Saturday, June 26, 2010
Escaping the surreal area around Disney
Bunny and I managed to escape the sucking vortex of ill-marked, multiply-named, non-Euclidean roadways designed by a disgruntled parking lot architect that is Orlando for the coastal environs of St. Petersburg to view the Salvador Dali Museum.
We arrived in the mid-afternoon and decided against the guided tour and spent a few hours reviewing the works of Salvador Dalí. I enjoyed the experience and was glad I went. I didn't realize that Salvador did more than just melting clocks.
Bunny, however, didn't care for his work that much. It turns out that while she's heard of him, she wasn't familiar with his work; she enjoyed Escher more than Dalí.
The best thing to see when your blue
The roads around Orlando destroy your soul. By the time we got back to the resort, the bickering between Bunny and me over driving had driven me close to a breakdown. I came very close to skipping out on Blue Man Group but a few minutes of meditative silence gave me the resolve to brave the non-Euclidean Orlando roads once more (odd, since I wasn't the one driving).
In fact, until we were sitting in our seats waiting for the show to start, I was very close to losing it (I'm telling you, the roads around Orlando are eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeviiiiiilllll).
![[Boy did I feel blue going in]](/2010/06/26/bmg.jpg "Boy did I feel blue going in")
And I'm glad I went.
It's very hard to describe the Blue Man Group experience. It's part concert (bring ear plugs, or ask one of the ushers for ear plugs—there's a ton of drumming), part performance art, part comedy, part social commentary and part audience participation. The energy level is high and it's just this … incredible experience that you have to … um … experience live in order to “get” it.
The entire trip, the sucking vortex of ill-marked, multiply-named, non-Euclidean roadways designed by a disgruntled parking lot architect that is Orlando, the “eh” experience of the Salvador Dali Museum, the loudness of The Hard Rock Cafe (where Bunny and I ate dinner after The Blue Man Group—it was next door and still open), everything, was worth it just to see The Blue Man Group.
Buyer beware
In our room was a small booklet with advertisements and coupons for the various attractions in the area. Included in this free booklet were maps of the area. Not to scale and crudely drawn, but way more useful than the large “we paid good money for these useless wastes of paper” maps.
![[Here's our resort]](/2010/06/26/maps1.jpg "Here's our resort")
![[Damn more useful than the paid-for maps, that's for sure]](/2010/06/26/maps2.jpg "Damn more useful than the paid-for maps, that's for sure")
![[Another critical area mapped out crudely]](/2010/06/26/maps3.jpg "Another critical area mapped out crudely")
That last map was more than accurate enough to get us back on the right road after driving out the wrong exit from Universal City Walk.
Those Orlando roads are eeeeeeeeeviiiiiillllllllll! So are the maps. Buyer beware!
