshpotato
Reporter: Why (did you do this)?
Club co-owner: Umm… it’s a great question.
Hehehe
japa21
@SiubhanDuinne: Brookfield Zoo is unbelievable today. What they have done exhibit wise is remarkable.
@Raven: I never made it there.
Yutsano
@mrmoshpotato: Sometimes there does not need to be a why for a thing to be done. The universe just expresses its own chaos.
Omnes Omnibus
The world needed this. It really did.
@Raven: Riverside was my first outing after I was born. My dad and grandmother did the parachute ride. I have no memory of it since I was maybe 6 weeks old.
mrmoshpotato
@Raven:
@japa21:
@SiubhanDuinne: And now I want a sub from Hero’s. Mmmmmm
mrmoshpotato
@Yutsano: Hahaha. “The universe said it must be done.”
Uncle Cosmo
Just FTR, I’m not getting sound on any of the embedded vids. Works fine on other sites.
SiubhanDuinne
@Raven: Ha! Not only was Kiddieland a regular hangout, but when I was four years old I wrote a killer song about my young twin bro’n’sis about the various rides at Kiddieland!
Lyrics:
Eljai
Surely the song list would include “All About That Bass”?!
Miss Bianca
OMG, it’s in Chicago. I am going to have to make sure to razz the shit out of my Chicago-based buddies about taking me there!
WaterGirl
@Raven: @japa21: @SiubhanDuinne: shoutout for Riverview!
P.S. Stayin’ Alive! so great.
edit: @Raven: and Kiddieland!
Gin & Tonic
@Amir Khalid: You now have a reason to go to Chicago.
Steve in the ATL
@SiubhanDuinne: you misspelled “shady joints on Rush Street”
pluky
This. Is. Genius.
Raven
@SiubhanDuinne: Hell yes! Now, the hot rod destination was across the street. It was called Skips Fiesta and, ironically, it was part of John Prine’s “Whistle and Fish”!
Here’s the song.
“On my very first job I said thank-you and please
They made me scrub a parking lot down on my knees
Then I got fired for being scared of bees
And they only give me fifty cents an hour
Fish and whistle, whistle and fish
Eat everything that they put on your dish
When we get through we’ll make a big wish
That we never have to do this again, again? again?
We’ll whistle and go fishing in the heavens”
mrmoshpotato
@Raven: Tilt-A-Whirl. Ugh.
Raven
@Omnes Omnibus: Riverview.
delk
@Raven: my parents took me to Riverview a few times but I barely remember it. I was 5 in ‘67 when it closed. I do however buy groceries where it once stood.
Omnes Omnibus
@Raven: I said I was six weeks old! Get off my dick.
Raven
@mrmoshpotato: Here’s a Kiddieland Wiki page with a listing of where the rides went. . . including the Tilt-A-Whirl!
Steve in the ATL
@Raven: oh, now *everyone* is doing John Prine tonight? Sheesh.
Raven
@Omnes Omnibus: I just wanted you to know.
WaterGirl
@japa21:
I had to stop going there because of the Polar Bear who was clearly OCD moving forward a few steps, always pausing on the same foot, then walking backwards to the same spot. And then he would start over. Broke my heart, every time I saw him doing that, year after year. Is he still there?
Raven
@Steve in the ATL:
Only in Chicago did I ever hear “close the light”
Well, I leaned on my left leg
In the parking lot dirt
And Cathy was closing the lights
A June bug flew from the warmth he once knew
And I wished for once I weren’t right
Why we used to laugh together
And we’d dance to any old song
Well, ya know, she still laughs with me
But she waits just a second to long
mrmoshpotato
@Raven: I’d forgotten Little Dipper was relocated to Great America.
WaterGirl
@Raven: In all fairness, Riverview was in Riverside, was it not? I vote we give him a break. For that, and well, he was quite young.
Raven
@WaterGirl: Western and Belmont in the city.
Immanentize
Talking Heads are loved by the Olds
Road to Nowhere (hey!)
https://youtu.be/AQdh5bASXW0
Omnes Omnibus
@Raven: Fair enough. I was three when it closed.
debbie
@Immanentize:
I always listened to Psycho Killer while riding the subway home from work. The perfect antidote to NYC rush hour.
Raven
@Omnes Omnibus: Steeple got all pissed off at me because I noted most of Ft Campbell was in Tennessee. Don’t mean nuthin. . .
Immanentize
@debbie: I first saw Talking Heads in 1977 at a pub in upstate NY called the Other Place. Or “OP” which we called the Slow Pee. I sat on a fusbal table while they went through their first album songs.
