Website Grand Opening and Video World Premiere

Yes, Tennessee plays for the SEC Championship today.

Yes, the Atomic Horns play tonight at a Christmas party for a bunch of engineers.

But the really special thing about today is the opening of RexandtheBeast.com!

RexandtheBeast.com is not my new website, but I feel like I've had a bit of hand in its birthing. My college roommate Gary (aka "Rex") and his brother Philip (aka "The Beast") are huge amusement park fans. I've blogged about them many times before. They just collaborated to open the internet's most comprehensive and entertaining amusement park website/blog to date: RexandtheBeast.com.

Even more exciting than that is the project the three of us worked on while we were in Orlando in October. Click below to watch the exclusive World Premiere of the new web video, "Mission: IOA 2 - Universal Revenge" starring Gary as "Rex", Philip as "The Beast", and myself as "Keys".

"Mission: IOA 2 - Universal Revenge" (13:38): Friends/rivals/hit men Rex and The Beast have put aside their differences and resumed their partnership. However, a shady character from their past threatens to pull them apart and send them all careening to their destiny....

They're Going Down, and They're Going Down Hard....

The Horror of It All...

The Beast has a synopsis of Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios and a review of our film-making extravaganza

In addition to the HHN event itself, Rex and I were going to be filming the sequel to our smashing 2006 success "Mission: IOA." This time around we decided to bring in some help, so Barry from over at Inn Of The Last Home stepped up to the plate. He gave a wonderful boost to the entire project and was responsible for some of the funnier scenes in the movie. We filmed most of the day on Thursday and Friday morning till about 11:30.

Aw shucks, tweren't nothin'...

Blogging From Orlando - Day 9 (Final Day)

Back home, and not a moment too soon - but a few things to finish up first...

FRIDAY

Filming at Islands of Adventure

• This time Laura helped get in on the movie act, as she filmed us in a few scenes where the three of us all had to be in the same shot. Such as the three of us riding the "Suess in the Sky" train about Suess Landing. Or the big confrontation scene in the "Dueling Dragons" castle.
  
  
• Thrilling stuff, I know. Edge-of-your-seat excitement.
  
  
• We finally finished all we could do, had lunch together at Mythos, the #1 theme park restaurant in the world there at IOA, and headed to the airport.
  
  
• Uneventful ride home, although somehow during an early afternoon shower I must have stepped in a puddle and my right sock was wet the rest of the evening.

Overall, it was a fantastic trip but we were very happy to get home. The kids met us with the grandparents at the airport and had a great homemade "WELCOME HOME" sign for us.

Blogging From Orlando - Day 8

Time, the ever-flowing river....

I need a vacation from my vacation.

I think...I think...I think this time it's going to work!

We're not insured for this.

Have you seen my horse?

Ok, enough with the Universal parks ride quotes. On to the post.

THURSDAY

Filming at Universal Studios Florida

• Today Gary, Phillip and I roamed USF filming scenes for their sequel to last year's blockbuster: Mission: IOA. In this version, Rex and The Beast...well, I won't give too much away. When it's all done, I'll post a link and you can see all three of us chewing scenery, getting all dramatic and generally making life miserable for the employees and other guests, especially the ones in the E.T. line.
  
  
• Gary and Phillip are incredible Universal fans - they have season passes and don't even live in the state. They fly down 2-3 times a year to visit the parks and know them all backwards and forward. It's no secret that Disney parks in general and EPCOT particularly are my favorites, but Universal parks are fun for a diversion from time to time. I want to bring my kids maybe in a couple of years when they'll both be old enough to enjoy all the rides. Plus they'll soon be adding a "Harry Potter" land to Islands of Adventure, so that will be a big selling point.
  
  
• The day was again very hot, even worse than yesterday. Sweating was profuse and outside scenes were shot as quickly as possible. If you happened to be visiting USF on October 4, 2007 and happened to see three late-thirties/early-forties guys wandering around with a bunch of video cameras, acting like total loons, that would be us.
  
  
• At one point I pretend to shoot Philip with a little "cricket" gun from Men in Black. He also dives to the ground to get away. There are clandestine meetings in San Francisco, frantic chases through Central Park and bugged meetings in Mel's Diner.
  
  
• Danger! Suspense! Intrigue! Am I Selling This! Too Much! Ok, that's enough.

Tomorrow we finish up filming at Islands of Adventure, then Laura and I drive to the airport and head home. Therefore the final Blogging From Orlando - Day 9 post will probably not be up till sometime on Saturday. Try to contain your suspense.

Blogging From Orlando - Day 7

Five parks in five days. Is that some kind of record?

