Room For One More

Where can I get this as wallpaper?

So, I dunno if you know this about me, but I have a fantastic fiance named Tom. (I know it's a bit late for this now, but I wonder if I should't have changed his name to protect him from a slew of admirers. Hands off, kiddos. He's mine.) Well, we went down to City Hall in NYC just last week and got a marriage license. (Yes, yes. That means I'm off the market, too. Try not to get too upset. We're open to being just friends with you.) We've been together for a bit over a year now. (He bought me a D23 membership for our one year anniversary. How awesome is that?!?!) I know that I have already told you about our Disney-related meet cute story, so I'm sure that you've been chomping at the bit to hear the engagement story, since, wouldn't you know it, it's Disney-centered as well. Since our wedding is in one week, on September 23rd, I thought that today would be the perfect day to do it.

From our first meeting, Tom and I got very close very quickly. You know that whole soulmate thing? The one we've all made fun of while sitting on our couches watching season five of Sex and the City and cursing our love lives? I found that in him, despite fifteen years of kvetching about how it would never happen. Pretty soon after we got together we started circling the idea of taking things to the next level and putting a ring on it. We talked about it in somewhat general terms and knew an engagement was on the horizon without nailing down when or how the question would actually be popped.

About six months after we met, we planned a trip down to Florida where Tom would meet the fam and we would make a lengthy detour down to Orlando and spend one day in each other four parks in Walt Disney World. Tom had not been down there for about a decade and I hadn't for almost a year myself, which is about 11 months too long, in my lil' ole opinion, so opportunity was ripe and our trip to Disneyland together two months after we met had gone so well that I knew that we would have a blast.

Sigh. So romantic.

Little did he know, bless his heart, that I had a bit of a surprise up my sneaky sleeve. Mama and I had been communicated on the DL about finding rings so I could propose to him while we were in WDW. After many clandestine phone calls and internet links passed back and forth, we decided on a lovely, simple silver band. It was one of those you-know-it-when-you-see-it moments when Mama showed it to me. Seven months prior, I thought I would end up being alone forever, and yet, here I was, seeking out ring advice from my Mama.

The next step was deciding where in the parks I wanted to do the deed. The answer was pretty obvious. Both me and Tom's favorite attraction is The Haunted Mansion. Tom, who's a fantastic musician, loves to play the music from it on the piano and knows the narration by heart (as well as the unused Vincent Price narration from Phantom Manor in Disneyland Paris). I know, I know. It's a bit macabre and weird to propose there unironically considering that we are both pretty much the opposite of goth. But we're also both odd ducks and so in the end it all makes sense.

Stretching Room + 60's =
Tom's dream come true.
Thanks, Shag.

Once that decision was made, then it was time to decide where exactly on the ride to do it. I thought of doing it in the Seance Room with Madame Leota overseeing the proceedings, but quickly decided against it. The scenarios I came up with for giving him a ring during the ride itself were not pretty. What if he gets excited or nervous and drops the ring into the abyss below the track? What if he can't hear or see what I'm trying to do? What if he gets annoyed that I'm interrupting the ride? I quickly ruled that out. Doing it in the queue seemed a little silly, too. Almost like an after thought. "My, this line is long. How to pass the time? Well, I guess I can ask you to marry me."

Then it dawned on me. The Stretching Room. Of course. It's Tom's favorite part of the ride. We even have one of the portraits hanging up in our room. More importantly, though, if he drops the ring we can just pick it up and move on through. The decision was made. The rings were ordered. The trip was planned. Tom suspected nothing save one night where he turned to me and asked, "Are you going to propose to me in front of Cinderella's Castle?" I told him of course not because that would be corny. It was a close call, but I didn't even have to lie to distract him from my ghoulish plan.

We headed down to Florida, where Tom met my awesome mama, my rad sister, and my crazy dad. He made a wonderful impression and a few days later, after I collected the rings and buried them in my luggage, we made our way from Tallahassee down to Orlando. (By the way, every time I say the name of the city, in my mind I sing it like the song from Book of Mormon.) Our first day was in Epcot and so it was easy for me not to get too nervous. I was busy listening to the dulcet tones of Judi Dench explain the history of human communication.

