I gotta do my taxes, so I don’t know about a dose today.
Guest dose from Matty Bulls:
In the early 1960s, coming off a successful launch of Disneyland in Anaheim CA, Walt Disney set his sights on building a much larger, much more ambitious park in central Florida. This new park would be a true-to-life manifestation of Disney’s vision for the unfulfilled potential of the American city. At the center of the new park would be the “Experimental Prototype City of Tomorrow” (EPCOT), a fully functioning city and a blueprint for the future of urban landscapes, shaped by recent developments in technology and revolutionary ideas. A network of monorails and people movers, a radially planned urban environment, and a 50-acre glass dome were all in the works and were considered “just the beginning” for this utopia beyond imagination. In addition to these fantastical elements, Disney’s vision included an impossible standard of cleanliness – blemishes, refuse, and ugliness of all sorts were to be hidden away at all costs.
Disney died before his vision could be fully realized and without him, much of the original design for EPCOT was scrapped. Some say it was too ambitious, would have cost too much, or was simply ill-conceived. Despite the naysayers, bits and pieces of his vision survived and still exist throughout Disney World (e.g. the iconic EPCOT center and the monorail). The rest of Disney’s vision lives on as a footnote in history.
It is this same utopian fantasy world (both real and imagined) that is the planned host for the NBA reboot. 22 teams playing out the remainder of a lost season under heavily controlled and monitored conditions. But the big question that looms over the NBA – “is the commissioner’s plan to finish the NBA season too fantastical even in the land of Disney?” – appears to be coming to a head with each passing day and each positive COVID test in Orange County Florida.
Despite the Disneyfied wishes of the people and leaders of Florida for a utopian world without trash, dirt, or viruses (or Jews if old Walt had his way), it appears that the novel coronavirus is not something that is easily swept under the rug (or transported away in an elaborate underground garbage network). With the # of reported COVID cases climbing higher than the spire on the Magic Kingdom and a daily stream of NBA players testing positive, I think it is time (read as “long overdue”) that a decision is made regarding the status of our humble NBA Wins Pool…
IRL: Speaking of Disney, here is the Arkestra’s version of Pink Elephants on Parade, a fantastical and fantastic way to introduce your kids to Sun Ra