Blackpool

I  finally made the trip to Blackpool happen! (Thanks to the financial support and the driving capabilities of Nick)
The reason why i felt i needed to go to Blackpool before i started work on my end of year show started to become blurred a couple of weeks ago, mainly because my lack of memory- however the crooked house concept has really stuck in my mind for a year now, and as the ideas for what i am planning to do take shape in my mind, the crooked house is still a reference that i can't ignore- as well as some of the influencial DVDs i have been watching in the past months. One of them of course being 'Blackpool'. I know that this is or was the main reason for going and i think it has only just occurred to me now how everything links.

'Blackpool' is a series that somewhat puts Blackpool in quite a magical light- the fun of singing and dancing in brightly coloured spaces, but the darkness slowly seeps into the fun and characters that you think are 'what you see is what you get' become the most interesting and complex. The interest and link to my work in this context being the complexity of stereotypes. The second link to connect the crooked house is the 'real estate' angle that is a big theme throughout the series. Wanting to extend an empire at all costs to reputation and family to build a reputation and provide for a family. It is all a big crooked game based on gambling. I think this is why i wanted to go to Blackpool- just to break the myth that i have built in my own mind from this series that Blackpool is actually a fun and colourful place to be.

I did break that myth. On entering Blackpool by road you are led to the promenade from the motorway by a tree lined road- you're not allowed to see the residential space behind the trees, this is something that the council have obviously decided to leave to rot while they 'do up' the tower again. Between the gaps in the blossoming trees there are a lines of 20's terraced houses, cracked pavements and rusty cars. Led into the main town, you can see that this should be and was a place packed with people, but this time of year it is very empty, most shops are boarded up and the ones that are open, have only just brushed the cobwebs away for tourist season. As i mentioned, the Blackpool tower is being renovated, as with much of the golden mile. The trams aren't running and the north pier is pretty much closed, which is unfortunate because this is the one i was most interested in, as it is the most charming and has the least amusements. The closure of the trams means that you have to walk the stretch of the mile to get to each entertainment centre and in turn you get to see the joy of what is the middle of the 'Golden Mile'. We passed about 10-15 hotels plonked in the middle of the mile either closed or 'vacant', again this could be because we are not in high season, but it didn't look like healthy business.
I'm not suggesting at all that The Blackpool Tower should be forgotten either- the Tourist trade seems to be the only trade of Blackpool, and from images i have seen of the Blackpool Ballroom and other places like the Winter Gardens, yes, this should all be renovated because it is beautiful. However, there is definitely an un-even distribution in the town of where money is spent and maybe giving the town a little more trade than gambling and Ferris wheels would be a help.

We took Charlotte with us, and she really led the trip- spending a whole day at the pleasure park so she could go on 'The big one'- namely one of the highest and fastest roller coasters in Europe. You wouldn't have thought it though, because Que times were very short. Maybe 10mins max to get on any of the big roller coasters. It probably made it the most relaxing trip to a theme park I've ever been to, not having to stand in a line for 3 hours just so you can witness the fear of falling over the edge- but on the other hand you still didn't escape the amusements being in the park- Although going on the rides was fun it was always in the back of Charlotte's mind that she wanted to go on those Teddy grabbers.

Back to the note about Crooked houses, there were quite a few in the park, one called 'impossible which was a 'project' by a guy called something Mercer- interesting to think that a theme park ride could be  a project- but anyway, this had the classic ride inside where you feel like the room is turning upside down- in a way it is, but you are also being revolved half way. There were also a lot of Op-art on the wall in large tacky frames- like Escher and the Bridget Riley. This was more of a bizarre house than a crooked one, however there was an 'Alice in Wonderland' ride that full-filled my expectations of a crooked house. A ride completed in 1962- this ride consists of Cheshire cat cars and an odd journey into a massive concrete castle full of elements of the book- however everything is painted in neon paint, although Alice in Wonderland is a bizarre book anyway, this is something else- too much for you to take in at once- visually it was mind blowing and i think i would have preferred to have just walked round at my own pace.

    The crooked house is fun and intriguing but always sinister. It plays on ugliness and the grotesque to make children laugh and for all extent purposes is wrong but still amusing- In the same way that arcades are immoral with their advertising. The soft toy machines that are purposely built for children to loose their money, yet children still love them. Blackpool is a crooked place, and although everything is wrong, i still thoroughly enjoyed myself. Now i just want to go back to see more.