Can you spot the boxes? Tom didn't :)

The next day was the Magic Kingdom. The Magic Kingdom means Liberty Square. Liberty Square means the Haunted Mansion. And the Haunted Mansion means the moment was nigh. The morning was rainy and chilly. I was extra careful to slide the rings and their tell-tale boxes into my hoodie pockets when Tom's back was turned. They were still bulky and so I kept my hands in my pockets the whole morning as we drove to the TTC, took the Monorail over and waited in the rain for the gates to open. Luckily, since it's our fave, we headed straight in that direction first thing. I'm sure Tom noticed something was off with my energy, but probably thought that it was just because the rain rain rain was coming down down down.

I was nervous as the dickens while we made a beeline over and walked right up to the door. It was us and a small British family. They had an adorable little girl with them who kept on asking if there were really ghost in there with her cute little accent. She would jet out from behind her mom, knock on the door real quick-like, and then hide behind the mother's legs again asking if we were all going to turn into ghosts if we went inside. Finally, the door opened and we all went inside and then into the Stretching Room.

I know they smell a bit musty, but they need
a ride to the bachelor party. Please. Anyone?

I had decided that I wanted to wait until after the spiel was over so that a) we wouldn't intrude on other people's vacation with our big proposal production number and 2) so Tom would be able to enjoy the whole thing. After the room had stretched and the door that wasn't there slid open, Tom started to walk away. My heart leapt into my throat, I grabbed him by the elbow and pulled him back, and he looked at me like I had lobsters crawling out of my ears. I got down on one knee, pulled the ring out of my left pocket (that was the one with his size 7 in it), and asked him to marry me.

The rings right after the proposal.

He had a scant moment to process it, but luckily that's all he needed. He said yes, I got up and gave him a kiss and said "Hurry, let's go before they close the door on us!" As we waited to board out Doom Buggy, Tom took the other ring and sealed the deal. I love the Haunted Mansion every time I ride it, but I must say, that was one special trip through. After we got off, we walked outside and the sun had broken through the clouds. The rain had stopped and the weather was absolutely lovely for the rest of the day. I could not have asked for things to have gone any differently. It was a series of perfect moments that I will remember forever.

Don't get any ideas, Tom Tom.

I was so surprised to find someone who fit so well with me, and the fact that he was as big a Disney geek as I was really sealed the deal. With a week until the wedding, and our immediate families soon descending on City Hall in NYC for a small ceremony, I can't help but thank whichever star I wished on that finally decided to listen to me when I said that I had room for one more in my life. That star sent me a mortal who was as foolish as I was. That day I took my loved one by the hand and we watched our step as we boarded the ride. I expect our lives together to be one heckuva swinging wake.

A Disney Collector's Lament

Still life with Disney books, Orange Birds,
Mary Blair, Oswald, Big Al, singamajigs,
headscratcher and Whatnot Muppets.

Tom and I have been watching a lot of Hoarders lately. We can’t help it. A marathon aired before the new season got started and we spent one of our precious days off together on the couch, consuming episode after episode ravenously. I think there is a unique combination of factors that has lead to our (and America’s) love of this show. We feel grateful that we are not like the people being documented, and yet we see tiny bits of ourselves reflected in them. We feel a sense of schadenfreude and at the same time are uplifted when progress is made. We cheer them on and judge them simultaneously. This show and others like it (Intervention, Heavy) fascinate me to absolutely no end.

This last marathon, however, has mostly served as a motivator to get me to take a look at my own clutter.  As Tom and I are preparing for our big move out of the NYC, I am taking a more critical look at my own (in)famous hoarding tendencies and trying to purge our apartment of detritus here and there so that we aren’t overwhelmed in a few months. The last thing we need is to be forced to move a pile of unnecessary junk across the country.

Duane Reade shopping bags have been filled with books that I am slowly admitting to myself that I will never get around to reading and so will soon stick the shelves of the Strand. (So long, Anna Karenina.) Trash bags full of clothes have been lugged to the local charity store. (Bye-bye vintage shirts from my high school Goodwill scavenging days.) Progress is being made, slowly but surely. It has been surprisingly easy to let go of stuff, which is nothing short of a miracle and a testament to my excitement surrounding the imminent move.

I have a predilection for park vinyl.

I see a lot of negotiation in the next couple of months as I try to whittle almost ten years of acquirements down to a manageable haul. Mostly, it will be the media that will be a bit of a challenge. I have hundreds of CDs, DVDs and books that I need to devise a plan for. In this digital age, the CDs should be a snap, right? Just rip them onto my computer, store them in the cloud and rid myself of the bulky discs. Unfortunately, I am an old fogey who, after losing my hard drive many times over the years, is leery of abandoning the piece of plastic where the information is tangibly stored. I am also a dork who enjoys having such things as artwork and liner notes.

