i want this to happen at kroger so badly

(Source: lightanddark)

logenscoolstuff:

On May 2, 2009, I had the opportunity to tour Chippewa Lake Park, an abandoned amusement park in Medina County, OH.  I made a special trip there from Boston after learning that the grounds—long fenced off from the public—had been opened at select times for tours.  The park’s land had recently been purchased for development and individuals were permitted to legally walk certain areas of the premises for the first time since the park closed in 1978.

Although I once lived in the area, I had not heard of Chippewa Lake Park until 2008.  This timing was fortuitous, as it was not long before the overgrown park was cleared, exposing many of its ruins. 

Viewing the park was an amazing experience.  I took pictures with a 35mm camera (with filters) and a 1970s Polaroid SX-70 camera and 600 film (which led to many over-exposures).  The results were somewhat dreamy, yet not nostalgic.  I hope my photographs (six shown here) portray a sense of my mixed emotions about the place—I wanted to be respectful of the past while also recognizing that the tangible connection to that past was slipping away. 

My experience at the park was given more meaning by people who volunteered their memories of the place.  One elderly man, for example, told me that he had met his wife at the park’s ballroom.

I assembled an album on flickr of my Chippewa Lake Park (CLP) photographs as well as scans of vintage photographs and postcards.  Over the past two years, more people have shared with me stories of the park, especially in relation to the vintage post cards (two from the 1950s-60s shared here).

Since the time of my visit, the park’s old structurally unsound wooden roller coaster has been torn down.  So too has the stand/pavilion on the high ground from where I took many pictures of the coaster and Ferris wheel.  The small Ferris wheel structure (seen here with a tree growing through it) and the tumble bug (known at CLP as The “Bug” and one of the last of its kind in the world) remain, awaiting relocation.

it’s interesting to see the original photos side by side with what the park looked like in the years i knew it. it’s kind of funny to me that the person who took these (and a lot of other people i know) waited until the pre-demolition tour to visit. i made countless trips to chippewa lake as a foolish, curious, rebellious teenager. how did we manage to sneak in? through a tiny hole in the fence. we spent hours roaming the grounds—we didn’t have any plans to disrupt the park, we just wanted to catch a glimpse of it. it was sad and spooky and beautiful in its own way. i’m sad it’s gone, especially since the deal to turn the park into a luxury getaway (which honestly always sounded suspect) fell through due to lack of funds. i hope whatever they decide to do with the land is worthy of its predecessor. did you know celebrities stayed there? elvis played there? my local library has a really interesting book on the park’s history. and because i was weird in high school i spent hours researching local lore and whatnot… i don’t regret it.

this is what i’m wearing tonight. i bought a pack of cloves and ate a patty melt at the diner. i am about to go meet a friend for a champagne slushie. this weekend has been great.

(Source: dailycandy)

every return trip to new orleans, my mother and i absolutely have to stop for chocolate freezes at camellia grill.

(Source: abearblog)

vintagesonia:

Elizabeth Taylor on the set of Raintree County (1957)

(Source: thetiniestthings)

named Mei Mei.

red pandas are such sweet little kitty-bears.

(Source: sparkingyourinterest)

i love bears so much. ahhh.

(Source: daveellefson)

6-“still. you should try to forget about school today. rest up.”

27- 1.) ambulance-saturday looks good to me

       2.) just a simple melody-ella fitzgerald

       3.) dance dance dance-lykke li

       4.) m.e.x.i.c.o.-the kills

       5.) for reverend green-animal collective

       6.) metal firecracker-lucinda williams

       7.) the fate of the human carbine-cat power

       8.) chelsea hotel no. 2-leonard cohen

       9.) drugs-talking heads

      10.) modern art-black lips

my last real boyfriend and i were friends and got together the DAY i broke up with my boyfriend of a year and half. not my finest moment… we had a really turbulent relationship, probably because he was abusing various drugs. we broke up at the end of that school year because he was graduating (i was a freshman). that whole summer we kept seeing one another and he’d make a bunch of promises and never follow through. we finally called things off for good that fall. we remain friends, i guess, but whenever he visits me in athens he always gets too drunk and sentimental. i guess it’s a good thing i finally got over him. he’s really not doing well. he got a DUI and lost his job. he’s 24 and such a man-child.

after that i was single/celibate for a year because i didn’t want to be caught up in the pattern of always being with someone. i’ve casually dated other people since then, but i just don’t have the energy to be serious with anyone.

Gregory Peck, Sophia Loren and a baby lion in 1965.

i dumped this guy, so i think i will be replacing sex with food