Colors of the Night

 

Had some fun last night with my mom's camera. I really enjoy getting night shots to show up so bright. Maybe because it's a bit of an oxymoron, being able to show the light that is otherwise in the darkness. I don't know why specifically, maybe I just think it's cool. But these shots turned out well, and I thought I'd post them and see what everyone thought. Enjoy!

Mapping Shanghai

Here's a firsthand look at the official map of the new Shanghai Disneyland park. The more I see of this resort, the more I can't wait to fly over and see it. With four hotels, a apparent 'new' style to the original Magic Kingdom, a lake, dining and shopping district, and two metro lines (if you don't know, metro lines are big in Asia), this is setting up very nicely and really well laid out.

I'm hoping for a major press release sometime soon, because I can hardly wait to see more in depth concept art for this new resort coming to the Orient. Time will tell for this new mystery.

Just Playing With My Words, Don't Mind Me.

I like Bob Marley music in the morning. I like painting. I like stuffed animals. I like being messy. I like keeping my Christmas tree up way past Christmas. I like having a heater. I like procrastinating.
I once stole first base while rounding second.
Had lunch with the pope in a bar. Curator of African safari jerky, and distributor of Italian sliced Hams. Climbed Pikes Peak in nothing but jogging shoes and rubber ducky boxers.

I am that little ewok in the background...no not the one with the spear. The one that stands next to Han Solo. That one.
I kiss exotic women, but only when the tide is in. Pepsi is the drink of choice. Helped Alicia Beth Moore come up with the stage name P!nk, while sitting at a cafe in downtown L.A. drinking blueberry smoothies. I coined the term "Bacon is meat candy". Once won a round of paintball without getting shot, and only used a pistol.

Foreign cars aren't so foreign to me. Expert in poker, veteran in love, outlaw in Peru. I can bake 30 minute brownies in 15 minutes. Redbox gives me two days to rent a DVD for a quarter. Tweeter of facts, blogger of sorts, connoisseur of exotic sodas.

My zip drives unzip themselves. While climbing a rock's face, it sneezed and blew me and three sheep into the next county. I landed on my feet, in a boat with none other than Jimmy Buffet captaining the vessel. He then motored us to shore where we went to Margaritaville to drink Pina Coladas.

When VW Bugs see me, they punch each other.
went snowboarding two of my friends. I used a surfboard.

Drinking pepsi from a glass coke-a-cola cup is considered normal. I expect the unexpected, and punch someone when they tell me to expect the unexpected. As I walk away I tell them 'Didn't expect that, now did ya?'
Saved a grandmother's kitten from a tree. A beautiful feline, a regal, 23 year old blond college undergrad studying ancient Mayan medicine techniques. Asked her to marry me. She said yes. But only because she wanted to get married before the world ended in 2012.

Dating The Arkansasians

I went to a small high school. Not small like 30 kids in the total graduating class, but a school with a full roster of maybe 600 students. In fact, my freshman class was the biggest Bakersfield Christian High ever received (125 students).

With such a small school, it naturally happens. Everyone knowing your business. I'm not talking like, it just floats around and eventually gets to people in a day or two. I'm talking it happens fast (For example, I asked my ex-girlfriend out before first period. By third period everyone knew, and that was the trending topic of the day).

But what I find so incredibly funny is that people there are a lot like people from Arkansas. Yes, Arkansas I'm picking on you, but hey, it's true at some points. People date, but people sometimes wind up dating, breaking up, then dating your ex's best friend, and your ex starts dating your best friend.

Checking Facebook tonight I see a friend is in a relationship, and I type my congratulations, then check back an hour or so later to see the comments and find out that she's dating this guy for the third time. But what's funny is that this guy dated my best friend's ex, who broke up with him because she felt she needed to sow some wild oats and date a dairy boy who rides Motocross and quads on the weekend.

I love high school, I really do. But my gosh people enough is enough. Maybe it's just me, but I really think after you break up with someone, you end it for good. It didn't work. Now move on. Do these kids not realize there's other high schools in town with equally 'cool', 'beautiful', and 'popular' kids? Or is it like Romeo and Juliet? No one's allowed to date a Capulet or Montague.

Thankfully I'm graduating in a few months and moving up to college. Hopefully the campuses are a bit bigger than the fishbowl I used to swim in.

One Thousand And Counting

Wow, I'm impressed! One thousand hits in eight days. I know some nerd somewhere might be laughing quietly, saying to himself and his limited edition World of Warcraft models, "One thousand hits in eight days, ha! I had a thousand hits in eight minutes!" There's always that guy...


