days off are pretty glorious
I finally got money on my phone last night and thus Tweeted my way around Hollywood and the world, but those will come through later. I haven't managed to get back into LoudTwitter to fix the time my Tweets come through yet but before they do...
Today I popped on down to Disney's Hollywood Studios, and just as I arrived, a High School Musical 3: Senior Year concert was on. YES. (I seem to always enter the parks at really good times: Yesterday when I went to Magic Kingdom it was on the tail end of a parade that was seguing into a block dance party.) Four singers and some dancers and what I suspect was part of the background singers from the actual film, but in any case the soloists were better than the kids from the films. :| Go figure. Videos were taken and are coming once it's not ass o'clock in the morning and my connection doesn't throw a fit (I keep getting errors trying to upload my video of Wishes, Magic Kingdom's fireworks, on Facebook and Youtube).
Anyway, what I was really there for was to audition for the American Idol Experience. In the first audition room (you do one for a producer before going through to actual auditions and from there to the stage) I found that I couldn't do it because I'm cast. Oops.
"Well, you're here, you might as well sing!"
Defying Gravity seems to be becoming my audition song; that's two now. He said I was good |D;;
I mad. I moped around window shopping before I decided, well, I'm here, might as well do something, and ended up going to the live show of Beauty and the Beast. Half an hour, it was kind of a very cut down version of the musical, and I suspect the objects' voices were just from the films. The ones who actually seemed live were really good, though. If anything I was hmmmming over the non-diverse casting for the women. The guys were fine, I saw some Asian dudes there, but the women were very much white white white white and one black girl.
It was raining pretty bad after that so I went on the Rock'n'Roller Coaster. Oh my god. So awesome. Upside down! Fast! Space Mountain got nothing on this! Shorter than I had expected, though (probably because of the speed); Space Mountain felt a lot faster.
Shopped around a bit more and popped over to Tower of Terror. A lot shorter than I expected. I found that I wasn't scared (emotionally) so much as I couldn't breathe (so perhaps I was scared physically). Eh. Ambivalent.
I rolled on up to this presentation of how the character designers on animated films go through a bunch of different design ideas before settling on the final character, and the example character was Mushu. A very well scripted show with the prerecorded elements (read: Mushu) if I thought the hostess was a bit lacking in enthusiasm. It was fun seeing the preliminary designs for him. There was a bit of stuff on Princess and the Frog, too, and naturally at the end Mushu announced it would have been improved by his presence (The Mushu and the Frog) and started inserting himself into many, many Disney film titles which left me walking out with the weirdest permanent_way ideas ever.
Right by that was this place with so. many. characters. I had photos with Belle, a very white Pocahontas, and Snow White, but Sorcerer!Mickey, Goofy, some from Up! (which I still haven't seen, sihg) some Playhouse Disney kids, and a couple of Incredibles were there as well. They were lovely, even to someone who felt a bit of a derp going up to them on her own and the oldest one there and handing her camera to the cast member because her flatmates were all working or ill and asking the cast member for a pen because she forgot one.
I ended up going to the American Idol Experience voting concert after all. Underwhelmed.. There was a lady who just did karaoke, right down to staring at the words the whole time, a guy who was consistently flat and looked at the ground, and, the show's saving grace, a theater major of a dude who got his own package with more personality than the ones on the actual show and danced up his performance of Superstition. You can guess who went through to the end of day's show. There is more talent in my band than those guys. I should have been there. :(
As well as the Beauty and the Beast performance there was also one for The Little Mermaid which was a lot more rushed and squished into seventeen minutes with nice special effects, though they kept misting us; if I'd wanted to get wet I would have stayed outside. The Ariel's voice was kind of thin.
After poking around another part of the park for a bit where it was all closed because it was the last hour before park closing, I rocked on over to Epcot for Extra Magic Hours (basically the park's open either earlier or later) and to go annoy my two flatmates who were working. The first thing I did was go on an epic quest for a cinnamon pretzel because after selling them all week I wanted to try one. After wandering about Future World for ages I finally found one at Prom (and of course because Prom is on World Showcase it was a little more expensive because World Showcase isn't tax inclusive), as well as a couple of my training partners. Then I went for dinner at the Electric Umbrella. Dinner on my own at a table for four. Yeah, that felt awesome. Not.
