Sunday, July 26, 2009

Weekend Photorama #1: Fairyland, Already

Surely you’ve had enough of my words for the time being, however short a time that may be, after that last post.  By way of giving you a break from the blather, here’s some photos from the past two weekends.  I warn you: some of it gets pretty cute.  But rest easy, the rest of it is full-on weird.  It’s a nice balance, really.  Not unlike my own life. 

SO: Two weekends ago was the trip to Children’s Fairyland, the little amusement park that inspired one “Walt Disney” to put the Brothers Grimm on steroids.  It’s about ten acres on the shore of Oakland’s Lake Merrit, and is based on the concept of small settings with buildings and sometimes sculpted figures, that replicate some of the more beloved fairy tales and mythical children’s stories.  Many cultures are covered but the anglo-germanic traditions are most prominently featured.  It’s very low-tech, low-impact, aimed at the youngest of the ambulatory children, and fascinatingly untainted by generally commercial imagery.  We visited with the Paiges, and had a delightful time, as to which, the following are a pale reminder:

They have an “Alice in Wonderland” area with strange tunnels and murals and slides, ultimately debouching into the kind of maze that adults seem to find more disturbing than the kids do:

And who doesn’t know that old poem about how there was a crooked man, who walked yadda yadda yadda?  Sure, we all loved that one.  But can you still even like it anymore when you realize that this is that crooked man?

Just inside the entrance, which is loaded with crazylooking “Aladdin and the Freaky Genie” imagery, is this little watchtower.  There’s no ride or story attached to it; it’s just sort of Di Chirico in real life.  Even in the daylight, it seems impossible and possibly unreal:

One of the many little rest pavilions scattered around the park had hand-painted benches with variously figurative scenes on them.  This one caught my eye, as a very wry reworking of Edward Hopper’s classic “Nighthawks at the Diner.” Kids probably wouldn’t get this one, but some parents do…

This was so weird that I felt I had to double up on it.  Outside the little Fairyland Chapel is a set of figures designed to replicate - not a fairy tale this time, but a Christmas pageant.  I admit readily to utter inexperience with such pagentry, but is this really what they are supposed to look like?

This one claimed to have something to do with a whale, but I didn’t recognize the name of the story.  I did recognize that a similar item appears at Disneyland, much larger and rather more frightening.  This one is just weird, and that’s the way I like it:

You may have noticed that the kids are not featured in these photos.  I’m just not posting those ones because the cuteness factor is sort of excessive, but here’s a nice shot of D, K and J lining up for a glare-off:

After several hours at F-land we retired to the Paige home for cocktails and wheeled toys.  Here is the heart-catching beauty of our four kids playing together as the sun slides down over Berkeley:

Finally, just to show you how damn magical the whole thing was, here’s a little plaque that’s stuck to the back fence at the Paige house.  I guess I always wanted to get a nice shot of it, and here it is:

Okay, that’s actually enough for now.  I’ll come back later in the week with the Soccer, TrainTown, and Winery shots.  Till then, practice patience.  Or I’ll send that crooked dude after you.