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Name: Chef
Birthday: 1/29/1968
Gender: Male
Interests: Disneyana, Halloween, Christianity, music. Politics, fossils, ephemera, musical theater.
Hollywood, San Francisco, the mysterious cat deaths of Whidbey Island. Multitrack recording, 3-D photography, autograph collecting.
Expertise: Graphic design, art direction and project production.
Message: message meEmail: email me
Website: visit my website
Yahoo:  mansionchef
Member Since:
8/2/2005
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| Last chance: Join DoomBuggies for a Swinging Wake at Disneyland!
Come join with like-minded fiends at DoomBuggies Tenth Anniversary Swinging Wake - it'll be a graveyard smash! While our original registration deadline is past, a few cancellations have left a small number of tickets available - so come join us! Attendees at our Swinging Wake will have a rare opportunity to hear stories directly from some of the famed imagineers who originally worked with Walt Disney and created the Haunted Mansion - in a personal setting with amazing food and wonderful people. This is truly a rare opportunity for fans of Disneyland and Disney history. Participants to this exclusive event on February 25, 2008 will be treated to the following eerie extravaganza: * Entry to Disneyland Park at 6:00 p.m. with no additional ticket needed (discounted full-day passes are available) * An exclusive, attendees-only dinner and program at New Orleans Square's inimitable Blue Bayou Restaurant at 7:00 p.m., located inside the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction * A special after-hours ride through the Haunted Mansion, exclusively for Swinging Wake attendees after the public has left Disneyland Park * Fantastic special guest speakers and unforgettable photo opportunities with official Disney characters * An event logo t-shirt, an event cloisonne pin and lanyard, and a collectible special gift Following is the dinner menu, developed by Disneyland Park specifically for our Swinging Wake: Course One Brides Beating Heart Red Pepper Bisque Fresh Microgreens with Blood Orange Vinaigrette Course Two Filet Mignon & Shrimp Accompanied by Risotto and Seasonal Vegetables Course Three Graveyard Chocolate Coffins Coffee, Tea, Soda, Non Alcoholic Mint Julep Vegetarian Option Portobello Mushroom marinated in a balsamic vinaigrette, broiled, served with roasted corn and bell-pepper couscous and sautéed spinach The price per person for this event is $249 (plus handling fees, for total of $256). Payment in full is due via Paypal to chefmayhem@aol.com by January 31, and we are currently filling last-minute registrations on a first-to-pay basis. If you wish to purchase tickets, or have any questions or concerns, please contact Chef Mayhem at chefmayhem@aol.com. So come out and socialize with us... at the DoomBuggies.com Tenth Anniversary Swinging Wake! | | |
| Arrghh!Ne’er too late it be to be celebratin’ Talk Like a Pirate Day, mates! In honor of the day spoken of, we the crew of TellNoTales.com have designed a piratical puzzle of a bewitchin’ nature that, once solved, might lead ye to a bloomin’ treasure!
Set course for the TellNoTales.com Forums and solve the puzzle for a chance to win a copy of Jason Surrell’s book, Pirates of the Caribbean, from the Magic Kingdom to the Movies. Autographs include Jason Surrell, former Disney Imagineers Harriet Burns and Alice Davis, Jim Byrkit (storyboard artist for all three POTC movies) Hal Hickel (animation supervisor at ILM), Joel Harlow (makeup artist for all three POTC movies), Rich Heinrichs (production designer), Jon Rogers (Director of Franchise Development for Buena Vista Motion Pictures) and Lee Arenberg.
The contest runs until Wednesday, Sept. 26th, so grease your thinkin' caps and beat your stout-hearted mates to our treasure! Ye need be registered at the TellNoTales.com message boards to join in, but joinin' is free and the gatherin's are not but pleasant diversions from the relentless call of Davy Jones' Locker - so what be ye waitin' for? Sign up and join our crew today!
Yo ho! | | |
| Imagineering on the WDW Haunted Mansion updates 
Death Becomes Them
Like
its counterpart in Anaheim, the Haunted Mansion at the Walt Disney
World Resort's Magic Kingdom will be getting some new magic when it
re-opens in September, after its current refurbishment is completed.
But make no mistake, warns a team of spirited Imagineers, this is no
typical touch-up-the-paint-and-remove-(okay, add)-the-cobwebs project.