I love Psycho Killer.
japa21
@WaterGirl: I have not seen that. And the display is remarkable. Zoos have come a long way, at least the good ones have. There are actually fewer animals at the zoo now than 20 years ago because they have been intent on giving more space to the ones they have.
I have a fantastic picture of my older grandson giving a snow leopard a high five. Very thick glass between them, fortunately.
debbie
@Immanentize:
I loved that Big Suit!
OzarkHillbilly
Some people have too much time on their hands. Thank dawg.
Immanentize
@debbie: probably the group I’ve seen the most (Spiritualized a close second). I recently saw Byrne testing out “American Utopia” in Boston. No Big Suit (which I also loved — as well as his grass suit) but his suit in American Utopia is exactly the same color as his Big Suit.
Immanentize
@OzarkHillbilly: This is my new life motto.
Thank you.
Steve in the ATL
@Immanentize: I couldn’t fully appreciate it until Omnes translated the French for me
Wag
Amazing. I guess I need to go to Chicago now…
John Revolta
@Raven: I went on the Parachute one time, when I was a kid.
My father said I turned green.
Kiddieland was closer, we went there more often.
Immanentize
@Steve in the ATL: Dude, that is harsh.
(And fafafafa is really not convertable)
Wag
@Immanentize:
I’ll one up you
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nyk7rotSirY
Steve in the ATL
@Immanentize: it’s no “foux de fafa” to be sure!
Omnes Omnibus
It’s all in the accent.
Omnes Omnibus
@Steve in the ATL: Quoi?
ET
Not as great as that video is the McConnell “commercial” – but the Senator gives them lots of ammunition.
NeenerNeener
@Immanentize: I spent many hours on the pinball machines in the OP back in ’77. We might actually have some people in common.
Immanentize
@Wag: Adrian Belew. I saw them at the Heatwave concert in Mossport, Canada when they first introduced the big band (w/Adrian)
Byrne said, “Well, we’re not the band we used to be.”
No shit, Sherlock.
Immanentize
@NeenerNeener: no shit! I am sure we did. I used to bartend at the Scotch n Sirloin. It is a small town.
Steve in the ATL
@Omnes Omnibus: bien joué
@Immanentize: paging Bella Q!
Immanentize
@Steve in the ATL: Someone plays, Quoi, I must respond with your favorite:
Kiss kiss kiss
Steve in the ATL
@Immanentize: I still don’t like her, but in other news the Bongos are playing Atlanta in a couple of months
Raven
@John Revolta: Where were ya, I’m from Villa Park?
satby
Oh, Riverview memories! The rollercoaster was terrifying the first time I went on it at age 7. But I loved that place.
satby
@SiubhanDuinne: Kiddieland was closest to us, so we went there more often. My dad would take each of us in turn on a dad and daughter day to Kiddieland and then lunch somewhere special like Chinatown, Greektown, or Little Italy.
My youngest son remembers being left behind at Kiddieland by his day camp at age 6 as one of the best days of his life. He went to a staffer when he realized the bus had left him behind and security kept him amused with food, treats, and endless rides, all with his very own security escort.
That was in 1991, it closed in 2009. Sad.
Crusty Dem
In a previous life I spent a few hours helping wire up the sashimi tabernacle choir:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHznVR9bwtg
Good times…
Tom Levenson
@Crusty Dem: that is sublime.
cope
My mom thought Riverview was too dirty and gross for us sheltered northern suburban kids after only one visit and never took us again. After that, I only got to go with other kids’ parents.
Demonstrating how the parachute ride would kick you in the ass at the bottom, I sat down hard on an antique bed at the home of my science teacher’s in-laws when he took me and another science geek downstate to the state science fair one summer. He sat in a chair next to the collapsed bed all night long as I tried to sleep in it making sure I wouldn’t cause any more trouble. I didn’t.
cope
My mom only took us to Riverview once. She thought it was too dirty and gross so after that, I only got to go with other kids parents. The last time I went was with a good friend and his brother and dad. Roughly 10 years later, that good friend stepped on a mine with 30 days to go in his tour. I think of him and that trip to Riverview every time I see an image or video of the Viet Nam Wall.
cope
My mom only took us to Riverview once. She thought it was too dirty and gross so after that, I only got to go with other kids parents. The last time I went was with a good friend and his brother and dad. Roughly 10 years later, that good friend stepped on a mine with 30 days to go in his tour. I think of him and that trip to Riverview every time I see an image or video of the Viet Nam Wall.
P.S. This is my third attempt at commenting on this post and my first try since the roll-over. Am I missing something?
FM
Delurking to say that the fish are hilarious. Needed the laugh.
cope
Point taken: comment, go to bed, read comments in the morning.