My favorite songs that I’ve written are the ones that come with a visual story attached to them. At least in my head, even if I never get around to doing a video for them. “The Legend of Ms Garcia”, which will be released on February 5th, is one of those songs. It’s about my…
June 9th is Donald Duck Day. I’m not quite sure how Donald gets his own day and Goofy doesn’t. Though I guess we could say that any day politicians are in charge of anything is Goofy Day. As a Disney nerd though, I’ve always dug Donald. One of the rights of passage of childhood is…
Yep, I totally meant to write this post a week ago when the trailer came out. But it didn’t happen somehow. So now…. If you haven’t seen the trailer for the new Star Wars film yet, you’re probably not reading this post anyway, because you don’t have electricity or friends. But just in case… Ok,…
Sure, Disneyland is expensive and crowded. But just think of all the great things you can experience by spending a lovely vacation there with your family! 1. Meet all your favorite Disney characters and see how a drunken Anaheim teenager acts inside a furry suit. 2. Travel at high speeds through outer space without…
It’s been a little while since I did any Disney updating here. But I just saw a video for the new Seven Dwarfs Mine Train ride at WDW. Specifically for the new Animatronic figures inside. You can check out the video below. I have to say, I’m pretty impressed. I’ve not been a big fan…
Disney dorks are legion. At the theme parks they often blend in the with the rest of the Mickey-clad crowd. Until you spend some time talking to them in a line and discover that they go to the park 20 times per year. If you’re friends with a Disney dork, chances are you know it…
Since Disney’s been so into backstories lately, I thought it might be fun to speculate on the possible backgrounds of other Disney villains. I’d really love to have a go at Captain Hook’s story, but they did his origin in one of the Tinkerbell movies in 2014. In that context, I can almost guarantee mine…
I had planned on writing about the top 10 goals on my career bucket list. Turns out there aren’t 10. There are just 3. I figure any other goals would be a lead up to these three anyway. And of course, these are just the career goals. There are others having to do finances, possessions,…
As you may have sussed out from my regular mentions of Star Wars and Disney stuff in my show and online, I lean a good bit to the geek side. (Come to the geek side, Luke…). And recently I made the acquaintance of Amy Ratcliffe who runs and writes for a bunch of cool geek…
Alrighty… It’s time for ye olde biannual Disney D23 Expo wrap-up. As always, some good, some not so great stuff. But overall, a fun experience. First off, I’m not a company boy type of Disney fan. I don’t go to these events to buy every little “collectible” trinket or gawk at celebrity appearances or gather…
I’m headed for the Disney D23 Expo next week, so I’ve got a bit of Disney on the brain. Plus my trip there will be followed by shows in LA and Las Vegas, so it oughta be a hell of at trip. 🙂 One of my favorite Disney things over the last couple years has…
One of my favorite Disneyland memories happened a few years back when they still had the “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire” live game at California Adventure. I was a fan of the quiz show as I’m usually pretty good at trivia myself. And I wanted to get in that hot seat and win whatever…
Over the weekend I finally made it up to the Disney Family Museum to see the Snow White exhibit called “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs: Creation Of A Classic”. It was the final weekend, so if you haven’t seen it yet, this blog post is the best you’re gonna do. 🙂 It was a…
If you’re a Disney fan, you’ve seen this short already. But if not, give it a watch. It’s really fantastic. It captures that classic Disney look and spirit while pushing ahead into a new look and technology. Exactly the things I like about Disney. 🙂 What first caught my eye was seeing that classic, hand-drawn…
I’m a couple days behind on this, but that’s what happens when I’m driving on tour. 🙂 DisneyByMark broke this story a couple days ago and Disney fans have been following the idea for a couple years. Essentially, MyMagic+ involves and RFID wristband that will tie together your whole Disney experience. It’s your park ticket,…
As both a Disney fan and a Star Wars fan, I’m excited to see how this new partnership works out. I wasn’t surprised really. I’d heard that Lucas was looking to move onto new things and he’s a longtime Disney fan. And of course the two companies have worked on attractions together in the past. …
I’ve been seeing a lot of really cool off-kilter Disney art lately. Some seriously dark or otherwise confusing stuff too. I have to start with a couple of these from Jose Rodolfo Loaiza Ontiveros and his “Disasterland” series. Here he puts our beloved fairytale characters in the same positions of excessive fame that our real…
Over the weekend I had the opportunity to visit the new Disney archives exhibit at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, CA. There’s pretty much no other reason to visit Simi Valley, but there I was. I’m not a D23 member at the moment, so I paid the full $21 admission price to…
I was reading Al Lutz’s column at MiceAge yesterday and found some intriguing stuff in it. Apparently the opening of DCA is going even better than they thought it would. I guess that makes up for some of the karma of it’s original opening being worse than anyone ever thought it could be. In the…
Here’s last night’s Episode 3 (Revenge of the Phil) of Phil’s Fast 15. This episode includes the songs “Share My Pixie Dust”, “LCW”, and “Way Down Yonder In New Orleans”. Better lighting than last week since I remembered to turn the lights on. 🙂 The video is less jerky, but still fuzzy. Getting it worked…
I totally forgot to post this last week as I was running around prepping to leave town again. Anyway… Here’s episode #2. Includes the songs “A Little Boy In Love”, “Happiest Place On Earth”, and “Baby Won’t You Please Come Home”. You can watch live every Monday at 8pm PST at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/phil-johnson-and-roadside-attraction
So, June 15th is nearly upon us and Cars Land and the new Buena Vista Street at Disney California Adventure will be unleashed up the world. Or it may be more apt to say the world will be unleashed upon it. I’m going to predict that it will be the biggest event (and/or clusterf#&k) since…
Such a fine line between A bomb and THE bomb, isn’t it? I almost called this post “Why John Carter Sucks”, but I don’t know if it does or not. I haven’t seen it. And actually, I’ve heard it’s a pretty good film. So where did Disney go wrong in this, one of their biggest…
I was saddened to hear of Robert Sherman’s passing today. For someone who’s a Disney nut and a songwriter, you can’t help but be influenced by the Sherman Brothers catalog. And personally, I think it’s a huge achievement to written one of the most loved and most hated songs of all time, “It’s A Small…
