Kelly McCubbin
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kellymccubbin.bsky.social
Kelly McCubbin
@kellymccubbin.bsky.social
Enterprise Architect - Theme Park Writer and Podcaster - the guy who brought you Uke-y Stardust and Purple Rain: When Ukes Cry - runDisney dilettante - Finnegans Wake evangelist... https://bio.site/kelly.mccubbin
Well, this should be delightful!
November 11, 2025 at 11:47 PM
Jay Stein - Universal Theme Parks First Visionary: Dead at 87.
The news is trickling in, but it looks like Jay Stein, the most important person in theme parks after Walt Disney, has passed away.
More in the thread...
November 7, 2025 at 3:37 PM
Corrections from recent episodes:
Sinister Seymour wasn't in a 3 Stooges movie. He was a voice for "The New 3 Stooges" cartoon.

Wolfman Jack grew up in Brooklyn, not Jersey.

Irving Kirschner wasn't a producer of "Star Wars". Kirschner directed "The Empire Strikes Back."

More in thread...
October 31, 2025 at 8:17 PM
It's kinda interesting, isn't it, that the East Wing of the White House, which was built, in many ways, to protect the President from the Nazis if WWII had reached our shores, is being torn down by a Nazi President.
Ironic.
October 31, 2025 at 2:25 AM
Before Elvira was the Queen of them all, Vampira!

We couldn't do a show about Knott's Scary Farm without talking about her. Here's a little taste of her TV show (in the comments).

It's the newest Lowdown on the Plus-Up podcast: Knott's Scary Farm!

#KnottsScaryFarm #Vampira
October 30, 2025 at 12:43 AM
Before Universal’s Halloween Horror Nights, before Oogie Boogie Bash and Mickey’s Not So Scary, before Six Flags’ Fright Fest there was Knott’s Scary Farm.
Join us as Pete and Kelly explore the wild and wonderful history of the Godfather of Theme Park Haunts!
Link in the thread. #KnottsScaryFarm
October 28, 2025 at 6:19 PM
Reposted by Kelly McCubbin
With AWS knocking out half the internet earlier, I thought I'd hit this again...

In 1937 Orson Welles read a poem live on the radio, Though few people recall the event now, it changed everything.
My piece on "The Fall of the City."

Link in the thread...

#OrsonWelles
#CitizenKane
#WaroftheWorlds
October 20, 2025 at 9:15 PM
Reposted by Kelly McCubbin
Last time on The Lowdown on the Plus-Up we invented a theme park based on Ray Bradbury's writings. This week, we invited a Ray Bradbury expert to tell us the reality of the relationship between the great writer and theme parks, Walt Disney, and lots more!
Dr. Phil Nichols joins us!
Link below...
October 21, 2025 at 2:48 PM
Reposted by Kelly McCubbin
Responding to Charlie Kirk on the US founding
#maklelan2966
youtu.be/EAjskIgXaMM
Responding to Charlie Kirk on the US founding
YouTube video by Dan McClellan
youtu.be
October 25, 2025 at 4:22 PM
Reposted by Kelly McCubbin
No notes.
October 21, 2025 at 1:49 AM
Last time on The Lowdown on the Plus-Up we invented a theme park based on Ray Bradbury's writings. This week, we invited a Ray Bradbury expert to tell us the reality of the relationship between the great writer and theme parks, Walt Disney, and lots more!
Dr. Phil Nichols joins us!
Link below...
October 21, 2025 at 2:48 PM
With AWS knocking out half the internet earlier, I thought I'd hit this again...

In 1937 Orson Welles read a poem live on the radio, Though few people recall the event now, it changed everything.
My piece on "The Fall of the City."

Link in the thread...

