General Post-2011 Life Update

Posted on January 10, 2012 by doggans

While I generally scoff at the emphasis society places on arbitrarily-defined breaks between periods of planetary revolution, I can’t help but feel a bit reflective as 2012 begins.

I didn’t accomplish most of the specific goals I had in 2011. Dave Does Disney is STILL incomplete (which isn’t ENTIRELY my fault), and I haven’t finished most of the scripts I wanted to have done by now. And yet, I still had a fun and productive year. I raised the money I needed to continue working with Broken Phonebooth. I was a line producer on one short, and a first AC on another. I reconnected with old friends and made new ones.

And so far, this year is shaping up to be something interesting. I started taking a standup comedy class at the Orlando Improv. Broken Phonebooth’s sending me and a few other people to Kenya for a week at the end of the month. After that? The next phase in my life will begin.

My internship at Phonebooth officially ends this next month. I’ll probably do a little bit of freelance work for them afterward, but I will no longer have a regular salaried position. And it’s the first time in my life that I’m not waiting for something specific to happen–when I graduated high school, I was waiting for college. When I graduated college, I was waiting for the job at Phonebooth. And now that I’m done with that, the next step hasn’t been clearly and specifically laid out before me.

So that’s why I’m planning on officially moving to Los Angeles in August or September.

LA has always been in the back of my mind as an “in the future” thing, but like so many other “in the future” things, I didn’t know when it would actually happen. Well, why not this year?

Right now, my plan is to finish up my time here, stick around for one or two more months to wrap up my life (and maaaaaaybe find work here), head home for a little bit to scrounge up some savings and spend time with friends, and then make my way out west. Now, like all my plans, this one COULD change in an event such as famine or disease or California breaking off of the rest of the country and floating away aimlessly until it runs over Hawaii. But for now, this seems like a reasonable goal.

In the meantime, I’ll be begging people to help me pay off my student loans.

Dave Does Disney – Phase Two Announcement

Posted on November 26, 2011 by doggans

(YouTube)

Dave is starting over on the upcoming Disney videos, AND re-covering ground he glossed over. What do YOU think got the short shift in the first three videos?

Review: The Muppets (2011)

Posted on November 20, 2011 by doggans

On Thursday night, I attended an advance screening of “The Muppets”, which is the Stallone-esque title of the new film starring The Muppets and their infinitely-growing list of celebrity friends.

I’ve been anticipating this film for a long time. I’m an almost-lifelong fan of the Muppets, and yet I’ve never seen one of their movies in a theater (though I have rewatched their classic films MANY times, loving each one more each time I watch it). I also greatly enjoy Flight of the Conchords and most of the works of Jason Segel. I tried to be cautious with my optimism, but every new bit of information just made me more and more excited for the film until I had it built up in my head as not only the greatest movie ever made, but also the cure to twelve known diseases and six unknown.

So I went into this film attempting to suppress my excitement, but not so much that I would have a bad attitude that would taint my perception of the movie, so I wanted to leave just enough optimism that I noticed the goodness of the film, but not so much that I ignored any room for improvement. And I wanted to have fun.

Man, watching movies is stressful.

In the end? The film was quite good. Not perfect by any means, but easily the best Muppets flick since “The Muppet Christmas Carol”, which until now went unchallenged as the best of the post-Henson era. Continue reading →

Bad news on the Dave Does Disney front

Posted on October 23, 2011 by doggans

There’s been a delay in getting the remaining episodes (one on Hollywood Studios, one on some of the resorts and Downtown Disney, and one “grand finale”) out because I’ve been so busy with my actual job (by the way, have you seen the zBlog site yet?), but now the delay will go on longer because today, a mere few days after I put the finishing touches on the next two episodes, my external hard drive died without warning.

I’m pretty mad at myself, since I kept making a mental note to back up the videos, but kept putting it off. Yes, I am stupid. Feel free to point at me and laugh derisively.

Anyway, right now I can think of four options:

OPTION ONE: I can simply re-edit the remaining videos. I believe I still have all the raw footage I shot last year on other hard drives (and if not, it’s all on tapes at my parents’ house), so I could re-edit, but I spent so long editing these the first time around that I have no idea when it would get done. It would be a BIT faster if I remember everything I did last time, but it would still be a pain.

OPTION TWO: Since I’m back in Florida for a few months, I could start over COMPLETELY from scratch, shooting new, far superior footage with a more current look at Hollywood Studios and the resorts.

Reasons I might want to start over from scratch:
(1) I was already planning on doing a post-series follow-up on the things that have changed anyway, so this kills two birds with one stone.
(2) I would have to rerecord the narration anyway, and something about re-reciting my impressions from my first time at Hollywood Studios, now that I’ve been there so many times since and have a different perspective on it, feels…disingenuous, I guess? I don’t know, it’s hard to explain.
(3) There was a lot from the old versions of the videos I was never satisfied with. As I’ve mentioned, this wasn’t originally meant to be a detailed review series, but a much more casual “goofing off at theme parks” video. Since the project developed in editing, I had to settle for some really bad shots of some rides, shows, or locations because they’re the only ones I happened to have. Starting over would give me a chance

The reasons I’m reluctant to start over from scratch are:
(1) It would take EVEN LONGER than just reassembling the footage. I don’t even know when the next time I’ll be free enough to visit a Disney park is.
(2) I really don’t feel like going to all those hotels again to collect footage.
(3) I don’t like the idea of the last few episodes being a different style than the first three, even if it’s an improved style. I’m a fan of consistency.
(4) While there was stuff I wasn’t satisfied with, there were plenty of other things in the old videos that I was really proud of, things that I wouldn’t be able to recreate with new footage.

