The Website

Roller Coaster Philosophy is a source of in-depth written reviews, opinions, and commentary about theme parks, roller coasters, and related attractions. Numerous parks in North America, Europe, and Asia are featured, as well as additional stories and observations from world travel, plus numerous other essays, fiction, short films and movie reviews, and a selection of NoLimits tracks free for download.

The domain for Roller Coaster Philosophy was purchased in May of 2009. It started with a review of the now-defunct Hard Rock Park written in 2008 for the also now-defunct CoasterSims.com. I decided I ought to get my own platform. At the time I was in college majoring in philosophy. Taking some of the ideas I was learning in the classroom, my goal was to create the in-depth, critical coaster and amusement park review website that I always wanted to read but could never find the address for. Times have changed as have my own approach to the subject matter, but the influence of that early writing still lives on. Fifteen years later, I still add new updates from time to time.

The screaming face on the top of every page is the 21st Century Schizoid Man from King Crimson’s debut album In the Court of the Crimson King. I always looked at that art and visualized him riding a roller coaster. However the expression does not suggest a response to some external fear but from some madness originating from within, which I think is representative of how one can respond to a really good coaster.

I will be honest that this website is now laughably out-of-date. I was never a web design guru to begin with. These pages are formatted for desktop viewing. I use Firefox, and the pictures are simply embedded into the html to get the “photo essay” effect, but different browsers/resolutions can throw off the formatting of many pages. It is created using the WordPress and uses the theme Atahualpa by BytesForAll.

The Author

My name is Jeremy Thompson. I am originally from Traverse City, Michigan, but currently reside in Los Angeles, California. This website started as a project while I attended Michigan State University, where I studied philosophy. I later got to move to Los Angeles where for over ten years I’ve had the opportunity to design theme parks, along with museums, FECs, and so much else. As these pages make clear, I am also an avid traveler; currently I have been on 976 different roller coasters at 263 parks between 18 countries. My original home parks are Michigan’s Adventure and Cedar Point, which I first visited in 1994 and 1995, respectively. I am also an avid cinema-goer, having seen over 2000 movies. I also had a thing in college (and still enjoy today) progressive/avant/RIO rock groups such as King Crimson, Henry Cow, and Thinking Plague.

I hope this website offers you a unique perspective and new appreciation for roller coasters and theme parks.

Portfolio of Work / Coaster Track Record / Map of Visited Parks

Twitter / BlueSky / LinkedIn / Flickr / Coaster-Count / Letterboxd / Email

All photos on this site were taken by myself unless otherwise stated.