5.) The Haunted Mansion
Last I checked, Amoeba Music is not selling any of these, no matter how much I pester management that there is a ready market for it.
I don’t know what it says about me, but as a child growing up on the sunny island of Oahu, I dreamed incessantly of once again returning to the Haunted Mansion, located on the edge of New Orleans Square in the Magic Kingdom of Disneyland in Anaheim in California on the Mainland…
…Earth.
Something about the temperature, the hues of dark greens, blues and violet, set a-glow by thousands of volts of black light; a soundtrack of pipe organ and church bells… It made a young Job feel at home. I can’t account for it, but that’s how it felt and, infantile as it may seem (maybe even perverse) it still does.
Once inside, I would never want to leave. At age five, I stood at the base of the escalator that took people from the end of the ride to the outside world, and cried. I’m sure people who passed me assumed I was crying because the ride had scared me, when in actuality, I wanted to move in.
I was a deeply unpopular child.
Every once in a while, a copy of the Haunted Mansion soundtrack will pop up in my section of Amoeba. It was only sold at the Park, and even then in limited edition batches (though they re-release them). Most anything Disney on c.d. goes out of print and instantly becomes a collector’s item; there’s always a market for the stuff. There’s people out there right now, who have left their babies alone in cribs, as they hunt for anything with that recognizable Disney logo stamped on it.
It should go without saying that this entry on my list of "guaranteed bliss" has nothing to do with the Eddie Murphy film based on the ride. I have never seen this movie, for the same reason that I never want to see the photos of Marilyn Monroe's corpse: Eddie Murphy stresses me out.
This is what my Santa looks like - a portrait from the gallery of the Mansion
If you're like me... well, first of all, my condolences... and thoughts of the Haunted Mansion elicit more euphoria than phobia, it may interest you to know there's others like us. You can find them here.
It’s been years since I’ve been to Disneyland. In fact, moving to Los Angeles three years ago is about the time I stopped going. This is not by choice! So if any of you readers out there have plans to go, drop me a line and invite me, please. I promise I will not cry inside the Haunted Mansion…
…much.
6.) Sonic Youth
They're a band. They have albums. Y'know.
*This is not true, I have never done this; don't go scribbling the Disney emblem on some record you scratched and try to return it to Amoeba for a refund.
Relevant Tags
Amoeba Music, Marilyn Monroe, Soundtracks, Children, Sonic Youth, Los Angeles, Disneyland, Disney, Haunted MansionComments
man...I really love the haunted mansion. I have this cd and it is amazing to hear all those songs collected together. I too wanted to live in the haunted mansion. I still fantasize about living there one day. Too bad Eddie Murphy had to ruin it with a stupid movie. I still didn't see it because I was really afraid it would ruin it for me. I will be going to disneyland when I am down there for christmas this year. I do love when they make it all nightmare before christmas for the holidays...but the original mansion is just perfect.
job, you should be best friends with my dear andrew and josh. they are also sickly obsessed with this ride. yeah, that's right, sickly. you too brad! and my bf is too. damn you all! i just went to disneyland a couple of weeks ago for about the 10th time in my life. i'm almost 30 years old. i still don't enjoy this ride. (it's dark in there.)
Miss Ess! 'Don't enjoy this ride'? What can we do? Too dark? Does it scare you? Bore you? I want to understand. Also, I think you should go with those of us who love it. That way, the light from our beaming faces will eliminate the tenebrous atmosphere you dislike.
My GF won't take me. Okay, we've been about 4 times to Disneyland and, OK, yes -- most of those were three day passes. But I want to go NOW. I have never seen The Haunted Mansion when it's not Nightmare Before Christmas! NOT ONCE. I was raised in a bucket of mud, one lowered down a well and only had food scraps thrown to me when the rats were done gnawing on them, and occasionally people walked past and spit on me ... so my first ever trip to perfection wasn't until 2004. My last trip to Disneyland was when we found out that they were changing Pirates of the Carribean. I closed an Amoeba on Saturday night, we packed a rental car and drove down. We were at DisneyPERFECTland from noon until midnight ... The Haunted Mansion was closed. (February 2006)I am certain that this sick desperation pervading my soul is because a ridiculous death is barreling toward me at the speed of light (like, I'll fall in a muddy well and starve to death) and I will DIE never having seen The Haunted Mansion, sans Jack Skellington. And, Ms Girlfriend of mine: it will all be your fault. You, of course, went every other year while growing up, you rat. Miss Ess, if you went with me, you'd enjoy it. That goes without saying. Screw it, I'm going. Alone. Then I will throw myself down the well, clutching my LP Haunted Mansion, damn right.
i will say (perhaps revealing too much, whatever) that on this last visit the bf and i busied ourselves with other things throughout the ride so i could pretend i was not on it......
i am a wuss.
i did see the old guy ghost in our little death cart at the end of the ride though! i think it was the second time i ever went on that ride in all those years.
but i am quite sure if job, brady and i all went in one little car it would be a haunted mansion visit i wwould never forget! i'm totally ready to go back already.
I'll go with you. I probably won't cry.
Long live the walrus.
wow, you rule! i'm excited that i get to go to disneyland in november solely because i have never seen the mansion dressed up as nightmare before christmas. if you go to the giant disneystore in downtown disney, you can print out lifesize posters of some of the paintings that were in the mansion. i have the one of the woman who is laying on the chaise lounge and then turns into a cat. although i have to admit, my favorite disney song is the electrical light parade theme, it just feels like i'm on one giant acid trip.
i'll stop here, i can probably go on and on and on about disneyland.