Silent Saturday - Aztec Temple and Volcano (January 2011)

Man-Catching Beignets

If I’ve learned one thing in my time visiting the Port Orleans – French Quarter resort, it is that it doesn’t have to be February or March for it to Mardi Gras! The spirit of living life to its fullest is a party that lives on each and every day at this resort on the banks of the Sassagoula River. From the colorfully manors adorned with wrought iron, to the frog fountain, and cobbled avenues with clever names, there is a lot to love. Even the food has a wonderful joie de vie to it, especially the beignets.

Found at Sassagoula Floatworks and Food Factory, the beignets are made fresh to order. An order, coincidentally, is either three or six beignets, and each beignet is half the size of my head. So, order wisely and remember that you can always come back for more. Each beignet is a pillow of fried dough goodness that is perfectly chewy. The rest of the flavors from the dough may get lost in the mountain of powdered sugar that gets heaped upon the beignets. With these pastries being hot, the powdered sugar makes a nice glaze on them, but there is still an ample amount of powdered sugar for you to devour. Yes, you’re going to get a sugar rush, but it is the best sugar rush you could ask for.

Oh, a word of caution, due to the copious amounts of loose powdered sugar on the beignets, be careful not to inhale the sugary dust. You will start a coughing fit that is sure to dampen the pure joy these are meant to bring to you.

In addition to the beignets themselves, you can opt to add a selection of three sauces to the side for dipping. The sauces include caramel, raspberry, and chicory coffee ganache. For me, the fruitiness of the raspberry won me over, but for my wife it was the chicory coffee ganache. I’m not a coffee fan, so that deterred me from the get go, but even I will admit that this sauce sounded and looked amazing. The caramel is fine, but when there’s already so much sugar in the dessert, it sort of loses is punch. But if you’re a caramel fan, this is a great addition.

The beignets at the Sassagoula Floatworks and Food Factory may have more sugar per bite than any other dessert in Walt Disney World, but they are worth every single bite. If you don’t like sweet desserts, I hope I’ve discouraged you from trying these, as the beignets will definitely not be your thing. However, if your motto is the sweeter the better, than you definitely need to make your way down to Port Orleans – French Quarter. This’ll be a Mardi Gras for your taste buds!

Enchanted Windows

The tradition of dioramas representing Disney animated features brightening up the windows of the Emporium on Main Street, U.S.A. dates back to Disneyland in the 1960s. In the Magic Kingdom, they have been present since the park opened in 1971. The Enchanted Windows feature a single scene from a particular film, with some minor movement of the characters, and a plaque detailing the movie’s title, date of release, and a brief synopsis. It goes without saying that these windows have delighted guests young and old to no end though the years.

Various films have been featured over the years, and many changes have come to the windows, such as the window dedicated to The Little Mermaid also being a portal for the Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom interactive game. Also, during the holidays, the windows are changed over to recount the entire tale of Mickey’s Christmas Carol through six scenes. While the films may change, the joy they bring is evergreen. Let’s take a quick stroll around the Emporium’s windows today and catch a glimpse of which tales are being highlighted.

Silent Saturday - Coca-Cola Paradise (February 2015)

The First Adventure

On Sunday, April 26, 1998 viewers of The Wonderful World of Disney were treated to a special look at the world’s newest theme park, Disney’s Animal Kingdom. The episode was titled Disney’s Animal Kingdom: The First Adventure. Also, in case you were wondering, the ABC Sunday Night Movie that would follow this special was Apollo 13. Promotional materials for the show featured various photos of then Disney Chairman and CEO, Michael Eisner, and Dr. Jane Goodall in various areas of the park individually and together, but the show featured so much more than that.

The special starts, as all episodes of The Wonderful World of Disney did at the time, with Michael Eisner. He briefly speaks about Walt Disney himself, his care for animals, how that brought the company to where it was in 1998, and how the park was born from our fascination, love, and respect of animals. It then moved on to Lebo M. standing atop the roots of the Tree of Life singing a wonderful rendition of Circle of Life with Ladysmith Black Mambazo. This rendition is one of two highlights from the special that you should definitely seek out. The other we'll get to at the end of this article.

