A few months ago, I started ruminating about what I might do for a Christmas card illustration this year. Just as I do when brainstorming any creative project, I kept my eyes open wherever I went. You never know when you might come across something that might inspire some ideas, things that might cause you to ponder "What if...?". Hanging in my living room for several years is a piece of shadowbox artwork that I treasure. I bought it from the Disneyana store on Main Street USA at Disneyland. It's by Dave Avanzino and for years his work has been featured at the park, cleverly crafting these framed words and messages from iconic elements inspired by things Disney and Disneyland. While admiring one of Avanzino's latest pieces on a recent visit to the Disneyana store, the notion came to me to adopt his brilliant idea for my holiday art. Soon after, I started building my word collage. It was going very well. And this was back in October. So on top of the phrase art looking good, I also got excited that I might actually get this year's art done WAY early! I wanted to highlight several noteworthy events from the past year in my design. Taking Avanzino's cue, I spelled out my holiday message with letters lifted from visual elements related to those events. While I was pretty happy with this part, I wasn't with the background. I was also hoping to do something even more creative than just delivering a plainly printed card. So I ended up taking a break on it, hoping that coming back to it in a few days would give me fresh eyes on my project. Those "few days" ended up lasting for over a month as I had a trip to Florida coming up, Thanksgiving weekend, freelance work and other distractions. But when I finally came back to it in mid-December, it took me just a few hours to not only design a background but also design the rest of the actual Christmas card, which became another pop-up design. At the end of this blog is the final result. But leading up to that, I've provided explanations for what each of the characterized letters represents from moments of my past year with some extra photos and links if you want to learn more. M from "Musical" On May 19, my team, "Naboombu All-Stars", won First Place in MousePlanet's latest scavenger hunt game, MouseAdventure Musical, which took place at the Disneyland Resort. It was also our second time earning the top spot. You can read all about this event in MousePlanet.com's Recap. And my history playing MouseAdventure is summarized in this blog. A backwards "3" from the Club 33 logo On June 23, through the generosity of a friend, we later celebrated our win with a celebratory lunch at Disneyland's VIP restaurant Club 33. My pictures from Club 33 are posted on Flickr. R from "Treasures" On February 9, my Naboombu All-Star friends and I traveled to Ojai to tour the Treasures of the Walt Disney Archives exhibit on display at the Ronald Reagan Library. I enjoyed both the Disney exhibit and the Reagan tour. My pictures from the visit are also posted on Flickr. R from "Ordinary" Running September 6 through September 29 was a heart-warming production of the musical "Ordinary Days". My friends produced, staged, directed and performed in it to rave reviews, among them from The Hollywood Reporter, NoHoArtsDistrict.com and The Tolucan Times. I was surprised and honored to be asked to design their set. Below are two concept drawings I produced followed by a shot of how the final set turned out. Y from "Willy" Running August 3 through August 17 was Torrance Theatre Company's summer musical production of Roald Dahl's Willy Wonka. And in it, I had the good fortune and fun to play reporter Phineous Trout. Below are shots from the production. And if you hadn't read it before, don't miss my blog about the pop-up Golden Ticket cards I designed and produced for the cast and crew. C from "Capsule" in the logo I designed On February 23, before earning our February MouseAdventure win, the Naboombu All-Stars created our first of three installments of our home-grown scavenger game for the year. Questacular - Time Capsule: 1973 is the quest we hosted for our friends, giving them another chance to get together and hate us and/or love us some more as they scavenged for clues and answers all afternoon and evening throughout Disneyland. The other two quests we hosted were Summer Questacular: The Quest for the Truth played at Disney California Adventure and Questmas Cards back at Disneyland. H from "Hollywood" On March 26, I accomplished what most everyone who comes to Los Angeles wants to do someday. After 18 years living in LA, I finally hiked up to the Hollywood sign! I wrote about my adventure in a blog. r from "Travelling" in the logo I designed On the weekend of April 27-28, my Relay for Life team, Travelling Turtles/Friends of the Arts, participated in our fifth consecutive weekend walk to raise donations for and awareness of the American Cancer Society. And our team sported tee-shirts generously donated by Embroid Me with the artwork I produced. We'll be involved once again together in 2014, our sixth year together as a team. I from "Iron" On May 2, I joined my geek buddies and former toy company co-workers for one of several trips to the theatres this year. On this day, it was to watch "Iron Man 3" in IMAX 3D at Rave Motion Pictures. S from the new Superman logo On June 14, my geek buddies watched "Man of Steel" together in IMAX 3D at the decent screening time of 8pm on opening night again at Rave Motion Pictures. T from "Thor" On November 12, we headed to ArcLight Cinemas to watch "Thor: The Dark World" in 3D. (If you didn't already know, we love comic book super-heroes.) M from "Men" Running March 1 through March 30 was Torrance Theatre Company's production of "12 Angry Men" where I played Juror 6. Below is banner art I designed to promote our show, using a photo by Brad LaVerne. A from "Castle" I just love this show! s from "Disney" I hadn't been back to visit Walt Disney World in fifteen years. But MousePlanet also hosts MouseAdventures over there. And after playing together at Disneyland for a couple of years, my Naboombu All-Stars friends made sure we played in at least one of them over there! So off to Florida we went from November 13 to November 18, to play World Explorers V over that weekend. No other crazy way to visit all four parks for essentially the first time than while playing a timed scavenger hunt!! On this very first try playing there, we proudly placed 7th out of 39 teams. Here's the recap to read all about the quests we played and how we had to get our answers. And with a hundred less teams playing there than MouseAdventure at Disneyland, we also managed to get featured in a couple of candid shots in the recap. At the end of Game Day #1, each team was given a blank Vinylmation Mickey and asked to decorate it and bring it with us at check in the next morning. That's when we learned that in the middle of Game Day #2, our goal was to travel throughout the entire Walt Disney World Resort and take pictures of ourselves with it at as many locations specified on a provided list as we could reach within four hours. Traveling by monorail, tram, boat and in the last half hour, even running, we reached 19 spots out of 28. Here's a photo collage I layed out of all the locations we reached. Of course, these weren't the only best and memorable moments from my year. There were others. These were just the ones that just found their way into this design. For each and every moment of fun, challenge and good fortune that has come my way, I am truly grateful. And Happy New Year! I hope you all enjoyed just as memorable and wonderful a year with your family and friends too! Added December 27, 2013:
Here's how the pop-up snail mail version turned out.
