Rossco's Disney Adventures...from last month.

What's up Dorks?

Unlike Rossie, I went to D23 and I am working on a post(or two) telling you all about it! Until then, Rossco has a post about a Disney Legend and some exploits from his recent visit to the parks. So sit back, relax and enjoy Rossco's Disney Adventures... from last month... Or Never Trust a Dude in a Tank Top! I added that last part! Words to live by people! And, yes, thank you for asking, I will probably chime in from time to time, because that's what I do. 

-J

  Good day Dorks! Rossco here and I have FINALLY been inspired to write because of the D23 weekend that I DIDN'T make it to this year(stupid me!). I'm sad because I really wanted to attend the flea market to add some new toys to my weirdo collection, not to mention see all the awesome presentations and speakers. The reason why I wasn't so eager to go this year was because the timing was off for any announcements regarding future Disney Park projects. So I just kept up on the blogs and twitter (@ratstash) to follow up on the Disney news.

   What really kick started this post was when I heard the news that Rolly Crump was NOT included in the "Disney Legends" presentation. This didn't sit with me well, but more on this later. Editors Note: I am awesome... Oh! The presentation was the induction of eight new Disney Legends and not really a panel dicussion. About 3 weeks ago I went to a panel discussion at the WDFM called "Learning From Walt". It featured Rolly Crump and was led by Jeff Heimbuch from Communicore Weekly (highly recommended) so for those of you who aren't familiar with Rolly this post will get you acquainted with the OG Disney Legend. Also in this post I will give you a review of my summer Disney trip for my best friends birthday. It was a great trip. And if you stick around I have a little insider DLParis and DL rumors that an animator friend let me in on. Nothing major but still kinda cool for the Super Dork!

Learnin' about Walt 'n Stuff...from Rolly Crump

Rolly Crump is a Pimp.

  I try to go to as many WDFM presentations as I can. It is difficult to get tickets sometimes but when I can go they are always packed with unbelievable info you cannot get anywhere else. The "Learning from Walt " discussion wasn't so much about learning from Walt as it was learning about Rolly Crump, the Disney animation department in the 1960's, WED back in the day and his insight into who Walt Disney was. So I will start with some Rolly history.

Museum of the Weird like a Boss.

  Rolly Crump started off his Disney career as a dipper for the ceramics department and then jumped in Animation at 22. He eventually became an assistant animator on some of the best animated Disney movies like Peter Pan, 101 Dalmatians, Lady and the Tramp, Sleeping Beauty and MORE!!! In 1959 he moved on to Imagineering and started work on a bunch of kick ass attractions for Disneyland such as The Museum of the Weird (Haunted Mansion), Enchanted Tiki Room, and designed the interior of the Adventureland Bazaar. He was also a designer for It's a Small World for the Worlds Fair in New York. He later worked on Epcot as well as working on attractions for other theme parks all over the world. He retired from Disney in 1996 and in 2004 he was awarded the Disney Legend Award because he is the shit.

  Rolly started the talk by discussing in detail about his time working in the animation department. He shared with the audience a slide show of kinky and weird cartoons that other animators would leave on his desk when he was away. The drawings showed off the kind of humor and creativity all these wild animators possessed. He told a story about him and a few guys from the dept always sun bathing nude on the roof of the animation building. The department started getting angry phone calls from the Nuns across the way who apparently didn't like seeing the naked men (lies!) and so the Art Dept. head had to put a stop to the tanning. The next morning Rolly came to work and there was an drawing of a Nun with binoculars sitting on his desk. Skipping back a little, he also discussed the cut in pay he took when he started the animation job. He had to take up a second career making man hole covers but he also started going from L.A head shop to music shops selling posters he drew up that said "Smoke Marijuana"... word up!

  Well the posters were a huge hit! So he made others! A whole series of them! Take a look!

