DDDDD IIIII SSSS ''' ''' ''' DDDDD A TTTTT D D I S S ''' ''' n ''' D D A A T D D I S ' ' nnnnnn ' D D A A T D D I SSSS ' ' n n ' D D A A T D D I S n n D D AAAAAAA T D D I S S n n D D A A T DDDDD IIIII SSSS n n DDDDD A A T "All Disney news fitted to print" __________________________________________________________________________ Volume 2 Number 4 April 94 Edition __________________________________________________________________________ FIRST ANNIVERSARY ISSUE In this issue... o Euro-Disney: What, Me Worry? o THIS is the FDC... o Another View of the FDC o Statement of Ownership __________________________________________________________________________ Euro-Disney: What, Me Worry? __________________________________________________________________________ Michael Eisner at the annual shareholders meeting said that he was not really able to comment on the negotiations that are going on between the banks and the management of Euro-Disney. Most people have taken this to mean that there are serious issues being discussed. However, a Disney inciter (Deep Fins), has given us the INSIDE INFOR- MATION, and it appears that things are not really what they seem. After an exclusive interview, we've put everything to music, using a rock and rolling number sung by Billy Joel as the Dodger in Oliver & Company: First we say we're losing bucks, Then we say attendance is up. You might think we're all some shmucks, That is how we'll all clean up. (Singing...) Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa We're market-wise, So we improvise. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa We know bank talk, And we'll tell 'em, "Take a Walk!" April 94 DIS' 'n' DAT Page 2 Why should we worry? Why should we care? Think we don't have a dime? Well, we got bank savoire faire. Why should we worry? Why should we care? We've conned the whole pop-u-lation -- For we got bank savoire faire. We're all just sitting pretty. For once they find we've turned around, Our fortunes will abound, And we'll wear the crown. Why should we worry? Why should we care? They think we're out of time, But we got bank savoire faire. Why should we worry? Why should we care? We've conned more than just one nation. And we got bank savoire faire. We're thumbin' our nose, And we're laughin' in fits, At the bankers in a frenzy When they see our deficits! Why should we worry? Why should we care? By God, we've fooled them all the time... 'Cause we got bank savoire faire. __________________________________________________________________________ THIS is the FDC... __________________________________________________________________________ With the passing of Walt Disney as CEO of the Walt Disney Company, it has come to be accepted that the tenancy of this position will probably be open to other people in the future. How far into the future is anybody's guess, as Michael Eisner doesn't seem to be on his way out anytime soon. An r.a.d member (Sean Squier) decided to refer to himself as the "Future CEO" for the Disney company, and in a magnanimous gesture, opened the floodgates to any and all people who wanted to serve in his "cabinet." In the fourteen months since the inception of the Future Disney Cabi- net (FDC), its roster has grown at an enormous rate. After seeing a few requests from pseudo-lurkers on r.a.d regarding the FDC ("So... what is this FDC thing, anyway?"), this newsletter has decided to devote at least one column per issue to FDC activities, whether it be reprinting stories or song parodies, alerting people to new FDC drawings, or just informing the readers as to who these people actually are. All items of note refer- enced in this column will be made available in a new FDC subdirectory in the DIS' 'n' DAT ftp archives. File names in this subdirectory are referred to in this column as [FDC/filename], which refers to ftp.wang.- com:/pub/lar3ry/FDC/filename. April 94 DIS' 'n' DAT Page 3 DIS' 'n' DAT's coverage of the FDC started with a tribute to them in a special FDC issue, reported from information taken from a time capsule last year. In this issue, I've asked some of the more prolific and versa- tile members of the FDC to tell the world just who they are and how they came to r.a.d in the first place. Their responses, slightly edited, fol- low: Tim Pickett - quetzal@yoyo.cc.monash.edu.au A notable and well liked denizen from the land down under goes by the strange name "Quetzal," more commonly known as Tim Pickett. He either weekly or weakly posts the r.a.d "List of Lists" which informs readers of the location of various Disney material available on the net. In this list you will find a few citations containing Tim's name, as he is also the curator of a few archives, including the great r.a.d Creative Archive, the principal text outlet of the FDC, containing song parodies, poems, stories, and even some X-rated mate- rial. It also contains a rather complete collection of DIS' 'n' DAT newsletters [The newsletters are NOT in the X-rated section. Ed.] This ftp archive is found at yoyo.cc.monash.edu.au:/pub/rec.arts.dis- ney/creative, and is "mirrored" in the United States at cco.caltech.