950707 - Disney Does Nature

By all accounts, Disney is raping my Central Park, so I head north to see for myself. 11am, just above 80 degrees and very humid. I can handle that: four miles straight up Second Avenue, west for another half or so, into the park and to the Great Lawn. It's quite a spectacle. Huge cranes are done stacking cargo containers 100 feet high, forming three structures. I'm just in time to see the raising of the last screen. "What's going on?" I know the type, so I tell her they're building an inland container port, Port Belvedere, whereupon she informs me that it's Disney's premiere of "Pocahantas," and hurries off to ask someone else.

I missed the drawing for tickets and will not be one of 60,000 spectators this weekend. Disney selected Central Park because the film is about man's relationship with nature. What better place than the Great Lawn to stack these huge metal boxes and erect stages. Did I mention portosans? There seems to be one for each spectator. High up from Belvedere Castle the screens are not visible. All one sees is a very busy container port indeed.

I head south into the Rambles, taking a break on a bench near a flowering bush being serviced by huge bumble bees. Two red-winged blackbirds bicker a few feet from my foot, and robin redbreasts have an easy time getting at worms after last night's rain. Further south the swans' nest hidden in the reeds is deserted; to my relief I discover them proudly parading three cygnets on the open lake.