 

  When Rolly was working as an animator he held an art show that consisted of the projects he was working on away from the Disney art department. Towards the end of the show Walt showed up to check out his shit. When a friend told Rolly that Walt was there he freaked because down the hallway to the restroom he had displayed all of the drug posters. Rolly didn't want Walt to see them but the friend informed Rolly it was too late. Walt saw the drug posters...and he liked them. Yeah, Walt totally got a kick out of the posters and thought they were done correctly.

  Moving to Imagineering was brought on by being able to observe other departments at WED, his temporary obsession with building mobiles and tiny propellers. When working in animation he had a few mobiles hanging up in his office. People liked them and he eventually got to snake his way over to Imagineering. (Sorry for being vague. I didn't take notes) He was later asked to make a giant mobile for the 1964 World's Fair pictured above. When the attraction moved to Disneyland the mobile stayed in New York (later dismantled and thrown in the ocean, seriously) but he designed the front clock and the stage all the little people roll out of on It's a Small World. He also worked closely with Mary Blair on the figures inside of Small World.

  Around that same time period he was also making all these twisted little creatures and designing weird interiors for the Haunted Mansion project. When he went to present his ideas to Walt, the other Imagineers didn't like his stuff so they shoved him in the corner because of how weird Rolly's shit was. Walt did a walk through later that day and didn't say much just asked Rolly some questions about what he was working on. Rolly didn't really know what he was working on just had some creepy figures and models. Rolly was called into Walt's office the next day (oh shit). Walt being an odd ball himself loved all the weird shit so he had the Rolly get to work on the Museum of the Weird. Check out young Roland and Walt breakin' it down! 

  

  Rolly was also putting in a ton of work on the Enchanted Tiki Room. He started work on statues for the attraction based off of real life Tiki Gods that he found in a Polynesian art book. The statues are found all over the inside and outside of the Tiki Room.

natives call me the mighty one!

 Pictured above is "Maui The Mighty One" These sculptures were Rollys first attempt at sculpting anything and I think they are all turned out bad ass. Little fun fact about The Mighty One - This originally in the Polynesian art book was a Tiki sex god. In the photo that Rolly based it off of, the bamboo piece was basically his dong resting on the little Tiki guy below him. So Rolly put a clock on his face and told Walt that he was the god of telling time. Walt thought it kicked ass! Here is kind of a cute story from Rolly Orland Roland Olly (I'll explain later) himself about the transformation of the Tiki Room!

  The discussion was incredible and really covered a ton of ground. Rolly shared wonderful stories about Walt always knowing how to spin a persons ideas into greatness. I had heard some of the stories that Rolly told about WED from another WDFM discussion with Bob Gurr I had seen earlier this year. It was great to hear the stories from another Imagineers perspective. At the end of the discussion he briefly took questions from audience members. A man asked how the parks would be different if Walt lived. Rolly was quick to respond that the Haunted Mansion would be a walk through. He explained - That is what Walt wanted and when Walt died and the ride went into the "Ride Department" and it became...a ride. The last question came from a woman in the back asking Rolly to "Tell the story about dad messing up your name." The woman was Diane Disney Miller!! (so cool). Rolly said Walt would call him something different every six months and stick to it, then six months later it would be switched a different name. Rollys favorite name that Walt called him was Orland. Rolly then told a story about Diane asking him to paint a rock for her dad as a christmas gift. She wanted Rolly to paint the word "SHIT" across the rock. Rolly wasn't so sure if it was a good idea but she insisted that it was chill and she said that was her dad's favorite curse word. Rolly made it for her. Walt loved it.

 As mentioned earlier Rolly was not invited to speak at this years D23 Legends panel discussion. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Enchanted Tiki Room. Leonard Kinsey author of The Dark Side of Disney has been very vocal about this blatant snub on the @darksidedisney twitter page. I guess that beef with Marty Sklar and Disney Corporate ruined it for the fans. Walt is rolling in his cryogenic tube once again.

moving on to part 2......

Hazelnut the NeverLand Pirate's Birthday Bash

pin shark
Never trust a dude in a tank top!