WEDNESDAY

Universal's Islands of Adventure

• Today is my and Laura's 15th Wedding Anniversary. Yay us :) More on the festivities later
  
  
• Today was hot hot hot. Except when we were freezing cold. More on that later, too.
  
  
• IOA is a unique park, in my experience, in that theming here is everywhere. Even overshadowing the rides themselves, there's atmosphere all over. The five "islands" in IOA are Marvel Superhero Island, Toon Lagoon (lots of classic comic strip and animated cartoon characters), Jurassic Park, Lost Continent (a combination of Arthurian Ye Olde English, Arabian, Greek and Roman mythology), and (Dr.) Suess Landing. You are completely immersed in the back stories of each area - Marvel Superhero Island is a complete comic book NYC with Daily Bugle, Lost Continent is full of myth and mystery, etc. Visually it's about the most interesting park I've visited.
  
  
• One of the rides in Toon Lagoon was Popeye's Bilge-Rat Barge, a spinning raft ride through a raging river. I believe that was the wettest I've ever gotten on a ride - we were soaked to the bone, and never completely dried off till the day was over. Some of the rides we rode had extensive queue areas, and they were air conditioned. Which normally is a welcome relief on a scorching hot day. Well, when you're soaking wet, it causes you to freeze solid. Brrr...
  
  
• We met my college roommate Gary at Margaritaville after the day was over and had a great anniversary dinner with a great friend.
  

The week is drawing to a close. Tomorrow I return to Universal Studios Florida for a day of secret filming with Gary and his brother Phillip as they produce their next big motion picture extravaganza.

Blogging from Orlando - Day 4

Oy, this is killing me. But it's a good hurt.

SUNDAY

Universal Studios

• Actually slept in today - woke up about 10. Had a late breakfast, hung out for a while and we were ready to head out around noon.
  
  
• Spent the afternoon at Universal Studios. Tonight was one of their "Halloween Horror Nights" so the park was closing earlier than usual. This also meant that while the crowds were light in the early hours, they increased as the afternoon went on. We got snagged by a survey taker soon after entering the park - as we found out yesterday, sometimes there are nice perks for taking surveys and gladly obliged.
  
  
• We rode Earthquake, watched the Blues Brothers stage show (and took notes for the Atomic Horns performances. Me and Paul from the band do better Jake and Elwood than these guys...). Men in Black a couple of times (I'm still no better at scoring points than the last time), Jaws, E.T. Adventure, Terminator 2: 3D (Laura's favorite), Shrek 4-D and still my personal favorite at Universal, Twister: Ride it Out. I know my friend Gary will be shocked we didn't do the Mummy, but we just weren't up for the fast stuff today. This was rest day! And we still did a lot.
  
  
• Today was much less intensely hot, but the wind also kicked up a great deal. No rain, though, just a great day for going to a park.
  
  
• It's nice to have time to kill - the passes I bought online allow 7 consecutive days of entry to both Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure and we have 4-5 days to visit both as much as we want, so no need to cram everything in.
  
  
• Still disappointed Back to the Future closed, which was my next favorite ride last time I came. It's been dismantled for a new Simpsons ride next year. It'll probably be good, but it still won't be a BTTF.
  
  
• We left the park around 5:30 and once again got surveyed - this time about our experience in the park that day. Perks? Perks? No perks. C'mon, USF - show some love. Ah well.
  
  
• Had dinner out in Orlando and came home and swam. Got to get some rest for the big day tomorrow....
  

Tomorrow: EPCOT's 25th Anniversary!

"Past this point of no return, your only choice is freeze or burn!"

Meet Fire and Ice, the Dueling Dragons at Universal's Islands of Adventure.

You get to choose which coaster to ride - Fire or Ice. They're both similar, suspended roller coasters but Fire is a bit better in my opinion. It may have had something to do with the fact that when I rode Ice, it was starting to rain as we moved up the first incline. It felt like I was being blasted with ice pellets as we flew around the ride - which was fairly authentic as far as the theme of the ride went - but I could hardly even open my eyes.

Action shot of "The Incredible Hulk"

A screaming descent on The Incredible Hulk Coaster, at Islands of Adventure.

I think I rode this one about five times. The first time I sat down in the seat, I broke my cell phone clip. :(

Well, Crap. I Really Am About To Be Eaten By A Dinosaur...

Ever Have One of Those, "Oh, Crap - I'm About To Be Eaten By A Dinosaur!!" Moments?

Me neither.

Virgins and Chickens and Dominatrixes - Oh My!

Now that I have your attention...:)

A few memorable people Gary and I met on our trip to Universal...

