This one is for fellow Disney fanatics – I just read an article about the return to Disneyland of the 17-minute Michael Jackson 3D video, Captain EO.  I never got to see Captain EO; my first time to Disney World was in 1992, and the attraction was either broken down during that visit or we just weren’t interested in seeing it; I don’t remember.  By the time I grew up, started my family and began our traditional Disney World vacations, Captain EO was long gone and replaced by the 3D interactive attraction Honey, I Shrunk the Audience.

Captain EO replaced Honey, I Shrunk the Audience at Disneyland in Anaheim, California and opened today.  The futuristic short film stars Michael Jackson and Anjelica Huston; it cost about $30 million to make and also boasts the  creative team of director Francis Ford Copolla and executive producer George Lucas.  When it was shown at the Disney theme parks in the 80’s and 90’s, it was the most expensive film ever made (costing $1.76 million per minute!).  As of its opening today at 10am, there were many fans lined up to see it.  No word on whether Captain EO will return to Epcot in Disney World, Orlando Florida, but if it does, I might like to check it out, despite how much I will miss the always fun Honey, I Shrunk the Audience.

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Not really, because I am so NOT PERFECT in any (rather long every) way.  I see by the old stat count that I have reached a total of 666 posts (I’ll get off that with this one).  The title… a friend recently posed an interesting question.  Does acting make you more humble when it comes to things concerning the human condition: like ego?  I like to think that I’m not a very ego-centered person, but does that in itself make me egocentric.

In my humble opinion to be successful in any role, you must first know who the character is beyond what you are given in the script.  Where does he come from?  What makes the person who he is?  What was his life like before he takes his first step onto the stage?  This is ultimately as important for the person who has a one-line (or no-line) cameo as it is for the actor playing the 300+ line lead role.

Of course, understanding does not always mean you must empathize with the character.  That would be totally insane!  I could never be a mean, curmudgeonly miser but I sure had a ball playing one on stage.  And as much as I humbly hate to admit it,  I could never be a sexist, Liswathistani visitor covering for news new owner America country.

I am now at the point at which I am ready to take on even more challenging parts.  To be able to take on roles that really challenge me to step out of my zone and look at other elements of the human condition.  Just as Abigail Breslin is now bringing her take of Helen Keller to the Broadway stage in The Miracle Worker.  Plus… still have fun doing it!  The moment it is no longer fun is when I stop and I don’t see that happening any too soon.

I think during my years as an amateur actor, I have come to see (not necessarily understand) more elements of the human condition than I had before.  At least enough to want to continue to do so.

I have heard all kinds of forecasts for the next day or so.  I will let Nature take her course and live with what we are given.  This afternoon, Megan and I had made plans to see Shutter Island.  The first I had come into knowledge of the movie was the trailer during the Super Bowl.  I thought it looked awesome… even if Leonardo Dicrapcaprio was the star.  I think the movie about the boat sinking turned me off of his acting talent.

I will give only the vaguest of outlines for those of you wishing to see the psychological thriller.  Leo plays Teddy Daniels, a veteran U.S. Marshall, who along with his young partner, investigate the escape of a patient at a high security “mental institution for the  criminally insane.”

What follows is a great mind game… I really like those types of movies!  We both thought it was very good.  Although definitely not for the 6-8 young children who were with their adult companions.  I am pleased to say that the only time I noticed them was one who started crying 5 minutes after the show began.  Thankfully, one of the adults was quick to take the child out of the theatre.  Of course after the 2.5 hour movie (didn’t notice the length really), we were greeted by nacho and popcorn remains in our path.

On the return trip, snow had begun falling and when we arrived on Union Street, we found fire engines and a police car along the opposite side of the street.  After dropping my companion at her place, I took another route home and was passed by 2 more emergency vehicles.  Hopefully nothing serious.

Here is the trailer for Shutter Island:

I’ve been under the weather the past few days with a cold that just wouldn’t give up. My nose has finally stopped run 24 hours a day, and my throat is allowing me to talk with a normal voice again. No fever, no body ache, just headache, sore throat and a nose that wouldn’t quit.

The worst part about all of this is that I lost my sense of taste. I realized with the stuffed nose, it would be cut down, but it is almost non-existent even today after my nose cleared up.

Went to a Oriental buffet today with my daughter and everything was bland. All the chicken dishes tasted the same. The lo mien was ok, but I think I liked the texture of the noodles. I couldn’t taste spice, salt or other flavors. I wasn’t sure if this was the restaurant or not. They had sushi bar, so I had some of that. Every piece I had tasted just like the one before. The ginger had little zip. The wasabi just cleared my sinuses more, but it had no flavor. Then I realized it wasn’t the restaurant. If ginger slices and wasabi have no flavor, it has to be outside of the food. It has to be me.

For someone who likes to figure out all of the different flavors that go into making food taste good, this is almost worse than the being sick part. I never lost my appetite, but the food since last Wednesday evening has not had any appeal. If this goes on much longer, I think I will have no problem losing weight. Why eat when everything is missing its flavor?

Here are some funny things that are happening with my taste buds:

Cola tastes like lemon-lime drinks tastes like slightly sweetened carbonated water.

Orange juice, cranberry juice, grape juice and sugar water all taste the same.

The only thing that made fish and chicken taste different was the texture.

Potato chips aren’t as good if you can’t taste the salt.

With no taste going on, mushrooms are nasty.

Noodles were ok, but I wasn’t expecting a lot of flavor from them.

