#i bought multiple copies of the black parade including the version that came in that fuzzy box

[queernobi]

I'm gonna be honest, most of the way people engage with Tumblr is through the context of fandom, and I just. Can't bring myself to care about fandoms anymore.

Hell, not just in the sense of the community of fandom, but also in the veneration of certain figures that may define certain fandoms. Like, for instance, I just read a post about MCR where the person talked about the group in such a reverent way, almost as if they felt like they knew them, and while I'm not gonna go on some tired "parasocial relationship = bad" spiel, I personally just. Cannot put so much stock into an individual (or even handful of individuals) that I've never met to the point that I start speculating or theorizing what they might be thinking.

I just. Don't care that much? (Also can't bring myself to care that much about their tour given how much they charge for a fucking concert ticket, especially with the pandemic still ongoing, fucking wild.)

It's just a particular way of viewing the world, and while I don't begrudge people for it, it's honestly not a viewpoint I share anymore. If I engage with a piece of work to the point that I would consider myself a fan of it, then I engage with it on my own terms, not in fandom terms. If I like MCR (which I do), I illegally download their music like any respectable individual and move on with my fucking life. I just can't care about the people behind it beyond hoping they're doing well (which they are, if their concert ticket prices are anything to go by, like I cannot begin to tell you how ridiculous that is, I saw the Mountain Goats play near where I live a few months ago and tickets were like, $100 tops, it is genuinely ridiculous how much they're charging).

[gay4disney]

My Disney Experience

Hey there, hi there, ho there, everyone. No, I’m not talking about the app today, though I can certainly cover that in a future article. Instead, I thought I’d give you an insight to the trips I’ve taken to Disney properties. My Disney resumé, if you will.

To begin with, I was a massive Disney animation fan when I was a kid. To this day, my stepfather calls me “Gus”, because, after seeing Cinderella when I was very young, I insisted I was Gusgus the mouse. I remember seeing Song of the South in the theater with my grandmother, and watching every Disney TV special that came along.

I took my first trip to Walt Disney World with my Dad when I was 13. I’d wanted to go for years, and, after my parents separated, my Dad promised he’d take me someday.” Someday” was many years in coming, but eventually my Dad told me he’d gotten a great deal, and we were going to Florida for over a week, including 5-day tickets to Walt Disney World and a 4-night stay at the Polynesian Village.

I was incredibly excited. My Dad bought the first edition of the Birnbaum Guide, and I read it every night when I stayed with him, pouring over it until I felt I could walk the place blindfolded. I still have a copy of that same edition on my bookshelf; it’s a treasure from my past. When my Dad announced that we would not be driving but flying on Delta (Disney’s partner at the time), I was over the moon. My first airplane ride!

The trip was amazing of course. I didn’t know what this “EPCOT Center” thing was I saw signs for, but in September of 1982, I was quite satisfied. We rode everything multiple times. We went to Discovery Island and River Country. We did the Hoop-De-Doo Review and the Polynesian Luau. I got to pilot my own mini-speedboat around the Seven Seas Lagoon. It was, in a word, magical. We went to Sea World & Busch Gardens on that trip, too, but they hardly blipped my radar. Walt Disney World was where it was at.

(It wasn’t until only a few years ago that I suddenly realized that the reason my Dad was likely able to afford it was because of the impending opening of EPCOT Center. I’m sure projected attendance for the weeks leading up to EPCOT’s opening were low, and deals to travel must have been excellent. After that, I didn’t get to go again until I was 16. This time, my High School chorus was going down to sing at EPCOT Center. We rehearsed “Golden Dream”, the theme song of the American Adventure, and we were so excited. Something fell through with the plans, though, and we never sang at EPCOT. We did sing at Sea World, so that was cool, and we did have two day passes to Walt Disney World. We used one pass at the Magic Kingdom and one at EPCOT.

EPCOT fascinated me, and it’s still my favorite park to this day. I got to ride on Spaceship Earth, World of Motion, the original World of Energy, and the original Journey Into Imagination (although Horizons must’ve been closed the day I went). I shopped around World Showcase for souvenirs. The time I had wasn’t enough; I left feeling like I’d barely scratched the surface.

In my late teens, however, I fell out of love with Disney. I felt absolutely betrayed by Disney’s version of The Black Cauldron, and I stopped going to Disney animated movies. I never went to see the Great Mouse Detective, Oliver & Company, The Little Mermaid, or The Rescuers Down Under in the theater. I finally saw The Little Mermaid on VHS and thought, “Huh…that was actually a pretty good film.” When Beauty & the Beast came out in theaters, I went with my Dad and said, “That was great!” Thereafter, I went to see all of the animated features in the theater again, many of them multiple times. Disney had hooked me again.

Despite this, my next trip to the parks wasn’t until 1998. By this time, I was getting romantically involved with a fella in California named Steve, which was rough, since I’m a Boston guy. We met physically at a furry convention in Buena Vista, CA. Yes, I’m a furry; get over it. Disneyland was essentially our first date, and it blew my mind. Rides like Star Tours, Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Forbidden Eye, and Splash Mountain showed me that the parks were continuing to grow and improve, and it was great to see old friends like Pirates of the Caribbean, The Haunted Mansion, The Enchanted Tiki Room, and Space Mountain again.

The following year, at the same convention, Steve and I had become closer and closer, visiting each other a couple of times and constantly on the phone with each other. We went to Disneyland again and loved it all over again. It was no shock to anyone when he moved to Boston to live with me a couple of months later.

We took our first trip together to Walt Disney World in 2002. On February 2, 2002, we had dinner at Akershus, exchanged rings carved with our names (that we’d bought at Epcot’s Mexico) inside the Stave Church (at Epcot’s Norway), and then watched the Tapestry of Dreams Parade, followed by Illuminations. It was a perfect day. Getting actually married two years later was great, but that Disney ceremony still feels even more real to me.

Since then, we’ve gone to either Walt Disney World, Disneyland, or both at least once a year, with one exception. The year of the exception we went to the Caribbean…on a Disney cruise. We’re often accompanied by our good friend Jay, who is our housemate, and we love bringing friends who’ve never been before. We’ve stayed at All Star Movies, All Star Music, Pop Century, the Yacht & Beach Club (Yacht side), Saratoga Springs, Animal Kingdom Lodge, and the Disney Treehouse Villas…oh, and also the Grand Californian at Disneyland. Next February, we’re doing a trip with just a three of us where we split the time between the Bay Lake Towers at the Contemporary and the Polynesian Village.

So there you have it – my qualifications to talk about Disney. Hope you got a smile. If you have any Disney related questions – characters, movies, parks, or what have you – please feel free to ask. It might be the basis for a future article.

See you real soon!

- Andy