Innocence and Corruption

12:41 pm
Green Valley, NV

[the wonderful implied photo of Derek]

Before we were rudely interrupted by Disneyland, ECAT was speaking with Greg Killingsworth. We had a marathon interview/talk with him, in which he spewed pearls of wisdom on all of us, which we happily accepted. He gave me some advice on the road to becoming a voice actor, something I've always been interested in, and I was happy to take it.

When the interview was over (after a number of false exits), we trotted back to the residence of Katy, our gracious host for a barbecue! After a quick stop at Ralphs for meat and mead (well... meat at least), we trotted down to her complex's courtyard, cooked up our wursts and chicken. After a delightful meal we relaxed in the hot tub for a bit before getting to bed to rest for our big day in the magical kingdom.

Tuesday morning, Jon got up early-but-not-too-early, got ready, piled in the ECAT-mobile, picked up the other half of the troupe, and then jaunted to the most magic place on earth (so I'm told). After paying for parking and being directed by some decidedly un-magical parking attendants, we piled on the tram and rolled up to the main gates where we were met by our agent from the inside who was cutting us a sweet deal on tickets (hey, we're poor).

We entered the park, got a locker, bla bla bla, then started the fun off with Disney(tm)'s Enchanted Tiki Room( tm) presented by Dole(tm) Pineapple(tm[c]). It was silly, but I enjoyed the campy side of the park as well as the genuinely spectacular and thrilling parts. After that we trooped to the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, which was a lot of fun, even though I'm informed that it used to be better (before the entire ride was centered around Jack Sparrow). Throughout the day, I was blown away by the skill and attention to detail that Disney's artists and engineers shows. It was really the small touches that made the park awesome.

Many many many rides later (I think Jon is posting a more exhaustive list), we were tired and ready for bed, so we made a not-quick-enough stop at the gift shop, then headed to our temporary homes.

The next day (this is Wednesday now), we woke up at a reasonable hour, hopped in ECAT-1, and set off for Vegas, baby. The trip was quite uneventful, but despite being five hours long, seemed short compared with what we'd done earlier in the trip. We caught a few glimpsed of the strip on our way into town. Our first stop was the house of Chelsea, next in the litne of gracious hosts. After we'd met her and her crew, she and the rest of us got in the USS ECAT and drove to the strip to experience the sheer opulence that only Las Vegas can give. My goodness, those buildings were big.

I have to say that my first impressions of the legendary town weren't overwhelmingly positive. Something about the town rubbed me the wrong way, and perhaps I'll be able to articulate it better later.

Today we have an interview with Michael Legg of Petroglyph, a game developer here in Vegas, which should be pretty interesting. Adieu for now.