  After some rushed planning and some transportation miscommunications (mouthful), my mother, my best friend (George aka hazelnut-bazel butt), Bazel's girlfriend /our friend Amy, and Jon Hamm's (with beard) brother Colin from Mark Of The Bear Media set out on 3 days of fun at Disneyland! My mom just went for day 1, but us four leftovers powered through a late July park that was packed and hot. Actually it wasn't too packed and the weather was 80 degrees the whole time, woohoo! 

George of the Jungle pre-lanyard

   When I go to the DL with the Pesk 'n company we usually have a plan that is based around collecting fastpasses and going to a nearby short line or walk on attractions that are near by. This way we can effectively ride as many rides and collect as many fastpasses as possible. Since it was the Birthday of the Bazel we all agreed that he could pretty much be the guide in regards to what rides and when. That worked out kinda okay. At times I tried to set up a route, but Bazel didn't want me to have much say on what attraction we should hit next. Bazel knows I will take the reigns quick and so he seized the opportunity to throw a wrench in my gears being it's HIS b-day trip (silly me). We did get to ride a shit ton of rides in 3 days, but we also missed some of the best and some classics. Storybook Village, Peter Pan's Flight, Splash Mountain, Toy Story Mania, Big Thunder Mountain (closed) and Small World were left off this trip for one reason or another. We did however ride such gems as Roger Rabbit's Cartoon Spin, the Poo(P) Ride, Dumbo's Flying Adventure, and over in DCA we rode the Jumpin' Jellyfish.Woohoo!

  

  We started the trip off in Tomorrowland. We head to Space Mountain and walk right past the Fast Pass machine for Star Tours without grabbing a fastpass...oops. On the way out of the Space Mountain I got my picture taken (above) with the "Pay Phones of Tomorrow" attraction that is sandwiched between the Space Mountain bathrooms and that arcade thingy that sells stuffed toys and...stuffy stuff! Anyway, don't the phones look super shiny and space aged! Heading over to Star Tours and it had a 45 minute wait time...

So we start to make our way over to Adventureland and look! Spotted some authentic Disneyland Horse Shit!

 

  On our way to the Jungle Cruise Adventureland I stopped to get a picture of the Adventureland Bazaar. The day prior to my trip I went to the Rolly Crump discussion so I had a new appreciation for the shop and I wanted to look for a new shrunken head. No shrunken heads anymore. They have been gone for a long time and replaced by more of the same stuffed shit that I had seen at the Tomorrowland arcade thingy. Why no shrunken heads you ask. Because more of the same stuffed shit that you can buy anywhere in the Disneyland Resort is what the people want to buy damn it! (thick sarcasm)

i did come home with a parrot though! and it is pretty cute.

After riding the Jungle Cruise, Indiana Jones, and hitting the Enchanted Tiki Room while Bazel munched on some delicious hot meats from the Bengal Barbeque, we made our way to New Orleans Square!

Mother Dear and Rossco hangin' in the court'e de angeles
Say goodby to the Court! Rumor is that it will be going away during the Club 33 Referb

  We were lucky to ride Pirates on our first day twice! It was shut down for the rest of our trip (sadness). After checking some menus we decided to have lunch at Cafe Orleans. None of us ordered the cheese filled deep fried doughnut sandwich dusted in sugar because that shit is rough. We all enjoyed our salads, sammies, fries, drinks and me and Colin especially enjoyed the coffee. After lunch was The Haunted Mansion and that is always the shit. Waits times were shortish for this and a lot of attractions at Disneyland throughout the trip. The favorites had some heavier wait times as usual but for late July it was totally chill! I didn't see any wait times longer than 45 minutes other than RSR which was 2 1/2 hours usually.  I think the price hike has kept the crowds down a little bit this summer, which is great for the people that only come for a 2 day trip every 30 years. Like Cathy from Petaluma Market (pictured below). It was her first time ever. She got to see a ton of the cool shit!

spotted when i was Rollin' into Tiki Room.

 I made sure to take a pic at the Tiki Room of the Rolly Crump sculpture "Maui the Mighty One" with his weener coming down on the little Tiki man (below). This video link filmed by @AmyGayle5 shows me enjoying the birds show and another Rolly design!