From there, we descend into complete Disney/ABC shtick with the The First Adventure's host, Drew Carey. He is joined by a host of ABC personalities taking in the park. First up is Jane Seymour, James Ketch, and their family, who venture out on a safari you or I would swoon over. Their trek begins by arriving in Harambe aboard the Wildlife Express, meeting the mayor of Harambe, and then having a personal ride aboard Kilimanjaro Safaris with one of the park’s senior animal care cast member. Next up Tia, Tamera, Tahj, and Tavior Mowry make their way through DinoLand U.S.A., escorted to Countdown to Extinction by some off the wall residents of The Dino Institute. Danielle Fishel and Will Friedel welcome a newborn gorilla on Pangani Forest Exploration Trail, take in the sights of Conservation Station, and learn about Flights of Wonder. Elsewhere, Paul Rodriguez visits It’s Tough to be a Bug, entertainers perform at the entrance to Harambe, and there are segments featuring random Animal Kingdom fun facts. Kimberly Scott also makes a pair of appearances, singing We Are One (no, not that one, the one from The Lion King 2) and Circle of Life.

While there is a lot of silliness and exaggerated moments during the special, there are also some great things early views and experiences to take note for. For starters, there are clips of both the Discovery River Boats and the Audio-Animatronics figure of Aladar that once sat along the banks of the Discovery River. The more impressive thing is realizing that the park is full of vegetation that has grown into to what it is today. This means that plants are smaller, there are spaces between them, and many of the views are unobstructed.

Perhaps the most important segments of The First Adventure are the two instances where we get to spend time with Dr. Jane Goodall. In her first appearance, she is speaking to Cast Members about Gombe Stream National Park and her time with the chimpanzees there, followed quickly by her speaking about the skill behind the Animal Kingdom’s creation and what it means to the creatures who call the park home. Near the finale of the special we see Dr. Goodall again, this time with an important message that is just as pressing today, if not more so, as it was in 1998. As we close today, let me leave you with her message from 20 years ago, “All my life I’ve watched and learned from animals. Knowledge from my 38 year study of chimpanzees, our closest living relatives, has helped to blur that line that was once perceived as so sharp, dividing humans from the rest of the animal kingdom. After all, we’re not the only beings in this world with personality, rational thought, and emotions such as joy, sorrow, and despair. How tragic then, to know that the natural world is shrinking, animal species vanishing. If you too are concerned, won’t you help to join the fight to save the natural world? Not only for the animals, for the sake of our children and theirs.”

Where Fossils Are Our Way of Life

The balance in Diggs County between serious science and fun has long been a tenuous one. On one hand, you have The Dino Institute, installed in the county not long after the first fossils were found in this corner of Disney’s Animal Kingdom. On the other side, you have Chester and Hester, long-time residents that just want to make a living and have some fun while doing it. This dichotomy couldn’t be made any clearer than it is on the billboards scattered around the area. Let’s take a look at a pair that will show you just what I mean.

This billboard was clearly erected by the folks over at The Dino Institute. While they once were a small ragtag group that occupied the lodge turned residents housing turned restaurant, they have since grown into themselves. The have clean environments, a quaint old wing feature traditional museum displays, and a research facility that is likely the envy of paleontologists everywhere. It has become a very professional environment where the most out of sorts element tends to be Dr. Grant Seeker’s ties and hand puppets.

Turning our attention back to the billboard, we see that The Dino Institute has come up with four key phrases to market their attractions and get tourists through to pull off of the road. A road known as 498, aka the month and year Disney’s Animal Kingdom opened. The four words are: Adventure, Discover, Enjoy, and Explore. The artwork features several well put together families and friends, just to show us how family-friendly and important The Dino Institute really is. On the right side of the billboard we are supposed to see directions to The Dino Institute utilizing the Dino Drive exit and some quotes about how exciting the facilities are, including one quote from a Gazette (not this Gazette mind you) proclaiming that The Dino Institute is one of the finest attractions in America. Instead, however, someone has plastered over the sign with a cartoon dinosaur.