The DVDs and books, however, can’t all be stored on a machine. I am a bit crushed under the weight of the fact that I will quite possibly not get around to reading every word and watching every frame, but I am a man who needs options. One day I might turn around and realize that I want nothing more than to watch that American Gladiators DVD or read that important gay novel from the seventies. I don’t know if I can deal with the regret knowing that I had them and got rid of them, especially when I got most of them used and dirt cheap while braving the labyrinthine jungles of used book and/or DVD and/or CD stores. Bargain shopping for this stuff is the closest I’ll ever get to participation in a sport and I could be a major league player.

Florence and Adele watch over
my Disney CDs.

Possibly above all else, I like the aesthetic value of spines lined up on a shelf. When you are invited to someone’s place for the first time, what is one of the first things you inevitably do? You take a glance at someone’s collections to glean information. It allows you to bond over your shared love of obscure cast albums, connect over your hilariously curated coffee table books, and strike up a conversation about your extensive selection of amazing TV shows on disc. And it gives me great joy to be able to say, “Yes! Of course you can borrow my copy of Hey Dude! I’m so glad that you love it too! Did you know season two is finally coming out soon?” It’s a way to instantly suss out what you have in common with someone else.

The problem in New York City has, of course, become a matter of space. I don’t have space for enough shelves to make everything I have easily accessible. My CDs used to have some semblance of alphabetization going on, but once their dedicated spaced was filled, they started to stack on the floor in an out-of-the-way corner. DVD genres are somewhat separated, with children’s movies and anything made before 1980 in an Ikea cabinet near the bathroom door and Christmas movies and music in the couch (which has storage space under the seats). The catch 22 is that though we will have more space wherever we move, getting all of this stuff there will be a trial. So downsizing is inevitable, with one very notable exception. Can you guess what is non-negotiable? That’s right. My Disney stuff.

Top two shelves are Disney.
Yeah. They're three deep.

As I have mentioned before, I am a little bit late to the Disney enthusiast game. Most of my accumulated Disneyana has been hunted and gathered over the course of the last two to three years. I have shelves dedicated to my Disney books, a few to my Disney DVDs and Blu-rays (with the fifty animated classics separated and in chronological order waiting patiently for my DATE Nights with them), and a space reserved for my Disney CDs. My small collection of Disney vinyl decorates a wall while other souvenirs, such as lanyards stocked with pins, selected plush and very, very selected Vinylmation dot the apartment here and there. I have been a very busy beaver.

It’s been both an exercise in frustration and exhilarating beyond belief to build my Disney collection. There are elusive items that have become hard to find at anywhere near a reasonable price, like the Dr. Syn Walt Disney Treasures DVD or Disneyland: The Nickel Tour. As much as I want to get my mitts on them, I cannot justify plunking down hundreds of dollars for the bragging rights of calling them mine. It’s all balanced, however, by the amazing feeling I get when I finally find a coveted piece, make that winning bid or click buy, see it beckoning to me from my doorstep after delivery. It’s an undeniable high when I rip through the packaging, revealing the Polly soundtrack or The Colors of Mary Blair Japanese exhibition book.

Animated classics on top, Walt Disney Treasures on
the bottom, Bullwhip Griffin on the telly.
Blu-rays out of frame.

Even the less momentous buys are always fun. Few things give me as much pleasure as flipping through a Disney Park souvenir book that I found for a dollar plus shipping on Amazon, laughing at the out-of-date clothing on display, dreaming about my next trip, and discovering the changes, both subtle and substantial, that are a part of the DNA of the ever-changing parks. If it hadn’t been for the fact that I won it for a buck on eBay, I would have never been privy to the soothing twang of Rex Allen’s Yellowstone Cubs narration. And I certainly would have never invested in music from Selena Gomez or Miley Cyrus has it not been relegated to dollar bin at my favorite NYC used media joint (Book Off in midtown).

Our lanyards and pins.

As we take stock of what is making the journey from the Northeast with us, it is not even up for discussion whether my Disney stuff is coming along. Tom has contributed a few items to it himself, like our Art of Mulan book and what may be my favorite piece- a stretching portrait from the Haunted Mansion, an attraction that holds a very special place in our hearts. When he moved east from California, he left everything he couldn’t fit into a couple of suitcases behind. After giving away the majority of his possessions, I think he’s kind of excited to get some of them back through me. Not only does he know it wouldn’t be wise to try to get me to let go of the Disney, he wants to keep it within his own reach as well.

