10 Days: Hocus Pocus

It came out during some conversations with my podcasting pals that I'd never seen the movie Hocus Pocus. This fact horrified a few of the MouseLifers and they insisted that I remedy the situation. So when a schedule of showing of the film appeared on Twitter the other day, I knew I had run out of excuses and the family sat down to watch last night.

I have an unreasonable aversion to Bette Midler. I have no good reason, she's never said or done anything to make me upset. She has a wonderful voice and I'll even admit she can be very funny. SHe just annoys me. But I girded my loins and gave Hocus Pocus a try.

I'm glad I did. I truly enjoyed the movie, much more than I expected to. I mean, it's not Blazing Saddles funny or scary in the least, but it is completely entertaining, Bette Midler and all. She's actually very good as the lead witch dealing with two less competent little sisters. Sarah Jessica Parker's witch is the youngest and she was my favorite, always in the background doing something goofy with a look of complete buy-in on her face. The child actor leads were good as well, cute but not annoying-cute, if you know what I mean.

I was even surprised at the level of adult humor Disney threw at us adults watching. There's a bus driver that is super-slimey hitting on the witches to the point that when they tell him they want children (they need them to steal their souls and stay young(er) forever) he tells them it may take a few tries, but he's sure he can do that. I died. But then, I'm easily amused.

As an added bonus they say the word "amuck", and that amuses the Hell out of me, too (see? Easy.).

I've completed my podcast homework! I'm a little more Halloween Disney-fied, and I'm ready to appreciate the stage show at MNSSHP this year.

AMUCK!!!!

14 Days: Take My Money

I'm a complete sucker for Disney merchandise. I'm especially a sucker for classic Disney poster art. I have the book this calendar is based upon, and it's amazing.

According to the Disney Parks Blog, each month's poster is perforated for easy removal and framing, almost like they knew I was going to be decorating the room in which I record the MouseLife podcast this winter......

Guess I'll need two :-)

Day 22: Disney Parks Ride Out Team

I have a new life goal! Apparently, due to Hurricane Matthew Disney has activated a Ride Out Team of employees to stay in the parks and on duty for up to 72 hours straight.

I figured I'm perfect for this job. I mean, I've ridden out a good half dozen hurricanes and even more tropical storms. I must have a knack for it. I'm still here, right?

According to this blog post, they are meant to take care of guests safety and well-being and happiness, but when I heard the term, that wasn't what sprung to mind.

I imagined a small group of brave and daring individuals (actually, I had a team of Twitter volunteers assembled and it looked pretty good!) who would "ride out" the storm in a closed and empty Disney Park. In my imaginary world I was joined by Sam and Kathy from our MouseLife Podcast and R.J. from the DisExplorers Podcast. We planned to perform such helpful functions as preventing unsold cupcakes from going stale by eating them all. I figured if things got really hairy we could hunker down in the County Bears Jamboree, on account of they obviously had a supply of Tropical Weather Event Essentials such as moonshine. Of course, the shelter of last resort has to be Pirates of the Caribbean, due to rum and the fact that you'd already be in a boat. See, we've really thought this through!

So put me in coach! Not so much to make ham and cheese sandwiches, and certainly not to face down angry DisBloggers irate at having to actually pay for food. No, Disney Casting, I and my Intrepid Team are ready for the much bigger mission of having the Magic Kingdom to ourselves for a night or so.

For the Greater Good, of course.

32 Days: We Done Been MouseRanted!

It's been eye-opening seeing the vast world that is Disney podcasting. I knew it existed before, but largely because I couldn't figure out how to play my phone through the car radio (yeah, I know, #oldguyproblems), I had never listened to one. Then I was invited to join a podcast and ended up volunteering to produce what is now the three-episode-old MouseLife Podcast. I figured I had better study up, so I noodled out the phone-to-car radio thing and have been listening to a bunch of my fellow Disney podcasters the last few weeks. Some are very professional, some not so much; some I've learned a lot from and some aren't my cup of tea. There are probably hundreds of these things out there, something that surprised me, but it's a labor of love for the people who produce and participate in them, so the fact that so many exist makes me happy.

Thing is, that apparently doesn't make everyone happy. In any gathering of people, either real or virtual, there are the drama queens (male and female, not being sexist here) who revel in rivalry and criticism and basic middle-schoolness. Seems ol' Barry who brought us together got on the wrong side of one of these people, and he stumbled upon MouseLife and tore it apart on his show, Mouse Rants.