Carnival

- I found this today while my sister was playing on her new wii game- carnival. I'm not sure if this is real research for me but it's definitely a new slant on what haunted house hospitality can be. Virtual entertainment tours.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

It looks like i didn't get booked out today- fantastic day for some research though...

Chesington world of Adventures

I am aware that this is not somewhere to be going during term-time, however my excuse is, that it is half term and i have a younger sister. I am also going to say that you have to experience different forms of hospitality to be hospitable.

 It has been a very grey day today, but being at a theme park i suppose doesn't really constitute the need for good weather- probably why they are so popular in England. It is a themed night too which the main reason we came- Halloween being this coming Sunday. So dark and dreary fits quite well.
A note on a couple of the rides that we have been on today- Dragons fury was good, although being a wet day, as you can imagine (we are in England), they had to stop letting so many people on the ride so the Que was really slow. This ride has also made me realise how much of an old fuddy duddy I'm getting. As we were on the ride i couldn't stop myself thinking about the safety of the ride. My sister was sitting next to me, which i think started me off. Its the fact that the seats are so big. I know they obviously have to make them ergonomically sound for the biggest people getting on the rides but a the same time it means as a normal sized person (Or a child) you get thrown about on this ride that is 40ft in the air! It was fun though, extra fast because of the rain.
http://www.chessington.com/explore/land-of-the-dragons/dragons-fury.aspx

I was quite upset that the small monorail that was running around the park wasn't working, this is usually one of my favorite rides- always empty and you get to look at all the nice views- instead we went on the Ferris wheel. It seemed like a good idea at first- but there was a huge puddle in our cabin and it was really cold by the time we got to the top of the wheel. By this point of the day my mum decided that we needed Ponchos. Another good ride for me was the Egyptian tomb- mainly because i won and it was inside- It was like being inside a shoot em up' game- you just had to shoot as many beetles as you could- At the end of this ride i bought one of those expensive photo keyring things to remind me of my accomplishment. What is a day out without a pointlessly expensive commercial expense. But these photo things do make you feel special, it's terrible- as if they have only taken a photo of you on the ride.

There was actually a crooked house in the theme park too- we went there last so we wouldn't have to Que and looked at the penguins on the way-  i actually remember coming here a couple of years ago for a different Halloween themed night- however the house wasn't as good as this years. The main properties of the crooked house were the mirrored room- the neon painted walls and as in the other house the bridge through the swirly tunnel that make you feel like you are falling over- however the one main difference to the house in Yarmouth that made this slightly more entertaining for me was that there were actors inside the house, popping out from cupboards and behind walls. They weren't fierce like the actors were in the London dungeon. Actually quite homely, just dressed as witches. I think this is what made the experience of this crooked house more sensational than others- because of the human influence, somewhat the attention.

Open House and Hitachi

I took advantage today of the open house event and went up to the mayors office with my sister. Amazing views across London and a brilliant building to be inside, my sister wasn't so interested in the architecture as i was, but there was an activity at the top of the building where you could make a house and put it in an imaginary city of other houses that people had made. We made a haunted house and placed it on the edge of town next to the 'Sunshine Hotel'- the defining features of our building was the tissue paper smoke surrounding it and expanding out of the roof- it also had a drawbridge. The building was a lot like the Reichstag in Berlin- slightly smaller ques to get in, and views that i recognise- but very similar, I'll have to look up to see if it was the same architect that designed the building.


Conveniently it is also right next door to the Hitachi Consulting office where we put up a show earlier this year- I didn't hang any work myself but i project managed and helped curate and choose the work to be placed in the year long exhibition, paid for by Hitachi Consulting. So i took the opportunity on the balcony to take some photos of the Hitachi Building- mainly the parts where you can see the work through the windows. I am trying to get together a catalogue for the private view coming up in October, so the photos may be quite good for that. If not its a good record of location.
We also went to The London Dungeons today- I thought i would mention it because it was really good, and it had a link for me to the crooked house ideas i was having in Great Yarmouth. A lot more extensive than last time i went (about 10 years ago) and a lot more participatory, there are more actors and things like the Sweeney Todd exhibit which gives everybody exactly the same creepy experience. They also have a room which is the old '10 Bells Pub' in Shoredich, linked onto the Jack the Ripper exhibit- I personally enjoyed this because it linked history to location, and I've been to the pub too. We actually went over to Shoreditch after the dungeons so i could show my sis the pub, and a couple of locations of the killings- i went on one of those Ripper Walks a couple of years ago, and remembered a couple of locations. It puts things into perspective a bit, if not bored my sister a little. From there we also went down Brick Lane to get some bagels to eat on the way home- however we got stuck in the middle of a music festival that was going on, and realised when we got to Mile End that i had actually taken us the wrong way down the lane. We had to squeeze all the way back down to the other end. It took us about an hour in total to get the Bagels and get out of there!