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As my friends know, I take pictures of my food. How and when did it start? A few years into owning my Disneyland Annual Pass. I'd run out of clever things to photograph in the park and one morning, I took that first photo of my plate of food. To the left is that photo. Wow, I've really been doing this stupid thing for ten years!? It had more to do with sharing with (read, bragging to) friends how I was spending one weekend morning, chilling out on the patio at the River Belle Terrace enjoying a relaxing view of the Rivers of America. Been taking pictures of my food ever since. Many of them have been uploaded to a gallery on Flickr. Uploading my latest batch, I scrolled through the lot of them and decided to share some of them in a new blog. I also just recently discovered something new at the park that's immediately became one of my new favorite things to order. So here are my favorite things to eat at Disneyland. Descriptions are taken from AllEars.net's excellent Disneyland Resort Menus resource page that I recommend you bookmark on your smartphone. Enjoy. And bon appetit! Main Street USA Carnation Cafe Penne Pasta with Shrimp Pasta and Sauteed Shrimp with Broccoli and Mushrooms in a creamy Garlic Sauce. $17.99 I haven't been here much since it reopened last June, expanding into the former coffee shop next door. I used to come here for breakfast often with friends, often enjoying the friendly service of server Bob! But since its remodel, I've been here to try a delicious seasonal special and this pasta dish. At first I thought it was a special, but now it's on the menu. Good! I loved it! Coca-Cola Refreshment Corner Mac & Cheese Hot Dog Featuring a Premium Hot Dog Includes sliced apples or small bag of chips Topped with bacon bits. $7.19 This was taken a few months before it was permanently added to their menu. I had attended an exclusive annual passholder event where we got to preview Mickey's Soundsational Parade before its debut to the general public, and this was among the unique new food items offered during event. I haven't had it since, but at least I know there's now a place I can order it if ever I get the whim. Jolly Holiday Bakery Cafe Hot Angus Roast Beef on Toasted Onion Roll Served with House Chips Caramelized Onions, Horseradish Aioli and White Cheddar. $9.99 Another new place I really haven't visited often for meals. But the Jolly Holiday opened around the same time as the remodeled Carnation Cafe, offering an expanded place to get your mocha and latte plus bakery items. This was a year before Starbucks moved into the park, but it's still a busy place. And I remember really enjoying this generous roast beef sandwich and chips. Plaza Inn Plaza Inn Specialty Chicken Three pieces of chicken, fried to a golden brown, seasoned with distinctive herbs and spices. Served with mashed potatoes, buttermilk biscuit and mixture of vegetables. $13.99 Tasty, delicious fried chicken! Finish this and it's guaranteed you won't leave hungry. Little Red Wagon Hand-Dipped Corn Dog With sliced apples or a small bag of chips. $6.69 There's often a long line at the Little Red Wagon next door to Plaza Inn, because the corn dogs at Disneyland are huge, battered in tasty corn meal, and deelish! You can also order corn dogs at the Stage Door Cafe in Frontierland. I've never ordered them there; it just seems traditional for me to get them from here. Adventureland Tiki Juice Bar Dole Whip Float $5.19 If you're never had a Dole whip or Dole whip float, SHAME ON YOU! For the longest time, I only ordered the Dole whip, which is simply a generous serving of pineapple-flavored soft serve ice cream. Then I tried it as a float with pineapple juice added. It was on a hot sunny day, and that was it. Float every time! Bengal Barbeque Safari Skewer Bacon Wrapped Asparagus $3.89 I don't come here often. The line's always a tad too long for essentially snack food. But when I do, it's bacon-wrapped asparagus all the way. There's a Chieftain Chicken Skewer (in polynesian sauce) shown here too that I got for variety's sake. Frontierland Golden Horseshoe Crispy Chicken Mixed Green Salad $9.49 I've made an effort to order more salads and meatless meals at restaurants the past few years. If it weren't for that, I likely never would have tried this. What I like about this meal is it's like have a main course - the chicken tenders which I dip in BBQ sauce - with a dinner salad. Stage Door Cafe Fish & Chips with tartar sauce. $9.99 They only added Fish & Chips in the last few years as I recall, but I'm glad they did. The fish fillets aren't overly greasy, and the fish inside is very flaky. So I'm glad I have a quick and tasty fish option to choose when I'm at the park. River Belle Terrace River Belle's Roast Beef Served on a fresh baked roll with our signature savory salad with horseradish aioli. $11.99 Here's I place I used to come to often for dinner. When I first got my annual pass, they served fried chicken and BBQ ribs here. Then the menu was changed to offer sandwiches. I think the park was adopting a new mandate to offer more health-conscious options. Remember when you could buy McDonald's fries next