...anyways. I'm glad this little blog of mine has gotten to a thousand hits in eight days (compared to 735, my previous all time high in January), and I hope to someday see it get a thousand hits in a day. I'm happy people are taking note of this little corner of the internet, and reading what I have to type. I don't think it's much, just my thoughts and opinions on Disney stuff, cool cars, girls, the life of a teenager, potential Starbucks or Sports Chalet employee, and whatever else I find interesting to talk...er...type about.

Thank you again to everyone that has chilled at the Main Street Hangout. I really appreciate it.

Constructing Plastic Pirates

This is what I get for day dreaming. Working on my history course for the day, I start thinking about the new Pirates of the Caribbean Lego video game. Then I wonder why Disney and Lego haven't come out with sets for one of their biggest movies yet. I did some research and found out Megabrand had a contract to sell block sets before lego. None the less, I searched around and found out that Lego is in fact coming out with nine Pirates sets this year! As a big lego fan, and even bigger Disney/Pirates fan, this is really awesome news (for those of you who knew this when they announced it, congrats. Some of us are slower to certain newsfeeds.) Now the man cave is going to be scattered with plastic Jack Sparrows, ships and sets from famous movie scenes of the plundering trilogy.

Now if only there was a Black Pearl set...

A Word Please, Mr. 33.

Last Thursday I was lucky enough to sit down and chat with the mysterious Boy33. The Disney fan community knows him as the guy who gets you a reservation at the secret club inside the Magic Kingdom. To date, there have only been three people that have found him. 

He still wishes to remain anonymous, and will continue to post photos of the plastic surgery of DCA, while still going to the Club and the bars of the resort. Find him if you can, but that's going to require an insane amount of luck. But until you begin your search for the mystery tweeter, here's a small glimpse of who he is. 

  

Name: 

Boy33
   
Age: 

Younger than you think, but older than I like...    
   
Hometown: 

New Orleans Square, Disneyland
   
Favorite Disney Character: 

Sorcerer Mickey. Then Classic Tuxedo Mickey. Then Steamboat Willie Mickey. So basically, Mickey. ;)
   
   Life motto: 

Uhm... Motto? I dunno. Have fun, have friends, have fun with friends. At Disneyland. 
   
   Favorite Disney Ride? 

Pirates of the Caribb... yeah, I don’t really know how to spell that. Pirates. 

   iPhone or Blackberry? 

WWSJD? (What Would Steve Jobs Do?, haha, HEY! There's a life motto too!)
   
   What’s something you do every day, without exception? 

Repeatedly refresh my iPhone RSS news reader, "NewsRack."
   
   $100,000,000. What do you do with it? 

A house in LA and Paris. Cars. And travel. And quit my job. I know, I know, your original question was $100,000... but why not shoot for the moon? ;P
   
   If you had a 'celebrity hall pass' who would you pick? 

I'm taken... No hall pass needed.
   
   Favorite musician? 

Uff, so many, but right now Im loving Lady Gaga.
      
   Mac or PC? 

WWSJD?
   
   What do you think will happen in 2012? 

 I don’t know. But Ive already made plans to be at Disneyland on Dec 21, 2012. Who's with me? 
   
   You’re in charge of the Disneyland resort for a week: what do you do?  

A week isn’t really enough time to do any change. But the entire week, Indy would be down for a refurb. If not longer. Food quality DEFINITELY needs to go up. Id throw some budget there. Increase budget for maintenance parkswide too. Id greenlight the demolition of Innoventions and greenlight a MAJOR E-ticket in that spot. Id have to see what Imagineering offered me. Oh and for the MiceChatters out there, I'd bring back the PeopleMover.
   
   Best Disney Park? 

Disneyland. And then Disneyland Paris. And then Animal Kingdom probably and WDW in general.
   
   How do you think you'll die? 

Old, in bed, and asleep I hope. And hopefully tipsy too. Jeez, what a downer question. 
   
   Favorite Johnny Depp movie? 

Finding Neverland. Uff, so good. 
   
   Mickey D’s or BK? 

 Mickey, lol. Not cuz of the name. It's just tasty. 
   
   Pizza: Chicago or New York style? 

Niether. Stuffed crust cheese pizza from Pizza Hut. Yeah, I eat terrible things sometimes...
   
   Best thing a guy/girl's said to you? 

"I love you." How is that not everyone's answer?
   
   coke or pepsi?

Coke. Don’t even joke! Pepsi is NOT GOOD people!
   
   Favorite shoes? 

Diesel I guess, though I never wear them.
   
   Blond or Brunette? W

wouldn’t you like to know... ;)
   
   What's your biggest fear? 

Loneliness... *sob* Whats with the DOWNER questions, Jake?
   Hey, reality's cold and heartless. It's not always sunshine and (double) rainbows. Plus, it's a good question. Some people may be afraid of something totally random. Like pineapples.
  

 Do you twitter? 

Nope. What is Twitter? ;)
   
   favorite idol (not the show)? 

