Disney's Spirit of Aloha Dinner Show (Disney's Polynesian Village Resort, Walt Disney World)

I had done the luau at the Polynesian while growing up. I didn't really remember much about it, aside from thinking the show was neat and that the space they host it in was a cool little secluded spot. Last year my best friend Denise and her family came down to Orlando for some Walt Disney World fun, and I decided to join them the first night for the luau.

When we arrived, a Disney Cast Member signed us in and directed you into the waiting area, where another cast member placed leis on us and a Photopass photographer took a few shots of us. From there, we hung around at Laua Cover, enjoying the lovely weather while some others took advantage of the mobile tiki bar.
Important side note: it was here, in the magical waiting area, that my friend's sister and I realized for the first time in our lives why the Bird of Paradise plant is named that. (I know, I know)

Once dinner time started, a cast member escorted us to our table. We were near the back side which still offered a nice view (It's hard to get a bad seat with how the open-air theater is laid out). Our waiter came by and took our drink orders - I got Pele's Fire Punch, which according to Disney is "The Volcano Goddess' blend of Bacardi Rum, Myer's Original Dark Rum, Banana Liqueur, Blackberry Brandy, Pineapple Juice, and Grenadine served in an authentic hand-carved Monkey coconut - YOU KEEP THE COCONUT."
Keep the coconut, I did (although the "Made in Indonesia" sticker on the bottom was a bit of an authenticity buzzkill).

The food is all you can eat, and served family style. For appetizers, we got pineapple-coconut bread (super yum!), Asian apple pear slaw, and Hawaiian potato salad. The main course consisted of BBQ pork ribs, roasted chicken, a vegetable medley, and my favorite: the Aloha Pulled Pork. I've made Hawaiian style pulled pork a few times and it's come out great, but Disney managed to nail it! Dessert was a warm pineapple bread pudding with caramel sauce. Another yummy treat in an overall solid meal.

The luau show is going on while the courses are being served, although the most interesting parts happen after most of the crowd has finished eating. The show is centered around Auntie Wini. Wini is hosting the luau as a goodbye for one of the "local" girls that's going off to the "mainland," and the crowd are all honored guests. There are various performances throughout, some with singing and most with dancing. There are various parts of the show where the audience is invited on stage to join the festivities, during which many exuberant Northerners rush up to show off their best Hawaiian shirts.

The grand finale of the show (and my favorite part) is the showcase at the end that features traditional dances for various Polynesian islands (Hawaii, Samoa, Tahiti, New Zealand and Tonga). This culminates with the fire-knife performer, who comes out right as the sun is coming down and throws that flaming stick of wonder around as if it were a baton. The music and drumming picks up as his fire-related acrobatics amp up, and you end up leaving the Spirit of Aloha dinner show on an adrenaline high from watching this insane (but highly well practiced) man do his thing.

While the somewhat high price tag and lackluster service (tip is included in the price, which always seems to encourage poor service) discourage this from being a frequently repeated outing, it's definitely worth indulging in at least once. Good good, fun show, great atmosphere...plus a guy that throws around a stick that's on fire! What's not to love?

All photos in this post shot with a Sony A7, with a Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L lens (using a Metabones converter). You can check out more photos from Disney's Spirit of Aloha dinner show here:

Disney's Spirit of Aloha Dinner Show (Disney's Polynesi

Hatsume Festival @ Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens 04/19/15

The Morikami Museum and Japanese Garden is a lovely spot to get away from the trappings of busy South Florida life. This is a hidden gem; for as many people as I introduce this place to, there are hundreds more that have never heard of it. For one, it's tucked away inside a pretty suburban higher-end area, far away from the reaches of most in their daily driving lives. For two, if you are from South Florida you know that people from Miami hate driving to Broward, and people in Broward hate driving to West Palm Beach. For such an incredibly connected tri-county area, the lack of exploration is disturbing.

Poor adventure spirits aside, Morikami represents a nice slice of Japanese life 7,400 miles away from the real thing. You first walk in through the main museum building, which houses a theater, authentic tea shop, library, 3 galleries, a cafe, and a gift shop  (a shop does some people a world of good). As you leave the building, you walk down a set of stairs onto the main Roji-en Japanese Garden grounds, which snake around the lake in front of you. Along the way you walk through a bamboo forest, see a rock garden, experience a nicely cultivated Bonzai collection, and walk through the Yamato-kan building (modeled after a Japanese villa, and featuring a hands-on exhibit of Japanese culture.

There is a much stronger emphasis on the Japanese garden aesthetic as a whole, rather than on the individual gardens. That's not to say that the gardens aren't beautiful, I just think there's a bit of conflict when it comes to our weather and temperature situation when compared to that of Japan (thereby hindering our ability to locally grow a lot of the plant/tree/flower life that can exist over there).

The Yamato-kan building is a very cool experience, letting you walking through Japanese culture in a much more visual manner. As with most gardens, I find the whole endeavor to be best enjoyed on a slower, more quiet day (in order words, not on a huge festival day!). Speaking of festival days...

HATSUME FAIR 2015!

Hatsume is Morikami's annual spring festival, celebrating the new life that comes with the season (in most places in the world, as in Florida it just means more heat). Officially, it's a celebration of the first bud of spring. The majority of the fair takes place on grounds that are off the path from the actual gardens (wouldn't want to trample all over those, now would be?), and start off with a sea of tents. There is a main tent that features many local artists selling their Japan/anime related wares. Tate's Comics, a local comic/toy/game megastore, had a large presence.

