It's A Small World...

[WaltonUndercurrent]

On a trip to Disney World’s Magic Kingdom with some friends a couple of years ago, I made my usual pilgrimage to “It’s a Small World” – a smarmy, but iconic ride that reminds me of my trips to the park as a child. As we floated along in our boat watching crudely mechanical children in various ethnic dress dance to a tune that would drive me crazy for the rest of the day, we noticed a small, grinning clown high above our heads in a hot air balloon holding a sign that read “Help Me” in big letters. On probably dozens of trips through the ride over the course of my life, I had never noticed him. He seemed oddly and uncomfortably out of place - the one sane character in a bizarre third-world like sweatshop of brainwashed kids forced to dance and sing to the same stupid song over and over, day after day, pleading for rescue. Recently, I’ve begun to relate to his brave attempt at rescue from his artificial world.

Often, South Walton life seems a lot like what I imagine life would be like in the Magic Kingdom. We have almost no crime or litter. Like the Magic Kingdom, we lack Epcot’s cultural diversity, but are much more fun for kids. Perfect little towns with instantly created cultures and instant native landscaping seem to spring up overnight, built by the tiny gloved hands of new-urban elves living in workshops somewhere under the snow white dunes. Community after community has been created by marketers and developers for people looking for escape from the reality of their imperfect cities back home. Though it may strike some as blasphemous, sometimes, like the little clown floating high above the heads of the tourists, I find myself desperate for imperfection and flaw, the odd and eccentric, a totally different song to dance to. The problem is that genuine communities aren’t planned – they spring up naturally from deep wells of interaction between individually unique people and their habits and customs, not through sales brochures or board approved architecture. Perfect cultures and communities are artificially created because they appeal to people searching for escape. But like any one of Disney’s created Kingdoms, their layers can be shallow, beautiful but thin as a bubble, creating the instantly familiar without the long, sometimes centuries-old history that building a “real sense of place” requires. Real worlds aren’t made by Disney Imagineers, residential developers or tourist councils. Sometimes the thin wears thin.

With area real estate costing a fortune by most standards and more and more second home buyers drawn to our safe and sanitized perfection, I’m afraid we may be losing the sense of real community and artistic diversity that was once an important part of what made South Walton so special. As we attempt to appeal almost completely to the needs and wants of our guests, we may be neglecting the needs of the cast members. Few artists and musicians can now afford our cost of living, so much of our local art and music is becoming familiar and predictable. Young adults, the life-blood of any healthy community’s future and creativity have little hope of good employment or affordable housing. The prohibitive cost of leases, commercial real estate and the inability to pay employees a living wage is stifling to entrepreneurial spirit. We live in a community that is constantly on stage, on its very best behavior at all times for broad consumptive appeal. Even bedroom communities need kitchens and bathrooms to function with genuine civility.

Genuine communities aren’t created with slogans and festivals anymore than they are with mechanical children dressed like Eskimos or Kabuki actors. I’m afraid that unless we and our leaders spend as much time addressing the real needs of our own small world as much as we do the needs of those who visit and invest in it, we’re going to end up like that poor desperate little clown in the hot air balloon, high above the tourists, wearing a colorful costume and a brightly painted smile that masks a very desperate plea for a community that’s a bit more real and genuine.

[kathydwells]

WOW...great read, WU.....and oh, so true!!! :clap_1:

[Smiling JOe]

WU, I have been b_itching about this for 3 years, but you say it much more beautifully than I. Well stated. :clap_1:

[Bob]

New Orleans B.K. is the flip side of the record, right?

[TreeFrog]

Amen WU.

[tylerT]

U gottit WU. Three of my closest and grooviest friends have left because of the housing situation and the place won't be as cool without them. One was my tarot card reader!

[tylerT]

South Walton should incorporate and then we could spend local tax money on an arts center or sportsplex and stuff. the chamber should also come up with a small business incubator that helps new business get started with subsidized leases and stuff and provide new business with mentors from the active business community or retired.

Any other suggestions??

[WaltonUndercurrent]

Not bad Tyler..not bad.

[tylerT]

thanx. We need public space. events like the mountain film festival have to go to watercolor where arvida prescreens all the movies to make sure that the pro environmental content doesn't make them look bad. these communities are the only places to go to put on concerts, art shows and they regulate the content to fit in with their marketing. maybe someone can donate land??

any takers???

