Remember, you can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes here, and we’d be ever so grateful if you’d write a little review and rate the podcast.

While I’m shilling, I’ll remind you that you can now follow us on Facebook, too. I feel so trendy.

Anyway, here it is. Keep those great suggestions and comments coming – we appreciate how supportive everyone was of the pilot episode, and hope to be back soon with more!

The first title is Warp and Weft: Life Canvas of Herbert Ryman, a “memoir biography” of the legendary Disney artist by John Stanley Donaldson. Donaldson was a friend of Ryman’s for thirty years, and the material for this 400-page biography was mined from his lifetime of notes, correspondence, diaries and audio recordings. In his career Ryman worked as an artist at both the Disney animation studio and Imagineering, and his concept art for EPCOT ranks among my absolute favorite pieces of Imagineering artwork.

The other new title, which just released last week, is Project Future, The Inside Story Behind the Creation of Disney World by Chad D. Emerson. Emerson, a member of the faculty at Faulkner University’s Jones School of Law, spent two years researching the clandestine process by which Walt Disney Productions planned “Disneyland East” and purchased their 27,000+ acres in swampy Central Florida. He also interviewed a number of key players in the process, including Disney consultant Buzz Price, former Florida Governor Claude Kirk, and key Disney players Bob Foster and Tom DeWolf.

Review copies of both of these titles are winging their way to me, and I’m looking forward to both of them. I’ll even hide my jealousy over Project Future, since it’s obviously the kind of book I was planning to write! But nothing can beat actual first-person testimony, and it’s obvious that both these authors have that in spades. Check them out via the links above, and you can look for reviews in hopefully the near future!

I apologize that things have been ever so hush-hush here for several days. Rest assured, there are lots of new stories waiting in the wings. And a new podcast should be just a dream away…

But I did want to drop by tonight to make a comment about the news that was reported today in an L.A. Times blog that Disney will not be holding the D23 Expo this year, opting instead to hold the shows on a biennial basis. Other Disney gossip sites are jumping in to say that they’ve heard this too, but Disney is yet to make any statement on the issue.

I was taken off-guard by this, personally. A month ago, I was told by someone who most definitely would know that the Expo would in fact be held this year, and it was strongly implied in the most obvious of ways that the dates for the event would be announced on March 10th – the first anniversary of D23’s original announcement. This would, of course, coincide with not only this year’s Disney shareholder meeting but also the D23 anniversary event at Disneyland.

So, what to believe? I certainly believe that the L.A. Times blogger has his sources. But how firm is this decision? Could this be – and this is the height of wishful thinking on my part – a trial balloon to see what fans would say if they skipped a year?

Well if so, and if they’re looking for input, allow me to say this: don’t cancel the event.

As everyone and their grandma knows by now, we went to the Expo last year, and we had a blast. I’m not much of a joiner or a convention-goer, so I was highly dubious at first; in fact, I was basically using it to justify a trip to Disneyland, and also wanted to be there in the off chance that something interesting happened at the Expo. Well, to say that it far exceeded my expectations would still remain an understatement. I learned so much, and saw so many fascinating people and heard so many fascinating stories, that this grizzled and hardened Disney fan actually got really excited about where the company was going. Mr. Cynic himself bought the company line for the first time in years, because I saw the company honoring its own past and could see the excitement for the future in the faces of all the Imagineers and back-of-house staff that were there.

To use the most worn out and trite of catchphrases, I bought the Kool-Aid.

And this is Disney’s biggest mistake in not holding this event. The D23 Expo was, by far and away, their greatest success in generating fan goodwill in years. Let’s face it, Disney will always have a pixie dust brigade ready and willing to do their bidding no matter what, but after a decade of Pressler and Rasulo and everything else, fandom was starting to get a little shaggy around the edges. To engage the fans in such a positive way felt like at least an overture to some sort of rapprochement, and at the very least it provided a very public forum in which Disney executives were forced to face the music for their choices (I’m thinking here of the extremely tepid reception to Toy Story Playland at Rasulo’s presentation, which still amuses me).

Now, I’m not insane, and I realize that this was just an enormous PR event. But so what? If people had fun – and from the reaction to the cancellation rumors, it sounds like they did – I have no problem with such a symbiotic relationship. Speaking for myself, it was the most fun I had all year – no one is more surprised about that than I! – and I was really, really looking forward to going back.

