hbquikcomjamesl
01-02-2003, 07:59 AM
I spent New Year's Eve in DLR (something I've been doing for quite a few years, since it's about the only place I CAN go to be around a bunch of other people having fun stone cold sober; before that, when I still worked at the late lamented Costa Mesa Ice Chalet, I used to run a local church group's skating/broomball party), and managed to get to everything I'd planned for the evening.
After arriving around 5 PM, and poking my nose into DL just long enough to size up the crowd and find out how late the BB would be open, I went over to DCA for the 6:15 Aladdin. (I'd originally planned on arriving early enough for the 4:45, but the best-laid plans of mice and men. . . .)
WOW!
I'd walked in, thinking, "It doesn't have to be another BLAST!; please just don't make it another 'Waste of Time'."
WOW!
I think it would do very well indeed, expanded to a full-length Broadway production. It's definitely worth watching as it is. More special effects (and body-doubles) than Phantom and Les Miz combined, and yet those special effects didn't upstage the singing or acting. It had its few awkward moments, but I'd say we have a winner here, worth nearly the DCA admission price by itself.
After Aladdin, I rushed back over to DL, to catch the Christmas Fantasy Parade. And once again, I was in for a disappointment: the whole "Edwardian Carolers" unit, which was the number one highlight of the whole parade for me, is missing for the second year in a row. Am I the only one noticing this gaping hole? With that whole unit missing, the music doesn't even line up properly!
Speaking of music not lining up properly, while the evening's Electrical Parade did manage, as usual, to bring me near tears, I noticed that somehow the Circus unit had two different copies of its soundtrack running, at least a quarter-cycle out of synch with each other. How is that even possible? Also, I felt whoever was running audio cut to the closing music a bit too quickly after the Flag unit passed.
Both fireworks displays were quite good; does anybody know why there were a bunch of shells going off around 9:00, while I was in the Blue Bayou line?
Oh, yes; I almost forgot: I managed to run into Maynard during the Christmas Fantasy Parade; he was working Lincoln that evening, and when I said hello to him, he slipped into his customary pose. :)
I finished the evening with Soarin'; it was good, but somehow there was some sort of crud in the projector, evidently in an unusually difficult-to-clean area. Anybody know anything about that?
After arriving around 5 PM, and poking my nose into DL just long enough to size up the crowd and find out how late the BB would be open, I went over to DCA for the 6:15 Aladdin. (I'd originally planned on arriving early enough for the 4:45, but the best-laid plans of mice and men. . . .)
WOW!
I'd walked in, thinking, "It doesn't have to be another BLAST!; please just don't make it another 'Waste of Time'."
WOW!
I think it would do very well indeed, expanded to a full-length Broadway production. It's definitely worth watching as it is. More special effects (and body-doubles) than Phantom and Les Miz combined, and yet those special effects didn't upstage the singing or acting. It had its few awkward moments, but I'd say we have a winner here, worth nearly the DCA admission price by itself.
After Aladdin, I rushed back over to DL, to catch the Christmas Fantasy Parade. And once again, I was in for a disappointment: the whole "Edwardian Carolers" unit, which was the number one highlight of the whole parade for me, is missing for the second year in a row. Am I the only one noticing this gaping hole? With that whole unit missing, the music doesn't even line up properly!
Speaking of music not lining up properly, while the evening's Electrical Parade did manage, as usual, to bring me near tears, I noticed that somehow the Circus unit had two different copies of its soundtrack running, at least a quarter-cycle out of synch with each other. How is that even possible? Also, I felt whoever was running audio cut to the closing music a bit too quickly after the Flag unit passed.
Both fireworks displays were quite good; does anybody know why there were a bunch of shells going off around 9:00, while I was in the Blue Bayou line?
Oh, yes; I almost forgot: I managed to run into Maynard during the Christmas Fantasy Parade; he was working Lincoln that evening, and when I said hello to him, he slipped into his customary pose. :)
I finished the evening with Soarin'; it was good, but somehow there was some sort of crud in the projector, evidently in an unusually difficult-to-clean area. Anybody know anything about that?