Thursday, August 30, 2012

Ken's DragonCon Schedule




Click here for the schedule or look below:


Title: A Bit Of A Chat with Sylvester McCoy
Time: Fri 11:30 am Location: Grand Ballroom A-F - Sheraton (Length: 1)
Description: Ken Plume has an in-depth chat with entertainer and Time Lord Sylvester McCoy about Doctor Who, The Hobbit, and much more…

Title: FRED Entertainment Panel-Palooza-Extrava-Thingee-a-Doodle
Time: Fri 01:00 pm Location: Valdosta - Sheraton (Length: 1)
Description: A panel that really only exists for the sake of frolicking, bantering, and geeking about with special guests and an Irishman.

Title: Quiz-o-Tron 2000
Time: Fri 10:00 pm Location: International South - Hyatt (Length: 1)
Description: Rebecca Watson’s science-themed quiz show!

Title: Gonzoroo II
Time: Sat 08:30 pm Location: Atrium Ballroom - Marriott (Length: 2.5)
Description: An evening of music, comedic delights, and surprises galore!

Title: FRED Entertainment Presents Yet Another Panel About Doctor Who
Time: Sun 11:30 am Location: Atlanta Ballroom - Westin (Length: 1)
Description: Ken Plume & guests rant, rave, giggle & titter about all things DW as only enthusiastic, opinionated & reasonably well-informed geeks can hope to do.

Title: Art In Community
Time: Sun 01:00 pm Location: Atlanta Ballroom - Westin (Length: 1)
Description: From movies to TV shows to comics & more, artists are now turning directly to their fans in order to get their art made. Hosted by Ken Plume.

Title: The Venture Bros
Time: Sun 02:30 pm Location: Atrium Ballroom - Marriott (Length: 1)
Description: Doc Hammer, Jackson Publick, & James Urbaniak return ahead of a Halloween special and a new season to chat & take your questions.

Title: How I Became Dr. Venture, Robert Crumb & 101 Red Herrings
Time: Sun 05:30 pm Location: Augusta 1-2 - Westin (Length: 1)
Description: Actor James Urbaniak discusses his life and career as a “modestly successful character actor” and beloved internet presence.

Title: Gonzo Quiz Show IV: The Quest For Quiz
Time: Sun 07:00 pm Location: Atlanta Ballroom - Westin (Length: 2.5)
Description: Teams of celebrity guests are led through a series of panel show games that you entertained.


Photo kiosks

On KEN P.D. SNYDECAST #178: Advise And Dissent Ken and Dana talk briefly about photo kiosks!

The main variety of photo booths were Fotomat:
 Ken mentions the one in Back to the Future, that was Fotomat's competitor Fox Photo:


They were simply a small store with one employee where film was dropped off for developing and later picked up.

These were located in mall parking lots and required very little land.

After digital cameras replaced film camera some of these kiosks have been converted.

Here's a drive thru chapel:
 A cigarette stand:

And a snow cone stand:

Rock God Question

On KEN P.D. SNYDECAST #178: Advise And Dissent the boys read letters! Here's one:


Hey Ken and Dana,

In two week's time I'm going to a mate's 40th birthday party that has a dress up theme of "80s rock god." Not being a big fan of any themed party, I would appreciate any costume suggestions you might have. 

Please note that before making your decision, I am also being set-up with a female teacher. 

Being married to a teacher, Dana, maybe you could provide some inside knowledge on how to 'make the right moves' with such an example of the female sex.

Kind regards,
Scott Lane


Dana first suggests David Bowie and Ken specifies David Bowie in Labyrinth:

Dana suggests current, bloated Axl Rose:


Ken wants to go with David Lee Roth:

But Dana insists that they get a picture of Scott Lane before they can answer any of the questions.

Scott sent them two pictures. One with him and Dame Edna:


Plus one of him with an extra leg:

We await the results on the next Ken P.D. Snydecast!

Disneyland 1957

After posting the 1957 guide map yesterday I thought it would be nice to share this video as well.



This video is from 1957, the same year that Dana said his dad was at Disneyland.


This video was originally posted back in February on the Disney History Institute blog. The blog introduced it as:

This video is taken from some 1957 pro-stock that I've owned for years.  The transfer was done on a Spirit DataCine (i.e. the same machine that Ken Burns uses to transfer historic footage for his PBS documentaries).  The entire reel is 20 minutes.  These are the best clips, none of which have ever been shown in public.  

