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At 7am every day this little guy comes from under the neighbor’s fence and pays our backyard a visit. He first appeared about a month ago.

I’m wanting to highlight a book that I recently read, show you what recent critter has been calling the backyard home here lately and a couple/few topics of discussion right off the top of my head.

But now I should head to bed and enjoy the fact that I can sleep in for the next three days.

The only picture I took the entire day— leaving at 5:16pm!

Much to my surprise I ended up at Disneyland late this past Friday morning (the 2^nd), and I had no idea I was even going. One of my best friends and I needed to get away for the day as we’re losing someone very near and dear, and what better way to get your mind off things than go to “The Happiest Place on Earth.” So one minute we’re sitting at his kitchen table in Placentia and next thing I know— we’re riding the parking lot tram over to the entrance of the park. He brought his 2 year old son along and off we went. He’s held the Premium Annual Passes to the park and he and his wife and son go quite a bit. But we all have something in common: We were former Cast Members of the park. He, a conductor on the Disneyland Railroad, and myself an associate in Costuming. His wife was an attractions host. My heydays at the park were during most of 1999.

The last time I was ever on park property was my last day as a Cast Member. It was Sunday, October 10, 1999— just after 7pm. I had left after nearly a year where I previously began another job just a month before. The height of the summer busyness had waned and so were some of our hours. My status as a Cast Member was noted as Casual Regular— meaning I worked full-time hours during peak periods, but I was not guaranteed a 40 hour work week at any time. But during the spring break and summer seasons you bet I did.

It was just after 11am on Friday when I found myself standing out in the tram line out by the parking structure near Ball Road. My friend and I were reminiscing about our Disneyland days and I actually began to remember how it was being at the park. Thoughts, sounds, sights and feelings— all coming back. Good ones.

Before I knew it we were in the park. It mostly looked unchanged from over a decade ago, but then I noticed little things. Some new shops. Some attractions renamed and others having been taken out. We went on some rides— Pirates, Haunted Mansion, It’s a Small World, and even capped the day off out on Tom Sawyer’s Island.

On our way I out I stopped into the Adventureland Bazaar and picked up a rather large, and vividly painted, hanging porcelain toucan that was an import from Mexico.

Best Picture— The Descendants

Directing— Woody Allen/ Midnight in Paris

Actor in a Leading Role— George Clooney/ The Descendants

Actress In a Leading Role— Meryl Streep/ The Iron Lady

Actor In a Supporting Role— Nick Nolte/ Warrior

Actress In a Supporting Role— Jessica Chastain/ The Help

Music (Original Score)— Ludovic Bource/ The Artist

Makeup— Mark Coulier and J. Roy Helland/ The Iron Lady

Costume Design— Mark Bridges/ The Artist

Writing (Original Screenplay)— Michel Hazanavicius/ The Artist

Art Direction— Stuart Craig (Production Design); Stephenie McMillan (Set Decoration)/ Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2

Cinematography— Guillaume Schiffman/ The Artist

Film Editing— Anne-Sophie Bion and Michel Hazanavicius/ The Artist

Documentary Short— Rebecca Cammisa and Julie Anderson/ God is the Bigger Elvis

Foreign Language Film— Agnieszka Holland, director/ Poland, "In Darkness"

Animated Feature Film— Chris Miller/ Puss in Boots

Writing (Adapted Screenplay)— Screenplay by Steven Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin. Story by Stan Chervin/ Moneyball

Short Film (Animated)— Enrico Casarosa/ La Luna

Sound Editing— Ethan Van der Ryn and Erik Aadahl/ Transformers: Dark of the Moon

Sound Mixing— Greg P. Russell, Gary Summers, Jeffrey J. Haboush and Peter J. Devlin/ Transformers: Dark of the Moon

Visual Effects— Joe Letteri, Dan Lemmon, R. Christopher White and Daniel Barrett/ Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Documentary Feature— Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky/ Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory

Music (Original Song)— Music and Lyric by Bret McKenzie/ "Man or Muppet" from THE MUPPETS

Short Film (Live Action)— Peter McDonald and Eimear O’Kane/ Pentecost

My Anaheim Nighttime • A Photobook (An Old Neighborhood Collective)

Over the years I have started, and never finished, various book projects. I’m talking quite a few of them. I’ll get up and going on one and work on it for a week or three— and then absent-mindedly its on to something else. As to why… it’s just been habit I guess for years.