And not just because of Monte Cristos.

So, dear Disney – snap out of it. Just for once, can we stick to the plan and commit to something? You’re like the worst girlfriend I never had. You start something, then you run fleeing from it. If they don’t do it this year, what are the odds that we’ll ever hear of it again? Or will it become one of those things that people ask Iger about occasionally until he becomes more and more irritated at the question? Will the Expo be buried with Hoffa and Song of the South?

Again, this is still unconfirmed. And we know that they were planning on doing it at some point. So let’s all politely say… Hey there, Disney. How’s about doing this so we can all come spend ridiculously irresponsible amounts of money on you? Why do you hate our money, Disney? Because I was going to come give all my money to you in September, but if you cancel the Expo I won’t! Don’t you want my money? It’s perfectly good, I assure you! My money not good enough for you, buddy? Huh? You got a problem??

Anyway.

Hold the Expo, or I will be sad. Can your conscience bear my sadness, Mr. Robert Iger??

PS – Thanks to George at Imaginerding for putting the Meet the World article up on his Geek End Update so I could catch wind of it…

The Walt Disney Family Museum
March 2010 Events Calendar

Disney Innovators, Sean Connery and a String Quartet top the list of March 2010 activities at the Walt Disney Family Museum

MARCH LECTURES

March 20 –Disney Innovator Don Iwerks discusses the Nodal Point Camera invented by his legendary father, Ub
3:00 pm, Theater
tickets available online at www.waltdisney.org

The making of Darby O’Gill and the Little People (1959) presented particular challenges. Walt Disney wanted the audience to believe that Darby was talking and singing with the King at the Leprechauns but the scale had to be perfect. To tackle this technical problem, he turned to Ub Iwerks, Join Don Iwerks—former Disney executive, founder of Iwerks Entertainment, and son of Ub as he talks about Ub’s creation, the Nodal Point Camera.

March 28 –Disney’s first Female Imagineer, Harriet Burns, visits during Women’s History Month
3:00 pm, Theater
tickets available online at www.waltdisney.org

Harriet Burns became the first woman to work at WED Enterprises, adding her special touch to Disneyland’s Sleeping Beauty’s Castle, the Haunted Mansion, and the Enchanted Tiki Room. Her daughter, Pam Burns-Clair, and Don Peri, author of “Working with Walt: Interview with Disney Artists,” will introduce you to a woman who worked beside legends and became one herself.

FILM OF THE MONTH

Darby O’Gill and the Little People
1:00pm and 4:00pm, Theater
(except Tuesdays, March 13, March 20 and March 28)
tickets available online at www.waltdisney.org

Before he was James Bond, actor Sean Connery was Michael Murphy, an Irishman caught up in the magical adventures of Darby O’Gill and the Little People (1959). Follow Darby (Albert Sharpe) as he tries to out trick the King of the Leprechauns and reach that pot of gold. Does he succeed? You will have to come to one of our screenings to find out.

MUSIC BY MOZART

March 13 – String Circle Quartet
4:00 p.m., Special Exhibition Hall
tickets available online at www.waltdisney.org

This musical adventure will pair the last string quartet of Mozart’s with the first of Benjamin Britten’s; these are both pieces of sparkling wit, great beauty, and off beat character. Jonathan Dimmock will join the quartet on piano in a quintet arrangement written by Mozart for glass harmonica.

PUBLIC PROGRAMMING FOR MARCH

DISNEY DISCOVERIES: Second Saturday of each month

March 13 – An Enchanted Tiki Bird
1:00 pm – 3:00 pm, Learning Center: Art Studio

Imaginations and creativity will soar with our new Disney Discoveries! The second Saturday of each month, join us for family fun and activities in the Learning Center. The activities planned by our education staff will inspire the hidden artist in young visitors while learning about the life and work of Walt Disney.

The Disney Discoveries! activities are free with paid admission to the Museum. No ticket is needed for members—just show your membership card.

LOOK CLOSER:

March 26 & 27 – Inside Audio-Animatronics: The Making of Mr. Lincoln
11:00 am and 3:00 pm, Gallery 9, Lower Level

Would you like to know more about one of the artifacts in the galleries? Our Look Closer series will give you that opportunity—staff will reveal little known facts—and behind the scenes information during the 30-minute gallery talk.

