Monday, April 21, 2014

May 2014 Visitors to Walt’s Carolwood Barn!

May 2014 Visitors to Walt’s Carolwood Barn!

 

On May 18th stars from the Disney Channel will be at Walt’s Barn! Check out the flyers for who will be at the barn when!




Be aware that there is road construction on Zoo Drive around the Barn. This construction will be going on at the time of this event. Please come from the Los Angeles Zoo side instead of the Travel Town side. Zoo Drive is closed from one end of the Los Angeles Live Steamers (LALS) to the Barn. If you wish to ride the LALS trains you will need to walk (about the distance of a football field) to the other end to enter.

For further updates on this event you can check back here or follow me on Facebook and Twitter or follow Walt Barn’s Facebook, Twitter and on the Carolwood website.

Walt’s Barn Information
Twitter
@WaltsBarn
Facebook
Website

Pixie Pranks Information
Twitter
@PankingPixie
Facebook
email

PrankingPixie@yahoo.com

Review of: Tales from Terri A Disney Sculptor’s Life, Volume 1

Review of: Tales from Terri A Disney Sculptor’s Life, Volume 1
By Terri Hardin

 

Terri Hardin has had a rich and rewarding live as a puppeteer, artist, Disney Imagineer and Disney Collectable Sculptor. In her book, ”Tales from Terri A Disney Sculptor’s Live, Volume 1” she shares some of her adventure as an artist and how she came to work for Disney.

What I love about this book most of all it is it encourages you to be creative. She tells you to go out and try. Her business cards are inspiration cards not just a way to share her business contact information.



After telling you how she walked a Disneyland park attraction to work on her concept for a collectable piece she asks you to make a list of what characters in that attraction you would like to see. She asks you to tell her what you would like to see them doing. She even suggests you draw it, stick figures acceptable!



I love how she relates her grandfather’s advice, “All men must work for a living. However, a wise man plays for a living. When you get paid to do what you love, it never feels like work.” It is obvious she is playing for her living and enjoying every moment!



I highly recommend this book for anybody that is creative, looking to find the creativity in themselves or looking for inspiration and encouragement in their creative endeavors.

I had the pleasure of meeting Terri at Walt Disney’s Carolwood Barn at a signing event and she is as energetic and positive in person as she is in the book. Thank you Terri for coming out to support the Barn!




Friday, April 18, 2014

Poster Art of the Disney Parks

Poster Art of the Disney Parks
By Danny Handke & Vanessa Hunt
  


I just received my copy of Poster Art of the Disney Parks by Handke & Hunt. I totally enjoyed this book!

As a long time Disneyland fan and fan of other Disney Parks and Art I fell in love with the book. This book takes you through the basic of why there is Disney Parks Poster Art. It gives the basic on Poster Art and how it is designed.

As you look through the book you are taken back in time to the old posters for attractions long gone and the posters for attractions that are still there but have been redesigned.

Having enjoyed many visits to Disneyland over the past 55 years I was touched at seeing posters I remember seeing as a child. When I saw them I was taken back to many precious childhood memories of times with family and friends. I saw the poster for 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and remembered “setting sail” and exploring the ocean with my grandmother when I was a tot.

I highly suggest this table top book for any Disney fan’s collection!


 Tony Baxter wrote the forward of this book. Tony Baxter, Danny Handke & Vanessa Hunt will be at Walt Disney’s Carolwood Barn Sunday April 20th, 2014 to sign copies of this book. Terri Hardin will also be there to sign copies of her book!

There will also be Easter Egg Hunts for children 10 and under!

Walt’s Barn will be open 11am to 3pm and admission is free! The Barn is maintained and kept opened by donations. It is in Griffith Park
5202 Zoo Drive
Los Angeles, California
There is road work around the Barn at this time so it is suggested you come in from the East or LA Zoo side not the Travel Town side. The parking lot is on the east side of the Los Angeles Live Steamers property.