Maui the Mighty One taking a mighty one.

  I was lucky to have friends with me that would wait for me to trade pins and would take pictures of me with cool shit. I try to take as many pictures as I can and try to get photos with all the characters (depending on the line) So rather than go into more details, I will just wrap it up with some photos of the Disneyland portion of this piece! WOo000ooOOOOo0!!!!!

Dasani...OR DIE!

getting ready to meet Colin's girlfriend at the fantasy faire meat'n greet.

view from the fantasy faire

Goofy in Toon Town

sick topiary.

Now onto DCA!!!

don't know what to do with right arm!

  For the Bazel Birthday Bash we all thought it would be great to take him to a lovely dinner. I was fully aware of his hatred for the Blue Bayou and with his love of booze so I knew there was only one choice for dinner...Carthay Circle. Bazel had never dined there, so Amy made reservations. Through the whole trip Bazel told us that he knew where we were having the b-day dinner and he asked why we were making it such a "Big Fuckin' Deal". It was kinda shitty news to me that he figured it out because I figured Bazel being a bar tender and a meat-a-saur, he would be into the style of the bar and restaurant. But we will get to dinner later.

  Forgot to mention - My first pin purchase that morning had an attached coupon for 20% off of merch bought before 1:00 at certain stores. I brought the receipt into a different store after 1:00 and the cashier accepted it! I did that a few times and every time they honored the 20% discount. It was very cool of them to do that, even though it was clearly stated - Before 1:00 and at 3-4 certain stores. I love how Disney cast members try their best to make sure you are having a killer time even when they know you are pullin' a hard chizzle! 

Mickeys Wheel of Death...Bazel was gonna shit even though he is smiling

 8 AM we hit the park crazy. The short list of attractions/rides in the park we DIDN'T do hit were Toy Story Mania (bummer), Luigi's flying tires, The Kid Dance Party Thing, King Triton's shitty carousel and nothing in Bugsland other than the 3D show (dope.) It was great! Wait times were not too bad, we got to ride all of our favorites multiple times (other that Toy Story) and best of all we got to do Radiator Springs Racers at 3 different times of the day which was even more awesome at night. Here are some more pics before getting to the Bazel B-day dinner finale.

abusers of the single rider

Fifi from High Adventure Magazine. She was so cool.

couldn't have asked for better weather

...bubbles.

so sick.

so dizzy.

jumpin' jellyfishes!

Ursula was based off the drag performer Divine.

vintage pinocchio dolls at Carthay. look at the refection. ooooh cool fixtures!

  Back to Bazel's "surprise" dinner at Carthay. Before abusing they Single Rider for RSR that morning I had Bazel and Colin wait out in front of Carthay so I could go inside and request a private booth. Since it wasn't a surprise anymore where the dinner was I had no problem in doing so in front of b-day boy plus I really wanted that booth!!!  Before dinner started we met up with a CM friend who was joining us for dinner. Now we make our way to the Carthay Bar...yay Bazel surprise.

2 minutes ago Bazel didn't know what this place was.

  We walk into Carthay. Bazel asks a waiter "Where am I...What is this place?" The waiter replies "The Carthay Circle Restaurant." Yeah so this whole time we thought Bazel knew where the B-Day Bash was gonna be, he really had no idea and later admitted he had made up a place in his brain that didn't even exist and that is where he thought his dinner was.  We ended up getting the private dining room (so sick), the food and drink were amazing and all of us had a fucking blast. We could really let loose in that little room and everyone was kinda drunk so we were all got to talk like filthy hookers. 

  After dinner our CM buddy had a pass for us all to ride RDR (WooHoo!) and we had perfect timing because the DL fireworks were going on. It looked so cool to see the firework show in the background of such a kick ass ride. Really cool little surprise from CM friend! But the surprises weren't over yet. 

