Greg Ehrbar on Disney music

The MouseStation and MousePlanetWatch Podcasts

MouseStation 24 - Greg Ehrbar on Mouse Tracks and Disney music and MousePlanetWatch 24 news feed for June 21, 2007

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MousePlanetWatch 24 run time 0:37:59

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In the Walt Disney World news, sponsored by Small World Vacations, MousePlanet's preferred travel provider, most of the news came from this past Monday's Walt Disney World Park Update, and links to the various information reported can be found there. Here are some quick links:

• The Downtown Disney "abduction victims" are now declining their intention to prosecute the abductors if they are caught, and are refusing to cooperate with authorities' requests for them to describe facial features for composite sketches or take a voice stress analysis lie detector test.<>/li>
• The Orlando Sentinel has been able to clarify the "Pixar Studios" question and determine that it's just going to be for the Mickey Avenue area.
• Information on the current schedule for the Eat to the Beat concert series can be found here.

In the Disneyland news, all of the news came from this past Monday's Disneyland Park Update. Here are some direct links to information from some of the stories:

• Nemo opening weekend coverage can be found here as well as in last week's MouseStation podcast.
• Toy Story Mania concept art is located here.
• CareerBuilder.com Disney Job audition videos are on the CareerBuilder web site.
• Kenny the Pirate's Disney Job winner report is here.
• Showtimes and ticket information for Ratatouille at El Capitan can be found here.
• Jane Seymour event registration is now open.
• The CityPass upgrade discussion is happening in this MousePad thread.

In The Walt Disney Company news, several stories have related links.

• Disney is releasing new video games based on kids' TV properties and Disney Princesses in time for the holiday buying season.
• ABC and USA Today have agreed to work together on stories for the 2008 election.
• Drew Barrymore will play a pampered chihuahua in South of the Border.
• Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End dropped to third place in last weekend's box office derby.

MouseStation 24 run time 1:52:02

Greg Ehrbar, co-author of Mouse Tracks: The Story of Walt Disney Records, joined us for most of the show

Greg provided our Tip of the Week this week, giving two tips for the price of one. Greg recommends that you not be afraid to make special requests at Walt Disney World restaurants, as the chefs are normally eager to accommodate all food allergies, special diets or other issues. (Note: it may be best to call ahead, especially in the case of unusual food allergies or diets, just in case something special needs to be stocked at the restaurant.) Greg's other tip is to try the rice-paper-wrapped candy at the Japan pavilion at Epcot.

Featured conversation: Greg Ehrbar on his work at Disney, the music of Disney, and Mouse Tracks

Greg spent some time talking about the kinds of marketing materials that he writes for Disney, and some of the special projects that he's worked on. (If you love the background music loop on the "Today" channel on the Resort TV, please send Greg a huge thanks!) We also chatted about Greg's work on the Christmas Parade broadcasts and his Grammy nominations for writing spoken-word albums for Disney Records.

Greg spent a little time talking about the latest set of classic albums being released by Disney to the iTunes Music Store.

We then turned to Mouse Tracks: The Story of Walt Disney Records, which Greg co-wrote with Tim Hollis. Mark's review of the book was published on MousePlanet the same day as this podcast. (Talk about timing!)

Greg gave some insight into how the collaboration with Tim worked, how they tracked down everybody, how they dealt with different people giving different versions of stories, etc.

Greg will be giving multimedia Mouse Tracks presentations at the meeting of the national NFFC convention in Anaheim next month.

The book is getting close to a second printing, so if you think that a minor change needs to be made, contact Greg ASAP.

If you go to the book's web site, you can order a copy of the book complete with a personal autograph to you from Greg Ehrbar. The book can be also purchased at Amazon.com.

This week's Featured Attraction is Illuminations: Reflections of Earth at Epcot. Mike & Mark both enjoy the attraction, with Mark putting the music from it as possibly his favorite piece of Disney music. Greg loves the show, as well, and passed along a couple of interesting experiences with the show.

This week's Review system spotlight focuses on Bengal Barbecue in Adventureland at Disneyland Park. Mike & Mark both recommend it. MousePlanet readers love the Barbecue, as it was rated 4.1 out of five planets on the strength of 14 reviews. You can also find Bengal Barbecue in our Park Guide. Unfortunately, after we recorded the show, we found out that the Barbecue will be closing on or around August 15.

In this week's Ask the Kid segment, listener Julie asked Mark's 8-year-old son: "What is your favorite song?" Mark's son picked music from inside and out of the parks. In the parks, the Dinoland entrance background music, CyberGroove at Epcot and the PhilharMagic soundtrack made the cut, while Hawaiian Roller Coaster Ride and the Jump In! and High School Musical soundtracks ruled outside the parks.

Greg also provided this week's Magical Moment. He talked about a time when he escorted a group of underprivileged children from Cleveland around the parks during Mickey's 60th birthday.

In Listener Feedback:

• Jen asked about whether the water parks close when it rains.
• Bob Werner cast a vote for visiting the theme parks in the rain.
• David Williams took us to task for not giving a spoiler alert before Dave in San Francisco's review of Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End last week.
• Henry (Hawaiian Mickey) called in with his review of Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End.
• Mike Hamilton of the Disney Podcast Directory weighed in with a vote in favor of splitting up the show.
• Thomas wrote in voting against recording one show and splitting it into three. Mike and Mark noted that it would be three separate shows being recorded, with some additional flexibility in recording schedules.
• Scott voted against splitting the show up because he was having difficulty downloading the two shows now being published each Thursday. Mike and Mark gave some ideas as to why he was having trouble with the download now and suggestions as to how he could resolve the issue.
• Anthony (Chicago Wookiee) called in from his Star Wars Weekends trip with information about how he and his son were enjoying their Magic Your Way Platinum package and how they had won Dream FastPasses on the Great Movie Ride.

We're looking at cutting the podcast into multiple, smaller shows each week in order to make it accessible to those who may not be able to listen to 90-minute or so shows. We're looking to break MouseStation into either two 45-minute shows or three 30-minute shows. (Time are approximate, of course, as we have no idea how long we're going to ramble on any given topic.) Anyway, we'd like your feedback on what you think of the idea, and whether you agree with our idea of breaking the show into a featured topic show, a mini-feature segments show and a listener feedback show, all published on different days each week. (The MousePlanetWatch news would continue as a separate show on yet another day of the week.) We haven't made a final decision yet, so let us know what you think!

Send in your suggestions, comments or tips via our email form or via voicemail on our toll-free feedback line (1-866-939-2278). You can also make suggestions by replying to this post.

If you want to contribute a story for our Magical Moment segment (and possible inclusion in the Cast Place column here on MousePlanet), you can either use our email form or the toll-free feedback line. (We like when you use the voice mail system, because then we can play it on the show.)

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Thanks to our West Coast correspondent Andrew Rich, and audio engineer and sound editor Steven Ng.

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Thanks for listening!