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December 08, 2003
Goth Tours or the Superfun Superfund Site Tour
My original idea waa for guided tours of dramatic superfund sites, combining our national guilt over the environment with our national obsession with disaster. Could have a Fox network spin off: "World's Most Toxic Dump Sites." Result would be a genuinely educational but also very sensational experience. Could advertise in the back of Sierra Club magazines, for instance. I was inspired by this idea because a lot of really toxic sites, like Hanford, for instance, are actually quite beautiful. lovely Bainbridge Island has its own superfund site.
(It's interesting to me that the only google hit I find for "superfun superfund" is from an article about my own backyard. Either that means there something in my local zeitgeist that inspires this idea, or I was overheard talking about it at a St. Johns bar!)
Then I met Chris, whose own interest in disasters inspired the idea that we wouldn't have to limit the tour to environmental disasters. Chris I think had some ideas about what disasters to include and I'll let him add them.
We could also jump on the true crime bandwagon and have true crime tours. Turns out one guy is doing that in San Francisco, and it's kind of historical. But, like the Superfun Superfund tour, this should be national in scope and to get the biggest audience, I think would have to be truly purient and go to places like where they found the bodies of serial killer victims and stuff. We could call it "Goth Tours" (www.gothtours.com is available, btw), and take people to murder sites at midnight and stuff.
Looks like there are some actual goth tours, including potential for one, once again, right in my own backyard! And then there's the other kind goth tour, too, of course.
I don't actually want to be in this line of work, which is why it's just another one of "mary's great ideas," not an actually good idea.
Posted by mary at December 8, 2003 04:52 PM
Comments
So, it's highly possible that Real Soon Now I'll be doing an electronic map application that has data on all the toxic waste sites in the country. And has the ability to store pictures...
Which is cool, because the problem with taking a tour of a toxic waste dump is that it's kind of toxic. So do it on the internet!
Posted by: Michael Higgins at December 8, 2003 06:16 PM
wow, the best of north lombard--who knew?
i had a dream last night that i was planning to move to pittsburgh, which in my dream was kind of a stand-in for portland. doesn't michael higgins live in pittsburgh? or did i imagine that?
if you ask me, the toxicity lends a certain frisson to the whole thing.
and, a propos of all this, you might be interested in checking out the center for land use interpretation's website--i don't know the address, maybe clui.com?
Posted by: melissa at December 8, 2003 11:32 PM
Oh! that is a nice website, Melissa!
The thing that would make it extra fun to visit these places is the opportunity to wear those fabulous hazardous waste suits, kind of like the time we all got together to clean Jim's house and he got us paper suits to wear while we did it. we found over 30 used syringes. He didn't put them there --- he'd just bought the house.
Posted by: Mary at December 11, 2003 04:36 PM