So why, you ask, will we be taking our own personal Disney mountain along with us? First and foremost, Disney makes us both blissfully happy. I found Tom soon after my interest in Disney took off. From our first date, one of the things we most connected over was our mutual love of all things created in the House of Mouse. He has seen me through the creation of this blog, which has become an important outlet for me. From our trips to the parks, to watching the films, to our times bantering in Kathryn Beaumont or Hayley Mills voices, Disney has been one of the constant threads in the tapestry of our shared life. It doesn’t define us, to be sure, but it’s a slice of our experience together that is precious to us.

The stretching room portrait
above Tom's keyboard.

This move is going to be huge for me. It will be the first time I have moved in almost nine years, when I moved to New York City from Tallahassee. Over that near decade I have (arguably) grown into an adult. Along with adulthood has come a bevy of things that have been heaped onto the two suitcases I arrived here with. For a long time these objects gave me a sense of consistency. They made me feel like I had laid claim to a space of my own where I belonged. Now that I’m married to the most amazing man in the world, anywhere that I go I know that I will feel loved unconditionally. As Barbra might say, “Any place I hang my hat is home.” As long as Tom is there, that is. I don’t need a plethora of possessions when what is essential will always be by my side. So as we look forward to a new beginning, we shed what weighs us down, keep close the things that bring us joy, and start our own mutual collection- of memories, experiences and things alike. No doubt, more than a few will involve Disney in some way or other. Let the memories begin.

Bucket List NYC: Madame Tussaud's

As I mentioned before, the wind has changed and, like Mary Poppins, it will soon be time for me to move on. In the meantime, however, my husband Tom and I have been trying to do a lot of the New York things that we have neglected while we still have the ability to do them somewhat easily. I called it our Bucket List NYC, and the initiative has been quite successful thus far, so I thought that it would be fun to share some of the Disney-adjacent escapades with all of you. A while back we visited the site of the 1964/1965 New York World's Fair in Queens and it turned what was a burgeoning interest regarding the Fair into a full-blown obsession for me. We also went to the Museum of the Moving Image, which was having an exhibit in honor of Jim Henson. It is always surprising to me how much Disney is everywhere if you just root around a bit for it.

A shot of the museum from the roof of the
AMC movie theater next door. We took
this when we were seeing The Help.

Another jaunt that Tom and I have been wanting to go on for quite a while is to Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum in Times Square on 42nd Street. It's so, so, so touristy and expensive, but early in our courtship we had gone next door to the Ripley's Believe It or Not Museum and unexpectedly had a blast, so it made sense for us to give Madame Tussaud's a whirl. I had been there once before years ago with my sister, but this was Tom's first time and we went with our lovely and hilarious friend, Jackie. (This is why none of the pictures have my adorable husband's mug in them. He was too busy shutterbugging for me. Sorry, hon. We still know how pretty you are.)

The Queen holding court.

The museum is actually a lot of fun. It is mostly divided into somewhat themed areas. You begin in a room with more current celebrities, such as Julia Roberts and Tyra Banks, silently posed as if they were at the most awkward Golden Globes after party ever. My favorite figure is in this room, however. It's RuPaul holding court above everyone else, looking statuesque and stunning atop a fountain in the center of the room. Right where she belongs. There are areas devoted to places (NYC), time periods, (fifties, sixties, etc.), and types of celebrities (musicians, movie stars, historical figures and politicians, etc.) with additional figures shoehorned in between. There is also an area that allegedly had all of the spooky stuff in it, but Tom and Jackie both refused to go in there with me for fear that someone would jump out and cause them to soil their pantaloons and I sure as shootin' wasn't about to go in there alone. So we walked on by.

We went in about an hour and a half before closing on a weeknight, which assured us of avoiding the crowds, and we had our run of the place while we were inside. We didn't have to queue up or linger waiting for others to finish up with the figures and had seen everything in a little over an hour (including a completely pointless, 15 minute long, 4D screening of an abridged Happy Feet where they blew cold air on you and which we should have just skipped). Though it's not something I would want to do on a regular basis, for a pop culture junkie like me it was definitely worth visiting one more time before heading out of the city. The wax figures, on the whole, were very convincing, well-done and presented in a fun (if not immersive) atmosphere. I love that you can touch and interact with them, leading, as you will soon see, to some very goofy photo ops if you are half the dork that I am (and I trust that you are, faithful readers, which is why we get along so swimmingly, eh?). Here are some of our exploits that evening with fake folks of the Disney persuasion.

