March 1, 2008 - Fantasyland

First two pages of Fantasyland. I love the photo of the father riding on Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. Its the suit I wanted to wear for my wedding, but I was out-voted.

February 29, 2008 - Main Street USA

Final 2 pages of Main Street USA.

February 28, 2008 - Main Street USA (Walt Disney's Guide to Disneyland (1961) )

Posting the first two pages dedicated to Main Street USA.

February 27, 2008 - Walt Disney's Guide to Disneyland (1961)

Walt Disney's Guide to Disneyland (1961), originally uploaded by Jeremy ES.

Its the table of contents. Now you get a preview of what's to come over the next week or so.

February 26, 2008 - Walt Disney's Guide to Disneyland (1961) - Page 2

Walt Disney's Guide to Disneyland (1961), originally uploaded by Jeremy ES.

Page 2!

February 25, 2007 - Walt Disney's Guide to Disneyland (1961) - Front Cover

Walt Disney's Guide to Disneyland - Front Cover, originally uploaded by Jeremy ES.

Another series of scans from long out-of-print books! Yay! As things move forward, this is going to become more the focus of this little blog than posting photos from the Parks with little nuggets of trivia.

I want to share the stuff I've accumulated over the last couple years as I've become a huge fan of the Disney Park experience. Hopefully, much of this will be items that are not easily available, espically in high quality online. There will be more maps coming, many of which are common, more guide books from the early days of the park, and SOPs for rides. Everything will be in high resolution, cleaned up as much as possible, and easily made available.

There will not be any current items scanned which are available for purchase in retail stores. When I get around to writing up book reviews, I will use excepts, but also link to information on how to purchase the titles.

There will still be the posts about my struggles to stop buying so much stuff. It is not going too well at the time, but we are trying to buy a better house, and things need to be bought. I still have not bought any toys this year, and the majority of purchases have been made using funds from selling stuff on Amazon. So while not nearly perfect, I am keeping myself aware of what I'm buying and not shopping with abandon.

February 24, 2007 - The Back Side of Water...I Mean Maps

One thing a lot of map scans I've encountered only focus on the Park Maps side, neglecting the back sides with all sorts of information. These are the back sides of the Disneyland Paris and the Disney Studios. Click through to see them in unnecessarily high resolution.


Disneyland Paris




The Disney Studios

February 23, 2008 - Disney Studios - Front

Disney Studios - Front, originally uploaded by Jeremy ES.

Within the next 5 years, I'm planning on visiting Disneyland Paris. I will say, this second park does very little to excite me. Aside from the raves Skipper Ben gave Crushes' Coaster on ITM, and checking out Cinemagique and the Armageddon stunt show, this park features little new experiences. That's alright, the smallness of it leaves more time for DLP.

February 22, 2008 - Disneyland Paris Guide Map

Some new scans: This map comes from an eBay seller whom I purchased the book Disneyland Paris: From Sketch to Reality. Some images of the book will be forthcoming (which is the best book about creating a Disney Park).

February 21, 2008 - SpectraMagic!

IMG_1268.JPG, originally uploaded by Jeremy ES.

Been a busy week. Book reviews coming soon, I promise!

Febraury 20, 2007 - Shrunken Ned Portrait

Shrunken Ned, originally uploaded by Jeremy ES.

Found at Disneyland in Adventureland. Wonderful chap, took time to pose for this photo. Too bad to took up the offer for two heads for one of his own...

February 19, 2007 - Hallowishes

Hallowishes, originally uploaded by Jeremy ES.

Quick tip on taking pictures of fireworks if you have no tripod/monopod: Use burst mode if your camera supports it and you have plenty of free memory. This allows the camera to quickly take multiple pictures, so long as you hold down the shutter. You will end up with hundreds of photos, and some will be quite nice.

February 18, 2008 - Phantom Manor - Disneyland Paris

Phantom Manor - Disneyland Paris, originally uploaded by dadacas.

Someday I can try to take this picture, probably after 2010.

