No flirting, no facial hair, and no mention of alcohol: a former Disney cast member shares life on the ocean blue as the famous Jack Sparrow working in Disneyland’s New Orleans Square.
(Pictured left: Captain Jack Sparrow Uploaded by ankneyd on 27 Apr 07, 8.19PM PDT. CC Some rights reserved.)
Disney wanted us to tone Jack down, so they put us through an acting class to discover reasons why Jack walks and talks the way he does. Obviously he is based on Keith Richards, who’s always messed up, which is why they came up with the class. “Don’t be flirtatious,” they told us. “See women as trouble.” And they said as far as alcohol goes, don’t even mention drinking. But the Pirates of the Caribbean song is all about drinking, and they’re drinking all along the ride. So I eventually broke that rule, because it would have taken me out of character. When parents took pictures, I’d say, “Everyone say ‘rum,’ ” and the parents loved it. The kids would just ask, “What’s rum?”
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This summer my family is holding their once-every-five-year reunion out near Mountain View, just on the eastern cusp of the Rocky Mountains. One of the things we’ll be doing is rocking out with a music jam. Not everyone in my family plays an instrument, so I suggested that those not playing should bring their air guitars. I figured just about everyone can play the air guitar, but it wasn’t until I saw the documentary, “Air Guitar Nation” did I truly know the depth and potential of the invisible instrument.
AIR GUITAR NATION is the feature documentary about the year that air guitar swept America - from New York to Los Angeles and then all the way to northern Finland. AIR GUITAR NATION chronicles the birth of the US Air Guitar Championships and the personal journeys of those talented contestants who are vying to become the first World Air Guitar Champion from the United States. Every August, the Air Guitar World Championships bring thousands of fans all the way to Oulu, Finland to see the world’s best air guitarists battle it out for 60 seconds of mock stardom. For years, the USA was missing in action. Enter the first official US Air Guitar Championships. What starts as a friendly contest above a New York strip club becomes a battle of naked ambition played out on the national and, ultimately, the world stage.
For your viewing pleasure, here is the complete feature:
Hit play or watch fullscreen at Google Video.
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There is a new play opening at the U of L on Thursday. It’s a bit out there for my usual theatrical consumption, however, I think sometimes it’s good to challenge yourself and can you really go wrong with a play about sex?
I guess I’ll find out on Thursday.
Zone finals for the Southern Alberta 4A high school basketball teams are on now and Dad is visiting from Medicine Hat to watch the games. George Hamilton called him up and invited him to come. Dad isn’t the biggest fan of watching* basketball so he skipped out of watching a couple of games to eat supper with Anna-Maria and I. We had some really good pizza (pi) from Pizza Hut, and had a good time listening to Dad’s war stories**.
Another of Dad’s stories was that as a University Student he performed in a play that his roommate was directing. This was something that I had never known about him***. Apparently his roommate had to beg him to be in the play and reluctantly he agreed. Well what he didn’t know was that he had to practise the play everyday for 4 weeks! He wasn’t too happy about all the rehearsing everyday. But when the night of their single performance arrived approximately 800 people showed up to watch. Dad said that with all the rehearsing they actually did a really good job and that now looking back on the event it gives him a great feeling of accomplishment. He even sang in this play and in those days that was quite out of the ordinary for Dad****.
* Dad was a very good basketball player in high school and university.
** It is a running joke with him that he fought in the Vietnam War.
*** The last time we were at Pizza Hut I also learned something about Dad that I didn’t know before but will refrain from sharing at this time.
**** Dad has become quite the musician these days playing many instruments and not feeling too shy about adding vocals to his music.
Roommate News
My roommate came home last night. This is Scott, my first roommate—the one that rarely shows his face. He’s the best roommate ever. Anyway he came home sometime around 4:00 in the morning. He’s not exactly sure when—I guess he may have been a little intoxicated. I didn’t even realize he was here until I got up to go swimming. After swimming I came home and he told me that last night he got into a huge bar fight with 4 other guys. Apparently one of them hit his girlfriend, and he retaliated—well three other guys got into the fight and as Scott relates the story, he tells me that he kicked all four of their asses. I guess they never realized he is a bouncer and is some kind of Karate black belt. He didn’t look bad at all as far as cuts or bruises go, but he was really sort of mad about the fact that they ripped his favorite shirt.
Room Mate News Part Duex
Jason is gone to Calgary. He is having his girlfriend look after the rabbit!!? Speaking of the rabbit it was beginning to really STINK! For some reason I wasn’t sure if it was the rabbit or Jason, so I didn’t say anything. Luckily for me Anna-Maria mentioned to him that it was time for him to clean out the cage. He asked, “Does it really smell?” When Anna confirmed that yes she could smell it right when she walked in the door he just responded that, “I must be immune to it”. You wouldn’t believe how much better my house smells now.
Tepee Prize
I forgot to mention that when I was in Medicine Hat and I was pulling out of the driveway I heard on the radio that they were giving out free film as a prize. What you had to do was find the lady in the Taco Time cruiser and viola—you win! I thought well that would be nice but I’ll never win anything like that, but then she said I’m in Southridge at the Tepee. Things couldn’t have worked out much better for me, so I drove right over there and won a free 24 roll of film and two tickets to the play, “Noises Off”. I haven’t decided if I’m actually going to take Anna-Maria yet (it’s showing in Medicine Hat this weekend and next weekend only) because I don’t know how much I want to be driving that road. (As you will see what I mean soon).
