Kalaka with a friend!

I was planning a going-away party for a co-worker last week. In the interest of saving fuel, I wanted to remind everyone to carpool to the restaurant. For fun, I decided to use a term from my childhood in the invite. It was from a public service announcement which aired during the gas crisis of the 70's. A cartoon Noah is explaining that he was the first to carpool, and how they called it "kalaka" in his day. The ad ended with "Kalaka with a friend!" I changed it slightly in the invite, saying "Kalaka with a co-worker or two!" I had hoped that at least some of my peers (age-wise) would get a smile out of this memory.

Would you believe, no one at all remembers this? I don't know why it stuck in my brain. I can't seem to find much history about the ad, other than this entry in the Urban Dictionary. Perhaps it only aired in the New York Metropolitan area? Does anyone else remember this and know more about it?

Big Controversy Over Small World

I'm a big fan of the "It's A Small World" attraction at the Disney parks; I even have a Squidoo lens about it. So as you can imagine, I have been following the latest controversy over this innocuous ride with much interest. It all started with this MiceAge article, in which Al Lutz talked about rumored changes to the classic attraction, including the addition of Disney characters to some of the scenes, and the replacement of the rain forest scene with a patriotic tribute to the United States.

The article ruffled a lot of feathers, including Kevin L. Blair, son of the late Mary Blair. (I have a Squidoo lens about her too!) This letter was posted on the Re-Imagineering blog, from Kevin to Disney executives, urging them not to tamper with Mary Blair's "Children of the World" theme. (Be sure to read the discussion comments which follow - some interesting points are raised, both pro and con.)

Kevin L. Blair's letter, along with comments from many fans, generated a response from Marty Sklar, The Walt Disney Company's international ambassador for Walt Disney Imagineering, found here on The Disney Blog. (Be sure to read John Frost's initial thoughts on Marty's letter, found in the first Comment after the letter.)

The rumored enhancements have instigated the creation of Save the Rainforest, Save the Small World. This web site is an attempt to convince The Walt Disney Company to do the right thing, and contains contact information for those who wish to write to the company and express their displeasure in these changes.

Additional links to articles and web pages on this topic:

• John Frost provides additional thoughts about Marty Sklar's letter


• From the Re-Imagineering blog, The World Of Animation Speaks includes comments about the proposed changes from many famous people from the Animation industry.


• The Disney Gossip blog claims to have the real story behind the changes to the beloved attraction, and it doesn't have a happy ending.


• Disney archivist Dave Smith pipes in with his opinion in these letters to LaughingPlace.com. And John Frost has a frosty response on The Disney Blog.


• 2719 Hyperion's Jeff Pepper takes a step back and makes some level-headed observations about the entire debate.

My thoughts on all this? I believe that the idea that an attraction can be plussed by throwing Disney characters into it shows a huge lack of creativity and imagination from a company that is supposed to excel in those concepts. Sure, the characters are popular, but they are already all over the place, and too much of a good thing is not usually good. (It's sad that The Walt Disney Company hasn't learned its lesson from "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire.") What's next, updating the Hall of Presidents, replacing George W with the real Goofy? There are other ways to plus an attraction, perhaps throwing in a few special effects, like they did with the Jungle Cruise renovations. No characters slipped in there, but the pirhana effect was a big hit.

And then there's the rumor about the Imagineers destroying the rainforest scene to replace it with that tribute to America. If that is true, then I am simply amazed that the WDC cannot see what a PR nightmare that would create. Besides the symbolic ecological implications from a company that pretends to be so green, I've always thought of that scene, with its flamboyant cat and alligator, as a mini-tribute to the gay community. I wouldn't be surprised if the destruction of those characters ruffled a few rainbow-colored feathers as well.