The blog also gives us this info:

* The color values here are so much brighter than those presently used in the park, leaning in places toward a florescent vibrancy.  (And yes, it does look like the film has a slight color shift in the reds, but overall, I think the colors are pretty spot on.)  During the early days of Disneyland Walt was often focused on color, particularly in Fantasyland and on Main Street.  As with his animated films, he saw color as a key element toward affecting a guest's emotional experience.  Over the years, I've interviewed many of the original art directors for Disneyland, who have told different versions of this story, that Walt used to walk through the park, making notes to repaint various buildings with a slightly different hue, that Walt sent his animators and background painters (such as Ken Anderson) into the park specifically to review the park's use of color.  Here, Fantasyland holds the dreamy qualities of a children's storybook and Main Street is washed in tones that, for me, suggest nostalgia.  During Walt's lifetime, Disneyland had many imitators, but none of the other parks understood how Walt controlled environment to create mood.  

* This film was shot the month Monsanto opened the House of the Future.  Look, there's no line for the House, with only a few people wandering out its exit.  

* Up through 1958, the Omnibus travelled back to the Tomorrowland lagoon (future home of the Disneyland subs).  Here, you can see it roll past Holiday Hill (AKA Snow Mountain).

* There, in by the mule train, leaning over the fence, is Owen Pope, the man with the chocolate-brown pants.  Sure, it's not the best shot of Owen Pope.  You can't see his face, but that's definitely the hat he most always wore for photographs.  He oversaw construction of the Disneyland stagecoaches and also managed the Disneyland stables.

* But my favorite sequence in the entire film occurs on the Mark Twain.  There, the Disneyland band director (Vesey Walker) conducts the band while talking to a park guest.  This reminds me of one of the things I most admire about the park as it existed 55 years ago: the park contained a unique type of open space that encouraged conversation.

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

1957 Disneyland map

On the latest Snydecast, Dana mentions having a 1957 map from when his dad went there.

The park was just 2 years old at the time.

Here are some images of a 1957 park map:











Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Corpses, Tombstones and Orangina

KEN P.D. SNYDECAST #178: Advise And Dissent features mention of a few off the wall things.

First, S. P. Dinsmoor and his Garden of Eden.

I covered it on the blog back in December of last year.

It's a weird place.


Samuel Perry Dinsmoor (1843-1932) was a Kansas school teacher and is best known for his sculptures at his cabin known as The Garden of Eden.

You can see the Linoleum kitchen floors Dana mentioned here:

Dinsmoor's corpse is on display.

Yep.

Dinsmoor not only has his body on display, but he used a photographer's trick of double exposing the negative so that he could have a picture of him looking at himself in the crypt.


I know this seems like nothing now, but in the days before photo shop, this was pretty dang impressive.

Today, I can make a picture of Ron Jeremy looking at him in the crypt and it takes just 20 seconds:


And it looks like I spent just 20 seconds on it.

But that's not the point. The point is that this dude was a visionary. A weird visionary.

Here is a photo tour of his place:



Dana also mentions Ken drinking Coca-Cola Black Cherry Vanilla back in 2006. It has been covered on The Experience before.

That post talks about when the drink was mentioned back on KEN P.D. SNYDECAST #5: Bed Buggin':


Ken: I'm drinking a straight up Coke Black Cherry Vanilla.
Dana: Jesus Christ!
Ken: What?
Dana: That's the most complicated flavor I've heard of in my life.

Coca-Cola Black Cherry Vanilla and Diet Coke Black Cherry Vanilla were varieties of Coca-Cola that were launched in January 2006 just one month before Ken sipped one during the Snydecast.

Coca-Cola Black Cherry Vanilla was available in 20-ounce, 2-liter, and 12-pack can forms.
Coca-Cola Black Cherry Vanilla was intended to replace Vanilla Coke. However low sales figures prompted the return of Vanilla Coke (now Coca-Cola Vanilla) in the summer of 2007.

Coca-Cola Black Cherry Vanilla ceased production at that time.

You can read that here.



They also mention Orangina on this new Snydecast. Its is a carbonated citrus beverage made from orange, lemon, mandarin, and grapefruit juices.

It comes in a bottle that looks like this:

KEN P.D. SNYDECAST #178: Advise And Dissent



KEN P.D. SNYDECAST #178: Advise And Dissent is up! An all advice show featuring questions about costume parties, Disneyland, beards and teachers vs actresses.





Go! Listen! Enjoy! KEN P.D. SNYDECAST #178: Advise And Dissent!

Monday, August 27, 2012

Carl Barks' Scrooge McDuck

On KEN P.D. SNYDECAST #177: Hoard To Tears Ken and Dana talk about Carl Bark's magnificent work on the Uncle Scrooge McDuck comics.

Ken mentions a wonderful leather bound copy of Barks' work.

