The Continuing Adventures of Jud

Through various permutations, variations, computations, of email, phone calls, stati, text messages, from midnight till 6am on the 24th of May 2013; countered by lack of sleep, an ankle in a boot, a electrically questionable ECV that barely made it out of Epcot a few hours earlier; aided by friends, fellow Disney fans; I gained, then lost, the opportunity to attend the Disney Parks Blog special invite-only kick-off of the Monstrous Summer All-Nighter Party at the Magic Kingdom at 5am; but, was able to make it to the Disney Parks Blog special exclusive screening of Pixar's soon-to-be-released "MU", (Monsters University) at the AMC 24 Theaters at Downtown Disney.

So, at about 9:30, I headed into Walt Disney World through he Osceola Parkway gate and headed for Downtown Disney, West Side, and the AMC theater complex; headed around to the front door and was directed to Theater 12, where I spotted the people and facilities that marked the location of this special screening. I asked where I should check in and was told that BigFatPanda had told them all about me and they all had my name on their tablets and I was in! I joined the line and it turned out I was about 5th in line as the party crowds that had started the day at 4am over at the Magic Kingdom had not yet arrived in their special chartered buses.

As other "independents" arrived, I got shots of several dressed to celebrate, anxious to get what I could beofre the required depositing of cameras and cell phones at the tables before us.

The man in the green "OK" shirt is Chris, and as best I remember, he is with Synergy, the department that co-ordinates between various parts of the Disney Empire and brings together the various people and resources to make something like this event happen.

We headed in and I really regretted not having my camera, for entrance to the theater was through a narrow walkway on either side of the screen, before the already seated audience, so it was like each person was making an entrance- "walking the red carpet" so to speak- and it would have made for some great photo ops.




I did grab a crowd shot from the Disney Park Blog: I am just above and to the right of center, turned sideways in this shot, and my friend who got me in, BigFatPanda, is all the way on the left in that same row.


Trivia games, prizes, and a request to not say anything about the movie or give anything away, and then trailers for The Lone Ranger, Planes, and Disney Earth's BEARS, all to great cheers, and then on to the feature, MU.

Now, anyone who has read my movie reviews before knows I am not a mouthpiece for Disney or Pixar or any studio, so trust me when I say, this is going to be a monster hit! It is fantastic! Takes it all back to when  Pixar was doing exceptional cutting-edge movies in both technology and storyline: completely fresh, original, funny, touching, truly surprising at many points, not a cliche in the whole thing, can't wait to see it again! I was rapt with attention for every moment, no "breaks". Reminded me of the first time I saw Raiders of the Lost Ark: every moment counted.

Monster hit!

It was also a great experience seeing this with hard core Disney fans. It was like watching a movie with a lot of friends and everyone felt free to emote out loud. Crowd reaction throughout the movie was major. And there were several flat out laugh out loud moments. And cheering moments...

Great movie in a great venue with a great crowd!

After the show- and I couldn't believe how many of these in-the-know folks left before the credits finished and thus missed the final gag- I caught up with my friend Lucinda and her kids outside and then I scooted over to the buses taking the rest of the partiers back to the Magic Kingdom where some would continue on with this 24-hour Monstrous Summer All-Nighter.

I headed back into Downtown Disney, my car, and home and a bed.

A friend told me not to bother, that scientific studies had shown no difference in car color and heat: he also votes Republican and thinks Fox is news... :)

9am, call from auto parts place that I visited yesterday afternoon: your hood is in.


We have a really huge auto parts central here! Who'd a thunk it!


The front edge of the hood was rusted pretty bad and I was getting concerned about the latch giving way. I could rebuild it with bondo and stuff, but given the way I am these days, I decided to look into buying a replacement and this place had one for 175 so I went for it. Best I found on the net was 250.

Then this morning, I think, hey... I have a mechanic- can't take him more than an hour to put that hood on... and the way I am these days... and I want him to check the AC anyway...

Go back to sleep. Around noon, up and shower and call mechanic- do you want to? When? Sure, now. I say I'll go pick it up and come over. Did so.

Unboxed, it looked like a wing or spoiler after I strapped it on my roof. Drove back carefully, pulled over to let cars pass my slow driving... made it fine.

Guy asked if I wanted it painted, I said no. After 45 minutes, tells me AC is going to be 800 bucks: whole thing is shot. Or basically, the heart is shot and can't replace that without doing everything cause that would just wreck the new one... I had had him do a visual check a couple of weeks ago and top it off so the dye would show over time what was actually happening: that showed now, it was just leaking all over. But out of my budget so I said, thanks, but no thanks... Saw hood wasn't even off yet, so scooted over to Publix, talked to the cook lady there, demo's recipes- always good stuff, sometimes I can eat it (food allergies)- but we chat, a lot about food stuff, suggested the Publix Greenwise Beef, free range and no injections. Got some, went back to auto repair and car was ready and I loved the look!