Captain EO, We Hardly Knew Ye

Geoff Carter of Your Souvenir Guide takes us back to 1986 with his reminiscence of Captain EO’s opening night.

We cracked wise about Michael Jackson as the line rolled up Main Street, past the building that would become Star Tours (“Get ready for the ULTIMATE THRILL EXPERIENCE!”) and into the Magic Eye Theater, recently converted from the Space Mountain Stage. We talked shit about Michael Jackson even as we put on our 3-D glasses and the Magic Eye Theater darkened to an enveloping canvas of stars. We snickered nervously as Jackson entered the film and issued an unconvincing ultimatum (“We’re goin’ in”).

I don’t actually recall whether I ever saw Captain EO in the parks (though, of course, YouTube is my friend). I visited Disneyland just once during its run, in February of 1989, so it’s possible I did, and that the memory’s just slipped away like so many other odds and ends (was I really supposed to have already forgotten so many things by my 40s?). My then-girlfriend was quite the Michael Jackson fan, so I’ll bet we went.

Watching Captain EO today brought on the inevitable nostalgia for a time that never happened, a carefree and optimistic late 1980s. (Well, at least that time never happened for me.) And I do love the Supreme Leader, even if only because she feels a bit like an early (and unfortunately less creepy) version of the Borg Queen.

But I can’t quite support the petition drive to bring back Captain EO to the parks. No, it’s not just the fact that Michael Jackson has been accused of some horrible things….it’s the fact that the movie hasn’t aged particularly well, and I’d rather see Disney investing on moving forward rather than backward.

And really, when I reminisce about Michael Jackson, I wanna go farther back. The Jackson 5 ABC was the first real album I owned, and I can’t help but mourn a little for the way this glorious, golden-voiced child’s life (and death) seem to have turned out.

Disney Netpal Creeps Me Out!

You won’t be finding the Disney Netpal in my house. This week’s Jentasmic! tells you why. The bottom line?

Who could argue against parental controls that create a web-safe computing environment for kids? Not me, unless, well, that parental control system is designed by a corporation with a vested interest in making sure your kids are interested in their content, and theirs alone.

Free Print and Play Disney Board Games and More!

Thank goodness I’m married to a geek! Otherwise, how would I have ever found out about the free print-and-play Disney board games, greeting cards, etc at the Seite 42 web site? Mr. Broke Hoedown was kind enough to point me to Board Game Geek, which highlights a few of the games, and when I followed their link to the English language site index, I discovered there’s a ton more stuff too. All these originate from Mickey Mouse Magazine, a now-defunct German publication whose handicrafts are now preserved by fans and their scanners at Seite 42. A few highlights:

Calendar Robot

Car Racing Game, with favorite Disney characters

Build your own little Duckburg!

Snow White Disney movie game

Perfect DIY fun for these bleak economic times, n’est-ce pas?

Star Wars Cakes!

So deliciously geeky! Head on over to CakeWrecks for more and more!

Fallen Princesses

Rapunzel II by Dina Goldstein

Every story can have a happy ending; it’s all a matter of when you stop writing*.

Dina Goldstein has created a photo project which envisions alternate and continuing stories for some of our favorite princesses. She writes:

I explored the original brothers Grimm’s stories and found that they have very dark and sometimes gruesome aspects, many of which were changed by Disney. I began to imagine Disney’s perfect Princesses juxtaposed with real issues that were affecting women around me, such as illness, addiction and self-image issues.

The full essay and photos (so far) can be found at JPG Magazine. Hat tips to Mr. Broke Hoedown for sending me the link, and to The Disney Blog (who rightly praised the Rapunzel above).

* I wish I could remember who I’m paraphrasing here. Google isn’t my friend. If anybody knows the author, could you drop me a note?

Matterhorn T-shirt Shoulder Bag

Based on anecdotal evidence I’ve gathered at countless thrift shops, I think it’s safe to say that a lot of people come home from Disney with t-shirts that made sense at the time, but quickly lose their appeal once the vacation is over. For some reason this seems especially true of Eeyore shirts, but I digress.

If you’ve got some t-shirts like that yourself, or if you’re willing to scavenge the thrift shops for other people’s purchases, there’s plenty of ways to transform a discarded t-shirt into something you’d actually like to wear.