February 17, 2008 - A Perfect Show

002A - View towards Castle, originally uploaded by cagedheat3.

This is a view I'd love to see and shoot, if only for a moment before the crowds rush in for the day.

February 16, 2008 - Epcot HDR

Epcot HDR, originally uploaded by joel8x.

This is one of the photos which inspired me to upgrade my camera.

The Long Holiday Weekend

Going away for the weekend with the wife for a little time away from the house and dogs. I'm going to post the next few days of 365 now, so you can look at them all at once. They're going to be highlighting some other people's Disney photos I found on Flickr which are great.

Have a good weekend.

February 15, 2008 - The Castle

And one more by Mr. Steadman. I think I've seen the expressions on these people's faces many times...

February 14, 2007 - The Fab Four (and Friend)

My favorite of Mr. Steadman's illustrations.

February 13, 2008 - Storybook Land Canal Boats by Ralph Steadman

Day 2. Another wonderful, if slightly demented sketch by Mr. Steadman.

I'll likely be doing more of these daily posts, sharing Disney materials I've collected and now scanned to digital. I think it is important that people be given the chance to see material that has been long since forgotten and placed out-of-print.

February 12, 2008 - Ralph Steadman's Disneyland

Ralph Steadman is most well known for illustrating many of Hunter S. Thompson's stories, including Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas, and the Curse of Lono. He also has many books out collected his artwork. This scan homes from a book titled 'America', which collected a mishmash of his work, including a five-page spread inspired by Disneyland.

To be fair, Mr. Steadman is British, and never seems able to fully grasp the vast commercialism of America, which comes through in many of his caricature of his subjects.

One thing to note about this and the upcoming pages is the attention Mr. Steadman pays to each drawing. Notice the Disneyland bag, and what appears to be the sketches of New Orleans Square in the background.

February 11, 2008 - Pirates!

"To set the mood for the show like this, you had to sort of become a pirate yourself," X said in Disneyland: Inside Story. "I think my Spanish background helped me to write the exchanges between the Pirate Captain and the defenders of the fort."

-Pirates of the Caribbean: From the Magic Kingdom to the Movies

February 10, 2008 - Scene from the Dreams Come True Parade

Took this shot (and over 300 others) at the end of the eight hour 'Behind the Magic' Tour. After spending time behind the scenes, getting a chance to see nearly ever aspects of how Walt Disney World is ran, our guide Jim took us to a prime viewing spot for the afternoon parade. This was show the power of Disney magic.

Marry Poppins

February 9, 2008 - Behind the Scenes

And this is the last day of these posts. Two pages of behind-the-scenes material and then a list of credits.

February 8, 2008 - 2 Views of the Matterhorn

Last year, I purchased eight binders full of slides from someone's vacations in the 1970s. I estimate there are close to a thousand slides, some commercial, and some taken by the vacationers. I have began to slowly digitize the interesting ones, in order to preserve these folks memories for a couple more years. The scanned slides will be on my Flickr account.

While there are no Disney ones, I did find some examples of things which inspired attractions in Disney parks. This is the first: A shot of the true Matterhorn, followed by the scale version in Disneyland.

February 7, 2008 - The Grand Finale

Well, almost. One more post tomorrow to complete this little book.

February 6, 2008 - Cinderella & Dumbo

Double the pages today, as even I'm getting a little bored of these single posts each day. We're going to wrap up the Disney on Parade scans soon, then move onto other little niche things.

February 5, 2008 - 1964 Disneyland Fun Map by Sam McKim

Fun Map Best Cropped (Large), originally uploaded by Jeremy ES.

This was a little project I tried out with some success. I scanned a 28x42 map bought off eBay, piece by piece, and then stitched them together. Once done with that, cleaned up the colors, creases, and such in Gimp. The result turned out quite good.

February 4, 2008 - The Jungle Book

07, originally uploaded by Jeremy ES.

Update on the Fun Map: 99% of it looks like it did in 1965. Excited the share this!

February 3, 2008 - The Jungle Book

06, originally uploaded by Jeremy ES.