I wanted to go on Soarin' but after so many stories of people throwing up on it I went on Finding Nemo first to settle my stomach. It was a cute ride'n'watch through some graphic projections of Marlin's adventures only this time it seemed like Nemo was being a douche and just playing Unexpected Hide and Seek. But at the end it came out through the aquarium and there were dolphins and manta rays and the real versions of loads of the Nemo fish and oh! I could spend all day in that aquarium. It made me a bit homesick, which really confused me as I'm not Australian.
Soarin' is a simulation ride where they strap you into a ski lift, lift you up, and start playing aerial footage shot over California (including Disneyland, which made me laugh). It was pretty, but after all the throwing up stories, I was underwhelmed. I had expected more swoosh.
I didn't feel like going back to Future World West (East?) for Test Track and Mission Space (I have got to try those, though) so I went to World Showcase and window shopped my way around the world. I found my favorite tea in the UK so that made me homesick too and I bought a box (it was like a dollar and a bit with holiday discount, bahahaha). Japan really surprised me with all its anime junk because I just hadn't been expecting Pikachu at Disney World and then I remembered: Hello, Japan. I really enjoyed Mexico's little market; I had a nice chat about paua/abalone with a guy there because I'd grown up with paua as this uniquely New Zealand thing and now I find in Florida that Mexico sells it too, and he'd grown up with abalone as this uniquely his small town's handicraft thing and then he found in Florida that all Mexico sells it. I've so many things to come back and buy there (and figure out how to get home): Anime junk ($24 Haruhi wall scroll! that'll be $12 with holiday discount! they're like $30 back home!), some clothes from Mexico, a belly dancing costume from Morocco for lulz...
I say I window shopped but I actually bought way too much random crap today: An Indiana Jones whip (at $44.95 before my holiday discount, I half suspect it's real leather), a Rock'n'Roller Coaster purse (I put my DS in it) and guitar pick (I couldn't even tell if it's the thickness I usually use but I bought it anyway), a Canada T-shirt, and the tea. And there was that Jasmine costume and the earrings I bought at Magic Kingdom and the guitar I eBayed yesterday... (And various presents.) This is why I shouldn't be given money.
On a non-Disney note: How damn good was last night's Skins? I cried. I loved it. I will possibly blog properly about it tomorrow. Possibly in my fandom journal, even, since I think I have a grand total of one Skins fan on my (LJ) flist and I figure y'all haven't seen it yet.
Today I popped on down to Disney's Hollywood Studios, and just as I arrived, a High School Musical 3: Senior Year concert was on. YES. (I seem to always enter the parks at really good times: Yesterday when I went to Magic Kingdom it was on the tail end of a parade that was seguing into a block dance party.) Four singers and some dancers and what I suspect was part of the background singers from the actual film, but in any case the soloists were better than the kids from the films. :| Go figure. Videos were taken and are coming once it's not ass o'clock in the morning and my connection doesn't throw a fit (I keep getting errors trying to upload my video of Wishes, Magic Kingdom's fireworks, on Facebook and Youtube).
Anyway, what I was really there for was to audition for the American Idol Experience. In the first audition room (you do one for a producer before going through to actual auditions and from there to the stage) I found that I couldn't do it because I'm cast. Oops.
"Well, you're here, you might as well sing!"
Defying Gravity seems to be becoming my audition song; that's two now. He said I was good |D;;
I mad. I moped around window shopping before I decided, well, I'm here, might as well do something, and ended up going to the live show of Beauty and the Beast. Half an hour, it was kind of a very cut down version of the musical, and I suspect the objects' voices were just from the films. The ones who actually seemed live were really good, though. If anything I was hmmmming over the non-diverse casting for the women. The guys were fine, I saw some Asian dudes there, but the women were very much white white white white and one black girl.
It was raining pretty bad after that so I went on the Rock'n'Roller Coaster. Oh my god. So awesome. Upside down! Fast! Space Mountain got nothing on this! Shorter than I had expected, though (probably because of the speed); Space Mountain felt a lot faster.
Shopped around a bit more and popped over to Tower of Terror. A lot shorter than I expected. I found that I wasn't scared (emotionally) so much as I couldn't breathe (so perhaps I was scared physically). Eh. Ambivalent.
I rolled on up to this presentation of how the character designers on animated films go through a bunch of different design ideas before settling on the final character, and the example character was Mushu. A very well scripted show with the prerecorded elements (read: Mushu) if I thought the hostess was a bit lacking in enthusiasm. It was fun seeing the preliminary designs for him. There was a bit of stuff on Princess and the Frog, too, and naturally at the end Mushu announced it would have been improved by his presence (The Mushu and the Frog) and started inserting himself into many, many Disney film titles which left me walking out with the weirdest permanent_way ideas ever.