Cashing in on the green and DIY aesthetic of books such as Sew Subversive: Down and Dirty DIY for the Fabulous Fashionista and Generation T: 108 Ways to Transform a T-Shirt, Simplicity has a “go green” line of sewing patterns which incorporate re-purposed materials. I made the bag pictured below using Simplicity 2972, using a t-shirt I’d found in a local thrift shop, an old pair of jeans, and about $4 worth of interfacing and lining. Strictly speaking, it’s not a Disney t-shirt…but this girl grew up with Disneyland’s Matterhorn, you know what I’m sayin’? And amusingly enough, I just so happened to finish the project on the Matterhorn’s 50th birthday.

Now, I do have a couple complaints about the pattern. For one thing, the packaging (of course) heavily stresses the “go green” angle, but only one of the five bags pictured is actually made from recycled materials. Also, while they tell you any men’s L or XL t-shirt will have sufficient fabric for the required pieces of the bag, this simply wasn’t the case. I don’t think even a XXL would have made it, as there simply wasn’t a long enough piece of shirt to cut the main front/back piece from. Instead, I needed to throw that old pair of jeans into the mix to have enough fabric, in large enough pieces.

But those quibbles aside, I’m quite happy with my bag. And actually I kinda like it with the denim in the mix, though making the straps was a little trickier than it would have been with jersey. (Also, the interfacing simply wasn’t necessary with the denim, which saved me a step or two.)

If I were to do this project over again, I’d likely use the t-shirt only for the flap, and perhaps use the rest of the t-shirt fabric as lining (more re-use, more better), using denim for the side pieces. I’m a bit concerned that the denim strap attached to the jersey sides of the bag may not hold up well over time, even with the interfacing to support the jersey. Or, I’d buy a couple t-shirts that color-coordinate and work well together thematically, and make the entire bag out of jersey (as Simplicity envisioned), but that would be a much slouchier bag than I prefer.

Missing the Teacups?

From, of course, icanhascheezburger.

Missing Star Wars Weekends?

You are not alone! Read my recent Jentasmic! column on StudiosCentral.com.

Can’t get to Star Wars Weekends this year? Or perhaps you’ve already been this year? Even if you’re planning to attend the last of this year’s weekends, sooner or later you’ll be in my shoes: Suffering through Star Wars Weekends withdrawal.

It’s not a pretty thing, really. Sure, I can calm myself for a few hours here and there by cruising YouTube for Star Wars mash-ups, and Lord knows my blogreader brings me plenty of geeky Star Wars goodness on a near-daily basis. I could even drag out the Star Wars Trivial Pursuit for a rousing game with the boy, just like we played together to prep him for last year’s Jedi Mind Challenge. But it’s a far cry from skipping down Commissary Lane looking for that Jawa who’ll trade you a Disney Vacation Club for a shiny new penny.

Aah, happy times those were……

But today? It’s like I’ve missed the funky boogie train.

NPR: Dear Pixar, From All The Girls With Band-Aids On Their Knees

Good lord, I love that headline so much I just had to repeat it. And now you simply must read the article! Here’s a snippet to entice you:

I have nothing against princesses. I have nothing against movies with princesses. But don’t the Disney princesses pretty much have us covered? If we had to wait for your thirteenth movie for you to make one with a girl at the center, couldn’t you have chosen something — something — for her to be that could compete with plucky robots and adventurous space toys?

Or more to the point, why couldn’t your first female central character be as specifically drawn as the women and girls (and girl robots, etc.) you’re already writing as secondary characters? Ratatouille has a chef! WALL-E has Eve! The Incredibles has superheroes!

And Up…oh, Up has Ellie, who I could have watched forever. Seen only in flashbacks to the main story, Ellie is warm and hilarious, ambitious and fearless, and then gone for most of the movie. She provides the engine for the story, in many ways, but it’s an old man and a little boy who actually get to hit the gas.

Hat tip: Feministing.

(And yes, I loved Up too.)

Curiouser and Curiouser: Gay Days at Disney Theme Parks

It’s Gay Days at Walt Disney World! So, just as you’d expect…..I’m on business travel in Portland Oregon. So I must simply send my heartfelt cheers to my queer friends in Orlando this week, and let you all know that I’m wearing a virtual red shirt in solidarity. (Because in actuality, I’m wearing a committee sweater.)

If you’ve ever been curious about the history and sociological analysis of this event, as well as its sister in Anaheim, you simply have to check out the essay, “Curiouser and Curiouser: Gay Days at the Disney Theme Parks,” part of the collection “Rethinking Disney: Private Control, Public Dimensions.” Your local library may well have it, but you can also read pieces of it online at Google Books. The essay brings you on a journey from “Guerilla Raid” to “Discreet Charity Event” to “Apolitical Vacation.” Sounds a little like my life, actually.