[Smiling JOe]

thanx. We need public space. events like the mountain film festival have to go to watercolor where arvida prescreens all the movies to make sure that the pro environmental content doesn't make them look bad. these communities are the only places to go to put on concerts, art shows and they regulate the content to fit in with their marketing. maybe someone can donate land??

any takers???

I hear that Tim Henderson may be interested in donating 4.55 acres on Hwy 395... NOT!:funn:

[Santiago]

There is much truth to what is being said here. We absolutely need to incorporate. It is downright scary that people from Mossy Head, etc., make decisions that affect our quality of life.

In regards to Mountainfilm, I think that that Jim Pettigrew, a realtor at Watercolor who came here from Telluride, is largely responsible for its being here. I imagine that they were willing to underwrite it to make it happen. Speaking off the subject, if you haven't been to Mountainfilm, make a point of going next year. It is outstanding.

Lastly, the first blatantly obvious sign that all of this s--t was going down was when ArtsQuest moved from Eden to Sandestin. One could understand it if it had moved from Sandestin to Eden but this was like a bad dream.

There is a lot of good and bad that goes along with being "discovered" so you either have to live with it or leave. It still beats the real world. When you're having one of those moments, check out some of Kurt's or SJ's pics and count your blessings. Or better yet, go to the beach and take some of your own.

[tylerT]

Like it or leave - what about loving it and trying to change it?????

[Cil]

In regards to Mountainfilm, I think that that Jim Pettigrew, a realtor at Watercolor who came here from Telluride, is largely responsible for its being here. .

Wow.
Talk about a small world.
Telluride, a remote old mining hamlet, was really almost a ghost town until the mid-70's when the film festival began. Then they built the airport, and later all the film stars began buying homes there, and property values went way up.
Sound familiar?

[monty]

On a trip to Disney World’s Magic Kingdom with some friends a couple of years ago, I made my usual pilgrimage to “It’s a Small World” – a smarmy, but iconic ride that reminds me of my trips to the park as a child. As we floated along in our boat watching crudely mechanical children in various ethnic dress dance to a tune that would drive me crazy for the rest of the day, we noticed a small, grinning clown high above our heads in a hot air balloon holding a sign that read “Help Me” in big letters. On probably dozens of trips through the ride over the course of my life, I had never noticed him. He seemed oddly and uncomfortably out of place - the one sane character in a bizarre third-world like sweatshop of brainwashed kids forced to dance and sing to the same stupid song over and over, day after day, pleading for rescue. Recently, I’ve begun to relate to his brave attempt at rescue from his artificial world.

Often, South Walton life seems a lot like what I imagine life would be like in the Magic Kingdom. We have almost no crime or litter. Like the Magic Kingdom, we lack Epcot’s cultural diversity, but are much more fun for kids. Perfect little towns with instantly created cultures and instant native landscaping seem to spring up overnight, built by the tiny gloved hands of new-urban elves living in workshops somewhere under the snow white dunes. Community after community has been created by marketers and developers for people looking for escape from the reality of their imperfect cities back home. Though it may strike some as blasphemous, sometimes, like the little clown floating high above the heads of the tourists, I find myself desperate for imperfection and flaw, the odd and eccentric, a totally different song to dance to. The problem is that genuine communities aren’t planned – they spring up naturally from deep wells of interaction between individually unique people and their habits and customs, not through sales brochures or board approved architecture. Perfect cultures and communities are artificially created because they appeal to people searching for escape. But like any one of Disney’s created Kingdoms, their layers can be shallow, beautiful but thin as a bubble, creating the instantly familiar without the long, sometimes centuries-old history that building a “real sense of place” requires. Real worlds aren’t made by Disney Imagineers, residential developers or tourist councils. Sometimes the thin wears thin.

With area real estate costing a fortune by most standards and more and more second home buyers drawn to our safe and sanitized perfection, I’m afraid we may be losing the sense of real community and artistic diversity that was once an important part of what made South Walton so special. As we attempt to appeal almost completely to the needs and wants of our guests, we may be neglecting the needs of the cast members. Few artists and musicians can now afford our cost of living, so much of our local art and music is becoming familiar and predictable. Young adults, the life-blood of any healthy community’s future and creativity have little hope of good employment or affordable housing. The prohibitive cost of leases, commercial real estate and the inability to pay employees a living wage is stifling to entrepreneurial spirit. We live in a community that is constantly on stage, on its very best behavior at all times for broad consumptive appeal. Even bedroom communities need kitchens and bathrooms to function with genuine civility.