to the Mark Twain loading dock or at the Harbour Galley by the Haunted Mansion? The fries disappeared when Disneyland didn't renew McDonald's contract. Anyway, early online reviews weren't flattering so I avoided it for the longest time. Then, recently I finally dared to walk in and see what the food looked like. First off, I was surprised to see the roast beef and turkey was hand-carved for each freshly-made sandwich. Second, they also offered hot plates with mashed potatoes and other sides. So I gave the roast beef sandwich a shot...and enjoyed it! Glad I finally had an open mind to give this place a try. Big Thunder Ranch Celebration BBQ We're serving up fun FAMILY STYLE at Big Thunder Ranch Barbecue ENJOY Our Barbecue Chicken and Ribs with all of the fixings served family style at your table! Adults: $26.99, Kids 3-9 $11.99 (not including tax and gratuity) Each supper includes: BBQ Chicken and Ribs with Miss Chris' special sauce (Vegetarian Option Available) Smoked Sausage Cole Slaw Corn Cob Wheels Ranch Beans Corn Bread Just four words: "all you can eat". What's not to like! Just come in with a huge appetite so's you can get your money's worth. By the way, this is their dinner menu. For three bucks less, the lunch menu omits the smoked sausage and corn cob wheels. New Orleans Square Blue Bayou Restaurant Buccaneer's Boneless Beef Short Ribs Each entree served with choice of the following: Blue Bayou House Salad or Cup of our Signature New Orleans Gumbo Braised Short Ribs, Boursin Cheese Mashed Potatoes, Seasonal Vegetables, and Cabernet Reduction. $33.99 I usually come here for friend's special events like celebrating birthdays. And I've sampled about half of their menu offerings. Of them, these have become my favorite so far. The meat is falls apart easily and the sauce is tasty! Cafe Orleans "Crescent City" Salad Choose Blackened Chicken or Pan-seared Atlantic Salmon on top of fresh Spinach and Mixed Baby Greens, tossed with Carmelized Pecans, Red Grapes, Navel Orange Segments, Caramelized Onions, Chopped Green Onions, Roasted Sweet Corn, and Orange-Cilantro Vinaigrette. -- With Blackened Chicken $15.49 During many visits here, my go-to meal here was the Monte Cristo Sandwich or Three-Cheese Monte Cristo with the Pommes Frites. I used to have a hell of an appetite! But these days, I can barely finish half the sandwich, plus I've been trying to be more health-conscious. And the fried sandwich filled with cheese isn't at the top of my list of choices any more. Instead this salad just barely beats the fresh Cafe Orleans Salmon Sandwich. Club 33 Pan Seared Chateaubriand with Truffle Vintage Port Reduction $59.75 I've had the pleasure of getting to visit Disneyland's members only VIP restaurant, Club 33. And man, it's cool! This is what I had on my first visit and it is one of the best steaks I've ever had. Here are the rest of my photos from that visit and here are ones from my second trip. Critter Country Harbour Galley Lobster Roll in a buttered brioche roll served with Old Bay seasoned home-style chips. $13.99 I had this when it was only offered during a limited time celebrating Mardi Gras. It's since become a regular item on their menu. Mickey's Toontown Daisy's Diner Daisy's Special Pepperoni Pizza $7.99 In all the years I've owned a Disneyland Annual Passport, I'd never once had anything to eat inside Mickey's Toontown until last month when on a whim I tried this personal size pizza. Filled with tasty pizza sauce, I found it way better than the pizza offered at Pizza Port (which for some might not be saying much). I've seen been back four more times to enjoy this. Don't really know when I'll become tried of it. Tomorrowland Tomorrowland Terrace Fish Sandwich with Chipotle Crema served with fresh fruit or French fries. $10.49 A friend and I decided to eat here one day recently, a place that is not normally even on our radar when considering places to eat. We both chose this to eat, and we were both sincerely shocked at how good it was. The Cast Member at the order window told us the fish was baked, not fried, and together on a fresh, un-toasted bun and all its fixings, it's a great, fresh-tasting meal. Redd Rockett's Pizza Port Count Down Chicken Fusilli Fusilli pasta tossed with seasoned grilled chicken, sun-dried tomatoes, garlic and Parmesan cream sauce with a touch of fresh basil $9.49 This became my regular order during the first few years I visited Disneyland. Seriously, BOTH the fusilli AND a slice of pizza. plus a drink. I can't do that anymore, but when I come here, I always get the fusilli (and now save my pizza appetite for Daisy's). Fantasyland Village Haus Restaurant BLT Flatbread Pizza Thin flat bread crust, smoked bacon, Provolone and Mozzarella cheeses, caramelized onions, marinated tomatoes, topped with arugula and shaved fennel. $8.49 I never really visit Fantasyland much, so I don't have a long history with sampling their fare here. They currently updated their menu and while I'm not usually a big flatbread pizza fan, this has bacon! That's it. Nothing from the Hungry Bear Restaurant or Rancho del Zocalo, which I've been to but just wasn't particularly knocked out by anything they've ever ordered.