Listen. You weigh a lot more than you did in your
MMC days, Brit Brit. Sorry bout it.

Pssst. Oprah. Tiana is totes my favorite princess.
So can we be besties now?

Thankfully she didn't morph into the Queen Narissa dragon.

So if Jackie is Kathy Najimy and I'm Sarah Jessica Parker,
then I guess that means Bette is Bette Midler, huh?
Amok, amok, amok!

You're totally right, Miley. It is the climb!

Mufasa. Mufasa, Mufasa, Mufasa.
Hrm. Not the reaction I expected.

Sorry, Captain Jack Sparrow. I still haven't
watched any of your movies yet, but
I do love the Michael Bolton song about you.

So is Destino about love? Baseball? Love of
baseball? Love of turtles? Explain, please and
thanks, you genius you.

Not quite as impressive when they don't move and talk.
The real question is, "Where is President Jonathan T. President?"

Jackie chooses to ignore Simba as punishment for
Inspector Gadget and gets cozy with Timon instead. 

Naaaaaaahsegwenyababbadiseewannababa! Heyyaheyyaoh!

Mostly I must have been angry about Lestat.
All of his Disney output is pretty righteous.

So did you meet Amy Adams, or did they just throw you
in a studio to record the song, wham bam thank you ma'am?

Good times, y'all! If you're looking for something low key and silly to do in midtown on a trip to New York City, I totes recommend a visit to Madame Tussaud's. It may be on the pricey side, but you'll for sure get some great Facespace profile pics and memories out of the the deal. Usually you can find coupons online that will knock a bit off the price, and if you know when you are going in advance, they often have discounted tickets available on www.Goldstar.com, which is a relatively simple discount ticketing service, but it won't help you if you go on the spur of the moment, like we did. I hope you enjoyed visiting with me! The figures may not be as awesome as audio-animatronics and, as far as an attraction goes, the museum is leagues behind a Disney park, but I take what I can get until my next trip. That reminds me, Tom and I have planned our next trip to Orlando for early March! Big plans afoot! I'll make sure to keep you abreast of the goings on!

The Other Side of the Rainbow

Can't hold them back, y'all!

I know you've been patiently waiting to hear my verdict on The Muppets, which came out last Wednesday. Your minds are spinning trying to figure out why I have yet to weigh in. Did he see it? Was he abducted by aliens for the two hours he had tickets? Did he see it and then get abducted by aliens who erased all memories of it? Did he decide it wasn't worth the trip and that staying at home to watch Muppets in Space would be a better use of his time? Now you know I'm bluffing since you know that, even with a Kathy Griffin cameo, Muppets in Space is not worth staying home and watching in almost any situation unless a drinking game is involved.

Truth is, I had a pretty spectacularly horrible, no-good holiday weekend and it's taken me a few days to process my feelings about everything that is going on in my life. When the wheels in my head starting turning, I came to realize that my experience with The Muppets couldn't help but be informed by my life outside the cinema's revolving doors. Now that I've had a little bit of distance, I would love to share some of my thoughts about the movie (among other things). So you'll have to forgive me if this "review" of the movie is a little more personal than most. But we're all friends here, right? Awesomesauce. In that case, it's time to play the music! It's time to light the lights!

I want to work here. Make that happen, please.

I've made no secret of the fact that my job makes me want to claw my eyeballs out, thread them on a length of ribbon and wear them as a necklace. Part of the reason that I am so ready to leave New York City is that I have spent almost a year in a job that has done everything imaginable to suck my soul out short of drilling a hole in my chest and putting a vacuum cleaner against it. When I finally leave, I will probably never talk about it publicly because a) it has been so traumatizing and 2) people who have too much money and too few worthwhile things to do with it tend to like to use it on lawyers, treating litigation like a sport. A rich-people sport like polo or fencing. Lawsuiting. I can't afford a lawsuit, so suffice it to say that I am living in a nightmare version of Devil Wears Prada, but worse. Yes, it's possible to be worse than Miranda Priestly. You haven't met Your Majesty. When you finally see me next, we'll have a cup of coffee or cocktail and chat (strictly off the record), I promise.

The Wednesday that The Muppets was released was the day before Thanksgiving. I left the office promptly at six-thirty and headed uptown to pick up tickets for my husband and I to see the movie, which I had been waiting to see for months. I even went to The Museum of the Moving Image a few weeks back to see the Jim Henson exhibit and get my Muppet fix while I waited. I bought the tickets and pulled out my phone to see where Tom was. Of course, there was a message from Your Majesty. The masochist in me decided to listen and I was treated to three minutes (which is long in voicemail time) of the most passive-agressive, self-important, and flat-out mean drivel I have ever heard in my life. After eleven months of working my tail off without getting any respect or appreciation, Your Majesty told me that he could tell I wasn't happy, and that if I didn't like the way he ran his business, then maybe I should't be working for him any more.