OPTION THREE: I can adapt the scripts from the remaining episodes into written blog posts. This would be the easiest solution, but also the least satisfying. As I said, I don’t like the idea of the series changing styles in the middle unless it’s clearly a “new season” or something like that, but at least you’d get to hear all the obscure jokes that I think are so hilarious even though only three of you will get them

OPTION FOUR: Pray that my hard drive will miraculously start working again, at least long enough for me to back up the files.

Anyway. I’m going to not think about it for a few days, and hopefully come back with a fresh perspective. Feel free to let me know which option you would lean towards (or if you prefer a different option altogether!)

Once again, I’m really glad so many of you like this so far, and I’m really sorry it will be so long before you see the remaining episodes.

But hey, in the meantime, you can watch Tony Goldmark’s Disney park videos, which are funnier (and have more profanity) than mine anyway!

The Weird Al Backstage Pass Story

Posted on October 12, 2011 by doggans

He’s been a comedy hero of mine for ages. I had seen him twice in concert before, and met him once. But this was the first time he was slightly aware of who I was before meeting him. That’s the sort of thing that melts a fanboy’s brain.

On Wednesday, October 5, 2011, “Weird Al” Yankovic’s Alpocalypse Tour led him to the hallowed halls of Hard Rock at Universal City Walk, right here in Orlando, Florida. Naturally, I was bound by the laws of geekery to attend. Really, it was out of my hands. Continue reading →

Weird Al Concert 10/5/2011 – Highlights

Posted on October 12, 2011 by doggans

What follows are the highlights from the show itself. Don’t forget to read the post about the evening as a whole.

Typically, a Weird Al concert opens with a recording of “Fun Zone”, followed by a bit of channel-changing through random or strange clips, before landing on a montage of talk show hosts, starting with Johnny Carson, announcing Al’s name. For whatever reason, at this show the channel-changing happened about fifteen minutes before the show, but it was okay because it included Tommy Wiseau’s famous “You ah TEARING me APAHT, Lisa!” “Fun Zone” played at the normal time, but instead of the talk show montage, we got the Alpocalypse teaser.

Continue reading →

Remembering Steve Jobs

Posted on October 6, 2011 by doggans

It’s been kind of an emotional roller coaster week in the geek world. The cautious optimism of the “Arrested Development” return and my own personal excitement about seeing Weird Al last night (which I’ll get to in its own post soon) were suddenly overshadowed by the loss of one of the most influential geeks in history, Steve Jobs.

And yes, I see the irony in jumping on the very trendy bandwagon of eulogizing a man whose motto was “Think Different”. But hey, sometimes you have to think the same, for just a moment, to see the value of thinking different. Continue reading →

Dave Does Disney – Episode 3 – Animal Kingdom

Posted on September 1, 2011 by doggans

(YouTube)

In today’s episode of Dave Does Disney, Dave looks at a kingdom full of safaris, rivers, yetis, dinosaurs, and celebrities who get to cut ahead in line.

Dave Does Disney – Episode Two – Epcot

Posted on August 17, 2011 by doggans

(YouTube)

The thrilling saga of some dork’s trip to Walt Disney World continues! Today, Dave looks at a theme park dedicated to The World, whether that world is Of The Future or Being Showcased.

Best-Of Clips

Dave Does Disney – Episode One – The Magic Kingdom

Posted on August 6, 2011 by doggans

TIME FOR BACKSTORY!

When I was in Orlando last spring, I, a lifelong Disneyland fan, visited Walt Disney World for the first time, and I knew I needed to create a historical document of the event. Because THE WORLD WOULD DEMAND IT.

Originally, I just wanted to do a silly goofing-off-at-a-theme-park video, like those Christmas Shopping videos I did. Unfortunately, my ~~dorkiness~~ ~~insanity~~ ~~desperate need for attention~~ passion for the subject matter caused it to grow into something beyond my control: a snarky-yet-affectionate park-by-park analysis of the Walt Disney World resort.

Needless to say, the newly-expanded project took me a lot longer to edit than I anticipated (partially because it was so complex, partially because I had other priorities). When the first one alone took almost a year, I decided to wait until I had at least a few done (and the rest close to done) before I started releasing them.

Now that I’m on my way back to Florida for the rest of the year, I figure it’s time to release episode one before I’m tempted to just go back to the parks and start over from scratch. So let’s start off with Magic Kingdom, and the watering down of all my Disneyland memories!

Best-Of Clips

Music Credits