Coming soon: My favorite foods at DCA and elsewhere at the resort. Check out the rest of my Disney food fotos on my Flickr page. Yesterday, my friends and I hosted a scavenger hunt game at Disney California Adventure. The game is inspired by MouseAdventure, a scavenger hunt produced and hosted by MousePlanet that we've competed in for a number of years and that I've mentioned before in earlier blogs here. We - well, mostly one of us - creates the quests and the rest of us will beta test them inside the park a few days before the event to check for errors and offer suggestions. Then the day of the event is spent all day at whichever park we've decided to base the quests on and where our friends get to enjoy the same fun and frustration we do when we play MouseAdventure. Included with the dozen or so quests are Disney trivia questions, and I'm responsible to writing those up. To let you share the fun and frustration, I thought I'd post them here so you can play along. The title of our quest is shown above in the logo I designed which we played inside DCA. So, these questions are mostly inspired by characters and films most visibly referenced inside that park or that are of a "mystery" or "caper" theme. Don't scroll past the 20th question until you've made all your choices. Then scroll further to see the answers and to see how well you did. Enjoy! 1. Toy Story was the first animated feature produced by Pixar. a bug’s life was the second. Which of the following was the third? a) Toy Story 2 b) Monsters, Inc. c) Finding Nemo d) The Incredibles 2. Which Pixar screenwriter also provided voices for Heimlich in a bug’s life, Wheezy in Toy Story 2 and Jacques the shrimp in Finding Nemo? a) John Lasseter b) Pete Doctor c) Joe Ranft d) Andrew Stanton 3. Which member of the Pixar production team provided the voice of Edna Mode, the eccentric designer who designed costumes for the superhero community in The Incredibles? a) Brad Bird b) John Lasseter c) John Ratzenberger d) Ed Catmull 4. Joss Whedon, director of The Avengers and creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, has a writing credit in which Disney-Pixar film? a) Toy Story b) Monsters, Inc. c) WALL-E d) The Incredibles 5. Samuel L. Jackson, who plays Nick Fury in the Marvel Studios films, provides the voice of a character in which one of the following Disney films? a) The Princess and the Frog b) Brother Bear c) The Incredibles d) a bug’s life 6. Which Disney animated film features a character named Kida? a) Atlantis: The Lost Empire b) Lilo & Stitch c) Treasure Planet d) Brother Bear 7. Rob Thomas, lead singer of Matchbox Twenty, sings “Little Wonders” on the soundtrack to which Disney animated feature? a) Chicken Little b) Meet the Robinsons c) Bolt d) The Princess and the Frog 8. Before Howard Ashman and Alan Menken wrote the songs for Disney’s The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast and Alladin, they provided songs for what musical? a) Adding Machine b) Newsies c) Hedwig and the Angry Inch d) Little Shop of Horrors 9. While Randy Newman is well known for writing many of the songs and scores for several Pixar films, he’s only done the same for one non-Pixar Disney animated film. Which one was it? a) Meet the Robinsons b) Bolt c) The Princess and the Frog d) Tangled 10. What is the name of the members-only club located inside the Carthay Circle Restaurant? a) Club23 b) Club33 c) Club34 d) Club1901 11. Vincent Price provides the voice to which character in The Great Mouse Detective? a) Basil of Baker Street b) Professor Ratigan c) Major Dr. David Q. Dawson d) Sherlock Holmes (cameo) 12. Before World of Color, Paradise Pier Lagoon was home to what previous nighttime attraction whose slogan was “See the Holidays in a whole new light”? a) Rockin’ the Bay b) GlowFest c) Chance to Shine d) LuminAria 13. The tall C-A-L-I-F-O-R-N-I-A letters that were formerly at the entrance to Disney’s California Adventure are now installed and on display in which California city? a) Fresno b) San Francisco c) Sacramento d) Burbank 14. Which of the following was established first? a) Buena Vista Home Video b) Buena Vista Television c) Buena Vista Pictures Distribution d) Buena Vista Music Group 15. Which of the following parades has never performed at Disney (or Disney’s) California Adventure? a) PixarP lay Parade b) Eureka! c) LightMagic d) Disney’s Electrical Parade 16. Which real-life aviation legend is featured in the Disney film The Rocketeer? a) Orville Wright b) Howard Hughes c) Amelia Earhart d) Chuck Yeager 17. Who played the lead in the Walt Disney Pictures film Condorman? a) Dean Jones b) Zac Efron c) Michael Crawford d) Don Knotts 18. Who appeared in both the 1965 and 1997 filmversions of That Darn Cat? a) Dyan Cannon b) Peter Boyle c) Estelle Parsons d) Dean Jones 19. Christopher Plummer voiced a character in whichanimated film? a) The Great Mouse Detective b) Atlantis: The Last Empire c) Up d) Ratatouille 20. Who has a cameo in The Great Muppet Caper? a) Jim Henson b) Mark Hamill c) Bob Hope d) Michael Eisner 1. Toy Story was the first motion picture produced by Pixar. a bug’s life was the second. Which of the following was the third?