It should come as no surprise that this poster comes from Chester and Hester to promote their roadside attraction, Dino-rama. What once was a gas station and its parking lot has become a full-fledged tourist destination. From fossilized finds and every plastic dinosaur you could imagine, to comics and magazines feature dinosaurs and even some kitschy folk-art dedicated to dinosaurs, this couple has truly bought in on the dinosaur craze that has taken over the county. Chester and Hester have set up multiple fair-type attractions and carnival games in their parking lot in order to further entice passerbys to stop and take part in the fun. Every dinosaur in the area is a caricature of itself, animated for maximum laughs, or should I say ‘laffs,’ as it is presented on their posting on The Dino Institute’s billboard. Chester and Hester make a clear distinction from the image that The Dino Institute exudes, and that is entirely on purpose.

A second billboard in the area has clearly been created by the county itself or its chamber of commerce. Here we see an idyllic scene, reminiscent to me of the vistas from Lady and the Tramp, which highlights the community as a whole. There are houses, a church, and even an academic or government building across the river. In the foreground, however, we see a paleontologist on the hill overlooking the scene right next to a car, likely loaded up with a family of tourists, heading into Diggs County. For The Dino Institute we can see the museum, the Boneyard, and Sue the Tyrannosaurus rex. Meanwhile, Chester and Hester’s Dino-Rama is presented with its oversized icon, Primeval Whirl, and Triceratops Spin. What Diggs County knows is that both of these institutions are critical to their success and that if they both thrive, so too will the community.

Dinosaurs live in a grey area of our hearts and minds, between the facts we have been given by scientists and the imaginative realm of what was or could still be. Diggs County lives within that grey area perfectly, balancing the science with the silly, as the billboards scattered about the land show us. I, for one, wouldn’t have my dinos any other way!

Globetrotting Adventures

Once upon a time if you wanted to sit down and relax with foods from around the globe that would tempt your palate, your first thought would be to head off to Epcot. While that is still a thought to be had, another park has really supplanted Epcot as food theme park royalty. Disney’s Animal Kingdom offers a wide-array of dining options and environments in which to dine. If you’re looking for a relaxing, yet luxurious place to get some wonderful food and drinks, however, the only place to visit in the park Nomad Lounge.

This oasis on the boundary between Discovery Island and Pandora has been open for just under two years, but regularly tweaks its menu to meet the demands of guests and its ability to source fresh ingredients. While this is a product of being attached to Tiffins, a signature dining experience if I’ve ever seen one, it definitely brings its own atmosphere to the party. Some of the staple items at Nomad Lounge are well worth the trek to its doors where there is an overstuffed lounge chair just waiting for you.

I’ve never been one to sneer at a good cheese and charcuterie plate, and Nomad Lounge does both excellently. You may typically find these two paired together, but the lounge here gives them both equal billing on the menu, which doubles the price by default, but they are both well worth it in my opinion. Each selection comes with 3-4 varieties of cured meats or cheeses and accompaniments. These little nibbles are known to include house-made pickles, marcona almonds, whole grain mustard, figs, and preserves, to name just a few. As these selections do change from time to time, I’m not going to go through each of these meats and cheeses line by line; instead I’ll let the pictures do the talking for me. What I will say is that both are fun to share and run the gamut of their respective categories, from mild meats and soft goat cheeses to strongly smoked and hard cheeses, which means everyone is assured to find something that they like.

Another longtime menu item at Nomad Lounge is the pork ribs. These ribs are listed as being honey –glazed and coriander-spiced. The sweetness of the honey and nuttiness of the coriander really highlight the natural flavors of the pork, which is prepared with just the perfect amount of charring. In terms of preparation it should also be noted that the ribs are slide off the bone tender. They may not be as high on my list as the ribs from Morimoto Asia, both for flavor and in terms of size, they are still some of the best ribs to be found in Walt Disney World.

With the hustle and bustle of guests making their way to and from Pandora, Nomad Lounge is literally an oasis from the chaos taking place just off of its porch. Tales of travel and adventure line every corner of this lounge, whether you’re resting on the porch or enjoying the air conditioned interior, and the handcrafted food and cocktails are never something to overlook. The menu may continue to change, but there are always a few standards that never get old.