  

 After leaving Carsland we started walking towards Paradise Pier to see if there is anywhere we can stand to see the World of Color. We had not got a seating pass and it looked pretty packed in. Our CM friend went up to 2 random CM's and told them that we had never seen the show, we didn't have a seating pass and he asked "What does it take to get some decent seats?" The CM unchains the rope and says "Right this way." She walks us dead center to the splash zone front row and says "Enjoy the show!" I couldn't believe it. That really put the cherry on the night. I ended up giving a WDFM pin to one of them as we left the show as a thank you. And we exited the park for the final time on our wonderful trip.

  Even with some random hiccups it was a great trip that I won't forget! Our CM friend really took good care of us. The park employees took very good care of us. I handed out about 30 pins to strange kids (an awesome way to spread magic that I learned from Jumba Jookiba), we waved, we rode, they drank, ate cookies..and stuff,  I spent all my money on vinylmation and prints, we filmed most of a music video (we did.), but the best part of the trip was being able to spend a few days in Disneyland with my best friend and my mother. Yeah kinda cheesy but it's true.

                                                                                 

Thanks for the long read!   -Rossco Soletrain

front row. baller shit.

P.S.  DLP Rumor - In the restaurant for the Ratatouille ride there will be little rat characters  that will run across your table at random. Source - Animator friend who toured WDI recently.

DL Rumor Squashed?..maybe - Back stage behind Innovations, Disney has built a new medical facility and apparently a lease had been renewed back there too. Does this mean a Tomorrowland update will keep Innovations? ... who knows :( Source - Random CM(pictured earlier??)

P.P.S. Check out this other review (here) of the Rolly Crump presentation from Keith Gluck from the micechat.com feature Dueling Disney. Keith rocks!!!

Guess Who Is Back? or If You Guessed Walt Disney, You'd Be Wrong...

Ummm. Dorks? Hellllllo? It's been over a month! Are you guys going to post anything soon? I have been waiting with bated breath(if you spell it baited breath it means you ate a bunch of anchovies AND that you are a bad speller). That's how it works, right? I write some... You write some... WE write some... Maybe "they" write some...

Okay, I have been gone for a long time. I wanted to put some stuff out for you guys, but I would just sit in front of a blinking cursor not being able to make my fingers start typing. It was weird... Anyone that knows me knows that I am rarely at a loss for something to say. I am poised for greatness(that may be overstating it a bit... Let's just say I am poised to do more than nothing)! I have most of the pictures I want for my Adventureland Guide from the suggestion of The Pesk, some great rage filled ideas for a #DisneyHulk post that "Marla" is hoping for and... I even tried to break IN TO Disney Jail for Matt C.! I am ready! Let's do this!

Here is what has been happening for us at Disneyland.

Cove Bar Social Club is alive and well! We usually hold meetings on Thursday nights... or whenever we can get a few people to meet at Cove.

So far this summer the Parks haven't seemed as crowded. I think it partially has to do with the increase in admission prices as well as the HUGE number of passholders who are blocked out. FSL and I have seen bigger crowds during the usual slow season between Halloween and Thanksgiving. We went on the 4th of July and it was down right dead in California Adventure. I kinda like it... Less strollers.

Work continues on Big Thunder Mountain.

Pins were purchased.

Didn't win the Powerball Lottery.

May have seen Carly Rae Jepsen.

Found the best burgers in the Parks... Uva Bar... Downtown Disney.

And solved the age old question. Can you fit three adults in a Doombuggy? The answer. Yup... Not comfortably, but yes...

FSL and I are going to go to D23 tomorrow. If you don't know what that is, think Comic Con for Disney. If you don't know what Comic Con is... well, there is no hope for you. You are officially shunned. I hope to take pictures and blog all about my adventures, but we'll see... Muhahahaha! -hahaha! -ha....

Get your reading eyes and scrolling fingers ready... I am back!

See you soon!

As always... Stay Dorky!

Jumba

P.S. Admit it... You missed me...

P.P.S. I missed me too...

P.P.P.S. If anyone is near a Sephora... FSL wants the Limited Edition Ariel Compact! Grab one for us and we will pay you back AND... wait for it... be featured in a future blog post!!  How could you say no to that?