The Look Closer series is free with paid admission or paid membership.

It just goes to show ya, anything can happen in the movies. Care to take odds on anyone getting away with something like this today?

Thanks to BoingBoing…

… I can’t tell you how excited I was to see that this still existed in Disneyland.   It just ’bout made my life

Beacon Joe has returned from his shanty on the Rivers of America to continue a series started in OCTOBER 2008!  Though much has changed since this article was written, you should read the first part of this series before continuing further….

Yes, I know.  My blog posting frequency or (lack thereof) is absurd.  Yet I feel that this series about nightlife at Walt Disney World is just as valid as it was when WDW execs decided to shutter Pleasure Island in late 2008.

Much has changed on the Island since last we spoke, most notably the additions of Ragalin Road (very popular) and right next door the monstrous T Rex (completing the bookend volcano look for Marketplace that goes so well with craftsmen architecture).

Good news is, no awful plan has come into place for Pleasure Island yet – we’ve got a giant balloon which seems rather unoffensive, and West Side is changing various third party forces – yet Pleasure Island seems more or less untouched at the moment.

So great!  Let’s continue where we left off, shall we?  In the first article I explained my opinion that the blandness of the Pleasure Island experience most likely lead to its downfall, but it provides an interesting template and supplies a necessary need for the Walt Disney World experience – nightlife! Walt Disney World seems to die off fairly early in the evening, and it’s fairly hard to find something to do into the wee hours of the evening, and I’d love to see that change.  I’d love to see the unique Disney experience extend to adults who want to stay up and maybe enjoy a cocktail or two.

So instead of a sweeping armchair quarterback idea of a new themed nighttime district, I came up with a few essentials to what I think would work (and has already worked) to address this problem.

Back In Walt’s Day…. there was Disneyland

DISNEYLAND!  Disneyland?  Oh yes, there are Date Night at Disneyland and Disneyland After Dark specials I love, which show a hoppin theme park, with Louis Armstrong on the Mark Twain, and…. this….

Okay, so Bobby Rydell might not be the answer anymore, but perhaps keeping the parks open till a decent time might help.  E Ticket nights were popular, as are the current extra magical hours.  But even more intriguing about these specials is….

THE IMPORTANCE OF LIVE ENTERTAINMENT

Live entertainment works at Disneyland, and it hasn’t been working too great, or just as much, at Walt Disney World.  Michael and I were shocked to see how many viable musical ensembles exist in Disneyland, most likely due to the difference in crowd perhaps (more local Annual Passholder folk).  Even so, live entertainment – good, unique live entertainment, has been a Disney staple leading back to its formative days in Anaheim, where some of the first contractors were the Marching Band.

Frankie and the West End Boys covered Smashmouth,  I’m more interested in these guys -

… and here’s a shiny example to show you I’m not all grumps.  YeHaa Bob at the River Roost Lounge at Dixie Landings, or umm Riverside – is a glimpse into what I’m talking about.  A more unique experience than listening to poor covers of Barenaked Ladies.  There’s nothing too unique about that.  To boot, at Disneyland, local or otherwise unknown bands often played and made waves on the national scene – including The Osmonds and No Doubt.   Could there be a venue other than House of Blues for up and comers to play at Walt Disney World?

Story continues below the fold…

AN IMMERSIVE, TRANSPORTATIVE, HIGHLY THEMED EXPERIENCE

The drawing boards at Walt Disney Imagineering have been scattered through the years  of wonderful themed ideas that have fallen by the wayside, and the nightlife sector is no exception.   One good area to look at is the immersive restaurant concept, dating back to Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room.  The entire Tiki Room concept came from the audio animatronic technology Walt was developing for a restaurant featuring birds, but it originally started as a Chinese Restaurant in a ne’er built  section called Chinatown off Main Street featuring Confucius, or should I say “Grandfather Chung”.

A few years later, we see this concept come to life with the vultures at Club 33, which were intended to eavesdrop through microphones embedded in chandeliers and drop into conversations suddenly.

