I’ve heard a lot of rabid Disney fans call themselves addicts. But according to The Smoking Gun, a couple women in New Jersey have an entirely different claim to the term.
In a creative bid to smuggle drugs into a New Jersey jail, two women allegedly dissolved narcotics into a paste and then painted the drugs onto pages of a coloring book (featuring Cinderella and Snow White) that were mailed to a trio of inmates.
Hat tip: G4.
My friend Geoff sent me a link to these disturbingly ugly and sometimes-racist toys on SuperPunch. I keep wishing I had something intelligent to say about them. But I have no words.
The Those Darn Cats bookclub is reading one of my favorite books about Disney World, Cory Doctorow’s Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom. So, it shouldn’t be all that surprising that this week’s Jentasmic! at StudiosCentral references not only this great book, but also xkcd, Plato, and the Creative Commons license under which this book is distributed online for free.
The book takes place in a future where technology has conquered death, famine, and all kinds of material want, making earlier corporate and social models obsolete, and casting timeless philosophical questions into a new light. What makes us who we are, mind or matter? What is the nature of the soul? And are audio-animatronics truly central to our experience as Disney Parks guests?
Yes indeed: That last question is arguably one of the central questions of the book. You see, Doctorow’s not just a casual Disney fan; his writing demonstrates not only his love for the Parks, but also his understanding of the conflict inherent in re-imagineering attractions to leverage new technologies and improve Guest experience, while still retaining the essential nature of the attraction and its nostalgic appeals.
So what are you waiting for? Go download the book, either in text or audiobook, and get your geek on. We’ll be discussing it on Those Darn Cats sometime in April.
Long-Forgotten has a great piece today on rejected ideas for the Haunted Mansion. Some influences can clearly be seen on the finished product . . . and some absolutely can’t. I particularly enjoyed the one-eyed ogre version of Rasputin.
Hat tip: BoingBoing.
Clearly I have not been keeping up with my tween entertainment news, because it is only now that I discover Disney Channel has moved the premiere of Lemonade Mouth to Friday, April 15, according to Nick and More.
And why do I care about Lemonade Mouth, after having been disappointed by such films as Jump In! and Camp Rock? Well, here’s how Lemonade Mouth was described on BuzzNet:
Disney Channel has signed up a new movie musical based on the novel Lemonade Mouth, which tells the tale of five Rhode Island freshmen who meet in detention and form a garage band with a ukulele.
Plus, the Racialicious post on Lemonade Mouth some time back has intrigued me with the promise of a genuinely talented leading lady. And hey, one of my favorite musical duos is Petty Booka, a ukelele-playing duo on the Benten record label. So what the heck?
Since I’m notoriously spoiler-free, I’m avoiding the early releases of songs, plot details, etc. I’d rather be taken by surprise, as I was by High School Musical. But if you want the scoop, check out the Official Lemonade Mouth Headquarters, by the author of the book on which the movie is based.
I’ve just agreed to serve on one more Anime Boston 2011 Panel: Get Offa My Lawn, in which us old geezers school the young’uns on how good they have it these days.
Back in my day, we had three anime shows, and we found them by turning the UHF dial. And we liked it that way.
(Which three, you might ask? Well, Kimba, Speed Racer, and Astro Boy of course.)
So . . . if you’re interested in Japanese animation or just plain want to watch a bunch of people running around Boston in awesome costumes, or if you’re intrigued by any of the other panels I’m involved with, mark your calendar for April 22-24, 2011. The old geezer panel is currently scheduled for 5pm on the 22nd, but schedules are subject to change.
Even if you don’t make it to any of my panels, I’m pretty darn easy to spot: Just look for the middle-aged lady with short blonde hair, glasses, and (most likely) carrying a Tokidoki bag or Totoro backpack. Even just the middle-aged part narrows the crowd down a whole lot.
Courtesy of forensicator8 on YouTube. Hat tip to blastr, and to my beloved for sending the link.
Whatever I might write here about the ongoing devastation in Japan, the situation will have changed by the time you read it.
.jpg "My Neighbor Totoro poster")
All I know is that I think of the Japanese rural areas affected by the quakes, the tsunamis, the radiation releases, and I can only imagine Totoro weeping.
My Neighbor Totoro is a sweet film about two girls living in rural Japan, their parents, and the forest spirits who watch over and protect them. Nothing happens quickly in this film, and nothing should. It is a meditation on love, on family, and perhaps also on animism, one of the basic principles of Shinto, a significant religion in Japan. It tells a story about fear, and love, and joy, and being comforted and helped by spirits that perhaps nobody else can see, or understand.
Totoro may not be the sort of spirit one would pray to for intervention. While he occasionally does step in to save the day, he’s more the type to give quiet comfort, to roar and fly and pull full-grown trees quickly from the ground. He’s whimsical, and childlike at times. Umbrellas confuse and delight him. He doesn’t always seem to understand how large he is (look how he tries to protect himself from the rain in the movie poster pictured here).
I’ve heard from a couple friends in the Tokyo area, and they both tell the same story: Stranded after the earthquake, impossibly long walk home, difficult logistics, continuing aftershocks, new challenges. And the situation in Tokyo doesn’t compare to the level of devastation nearer the epicenter.
I think of Totoro, and his quiet comfort, and I hope something like that is with the people of Japan today.
I woke up to the news of Japan’s earthquake and tsunami, and to warnings of (smaller) tsunamis en route to Hawaii (now hit, not bad) and California (still waiting, but hopefully much weaker impact by the time it hits there). My heart sank. My thoughts are with the people of Japan, and also with those currently evacuating and making other preparations in many parts of the world.
The BBC is my go-to for major news stories. Here’s their special report on the crisis in Japan.
Tokyo Disneyland? Don’t get all worked up about what you might see on twitter. Yes it’s been affected but check some live coverage here, and chill. (Hat tip to my good friend Trace for the link.)
WDW Today took Disney World planning tips to a whole new level with Episode 837 – Mmmm… brainsss! in which they discuss best strategies for defending the parks against zombie hordes.
I would like to please request follow-up episodes on surviving an onslaught of sparkly vampires, or city-crushing monsters. Kthxbai.
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