Last Friday, my friend Tony and I got on a discussion of old, defunct amusement parks, namely, Angela park.

http://defunctparks.com/parks/PA/angela/angela.htm

It was located in Drums, which is a few miles from where I work, and it was where I spent much of my childhood in the 80’s. I browsed through the site and the memories flooded back. The ghost house, the helicopter rides that went over the whole park, the tunnel of love.

These amusement parks did have most of the same qualities too. They all had one dark ride (like the ghost house, tunnel of love, etc). They had old, creepy merry go rounds. They had those rides that went over the whole park. And they had a lot of really cool hand painted statues that just give off an aura of years gone by. These statues are probably passed by by most without a second glance, but years and years before the mass produced society we live in today was born, there were unknown artists sculpting and painting these by hand for a living.

All that being said, this entry is about the art of amusement parks and fairs, as the title suggests. Most of the parks that I visited as a child are gone, so these things are lost to time, unfortunately. One of these parks still remains. A little place that used to, in the 80’s, be referred to as Knoebels Grove.

I don’t know why I go to amusement parks, I get sick on pretty much every ride. I was asked to go there with a few of my friends, and I went there, armed only with my camera and a lot of free time, considering I went on about four things the whole time. So, I decided I was going to search for as much as this old “art” as I could find.

The ghost house was the first ride we went on, and there were a few games that were right by the entrance. Here is the first specimen that I encountered. A hand painted sign for the tic tac toe game, featuring Knoebel’s mascot, Kozmo.

If you can’t tell what that is, a hand is coming out and grabbing his TOE. get it?

After this, we headed over to the phoenix, which, along with the ghost house, is the reason that Knoebels did not go out of business like all of the other parks in Pennsylvania.

Next to the phoenix is a really old music… thing. I actually don’t really know what to call this, but it’s hand painted and has been there forever. It’s very different from the statues, but I thought it was worth a mention, none the less.

Here is a detail:

After this we made our way to the area where the train is that takes you through the park. This guy was pointing me to the Cookie Nook, where I could get tasty treats:

I followed this little penguin’s instructions and found myself at a BREAD SHAPED BUILDING! Normally a bread shaped building would be my favorite place in the entire world because they’d sell… you guessed it…. BREAD! And I LOVE bread! … but this place does not sell bread. I’m actually not sure what this building is, but attached to it is the Cookie Nook that this penguin tricked me into going to.

After this, we searched for the pavilion where my friend Gill’s company was having their picnic. This isn’t really art related, but… I discovered that the people who designed the picnic pavilion didn’t really know their alphabet.

The bottom left quadrant is close to correct, however … U does not come after O, guys.

Anyway, after that it was on to the international cafe. They sell everything from mexican food to buffalo chicken sandwiches to alligator (i’m not kidding) They had some really neat and really “corny” artwork.

Get it, “corny” artwork? lolol.

This one was above the one food place inside of the cafe:

These puns are just… top notch.

I got some pasta from the italian place, and this horrifying thing was there to greet me:

I took a picture of the above image because I really really reminds me of old advertising characters … and I really think that that is an art style in itself.

Here is another horrifying chef that I found that was back near the entrance:

Here is a very horrifying one. This doesn’t really fall into amusement park art I don’t think. This falls into “scary coal mining museum art” because Knoebels has an Anthracite Museum right next to the international cafe.

There are really no words for this. Well, except for HORRIFYING:

After all of this, my friends went on the twister. This is a new rollercoaster, but it has the same sort of old timey statue built right into it.

While they were on the twister, I walked around and took some more shots. Here’s Kozmo again, this time on a globe.

After this, I wandered over into the kiddie ride area. I thought that I’d find a lot of stuff there, but I found just two, and they were both the same. There were two soldiers, each guarding a bridge. Here’s a detail, because I really like them.

All right. I’ve saved my favorites for last. I dont’ even know where to start. These are just… so amazing I had to actually have my picture taken with most of them.

This… is… well… hm…. really scary:

These two are actually from a different trip to Knoebels this summer, which is why I have a different shirt on. I didn’t want people to say “hey, why are you wearing a different shirt?! something is not right here!” …

This is near the arcade in the middle of the park. I believe there is a sign that says “please put trash in me” … but my reaction is to run away horrified.