Right by that was this place with so. many. characters. I had photos with Belle, a very white Pocahontas, and Snow White, but Sorcerer!Mickey, Goofy, some from Up! (which I still haven't seen, sihg) some Playhouse Disney kids, and a couple of Incredibles were there as well. They were lovely, even to someone who felt a bit of a derp going up to them on her own and the oldest one there and handing her camera to the cast member because her flatmates were all working or ill and asking the cast member for a pen because she forgot one.
I ended up going to the American Idol Experience voting concert after all. Underwhelmed.. There was a lady who just did karaoke, right down to staring at the words the whole time, a guy who was consistently flat and looked at the ground, and, the show's saving grace, a theater major of a dude who got his own package with more personality than the ones on the actual show and danced up his performance of Superstition. You can guess who went through to the end of day's show. There is more talent in my band than those guys. I should have been there. :(
As well as the Beauty and the Beast performance there was also one for The Little Mermaid which was a lot more rushed and squished into seventeen minutes with nice special effects, though they kept misting us; if I'd wanted to get wet I would have stayed outside. The Ariel's voice was kind of thin.
After poking around another part of the park for a bit where it was all closed because it was the last hour before park closing, I rocked on over to Epcot for Extra Magic Hours (basically the park's open either earlier or later) and to go annoy my two flatmates who were working. The first thing I did was go on an epic quest for a cinnamon pretzel because after selling them all week I wanted to try one. After wandering about Future World for ages I finally found one at Prom (and of course because Prom is on World Showcase it was a little more expensive because World Showcase isn't tax inclusive), as well as a couple of my training partners. Then I went for dinner at the Electric Umbrella. Dinner on my own at a table for four. Yeah, that felt awesome. Not.
I wanted to go on Soarin' but after so many stories of people throwing up on it I went on Finding Nemo first to settle my stomach. It was a cute ride'n'watch through some graphic projections of Marlin's adventures only this time it seemed like Nemo was being a douche and just playing Unexpected Hide and Seek. But at the end it came out through the aquarium and there were dolphins and manta rays and the real versions of loads of the Nemo fish and oh! I could spend all day in that aquarium. It made me a bit homesick, which really confused me as I'm not Australian.
Soarin' is a simulation ride where they strap you into a ski lift, lift you up, and start playing aerial footage shot over California (including Disneyland, which made me laugh). It was pretty, but after all the throwing up stories, I was underwhelmed. I had expected more swoosh.
I didn't feel like going back to Future World West (East?) for Test Track and Mission Space (I have got to try those, though) so I went to World Showcase and window shopped my way around the world. I found my favorite tea in the UK so that made me homesick too and I bought a box (it was like a dollar and a bit with holiday discount, bahahaha). Japan really surprised me with all its anime junk because I just hadn't been expecting Pikachu at Disney World and then I remembered: Hello, Japan. I really enjoyed Mexico's little market; I had a nice chat about paua/abalone with a guy there because I'd grown up with paua as this uniquely New Zealand thing and now I find in Florida that Mexico sells it too, and he'd grown up with abalone as this uniquely his small town's handicraft thing and then he found in Florida that all Mexico sells it. I've so many things to come back and buy there (and figure out how to get home): Anime junk ($24 Haruhi wall scroll! that'll be $12 with holiday discount! they're like $30 back home!), some clothes from Mexico, a belly dancing costume from Morocco for lulz...
I say I window shopped but I actually bought way too much random crap today: An Indiana Jones whip (at $44.95 before my holiday discount, I half suspect it's real leather), a Rock'n'Roller Coaster purse (I put my DS in it) and guitar pick (I couldn't even tell if it's the thickness I usually use but I bought it anyway), a Canada T-shirt, and the tea. And there was that Jasmine costume and the earrings I bought at Magic Kingdom and the guitar I eBayed yesterday... (And various presents.) This is why I shouldn't be given money.
On a non-Disney note: How damn good was last night's Skins? I cried. I loved it. I will possibly blog properly about it tomorrow. Possibly in my fandom journal, even, since I think I have a grand total of one Skins fan on my (LJ) flist and I figure y'all haven't seen it yet.