Launching the Disneyland Dilettante

It's a new year, and I have a new blog!

I have a lot of thoughts about Disneyland. More than I should, maybe, for someone who's never so much as worked there. I have thoughts about the attractions that exist, about attractions that used to exist, about attractions that should exist, and about how to bring that unique magic home from the park.

Some of my more outlandish thoughts wound up in my other blog, Knights of the Magic Kingdom. Go there if you want to see what Disneyland really looks like in my imagination. It's heavily fictionalized and gets pretty bombastic in places. Fair warning.

This blog is for the more down-to-earth stuff. I plan to post my Armchair Imagineering ideas here, as well as the occasional attraction review. When so inspired, I make Disneyland-themed crafts which I'll share. There's also what I like to call Imagineering Theory--thoughts on the principles behind Disneyland's design choices, what works and what doesn't, and why it does or doesn't work. And whatever odds and ends come to mind.

With that said, there's a lot of stuff common to Disney blogs that you won't find here. I don't do trip reports--those exhaustive descriptions of crowd levels, maintenance boo-boos, and heartwarming encounters with face characters, all with ample photo documentation, that some Disneyland fans love to assemble. I don't have any insider information, and strangely enough for a fan on the level that I consider myself, I don't follow any Disney newsfeeds. (The important stuff trickles down.) So there will be no breaking announcements or hot rumors here. Nor is this an elaborate, scholarly analysis blog chock-full of brilliant facts and detective work. There are a great many excellent blogs dedicated to that task, and I highly commend and recommend them. My thoughts are more personal, less research-heavy.

And I should mention that the focus of the blog is Disneyland. The original Anaheim park that opened in 1955, and to a lesser extent its sister park Disney California Adventure and other features of the Disneyland Resort. I've been to Walt Disney World all of once, back in 1989. I was 12. Memories of the trip are spotty. I will not address Disney movies, TV shows, or characters except insofar as they relate to Disneyland. (And in fact, I have Strong Feelings about the tendency of Disney's movies to overshadow the unique aspects of the parks.)

So...welcome, and I hope I didn't just scare you away! I promise there's fun stuff ahead.