Tag Archives: dick van dyke

Saturday FanX 2024 Panel Schedule First Look

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Dick Van Dyke’s move to Saturday makes it easier for me to get in to see him. (He was originally schedule for the hour before my panel on Friday.) However, now that he’s scheduled for the first hour of the busiest day, it’s going to be important to get in line early. He is the panel to see on Saturday.

The noon hour features the Terminator celebrity panel. At 12:30 there is Deafinitely Cinema, a discussion of how the deaf are portrayed in the movies. The 1pm hour has the Behind the Magic: The Secrets of Disneyland panel and a discussion on the Twilight Zone. Mel Gibson is scheduled to 1:15pm.

The next panel to get to is at 2pm. Singer/songwriter Paul Williams and his Rainbow Connection of Muppet’s fame is legendary. This panel will end soon enough for us to get to the Little House celebrity panel at 3:30pm. At 4:30pm, Harry Potter fans will be treated to a celebrity panel, but my choice would be to hit up the Six Million Dollar Man/Bionic Woman celebrity panel. Both panels will run into the Hope for the Trope panel at 5pm, but I’m willing to miss it. At 5:30, the Provost Park Passs will reveal more secrets to park travel.

So, our schedule will look something like this:

  • 11am – Dick van Dyke
  • Noon – Terminator celebrity panel
  • 2pm – Paul Williams
  • 3:30pm – Little House on the Prairie celebrity panel
  • 4:30pm – Six Million Dollar Man/Bionic Woman panel
  • End the con with a trip through the vendor floor

This plan was made on Sept. 15. Conventions change their schedules. Be flexible and go with the flow for the best comic convention experience at FanX 2024.

Check out our Thursday and Friday plans, as well as some more tips for enjoying FanX 2024. Pick up my book to be prepared for my panel on Friday at 1pm.

Haunted Mansion Is Creativity at FanX

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It’s official. I’m going to be presenting “The Haunted Mansion Is Creativity” at FanX just in time to celebrate Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion’s 55th anniversary! My panel is scheduled for Sept. 27, 2024 in room 250A. (Dick Van Dyke will be in the Grand Ballroom at noon, so Disney fans will have to rush from his supercalifragilisticexpialidocious panel to mine. I’ll do my best to save you a seat.)

What Can You Expect?

I will take you on a guided tour of the Haunted Mansion, so bring your imagination. Along the way, we’ll meet some of the characters that made the Haunted Mansion what it is. We’ll also look at the history and structure of the attraction to give us examples of the creative process and how it works in real life. Hopefully, you’ll be able to put some of these principles to work in your life every day.

Also, fans of the Haunted Mansion can expect to recite the spiel and sing the song as we go on this tour together. Don’t worry. There will be no spooks around to tell you they want to hear the Ghost Host and not you. Creativity can be a team endeavor.

For those unfamiliar with the Haunted Mansion, it’s important to note that the attraction does deal with themes that some might find triggering. This includes death and suicide.

Books for Sale

Unfortunately, I have been unable to partner with anyone on the convention floor at FanX 2024. So, if you want books, you’ll have to order them through Amazon or contact me directly (shadexaminer@gmail.com), so I can bring them with me. Otherwise, I will have a very small number of books available for purchase directly after the panel. (If you get your books on Amazon, I’ll be happy to sign them when you bring them to FanX.

About FanX and Me

FanX is one of my favorite comic conventions because they gave me my start as a journalist covering conventions. I’ve been lucky enough to meet Lou Ferrigno, Battlestar Galactica’s Richard Hatch, and Micky Dolenz, among others. The convention runs from Sept. 26 to Sept. 28, 2024. Make final arrangements now to see the Haunted Mansion Is Creativity at FanX 2024. We’re dying to have you.

New Zealand: A Short Survey of New Zealand Penguins

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Penguins are funny creatures. As my wife says they often look like they are running to hug you. My second favorite penguins are from the movie “Mary Poppins, and that’s where I got the idea as a penguin for my creativity mascot. Those penguins deliver fun, service and a dance-off with Dick Van Dyke before it was a thing. (Who would win in a dance off: the Mary Poppins penguins or Starlord?) From there, it was a short step to our stuffed penguins.

There is only a small group of penguins in the Galapagos Islands that live north of the equator in the wild. All of the other wild penguins in the world live south of the equator. Of the 18 or 19 species penguins in the world, New Zealand is home to three: the korora, the hoiho, and the tawaki. Knowing that, we, of course, are going to schedule some time to try to find some penguins in the wild. (We hear they are smelly, but we don’t care. They just look like fun to hang around near!)

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‘Mary Poppins Returns’ with a message the world will needs but will miss.

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The original “Mary Poppins” is a ground-breaking cinematic achievement that is as magical today as it was in 1964. There’s no way a sequel could match it, and if this is the reason some people don’t like “Mary Poppins Returns,” they’re missing out on a story that this world, at this time, desperately needs and will probably fail to hear. “Mary Poppins Returns” isn’t about saving the children or saving the father; it’s about saving ourselves.

“Mary Poppins Returns” is similar to the 1964 “Mary Poppins” that it’s a sequel to. There are songs, hand-drawn animation combined with live action, a bunch of working-class men doing dancing in the most preposterous of ways, a female character fighting for a cause, a weird relation who’s facing an impossible affliction and a father whose situation has caused him to forget all of the things he learned as a child when Mary Poppins was his nanny.

From a time before the film was released, it was clear:

  • Emily Blunt is no Julie Andrews.
  • Lin-Manuel Miranda is no Dick Van Dyke.
  • Meryl Streep is no Ed Wynn, but you might not recognize her either.
  • Marc Shaiman is no Sherman Brothers.

I should probably repeat that last statement. There isn’t a tune that I was humming at the end of the movie. “Mary Poppins” gave us “A Spoonful of Sugar,” “Supercalifragilisticexpialadocious,” “Let’s Go Fly a Kite,” “Feed the Birds,” “Step in Time,” and “Chim-Chim-Cheree,” which won the academy award. “Mary Poppins Returns” gives us…

Whatever you’re doing this Christmas, go see “Mary Poppins Returns.” It’s grown up a little while keeping most of its innocence intact. (The “Book by It’s Cover” Sequence is a bawdy vaudeville style song.)