#OrsonWelles
#CitizenKane
#WaroftheWorlds
October 20, 2025 at 9:15 PM
Last time on The Lowdown on the Plus-Up we invented a theme park based on Ray Bradbury's writings. This week, we invited a Ray Bradbury expert to tell us the reality of the relationship between the great writer and theme parks, Walt Disney, and lots more!
Dr. Phil Nichols joins us!
Link below...
October 20, 2025 at 3:17 PM
In 1937 Orson Welles read a poem live on the radio, under extremely strange circumstances.
Though few people recall the event now, it changed everything.
My piece for Fanfare on "The Fall of the City."

Link in the thread...

#OrsonWelles
#CitizenKane
#WaroftheWorlds
October 20, 2025 at 1:43 PM
In 1937 Orson Welles read a poem live on the radio, under extremely strange circumstances.
Though few people recall the event now, it changed everything.
My piece for Fanfare on "The Fall of the City."

fanfare.pub/the-poet...

#OrsonWelles
#CitizenKane
#WaroftheWorlds
October 19, 2025 at 3:49 PM
Brother Mamdani speaks for me

youtu.be/bEvVSpN0BXg?...
Until It's Done: Sylvia Rivera
YouTube video by Zohran Mamdani for NYC
youtu.be
October 11, 2025 at 11:11 PM
A couple of errata for this ep of The Lowdown on the Plus-Up:
Bradbury's book about the making of "Moby-Dick" is "Green Shadows, White Whale."
We mispronounced an Imagineer's name; it's Joe LanZISero.)
The story that made Marta Becket famous was in National Geographic, not Time or Life.
Mea Culpa.
October 9, 2025 at 2:38 PM
We talk about Marta Becket quite a bit in our new episode: Here's Ray Bradbury talking about her, too!
youtu.be/P869Tf-h9m0...

Listen to the new Lowdown on the Plus-Up, Ray Bradbury’s Theme Park — The Great Electric Time Maze wherever you get your podcasts! #Disney #RayBradbury #ThemePark #EPCOT
October 8, 2025 at 11:52 PM
We talk about Marta Becket quite a bit in our new episode: Here's Ray Bradbury talking about her, too!
youtu.be/P869Tf-h9m0...

Listen to the new Lowdown on the Plus-Up, Ray Bradbury’s Theme Park — The Great Electric Time Maze wherever you get your podcasts! #Disney #RayBradbury #ThemePark #EPCOT
Amargosa (2000) - Clip - Documentary - Marta Becket - Ray Bradbury
Clip from the Great documentary about Marta Beckett and her "Amargosa Opera House and Hotel" in Death Valley. I stayed at the "Amargosa Opera House and Hotel...
youtu.be
October 8, 2025 at 11:51 PM
Lowdown on the Plus-Up presents: Ray Bradbury's Theme Park - The Great Electric Time Maze

lowdown-plus-up.com/
October 5, 2025 at 12:38 AM
Reposted by Kelly McCubbin
"the fossil fuel industry has a real interest in funding panic over transgender people: It distracts the public from the very real and ongoing risks that climate change creates.” 🤬
September 28, 2025 at 3:01 AM
Portland = Ghorman
September 27, 2025 at 5:00 PM
boardwalktimes.net/alien-earth-...
Now that Alien: Earth is done, it's interesting to see how much more resonant this is than I thought it was when I wrote it.
#disney
#alien
Alien: Earth and Disney’s Obsession with the Xenomorph
The Walt Disney Company has been chasing a monster for forty years. Was catching it worth the cost?
boardwalktimes.net
September 25, 2025 at 2:18 PM
Let's just take a moment to revel in a picture of one of my favorite Doctors - Sylvester McCoy, The Seventh Doctor Who - out in the streets last week protesting Donald Trump being in England.
He is so much more than JUST a Time Lord.
September 21, 2025 at 2:29 PM
Today is "Talk Like a Pirate" Day.
The dialect that we refer to as "pirate" actually had a modern origin: the 1950 Disney film "Treasure Island."
So maybe I'll just talk in my normal voice today.
September 20, 2025 at 2:55 PM