He also mentions the story of Tralla La. Here is a plot summary from wiki:

Tralla La begins with Uncle Scrooge having a hard day at his office, and it doesn't get better when he attempts to walk along the street to relax. He is followed by someone who wants some of his money for whatever reason. The stress of this way of life gets to him and he suffers a nervous breakdown. Though he improves, he can't stand to see or hear about money, as he now associates it with all the troubles that got him to this point. In order to heal, he searches for a place where money has no influence. Tralla La may be such a place, where a peaceful society without a monetary system is rumored to exist.

Scrooge and his nephews, who are there to support his healing, finally locate the mythical place in a deep valley high in the Himalayas and arrive by parachute. There they get acquainted with a more peaceful existence than to which they were accustomed.

However, as Scrooge seems to be healing he doesn't realise he brought his troubles with him. He brought bottles of his medication along; the bottle caps he discards are considered rare treasures in Tralla La and become the basis of a new monetary system! The inhabitants of Tralla La become obsessed with these new treasures. To solve the issue, Scrooge has planes drop one billion bottle caps, but this becomes too many, and the inhabitants become angry, as their fields are now covered with caps. The Ducks must flee, as they apparently cannot find peace even in an Earthly paradise.

The comic was adapted into an episode of Duck Tales and it's on YouTube:


Dana on Florida Supercon podcast tonight!

I got this info in an email today:




Click here to go to floridasupercon.com

Click here to go to youtube.com/floridasupercon.

Sunday, August 26, 2012

#4WordsAfterIntercourse

Last night Ken had some fun with the hashtag #4WordsAfterIntercourse. I haven't seen him do this in a while. It was pretty damn funny.



To me, my steed.
#4WordsAfterIntercourse


Shave and a haircut.
#4WordsAfterIntercourse


I must cry now.
#4WordsAfterIntercourse


You want a parade?
#4WordsAfterIntercourse


To follow Ken Plume click here.

Dana's Phyllis Diller Painting


Saturday, August 25, 2012

The Cheers Set

On KEN P.D. SNYDECAST #177: Hoard To Tears Dana mentions the Cheers set and says he thinks it's part of the Smithsonian Collection.

It's not.

When the show ended, they publicly announced a plan to give the set to the Smithsonian. Ultimately, the Smithsonian rejected it because it was too big to store.
The set remained on a stage at Paramount for a few years as part of the studio tour.

Eventually they needed the space and donated it to the Hollywood Entertainment Museum.

I visited the museum a few times in 2002. On Monday nights they would have a catered "Monday Night Football" party.

Here are some pictures of me at one of those partys:
The set was laid out with the "fourth wall" being the entrance. There was a fake staircase to Melville's. Whenever you watch someone go up there in an episode, remember they are just hiding at the top till the camera cuts:

Yeah, I was having a Miller Lite on the Cheers Set.

The set was neat to look at. Lots of the props on the wall were simply pictures cut out of old newspapers and framed.
 The museum also had Mulder's office from X-Files and the "bridge" from Star Trek TNG as well as many pieces of memorabilia.
The museum closed it's doors in 2007. I hope the Cheers bar is safely in storage somewhere...

Friday, August 24, 2012

Some of Ken's Dragon*Con schedule

Aaron Poole posted his panel schedule on his site:
http://aaronfever.blogspot.ie/2012/08/dragoncon-schedule.html

In addition to listing all the places you can see Aaron, he lists a bunch of Plume's panels. Take a look:











The full schedule is here.

Email the boys:

Send them a question RIGHT now. The next show will be recorded on Monday 8/27/2012.

They will answer your questions on life, love, finance... ANYTHING.


Here is the email they gave on the show:

snydecast@asitecalledfred.com

But on KEN P.D. SNYDECAST #161: Mail Nag Dana said that email didn't get to him, just Ken. So he set up:

kenpdsnydecast@gmail.com

There is always the general Fred email account:

mail@asitecalledfred.com

I suggest you just use all three. SEND SEND SEND.

What's the P.O. Box, Dana?

On KEN P.D. SNYDECAST #177: Hoard To Tears, Ken asks Dana what the P.O. box address is.

You may remember when Dana asked people to send him stuff at his office and he received enticing gifts of mustard and toenails.

Well, Dana doesn't have that office anymore.

It made me wonder, are there any parcels lost out there? I know I sent Dana something that became a pointless gift to the next resident 6646 Hollywood Blvd.

Sometime last year I was looking through some Hollywood memorabilia for sale when I spotted this:


It was a program from an Ohio production of the show "Sugar". What made it interesting was that it starred Mickey Rooney, Ken Berry and Dana Snyder.


But not our Dana Snyder, this was Shawshank Redemption's Dana Snyder.


Here she was gracing the stage along side Ken Berry and Mickey Rooney (who will never die, just ask Ken.)


I paid for it (I think it was $2), took a couple cell phone pics and stuck it in a media mail envelope and never thought about it again, until today.


What did YOU send Dana that he never got?