It's time for another update!

Why it's as plain as the nose on your face, Jiminy!

With only a few days since my last update, you'd think I didn't have anything new to show you,
but you'd be wrong! There's always something happening at Disneyland!

I've heard of the new movie called "Chicken Little" from Disney coming out soon, but
not a 'peep' on this one! Hmmmm... Could it be a stinker that Disney doesn't quite
want to admit to? But then again, why promote it at Downtown Disney?
A show of good faith, perhaps?
 

Walking further along Downtown Disney, we see the long abandoned
"MainSpring" store front. There hasn't been any notable progress on this store
since April. I'm wondering now if there is even anyone willing to sign up for this
store. Too bad because it's right at the "World Of Disney" end of Downtown Disney.

A reasonable store with reasonable prices ought to do real well.

Pretty Quite on the western front, eh?
 
 
 

Nothing new at the Lunar Landscape... that we can see, anyway.
 

They've installed a ladder...
Wow!

Hey, don't they know there's people like me watching? Couldn't they throw me
a crumb now and then??!!

It may have been deadly quite out at the gates, but that's only because everyone was alread inside!

This is the crowd in front of the castle! As we get closer to the end of the school year, more and more
middle and elementary schools have a field trip to the resort.

Whatever happened to Museums?

By choosing "in front of the castle" as a rallying point, they made it nearly impossible to get into
fantasyland. Imagine about 200 Junior High kids running and milling about. It was pretty much
mayhem... but hey, they're having fun, right?
 

Off to Tomorrowland I go to see the latest Innovention over in, uh Innoventions.

Starting last week, Honda's Robotic Breakthrough "Asimo"
(Pronounced AH-see-mo, not ah-SEE-mo)
comes to Innoventions. They even built a little theater for him to perform in.

Let's go in, shall we?
 
 
 

This caught my eye. Not that I want to be all negative and nitpicky and stuff, but don't you think
Disney coulda' spung for a couple more breadtie thingy's to tie the bottom corners of the signs
down so the don't flap in the breeze? Maybe a CastMember could bring one or two in from home?

Jeepers, I got a couple in one of the drawers in my kitchen. Maybe I should bring them into City Hall and give 'em to them?

There's quite a crowd waiting to get in to see this new toy.
 

The show begins"

A "Mom" explains that she's so excited because "Asimo" is being delivered to the family's home today.
Y'know there's something awfully familiar about the feel of this set...
 
 

A ring of the doorbell, and there he is. Our new diminutive man servant.
 

I took a video clip with my digital camera of Asimo walking. You can watch it
by right-clicking here, and choosing to save it to your computer. Then when the file is
finished downloading, you can watch it from your computer, and then bring all
your co-workers over and watch it again without a long delay.

What makes this robot so special is his actual walking and turning ability. While he walks somewhat
like an old man, it's still pretty impressive to watch. The ball joints just below his hips allow him to pivot
and turn as he walks along. This is a new innovation in robot mobility,
 

Anyone else notice that Asimo if very close to Asimov? The author who
wrote the short story (turned movie) I, Robot

Conincidence? I think not!
 

Asimo demonstrates how he can stand (balance) on one foot. I don't know what practical
appliction this would have, but it seems kind of impressive that his balance is that good.
 

He's also able to kick a ball. Again, pretty impressive that the little robot can judge where the
ball is at, and knows when and how to kick the ball, all while keeping it's balance.

This is Asimo walking up and down stairs. It judges where the first step is, and how high each step
is before it takes it. The balance required for going down is higher than going up, so we
were told.

It was at this point that I noticed the pictures on the wall behind Asimo as he was going up and down the stairs.

It was then that I realized that the set the whole presentation is set in is an
Homage to the Carousel of Progress home.

It's a really nice set, and I wouldn't mind at all having it for a living room!
What made me laugh at the end of the show was they play
"There's A Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow" from the original
"Carousel Of Progress" soundtrack! Yup! I do believe that's
the father from that long gone (to DisneyWorld) attraction that
Southern Californians miss so much.
 
 

I was challenged to try and get some pictures from
the Grand Canyon and Primevil World Dioramas. You can only see these
from the Disneyland RailRoad between the Tomorrowland and Main Street stations.

The trick is that they are not very well lit, and there is no flash photography.

The Grand Canyon:

This was added to the park back in 1958

Primevil World:

Primevil World was added to the park in 1966, after being created by Disney and shown in the "Ford Pavillion" at the New York World's Fair.
 

The Tyrannosaurus stands 22 feet tall!

I need to admit that it was ONLY because I'm pretty good at Adobe Photoshop and that
the pictures are being displayed at only 640x480 resolution that they even come close to appearing
decent.

I decided to stay on the train over to New Orleans station and go check out the if the Disney Gallery was open.
Lo and behold, it was!