"To
call this a refurbishment doesn't even come close," says WDI senior
principal production designer Neil Engel. "We're taking a classic
attraction and using new technologies to present the existing,
signature show in a more exciting and immersive way — which has us just
as jazzed as the guests will be!"
The Haunted Mansion
Imagineering team is hard at work in both California and Florida,
getting ready to add new magic to several key scenes, including the
attic scene (complete with the now-infamous bride whose husbands always
seem to get the ax … ) and the séance scene. They're also adding a
completely new story to a previously
dead space and upgrading the attraction's audio, lighting and special effects systems.
"With
a project like this, it's so exciting knowing that you are going into
and touching a classic attraction," says Kathy Rogers, senior show
producer, director. "And in the end, the show winds up even better than
it already was; we know it will remain a classic."
It's All in the Details
A
portion of this refurbishment involves re-propping a few key scenes,
such as the attic. But locating items that clearly and quickly tell the
story of the perfect murder(s), as well as pieces to complement a
mid-19th century Southern motif, isn't as simple as heading to the
closest Ikea.
"The challenge has really been finding the right
prop and period dressing that tells the story you want to tell," says
Steve Probus, set decorator, principal. "We're looking for mid- to
late-1800s furniture, books, drapery and a multitude of props and
dressing that convey information about each of the couples that have
inhabited the mansion. In addition, we want to add an extra layer of
props for more depth in the scenes."
One Step Beyond
The
other components that will give new life (of sorts) to these scenes are
a few key special effects that will be updated during the
refurbishment. Both the floating Madame Leota head and the Haunted
Bride, two characters whose latest technological incarnations debuted
at Disneyland, have been upgraded even further for their reappearance
in the Magic Kingdom.
"The Haunted Bride special effects are an
improved version of what we installed a few years earlier in
Disneyland," says Ken Horii, digital media production supervisor,
director. "R&D had done a great job with that last bride, making
her look like a lifelike-looking ghost, as much as that is possible,
anyway! And so this time, we wanted to take it one step further."
Stairway to … ?
If
all of that isn't enough to raise the dead in eager anticipation of the
Haunted Mansion's resurrection, Imagineers are also installing an
entirely new scene into a previously uninhabited space … and taking
that space in a few new directions.
"I think I'm most excited to
see the staircase scene when it's finished," says Eric Jacobson, senior
vice president, Creative. "We haven't seen it before and it adds
something completely new to the ride, in a space where there wasn't
really anything before. But there is just so much to this refresh — it
really is the sum of the parts. The whole ride will be enhanced and end
up better than before."
As part of Imagineering's commitment to
enhancing classic attractions around the world, the new magic that this
team is spreading to the Haunted Mansion is sure to be something Magic
Kingdom guests will be dying to see.
(c) Disney | | |
| Fan Mail.Here at DoomBuggies central, we occasionally receive a fan letter here and there, typically from a Boomer excited to be reliving a memory from childhood. But as I was filing some ephemera away today, I rediscovered a letter I received a couple years ago - by far my favorite fan letter ever: 
My kind of kid. Click it to see the gory details. I'm not sure if my favorite here is the executioner with the bloody axe, or the skeleton hanging from a noose. The "curtain" that Gabriel is thanking me for is a small snip of cloth that I used to give away in DoomBuggies fan club kits that came from the foyer set of the Haunted Mansion movie. (There are still some pieces left, so if you hurry, you can still receive one as a bonus when you join the DoomBuggies Fan Club.) His mom wrote me asking if I had anything I could send to her little Haunted Mansion fan, if I recall. Makes me remember the days when I used to trace the pictures in my own Haunted Mansion record album way back in the mid-'70s. As I said, a kid after my own heart. RIP. | | |
| TellNoTales.com sets sail...Arrrgh! Just a note to let you all know that TellNoTales.com, having been totally redesigned, has just re-launched with tons of new media and features. There's also a brand new TellNoTales.com myspace page at myspace.com/tellnotalesdotcom. Befriend us, you fo'c'sle swabs! In other news: TellNoTales.com is scheduled to be featured in an article in this week's New York Times travel section (May 18, I believe), so keep a weather eye out, mates! Yo ho! | | |
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