For more information about Walt’s Barn and future events check out the following
Follow Walt’s Barn on Twitter
@WaltsBarn

Like Walt Disney’s Carolwood Barn on Facebook


Or check out the website Carolwood.com

Thursday, April 10, 2014

Dick VanDyke at Walt Disney’s Carolwood Barn Update

Dick VanDyke at Walt Disney’s Carolwood Barn Update



The Carolwood foundation is pleased to announce that there will be additional Priority Access available for the signing opportunity with Dick VanDyke that is scheduled for Sunday, May 11. The number of spaces available will be based on the final count for cancellations of the previously announced date. Priority Access will again be made available for $20, and will include a photo. Guests may substitute their own item in place of the photo. Please, only one signature per guest, and no posed photos.

Please note that there will be no additional public access to Walt’s Barn an May 11. Only guests with confirmed Priority Access will be admitted. The Carolwood foundation reserves the right to refuse admittance to anyone, or to remove anyone from any reason. All scheduled events and activities are subject to change without notice. 

This is a rescheduling of the March 16th, date that Dick was to be at Walt’s Barn. He was under the weather on that date and rescheduled. Due to scheduling conflicts his time is more limited this month.

For up-to-the-minute updates please follow us on Twitter (@WaltsBarn), check our Facebook page (Walt Disney’s Barn) or our web site (Carolwood.org).


Please join us at Walt’s Barn on April 20th, for our regularly scheduled public day, when our guests will be Tony Baxter and Terri Hardin. You are also invited to public day May 18th, when we will welcome stars from the Disney Channel.

Wednesday, April 9, 2014

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. & Captain America the Winter Soldier

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. & Captain America the Winter Soldier




There will be more than a few people who watched Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (AoS) will be confused by tonight’s episode of AoS. What happened? Who is Hydra and why all the spy games? Where is Director Fury? Is he dead as was mentioned in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.?

For those of you who have not seen Captain America the Winter Soldier you may be confused. Hang on my friends!!!!! The last few episodes of AoS were leading up to what is in the movie. The 4/8/14 episode was solidly in the timeframe of the movie.

Having seen Captain America the Winter Soldier this weekend I was happy to see the storyline continued on into the TV series that encompass the same Marvel Universe and time in that universe.

Watching the show was continuing the story and finding out what happened to some of the other people that we know about. Agent Sitwell is in both the TV show and the movie and is a problem on both. Fury’s death is mentioned in both. Captain America’s victory is mentioned as is the fact that S.H.I.E.L.D. agents were going underground and into hiding.


I highly recommend that you watch Captain America the Winter Soldier as soon as possible to fill in any holes. Believe me it will tie everything together!

Tuesday, April 8, 2014

Captain America the Winter Soldier ~ SPOILER ALERT ~ Review

Captain America the Winter Soldier ~ ***Spoiler Alert*** ~ Review



This is a Spoiler filled review! STOP NOW IF YOU DON’T WANT THE MOVIE SPOILED!! Go to yesterday’s post for a NON Spoiler review!

http://pixiepranks-panstinkerbell.blogspot.com/2014/04/captain-americathe-winter-soldier-no.html

Captain America the Winter Soldier is the story of a man that is lost, lost in time, lost in history, lost in his memories of a world and people he knew and loved. He feels the world had moved on in the wrong direction. Right is wrong and wrong is now somehow morally acceptable. We see him floundering and looking for direction. Grasping for a sense of belonging. In the end he decides to stick with what he knows, right is right and he will stand for it and with those that also stand with it.

Something is not right! S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents are being attacked and killed, operations are compromised! Who is at fault! Where is the leak? A S.H.I.E.L.D. ship/launch pad has been taken over by pirates with unknown demands! While Cap. and his team rescue the captives Agent Romanoff downloads the contents of the computers at the site. Rogers is angry about this because it risked the safety of his mission, the rescue of the people.

Cap is called in by Director Fury and finds there is a hidden agenda in S.H.I.E.L.D. It does not sit well with Cap. First off Cap. is angry that Fury kept Romanoff’s assignment from him. He is then further angered by finding that Fury has hidden a deeper level of S.H.I.E.L.D., Project Insight: 3 Helicarriers linked to spy satellites designed to preemptively eliminate threats.

