Two new videos, a bunch of reviews, and OKoD price change!

That’s right, this week you get TWO videos! Figured I’d release both of my Amsterdam-related videos at the same time. The backstory to both of these is that I was in Amsterdam for two weeks in June. Being there that long gave me a lot of time to really explore the city and the surrounding suburbs.

This first video is a snapshot of the area known as The Red Light District. Yes, that’s where all the prostitutes have their windows (you’re not allowed to take pictures of them – if you do, their pimps kick the shit out of you and throw your camera in a canal), but it’s also where most of the best bars and “coffeeshops” are located. Coffeshops in Amsterdam don’t serve coffee, they serve marijuana. Lots and lots of marijuana. One of the more famous coffeeshops is The Bulldog, which is where we went for our first toke. I soon found out that you’re not supposed to take pictures or video inside The Bulldog, but not before I got some footage of a giant bud and an old dumbwaiter that was used to alert the proprietors of a police raid, back before marijuana was decriminalized there. The second half of this video is me taking a piss. Yep.

The second video is all of the weird and crazy shit I saw at Efteling, which is one of the bigger theme parks in The Netherlands. I absolutely LOVED this park! Tons of trees and water and wildlife – almost like being in a nature park. But what really got me was how batshit insane many of the rides were. They had a Pirates of the Caribbean ripoff that featured belly dancers, prostitutes, slave laborers, and camels. There was a “It’s a Small World” ripoff that had blatantly racist dolls; all of the Oriental dolls were squinty-eyed and buck-toothed, the African dolls were all shirtless savages in blackface, and the British dolls had bad teeth. Awesomeness. But the best ride out of all of them was called “Droomvlucht”, which translates to “Dreamflight”. It had an overhead ride system like Horizons, and was filled with some stunningly gorgeous fantasy scenes. In the finale, you disconnect from the overhead track and roll faster and faster on a bottom track via an inclined, swirling gravity drop, which was something I’d never seen done before. Truly excellent. Finally, we ate dinner at a very nicely themed restaurant that offered unlimited wine and beer. I think I drank two bottles of wine and three beers. The best part was that our reservation was for 6PM, which was when the park officially closed! We didn’t get done with our meal until around 8:30PM, so the park had long since closed and was completely empty. We were pretty drunk couldn’t figure out how to get out of the place, and spent another 45 minutes wandering around, looking for the exit (and sobering up). When we left, our car was the only one in the parking lot. Very surreal.

Up next, a bunch of reviews for DSoD and From Dreamer to Dreamfinder! Be sure to click the links to read the full reviews.

DSoD:

DisneyFanRamblings.blogspot.com says, “Personally, I thought it was pretty fun to read, and that was a tribute to the author’s style, because there was plenty in there that I wouldn’t really care about otherwise.  He made reading about bedbugs and fireants sort of fun!”

And AntickMusings.blogspot.com asserts that, “Kinsey is a youngish man who combines in an unlikely way a deep love for all things Disney and the teenage hell-raiser’s desire to find trouble and/or fun wherever he can.”

From Dreamer to Dreamfinder:

Jeff and George from Micechat.com do a tag team review of the book. Jeff proclaims it as, “…quite possibly the best (unofficial) manual about theme park and entertainment performers ever written.” George agrees, saying, “Ron has a great style and you will find yourself immersed in his world and the worlds of his character.”

Finally, BetweenDisney.com had this to say: “I found this book very surprising. I thought I would find a nicely written memoir that looked fondly on professional experiences and almost exclusively within Disney Parks. What I found instead was refreshing.”

And speaking of From Dreamer to Dreamfinder, it’s now available on iTunes and in the B&N Nook store!

Finally, the price of the Our Kingdom of Dust ebook (all formats) has dropped to a paltry $2.99! If you haven’t picked it up already, head on over to Amazon, Smashwords, or your preferred retailer (prices will adjust soon on iTunes and Nook) and download a copy. Oh, and don’t forget that I’m still blowing out Our Kingdom of Dust posters for only $8.95 shipped at the Bamboo Forest Publishing Store!!!