- edu:/pub/rec.arts.disney/creative. Tim has the dubious distinction of being the person that started the FDC "water wars" on r.a.d after posting a message in which he dumped a bucket of water on another FDC member. Tim Pickett, AKA Quetzal, AKA "Damn Aussies Think They Know Every- thing" arrived in this world on 1 May 1973, in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. He claims to have been alive ever since, although he never offers any proof. One of Tim's most notable features is his unnatural attraction to a certain Disney redheaded mermaid, which is balanced only by an equally unnatural fear of water. Tim first saw this aforementioned redhead in September, 1992 By a strange coinci- dence, Tim also began been posting to r.a.d that same month. During the two hours daily that he is not monitoring or posting to the r.a.d newsgroup, he may be found impersonating a computer science student. He requests that nobody asks him about his project. Tim's Melbourne address is source of comfort to those of us in the United States, if only because we know that the world can NOT end today, since it's already tomorrow in Australia. [Tim, being the keeper of the r.a.d Creative archive, has had at least three songs either dedicated to him, or that mention him by name. In the best DIS' 'n' DAT tradition, we now present a special song parody for Tim from a song from _Snow White_: - Ed.] I'm Fishing, (I'm Fishing) For the One I Love. I'll Find Her, (I'll Find Her) By dawn. I've caught her! (I've caught her!) Her name's Ariel. She's lovely... (She's lovely..) Let's spawn! April 94 DIS' 'n' DAT Page 4 Geoff Thomas - geoffrey@cosc.canterbury.ac.nz From the EnZed email address, you can tell that Geoff hails from Kiwi-land, AKA New Zealand. Geoff is one of the more recent members of the FDC, and is most noted for his FDC position: "Executive Engi- neer in Charge of HoloDisney." When asked about the status and availability of this futuristic project, we are usually informed that "We're still trying to shake out some of the kinks." An article on HoloDisney by Geoff may appear in a future issue of DIS' 'n' DAT. Geoff is a 24 year old ex-grad. student, who saw Aladdin last year after hearing it was fairly good. He found the movie a great form of stress relief, and was "keen to get some Aladdin-alia" (his words), so he posted a request for some pictures over the net. Sherline Lee [he pauses there, and says "Thank You!" with emoticons] introduced him to r.a.d after she posted some pictures from Aladdin. Ever the undaunted hero, he hopped in to see what all the fuss was about. Having enjoyed Aladdin so much he set about seeing and getting his hands on as many of the other animated films as possible, because "they were all a good form of stress relief from study for the the- sis." Geoff was oblivious to the FDC and it's function until a thread started on HoloDisney. He posted a now-famous description for this Virtual Reality system [FDC/hdfaq], and he became the FDC HoloDisney Executive Engineer (which is now his current "almost-career"). Since walkarounds are a popular job choice in the FDC, and most FDC members have more than a single job, Geoff became the official FDC fly-around Magic Carpet ("for a bit of a laugh," he says). Addition- ally, he took on the crawl around positions of Bagheera ("may he rest in peace") and Simba from _The Lion King_. Geoff feels that r.a.d and the FDC "are a great source of Disney related info and entertainment for those of us who can't get to the parks, and don't have access to all the Disney paraphernalia that abounds in the US." Dave Cuthbert - dacut@caltech.edu We now leave the exotic locations around the world and stop on the left coast of the U.S.A. where we find David Cuthbert. Dave's biggest FDC function is as the keeper of the FDC registry, a document that lists a number of r.a.d regulars and their "jobs" in the FDC. [Editor's note: If you want to get on the