Thursday, August 28, 2008
Fire and cyclones
If only AstroWorld wasn't gone forever, here's how Kate and I would be getting married in a little over a week.
This de facto music video for Jimi Hendrix's "Fire" was shot at AstroWorld for a 1982 TV special about rollercoasters called Wild Rides. They used to air it on Nickolodeon all the time.
Host Matt Dillon introduces the clip in the pitch-perfect suburban stoner brogue he perfected in Over the Edge. While comparing a ride on the Texas Cyclone to being in three car accidents at once is a bit much (hey, that's what "this one kid" said!), it was widely recognized as the world's best coaster at the time of filming. Even if the rest of AstroWorld had to be shuttered in 2005 because the land beneath it was better suited for yet another boring "mixed-use development," they were fools to tear down the Texas Cyclone.
After all, if you're going to be stuck working, living and/or playing in a mixed-use development, wouldn't you rather have it be one with its own bad-ass rollercoaster?
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1 comment:
I was unaware that Astroworld had been shuttered, let alone that it was being redeveloped. I guess this means that all the dive motels on S. Main we used to rent rooms at for parties, the "liberal" minded Quickee Mart down the street, and all the fancy mid-80s hookers trolling by have been displaced? Sad. Congratulations on your upcoming nuptials.
Terence
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