Cap. feels uneasy about S.H.I.E.L.D. preemptively striking people before they cause a problem. He believes that people’s freedoms are at state and takes a step back to look at the situation and decided what he will do. While trying to piece it all together Cap. runs into a new friend and asks him for support. Sam Wilson becomes the Falcon and helps Cap. First Sam helps Steve to deal with being home from war. All service personal face a time of adjustment. He also goes back and finds his old love, Peggy Carter. He visits her in a nursing home where she is no longer the young beautiful woman he loved but an aged women who is losing grip on reality.

Director Fury is attacked and believed dead. Later when Cap. returns home he is chatting with his neighbor when she tells him he left his stereo on. Cap. realizes he did not and goes in through a window and finds an injured Fury in  his living room. Fury gives him the thumb drive that Romanoff had downloaded and told him to not trust anybody and hide it. Shots ring out and once again Fury is hit. Romanoff and Cap. watch him be pronounced dead in surgery after the attack.

Romanoff tells him about a threat she has encountered before who has been assonating people for 50 years. This person is a ghost and does not exist on any official records but is called The Winter Solider. The Winter Solider turns out to be Cap.’s friend Bucky that he thought died in an attack on Hydra during World War II. It seems Hydra had started “treatment” on him before Cap. rescued him. This allowed him to survive the fall from the moving train and gave him the same abilities as Cap. Sadly his memories have been erased and he does not remember who he is and he is being used as a weapon.

Cap. is summoned to the Head of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s office and told that Fury was a trader. As Cap. is leaving he is attacked by former friends and fellow S.H.I.E.L.D. companions. This is when he turns to Falcon and asks for his help and a place to hide. Soon Cap finds that Fury is still alive and planning on taking S.H.I.E.L.D. back.

When it is finally discovered that Hydra has infiltrated and taken over S.H.I.E.L.D. Cap. decides to take down both S.H.I.E.L.D. and Hydra to stop the threat. He gathers a loyal group of S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents including Romanoff and Falcon to take the battle to the S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters. He refuses to allow either side to control people’s lives. He will stand for freedom and individual rights.

Of course Cap. and the team prevail and the world is safe once again . . . or is it? Sit through the credits for hints as to what happens next! Watch a conversation between Fury (now in hiding and without his eye patch), Cap, Falcon and Romanoff. Stay to the VERY VERY end and see who comes back to visit the Captain America Museum.

Monday, April 7, 2014

Captain Americathe Winter Soldier ~ No Spoiler Review

Captain America the Winter Soldier ~ No Spoiler Review



First I’m going to say GO SEE THIS MOVIE!! It is a great movie! Second I’m going to say STAY TO THE END OF THE CREDITS! Not almost to the end but to the VERY VERY END!

I’m going to try to make this a no spoiler review. I may put up a second review with spoilers. It is a fun, action packed comic book romp! If you like action this is the movie for you!

Captain America the Winter Soldier is the story of a man that is lost, lost in time, lost in history, lost in his memories of a world and people he knew and loved. He felt the world had moved on in the wrong direction. Right was wrong and wrong was now somehow morally acceptable. We see him floundering and looking for direction. In the end he decides to stick with what he knows, right is right and he will stand for it and with those that also stand with it.

What I came away with from Captain America is a wakeup call. I’m not saying this is the purpose of the movie or that the makers of the film had this in mind. Just saying what I came away with.

Cap is lost. What is right what is wrong? Has the world changed so much that what is truly morally acceptable is different? I’m not talking cultural behavior but true right and wrong. Do all men deserve to live free and make their own choices or should “leadership/government” make the choices for them? Who has the ultimate say?

As I watched this movie unfold my mind ran to who is watching the watchers? Who is setting limits and rules for those that are enforcing and making rules for the public? When should and/or should we ever give up our freedoms for “safety”?

I will be honest. I’ve been a fan of Marvel most of my life. The reason is many of the stories make you think. The stories encourage you to look at life’s issues and simplify. For Cap it is knowing right from wrong and trying to always do right. For Spiderman it is, “With great strength comes great responsibility.” For the XMen it is the choice of how to fight discrimination and predigest. Each of them has a lesson to learn if we are open.


So I salute the “Red, White and Blue Man with the Plan” Captain America! 

