You might have realized that my posts here have ground to a halt. For better or worse, this blog has been dying a slow, creaking death for a while now. Unfortunately, with all of the publishing, writing, traveling, and video work I’m doing, I don’t seem to have enough time to sit down for an hour or so every few days and write up a long post about stuff. I find it much easier to do lots of micro-posts on Facebook and Twitter – perhaps things that don’t deserve a full blog article, but which are important or interesting nonetheless. Also, instead of writing about my adventures, I’ve been trying my best to just film all of them and post them on YouTube!

So, sadly, there likely won’t be many more updates to this page. But you can keep up with all I’m doing at the following links:

https://www.facebook.com/DarkSideofDisney (book page – anything that used to go on this site will now go here)

https://www.facebook.com/leonard.kinsey.3 (personal page – in case you’re wondering what I’m up to)

https://twitter.com/DarkSideDisney (mostly I just rant here)

http://www.youtube.com/user/DarkSideDisney (all of my videos go here – please subscribe!)

Thanks for sticking with me these past two years, and thanks a ton for continuing to support me and all of my projects. This blog is really what got DSoD off the ground, and I’m extremely grateful to all of the early-adopters who came here and made me feel like I wasn’t a complete lunatic for being obsessed with The Dark Side of Disney.

Cheers!
Leonard

Lots going on with the DSoD crew these days! Here’s a bit of what we’ve been up to:

True to my New Year’s resolution, Pentakis and I went on a trip that didn’t involve anything having to do with Disney, although it certainly did involve the “Dark Side”…. We went to Amsterdam! It was honestly one of the best vacations I’ve ever been on. We did it in style, flying Business Class and staying in a nice hotel, since Pentakis had never been oversees and I wanted her to have a good first impression of International traveling. We also did a day-trip to Paris via the high-speed rail, and both came to the conclusion that the EPCOT version of the city was nicer than the real thing. In addition, we took a day-trip to the Efteling theme park, as well as a Windmill park outside of the city. And, of course, we saw a sex show at Casa Rosso, smoked lots of (legal) bud, and drank lots of genevers.

Here are some of the videos from the trip (more to come!):

I honestly think that if EPCOT ever opens another World Showcase pavilion, it should be a Dutch one. The Weenie could be a big windmill that’s the entrance to a canal boat ride, there could be an hourly clog-making demonstration, and there could be lots of cheese and genever tastings. And you know, there’s already an entire Dutch section in it’s a small world, so obviously Walt agreed that The Netherlands are awesome. Get on it, Disney!

And in a weird sort of synergistic timing, after coming back from Amsterdam, Bamboo Forest teamed up with Rolly Crump to release signed, limited edition prints of his infamously hilarious Doper Posters!

These are 11″x14″ prints of the four original posters, professionally scanned at 4K DPI directly from Rolly’s slides, and printed on thick 100# Cover Matte Card paper. Each poster has been hand-signed by Rolly at the bottom. They were displayed in the Disney Studios Library in 1954, and were seen (and enjoyed) by Walt Disney himself. Rolly tells it like this in his autobiography, It’s Kind of a Cute Story:

I got a call from the librarian one day and she said, “Walt came in and saw your exhibit today.”

“Oh, Jesus,” I said. “Did he say anything?”

“Well, he walked down the hallway…”

I started to panic a little bit now. I wasn’t sure how Walt would react to those posters!

“…did he see my doper posters?”

“Oh yes!” she said. “In fact, he laughed!”

“He laughed?” I was so happy to hear that.

That just shows you how the Old Man accepted anything. He wasn’t critical about anything you did, as long as you were doing your best.

The bottom line was, 5 years later, Walt remembered my exhibit when they were looking for more people to work at WED.
—
Of particular significance is the Marijuana poster, which features the politically incorrect “wetbacks” saying. Rolly has since revised the poster (the revised version is also for sale separately), but we felt this original version was of historical significance, because it is the version Walt saw and enjoyed. However, per Rolly’s instructions, this is the only time this version will ever be printed, so it is truly a rare limited edition!

Also available is a print of Rolly’s “Oars for Rent” painting, which was purchased by Sharon Disney (Walt’s daughter) in the 60s!

Okay, that’s it for now. Plenty more videos coming soon, as well as some awesome announcements about future Bamboo Forest releases. So keep checking back, and be sure to follow me on Facebook and Twitter, which I tend to update a lot more regularly than this blog!

-Leonard

I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve been a piss-poor blogger as of late. And while a lot of my absence had to do with an insane amount of admittedly awesome stuff going on, part of it also had to do with some crappy stuff that happened which I felt people were waiting for me to comment on…. But fuck that. I’ll write what I want, bitches!

First of all, the Disneyland Resort is amazing, and it makes WDW looks like a big pile of shit in comparison. There were so many little things that I didn’t realize I missed or that were lacking in WDW until I saw them in DL. But now that the veil has been lifted, I can’t look at my home parks the same way again. Here’s hoping George Kalogridis can turn things around down in Florida. He has a big job ahead of him. In the meantime, all of my trips to Florida will be solely devoted to hanging with friends and going to the Universal parks. WDW isn’t getting any more of my money for the foreseeable future.

So, without further adieu, here are some videos from my Disneyland trip. I think they speak for themselves….

Up next, three excellent reviews of Our Kingdom of Dust! Even though the book has been out for nearly a year now, it still finds new readers, and for that I’m really grateful. I’m very proud of this book, and it’s always cool to hear from people who enjoyed it.

Food, Fitness, Fantasy says “…there are a lot of expansive, dark themes — pain, violence and emptiness. Walt Disney World isn’t simply the setting, it’s a catalyst, practically a character.” Read the rest of Katherine’s review of OKoD and DSoD here!

Between Disney, longtime supporters of Bamboo Forest Publishing, also did a big write-up: “For a first fictional offering, I really have to applaud Kinsey. In the first ten pages he hooked me as a reader, in a genre I would typically never read.” Check out the rest here!

Finally, Mighty Men of Mouse recorded an entire podcast just about OKoD. They really enjoyed it and had a lot of very insightful and interesting thoughts and comments. Listen to the whole episode here!

Okay, that’s about it for now. As usual, if you run a podcast or website and ever need someone to talk about Disney, indie publishing, booze, guitar playing, or whatever, I’m always up for interviews. Also, a heads-up: Pentakis and I will be in Amsterdam at the end of March, with a brief day-trip to Paris. If you’re in the area and want to hang out, please shoot me an email via the Contact Page!

P.S. Visit Ron Schneider’s new site, Theme Park University! The site just started, but there’s already some fascinating content on there. If you have any interest in Themed Entertainment, or enjoyed Ron’s book, you’re going to love this site!

I wanted to let everyone know that Bamboo Forest Publishing has a new storefront. It makes for a much nicer shopping experience, and definitely looks more professional. But, even better, it’s the only place where you can buy signed copies of the hardback version of Ron Schneider’s From Dreamer to Dreamfinder! They make excellent holiday gifts, so head on over to the store and pick up a few for your theme-park-loving friends and family!

Also, here’s a video I posted last week of a crazy Monorail Bar Crawl we did over the EPCOT 30th trip. All of your internet podcasting favorites were in attendance, including members of the WDW Fan Boys, WDW Kingdomcast, Communicore Weekly, WDW DIS-Cussion, and The Wakefield Report!