http://blogcritics.org/ A sinister cabal of superior bloggers on music, books, film, popular culture, politics, and technology - updated continuously. en Copyright 2005-2007 by the authors Tue, 24 Aug 2004 07:43:58 EDT http://backend.userland.com/rss Blogcritics.org custom software http://blogcritics.org/ Phillip WinnSunday, August 26, 2007, marks the switch of all Blogcritics.org article feeds from full-content to short-content. This is the result of several converging factors, and is unfortunately a permanent decision (as permanent as any decision can be on the web, that is). We are aware of all of the reasons that this is a Bad Idea, and we are aware that some of you will be quite upset about having to click on something to read the free content, and we're sorry. Unfortunately, despite great effort, full-content feeds are not currently economically viable. Two other factors are involved: full-content feeds have resulted in an unprecedented level of content theft, with BC content appearing on many websites, usually spam sites, without attribution or permission. This duplicate content causes a cascading set of problems, not the least of which is that search engines generally aren't favorable to duplicate content, and don't always guess correctly. Finally, our RSS advertising partner is strongly in favor of short-content feeds. We hope that you'll continue to subscribe to BC via RSS, and when an article grabs your eye, it's only a click away, still free on the BC website. Thank you for your understanding. Administration0@blogcritics.org Sun, 26 Aug 2007 12:00:00 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/08/24/074358.php Derryl MurphyOn a recent trip to conference, my wife insisted that we take an extra day or two and drive through the middle of British Columbia and do things that the kids might enjoy, as opposed to, say, drive like a maniac for 8 hours, getting angry every time someone shouts that they have to pee. Obviously some people don't understand what it means to be a father on an extended driving trip, but this time I gave in.Jo, my wife, remembered a place she had visited as a child, a magical place with a glass castle and all sorts of other marvelous sights, and she knew she wanted the boys to see them before they got older and too hip for that sort of thing (for the record, they're 8 and 5.5). The place, she was sure, was called The Enchanted Forest, and by God we were going to visit it. And so, on a day that intermittently either rained or threatened to rain, we pulled into the parking lot and abandoned the minivan, me after a few seconds of suppressing shudders as I viewed the castle and cement giraffe.Perhaps I should have taken my parking experience as a sign; the place was busy, but I was able to grab a spot right in front of the entrance. And then admission was $23 Canadian, which wasn't bad at all, considering that just up the highway sat a suspension bridge over a waterfall that would have cost $16 if my wallet hadn't been so firmly lodged up my behind.As is common with all tourist traps, the entrance and exit cut a meandering path through a gift shop, noisy with gullible patrons buying material memories. But there was a bonus! A sign stated that dogs were allowed on the premises, provided they remained leashed. I hustled back and retrieved Smokey, our Designated Mutt, and brought her back with me, hoping that she might relieve herself somewhere special as a surrogate of my displeasure.Well, imagine my complete and utter surprise to find that I actually liked the place. To be sure, the folk art is often pretty hideous, but there's something kind of touching about all the work the original owners put into the place. There are, according to the web site, over 350 figurines, pretty much all of them based on fairy tales and nursery rhymes. Like almost all folk art, they are pretty atrocious to an eye accustomed to the prettified art of modern culture. Made of cement, they were constructed without the aid of any moulds, and so often the only shape that can be ascribed to them is "amoeba-like."But it is precisely this lack of modern prefab sensibility that helps make the place so refreshing. Much of what is on display was constructed before there was any There there, and this lack of concern about what the outside world might really think is a huge point towards redemption.Coupled with the art is a beautiful setting, a forest with immense Cedars, Cottonwood, White Spruce, Fir, and Hemlock (Hey! A chance to bore the boys with a history lesson that involves Socrates!), an overhead canopy dense enough to not require the loaner umbrellas the good people who run the place offer, at least with the marginal rain we had that day. Along a nature trail that leaves behind the fairy tale theme you can find a small (natural) body of water, with lifejackets and basic rowboats sitting at a small dock, available for any visitor to take out to visit a beaver dam and any wildlife that might happen to be hanging around.Let me clarify what I just said: you pay to enter, then you can stroll on down, throw on a lifejacket, climb into a boat, and paddle off. You don't pay extra, you don't seem to sign any waiver stating that if you drown because you're a buffoon you can't sue to take possession of Mary and her Little Lambs, there's nobody there to bark at you when your ten minutes are up, and there isn't a line fifty people deep (well, I can't speak for warm sunny days, but I suspect most visitors don't go far beyond the main attraction).I won't go too much into the fairy tale settings; they are far better than I had anticipated, but there is a sense of sameness after awhile, except for those moments when you get to climb up higher and look down around the forest. Suffice it to say that it is all worthwhile, more so because, even though the parking lot seemed fairly busy, it was easy - after the first ten minutes - to get away from most people. While not exactly lost alone in the forest, it was easy to get a little privacy.Well, aside from those damned gnomes that kept peeking out at me from behind the ferns. Culture18989@blogcritics.org Tue, 24 Aug 2004 07:43:58 EDT