#i'd love to do a bigger analysis on dark shadows costumes someday

[widowshill]

Also, top 3: Dark Shadows costumes, Disney Parks attractions, and uhhhh Beatles songs sure why not

Sleepover asks.

Top 3 Dark Shadows costumes:

1. Vicki's green velvet housecoat (136/589) While I do adore her frothy chiffon nightgowns, I really like this costume piece as something emblematic of Vicki, particularly Vicki as she gets a little more grown up and assimilated into the Collins family. she's definitely taking her cues of elegance from Liz, here, and it's evocative of past centuries, which is really fitting for Vicki who's more in love with the past than being particularly mod. and while she arrives at Collinwood in really simple cotton and flannel pj sets, here she's boasting a string of pearls, lace, and velvet — symbolically if not literally one of the Collinses. which is relevant in 136, where she's facing the prospect of losing her job as a governess after Laura's return, and Roger assures her that they'll keep her around anyway; by 589, she's as much a member of the family as anyone, and Roger shows as much concern for her as he would Liz or Carolyn.

2. Carolyn's riding outfit (463) It's a shame she only wore this once because she looks wonderful in this. The purpose of this outfit is pretty straightforward, to make Carolyn look like a spoiled rich girl relative to Tony — and it works! but I also love it for giving us a sense of the outside world, and it's a rare glimpse of Carolyn's own hobbies and how she interacts with her wealth, who she is when she's not at home and she's a Collins of Collinsport. Roger gets a Mustang to flash his status, Carolyn gets to go riding in a cute little outfit. did I mention she looks extremely hot. she has a riding crop. it's also one of the very few times we see women in any kind of pants on Dark Shadows, let alone riding breeches, which deserves attention in itself.

3. Roger's Aran sweater (12) This one is an all-time classic, from one of my favorite scenes in the entire show, where Roger is espousing the legends of Widows' Hill to their new governess. Roger rarely deviates from his classic business suit and tie for daywear, so appearances with sweaters and cardigans are remarkable. He usually only wears them at home (he changes into a suit after this scene to head into town/then forced to confront Burke), so they have a tie to the Collinwood grounds / grounding him in this particular place, and he's a little more casual, less buttoned-up, and more open. Thematically, first and foremost, it's a really well-chosen garment for delivering a speech about his family history. Aran sweaters/jumpers are also known as fisherman sweaters for their popularity among fishermen and other mariners, and have a longstanding connection with maritime communities in Ireland, which of course coincides nicely as he delivers this speech at the edge of the sea, speaking about his family's wealth that was extracted from it. So this is a costume that communicates Roger's to Collinwood, the sea, and fishing wealth. Secondly, these sweaters were massively popular in the 60's: they were seen on celebrities and music acts, and influenced French couture. Hand-knit Aran wool was in very high demand, so Roger's not just a New England seaside Rochester, he's a very chic one who has a very firm place in the mid 20th century.

Top 3 Disney Parks attractions:

Pirates of the Caribbean (1967) honestly I think Pirates will always be home for me, it's an era-defining and industry-defining work of art, and it does what it sets out to do very well. which is not just the artistic and technological innovations (though extremely notable! still impressive almost 60 years later), but I think what's remarkable about Pirates (and broadly true of Disney parks as an artistic project, certainly the most famous and successful attractions) is that it cultivates a warm sense of nostalgia for a place I've never been, a time I never lived, and really never existed. it's not about giving you an authentic view of the 18th century to make you believe they're telling the truth, even though it's grounded in historical elements: they invite you into a story, with the smell of the water, the Blue Bayou New Orleans fare, gunpowder, rum — coming to link in your consciousness with this view on pirates — rollicking, adventurous, colorful, fun. you aren't a visitor to the Golden Age West Indies so much as you are a visitor to a child's mind hearing pirate stories for the first time, and imagining freedom and adventure and swashbuckling, which — at least for me — is true no matter how many times it's experienced.

Tower of Terror (1994) completely different ride system, here, and probably the one and only drop ride you'll ever hear me gush over, but, like the Pirates' boats putting you on rocking, lapping water (or the Big Thunder trains, or the 2k Leagues subs, the Indy rovers, etc) the ride system and the physics of your experience are essential to the storytelling — which to me is what differentiates theming as decoration from theming as storytelling. The big thing is the that you fall faster than gravity, which defies the ordinary rules of physics your body anticipates, and signals that you're not just covering 3 dimensions of space, but crossing into the 5th — and having a random drop sequence keeps you on that edge of unfamiliarity for repeated rides. They make a big deal out of the elevator moving sideways and crossing into the other shaft, and I think that's .. neat? I like that sequence of the ride, but I wouldn't call it essential to disturbing your expectations, because the interior doesn't really resemble any elevator you'll have been in. The other thing I love about Tower, endlessly, endlessly, is the careful worldbuilding. You get in-universe ads for the new hotel of the stars before you reach the end of Sunset Boulevard. The overgrown signs pointing you to the hotel tennis courts in the queue, the dried out and cracked fountains, the grime on the windows, before you ever reach the lobby which is in itself an art installation. This is probably the best example of a Disney attraction I can think of which relies really heavily on authenticity for one single, specific moment in time (October 31, 1939) and the set design never ever ceases to blow me away. It's not so much that every object has to be from 39 or earlier (though it's truer than you'd expect), but that they only have a few seconds to give you this establishing shot of an abandoned glamorous Golden Age lobby, and it's done wonderfully.

Rise of the Resistance (2019) I hesitated with this one, because my other top 3 "must ride" is the Haunted Mansion, but I think in overall terms of being the best? Rise has to be on there. And I was skeptical for a long time, as someone who's not particularly attached to SW, but I rode it for the first time this summer in Disneyland and I unfortunately have to concede that everyone was right, this is absolutely the new standard of excellence for theme park attractions and, honestly, is probably the equivalent of Pirates in terms of changing what's possible for an audience to expect and what the industry is capable of. I can't give as good an analysis of Rise as I can a lot of other attractions because I've only been able to get on once, but my key takeaways for what wowed me are 1. the trackless ride system, which not only leaves Tower's in the dust, but contributes meaningfully to the story and the SW environment, 2. the breaking up of the attraction into parts and returning the audience to an outside area of the park during the experience, incorporating the attraction with the land that houses it, 3. the absolutely massive sense of scale, far, far beyond what I'd expect, and 4. incorporating Cast Members in key places, which elevates the thematic CM's of attractions like Mansion and Tower to another level. and it's long! because of the multiple stages you really get breathing room to buy into the story before the high-thrill or "main" experience — like the Mansion stretching room, or Tower library + boileroom, but taken up a few notches.

Top 3 Beatles songs:

"Drive My Car"

"I Saw Her Standing There"

"Act Naturally"

I don't really have much to say about these.. ? other than I'm generally someone who prefers the early albums: these are Rubber Soul ('65), Please Please Me ('63), and Help! ('65). I'm not as much in love with Sgt. Pepper's / Yellow Submarine / Abbey Road, etc, just as a matter of personal taste. I'm not really a serious Beatles scholar, I know the first two are McCartney/Lennon, but "Act Naturally" is actually a cover of an American country song, so .. ! maybe I like them more American rock and roll sounding? I don't know.