Another two pages. Just made the post in before the deadline. Spent the weekend scanning a very rare Disneyland book and a Disneyland map.

February 2, 2008 - Alice in Wonderland

05, originally uploaded by Jeremy ES.

A great cast shot, with some extremely creepy flower people in the background.

Chumby Review

First the background of why I wanted something called a Chumby. There was a blurb in Popular Science about a consumer product in development what promised a Linux-powered mini-computer, always connected wirelessly to the internet, with a touch screen displaying user-created widgets, enclosed in a fabric pouch. On top of this coolness, iPods connect to one of the two powered USB jacks in the back, which allowed the iPod to recharge and be controlled through the Chumby. These specs piqued my interest, and I kept an eye on the official website through the long gestation process.

In the summer of 2007, a notice went up on their website to allow fans the chance to sign up on a mailing list for first chance to grab a prerelease Chumby. My email was added to the list and in October, I ordered one of the first available units. The little device arrived at my front door via UPS from China, I unpacked it, configured the network, and then disappointment hit like a brick.

To be fair, the Chumby acted exactly like it was advertised: The unit connected to my wifi network with ease and downloaded the widget I selected from the website. These widgets included a Flickr photo stream viewer, weather, little games, a flash video player, and alarm clocks. The widgets may have changed, and there are new ones since I owned the unit, but these thoughts are based on what was available at the time.

The Flickr widget sounded great in theory; a way to view random people’s pictures and see a little bit of the outside world. In practice, the stream presented a very limited number of photos, which cycled through very quickly. The weather widget worked fine, tough to mess that one up, and the alarm clock functionality was awful.

This is why: you can only choose two alarms, and each has standard rings for alarm tones. The only way to override this setting is to trim down MP3s of your own to fit the correct file size, rename them ‘alarm1’ and ‘alarm2’, and then make them override the built in sounds. I imagined being able to use the iPod as an alarm sound source, or even tuning into an internet radio station, because that makes sense. A mini-computer should have unlimited alarms, one for each day, and be customizable.

So the widgets were disappointing. Other failures I found: The touch screen looked nice, a little low-resolution, but no problems with color or clarity. The touch aspect was not so good, as it required a good jab to register a touch, each time felt like I was going to break it. The fabric casing was great; it helps to set this apart from the hard, industrial design much consumer electronics strive for. The speakers sounded fine, nice and clear for the size.

I did not experience one feature: advertising imbedded in the widget channels which help to support the network costs and allow the Chumby to be offered without any kind of monthly fees.

The novelty wore off within hours of setting the device up, and within two days it was the first-ever Chumby to be sold on eBay. There is nothing particularly wrong with the device, the features work as promised, and many people enjoy it. To me, it failed on a more basic level, that it is an unneeded device that brought nothing new to the table. You must use a computer to set up the widgets; it has to be plugged in, with no rechargeable battery offered. There is no internet memory available to load music, or anything on to, this much be done through the USB ports on the rear.

There have been updates to the operating system since I used a Chumby, and new widgets are popping up as the user base grows. These small fixes will not make the device suddenly relevant to most people. Give it a year, as the current devices feels much like a beta for sale to the general public. When (and if) the Chumby 2 comes out, we could be looking at a much better device.

If you must have something now that plays music, connects to the internet, and has a touch screen, spring for an iPod Touch with an alarm dock. It is a more expensive choice, but you get the added value back in spades.

Check out www.chumby.com for the details of this product.

(All pictures come from the Chumby website unless otherwise noted. All right reserved.)

February 1, 2008 - Alice in Wonderland

04, originally uploaded by Jeremy ES.

Two more pages!

One Month In...

Spending is going alright. Not perfect, but improving slowly as I get a little more self-control. Bought one magazine this month, strangely enough it was a copy of GQ, which I never buy. This was bought mainly to combat bordem in my Thursday night Qualitative Research Class, as the professor has banned laptops, and I left my current book to read at home. Happily, GQ has an odd Disney World vacation insert I am going to scan and share when I have the time.