Or even here. I'd totally work here, too, yo!

What horrible transgression had I committed? Well I had left on time. That meant that ten minutes later, when he wanted me to do a fruitless, self-serving task for him that I didn't know I was supposed to do, I wasn't there to do it. Did you get that? Yeah...me either. So I snapped. I was done. I called Tom crying. Going on about how awful it all was and how scared I am of the prospect of being jobless, no matter how much I hate what I do, and how I just wanted to go home. This was not how I wanted to see The Muppets.

I got a call from another beleaguered co-worker who was still tied down to the office and had been asked to do the busy work I wasn't there to do. Since it was too difficult to explain how to do it over the phone, I felt bad for them and I didn't want to hear guff about the situation all weekend, I returned my tickets and went into the office to get it done. So my Thanksgiving break started by going into the office at eight at Your Majesty's whim. Gobble gobble.

The upside was that I had time to calm down and realize that, dammit, I had waited for months to go see The Muppets on opening night and I'd be galldarned if I was going to let Your Majesty muck it up for me. Tom and I went back uptown, got our tickets anew and sat down in the front row of the mezzanine (!) for the ten o'clock showing of the movie. Before you are enveloped by the overwhelming and comforting smell of buttered popcorn and after you step out into the brisk late-fall air outside the theater, real life takes hold. But for those two precious hours, if all of the creative artists have done their job well, we are able to leave it all behind. And that night we were absolutely transported. From the opening Toy Story Toon to the end credits I had a huge smile on my face, I was ugly-laughing like my life depended on it and I did not think about Your Majesty once the entire time.

Hi. My name's Woody and I'm...

The Toy Story Toon, called "Small Fry" is hilarious. It imagines a support group meeting for tossed aside fast food kid's meal toys. The toys include a nod to Disney live-action film Condorman and Jane Lynch voicing the mermaid-on-a-rock leader of the group. It is a great riff on the Toy Story franchise without rehashing the same ideas. You do, however, get to spend a bit of quality time with your favorite characters from the original movies, including the adorable Bonnie, who just makes me feel like I'm get a big ole bear hug from one of the radtastic nuggets in my life, who are too far away to get a real bear hug out of at the mo. (Shout out to Dyllan and Sophia!!!) It's a perfect amuse bouche to get the party started.

Gratuitous Sarah Silverman shot for my hubby.

Then comes the main attraction- The Muppets. I can safely say that it's the best time that I've had in a movie theater in a long, long time. I was worried because some of the buzz surrounding the film's fidelity to the Muppets' spirit had been called into question. It seems to me that some people were being a bit too precious with our felt friends. I understand the impulse. None of us want to see these characters done wrong by. Luckily, they haven't been. The Muppets' history was respected and they were made relevant for a generation who has yet to meet them properly.

By telling the story of the Muppets reuniting for the first time in years, they were able to give us something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue. By which I mean we got the old-school antics we expected to get as we catch up with what these guys have been doing, fresh characters introduced seamlessly into the mix, plenty of cheeky cultural referencing and celebrity cameos, all peppered with nostalgia and a big dollop of emotion on top.

If you've seen the movie, you know why this
shot makes me laugh out loud.

All of the performers are winning, but especially Amy Adams (Giselle from Enchanted) in one of the lead roles. There is nothing that this woman can't do. She can sing her face off, be really touching one minute and off-the-wall hilarious the next. Jason Segal is not usually my cup of tea, but he acquits himself quite well here and it is his passion for the project, which he also co-wrote, that got it off the ground. The new Muppet character, Walter, is very charming. I really came to care for him. Plus his human doppelgänger is the geek-dreamy Jim Parsons, so he's got that going for him. Chris Cooper and Rashida Jones also make unexpected and effective turns playing against their types. The music is fun, it looks great, and, when I saw it, the entire audience was guffawing, clapping and awww-ing wholeheartedly.

I just welled up adding this pic. Seriously.