The Blue Bayou at Disneyland, the Phase 1 Magic Kingdom Restaurants (Liberty Tree, Cinderella’s Royal Table) and years later the restaurants at World Showcase provide unique dining experiences that remain incredibly popular with little change to this day.  The Biergarten is a wonderful example of this, entering in to a controlled “nighttime environment,” an outdoor Octoberfest complete with nifty fake moon projection (look for it) and crazed live entertainment.  We also see the faux nighttime effect at the Blue Bayou and San Angel Inn at EPCOT.  These restaurants are always filled to the brim, and it’s because the experience is so different than going to a regular restaurant.

One doesn’t have to look far even today at Walt Disney World to see this working at night.  Fort Wilderness’ Hoop Dee Doo Revue has been continually sold out on the same show since 1974, and the Polynesian Luau also continues to wow visitors, as it has for decades.

The Empress Lilly was once a unique experience like the ones mentioned before, until it was leased to Levy Restaurants to become Fulton’s Crab House.  At one time it held several restaurants and lounges and was considered the crown jewel of Disney dining.

To supplement this pre-Michael Eisner’s arrival,  Dick Nunis and Co. announced a New Orleans Street expansion where the Pleasure Island plot currently resides, with a New Orleans themed hotel (to later become Port Orleans) and a nighttime district extension of the Walt Disney World Village.  I picture this being a smaller, more manageable area compared to the Pleasure Island/West Side sprawl – perhaps less clubby, and more of an extension of what’s now known as Marketplace, but with a little more adult/nighttime flair.  Exquisetly themed, with a hotel option that would have no doubt been as popular if not moreso than the large resort it became. One can only imagine what might have been…

ENOUGH WITH THIRD PARTIES AND KEEPING EYES ON JONESES

The “unique/immersive” point leads me to one of my biggest gripes of the Eisner/Post-Eisner Era – cut it out with third party vendors!  Okay, I’m not saying ALL third-party vendors – what would Walt Disney World be without the Arribas Brothers, and if Don DeFore’s Silver Banjo Barbeque ever came back to Disneyland, I’d be first in line.  However, we’ve somehow gone from seemless blending of these third party folk to having them become the show, as was seen at Downtown Disney’s West Side development, and at the Boardwalk with such bland and non-Disney experiences as the Big River Grille, where you can find food and a micro brew experience just like you can in every town experiencing urban renewal.

Eisner’s looking around and keeping up with the Joneses mentality -  to keep it hip, etc., led to hasty kneejerk planning such as Pleasure Island to combat Church Street Station, West Side to combat Universal’s City Walk, and the Disney-MGM Studios to combat the Universal Studios.  Now we could waste our time debating the unique merits of each (in fact I may argue on all points that Disney’s answer is superior), but the point remains that all were reactionary decisions, and all are analogues to another entertainment option across town.   Couldn’t Disney instead continue to provide the Disney Difference, not riffing with other folks’ plans and instead continuing to deliberately seek their own agenda?

WHAT ABOUT A DIVE?

Give the folks a comfortable place where they can drink and mingle I say.  These days Walt Disney World bars have become homogenized and sterile – a sort of airport bar experience which I do not relish, including a menu of fixed drinks around property.  Not too long ago, you could go to the Contemporary and order a “Monorail Pink”, “Monorail Yellow”, and “Monorail Red,”  drinks specifically designed for the resort where the monorails came directly to the concourse.  Now all the menus look the same, and there’s none of the intimacy, detail, and specific theming Disney is known for.

One of the most appealing concepts of Pleasure Island’s original plan never saw it off the drawing board.  It was a bar called Madison’s Dive, which Jim Hill describes in an article you can read here as:

The nightclub that was originally announced for Disney’s World’s Pleasure Island but ultimately never built. The one that was supposed to have been loaded with all these salty old sailors who would win spin out these amazing yarns. The club that was to have had a sunken bar that featured a window that looked directly out into the depths of Lake Buena Vista. Where — every so often — a real live mermaid would have swum by the window.

Yes, Madison’s Dive would have been filled with some amazing effects, some of which ended up in the Adventurer’s Club.  Alas, it too never saw the light of day, but I could imagine enjoying a place like that quite a bit.   Smaller more intimate night experiences sound like a good idea to me.

SHOULD YOU SPREAD THE LOVE OR KEEP A SPECIFIC NIGHTTIME DISTRICT?