Look, I'm not offended or hurt or angry. I'm thoroughly amused. The whole thing is funny, if in a bit of a sad way. Leaving aside the whole Jerry-Barry (Jerry is the MouseRanter) issue and looking at the criticisms of our podcast (and others, part of the shtick of the show is trashing other shows), they largely boil down to a lack of originality. My man even points out that MouseLife is a pretty generic name. Yes, the guy who named a show based on ranting about Disney "Mouse Rants" said that.

And that's the funny part. We're being called out for lack of originality by a guy trying very hard to be the Disney Podcast version of Howard Stern. If you are at all familiar with Howard's show, you'll get it immediately. DisHoward even has a female sidekick who behaves exactly like the Howard Stern Show's Robyn. As DisHoward screams and drops forced F-bombs (because saying "fuck" on a podcast is all edgy and whatnot, don'tcha know) DisRobyn provides the laugh track and agrees with DisHoward and basically just kisses his butt, much like the real pair operated. It's hilarious, at least for a few minutes, or long as you can pretend it's intentional parody.

The part that made me a little sad was noticing that DisHoward almost always refers to podcasting as "radio." It's a bit cute, but I have to wonder if radio wasn't DisHoward's dream and this is as close as he could get to it. More power to him in the sense that a podcast is a spoken audio medium and maybe it makes him feel better about not being a DJ, but I suspect that's where some of his anger comes from---frustration at not being a real radio personality. And that's sad.

So I guess that's our official welcome into the wider social sphere of Disney Podcasters. DisHoward and DisRobyn did play a bit of our show on theirs, and they have quite a few listeners, so that's not all bad. And he gave out our iTunes address! Say what you want, DisHoward, just spell our name right ;-)

53 Days: MNSSHP PhotoPass Magic Shots

We've decided to purchase the Memory maker package from Disney's PhotoPass service this trip in hopes of getting photos of all three of us at once. One bonus to that I hadn't even counted on was PhotoPass shots during the Halloween party. And a bonus of THAT I hadn't counted on is these super cool Magic Shots available exclusively during the MNSSHP.

We are all fans of the Headless Horseman, so you can bet we're excited to have a photo with him! You can follow the link above to see more examples, including two video Magic Shots. Thanks to my new podcast friends, I have a better idea how this whole PhotoPass thing works and how to make sure we find all the Magic Shots we can (you need to ask the photographers).

If we play our cards right, I'll have Wordless Wednesday material for months to come :-)

54 Days: And Awwwwaaaayyyyyyy We Go! Into The MouseLife

We did it. MouseLife is live on SoundCloud as of about five minutes ago with a special Preview Show featuring our discussion of Walt Disney's response to the Zika virus and the effects it may have on Disney travel planning.

Want to listen? Sure you do! It's right here:

https://soundcloud.com/john-zack-490927445/mouselife-podcast-previewshow

It's been quite a ride getting this together. I mean just this weekend I became the licensee of our theme music and the owner of the future home of the MouseLife Podcast Website. A month ago I hadn't ever listened to any part of a podcast. Hell, even today, I've only listened to ours all the way to the end. But with the help of Google, YouTube and some terrific new friends, I'm producing one.

Those new friends? That's been the best part. As much as I've enjoyed learning the ins and outs of podcasting and audio editing, the real joy has come from getting to know a group of people with basically just a love of Disney in common. Turns out we have more in common (three of us are Penn Staters, which makes me VERY happy), but the only thread weaving us all into this venture was Disney. And it worked. It not only worked, it worked amazingly well. We've spent maybe three hours total together on Skype and already feel a camaraderie and friendship. We are as far away from each other as New York and Texas; we are hairdressers and travel planners; some of us are moms and dads, some not; some of us save to visit WDW once a year if we're lucky, some live close enough to go on a whim. But despite the differences of situation and experience, we seem to be fitting together like the pieces of a puzzle.

I would never have meet a single one of my MouseLife cohorts if not for Twitter, the Twitter-based Small World Club created by another friend I've never actually met, Barry Percival, and this project itself. But I am so very glad I have. These folks have become friends, real ones. They are all positive and intelligent and articulate and have wonderful senses of humor. The level of support and cheering on as we get this show off the ground has been unbelievable.