Swimming in the Hat
There is a swim meet in Medicine Hat on the 14th and 15th. I really should enter it but that will mean going to Medicine Hat two weekends in a row. I’m sure Mom and Dad will be so happy. The other reason that I sort of don’t want to enter this meet is because I’ll have to pay the $30 entry fee, not to mention I’m kind of out of shape from not practicing much lately. I better bite the bullet and just go.
Anna-Maria’s Audition in Calgary
Anna-Maria is auditioning for York University on Monday in Calgary. I don’t think I’ll go because that will mean skipping more swim practices and missing my music 1000 class. She is pretty excited and a little stressed out about it. I’m confident that she will do great. She has to read two monologues and sing for them. Probably the worst part for her, if this is actually true, is that she heard that the auditions are done with everyone that is auditioning watching all the others preform. She thinks that’s quite mean of them… and is specifically concerned about how she will feel if someone else preforms the same monologue or song as her. I told her, just do it better than them. I have such good advice don’t I?
Dinner at the New Spring Family Restaurant
Last night Anna-Maria, her friend Lynley and I went to the Theatre Xtra play called, “The Transfiguration of Benno Blimpie”. It was a serious play about a fat kid who is picked on and has a less than wonderful family life. Ah, I don’t think I’d recommend seeing this one because frankly it’s pretty depressing. Anyway before the show, we went for Chinese food (which incidentally reminds me what I’m going to have for lunch). We ran into Tracie’s grandma, grandpa, and cousins. They told me to say hi to Gary and Tracie, so “Hi guys”. That, my blog reading friends, about wraps up this very long post.
I went and saw Anna’s play last night, Peer Gint. There were some really strange parts and some really cool parts. The pig-troll orgy scene wasn’t as bad as I had imagined from Anna’s description but it’s not exactly a Disney show either.
Jackie emailed me a picture of the house she is staying at. I’ll shrink it down tonight and post it.
I have no milk. It’s not what you think. No, my roommate didn’t drink it all without asking. Instead he just took some of it (without asking) and left the rest out to go bad. I have to say that although leaving my milk out to go bad is rude, it’s probably my own fault for allowing a 17 year old to move in to my house. What was I thinking?
Anna’s play opens tonight. Read about the details. Although that’s obviously not Anna-Maria in the picture, she will be playing a pig troll (among other characters), which means that one of her costumes will look like that one in the picture.
Well I am in the middle of my WSI program and I’m quite bored with it. WSI stands for Water Safety Instructor. When I’m done I’ll be able to teach people (mostly kids) how to swim. I may be able to get a job out of the deal though. One of the other students in the class works at the Ramada and said they might need another lifeguard. He told me that he will take my resume down there for me tomorrow. I’ll be happy if I get the job.
Anna’s play opens on Tuesday. They are practising like MAD!
Anna-Maria Lemaistre writes:
Hello all! Boy, have I ever been busy lately. I am registered in six classes and I am in two plays- both of which go up on Tuesday. However don’t feel too bad for me, there is one class I don’t even go. I just show up for the tests. Hey! Like the one I had today! I should probably feel ashamed or something for not going to class, but I don’t. I feel proud. I’ve never felt so proud of myself. There’s not much that compares to the feeling of doing well on a test, for a class that you only went to twice all year. On quite a different note, do you all remember my weight issues? (What can I do? I’m socially conditioned to believe that I could always use to lose an extra ten pounds. I learned about that from the textbook for the class I never go to.) Well in the play I’m in called Peer Gynt, I have to wear a boustier- a belly shirt boustier! [sic] That’s right ladies and gents, it’s also sleeveless. On top of that I have to wear tiny (very tiny) white spandex shorts with a see through skirt over top. I’m freakin out. You have to admit that that would make anyone feel a little self-conscious. Anyway, I’ve gotta get going. I will write again soon. Let me know what you think about the outfit. Jeff will fill you in on what I did for the role on top of skimpy clothes.
I haven’t seen Anna’s play so I don’t know exactly what she is going to be doing except that it is somewhat sexual in nature. (I believe something to do with a pig troll rutting on stage). All I can say is you wouldn’t catch me in such a compromising roll. On a side note, Anna had her eyebrows waxed in preparation for the show.
I just saw one of my professors walking down the hall and thought that now would be a good time to comment on his strange choice of names: Anonymous William Smith. I just call him Wil. I guess one day he decided that he would “spice things up” by changing or eliminating his middle name and then adding Anonymous as his first name. That’s the name he uses for all his art and whatnot. I thought I would have more to say about that, but I guess I don’t. I’ll just let you think about it.
In other news I qualified for Junior Nationals for swimming. The times are faster than Canada West but slower than the CI’s. I don’t think I’m going to go though, because none of the other teammates that qualified are going - and it is $250, not to mention it’s over reading week—which I’ll need to use to catch up on my homework.