These are my favorite two, hands down. I’ve blogged about this first one before, but I’m going to post it again. These are panels on the baby changing station at Knoebels. This scares me more than ghosts. Or spiders. Or ghost spiders. So, without further ado, I present to you… the changing station babies:

All right, well, that concludes this post, so I will leave you with this. While I was waiting for my friends to finish their final ride on the phoenix before they left, I found something really interesting.

Some class somewhere made an exact replica of the phoenix and it was in a glass case. That’s actually pretty cool, but I was more interested in the little figures that were placed next to this replica, who were supposedly “enjoying” this ride.

I came up with a story of what happened, but I’ll allow you, the reader, to draw your own conclusion and write your own story:

Until next time ^_^

WTF?! I’ve never seen anything like this! It’s apparently called something like a red and blue leaf hopper or something. I was looking for four leaf clovers before, and he was sitting right on one of the clover leaves, just to give you a sense of how small these are!

Hello everyone and welcome to this edition of “Sara sees a really awesome place on channel 16 and goes there immediately because it has the word ‘crystal’ in the title of it”. Today’s episode is about a little place in Lakeville, Pennsylvania called “Crystal Cabin Fever”. Frozen sculptures as far as the eye could see? A giant ice slide? A full scale cabin made entirely of ice?  The story I saw on the news was just so compelling, I had to go see it for myself. Also, Larry wanted to try out his GPS.

When we got there, we found out that the entire exhibit was in a GIANT barn, and they could have very little lighting so the ice wouldn’t melt. That being said, my photos are very dark and of sub par quality because the lighting was just too poor, and it looked REALLY bad if you took it with a flash. … anyway.

It was ten bucks to get in, and they gave you free hot chocolate. That was pretty great, considering it was FREEZING in there. I regretted not wearing boots the minute I stepped into the door.

After we paid, we rounded the corner and were greeted with this site:

The woman inside of the above picture will give you some indication of the scale of this thing! The craftmanship and details were just amazing. I can’t fathom how long something like this would take!  Here is a detail of one of the logs that made up the cabin:

Outside of the cabin there was even an outhouse. This is not very practical!:

Here’s Larry, my boyfriend, sitting on the bed in the cabin. I sat on one of the chairs that was on the opposite wall and it was FREEZING!

Below is a detail of the ice that was just above the door. The light  was hitting it in such a way that it had all rainbow colors in it. I thought it was really striking and beautiful:

There were signs strewn about this place, and each and every one of them were carved into ice. I think they were either sponsors, or the people who actually carved each section, but I am unsure. Here is one:

In the middle of the room there was a stage with sculptures that looked like they had just been finished and were almost ready to be placed out or something. Here is an owl from that section:

Here is an ice angel, also from the stage that I mentioned above:

An ice moose was right behind the cabin. These were very dark because there was only a very small amount of light in this area:

In ET, his heart would glow. In Crystal Cabin Fever, the animals’ butts glow:

This swan was my favorite piece in the entire place. There is something about the smoothness. I know that a swan is really one of the most stereotypical ice figures you could find, but alas, it was beautiful:

After we finished looking at the ice sculptures, we went to the end of the barn to find something really quite “cool” …. lolz, bad pun… ugh. … Anyway, there was an ice slide. The whole thing was entirely made out of ice, and MAN was it fun. Here is a picture of the side of it:

I am really not that internet savvy, but I uploaded a video of the slide in action and placed it on youtube. The link is below. It also features me going down the slide. I apologize for my annoying voice and for the shaky camera work when I’m going down the slide with the camera in advance. Here’s the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iaCjkE97jso

After we had gone down the slide a few times, it was time to get our free hot chocolate. We were very much surprised to see that the entire concession stand was ALSO MADE OF ICE!

After this, we traveled to Adventure Games. I seriously couldn’t feel my feet all night, but I am so glad that I went. I will go next year if they do it again, and this time I will remember to bring boots so I can go down the slide a million times instead of just two.

Hope you guys like the pictures. You should all go see this next year! Until next time!

11. Dragonflies wings are apparently made of crystal.

10. I can’t stop taking pictures of animals.

9. Chipmunks may look cute, but they are dirty, filthy thieves. Here is one being all cute:

Awwww… look at how great, let’s kiss and hug him, right?

Well, on to exhibit B. :

Ps - did i mention this is NOT his food? Look at those cheeks! He’s shoplifting! and he’s not doing a very good job of it either!

