The Wonderland Hotel

When I was young I went to this hotel a few times with my parents, in the Smoky Mountains in Tennessee I think it was. It was fantastic. It was way up in this mountain, and the hotel was around since like the 20's or 30's or something. It was quite big and quaint and quiet, but tons of people stayed there. It had a wraparound porch where we would just sit on rocking chairs. It felt like the hotel in The Shining and really had this spooky feeling to it since it was so old. Anyway i looked it up and I was quite depressed and sad when I saw this place was closed down and a fire gutted it. This place was quite legendary in the region.

These pix freaked me out cause I remember going to this place a few times, and being on that porch and walking up those steps, and now its just a sad deserted memory. I dont know why but this really made me so sad.

Water

For some reason I seem to have this fondness for 1980's comedies that take place on forgotten Caribbean island nations. Ok maybe there are only two. Of course there is 'Club Paradise', which has the second best soundtrack ever made (behind 'Breakin 2 : Electric Boogaloo' of course), but there was also this small British film called 'Water' from 1985 that starred Michael Caine, Scottish comedian Billy Connolly (and star of 'Head of the Class' on ABC after the departure of Howard Hessman), Brenda Vaccaro ('Supergirl'), Fred Gwynne ('The Munsters') and Jimmy Walker ('Good Times'). Ok doesnt sound like a winner, but its pretty enjoyable and is about this British colony nation called Cascara, which instead of oil, has discovered bubbly effervescent lemon-scented water underneath their shores. Its hard to find but worth a look. Anyway this was my tribute to one of favorite movies ever.


Water