Books: Bought four this month using real money. The justification still comes too easily when I see a title I want on the shelf. Sales have been good on the Amazon store, which allowed me to purchase a second digital camera, with more pro features, without spending a red cent.

DVDS: Spent $15 of my own money on one disc. Much better than my habitual buying of new releases every Tuesday.

Toys: No toys, avoided the toy aisles, and the urge to obsessively haunt toy aisles daily looking for new Transformers has not returned.

Comics: $37 in the last 5 weeks, including some for the wife. This number will shrink as I am getting my collection ready to be out on sale, hopefully to cut down the size by 90%. The plan with this is to replace the comics with the sale proceeds with trades, and shed the rest (which is dead weight).

Food: Need to curb these spendings, as most mornings I buy breakfast, probably eat lunch out twice a week, and then some meals on the weekends. This will be the toughest habit to break, and the one that most needs it.

Coming Up: More Disney posts daily, simply to keep me working on at least something each day. Reviews of things I like or dislike, mostly tech reviews, probably not media reviews, because there are plenty of those around.

Thanks for reading for the last month!

January 31, 2008 - How Do You and Shake Hands

03, originally uploaded by Jeremy ES.

Another page!

I have more scanned in the works, including a really cool map, that if I can get it stitched together Photoshop, should be a real treat!

Thanks for reading.

January 30, 2008 - Next Page

02, originally uploaded by Jeremy ES.

I wish I had more interesting things to add. Click to view the pages in high-res to read all the little print.

January 29, 2008 - Disney on Parade

01, originally uploaded by Jeremy ES.

Pages 1 & 2.

January 27, 2008 - Disney Map Coupon

Disney Map, originally uploaded by Jeremy ES.

An old paper product advertising a Disneyland map. Offer expired years ago, but its still neat. This came from Old Stuff Only, a webstore selling old stuff found in warehouses and such. Its worth a look around, and I'll be sharing more Disney paper products over the coming posts.

January 26, 2008 - Pepsi-Cola Pavilion: "Peace Through Understanding"

Pepsi-Cola Pavilion: "Peace Through Understanding", originally uploaded by Jeremy ES.

"Animated figures representing children in national costumes entertain visitors on a Walt Disney-created cruise taken in specially designed boats. A UNICEF exhibit is also included."

-From the back of the postcard.

January 25, 2008 - C&H Sugar Disneyland Ad 1961

C&H Sugar Disneyland Ad 1961, originally uploaded by Neato Coolville.

No quotes today, wanted to highlight an great collection of old advertisements.

January 24, 2008 - Grizzly Peak

IMG_0525.JPG, originally uploaded by Jeremy ES.

"It was only a matter of time before a mountain supplanted a castle as the central icon for a Disney Park. In February 2001, Grizzly Peak became the defining landmark of Disney's California Adventure. The property's second gate was designed to be a celebration of the Golden State and all its natural and man-made wonders, from amusement piers and Hollywood backlots in the southern region, to the quiet charm and scenic beauty of Northern California."

-The Disney Mountains

January 23, 2008 - Star Tours

IMG_0773.JPG, originally uploaded by Jeremy ES.

" [George] Lucas and WDI show producer Tom Fitzgerald worked out a story line for "Star Tours," an intergalactic sightseeing company that would whisk guests around the universe in all the comfort of a luxury jetliner. "George wanted to make the audience think the spaceship was a typical Disneyland ride vehicle on a track," says Fitzgerald. (The designers programmed vibrations and bumps into the motion base to make the passengers believe they were actually moving along a track.) "Then, look out! Something really does go wrong. Although we saw the ship ahead of us successfully blast off on its mission, we take a wrong turn, blunder through the maintenance doors, and start Disneyland's first 'misadventure.' " Causing the misadventure in the first place is a friendly but totally incompetent droid pilot named Rex, whose presence in the flight cabin brings a humorous Lucas touch to the journey."

-Disneyland: Inside Story