Silent Saturday - Sunset Ranch Market Produce Truck (January 2010)

Silent Saturday - David Greybeard (April 2017)

From the Archives - New Peak of Storytelling

Tomorrow is the twelfth anniversary of the opening of Expedition Everest. Disney's Animal Kingdom may have been a rebirth of storytelling through environment for the Imagineers, but Expedition Everest raised that bar to a whole new level. The attraction isn't without its problems, but there is a lot to love and explore when it comes to the details and stories presented throughout Serka Zong. It is one of my favorite areas to explore, and I'm always finding a new story to excavate and share. Today, let's look back on one of our first exploration of the attraction's press photos, from research to reality.

New Peak of Storytelling - Originally Published 6 September 2009

It should come as no surprise that Expedition Everest, through its queue, surrounding area, and attraction itself, has completely captured my imagination. Even more so, the story of its creation and the research that went into the area’s design enthrall me. Stories such as these are the reasons I love Disney and hope that one day I will be able to help create my own magic.

Personal thoughts aside, however, I thought that many of us out there would like to journey back to the early days of Expedition Everest and see some of the first photographs released from Disney in 2006. These photographs range from the attraction itself, to Serka Zong, and even beyond to the true life adventure Joe Rohde and his team ventured on in search of their Everest and yeti.

Personally, the photograph of Everest at night, using a white light rather than the current color scheme, is one of the best night shots I have seen of this mountain.

All images ©Disney

I Was Singing This Song

Music plays an important role in the world of Disney theme parks and resort. It carries us through the various lands to our attraction destinations and the songs embedded in those same attractions are the same songs we find ourselves singing back home. Often times, decades after the songs themselves have been retired. One area that can get overlooked is the music in the queues of some of our favorite attractions. We can get so caught up in that fact that we can’t wait to board the ride vehicle, that we miss the musical cues around us. With that in mind, we’re here today to highlight our six favorite queue soundtracks.

Pirates of the Caribbean – This is one of the finest examples of using a cinematic overture to prepare guests for what’s in store for them. For those guests who have experienced Pirates of the Caribbean once or twice (or a hundred times), the familiarity of Yo Ho (A Pirate’s Life for Me), even presented in a different arrangement, is unmistakable. To the untrained ear there are mysteries or even a swashbuckling element to the music at times, setting guests up for the perfect high seas adventure.

Big Thunder Mountain Railroad – Call it nostalgia or whatever you like, but listening to the bows work their magic across the fiddle or violin with a foot stomping beat has always been one of my personal favorites when it comes to queue music. In Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, the train, visibly racing by just outside the window, and its whistle are as much a part of the soundtrack as anything, but those square dance inducing melodies are simply wonderful.

Test Track – Switching gears, quite literally, is the music found in the queue for Test Track, otherwise known as the Chevrolet Design Studio. Much of the queue speaks to the design process and how every vehicle starts with a single line, the music here builds in a very similar manner. By starting out small and revving up, guests get the feeling of motion and speed, whether they recognize it or not, which is exactly what’s in store for them once they board their sim car.

Dinosaur – Dinosaur was originally known as Countdown to Extinction, a fact that becomes abundantly clear when you realize the number of times the letters CTX show up in the queue. In fact, they’re even in the land-that-time-forgot type music present throughout guests’ waits for the attraction in the CTX Theme. There is very rarely a substantial line for Dinosaur, which makes this music rather difficult to fully appreciate. Yet, as it says above, there is something epic and bold, while subdued in sections, that makes you feel as if you’re about to head off to a place people have very seldom visited.

Space Mountain – If you’ve ever spent any amount of time in the Space Mountain queue you know the intergalactic tones that play over and over. At some point, in the dark of those spaceport corridors, you may feel as if you have lost all track of time, but those quietly hopeful notes are always welcoming. They may not provide adequate preparation for what is coming next, in fact they may lull some guests into feeling warm and safe, but the music is some of the most recognized in the parks.

