We were driving over to the Target in Mission Valley today, where we noticed that the Inflatable Amusement Park is still in full force. A couple of months ago, in the parking lot near Target, there emerged overnight a vast wilderness of inflatable attractions. There are slides, obstacle courses, the obligatory jumpy housy things... all sorts of stuff. Each ride has its own elaborate theme. The entrance to one slide allows you the unique opportunity to crawl underneath Spider-Man's crotch, for example.
One of the most prominent pieces, though, is the Titanic-themed slide. It's a huge, hulking inflatable replica that sits at a 45 degree angle and brings immediately to mind the scene in the movie where the ship upends itself and sends everyone sliding down the deck. I looked for a propeller that kids could bounce their heads off of, but in vain.
The Titanic wouldn't have been so bad had it not been positioned next to a space shuttle. It didn't have a name; however, the NASA* logo, marking quality space vessels everywhere, was prominently displayed. It was just macabre, that's all I'm saying.
But it got me thinking. There must be a nearly unquantifiable period of time that has to pass before horrific events become eligible for cartoon-like parody in the parking lot of a waspy shopping center. I've done the math. Save the date: 2094 will find your shrieking great-grandchildren begging to have another go on the Twin Towers FunSlide of Doom. And the only reason those kids will recognize the air-filled buildings, bobbing up and down in the breeze, is because of the blockbuster film that will have been recently released, starring Alec Baldwin's head.
*Need Another Seven Astronauts
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