registry, please address email to fdc@caltech.edu.] He also maintains one of the largest ftp archives in America for Disney-related material (cco.caltech.edu:- /pub/rec.arts.disney/creative) and maintains an ftp "mirror" to the Australian "yoyo" archive for use by people in the U.S. David (AKA "Dave," AKA "dac") Cuthbert is a twenty year old electri- cal engineering wanna-be undergraduate at the California Institute of Technology in smoggy ole Pasadena, Calif. Dave has been a Disney fan for a few years now, and he shudders at his grade reports ever since he learned to use the USENET news reader "rn" and discovered the r.a.d newsgroup. His non-Disney interests include anything to do with most musicals (that latest one he has seen and his current favorite is _Les April 94 DIS' 'n' DAT Page 5 Miserables_). He also enjoys music (listening, playing, singing, and howling), ice skating (he states that he isn't terribly great at it, but look out Nancy Kerrigan!), and he is learning to enjoy skiing. His actual activities rarely include any of these interests, but rather studying, tinkering with electronic stuff, and on occasion, sleeping. Tom Tanida - tanida@gso.saic.com Tom's great contribution to r.a.d is that he is the author and main- tainer of many of the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) lists for r.a.d (DIS' 'n' DAT parodied the main r.a.d FAQ last year). The r.a.d FAQ [FDC/radfaq.*], along with his Walt Disney World FAQ [FDC/wdwfaq.*], are probably the most informative Disney missives ever written. They are a veritable fount of Disney information and trivia. Included in the r.a.d FAQ is one of the best and most com- prehensive descriptions of exactly how computers are used in anima- tion at the Disney Studios. These FAQ's can also be obtained from the yoyo and cco archives, as well as the usual Usenet ftp repository at rtfm.mit.edu:/pub/usenet/rec.arts/disney. Tom came into the real world on November 14, 1968, two years after the passing of the beloved Walt. He has lived in Colorado and Illi- nois before moving to California with his family in 1980. From information personally supplied by Tom, he lived in San Luis Obispo for three years and San Diego for fourteen years. This would make the current year 1997, which it isn't, unless you are reading a very old issue of this newsletter. Despite his poor arithmetic skills, he somehow managed to get a degree in Computer Science from the Univer- sity of California, San Diego in 1990. [It seems UCSD will give degrees to just about anyone. Ed.] Anyway, he first visited Disney- land in 1981, and started work on the monumental FAQ sometime in 1991. Tom is currently working for the Geophysics division of SAIC, San Diego. Tom's future plans include being cryogenically preserved sometime around the year 2051. [Let's all make it an event; I'll be there with the liquid nitrogen... Anybody want to bring Popsicles? Ed.] Amberle Ferrian - amberle@epx.cis.umn.edu Amberle Ferrian's name should not be unfamiliar to anybody that regu- larly reads DIS' 'n' DAT. She appeared as a Toon in the newsletter's special FDC issue, and she has either collaborated or written a num- ber of song parodies published herein, and available from the Cre- ative archives at yoyo and cco. Amberle adds a lot of editorial input to this newsletter as Contributing Editor. Amberle's funky mispronounced name ("that's AM-burr-lee FAIR-ee-uhn") is associated on r.a.d with three dissimilar themes. The first is that of a brilliant and extremely prolific song parodist with a very sharp ear for meter and a deranged mind for song topic (an example of a recent topic was John Wayne "Pee Wee" Bobbitt). The second theme envisioned by her name is that of the FDC "water wars." Amberle, having been the recipient of the first bucket of water, has never shown any hesitation to throw buckets of water herself, carry Super Soakers, and thoroughly drench hapless people [your humble editor included - Ed.] in the vaunted hollows of r.a.d. The third theme April 94 DIS' 'n' DAT Page 6 envisioned by her name is that of Belle, of _Beauty and the Beast_. She often refers to Belle as her alter-ego, and continues to claim that she looks remarkably like the toon with the ridiculously small waist. As FDC "Walkaround Belle," Amberle opened a veritable flood- gate for many other walk-, fly-, and whatever- arounds in the FDC. In addition to posting to r.a.d, Amberle is also the distribution arm of "Ito Galleries, Inc." a series of tiny pencil drawings by Bob Ito that mostly depicts