a) Toy Story 2 (then Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo and The Incredibles) 2. Which Pixar screenwriter also provided voices for Heimlich in a bug’s life, Wheezy in Toy Story 2 and Jacques the shrimp in Finding Nemo? c) Joe Ranft 3. Which member of the Pixar production team provided the voice of Edna Mode, the eccentric designer who designed costumes for the superhero community in The Incredibles? a) Brad Bird (The writer-director) 4. Joss Whedon, director of The Avengers and creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, has a writing credit in which Disney-Pixar film? a) Toy Story (Screenplay co-credit with three writers) 5. Samuel L. Jackson, who plays Nick Fury in the Marvel Studios films, provides the voice of a character in which one of the following Disney films? c) The Incredibles (Frozone who memorably said “Where is my super suit?”) 6. Which Disney animated film features a character named Kida? a) Atlantis: The Lost Empire (She’s the princess of Atlantis; during the game, some thought I had misspelled "Koda") 7. Rob Thomas, lead singer of Matchbox Twenty, sings “Little Wonders” on the soundtrack to which Disney animated feature? b) Meet the Robinsons 8. Before Howard Ashman and Alan Menken wrote the songs for Disney’s Alladin, Beauty and the Beast and The Little Mermaid, they provided songs to what musical? d) Little Shop of Horrors 9. While Randy Newman has written songs and scores for several Pixar films, he’s only done the same for one non-Pixar Disney animated film. Which one was it? c) The Princess and the Frog 10. What is the name of the members-only club located inside the Carthay Circle Restaurant? d) Club 1901 11. Vincent Price provides the voice to which character in The Great Mouse Detective? b) Professor Ratigan 12. Before World of Color, Paradise Pier Lagoon was home to what previous nighttime attraction whose slogan was “See the Holidays in a whole new light”? d) LuminAria (Ran for just one winter season during 2001) 13. The tall C-A-L-I-F-O-R-N-I-A letters that were formerly at the entrance to Disney’s California Adventure are now installed and on display in which California city? c) Sacramento (at the Main Gate of the California State Fair in Cal Expo) 14. Which of the following was established first? c) Buena Vista Pictures Distribution (movies before home video, music and TV) 15. Which of the following parades has never performed at Disney (or Disney’s) California Adventure? c) Light Magic (Ran at Disneyland for just one summer in 1997) 16. Which real-life aviation legend is featured in the Disney film The Rocketeer? b) Howard Hughes (The billionaire who invented the rocket jet pack) 17. Who played the lead in the Walt Disney Pictures film Condorman? c) Michael Crawford 18. Who appeared in both the 1965 and 1997 film versions of That Darn Cat? d) Dean Jones 19. Christopher Plummer voiced a character in which animated film? c) Up (The antagonist Charles Muntz) 20. Who has a cameo in The Great Muppet Caper? a) Jim Henson (seen here in this photo from the movie) It was just over a year ago that I attended the event where Disneyland was open for 24 hours. That was on Leap Day 2012, and Disney named the event "One More Disney Day." Because of work, I wasn't able to go until that evening, but make it into the park I did - eventually - and it was a cool, novel experience. But what a mess getting there! Disney did not anticipate the evening traffic gridlock on the I-5 and the neighborhood streets around the park of folks deciding to go after work and on into the midnight hour, gridlock I found myself in. What usually was a forty minute drive tops trip from home to the park took me three hours that evening! So while I did make it into the park and enjoyed being there to see the sunrise over Disneyland, I wasn't entirely convinced Disney would try the same "stunt" again. But, a year later, Disney decided to go for it. This time, at the start of this past Memorial Day weekend to kick off the summer and also promote their next theatrical Pixar release. And I was there. Again. But this time, for longer than just the "graveyard shift." This time, instead of just one park on the west coast, Disney announced they'd have both Disneyland and Disney California Adventure open for the 24-hour event. And while rumors about a second overnighter hit Disney chatboards in March, Disney didn't officially announce it until April, and just one month before the May 24-25 date. As someone who experienced One More Disney Day, I was surprised they were giving this one more Disney shot, and on Memorial Day weekend to boot. But by announcing it so late, they assumed that by the time of their announcement, many potential attendees (i.e., local annual passholders) couldn't make it now because they'd already put deposits down to travel elsewhere that weekend. When I talked to friends who work at the park about the event, they told me the word was that cast members were planning to arrive two or more hours before their shift, to avoid getting stuck in any potential gridlock that happened to cast members last year, and just hang out or watch a movie until they had to clock in. Also, Disney planned to use Angels Anaheim stadium for cast member parking, bussing them in, to free up more local parking for guests. Now last year, I went solo. But this time, some friends wanted to go too, my Naboombu All-Stars teammates from MouseAdventure, a scavenger hunt-like game put on by MousePlanet that we've competed in a number of times and won twice! MousePlanet announced they were going to run a non-competititve version of MouseAdventure titled UP All Night, handing quests out during the