Like... my personal idol? Like, my personal lord and savior? Steve Jobs. Walt Disney too, but he's gone. :( 
   
   What was your dream job as a kid? 

I don’t know that I had one. Honestly. I know that's boring. I just never really had a gauge of what I wanted to do. Maybe Bob Iger could make me co-CEO? I've got degrees...
   
   Best song on your iPod? 

Right now... probably "Born this Way" by Lady Gaga. 
   
   Worst song on your iPod? 

I don’t keep BAD songs on my iPod (iPhone), but the one MOST LIKELY to make your eyes roll back in your head is "Never Say Never" by the Bieber. I love Justin, guilty pleasure I guess?
   
   Any Apologies? 

Yeah, Im sorry I agreed to this LONG AS HELL interview! Just kidding Jake. ;)
   
   Best Concert you've ever been to?  

Lady Gaga Monster Ball
   
   You have to go to either Egypt, or Libya RIGHT now. Which do you pick? 

Egypt. I've never seen the pyramids, and I really want to. And there's nothing to see in Lybia, plus I could get bombed. So, which would YOU choose?

And just for you, boy33... Why all the mystery?

Admit it, mystery is more fun... isn't it?! This has been fun. I'll see you at Disneyland! 

This is just the first little bit of the ice breaker folks! Because we ran out of time (both of us had previous engagements to make, we scheduled a time to chat again this coming Thursday, and I will be asking him the fan questions everyone has submitted so far. If you want to ask him a question, please either send me a tweet (@mainstreetjake), or e-mail me at mainstreetjake@yahoo.com . The deadline to send in questions is Wednesday night, at 8:00pm, which will give me some time to collaborate all the questions into a note sheet so I can be all professional and organized when I chat with him....or as professional and organized as I can be. 

From this, I hope you enjoyed reading this fun little first part of the interview, and I hope you enjoy the rest of the posts here on the Main Street Hangout. If you have any questions or comments, my name is Jake, and if you have any complaints or you're upset about something....well, my name is Chuck.

E-I-E-I-Oh-No

Hannah decided to play the piano today. She's quite the entertainer! What's insane is that she's getting better at hitting the keys at the same time she sings. Rhythm is key, for this young musician.

Born for Props

I'm not a Lady Gaga fan for the most part, but I just saw this video a friend sent me (who happens to be a die hard 'little monster' or whatever the fans of Gaga are called), and they told me that the girl Gaga had on stage was actually a girl from another Viral Video of her singing the Madonna-esque 'Born This Way'.

I gotta give props to Gaga. Getting in touch with a fan, and wanting her to preform onstage at one of her shows is pretty cool. Not many artists I know of would do that. For me, I think it's cool for the kid. Getting to sing in front of thousands with one of your favorite artists? That's a memory that will last a life time!

That'd be like me getting to sing with Switchfoot, or have a jam session with John Mayer. Although no one wants to hear me sing. We'll leave that to my showers and driving, where it's always an audience of me.

Rango, travel west to the theaters, amigos.

Alright, I know this is a little later than some expected, but better late than never, right? I went and saw Rango last night here in town, as I tweeted. So some wanted to know my thoughts on the film, and I'll gladly give my opinion to those that want to read it. If you don't want to read this, because I will be explaining points of the film, then skip through this, and read another one of my posts. I can use the views here on the site. :)

Rango, for those of you who don't know the plot, is about a thespian chameleon who falls out of a moving car, lands smack dab in the middle of the scorching desert, only to wind up in the town of, you guessed it, 'Dirt'.
Well, as he gets there, people start asking who he is, and he comes up with the stage name of 'Rango' (watch closely for 'hecho en Durango'), playing it off as a big bad killer. Soon enough he becomes the sheriff of Dirt, and then problems arise (Jake the snake comes along as one of the villains, and the town is running dry of water). There's the girl that doesn't like him at the beginning of the film, but falls for him at the end, the 'good guy' is really a bad guy, and so on.

It becomes a rather predictable film, in regards to the plot, however, the overall film was still enjoyable, and just entertaining to watch. Johnny Depp voices Rango very well, and adds a lot of good humor ("I want a urine sample of everyone in here, and a latte', don't mix the two.") to the show.

Visually it was pretty fun to watch, and I always dig a animated film that can find ways to use normal everyday objects us humans use and turn them into something totally different animals can use (mailboxes for houses, bats as a plane, or a roly poly bug as a golf ball.), because to me, that's really creative, and takes some talent to find other uses of them in a film.