Belle in ridiculous situations, such as posing as the Mona Lisa, or wielding Super-Soakers. These are mainly posted to the USENET newsgroup alt.binaries.pictures.cartoons, and are archived at cco.caltech.edu:/pub/rec.arts.disney/images/ito. Amberle's FDC responsibilities are as a writer and "Not Ready For Toon Town Player" in the FDC's Improv/Comedy Show. In real life, she's an environmental chemist/engineer by trade and is currently a graduate student/slave/peon at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. She ran into rec.arts.disney over two years ago and has never stopped causing trouble on that newsgroup since. Actually, she says that "leaving is particularly difficult now that I've been turned into a toon by an irate FDC executive (see August 93 issue) who hasn't bothered to reverse the process." [Snicker - Ed.] Her interests include reading (she's Belle, what do you expect?), bicycling, hiking, camping, trying to keep her tropical fish alive, procrastination [I can certainly attest to THAT - Ed.], writing silly song parodies, walking off in an angry huff after being bucketed by rec.arts.disney Water Warriors, trying to be funny (even though she readily admits that she couldn't last thirty seconds on amateur night at a comedy club), causing general mayhem, keeping her heinie warm in The Great Frozen Northland of Mini-no-place and St. Pall, and hoping someday her Beast will come. She notes that "those last two are not necessarily unrelated." Any volunteers? __________________________________________________________________________ Another View of the FDC by Jon Triesch __________________________________________________________________________ [This article turns its sights, so to speak, on one aspect of the FDC that any recent r.a.d reader can identify with...] It seems that r.a.d's (FDC) registry - and the resulting water wars among its participants - has been growing exponentially lately. So too have the questions and comments from the uninitiated. As the FDC's Spe- cial Librarian for Imagineering, I have stayed out of the water wars up till now (choosing instead to cast stern glances and make various "shush!"ing sounds at my terminal). However, when there's *this* much water, you gotta go with the flow.... This song parody is copyright by Jon Triesch , and may be distributed free of charge in its original form, with the proper attributions. April 94 DIS' 'n' DAT Page 7 Ev'rybody Wants In On the Act (To the tune of "Everybody Wants to Be a Cat" from _The Aristocats_) (Spoken): Well, little newbie, let me elucidate here - Ev'rybody wants in on the act. Because on r.a.d. it's a fact - F-D-Ceee's where it's at. After crossing over our vir-tual welcome mat, F-D-C is where it's at. Sign up for a slot, Then you take your first shot With a water gun. (Oh, a drippy-drippy-drip) But you catch on real fast: He who soaks will laugh last. Then the fun's begun. (Sp-sp-sp Splash! Glub-glub!) I've read some somber posts which do suggest, "All you F-D-C pests, Just give it a rest." But what's the point of rea-son-ing with a hornet's nest? You'll just incite a bigger wa-ter fest! The walk-arounds' minds Can't remember a time When their clothes were dry. (Oh, a squishy-squishy-squish) Supersoakers - and more - Tend to even the score When the buckets fly. (Newbie: "Oh, I wish - I wish - I wish!!") Yeah, ev'rybody wants in on the act. 'Cause on r.a.d. it's a fact - F-D-Ceee's where it's at. After crossing over our vir-tual welcome mat, Ev'rybody wants in on the act. [Drum break - Trumpet solo] Ev'rybody! Ev'rybody! Ev'rybody's gettin' in the act! (Hey, splash it to ya!) Ev'rybody! Ev'rybody! Ev'rybody's gettin' in the act! __________________________________________________________________________ STATEMENT OF OWNERSHIP __________________________________________________________________________ Statement of Ownership, Management and Circulation (required by 39 U.S.C 3685). April 94 DIS' 'n' DAT Page 8 1. TITLE OF PUBLICATION: DIS' 'n' DAT. 2. DATE OF FILING: March 31, 1994. 3. FREQUENCY OF ISSUE: Monthly. A. No. of issues published annu- ally: 12. B. Annual subscription price: Connection fees. 4. COMPLETE MAILING ADDRESS OF KNOWN OFFICE OF PUBLICATION: lar3ry@world.std.com. 5. COMPLETE MAILING ADDRESS OF THE HEADQUARTERS OR GENERAL BUSINESS OFFICES OF THE PUBLISHERS: lar3ry@world.std.com. 6. FULL NAMES AND COMPLETE MAILING ADDRESS OF PUBLISHER, EDITOR, AND MANAGING EDITOR: Publisher: lar3ry gensch / lar3ry@world.std.com. Editor: lar3ry gensch / lar3ry@world.std.com. I can't afford a managing editor. 