all-nighter. No prizes but we want to play too. So we all planned to hook up there when we could. Again like last year, I was too busy to go until mid-afternoon. I picked up a friend and we took advantage of the carpool lane, not that traffic was crazy at two in the afternoon. We got there fine and made it into DCA first. And no long lines to get in - whew! Unfortunately, the next new quest wouldn't be handed out until 6pm, so we spent the next few hours meandering the park until one more friend arrived and we could play our first quest together. Unlike the normal conditions of playing MouseAdventure, which is that all teams randomly start any of several quests received at the start of game play, this time all the teams present (there were about four or five there at six pm) were handed the same quest and started it at the same time. So completing the quest was more like a mad dash rally race than anything else. And we felt the pressure! How did we do? We solved the first half of the quest just fine. It involved using the DCA park guide map to locate the correct words to cross out from a provided word search, leaving the unused letters to spell out a sentence explaining what we need to find and tweet a photo of to complete the quest. Unfortunately we tweeted the wrong "Storytellers" reference. Instead of the Storytellers Cafe, the correct answer was the new Storytellers statue of young Walt and Mickey on Buena Vista Street. Dang it! On the plus side, we took pride in knowing we were just seconds behind the winning team in tweeting our photo. We were just at wrong location. Humbled, we looked forward to playing the next quest which would be handed out around 9pm at Disneyland. We tried out the Oozma Kappa Nacho Dogs for dinner before crossing the promenade to enter Disneyland for the first time today. The lines to enter weren't crazy during the evening hours, and while Main Street USA was pretty full of guests walking into and out of it, the rest of the park wasn't too crowded. This all-nighter was shaping up to be a pretty successful event on Disney's part. When we picked up our first quest, we also picked up three quests that were distributed earlier in the day. We worked on the Disneyland ones to bide our time until it was time to get that next quest. My friends and I are annual passholders, and when we visit the parks together, more often than not most of our time is spent hanging out, usually at a restaurant, rather than riding every ride with a short(-ish) line. And the same went for today. After finishing the quests, we headed for the Village Haus to chill out and also to use the outlets there to charge our iPhones. When 9pm rolled around, we headed for Main Street Station where teams were handed our next quest. But the quests themselves needed players to search for images and phrases in Tomorrowland. At 9pm, not only was Main Street USA becoming crushed with guests holding spaces to watch the evening's fireworks show, but congested even further with guests arriving at Disneyland for their first time as well as those wanting to leave. Rushing to Tomorrowland was impossible! Oh, the anxiety! Once inside Tomorrowland, we traveled to restrooms, restaurants and food carts to find the essential words that answer several questions, and those answers would somehow dictate which parts of a lightsaber we would need to assemble inside the Star Trader. Once assembled, we'd need to tweet a photo of it with the Jedi Knight associated with this particular design. We proved to be less than well-trained Jedi Knights this evening. Ugh!! The next quest would be handed out at midnight. But after meeting up with a cast member friend who'd just gotten off work, we decided to take the Monorail out and head to Trader Sam's for dinner and drinks. Over a period of three hours, I'd actually dropped by here twice! The first time was with this time. The next time was when our final Naboombu All-Stars teammate arrived. While my other friends took a little break, I returned to Trader Sam's for a little pick-me-up, this Irish Coffee. After midnight, we headed back to Disneyland. Now, remembering that this was about the same time I arrived last year for One More Disney Day, I was a tad nervous that I'd find the park gates closed with hundreds and hundreds of guests in lines all over the promenade like last year. However, I was only "a tad" nervous. Throughout the day, both parks weren't crazy crowded, and as it turned out, entering the park at one am was no problem for us at all. Now obviously, we'd missed the hand out of the midnight quest. The next quest would be handed out at 2:45 am outside Café Orleans. So we just meandered around the park until then. I wanted to check out what was going on at Mickey's Toontown, so we headed there. It was cool what we found there. Disney characters were dressed up in their pajamas for photo ops, Disney animated shorts were projected in the dining area in the food court for families to enjoy, and karaoke was available outside Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin where we saw mainly young adults enjoying. When it was time to head for New Orleans Square to pick up the next quest, we found Sleeping Beauty Castle flooded with lights and a portion of the front area roped off. Later that morning we saw Rachel Smith being filmed there. It was for a live feed for the east coast of Good Morning America Weekend Edition. The next quest took some patience and extreme attention to detail. We were given the lyrics to a song. I don't have the quest with me, but I think it was to "Stay Awake." We were also given a series of numbers. What we had to do is start with the first number and count