Tower of Terror – There is simply no way that the loop played throughout the grounds of the Hollywood Tower Hotel wasn’t going to make this list. It is one of the quintessential queue loops, and probably the one I play most around my house and office. The emptiness of the hotel lobby and gardens, mixed with jazz from another time (from Mood Indigo and Deep Purple to We’ll Meet Again and Another World) firmly sets this queue’s roots in the boundary between spooky and the golden age of Hollywood.

THINK

Computers were once the size of a house. If you don’t believe me, you can simply follow along with Spaceship Earth’s narrative as presented by Dame Judi Dench. In one scene we can see large computer banks that occupy a mirrored space being overseen by a pair of engineers, maybe scientists (their professions are not as interesting as their personal style). There is also a desk near the female figure that features a sign that simply states “THINK.” You can see it on the side of the desk in the lower right corner of the photograph above. Motivational messaging has long been a part of the corporate office space, but this sign has a larger story to tell.

The slogan is attributed to Thomas J. Watson and a sales and advertising meeting that took place in December of 1911 for the National Cash Register Company. As the story goes, the meeting was a typical filling time, but not achieving anything type of meeting until Watson interrupted and stated, “The trouble with every one of us is that we don’t think enough. We don’t get paid for working with our feet – we get paid for working with our heads.” He followed this statement up by promptly writing the word THINK on the chalkboard in the room.

That’s all well and good, but how do we get the slogan into a room filled with computers? The jump isn’t all that hard. In 1914, Watson would move on to the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company, where he would take his THINK mojo with him. That company would later become IBM. The THINK motto would become so ingrained in the IBM culture that by the 1920s it would overtake all other slogans within the company. It appeared in offices, plants, calendars, and, by 1935, the employee publication known as TIME would be renamed THINK.

It wouldn’t take long for the outside world to notice the attitude and simplicity of the THINK motto and for that need to inspire to spread. IMB would begin creating signs in wood, stone, and even bronze that were emblazoned with the one word maxim. These signs would then be distributed to customers. In 1948, the total number of signs IBM would present to customers was right around 9,000, but by the year 1960, however, that number had skyrocketed to 20,000. This is likely how we ended up with a copy adorning our computer room desk in Spaceship Earth.

Spaceship Earth is all about communication and how technological advancements throughout history have made it easier for us to communicate. Going back to our original thought, computers were once the size of a house, but a single, small word can be communication enough to change the world.

Silent Saturday - Carolwood Park (March 2012)

Grand and Miraculous

There are some views that never get old, such making that turn around Epcot to see Spaceship Earth and then approaching it from the parking lot. The words “grand” and “miraculous” aren’t just a portion of the attraction script in those moments; it is as if they were tailor made to describe the feeling of seeing Spaceship Earth. It is a feeling that never seems to get old and, no matter how many times you may visit Epcot as a visitor or a local, one that never seems to get any less intense.

There are a variety of ways with which we see Spaceship Earth, from walking up, to touring around it on a monorail, from across World Showcase Lagoon, and even as the backdrop for a water show in Innoventions Plaza. As is the case with today’s photo, however, there are some views of Spaceship Earth that we can no longer get.

I’ll be the first to admit that this view originally stumped me. I was certain it was Future World West, pre-The Living Seas, but I couldn’t for the life of me figure out why I couldn’t see the monorail beam in the photograph. Rather than go with my gut, I tried looking at all other possibilities first. It was only when I pulled out my 1982 EPCOT Center map and compared it to an aerial photograph that my original hunch was confirmed.

Prior to construction beginning on The Living Seas, this watery section of EPCOT Center, complete with curved planters, was easier to recognize as there was less development in the area. Also, the hill used to create a boundary between the park and the bus depot, group sales, and package pick-up on the outside of the park would later be removed as The Living Seas was constructed. This area also fell in between the monorail path and Spaceship Earth, which may feel like they’re right next to one another in this area, but there is a surprising amount of space there.

While this view itself may have changed dramatically over the years, and it was a stellar view judging by this photograph, there are thankfully a ton of vantage points throughout and outside of the park of Spaceship Earth. The landscape and vistas of Walt Disney World are constantly changing, but it’s nice to be able to look back and see what once was, while still being able to enjoy what we currently have.

