This week on the show, we’re delving into the fantasylands of America. The idea for "Losing Yourself in Fantasy" comes from my lifelong love of roller coasters and theme parks. Theme parks (different from amusement parks) are still a relatively new invention. America's first theme park, Holiday World, came from my home state in Santa Claus, Indiana. The park was originally called Santa Claus Land and opened in 1946, almost a decade before Disneyland.
Not all of America’s theme parks and attractions have the same staying power. One of my favorite YouTube channels, Defunctland, puts out excellent documentaries about the various failures in theme park history, Disney included. It was also recently announced that one of the world record holding roller coasters, Top Thrill Dragster, is closing down for good. It’s a shame, since that was one of my bucket list coasters and it is downright terrifying.
As a kid, I marveled at these feats of engineering and would memorize all the statistics about them. How tall they were, their top speeds, the number of inversions. I played Roller Coaster Tycoon for hours with dreams of becoming a roller coaster designer. Riding them was a different story. Waiting in line, my heart would be pounding out of my chest from fear. Somehow, that fear would turn into sheer joy and love.
I think it’s best explained in the song “Rollercoasters” by Tank and the Bangas. In their famous Tiny Desk performance, Tarriona "Tank" Ball talks about the loss of her home park, Jazz Land, to Hurricane Katrina and about the thrill of letting go of fear and finding freedom in flight. “There is this moment, where you feel like you're in an ocean of your butterflies. This is the moment when you get free and you let your arms fly.”
–Angelo