Well sometime last year, (probably not long before I moved from Arizona back here to Orange County), I started putting together a bunch of photographs I took several years ago from when I lived in West Anaheim. From 2004 until late ’07 I resided at the very large apartment community on the northwest corner of Brookhurst & Broadway.

For years it was known as The Grand Resort (even when I first moved there), but from the 60s and 70s— it was known as the swingers apartments back when it was called Orangetree. During the first several months of living there, United Dominion (who owned the property) sold it to Pinnacle Properties and it was renamed Madison Park.

So around the late spring months of 2006 I began talking walks after dark in the adjacent neighborhoods to the west and I eventually brought along my old Pentax Optio digital camera— and took random photographs. One evening after a walk I was playing around with some of these nighttime shots in my photo-editing software and created some unique pictures. I used various color filters and other abstract manipulations and before I knew it I had dozens of different shots and they’ve been on my hard-drive ever since. I uploaded a considerable sum to my Flickr account as well.

And thus… I came up with a 90 page book of this stuff and it’s set to be available sometime next month and I’m really excited about it. I self-published it through Blurb!

Kevin Costner eulogizing Whitney Houston

Somewhere around this time, exactly one week ago, the music world yet again changed— with the death of one of its most prominent pillars from the last quarter century. That being Whitney Houston having lost her life in her fourth floor room at the Beverly Hilton Hotel last Saturday. I made an earlier post where I barely wrote anything— only posting my three favored songs of hers.

Last night I watched the 20/20 special done on Whitney Houston called “One Moment in Time: The Life of Whitney Houston.” It was very eye-opening and reflective. It was a two-hour program that pretty much covered the gamut of her life. What I found somewhat hard to watch was this off-to-the-side clip that was shown— in a day or three before her death— where Whitney walks up on an “Entertainment Tonight” segment that was being taped in a media area at the Beverly Hilton where Clive Davis was sitting between singers Brandy and Monica. The taping did seem to momentarily stop, as Whitney greeted Davis with a kiss on the cheek, and she turned around and asked her daughter, Bobbi Kristina, to greet her godfather (Davis). It was almost as if Whitney didn’t comprehend that she was inadvertently interrupting a taped interview.

And today I watched the entire 3½+ hour home-going (funeral) service and it was touching for the most part. I loved seeing Dionne Warwick getting up in between those who spoke and sang— by introducing just about each one of them. Dionne Warwick, for me, is an early favorite of mine from my kindergarten days because her trademark song “That’s What Friends Are For” debuted later in the school year (1985) and it played a lot on the airwaves.

Kevin Costner gave a moving eulogy— talking about a private bond he and Whitney shared and that was growing up in a strong Baptist family. To be brutally honest… I have never seen “The Bodyguard.” But the insight he gave in his eulogy, along the lines the great lengths he went to secure Whitney Houston for that role, just makes you wanna go out and just but the DVD. I would not be surprised to see sales of it remarkably increasing over the coming weeks and months.

I was reminded of something today when talking with one of my brothers. I had almost forgotten that Whitney Houston, along with her then-husband Bobby Brown and their daughter, was present on my very first day of work when I started at Knott’s Berry Farm. This was July 1997— a month right out of high school for me. They toured the park for most of the entire day, complete with a mini-entourage, and one of my friends at the time who worked for Security at the park. Whitney was said to be the most gracious with everyone and when it came to the end of the day she picked up the entire dinner tab at Knott’s Chicken Dinner Restaurant for everyone with her— including the employees from the park who had assisted her during her stay. Now that’s class.

I never met Whitney Houston, but her music leaves an indelible mark on many. However I did meet the singer, Brandy, when she visited Knott’s around the Halloween Haunt season that same year. I was assigned to her group when she and Kobe Bryant, (who I believe were dating at the time), came in through a VIP entrance we had set up. All Brandy was talking about, when we spoke, was her “Cinderella” special that was set to air around that time— but mainly highlighting her co-star in it… being Whitney Houston.

My favorites…

I’ve got the entire series on DVD, and have met some of the cast of the show (with Don Knotts as a leading fav) and even own my now-dogeared copy of Come and Knock on Our Door: A Hers and Hers and His Guide to “Three’s Company”.

So now that I’ve established my hardcore fanness of the show… I wanted to show some great clips. They start out with Suzanne Somers talking one-on-one in 2009 about leaving “Three’s Company,” and not having talked to Joyce DeWitt since leaving the show (since changed, as you will see).

Out of 5 stars I’d give it 4½.