Mickey Rooney ~ September 23rd, 1920 to April 6th, 2014

Mickey Rooney ~ September 23rd, 1920 to April 6th, 2014



Today is a sad day in the entertainment world. Mickey Rooney has died. His was actively acting/performing for 92 of his 93 years. He has one of the longest careers of any actor.

Mickey Rooney was born Joseph Yule, Jr. to Joe Yule, Sr. and Nellie W. (nee Carter). Mickey Rooney started entertain as a toddler with is parents in vaudeville theater. Young Joe crawled onto the stage while his father was performing. He was in overalls and had a small harmonica around his neck. When his father saw him he picked him up and introduced him to the audience as Sonny Yule. Mickey Rooney said he felt the spotlight on him and has described it as his mother’s womb. From that moment on, the stage was his home.

While Joe Sr. was traveling, Joe Jr. and his mother moved to Brooklyn to Kansas City to live with his aunt. While there Nellie was reading the entertainment newspaper that Hal Roach was looking for children for his Our Gang/Little Rascals. This is when she decided to move young Joe Jr. to Hollywood.

I’ve watched many of early shows on TV as a child. I watched many of his movies as well. Over the years I’ve always enjoy a show with Mickey Rooney in it. He has a way of being a bad boy without being really bad. His smile always makes me want to smile. Yes, present tense as I will always smile when I see his smiling face on the screen.


Mickey Rooney’s Disney rolls include being one of the many voices of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, adult Tod in Fox and the Hound, Lampie in Pete’s Dragon, Movie Mason in Phantom of the Megaplex, Sparky in Lady and the Tramp II: Scamp’s Adventure and a small town resident in the 2011 film The Muppets.

Sunday, April 6, 2014

Disney Cruise Line Recipe ~ Strawberry Soup

Disney Cruise Line Recipe


One of the fantastic treats I enjoyed the most on our last cruise was the cold fruit soups. One my favorites was the Strawberry Soup served in the Beach Blanket Buffet. It was a wonderful treat for a late breakfast/brunch or lunch.

I enjoyed the treat so much I contacted the Disney Cruise Line and asked them for the recipe and now I’m sharing it with you. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

Strawberry Soup (8 servings)
This is served at the Beach Blanket Buffet on the Disney Wonder


16 oz of Vanilla ice-cream
4 cartons (about 1 dry pint per carton) of fresh strawberries
2 oz of corn syrup
1 pint of regular milk
Blend all the ingredients together
6 leaves of fresh mint
Decorate with the mint leaves



Saturday, April 5, 2014

Pirate Night Dinner Treat on the Disney Cruise

Pirate Night Dinner Treat on the Disney Cruise



I know I’ve posted about Pirate Night before. This time I’m going to focus on the Pirates Dinner. In fact I’m going to focus on an appetizer called the Buccaneer’s Sun Ripened Pineapple. I find it is a delicious sweet treat that is good as a desert.

Buccaneer’s Sun-Ripened Pineapple is a wedge of fresh pineapple covered with a Mango/Orange/Rum Sauce drizzled over it. It is served with a slice of fresh banana that is rolled in toasted grated coconut. UMMM is all I can say!

Here is the recipe for this delicious Pirate Night treat.
The Buccaneer’s Sun-Ripened Pineapple
Fresh island Pineapple with Coconut covered Banana and Orange~Mango Rum glaze
10 servings
Mango/Orange Glaze
200     mil       Orange Syrup
100      mil       Pineapple Juice (or 200 mil Mango Juice instead of PJ and Water)
2          tsp      Brown Sugar
100      mil       Water (drop and use Mango Juice instead)
To taste         Rum
Mix all the ingredients together and reduce by 1/3.
Coconut covered Banana
5          ea        Banana Halved
4          oz        Shredded Coconut Toasted
100      mil       Clear Honey
Peel and cut the Bananas in half, brush the Banana with the Clear Honey, roll the Banana in the roasted Shredded Coconut
For the Pineapple

Cut the Pineapple into 6, (remove the center) as you cut the Pineapple into a boat shape and garnish as desired with Pineapple leaves. Drizzle the Mango/Orange sauce over the Pineapple