August 27, 2010
4:24 PM
Disney Characters
Disney Fairies is one of Disney's most popular franchises. I am all too well aware of its popularity having just watched my young daughter's bedroom transformed into a Fairy glen. So, naturally, I'm thrilled to learn that a new Fairy, Vidia, has been added to Disney World's Pixie Hollow, and with her a new torrent of must-have Fairy merch.
When I first heard 'Vidia' I thought Ricky Martin and "Livin' la Vida Loca". (At no other time do I think of Ricky Martin - just putting that out there.) But Vidia ain't Vida.
So what does 'Vidia' mean? Nothing, really: it's a 'nonsense' word, though it does translate loosely from Bulgarian as 'to see' and it's also Trinidadian novelist V.S. Naipaul's first name. But I doubt Disney chose 'Vidia' as part of a marketing ploy to lure more Bulgarians or more V.S. Naipaul readers into the parks.
Vidia, apparently, is a bad girl Fairy who lives alone in a Sour Plum tree, dislikes the other Fairies, and seems very high maintenance. She probably parties late into the night with the Bratz dolls, too. I'm thinking there's no more room in my daughter's bedroom for another Fairy...
Vidia co-stars with Tinker Bell in the upcoming movie Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue, scheduled for home release on September 21. Visit the official Disney site to view the trailer, or enjoy the live version of Vidia standing with Tinker Bell at Disney World in this short Youtube video.
She really does look like trouble.
Thomas Smith of DisneyParksBlog has gotten hullabaloo here before, most recently in the August 12 edition for Epcot Has the World's Hottest ... Pepper.
MORE: Disney Parks Blog (Thomas Smith)
Many people remember fondly the Epcot parade "Tapestry of Nations" (later "Tapestry of Dreams") which stepped off the curb for the final time in March 2003 due to fewer and fewer park guests showing up to watch it.
Since then, aficionados have speculated whether Tapestry will return. It seems unlikely, given that so much time has passed, but the folks at IlluminatingEpcot continue to hope and dream, and they recently ruminated on how Tapestry should return - putting aside the sticky issue of when.
I was never a big Tapestry fan but I did see it quite a few times and remember its basic storyline: the Sage of Time takes a "Millennium Walk" through Epcot's World Showcase in celebration of the future and in contemplation of world peace.
The Sage dressed in a flowing white robe and wore a "sun god" mask above his head. Walking on stilts, he led a procession of puppets, including Hammer Man, Bird Man, Wiggle Girl, and the Sprite (who collectively sound like Stan Lee's opium nightmare of a post-modern superhero team).
IlluminatingEpcot proposes some minor changes to the parade's theme and composition. If you liked Tapestry, you'll be interested in what they have in mind. And while you're there, check out the rest of the site chock-full of Epcot goodness.
MORE: Illuminating Epcot
Zombie cookies, iPhone apps - heavy-duty stuff! I'm ready for a break.
Usually, I don't enjoy looking at someone else's vacation pictures. I dread it, in fact. There are just so many shots I can handle of Uncle Elmer chowing down on bratwurst or the kids (look, how cute!) mugging for the camera before my eyes start wilting green to brown.
But I'm thrilled to look at beautiful or unusual Disney pictures. Long-time Disney Dispatch readers (ha! it was just last week) may remember that Tom Bricker's photography met those criteria.
And now here's Steve Burns of Burnsland with a stunning, ant's-eye view photo of Cinderella Castle. The dazzling firmament above the castle is what Axl Rose had in mind when he sang of the girl with eyes of the bluest skies (and it makes my eyes start blooming green to blue - am I possessed?).
Steve's site is full of pictures equally magnificent. His current shot is a strangely compelling view of people walking up Disney World's Main Street late one evening. He makes some interesting comments about those people, too: wonder if the old guy with the pony tail would be happy Steve remarked upon his long queue?
In addition to photos, Steve also has a book, On a Mission, though it's not about Disney.
MORE: Burnsland (Steve Burns)
Now that you've rid yourself of zombie cookies, perhaps staking some vampiric spam in the process, you must be feeling pretty confident in your technical chops. So let's look at some iPhone apps useful for managing your next Disney vacation.
Last week, Todd Perlmutter posted Part 1 of his "Connected Traveler" series for TouringPlans, discussing Google Calendar, Plancast, and other on-line (or 'on-phone') tools helpful for planning your Disney vacation.
Now, in Part 2, Todd, reviews more iPhone apps, an eclectic bunch that includes some you may already use for non-Disney purposes (Dropbox, Yelp), some you may not have heard of before (MyTSA, MetrO), and some you may wish you'd never heard of before (SitOrSquat).
Yes, SitOrSquat. Todd claims he nearly skipped it because of the name which he calls 'questionable'. Maybe so - but it's probably the one app from Todd's article whose name I won't forget. Its function is obvious. It helps you find the nearest public restroom, though if I've gotta go really bad, I'm usually in no condition to muck around with an iPhone app.
SitOrSquat also has a 'favorites' feature. At first it seems odd, even fetishistic, but then I thought about it, and yes, I do have a couple of favorite public restrooms that I prefer to use because they're clean and well-appointed. But I already know where to find them.
Many of the apps on Todd's list are available for other platforms, such as the Blackberry, and most have Web interfaces, too. If you visit SitOrSquat on the Web, for example, you'll be able to locate more than 94,000 public restrooms from the comfort of your computer screen, and you'll be able to add a toilet of your own (not the one in your apartment, please) for others to find and use.
And now, if you'll excuse me...
TouringPlans has gotten hullabaloo here before, most recently in the August 20 edition for Of Gum Wrappers and Google Calendar: Organizing Your Disney Vacation.
MORE: Touring Plans (Todd Perlmutter)
Suit was recently brought in federal court against Clearspring Technologies, the company contracted by Disney and others to serve on-line ads, over its alleged practice of reanimating deleted Flash cookies and putting them back in service tracking the behavior of computer users. (Cue scream.)
Blogger outrage, predictably, was high. I didn't headline the story here because, one, everyone else had, and two, I'm not very good at faking outrage when it's relatively easy to shut out passive digital intruders. If you're concerned about a new outbreak of zombie cookies, I suggest you board the windows, take the TV into the basement, and learn how to shoot for the head, courtesy of Dan Tynan who provided a solution yesterday afternoon on ITWorld. (Cue satisfied grunt.)
As Dan explains, the cookies in question are powered by Adobe Flash. Even if you toss your cookies, an unscrupulous advertiser can resurrect them using Flash without you ever knowing it. That's why they're called zombie cookies: they return from ... the beyond. (Cue scary music.)
Dan instructs how to control Flash through its Control Panel (which you already have on your computer if you have Flash, and pretty much everyone these days has Flash on their computers).
The instructions are fast and painless. You might notice some consequences, such as subsequently flaky Flash behavior, but then again, you might not: balance for yourself the benefit of ridding yourself of any zombie cookies shambling across your hard drive with a potential degradation of future Flash performance.
(Cue morning energy drink.)
MORE: IT World (Dan Tynan)
Thanks for signing up!
Look for your first
Digest tomorrow night.
Signing up gets you one e-mail per day, sent after sundown. The e-mail is minimal: just a list of that day's headlines with a link to the site in case you want to read any of the hullabaloo.