Classic Stories

There are no two attractions that are the same. What I mean by that, and yes I am aware of clone attractions across the globe, is that at Walt Disney World there are no two attractions that went through the same design and creation process, there is no cookie cutter system for boat, omnimover, or rollercoaster attractions, and that it is their uniqueness which makes them special. However, the trend of shortening attractions, or creating attractions that have a shorter duration out of whole cloth, has become more prevalent over time. This is a trend that I wish we could move away from.

I understand that by creating shorter attractions, or shortening attractions current attractions, you can decrease the amount of time guests are waiting in line, at least in theory. The turn-around is better, which means less grumpy guests in the queue and guests that can experience more attractions throughout a day. When it comes to managing a theme park and meeting guest expectations, I can see where this strategy is advantageous.

In recent years there have been published news reports that humans, as a whole, are losing their attention span. A closer examination of those figures, however, shows that we don’t actually have a specific deficit when it comes to our attention spans, and we certainly do not have an attention span that holds for less time than a goldfish. Rather, our attention span is more accurately measured when it comes to taking part in a specific task and what expectation we bring to any given scenario. Returning back to the arena of Walt Disney World, this means that if we’re expecting to be engaged for 10-20 minutes and our minds are stimulated and interested in what the attraction is presenting to us, then our attention is held.

Ellen’s Energy Adventure is a great example of this theory. It was a 45-minute attraction prior to its close, and it was constantly shutting down due to guests climbing out of their ride vehicles, most often because they had a child who could not wait to go to the restroom any longer. While the length of the attraction was exceptionally long, it also didn’t hold everyone’s interest. The dinosaurs were great, but that was a relatively short section surrounded by longer film based entertainment that wasn’t as engaging to guests, especially 20 years after it had opened. Conversely, the captivating look at American history known as The American Adventure will keep guests in their seats for the entire 30-minute duration of the show. That may seem like comparing apples to carburetors, but it is all about connecting to guests through appropriate storytelling tools.

Sticking with shows for a moment, there are some shows that have manage to stick around through the years, but have, to use the television movie vernacular, been edited for time. Specifically, I’m thinking about the Country Bear Jamboree and the Enchanted Tiki Room. The original versions of both shows have runtimes that are approximately five minutes longer than their current iterations. While it keeps guest wait-times down, I can’t remember a time recently when I saw either show filled to capacity, and both shows meet the criteria we set above of being engaged for the entire time guests are in the respective theaters. While the material, i.e. the songs, performed in both shows may not be as recognizable as they once were, the use of effects and comedy in both is enough to hold the attention of even the most fidgety person I know.

A similar modification has been taking place on the waterways of Walt Disney World. Attractions such as it’s a small world, Splash Mountain, and Pirates of the Caribbean have experience times that fall between 8 to 15 minutes, and aside from the logjams that can occur at the exit of each attraction, guests are generally entertained and engaged throughout the entire journey and are left coveting more or wanting to jump right back on the ride. Although I will admit the inability to jump out of one of the boats like the ride vehicles of Ellen’s Energy Adventure is a fair deterrent to anyone wishing to cut their voyage short. Yet, the latest water adventure presented at Walt Disney World, the Na’vi River Journey, is a brief 5 minute tour. Given the reaction to the attraction in its first year of operation, I can’t imagine there is any guest who would bemoan a few more minutes of meandering down Kasvapan River. The problem with creating shorter water attractions is that the ability to lengthen them, even if Disney wanted to, is a logistical nightmare. Instead, guests are left wanting more and daydreaming about what could have been in perpetuity.

Our attention spans are not shrinking, nor are they shrinking in our children, but attractions continue to treat guests as if we can only handle the briefest of adventures. I don’t suspect that my solitary word is going to move them into the direction of creating longer attractions and shows, but this trend towards shorter experiences is something I have noticed becoming more prominent over the past decade, and it is something I wish would do a full-stop and reversal. The more time guests get to spend in a world, revealing the depth of its story, the more we want to invest of ourselves in that world and the more we engage our imaginations of what could be. I suppose, in the end, all I’m asking for is that guests not be talked down to and to be given a chance to engage longer, not shorter, narratives.