Tea tasted just like it should today, before today with no sense of smell, I was drinking hot water.

If this lasts too much longer, I will have quite a list.

In attempts to keep the length down to a reasonable amount (showing clips of the 10 films nominated for best picture would seem like it would go on longer than the typical 3-4 hour event), there have been a few strategies put in place for the Academy Awards.  First of all, the nominees for best song will not be performed live by the artists.  Instead, audiences will be treated to (drumroll, please)… yet another in an array of MONTAGES.  A short piece from each of each song will be presented throughout the evening with scenes from their respective movie.  I don’t even recall the nominations for best song nor score so, as a viewer, it may be for the best.  However, how about the songwriters of the nominated pieces?

Another attempt to limit the time is a change in the acceptance speeches.  Each nominee is being asked to provide two speeches: one signifying what winning the award means to them.  The second is the traditional laundry list of thank you notes which will be actually delivered back stage shown later via internet.  I guess there will be no way that someone can forget to thank Fido plus cut down on the emotional impact that may not be as important to the average at home viewer (especially as the evening/early morning wears on).

So… what do you think about the two changes to the gala event?  Should the Best Original Song nominees be allowed their moment in the spotlight?  Should the winners be given stipulations on when and what to say?  Or is it just the show’s producers way of getting all the Best Picture nominees in there?  I’d add a poll but I think there are too many possible responses so I’ll let the comments speak for themselves.

Because I was born and raised in the Chicago area, I still peruse the online suburban newspaper; I guess it’s to get my news “fix” because let’s face it – good news is boring.  The more serious or tragic the news, the more interesting it is, and my local daily newspaper just doesn’t do it for me – I mean, local news is interesting, but not in the same way.  So lately as I’ve been reading Chicago news, I couldn’t help but notice these all over the place:

So what is the deal?  What is Year 1?  It’s no secret that the Chicago Cubs are under the new management team of the Ricketts family this year, so I’m sure it has something to  do with that.  And it’s an unfortunate reality that the Chicago Cubs are also the team in baseball to have been without a World Series title the longest…  so I guess management figures that maybe if they just reset time altogether and start from the beginning, the Cubs might have a shot this year.  Two or three months from now, we will have a clearer outlook as to how the “new” team can really play.  But what if the Cubs go nowhere this year, and we fans find ourselves chanting our infamous October mantra, “Maybe next year…” – what then?  Will 2011 be Year 2?  Let’s hope we don’t have to find out.  GO CUBBIES!

Ok, ok… so the gang of Dun (OK< OK< Sabre) Scranton Branch are a fictitious bunch, but there is an actual Scranton, PA so who are we to say that the company does not exist.  We even drove within proximity to the town last spring.  Anyway, two of the characters on the show are expecting and to satisfy my no Office blahs, I came across Jim and Pam’s Baby Blog.  Here, you can read about hilarious sympathy pains, weird food cravings, and possible baby names (guess who has voiced his opinion multiple times… even suggesting both male and female variants).  There are also multiple links to other historic events, including the wedding of the lovebirds.

Everybody knows that kids say the darndest things – there was even a tv show or two about the subject.  If you go back and watch the Art Linkletter version, you can see him coaching the kids and moving his lips for the kids to see what they were supposed to say.  I don’t know why they had to do that; kids come up with enough cute stuff on their own.  The reason I decided to write this post is because it came to my attention that my 3-year-old daughter Disney calls groundhogs “brown hogs”.  Just a cute little tidbit I wanted to share, and hey, she’s got a point – the critters are brown!  Makes sense to me!  🙂

Maybe I’m becoming more simple-minded as I get older, or perhaps it’s the fact that I spend my days with children.  For whichever reason, I’ve found myself more amused by simple things lately, most notably email forwards.  Here is another one that made me laugh out loud.  I don’t know; I found it funny, but I did read it at the end of a very long day…

My husband informed me it was fake, but it’s more fun of course if you believe that some version of this actually happened.  Either way, the author gets points for creativity in my book – and maybe my husband was just upset that he didn’t get what the drawing was supposed to be in the first place 😉

A first grade girl handed in the drawing below for a homework assignment:

After it was graded and the child brought it home, she returned to school the next day with the following note:

Dear Ms. Davis,
I want to be very clear on my child’s illustration. It is NOT of me on a dance pole on a stage in a strip joint. I work at Home Depot and had commented to my daughter how much money we made in the recent snowstorm. This drawing is of me selling a snow shovel.
Mrs. Harrington

Besides being a song from a show I was in once, this is a question we ask ourselves over and over again as the government or some other entity does some eyebrow-raising stunt.  It seems a lot of such stunts have occurred in the recent decades, and this one isn’t going to make you feel better.  The question here is, what should a school be allowed to do to keep tabs on their students or the school property they use, in this case laptop computers?  A lawsuit has been brought against a school district for remotely activating webcams when the computer is off-site.  This came to light when a school had the gall to discipline a student for something that happened at his home using webcam footage as evidence.  Now I can fully understand monitoring computer use when the computers are at the school.  After all, at school students should be engaged in schoolwork.  But at home?  It isn’t mentioned just what the student did at home, but even if it had something to do with the computer, should the school really be allowed to turn on the webcam?  What if the student left his or her computer open in the bedroom while undressing for the night or to shower?  I really hope this school goes down for this, but not with some big financial settlement as it would be the taxpayers of course who wind up paying.  What a stupid decision, in my humble opinion of course.  Here is the article:

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BoingBoing: School used student laptop webcams to spy on them at school and home