Or not. I mean if we Disney Geeks are anything we are Believers, in ourselves, in others and in that Magic that we keep our eyes open wide enough to see. Guess in hindsight, I shouldn't be surprised this is so much fun :-)

61 Days: Mainstreet Electrical Parade LiveStream

I've been a huge fan of the Disney Parks Blog's LiveStream segments. Lisa and I watched the Fourth of July fireworks and I saw the Mickey's Royal Friendship Faire show on the Cinderella Castle forecourt stage. Both were the same format, introduced by a host who would talk to a guest or two with some connection to the upcoming show, then show the event, then the host came back on to say goodbye. But last night's was different.

First, a positive. While the past LiveStreams were only viewable during the live broadcast, this one is still up and watchable on YouTube. Here it is, for now. I understand it won't last forever.

Now for the downside. This wasn't nearly as well done a show. It began well enough, with the usual intro. Sure it was a bit longer than the past introductions, but that didn't bother me. The problem came about halfway through the parade when they went to an "on the street reporter" to interview a family of spectators. The a bit more parade and then back to the host for an interview. After that it was a mess, with a bit of parade then more spectators. What the heck?

I have no idea what they were thinking here. This was my, and many other people's, last chance to see this parade before it moves to Disneyland. I kind of feel cheated. I guess the first couple LiveStreams spoiled me.

Another plus, though, was watching this while on Skype with the crew of the upcoming (really, I promise) MouseLife podcast. I had hoped to record a practice show and a live viewing of the MSEP LiveStream, but the recording software wasn't cooperating. But even so, we had a ball watching together. It's a fun group. This bodes well :-)

62 Days: Bringing MouseLife to Life

I mentioned in a earlier blog that I've been working with some new Twitter friends on creating a podcast. I volunteered to be producer and take on the technical side of things. Well, tonight is our practice show. I'm calling it a Tech Rehearsal, and I'm feeling about like I do before one of those.

It's been a fun few weeks, really. Everyone is pitching in and doing what they can to get this thing off the ground. Thanks to our Social Media Dude, John, we have a Facebook page and a Twitter (@MouseLifepod) account (Hint: you should go like and follow them). Shelby, who has volunteered to do the news, has done a bang-up job gathering tidbits and writing a truly professional-level script. Everyone has been offering great ideas, offering expertise in all sorts of Disney-related stuff and cheering each other on. Barry, who brought this group together, is the biggest cheerleader of all and we all owe him one for this incredible opportunity.

For my part, I've been having a ball. I like fooling around with tech, so while it took a few tries, getting to the point I was able to record a conversation on Skype was fun. I'm fascinated with the capabilities of the freeware Audacity, so playing with that today in preparation for editing tonight's show next week was cool. But the part that really blew me away has been talking to a real composer guy about show music.

We were in a quandary over intro music, not sure how to find something we were allowed to use.  Kathy in our group mentioned she had a composer friend and put me in touch.

Since then we've been back and forth over what will work best. We've chosen a song and now we are working on finding what kind of pieces he can break it up into to serve as intro, outro and even bumper music (for between segments). It's so cool, and a bit surreal, to be talking about this stuff wit a professional.

Speaking of professional. I got to buy Real Radio Announcer Headphones for this gig. Let's hope they are good luck. We begin less than an hour from right now. Wish me luck!



  

84 Days: Opening New Doors

I've grown to really enjoy Disney Twitter and have fallen in with a bunch calling themselves The Small World Club. It's a pretty wide-ranging group with a love for Disney and a positive outlook in common, which is nice. I needed more positivity, and even if I don't actually know these people, I've enjoyed interacting with like-minded folk.

Now it looks like another door may be opening due to this crew. A few of us are toying with the idea of a podcast. Until today,  hadn't even ever listened to a podcast, but I find I'm happy when I keep moving forward so I agreed to hop on board when the suggestion came my way. Because I'm a nerd, I spent the morning looking into how this thing works. I literally Googled "how to make a podcast" and after a bit of clicking learned quite a bit. Turns out it doesn't appear to be that difficult a proposition. The equipment is basic and inexpensive, the software is readily available, and if need be, I think I could manage some of the technical aspects myself.

This project needs a lot of work to become reality, I mean we don't even have a name for the thing yet, but it has me excited in the way only new things can. I love opening new doors, because I'm curious :-)