I'd been meaning to get up there and check out their 50 years exhibit since early May, and this was my first chance!

The Cigar Store Indian that used to stand in front of the...
CANDY store is right at the lobby at the top of the stairs.
 
 

This is an early conception of what Main Street hub would have looked like.

Click on the picture above for your chance to explore a much larger version

A lot was made of how tacky the Castle was going to be decorated for the 50th before it was unveiled.
Given that we were going off artwork like this, I can't find fault in those predictions.

The actual 50th castle, while not as regal as I personally had hoped, is still far, far
better than this artist's conceptual rendition.

Interestingly, you can buy prints and postcards of this in the Disney Gallery.
 
 
 

An early concept of the Matterhorn.
The "Skyway to Tomorrowland" was already existant, so the Matterhorn was designed to stand
in the exact correct spot to hide the HUGE skyway support tower inside.
 
 

This struck me as funny, and something I had never noticed before.
These are ride vehicles from a short lived Tomorrowland ride called "Flying Saucers". You sat on them and leaned one way
or the other while giant fans blew air up from beneath you (Imagine sitting on a giant
air hockey puck on an even larger Air Hockey Table, and you're not far off).

What I had never noticed before was how much the ride vehicle themselved resembled the very building that replaced
the "Flying Saucers" ride... SPACE MOUNTAIN!!!

Do you see the resemblance?
 

All in all, I wasn't too impressed with the Gallery's exhibit. Besides what I've shown you
there was little else that wasn't duplicated in the Opera House's 50th exhibit over off Main Street U.S.A.
 

I took a little time to rest out on the Gallery's patio overlooking the Rivers of America. I took a couple pictures
of the Sailing Ship Columbia, as the Mark Twain was not being used that day.

The first desktop Wallpaper for you to download in this update!

While sitting there waiting for the Columbia to come around the bend, I listened to one of
New Orleans Square's musical groups. I didn't not catch their name, but I did
make it downstairs to take their picture. They were fun and inviting, and got some good
crowd participation. Whatsmore, they knew all the words of the song and stayed on key!!!
 

This picture is larger because it is a 5x7 that I promised them. I took several more, but I'll refrain from putting them up here.

By the time the performance was finished, I knew that the Columbia was about finished with it's run around Tom Sawyer's Island. So
I went over to the Dock to see if I could get any other interesting shots

For you ship fans:

Let's head over to Disney's California Adventure real quickly to see if we can spot
"Chicken Little". I heard that he might be running around over there...
 

In fact, when I asked, I got a blank stare from the Castmember at the information booth.
I swear I could read "Who's Chicken Little?" flashing across his mind.

But I did take some pretty flower pictures.
Sorry if I bore you with these, but maybe somebody will like seeing them.
Interestingly, DCA has a much better variety of Flowers than Disneyland does, and I can never
seem to pass up the chance to get all artsy on them.
 

This would've made a good desktop, if I could have fit everything in...
 
 

Hold on, only a few more.
 
 

A primo place to take flowery shots

 

1024 jpg      1280 jpg
 
 

Ok. okay.... so back over to Disneyland (gee, California Adventure closes early... 6pm!)

Back over to Disneyland to gander at the parade... hmm... maybe a couple more shots of the parade
since I'm just sitting there:
 
 
 

I ended up getting a pretty good spot.

This little cutie amused the crowd, and a castmember or two!
 
 
 

Some Balloon Shots:

 
 

Something about the way balloons photograph... just full of whimsy, like balloons themselves.
 
 

And then the parade began:

I got to see the thoroughly unexciting parade stop for the first float.
It consists of some flag twirling.
 
 

But I got this desktop Wallpaper image!

 
 
 

Can you stand another Ursula Picture?

 
 
 

And of course, the moment the parade ends, the crush for viewing spots for the fireworks starts...

actually folks are saving spots in front of the castle well before the parade starts, and it can get pretty nasty, as I've witnessed.

And what is up with people standing up for the fireworks only on the right side of the castle? I've only seen them
a few times, but every time the folks on the right stand up, and the folks on the left stay seated?!
This time I was unfortunate enough to have to be on the right side, behind some very tall guests, who didn't stand
until the very start of the music.
 

So my pictures were pretty much worthless.
But here are the few that I got:

Tinkerbell is pretty hard to get! These are actually captures from a quicktime movie I made of parts of the fireworks.

Well, that's enough for one week, folks! Especially since my last update just went online a few days ago!

Hopefully I'll get back on my regular schedule this week, and no more 3:30am uploads!
A fella's gotta go to work!
 

If you enjoy these updates, won't you please consider donating to help cover
our expenses here at VisionsFantastic.com?
Disneyland fans everywhere thank you!

Love Up!
Daddyb

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oh yeah, here's that DCA Bear/Flower shot:

Why do I want to start singing something from "Sound Of Music" whenever I see this picture???!!!