7. OWNER (if owned by a corporation, its name and address must be stated and also imme- diately thereunder the names and addresses of stockholders owning or hold- ing 1 percent or more of total amount of stock. If not owned by a corpo- ration, the names and addresses of the individual owners must be given. If owned by a partnership or other unincorporated firm, its name and address as well as that of each individual, must be given. If the publi- cation is published by a nonprofit organization, its name and address must be stated): lar3ry gensch / lar3ry@world.std.com. 8. KNOWN BONDHOLDERS, MORTGAGES, AND OTHER SECURITY HOLDERS OWNING OR HOLDING 1 PERCENT OR MORE OF TOTAL AMOUNT OF BONDS, MORTGAGES, OR OTHER SECURITIES (if there are none, so state): None. 9. FOR COMPLETION BY NON PROFIT ORGANIZATIONS AUTHORIZED TO MAIL AT SPECIAL RATES (Section 411.3 DMM only) 10. EXTENT AND NATURE OF CIRCULATION AVERAGE NO. COPIES EACH ISSUE DURING PRECEDING 12 MONTHS: A. Total no. copies printed (Net Press Run): 11. B. Paid Circulation: 1. Sales through dealers and carriers, street vendors, and counter sales: Zero. 2. Mail subscription: 3 (ASCII) + 6 (PostScript) 3. Total paid circulation: 9. D. Free distribution by mail, carrier, or other means: samples, complimentary, and other free copies: 1 (Usenet) E: Total distribution (Sum of C and D): 10. F. Copies not distributed: 1. Office use, left over, unaccounted, spoiled after printing: 1. 2. Return from news agents: 0. G. Total (Sum of E, F1 and 2 - should equal net press run shown in A): 11. ACTUAL NO. COPIES OF SINGLE ISSUE PUB- LISHED NEAREST TO FILING DATE: A. Total no. copies printed (Net Press Run): 23. B. Paid Circulation: 1. Sales through dealers and carriers, street vendors, and counter sales: Zero. 2. Mail subscription: 9 (ASCII) + 12 (PostScript) + 1 (Split) 3. Total paid circulation: 22. D. Free distribution by mail, carrier, or other means: samples, complimentary, and other free copies: 1 (Usenet) E: Total distribution (Sum of C and D): 23. F. Copies not distributed: 1. Office use, left over, unac- counted, spoiled after printing: 1. 2. Return from news agents: 0. G. Total (Sum of E, F1 and 2 - should equal net press run shown in A): 23. I certify that the statements made by me above are correct and com- plete. lar3ry gensch lar3ry@world.std.com Publisher __________________________________________________________________________ DIS' 'n' DAT is an on-line newsletter published monthly by Larry Gensch. Copyright (C) 1994 Larry Gensch, except where individual copyright is retained by the authors. All rights reserved. Anything may be reprinted in whole or in part with proper attribution to DIS' 'n' DAT. All inci- dents, situations, and events depicted or described in DIS' 'n' DAT are fictional, and any similarity, without satiric intent, of characters pre- sented therein to living persons, toons, or Disney executives is purely coincidental. So get a life, OK? April 94 DIS' 'n' DAT Page 9 __________________________________________________________________________ CONTRIBUTIONS People wishing to contribute to DIS' 'n' DAT should send email to the pub- lication at the internet address "lar3ry@world.std.com." Please state explicitly if you wish to retain copyright or anonymity for any material submitted. The editor assumes no liability for unsolicited material of any kind. __________________________________________________________________________ STAFF EDITOR-IN-CHIEF / PUBLISHER CONTRIBUTING EDITOR lar3ry gensch Amberle Ferrian CONTRIBUTORS Dave Cuthbert Geoff Thomas Tim Pickett Jon Triesch Tom Tanida __________________________________________________________________________ AVAILABILITY DIS' 'n' DAT is posted monthly to the Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.disney just prior to the calendar month of the issue date. Two mailing lists are maintained for this newsletter. To subscribe, send email to "lar3ry@- world.std.com" and state whether you wish to receive either the ASCII or the PostScript version. The following ftp archives contain back issues of DIS' 'n' DAT: 1. ftp.wang.com:/pub/lar3ry/* 2. yoyo.cc.monash.edu.au:/pub/rec.arts.disney/creative/dnd/* 3. cco.caltech.edu:/pub/rec.arts.disney/creative/dnd/* Files referred to in the FDC column can be found at ftp.wang.- com:/pub/lar3ry/FDC/*. If you have site that wishes to allow anonymous users to retrieve past issues (via ftp, mail server, or downloading) please send email with information to lar3ry@world.std.com. April 94