8. Felix felicis from the harry potter books DOES exist.

7. Thaxter Tewksbury is the best name EVER. Seriously. this guy was on ghost hunters, and he has the best name EVER! Thaxter Tewksbury, if you ever find this site, I am not making fun of you, you have a brilliant name!

6. When traveling to Japan, always bring back boob related things for Larry, such as this “bust pudding”

5. Things are oftentimes hidden in fireworks. This one looks like an old video game logo, or the extra life from Super Pitfall:

See if y ou can figure out which one is the firework, and which one is the logo! It’s a fun game!

This one looks like some sort of demon’s eyes.

I’m afraid of it.

4. This is where spongebob definitely belongs.

3. Clients don’t know what the #@$% they want.

This came from a client. This is an actual job that they wanted us to print. Can you guess what the heck they want? See the stuff scribbled out? They wanted to KEEP that. Yeah. that’s right.

\

2. This will never stop amusing me.

I got a new Volkswagen beetle in April, and this summer it hit 1337 miles. I actually pulled over to talk this picture.

1. If you’ve been working on something since 7th grade, you should NEVER EVER EVER EVER give up on it.

This is an illustration from my new comic that I will be working on this winter. I have pushed it aside for way too long. I have the outline completely written for the most part, and will begin work on it soon. It is called Nothing Exciting Ever Happens Around Here. I hope everyone like it once I get it on my site. It’s been nearly 17 years in the making!

Anyway, THOSE, in a nutshell, are eleven things I learned this summer ^_^.

All right, as the title suggests, a lot of things have been happening as of late, and rather than pick and choose my entries, I’ll write about them all. Except the one thing. I’m going to dedicate a whole entry to that in a few weeks, so I won’t go into that into detail right now. But I digress.

Anyway… first order of business… in an attempt to stave off my temptation to buy a ps3, which every single store has because no one wants them anymore because apparently there are no games for them, I bought a guitar. Wow. That was a long and awkward sentence. I had seen this guitar on the day that we went to meet Dwight in Scranton, but seeing how it was right before Christmas, I had no money to do anything about it. I went to Electronics Boutique, money in hand, to purchase my PS3, and Gill and the other girl working there talked me into spontaneously driving to Scranton and getting myself this guitar instead. So I went to Galluchi music in Scranton and it was still there. I asked to play it, which was totally pointless, because I knew from the moment I laid eyes on it that it was the guitar for me.

I parked at the Steamtown mall, and for those of you who know that area, it’s pretty far from Galluchi music. It’s even further when you’re carrying a box containing a guitar. I looked like a total idiot walking through Scranton, but I didn’t even care. I was getting looks left and right in the Steamtown mall, too.

I took it home and immediately hooked up my amp and mic, which had both been just collecting dust, and I played. Larry is learning how to play bass, so he brought that down on Monday, and he and I played “Just Like Heaven” by the Cure. I don’t know the chorus part yet, but I was extremely excited to find that the verse part actually sounded like the song. Afterall, even though I have been playing guitar since I was in 9th grade, I never said I was good at it

Here are some pictures of the guitar. It’s pink, shiny and very girly, however, it’s somehow perfect for me.

This was originally just going to be my entry for the week… but then I was looking around for the guitar tab for Time after Time by Cyndi Lauper and I came across a comic that really made me rethink what my entry should be about. It is a portugese comic from what I can see, and it features some Ghost who is friends with a vampire and the ghost is trying to get a date with Cyndi Lauper for some reason, and then a ghostbuster comes and sucks the ghost up and saves the day. Oh, but don’t take my word for it. No, no. Here are some pictures I found of it. I can’t take credit for these… they’re from a site called “The Cyndi Lauper Source”. But… well, enjoy!

Oh Penadinho. Your plans have been foiled again, you crazy socorro!

So, yeah, even THAT could have been just an entry in itself. Of course, it’s never that easy. I was leaving work the other day, and they are doing construction. They knocked down all of our trees, and everyone who I work with feels that it’s just a crappy thing. We worked in this beautiful wooded area, and now there are just these ugly, cold machines working away day and night to destroy that beauty.

I’ll leave you with an image of the construction site. Even though it’s an ugly thing they’re doing, mother nature was somehow able to make it beautiful.