Daily Village Life

Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge is home to a number of safari elements for those willing to brush past the initial veneer of what is found in the lobby, pool, restaurants, and main guest area. There are animals present for photo safaris, cultural icons, a look at historical travel to the continent, and folklore, all waiting to be discovered. Aside from the animals, however, there may be no greater abundance in the resort than the artwork that can literally be found around every corner. For those uninterested in touring the entirety of the lodge, the Sunset Overlook offers a wonderfully cultivated assortment of art, history, and photographs, including a selection of carvings from the Yoruba people.

The Yoruba people live in a multitude of countries, but the densest collection of Yoruba individuals live in Nigeria, where they make up no less than 21% of the population. The Yoruba people are some of the finest artisans in Africa, and are known for their ornate carvings on all variety of surfaces, metal work, beaded crowns and other beadwork, and theatrical arts. In spite of this wealth of skill and mediums, what can be found in the Sunset Overlook is known as thorn carving, or thornwood carving.

Thorn carvings began around the 1930s in Nigeria and are commonly referred to as “tourist art,” as they began to come into the commonplace during the influx of travelers and explorers that made their way to the country. These visitors would want small tokens of their travels to take home with them. A majority of these carvings capture everyday activities, such as chores or leisurely endeavors. The two examples here feature men rowing a boat and two people engaged in a game, meal, or chore of some sort.

They thorn carvings exist on the fringe of Yoruba artwork, not because they are cheap or looked down upon, but more so because they are taken on by serious artist to show the lighter side of life, almost like a way to occupy their time between larger projects. Typically, the wood utilized to make these comes from the ata or ogungun trees, with thorns that can reach upwards of five inches long, with an elasticity that makes for easier carving. It is the miniature size of these artifacts that makes whatever details they can be imbued with so incredible. In fact, when you look at the figures, and the proportions the artists had to work with, the only way to identify the mouth, nose, eyes, ears, and other facial features is either through bumps or tiny dots, and any expression of feeling is going to come more from body language or the scene itself rather than the minimal facial features.

There are a vast number of art forms to be found all through the Animal Kingdom Lodge, many of which are unfamiliar or that are created with materials that are not common to guests. For a brief introduction to all that awaits throughout the lodge, the Sunset Overlook is the place to visit. Most of the day, the overlook is quiet, save for the occasional family on their way to the balcony on their own photo safari. I for one, love exploring the shelves and cases and seeing what artistic work I can learn more about!

Silent Saturday - Disney Springs Overlook (September 2016)

Invasive Species Study

There is a lot of beauty to be found throughout Pandora, from creatures to culture. This is especially true if you’re looking through the lens of nature reclaiming created environments, a key message found throughout Disney’s Animal Kingdom. The lab section of Flight of Passage explores many different facets of the educational components of the park, including conservation, reintroduction, and natural restoration. There is even an experiment that looks at invasive, non-native species introduction to Pandora.

Known as the Velocivirus, it is part of the Pandora Conservation Initiative's Invasive Species Study. It is kept in an active quarantine bubble, so while this spiny, inky black blob is able to move around on a large, futuristic Petri dish-like surface, it isn’t going to be able to run rampant around the moon. It is a strange bug, I’ll grant you. It uses micro-vibrations as a form of echolocation and to move about, it latches on to healthy tissue and, like a hemorrhagic virus, it attempts to dissolve the tissue it finds. The colonial-cooperative virus has a whole new environment with which to wreak havoc, and the researchers at the Pandora Conservation Initiative have yet to find a way to eradicate the virus. It is worth noting that the small sample visible in the lab is far from the only specimen around.