Sunday Morning Squidooing

I took some time to update a few of my Squidoo lenses this morning:

• It's A Small World: I added some information about the tribute to Joyce Carlson, who recently passed away. This happens to be my highest-ranked lens, but I can't figure out why. A lot of the traffic it gets seems to be related to people looking for music and/or lyrics from the attraction.
• Mary Blair: I just made a few minor updates, correcting some wording and adding an end date for the "Art and Flair" exhibit going on now at the Cartoon Art Museum in San Francisco.
• Walt Disney World Shopping: I added information about the WDW shops in the Orlando International Airport, plus information on mickeysurplus, another WDW artifact seller on eBay. This lens is personally my biggest disappointment. It has links to what I think is a lot of useful WDW shopping information, yet for some reason, Google has stopped indexing it. I can't even find a direct link to it if I google "squidoo shopwdw"! I wish I could find out why Google is ignoring it.
  

Comparing Apples to iPods

OK, I still haven't been able to let this whole iPod touch $20 app thing go. I keep seeing comments on various gadget blogs and the Apple support forum basically telling non-app iPod touch owners to stop their whining, while providing analogies in an attempt to prove that the owners are just plain stupid. Like this analogy, for example:

If you bought a Mac without iWork on it, and then a couple of months later, Apple released an update to iWork and decided to bundle it with new Macs, would you also expect to get iWork for free, even though you didn't have it in the first place?

This analogy, and others that have been offered, aren't even close to the iPod touch situation. A better analogy would be this:

You bought a Mac without iWork on it. iWork exists and will run on your Mac. However, Apple has also put support in place to block you from installing and running this very useful app or anything similar to it without voiding your warranty, in an effort to drive users that really want iWork to buy a more lucrative Mac that has features you don't need, along with additional costs you don't want. A short while later, Apple realizes this isn't working, and changes its strategy. (Or maybe this was the plan all along, to make it seem like they were doing a huge favor to the Mac community, meanwhile extorting additional money from current owners.) With a grand announcement, Apple now begins shipping your exact same model of Mac with iWork installed, for no extra cost. But if you want iWork now, you have to pay for it.

I know that ultimately this is my fault for settling for a device that didn't have all of the features i wanted, but wouldn't you feel that you were deliberately duped by Apple, a victim of its marketing game-playing? I wouldn't want a friend to treat me this way, why would I want to continue to patronize a company that does?

Lesson Learned with the iPod Touch

So, I ranted here about how I wasn't going to get an iPod touch because Apple deliberately left off some key applications that are available on the iPhone. My desire for a new, cool gadget (plus a decent price at Amazon.com) got the better of me, and the day before Christmas, the UPS guy tossed a box containing my new 16GB toy at my front door. I figured I could live without the Mail application because using the "full-featured" Safari browser would allow me to get at my e-mail using AOL's web client. Or so I thought. Had I done a little bit of research, I would have learned that the AOL mail web client doesn't actually work on the touch. So even though the tiny web browser is pretty cool (I love the way it can rotate and re-size itself), this device turned out to be even less useful than I'd hoped. I have been enjoying the multimedia features, though, listening to music and podcasts, and watching video podcasts and movies that I ripped from DVDs or downloaded from Google Video. And I loaded some contact information in it (just to play around with the keyboard, really), along with pictures of some of my trips. But it's not much more than I was already able to do with the Dell Axim that I bought in 2005.

3 weeks later, I'm on Engadget.com reading up on Steve Job's keynote address at MacWorld. There's all this talk about new features for the iPhone. I start getting excited when I see the touch mentioned. "What can we do for the touch? We decided to add five apps to the touch. Mail, maps, stocks, notes, and weather!" All right!!! Finally, this thing is looking useful again. And then I read his next statements: "Starting today we're going to build it into every new iPod touch, for existing iPod touch users it's going to be just a $20 upgrade." What??? You've got to be kidding me! I just spent a small fortune on this thing in late December, and you're telling me that 3 weeks later, I have to shell out another $20 just to get the device that I really wanted, that Apple should have been selling from the start, and that new buyers will get for no extra charge? What a crock!!!

I know, I've read all the discussions about how the early adopters should stop whining because they bought the touch knowing that there were no expectations that there would ever be new features; how Apple has to charge something for the upgrade because of some silly accounting rules (there's a long discussion here on Engadget about the possible legal reasons behind why Apple may have done this); how $20 is really not a lot of money to pay for these additional apps.