Great Yarmouth and The Crooked House

I went to great Yarmouth today to visit my mum, dad and sister who are holidaying there at the moment, a three hour trip there and back was very tiring, especially as i missed my connection at Norwich and had to wait an hour for the next train to Great Yarmouth. However, all was not that bad- I asked to exit the station and headed into town for some lunch. (Baring in mind i had a massive super duper saver ticket, I'm surprised they let me out) It has been fantastic weather today and it reflected the city well, especially the castle and the nearby market. I picked up an 'I Love Norwich' bag for my sister and headed back to the station (A little joke that we have- whenever i go somewhere that she hasn't been, i get her an 'I love...' T-shirt. Unfortunately i could only get her a bag this time)
The stations leading up to the seaside town, are as you can imagine very small town. If you could 'hail and ride' a train, this would be a service for it, yet Great Yarmouth station was quite big, and once in the town it  seemed to be massive- much larger than Southend (My local seaside estuary)
Anyway, my dad picked me up and we perused around the shops for a while, it amused me that most of the shops were called 'fashion central', 'chique chick' etc, yet all sold an array of seaside rock and shells with googly eyes- There was one in particular called 'Bag city', we went inside and there was no sign of any bags, Just a huge sherbet dispenser! To be fair, I'm sure its one of the only thing that sells in seaside towns nowadays. It's quite easy to imagine the people that buy a shop to retire with- near the sea-front where they have many a precious childhood memory, only to be condemned to selling ice cream and rock for the rest of their lives. That depressive thought mirrors most of the shops in Great Yarmouth town, dozens of closing down sales, a dozen more boarded up- side streets desolate. The state I'm sure of many great British seasides.
The beach at Great Yarmouth is fantastic. I don't like sand, but this was nicely bearable because of the dunes and general cleanliness- also a very nice view onto some wind turbines in the sea. Forecasters had said this morning that it was going to rain, so we also had the beach to ourselves. It did eventually rain, so we went to the fair.
This was undoubtedly my favourite part of the day, not only did we have a horse drawn cart ride to the end of the parade, but i got to go in a crooked house. The arcades were amazing, the games and entertainment have obviously not been altered since before i was born, because i had never seen anything like it. There was a puppet show for 20p (20p!), which i do have film footage of, but it includes every fairytale character that you can think of bouncing up and down in perfect unison to 'little miss muffet'. Each character i think is handmade and the wolf is very scary, but only because of the placement of him hanging over the other characters. Also, I really liked a clown in a case, it wasn't working, but again i think it just bobbed up and down, but it was about 5ft tall and was fantastically sinister, it had a dropped head from lack of interest from any of the children around the arcade.

Going back to the crooked house- it cost £2 each to get in. A rip off for what it was, but it has caused a slight obsession for me of their purpose, and how i can incorporate them into my work. The fact that it is a house that is there purposely just for you to question its purpose is odd. I like the idea of the host being behind a glass panel and usually a bit crazy, but not real, in which case i suppose the 'real' host was the bored man sitting outside not letting my mum come in because she wasn't wearing trainers. You go inside and get thrown about and walk up wonky steps. It is a badly made house, that is all- the most thrilling part of this house was that thing where you walk over a bridge through a revolving brightly coloured cylinder that makes you feel like you are falling over- the whole experience reminded me a bit of the architecture in the Jewish museum (Berlin). It does suit purpose though i suppose, its crooked and dark, maybe a little scary, but only because it is beyond social norm and a little sensationalised. i thought it was brilliant. The haunted house was next door, what a combination.

The last thing that i thought i should mention is a pub on the seafront that was for sale:
 'The Barking Smack'
-fantastic