The Velocivirus reached Pandora by hitching a ride on one of the various spacecraft that have made their way to the moon, specifically near the exhaust areas of the vehicles. To ensure the invasive species doesn’t make landfall, the ships are supposed to fire their thrusters prior to entering the atmosphere. As that requires burning up a lot of fuel, and fuel costs money, you can see why some less conscientious, penny-pinching individuals could maybe forget to follow procedure. This is similar to how we ended up with pythons, Cuban tree frogs, green and black spinytail iguanas, or kudzu as just a few of the invasive species to be found in Florida alone.

Humans tend to be the link in how these invasive species are introduced into non-native environments, through a desire to bring something new with them, carelessness, or indifference to the harm they could be causing. Luckily, there are also humans on Earth, as well as on Pandora, who are always looking for ways to make things better. Education is a critical function of any conservation effort, and the Velocivirus an allegory for many of the problems we face on our own planet, some of which are chronicled in other sections of Disney's Animal Kingdom. Of course, all you have to do is look across the lab to see efforts to reintroduce and protect endangered species.

Kudos are to be given to Joe Rohde for how much attention to detail and storytelling that he shares, which turned us on to this little story to begin with.

Why Limit Happy to One Hour

The Polite Pig is known for, well, all things pig. And that is before anyone mentions all scrumptious sides and desserts that taste like they’re home-cookin’, but only if your cook at home was a James Beard recognized chef. Oh, and they’re also known for having a collection of bourbon so vast, that a tear comes to my eye when I look at my little shelf. Basically, The Polite Pig has a lot of things to say “please” and “thank you” for, and today we’re looking at two of the sweeter options on the menu.

For starters, we need something to drink, all good meals start with a good drink. With the variety of options, between bourbons, beers, and craft cocktails, there is a lot to consider. However, it’s not every day that a restaurant has cocktails on tap, which The Polite Pig does. With that in mind, and wanting to see just what these Small Batch Cocktails would be like, I opted to try out the Sweet Tea Old-Fashioned.

A concoction of bourbon, sweet tea syrup, and bitters, this isn’t your traditional old-fashioned. When it comes to an old-fashioned, I do tend to be a bit of a traditionalist. That said, this version of the cocktail was very smooth and not as astringent as a typical old-fashioned would be. It actually works very when paired with barbecue that, depending on your sauce preferences, can be vinegary and definitely savory. With the Sweet Tea Old-Fashioned, you get the sweetness that makes this very easy drink, but also those familiar spices from the bitters, which feel like an extension of a good barbecue rub. I’m not going to say that this is the be all-end all of cocktails, but for what you’re having and where you are, it is a decent offering. Plus, if you really want your traditional old-fashioned, you can always pick your bourbon and have the expert bartenders whip you up one.

Staying with our sweet theme, we’re going to skip appetizers, entrees, and sides and move directly on to desserts. While there are a couple of options here, from Chess Pie to Carrot Cake, we opted for the specialty of the house, the Orange Blossom Honey Cake.

For those of you that don’t know, orange blossom honey comes from bees that use the pollen from orange blossoms when they’re in bloom. It is a light-colored, incredibly sweet honey that also has a wisp of citrus flavor in the background. Growing up in Florida, surrounded by strawberry fields and orange groves, this is my favorite type of honey. What the Orange Blossom Honey Cake does is that this honey and ramp it up! It is very sweet, but still retains, and maybe adds a bit more of, the orange flavors. The cake is dense and heavy, but the flavors are light. The frosting is also thin, which shows just how much The Polite Pig knows about baked goods. With as sweet as this cake is, it definitely doesn’t need an overabundance of frosting. If you like sweet desserts, and I cannot stress how sweet this cake is, then the Orange Blossom Honey Cake is definitely for you. If sweet isn’t necessarily how you like your desserts, this may not be for you. I for one, loved this dessert and cannot wait to get my next slice.

From my experience at The Polite Pig, this restaurant lives at the corner of Savory Lane and Sweet Street. It is unlike many barbecue places I’ve been to, and I’ve seen my fair share, and it is a well-placed addition to Disney Springs. When it comes to living Sweet Street, they have got you covered, whether it is desserts or cocktails you are looking for, The Polite Pig has something for your sweet tooth to bite into.

Silent Saturday - Hop Low and the Dancing Mushrooms (April 2017)