Margaret Cho's Husband
Activist & comedian Margaret Cho married artist Al Ridenour in June of 2003. Interesting guy. I love what he and his cohorts from the LA Cacapophony Society did at the Burning Man festival in 1999, creating a replica of the Disney "It's a Small World After All" ride and then burning it to smithereens. Of course as it burned, that g*&Damnned song continued to play... and play... (although they say it was enhanced by sirens and other appropriate sound-scaping). This was an anarchists' statement against Disney's shiny-happy depiction of globalism, and the ethnic and racial stereotypes of the animatronic figures... you probably really want to read the whole pictorial report at http://la.cacophony.org/CS_smallafterall.html
posted by PeaceBang at 11:44 AM
1 Comments:
Aww, what a cynical, jaded society we have become, if even UU ministers speak scornfully of the admittedly naive and treacly, but nevertheless also sincere and pure, hope expressed in "It's a Small World".
I first went to see "It's a Small World" not at the commerialized Walt Disney World but at the pan-cultural 1964 New York World's Fair, when I was seven years old; and in that context and at that age it was a memorable and moving experience indeed. After the ride I enjoyed what seemed then the unimagineably exotic treat of a crisp Belgian waffle with strawberries, whipped cream and powdered sugar. I came home with my very own LP of the "It's a Small World" theme song sung in about a dozen or two different languages. (My favorite was Swiss yodeling, and to this day if you give me enough Swiss beer I can give you back a creditable live performance of the original yodeling soundtrack.)
So many kids my age went to see it that it was used to form the basis of both a childrens' chapel service and a Sunday School lesson in my first-grade class at the First Unitarian Church in Westport, Conn. At church, the same one-world idea was reinforced with handouts of bookmarks printed with the Golden Rule as articulated in twelve world religions.
All this very well may be part of the reason I'm still a UU today, despite the best efforts of Congregationalists and Episcopalians to peel me away in the intervening years. You should never underestimate the power of strawberries and whipped cream.
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