When Walt Disney World opened, nighttime entertainment was spread across property.  It provided for more unique experiences, as you can still see with the Luau, Hoop Dee Doo, electrical water pageant, et al.   Back in the 70s, you could also see Vegas-style entertainment with big names such as Rosemary Clooney and Mel Torme at the Contemporary’s Top of The World.  It seemed Disney used all that was in its arsenal to provide a unique experience to visitors.  As during the day, Disney planners at the time took advantage of the difference in the Florida counterpart to Disneyland, expanding entertainment to the resorts, on the water, and organized throughout property.

As the property expanded under the Eisner regime, it seemed the push to get Pleasure Island off the ground compromised other experiences.  Even with the opening of the Boardwalk in 1996, the big brother status of Pleasure Island seemed to bully Boardwalk into never reaching its potential.  Instead of expanding options around property and continuing to innovate, these execs seemed to feel the need to funnel people to one specific place to make it profitable.   After the more-or-less shuttering of the Transportation and Ticket Center as a viable transportation hub in the mid-nineties, most nighttime busses crawled slowly through Downtown Disney in an effort to force folks to a corner of property they might not normally go to.

Instead of bus bamboozling, how about developing a product people will know about and want to go out of their way to see?  I don’t really have an answer or fully developed opinion to this point, I don’t know if a giant nightclub district could ever be successful enough to compete fiscally with other products Disney offers – I do however believe that the Pleasure Island product itself could have been stronger, more unique, showcasing more Adventurer’s Club-like experiences instead of a pure street party appeal.  Also I know that there should be nighttime experiences spread further across property – in the parks, at most resorts, and other places such as Boardwalk.

FOLKS NEED TO DANCE SOMEWHERE

Finally, the importance of cutting a rug must be addressed.  Though not as imperative to social functions as it once was, according to my tally the only place you can dance around WDW now is in the little kid splash fountains in the theme parks and Atlantic Dance.  This is unacceptable.   Again looking back at Disneyland, the Plaza Pavilion once thrived as a dance venue, and working many a Grad Nite I can attest to the somewhat disturbing need for dance folks feel.   I will say this – it may behoove Disney to aim small, miss small on this point.  The Blessing of Size once again has come in to make WDW planners build giant sheds for folks to dance in – and though I love Atlantic Dance in theory – it’s just too big and most likely scares folks away with its largesse.   All the clubs in Pleasure Island were huge (save 8 Trax and the Jazz Co,)  and just might have been too big to be profitable.

I would love to see Pioneer Hall’s leger.   The place is fairly tiny, the show has been the same for almost 40 years, yet they continue to charge so much money and keep up the popularity.  Why?  It’s intimate, it’s different, it’s themed, it’s worth all the money to see Disney working right.   Where would you rather spend an evening – in the Wild West, or at a seedy dance club called Motion that feels a lot like a warehouse-turned-western saloon-turned-sketchy nightclub?

I know what I’d pick, and I believe I know what’s the smarter investment for decades to come…

Mr. Brad Fitzgerald, Instructor, Department of Industrial & Engineering Technology, received $13,607 from The Disney Corporation for SWOSU/Disney RFID Project Phase II – FY09 to support real time learning experiences for SWOSU students, encompassing quality control, manufacturing operations, statistical analysis, and marketing.

Now I wonder what interest the Disney company would have in RFID research…

Source

What does Captain “EO” stand for?

I’m assuming they mean as an abbreviation, not what does he stand for philosophically. Because you do not want to know.

Anyway, to answer that question I’ll quote myself – a citation from my old, old, old original Disney website, WEBCOT:

The name ‘Captain EO’ comes from Eos, the Greek goddess of dawn. Yes, Imagineers sometimes take drugs.

So there you go. Officially, EO doesn’t stand for anything. Not even Earl Owensby. It’s just a shout-out to all those ancient Greeks who happen to be Jacko fans.

And now, because it’s apropos, I repost this video:

While I’m no EO fan, doesn’t the fact that we’re still saddled with Honey, I Shrunk the Audience seem like another instance of Walt Disney World getting a swift kick to the batch while Disneyland points and laughs? Let’s see how John Lasseter would like it if he could only ever see Enchanted Tiki Room: Under New Management in perpetuity.

I’ll keep reminding myself – we have the WEDway, we have the WEDway…