kevin barnett

Fig 1. A topiatic water tower at the Disney/MGM Studios theme park in Orlando, Florida

My parents have always joked that my brother and I were deprived as children because they never took us to Disney World. When this information was revealed to other friends of theirs who had done the trip with their kids, it was as if they were unfit parents guilty of psychological absuse: “You’ve never been?!”

Note: my parents did take us to plenty of amusement parks but only one theme park — Hanna-Barbera Land. Cue the wah-wah-wahahahhhh bit.

I do remember a time when I was envious of friends who had gone to Disney World (or -Land) but that never lasted. However, my curiosity of the place - what draws people there and why they liked it has remained. Until today when my parents took me, finally, to Disney World.

My family moved to Tampa, FL this year (the same weekend I moved to NYC) and fulfilled their own curiosity when they took my younger brother to Disney World this summer visiting two parks: Animal Kingdom and Epcot. Since they had done the latter two and we felt Magic Kingdom maybe even more exclusively targeted to the kids/Disney superfans - we decided to go to Disney MGM Studios.

With the big studios so protective of their creative properties and IP, I was confused why Disney would leverage MGM for this park. Now having been to the park, I’m even more confused. There isn’t very much influence from the MGM films not to mention the non-Disney attractions such as Star Tours (Star Wars), Indiana Jones stunt show and The Muppets 3-D film.

Of the attractions we were able to see, the stunt car show was the most impressive. I enjoyed The Muppets 3-D film as well. It is much more than a 3-D film because there are environmental elements in the theater which interact with the film. Still, I felt as if the park had already seen it’s prime 10 or 15 years ago.

As I have described to my parents, I enjoyed visiting the park just to experience somewhat of a standard in American culture. But it’s something i don’t need to do again unless I’m taking children of my own. Who knows what will be the family destination when that happens. Personally, I would just assume take my hypothetical family to the real deal ala African safari.

Photos of my Disney/MGM experience are available via Flickr. Solid.

I was just listening to Longwave - Wake Me When It’s Over

I am posting from my parents’ new home in Tampa, Florida - a ridiculously large house at least relative to my ridiculously small apartment in New York.

My father recently upgraded their home theater with a large plasma screen, B&W speakers, a receiver brand I’ve never heard of and a high-end Sony DVD player that does some up-converting magic. The end result is amazing picture and sound which I’ve been demoing since I’ve been here. We’ve already watched Master and Commander, Star Wars (Episode IV) and last year’s Jack Black hosted-episode of Saturday Night Live in HD: “You look like a bunny rabbit…”

I am watching A.I. right now - I just realized that Vinnie Chase has a small cameo as the frat boy speaking role who gives David and Gigilo Joe a ride to Rouge City. Perhaps the ladies will be revisiting this film in the near future…

The more important screening has already taken place - our tradition of watching National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. Interestingly, all of us commented on the fake snow and not-quite-real look to the film (it was shot on the back of the WB lot using the same houses from the Lethal Weapon films) which most likely has something to do with the big HD screen. It still remains a classic for our family who can probably relate a story and/or a family member to too many of the scenes in the film.

Tomorrow will be gifts in the morning followed by a small party with some friends my parents invited from work/church who would otherwise be spending Christmas alone. My only wish is that I could be spending it with more loved ones - and you know who you are - who don’t live anywhere near Florida.

It’s cloudy and rainy - not exactly the classic Christmas weather I’ve grown accustom to but it’s definitely familiar having spent countless Christmases in Texas. The weather is going to clear up in time for my first trip to Disneyworld this week and I’m sure I will be writing all about it.

Until then: peace on Earth, goodwill to men, women, children and all of God’s creatures…

I was just watching A.I.

Last night, I went down with friends to the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater in Chelsea to check out Horatio Sanz’ Christmas stage show. This was my first time in the UCB Theater and having spent some time in the Chicago improv theaters, it looked very familiar.

The show itself was somewhat funny — hilarious if you appreciate the fact that the performance was emulating a bad television Christmas special. Horatio acted as the host interacting with guests in a few sketches while playing a couple of characters (pissed-off Santa out to kill his cheating wife, John Wayne Gacy, etc) in a few others. I was disappointed though that Sanz used cue cards the entire time while the other performers performed, like most stage actors do, from memory. I think Sanz must have spent too much time on SNL.

Edgar Oliver, who I’ve heard referred to as the “Edgar Allen Poe of the East Village” read a creepy and uncomfortable poem about an “ugly boy” who meets a “beautiful boy” and lures him into a motel room, hogties him and stabs him several times while imaging “kissing his beautiful body”. Yet another hilarious performance in the counterpoint/context of being a Christmas special. I can only imagine what he can deliver in a Halloween special — I will be on the lookout next year for some of his work.

David Bazan of Pedro the Lion played a couple of Christmas standards on his acoustic guitar in between sketches which was a real treat for everyone who knew who he was. But there was a group of drunk/pretentious Upper West’ers sitting behind us basically heckling through his performances which killed the mood. I don’t think they realized the joke was on them for taking the comedy too seriously.

At the end of the show, I overheard a member of the UWS group, clearly a flamer with a powerful lisp say “We’re sssssworn to ssssecreccccy”. I think that was a clear contender for best comedic performance of the evening.

I was just listening to Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - Going Under

“OMFG” seems to be the current mood in the design community over the new set of Adobe Creative Suite icons which employ a “periodic table/color wheel remix” visual style.

Personally, I don’t mind the alpha-symbol approach but my concern is with the color choices. Why not group the image-editing applications (Photoshop, Illustrator, Freehand, Fireworks, etc.) and web-development applications (Flash, Dreamwaver, Cold Fusion) in similar hues to suggest a true work flow within each discipline?

Better yet, why not spend some real time (and $ signs) to design a simple yet recognizable icon on par with Adobe Acrobat. Clearly Adobe recognizes the value in the Acrobat icon because it’s the only non-lettered symbol of the bunch.

I imagine the Adobe folks were overwhelmed by the number of apps under their umbrella and arrived at the most sensible solution. Nevermind the icons, I just hope the apps are an improvement.

I was just listening to Interpol - Untitled

I am going to take this opportunity to ejaculate geek love on the trailer for the Transformers movie before Ain’t It Cool News drowns it.

I haven’t been this impressed by CGFX since watching Jurassic Park for the first time. Michael Bay may be responsible for some of the worst stories in cinema of all time (Pearl Harbor) but he’s also responsible for some of the best action sequences in cinema (Pearl Harbor, etc.).

Does this mean that Speilberg whipped the screenplay into submission? Is there more than meets the eye? We can only hope. This film is going to be huge…Optimus Prime huge.

I was just listening to The Beta Band - B + A

It’s not Ken Burns good but Austin Power and the Austin History Center teamed up to create an informative and interesting slide show on the history of Austin using some very old photographs. Thanks to Craveytrain for the tip.

Four years ago, I bought a panoramic photograph of Austin circa 1910 overlooking the intersection of Congress Avenue and 6th Street and had it framed after I moved from Austin to Chicago. It remains as one of the few items of wall art that has stayed with me over the years. I imagine I will continue to acquire photography pieces from Texas to round out my own collection moving forward because, let’s face it: I’m a proud Texan as all Texans are raised to be.

I was just listening to TV On The Radio - Hours