While I understand all that, I still can't help but feel badly about this. I'm partly mad at myself - I got caught up in the hype, bought something that wasn't quite what I wanted, and I'm now being extorted in order to get it to where I want it to be. However, I had also hoped that Apple would do the right thing. I should have known better - after all, they are a for-profit company, so of course they are going to do what they can to make a buck. At some point I'll probably get it over with and pay for the upgrade and be done with it. But I know I won't be making the same mistake again with the purchase of future Apple products. If I ever buy from them at all, it will be a product that has all of the features I want, and I will be patient and wait until after the product has been out for a while and the dust has been allowed to settle.

Christmas At Walt Disney World

I can't believe it has already been over a month since my Christmas trip. I had wanted to write about it sooner, but life has been busy ever since I got back.

In general, this was one of my better trips to the World. I had a wonderful time with the MouseFest activities, and met so many nice people! I also got to take the "Behind the Seeds" tour at Epcot's The Land pavilion. The tour was just ok - I don't think I learned that much more than what I'd heard on the boat ride through the greenhouses, but it was neat being able to see the plants and growing methods up-close.

I managed to see every one of my "Must See's"! Here's what I thought about each:

• The refurbished Haunted Mansion: I got to experience this twice, and I must say, they did an amazing job on it. I loved all the new effects and the modified storyline.


• The new Golden Dream montage in The American Adventure: I saw this late in the trip, after several days with not enough sleep. I hate to admit this, but I slept through most of the show. I did wake up when Golden Dreams started. I'm not sure if it was because I had just woken up, but it seemed like there were just too many images coming at me too quickly. I'll have to try this again after a good night's sleep.


• "National Treasures," the new American Heritage Gallery exhibit: I was a little disappointed in this - there weren't many more items on exhibit here than what I'd seen in the online descriptions. And the lighting was very dim, making it more difficult to see what was there. I guess I was expecting more.


• The new "O Canada!" movie: I saw this twice, and really enjoyed it. Martin Short's humor made the experience much more fun, very different from its beautiful but more serious predecessor.


• The Gran Fiesta Tour in the Mexico Pavilion: I experienced this twice, too. Although I liked it, I still missed the original El Rio Del Tiempo theme song.


• The refurbished Spaceship Earth (maybe): It sounded like my chance of seeing this was slim, but they began holding soft openings during my trip, and I actually got to ride it twice! Without spoiling it, I'll just say I loved the improvements made to the first half of the ride, and was bored by the second half. We'll have to wait and see whether they do anything else to spice it up.


• The Harlem Gospel Choir at the Disney/MGM Studio's Theater of the Stars: I found it amusing that they kept calling themselves "world famous," like they were trying to convince the audience of that. But I did enjoy their energetic, heartfelt performance. Nice to see WDW making an effort to bring in some new acts during the holiday season!


• The Laugh Floor Comedy Club: I only saw this once. I love this technology they have developed for the Living Character Initiative, and found the show funny and fresh. But what I hated was that I felt nervous the entire show that I might get selected - I prefer to be entertained more than being part of the entertainment.


• The new Christmas parade (during Mickeys' Very Merry Christmas Party): I saw both runs of this parade durint MVMCP. It was good, but really didn't feel much different from the previous version. The new music seemed nice, but I don't even remember it now. I can't understand why they didn't have the music available for purchase, seems like pretty poor planning.


• Finding Nemo, The Musical (so I can take photos this time): I did get to see this and take pictures without getting yelled at. We were seated pretty far back, tbough, so I couldn't get any closeups of the characters.


• Dream-Along With Mickey (to see the new articulated faces): This technology is so cool! The characters with their moving mouths and blinking eyes look so lifelike! They were using these hi-tech heads in at least one other place as well, but I can't remember exactly where. It seems like it was during MVMCP, perhaps on the Christmas Parade floats, or Mickey's Twas the Night Before Christmas show?

And I almost forgot - here is a link to my trip photo gallery.