I think overall it's a film that kids will definitely enjoy, and same goes for the parents (definitely some good 'adult' humor in this one too). It's not the best animated film, and for Gore Verbinski's (previous director of the first three Pirates of the Caribbean films) first animated film, it's really not bad by any stretch. If I had to rate it on a 5 star scale, I'd give it a 3 and a 1/2. Just because it could have been a solid 20 minutes shorter, and some other scenes added/cut, but overall, it's pretty solid.

Now travel west, amigos, and see the film of the young hero, named.....Rango.
 

Boy 33 Interview Update

Alright everyone, the interview went really great with Boy33 yesterday. I spent about an hour and a half chatting Disney and the club with him. But here's the deal. We ran out of time to get ALL the fan questions in!


Kind of disheartening, right?

Well, not really!

Since we ran out of time, he offered to take time this coming Thursday to answer all the fan questions that have been coming in. So, if you have a question for boy33, feel free to e-mail me at mainstreetjake@yahoo.com 
or tweet me at @mainstreetjake. I'll add the questions to the list, and they'll be answered this next Thursday! The deadline to ask a question is Thursday morning, so send them in before then!

The regular interview will be posted to read on here Monday morning at 10:00am.

Hope you have a great weekend!
>> Jake

The Taken Stare

Went down to the store today to pick up a few liters of Arizona Iced Tea, some snacks and a cheap book or two. Ended up finding a book on video game teams, and how to manage blogs on the business side. What can I say, I'll read almost anything that's remotely entertaining. Anyways, as I get into the car, this Suzuki with Jason Derulo's 'Whatcha Say' blasting on near full volume stops and waits for me to shut my door so they can pull into the parking spot next to me. As I glance back to see what the noise was, the girl in the passenger seat was staring right at me. Not just the 'will you PLEASE move? I need to go buy the new edition of People Magazine and hair supplies, and you're really annoying me by not moving any faster' stare. No, not that stare. It was the 'he can take his time because I can't help but stare' look. My sister in the backseat said this, by the way, not myself. I personally found it a little odd that she was staring at me, since I was in ripped jeans, a greasy tee shirt, without combed hair, and my glasses on. But to each their own.

As I shut my door, plug in my iPod in and search for David Gray's 'Babylon', my sister is in the backseat talking.
"watch this Jake"
"What?"
"She's going to do a double take. Watch. Right now"
The girl looks back over her shoulder at me.
"I TOLD YOU!"
"haha you're crazy to have that timed so well."
"She's...wait, yea. No, she's coming back to her car!"
(I'm still trying to find the song, and reply to a text before I drive the three minutes back home)
As the girl comes back to the car to get her lip gloss (according to my sister), she looks at me, I make eye contact, smile, she looks away.
"Jake she's totally into you."
"Yea, I figured after all you're saying."
"JAKE!"
"WHAT!?"
"oh nothing, her boyfriend just gave you the look."
"hahaha what look?"
"The 'stop looking at her or I'll kill you' look"
"She's cute, but I'm not remotely interested."
"I know, but that was funny!"
*song starts*
...'friday night and I'm going nowhere, all the lights are changing from red to green'...
"Jake, we need to do stuff like this more often."
"Go to the store?"
"No, watch girls watch you. It's fun"
"Uh..sure."

The adventures you can have when you  notice all the fine details of something so normal as a trip to a store to get iced tea.

Hawaii or Bust

Ken and Barbie are taking a Hawaiian vacation! Only thing is..they never make it. This is the new short that will be played right before Cars 2 debuts in theaters June 24th. This is the first time Toy Story characters have been used in the timeless Pixar shorts, and from this trailer, we can expect it to be incredibly funny.

I really enjoy seeing these shorts Pixar puts out. Especially the original ones like Day and Night. They're always super creative, ingeniously funny, and always packed full with a lot of heart.

Now if only we can see the rest of it..guess we'll have to wait for Cars 2 this summer to see the rest.

Magic Micro Bus

VW released their concept of a new version of that famous Micro Bus. Now, I'm not really a hippie, and I don't believe in global warming. But as a beach bum, I respect the world we live in, and I believe we need to keep it as clean as possible. So, seeing that this new bus is going to be electric is pretty cool. I would really love to buy one of these, add a surf rack to the top of it, and roll down the PCH with Jack Johnson jammin' on the stereo. 

What I think is one of the coolest things is that it has BENCH SEATING. How rad is that? Plus the steering wheel is pretty cool too. Count me in for a guy who wants to buy one of these.

DJing the Skype Away

I think I'm going to find a weekly time to DJ for about an hour or so, just for fun. I'll play pretty much anything, and talk about pretty much anything. You say you have your iTunes? Your Pandora? Cool. If you want to listen to those, go ahead, but I'm just doing this for fun. Add me to your skype contacts, and then when you see my status as 'On Air', that's when I'm DJ-ing. So, feel free to log on, and tune in.

Oh, and Skype username is the same as everything else. MainStreetJake.