Genuine communities aren’t created with slogans and festivals anymore than they are with mechanical children dressed like Eskimos or Kabuki actors. I’m afraid that unless we and our leaders spend as much time addressing the real needs of our own small world as much as we do the needs of those who visit and invest in it, we’re going to end up like that poor desperate little clown in the hot air balloon, high above the tourists, wearing a colorful costume and a brightly painted smile that masks a very desperate plea for a community that’s a bit more real and genuine.


It's the way of the world. Different strokes for different folks. Some like it funky. Some like it homogenized. Some like there own little space and others like a larger community with lots of amenities close by. Neither is right or wrong, just different.

[Smiling JOe]

When all the cheese is grated, there will be no more cheese to grate.

[ShallowsNole]

Whoa. No incorporation for me, thanks.

While you may think our BCC is scary, what's even scarier is who would WE get to represent us. (I nominate Kurt and SJ.)

Personally speaking, I also do not need another layer of taxation.

[Santiago]

Like it or leave - what about loving it and trying to change it?????
I don't think that I meant that the way that you took it. We are probably on the same page on this issue. We've lived here ten years, long enough to have seen it the way it was, anticipated the growth and change, gotten excited about it, profited from it, and now, are worried about it. We get nostalgic about the way it was then but realistically, it ain't going back. Ten years ago, there was hardly anyone my age to hang out with(I am now 41). Since then, we have met and become friends with lots of really great people who would not be here but for the real estate "boom".

Having said all of this, I now nominate TylerT to change it back to the way it was. Good luck TylerT and please use this board to keep us up to speed or to cry on our shoulders, whichever is appropriate.

[Smiling JOe]

Whoa. No incorporation for me, thanks.

While you may think our BCC is scary, what's even scarier is who would WE get to represent us. (I nominate Kurt and SJ.)

Personally speaking, I also do not need another layer of taxation.

That is funny (with 2 n's). After suggesting that Kurt run for public office once before, he said that he had no interest in doing so (but Hilary says that too). I quickly asserted that I would run for public office right after him. My family has been in public office for longer than I can remember, and I don't want any part of it, but I am not afraid to raise a little h_ell to keep those who do run in check.:D My vote is still for Kurt. ;-)

[Smiling JOe]

Whoa. No incorporation for me, thanks.

...Personally speaking, I also do not need another layer of taxation.

Some people forget the bad that comes with the good. Can you imagine the complaints when taxes are double again to cover city services?
Who knows though, maybe everyone then moves to the outskirts of Freeport to avoid city taxes, but still reap the many benefits of SoWal.

[ShallowsNole]

Been there, done that. I'm back on the south side now and I plan to stay, assuming the property appraiser and tax collector allow me to. :roll:

[Wildernester]

Certainly Watercolor, Rosemary, Seaside (thanks in part to Jim Carey) and others evoke just enough of that Disney, plastic aura to keep us alert to preserve as much of the old Grayton-30A atmosphere as is possible in these relatively good economic times. Thanks to WU and WU online for poking fun at and holes in our redneck version of Nirvana.

Of course, on a day like today, it's hard to complain.

(Insert applauding Smilie)

[John R]

In regards to Mountainfilm, I think that that Jim Pettigrew, a realtor at Watercolor who came here from Telluride, is largely responsible for its being here. I imagine that they were willing to underwrite it to make it happen. Speaking off the subject, if you haven't been to Mountainfilm, make a point of going next year. It is outstanding.



mountainfilm tours all over the world after the festival on memorial day weekend. we were hired by watercolor via the marketing department to help stimulate traffic and brand awareness. those of you who have been to them have seen the growth, and it's because of you that mountainfilm at watercolor has become a sowal event, more than a watercolor event. it is our largest tour stop and gets larger every year. not sure if we'll ever grow into another theater or not. we tried it on year two and there were about 12 people there. :idontno: thanks for your continued support.

cil, i think it was the opening of the ski area and the development of mtn village that was the cause of the real estate boom in telluride, more than the telluride film festival.

jr

[John R]

fwiw, there is a page on the mtnfilm website with a some of our older intros, and 2 promos. love to see some of you in telluride on memorial day weekend :scratch:

http://www.mountainfilm.org/2005/theater.html


jr