the number of letters in the supplied lyrics to reach a letter. The letter we reached was the first letter of the quest's question. Continue with each letter, using the remaining thirty-odd numbers to determine the question. Some numbers were one or two digits, but a couple were three! And counting a 143 letters to reach the next letter was a bit stressful at three in the morning. But we managed to solve it and get the question, about naming the special of the day at the Jolly Holiday Bakery. Trouble is we solved it about 30 seconds too late as someone else tweeted the correct answer before us. Stymied once again! With just one quest left to compete for before the park closed at 6 am, we decided it was time for breakfast. As soon as I'd learned about the Bananas Foster French Toast being offered during the all-nighter, it was a goal of mine to try it, so that's where we headed. Compared to last year where it was a crowded and pretty much booked for the entire morning, Café Orleans was a walk in experience as we got seated in the patio area right away. Even getting served our French toast didn't take long at all. Dining at four in the morning in New Orleans Square, with sea shanties performed by the Bootstrappers nearby and a peaceful calm resting over the area, was like a vacation moment. So peaceful and relaxing. Billys all night! After breakfast, it was time to head for the Mad Tea Party to pick up the last quest of the UP All Night. By now, the nature of rushing through each quest as we got them was entirely different from the way the normal MouseAdventure games are played. But we couldn't not try! So we picked up the final quest. It involved drawing a line between a list of phrases on one side of the sheet to their correct match on a list across the page. Between them were an assortment of words that the lines would intersect. Matching the columns of words correctly would intersect the correct words to form a clue telling us what to find and tweet in as our answer. The list on one side was filled with phrases taken from the upper floor windows on Main Street USA. The list on the other side were location names and addresses on Main Street USA. As we started connecting lines, we started to figure out the first half of the clue. Then, we managed to figure out the rest of it without needing to solve the last two matches. We needed to find a window with a specific phrase, and I knew EXACTLY where that window was! We walked speedily over to the storefront above the China Closet, found the right window and texted it...texted it before we received any text saying there was a winner yet. We waited. And in seconds, we got The Tweet. You got it! We saved the toughest for last - great job! Now that's the way to end the All-Nighter, right! When our minds popped out of competitive mode, we noticed cast members were lining the street and hi-fiving guests on their way out of the park. That's when we realized it was five-thirty in the morning. Thirty more minutes before the park closed and this Monstrous Summer All-Nighter officially ended. As six am neared, Mickey and his friends surprised all of us by appearing on Main Street Station, and the sight of them pumped us up again! Dressed in their PJs, they waved at us as the speakers started to play the Mickey Mouse Alma Mater. We all sang along. "Now it's time to say goodbye to all our company..." Arriving just before three pm, I was here for fifteen of the twenty-four hours. And it was fun! The quests, while frustrating at the beginning, were something cool to look forward to, trying the exclusive food options were a treat, and being here with friends made it a lot easier to stay up all night. Can't wait to do again! And maybe next time, I'll go for twenty-four. This holiday season, I had plans to enjoy three versions of Charles Dickens' classic holiday tale. For some, three might be enough. But this year, my interest in "A Christmas Carol" was piqued (not "peaked"), and I found myself wanting to explore more than these three versions, others that I either hadn't checked out before or wanted to revisit again. Here's how my journey through two, three, four and more "Christmas Carol"s turned out. The Muppet Christmas Carol The first one I saw this year was this one. I've seen this only a few times before, but I've played my CD of the soundtrack over and over for years! This happens to be the first time I've owned a copy this movie. And it's on VHS!! I know, crazy, huh? We had it at a yard sale my friends and I held to raise money for our Relay for Life team, and it was among the items that didn't sell. Originally, I had planned to buy the new Blu-ray version of it, but with it missing the "When Love Is Gone" scene, I dragged my feet on getting it. Ultimately, this VHS - which includes the scene (albeit in pan and scan format) - ended up with me. I know I speak for many fans of the film when I say how impressed I am by how much it uses the dialogue of the original story and retains much of its same tone while being told by The Muppets. Disney's A Christmas Carol I passed on watching this when it was in theatres three years ago because I got tired of Jim Carrey mugging and bugging his eyes out so damn much in his films. It was fine when he started out, but it got to be his schtick, altho' friends tell me I need to watch Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, so there's that. But the reviews claimed he reined in his usual-ness in this film, so when it came out on Blu-ray, I took a chance. And I was overwhelmingly impressed! I now have to watch this every year with my family at Christmastime who enjoy it too. A Christmas Carol performed by Patrick