Fire and Ice

Yet another set of questions but these ones come from one of many Disney blogs I follow. Imaginerding have a series where eminent Disneyphiles answer these questions, which I thought was fascinating. I’m not enough of a Disney fan to feature in their blog but I thought it would be fun to answer them in my own blog! So, with thanks to Imaginerding here we go: What is your earliest Disney memory? I have vague recollections of Disney characters in my nursery when I was a baby – but these memories could come from seeing photos of what my nursery used to look like. I was apparently conceived while my parents honeymooned in Disneyland and my first trip to WDW was when I was very, very little: 2 years old. For the record, I was terrified of Mickey Mouse! What is your single favorite attraction? This is one of those questions where the answer probably changes daily but a trip to WDW doesn’t count if I don’t get on Spaceship Earth. I haven’t yet experienced it post-refurb but everythi...

The book “ Skinny Bitch ” is definitely NOT to everyone’s taste but I think that everyone should read it. It’s not just the tone of the book (VERY straight talking and with some mild swearing) but the harsh truths that it delivers - mainly that eating meat is simply eating rotting carcass and isn’t terribly good for you. I happen to believe that is true and am about 90% vegetarian but I need reminding of just WHY I am doing a good thing by avoiding meat and sticking with fruits and vegetables. There are of course other books that cover the same subject, some with more depth (and less shouting) like “ Diet for New America ” by John Robbins. I read this book by accident about 5 years ago and from the first chapter I was hooked. It is a very compassionate, gentle book that tries to teach you about the truth behind the animal products we eat. The book covers every angle: health, social consequences, economics, ethics, etc. I can honestly say this book changed my life and was th...

A combination of luck and circumstance meant that this weekend I had more time than usual to spend reading, which was great as I had two brilliant books I couldn’t wait to sink my teeth into. The first one was “ The Pixar Touch: the making of a company ” which I had been meaning to read for some time. It appealed to my love of corporate histories as well as of course the relationship with Disney. The book proved to be informative, entertaining and very interesting but I wish it had more photos… however; my second book delivered those in spades. As soon as I put down “The Pixar Touch” I started on what turned out to be a gigantic coffee-table book (it didn’t look that big on the website!), also about Pixar called “ To Infinity and Beyond! The Story of Pixar Animation Studios ” which is more of an official story. I was glad I’d read “The Pixar Touch” first as it gave me enormous background, whereas “To Infinity and Beyond!” glosses over the details about how the company ...

As I’ve mentioned before , I’m a Disney collector but a low-key one. I don’t have room for big collections so anything like plush or pins or snowglobes or even cels is out. I do have a few here and there but they are in no way a collection. No, my collection is more about music and books and even in those areas I’m a little picky. I only have CDs with either original movie soundtracks or theme park music (no contemporary collections, no re-recordings, no random compilations). I like to say that this keeps my collection specialized but what it really does is keep it manageable: I only buy maybe two or three CDs a year! The music collection, however, is a new pursuit for me – what I’ve been collecting for a lot longer are Disney books. Like with the music, I have set up boundaries though so I focus on the non-fiction books: biographies, company history, business books, that sort of stuff. But I also have a lot of those gorgeous souvenir books, beautiful volumes full of photos and usually...

Because the weather is so nice and my hayfever so bad, I’ve had to stay inside a lot more than I would like to. It is terribly frustrating to look out the window into a sunny, warm day that I can’t enjoy but at least it’s given me a chance to catch up on my reading. I just finished a great book called Walt Disney and the Quest for Community and I really enjoyed it. It is a quasi-academic look at the various influences that Walt Disney had when he came up with his concept for EPCOT (the city, not the park). Because Walt died before the ideas were fully developed, the book also speculates the direction those plans were headed and the possible issues that would arise. It really was a fascinating book – and as a special bonus, it even mentions my town of Milton Keynes. Not many other Disney books specifically mention the place where I live! As soon as I finished that I picked up another fascinating Disney read, this one’s called Realityland and it’s a behind the scenes look at how Walt Di...

Just before I went on vacation, a dream store opened here in Milton Keynes: Borders! Yes, the bookstore. I really love this store mainly because it sells books and does this job beautifully. There are few bookstores that display books so well and make it so easy for me to have to buy another book. If I could, I think I’d love to work there and I would be in heaven, surrounded by books. I’ve already been like five times since it opened earlier in the month, and bearing in mind I’ve been on vacation for most of November, it isn’t a bad average. I just love books. I love and love and love books. Books have been my friends for a long time, since I learned to read at the age of 4. Ever since I discovered the written word I have been pretty obsessed with books and have always been attracted to reading. It’s one of my favourite pastimes – sometimes even more adored than scrapbooking, I have to say. Reading is portable, easy to do and it fills my head with places, peoples and ideas that mig...