• The Rafting Virgins - One of the rides at Islands of Adventure is "Popeye and Bluto's Bilge-Rat Barges", a "river raft" adventure ride where you and about seven other people are in a round raft that floats through a churning channel. Every so often your raft will float by something that's squirting water at you, or you'll hit the side of the walls ensuring someone (or everyone) is eventually going to get soaked.
  
  At one point on Friday afternoon, we changed into our trunks at the hotel and rode all the water rides back to back several times without worrying about getting our regular clothes soaked. So on one of our times around this raft ride, stepping on board are four teens - three girls and a boy. Each has on a yellow t-shirt with the name of a Baptist church in Indiana or somewhere so you can tell they're all in a youth group together. What was amusing is that each of the girls was perfectly coifed - hair perfect, makeup perfect, clothes wrinkle-free and bone dry. They had apparently been airlifted into the park because none of them were sweating in the 85+ degree heat. They all sat down near us and chatted with each other, wondering if they might get wet.
  
  Heh. Why yes, yes they did. They were...shall we say...intimately acquainted with gallons and gallons of falling, splashing, churning and squirting water when they stepped, aghast and shocked, back off the boat.
  
  I felt proud to have witnessed the occasion.
  
  
• The Foreign Chicken - Another favorite ride was "Dr. Doom's Free Fall". This one seats 16 people in groups of four around a cylindrical tower and launches them into the air before plunging back down in a harrowing drop. Sitting next to us on this particular time was a father and his 15-yr-old son, who were apparently from....well, we were never sure where they were from because we couldn't exactly place their accents. I think we narrowed it down to England, Romania or possibly Morocco. Well, neither had ridden before but the dad was excited and ready. Smiling, he asked us - who were obviously seasoned riders - what the ride was like. The whole time however, we could tell his son was getting increasingly agitated. He had trouble locking his safety harness which I helped him with, but when the ride attendant came by for the final double-check the poor kid had turned white and stammered to be taken off. We and his dad tried our best to convince him to try it out, that it wasn't so bad...it was fun...he'll enjoy it - but no use. Trembling, he begged the attendant to let him out. Once freed of the restraints he scurried to the exit and disappeared. His father shook his head, laughed, and sat back to the enjoy the ride.
  
  I half expected to find the kid cowering under a table when we got back down.
  
  
• The Dominatrix - Saturday evening we crossed enemy lines and ate dinner at Downtown Disney, which is Disney's "public" area of shops, restaurants and small attractions like the uber-arcade, "DisneyQuest". Gary and I ate at Planet Hollywood (and Tommy...looks like you guys missed out on the fun!) and were seated at a small table near the very front of the restaurant.
  
  One side note - if you've never been to a Planet Hollywood, you've missed a major experience because thousands (well, hundreds. Maybe dozens) of articles of movie memorabilia are strewn haphazardly throughout the restaurant. If you're a movie buff and want to see things like John Malkovich's wooden gun from "In the Line of Fire", Herbie the Love Bug - suspended from the ceiling - the bullet-riddled windshield from "Bonnie and Clyde" and other items, this is the place to be.
  
  Anyway, our waiter comes over (a guy, natch) and introduces himself. He then motions to a fairly tall lady standing near him - she has dark hair pulled back into a severe ponytail behind her and is dressed all in black, and he says he's training with this waitress. It's obvious he's the padawan learner here and not the master here - she watches him like a hawk and observes his actions with a piercing eye. "Hmmm..." we say.
  
  Hmm, indeed.
  
  Later we glance at the table next to us and the young padawan commits an agregious sin - he places the couple's check down next to the woman. Behind me, I hear someone say, "Mm mm mm....." I glance up and there's the Dark Jedi Waitress, shaking her head and tsking. She leans down and tells us softly, "Did you see what he did? He should never give the woman the check." She then follows the youngling off to, well, we could only assume he was about to be punished.
  
  That's when we determined this lovely dark-haired waitress was not only a Dark Jedi, she was a Dark Jedi Dominatrix.
  
  Oh my.
  
  Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on his attitude) the young jedi didn't fare too well, forgetting two requests from me for just a glass of ice. Each time, his Master kept him under her watchful eye. I could imagine the screams of pain coming from the kitchen as she reminded him of his misdeeds...
  
  So, we're getting ready to leave. We pay the check (carefully) and stand. I glance over and see our Dark Jedi looking at me. She smiles crookedly and mouths to me, "Thank you..."
  
  I wasn't sure if she was being polite, flirting, or inviting me to join her and all her little padawan learners for a night of learning the Dark Jedi Arts.
  
  I blinked, chose the light path, and we escaped with our lives...