Stewart I'm a Star Trek fan. I got started watching the reruns of classic Trek, then got hooked on TNG after it debuted. That was around the time when I happened to start taking acting classes. And watching the show, even then I recognized how much Patrick Stewart forced the rest of the cast to bring their level of acting up to his level. Midway through his run on TNG, Stewart produced and performed his one-man show of "A Christmas Carol". A CD of it quickly became part of my CD library and I have loved playing it every year ever since. I finally got to see his show at the Doolittle Theatre in 1996, and I remember how cool it was that he'd changed the personality of Scrooge from the one I'd heard all the years before on CD to a low-key, sharp businessman, like one of those single-minded sharks you'd imagine swimming on Wall Street! It was a refreshing surprise and I often wished he'd record a follow-up CD performing that personality of Scrooge on it. To listen to an excerpt from the CD, a lengthy clip is posted by Simon & Schuster on SoundCloud. Dickens' words...my brushwork, on the TTC set So there are the three "A Christmas Carol"s I had planned to enjoy this season. But I also got to watch a stage version of the story told by several actors each performing many different roles of the story at my local theatre, Torrance Theatre Company. It was great and reminded me of another condensed-cast-adaptation of the novel I'd done in Poway many years before. Now, you'd think I'd gotten my fill of Dickens and Scrooge by now. But I also started reading the original short story too, something I hadn't done before. If you haven't either, I suggest you do. I knew it would be so, but it's still amazing to realize how much of Dickens' words are familiar to you as every adaptation has pulled their dialogue verbatim from his story. As I write this, I still haven't finished it yet. Unless the words are broken up with a lot of illustrated, colored panel art in between, I'm a very slow reader. And speaking of panel art, I did finish "Batman: Noel", a graphic novel I'd gotten for Christmas last year. It's a book I wanted because of the beautiful, detailed artwork by Leo Bermejo. And "Surprise!" it's another adaptation of Charles Dickens' book, and a good one too that has the messages delivered by the three spirits in the original book represented by three familiar characters Batman runs into while patrolling Gotham City on Christmas Eve. So two movies, on audio retelling and one and a half books later, you'd think that might be enough. But I still had that itch to look up other versions of the story. I went online and was delighted to find two full-length versions available to watch. And I also remembered I own another one that I've never seen. I only watched about twenty or thirty minutes of each the two online movies, but it only took that long to see the entirety of the other one that I owned. A Christmas Carol (1999) I tried to watch Patrick Stewart's TNT movie adaptation once before and couldn't get through it. This year, I still can't. To begin with, it's so dull to me right from the start. His performance on the CDs are so enthusiastic, I guess I miss that in the film. I recognize he's working with a script that includes many wonderful ideas that bring more insight into the situations and main characters, but those ideas just didn't play out well for me when acted out. He's also too much Patrick Stewart in the role if that makes sense; he's ultimately too darn charming. Scrooge (1935) It was a nice surprise to find the first sound version of "A Christmas Carol" on film available on YouTube. Taking into account the time it was filmed, I found the performances rather genuine and refreshingly less formulaic than what we've all grown up seeing of the main characters in more popular adaptations. Seeing only half an hour of it, I look forward to making time to watch the rest of it. And from what I've learned about the film, we should all be grateful that it's the full-length version that's available on YouTube (embedded below) and not the abridged 60-minute US version that's out on recent DVD and Blu-ray Disc releases. Mickey's Christmas Carol I own several titles of the Walt Disney Treasures DVD series. They were those 30 different titles that arrived every fall between 2001 and 2009 in distinctive silver or black tin cases holding a two-disc DVD set inside. I've watched some of them like Disneyland USA, On the Front Lines, and Tomorrowland, but others like Silly Symphonies, Disney Rarities, and Mickey Mouse in Black and White I bought mainly to hang onto for future reference, especially for my design work. Then I remembered one of my Mickey Mouse in Living Color sets includes "Mickey's Christmas Carol"! I pulled it out to watch, all 25 minutes of it. It's cute and very entertaining! So that's all the ones I've seen this year. It was fun to discover the adaptations that were new to me. And there are still a few more that came to mind that I wanted to see. One was Albert Finney's "Scrooge" which I saw when I was a kid, but all I can remember about it is the catchy tune "Thank You Very Much". Another was George C. Scott's "Scrooge". And finally there's that Alastair Sim one of "A Christmas Carol" which I can't remember if I've ever really seen. So these'll be high on my list to try and catch next Christmas season.
That is, if that itch doesn't come back and I decide to watch 'em before then! |
All About Me
A fan of Star Trek, Star Wars, Harry Potter, Batman, comic books, Blu-rays, Disney, soundtracks, taking pictures, theatre and...Barry Manilow! Archives
March 2019
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