I must say, though, that the big lump in the throat came late in the movie and it's one of the simplest moments. It involves a frog, a log, and a song about a rainbow. I'm sure that you all know what I'm talking about. Not to disparage what's new and fresh about the movie, but it's really hard to top "Rainbow Connection", written in 1979 for The Muppet Movie. It's a big, beating, muscular heart of a song. It's slightly cynical, but ultimately hopeful. It's gentle, but earth-shattering. And last Wednesday night, after almost a year of feeling beaten-down to the point of breaking, it was exactly what I needed to hear.

Best. Road trip. Ever!

People can debate the details of the movie, angry that they got x, y, or z wrong about it, but in the end what matters is that they took a guy who was feeling just about as low as he could possibly get and, over the course of a single movie, and let him (in the words of another fantastic Henson creation) dance his cares away. Worries for another day. For that, I will always be very grateful.

The Muppets were there when I needed them most, reminding me that there's a good reason that we always keep what's at the far end of the rainbow in our periphery. It's the promise of something greater. A time and place where we will be again be as happy as we were (the lovers, the dreamers and me...and my amazing husband) in that dark movie theater just hours before a day we set aside specifically to give thanks. That's worth far more than box office receipts or merchandising revenue. That's the power of a great movie to help change lives.

The rainbow in my room.

In the days since I saw the movie, I was still feeling a bit down. Real life has a tendency to come back and hornswaggle you despite the exceptional efforts of any great artistic endeavor to keep you up. It's always a struggle when you are in an emotionally unhealthy place forty hours a week to not get dragged back down. However, this morning, when I woke up, I turned over and was greeted by a rainbow in the corner of my room. It's like the Muppets were sending me a gentle reminder as insurance in case all of this soul-searching does take hold. It made me smile first thing in the morning, which is usually the last time that you will find me smiling when not on Disney property, no matter the circumstances. So if someone or something is up there, trying to guide me, I am saying out loud, into the universe, that I am choosing to believe that there is something magical and wonderful on the other side of that rainbow and I will keep moving forward until I get there. Thanks Jim. Thanks Muppets. Well-played, all.

Bucket List NYC: The Museum of the Moving Image

I have been meaning to make it out to the Museum of the Moving Image for years, but other things always ended up taking precedence on the weekends. Those things usually involved my rear end, the couch and my DVR. It is insanely close to me in Astoria, Queens, so I don't even have to go into Manhattan to get there and everyone I've talked to has said that was great. All it took was some kind of can't-miss exhibit to get me there. Over the summer, they installed an exhibit centered around Jim Henson of Muppet and Sesame Street fame. I knew the time had come to put down the remote and go.

The entrance to the museum.

I really, really love the Muppets. I've been waiting with bated breath for The Muppets, which will finally be released next week (Yay!), so it seemed like a perfect time to travel three stops down on the N/Q to visit the museum to help give me a Muppet fix before the movie comes out. What I wasn't prepared for was how amazing the whole museum would be. I thought I'd share some pictures and thoughts on the Henson exhibit and the museum as a whole, as well as share some Disney-adjacent pictures I took while we were there.

We'll start with the Henson portion, which was spread over about half of the third floor. It was quite an impressive collection. It included several of the puppets, props, some video, and many, many drawings (my favorite was the original sketch of Big Bird), sketches, storyboards and notes. The volume and diversity of materials that was on display was impressive. There were early theater posters that he designed, experimental films that he made, and advertorial works. It was pretty fascinating to see the early non-puppet work. They also showed a short film featuring Jim Henson in his own words, which gives about a 15 minute overview of his career, that was very well done.

My big quibble with the exhibit is that it didn't feel very well structured. There were three different ways to enter into it and your experience seems a bit haphazard. There was no rhyme or reason to the way you made your way through. It wasn't chronological and it was very unclear what story they were trying to tell. Considering that the rest of your journey through the museum is impeccably set up, this felt a bit jarring. It feels like a lost opportunity, since instead of really telling Henson's story in a clear way through the artifacts, it felt like a catch as catch can labyrinth. The kind without David Bowie at the center. We had to go through a few different ways just to make sure that we didn't miss anything. It's a small quibble in the grand scheme of things when what is on display is so fantastic, but it affected my experience nonetheless.

The stars of the show, of course, were the puppets that were there. It's kind of surreal seeing these guys up close in this way. They played such an important role in my childhood and are still very close to my heart. I will readily admit I got rather misty being inches away, examining the felt up close and really being able to study them for a moment. Their texture and construction. It feels like at any moment they could start a conversation with you. Or at least give you a rousing chorus of "Mah Na Mah Na". It is magic just to be in their presence.

Kermit.

Miss Piggy.

The Mah Na Mah Na gang.

Rowlf.

Gobo and Mokey Fraggle.

Tom and I. Uh...wait. I mean Bert and Ernie!

The Henson exhibit may have been what lured us in, but it was actually the rest of the museum that really churned our butter. It is one of the best museums I have ever been in. It is well-designed, interactive, fun, and informative. It is organized by areas that focus on different aspects of film and television. It starts with with playfully executed tributes to the artists who create films. The stars, directors, make-up and hair artists (The Bride of Frankenstein's wig, The Elephant Man and Mrs. Doubtfire makeups), production designers (models and designs from The Wiz and Silence of the Lambs), and costume designers (costumes from Chicago, Mork and Mindy, Dangerous Liasons, Cliff Huxtable's sweater) all get a section.

My adorable husband as we watched Eileen Brennan
be brilliant on Laugh-In. Video games in the background.

There is a section devoted to the theaters that films played in, including a artfully designed small movie house/screening room with a Egyptian folk art theme which was commissioned by the museum and is hard to describe. You have to see it for yourself. There is an area devoted to video games (you could play Mario on an old-school Nintendo!), a sunken 60's living room with Laugh-In playing on the TV, displays of special effects props (including a full-sized Regan from The Exorcist- shudder- which I wouldn't get within five feet of), cameras from early to modern day and old-school movie machines showing Chaplin films on flip-books that you cranked. The sheer comprehensiveness was pretty astonishing and it was brilliantly presented, flowing from one area to the next with a sense of narrative.

The interactive stations were also awesome. There was one set up so that you could learn about great film composers and hear parts of their scores. One allowed you to add sound effects to film clips and one did the same with music. It really shows you how much the sound can change the feel of a scene, subtly and obviously. When a velociraptor brays like a donkey it becomes funny and Sharon Stone's walk across a casino floor can shift from one shade of sexy to another with a different song playing. They had another station where you could dub lines into School of Rock. These elements of the museum really get you involved in the process of filmmaking in interesting ways. Hollywood Studios may be more immersive with its theming, but they could still pick up a thing or two from some of what is on display here and how it is presented.

Finally there was my favorite station, which provided you with a very simple set-up to make your own stop-motion animated film. A camera was pointing down at the white background on the counter top. You were given cut out shapes and a simple interface with buttons that you pressed to take a shot at a time, 8 per second, and emerge with your own creation that they email to you free of charge. I had a blast and really felt a sense of accomplishment when I saw my (admittedly weird and silly) finished product. It was almost as much fun watching the other kids (including my husband Tom) making their own movies. So, I now present to you my creation. I am clearing off a place on my shelf for an Oscar as we speak.

We spent a good three hours experiencing everything, seeing most things twice, and really exploring. If you are in the NYC area, I highly recommend a visit. There were a few Disney related pieces in the museum, though it was one very small piece of the puzzle. The studio itself does such a wonderful job of archiving and finding ways to give the public access to its history it does't need to rely on outside institutions to do it for them. It is interesting, though, to see it as one part of the huge tapestry of film and television as a whole. Here are some shots that I took that my fellow Disney fans may find interesting.

Set model for The Muppets Take Manhattan
in the permanent collection.

Several pieces of Disneyana in the display
of promotional items and merch.

More merch. Hey, Pluto!

Sheet music for Snow White.

The interactive film score station didn't have Disney scores,
but composers like Thomas Newman (my fave), Jerry Goldsmith and John Williams are represented. Awesome.

Mickey and Minnie depicted in a mural in the screening
room / mini folk art Egyptian movie palace.

Chewbacca mask.

Tons of Star Wars merch.

I may have a dirty mind, but this C-3PO tape
dispenser looks a tad inappropriate. And if you've
seen Carrie Fisher's Wishful Drinking,
you'll appreciate the Pez dispenser.

Yoda animatronic.

The Jim Henson exhibit runs through January 16th, 2012 and is absolutely worth a visit to Queens to see, but even if you miss it, the Museum of the Moving Image is a place that you should visit for its permanent exhibits alone. It is very reasonably priced, easy to get to and completely amazeballs! Have you visited the museum for the current Henson exhibit? What did you think? Was it more navigable for you or do you think that I'm a dum-dum cuz it was problematic for me? How about the rest of the museum? Wasn't it rad? And most importantly, how did your stop-motion animation piece stack up to my own "Bushwoman"? Don't be ashamed. I know that I'm a burgeoning genius in the field. I just like the affirmation.