Outside of the main tent are many other local vendors, although the Japanese theme got a little muddled with these (unless the Japanese are big fans of Carribean Jerk Sauce). Sponsors are sponsors, of course, and there were still some cool tents (Bonzai!). Past the tents you found the food (teriyaki chicken/beef, fried rice, etc) and the drinks (Japanese beer as well as a sake station). Continuing along the path you came upon the stages: the Sake Stage (sushi and sake discussions), the Tokyo Stage (Taiko drummers, costume contest, fashion show), and the Osaka Stage (martial arts demonstrations). Traveling back to the main museum building, you'd find a snack market, as well as anime being played in the theater and Japanese karaoke.

The festival had an official shirt that was available free of charge, provided you brought your own shirt. The designs were done by Brian Reedy (www.attacktheplanet.com), and were screen printed on the spot. If you didn't bring a shirt, they were $10 (which is a pretty damned good price as they were nice quality shirts). The designs were pretty killer, so the chance to get them printed for free was a nice bonus

That just about covers the fair's offerings, at least on the end of Morikami itself. The unofficial side show is the cosplay: South Florida's youths take this festival as chance to show off their costumes, in what I can only call an extreme feat of immense dedication (due to the lovely heat we are already encountering). You can see a nice mix of traditional Japanese dress, modern Harajuku fashions, anime stylings, and others. I unfortunately missed the costume contest on Saturday, but I can imagine it was pretty swell.

I had a pretty nice time at the Hatsume Fest. I don't go to Morikami too often, but it's always a nice time. I was sad to have missed the lantern festival they do later in the year, so at least I now have one Morikami festival under my belt! Since this is the closest I can do to going back to Japan (aside from the Japan pavilion at EPCOT), I am going to need to visit here more often before my next trip to Nippon!

All photos shot on a Sony A7II, with Sony Sonnar 55mm F1.8 and Sony Sonnar 35mm F2.8 lenses. You can check out more photos from the Hatsume Festival here:

04-19-15 Hatsume Fest Morikami

The Postal Service @ Hard Rock Live Orlando 06/05/13

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Lichgate on High Road (Tallahassee, FL)

I came across Lichgate thanks to a friend of mine. I was visiting Tallahassee for work and had some free time so we were exploring Tallahassee. Lichgate was the first thing we did. Tucked away in plain sight, you could drive by it a million times and not know it was there (in fact, my second visit I had trouble finding it!).

What is Lichgate? Lichgate is the work of Laura Pauline Jepsen. She was a professor of English Literature at FSU from 1946 to 1978. The site of Lichgate features an incredible 200+ year old live oak tree, next to which Jepson built a English Tudor-style cottage. She named it after the Old English word "lychgate" which is a gate that separated the world of the living from the world of the dead.

Arriving at Lichgate you park in a small lot. There is a board there with information, and a path that leads through the trees. As you walk you start to get glimpses of the tree, and then all of a sudden you walk out into this large tract of land, upon the middle of which is a huge live oak tree. This thing is massive, and has branches that reach the ground.

The cottage is located behind the tree, and is unfortunately closed to the public (although I believe they do open it for special events). To the left of the cottage you can find a variety of gardens. First comes a butterfly garden. Overgrown, as a real garden should be. After that there are some benches that are used for special events at Lichgate. Finally you come upon some vegetable gardens, which are cared for by a local school.

Unfortunately on my last visit I noticed that they have cut down a lot of the trees in the front area. You can pretty much see the tree and the entire plot of land from the parking lot, so the suspense and surprise aspects are pretty much gone. Nonetheless, this is still a beautiful site worth taking the time to experience.

You can check out the rest of the photos at IMGUR:

Moses Creek Conversation Area (St. Augustine, FL)

I was up in Jacksonville for a few days a month ago, visiting my best friend while she was in town for a wedding. I had some time to kill while she did some wedding prep so I made my way down to the Moses Creek Conversation Area. It's about 15 minutes south of St Augustine, between US1 and US1A on the 206. It's a fairly large area, covering over 2,100 acres and serving as one of the few tidal creeks in the region that have remained undeveloped.

I parked at the east trailhead. There were a few cars around, and as I started the trail I encountered two separate families and a large group of elderly women out for a nice hike. I think they only make it to the campsite.  After 5 minutes the initial canopy opens up, and you are walking on a open grassy trail with pines on the side. Lots of green (and yellow). After 1/4 mile you can turn right to go to the campsite.

I kept on going straight instead. The grassy ground and surrounding trees turns into a white sand path with tree cover one one side, and a mostly open area on the right. The sand was a bit annoying to walk on, so I took to the edges by the trees which was somewhat grassy and firmer. There are a few forks and spurs here, but keeping on the widest patch of white sand keeps you going on the main path.

After another 1/4 mile you find yourself under canopy again. To be honest, the trail up until his point was a bit boring: mostly straight with not much to see. Plus the sun beats down on you. From here the path curves a lot more and the ever surrounding presence of trees leaves you visually stimulated.

At the 1.3 mile mark, you get to the bluff observation point. This was the highlight of the hike for me. You get a beautiful view of the Moses Creek (which is a tributary of the Matanzas River which is off to the east) as it winds through the marshland. The view is incredible. There are some stairs and a metal dock so you can get down to the creek itself. The hike had been virtually lifeless with regards to wildlife up til this point, but there were tons of birds in this spot.

Lack of adequate water supplies and a need to get back to my friend made me turn back at this point. There are miles and miles more trails after the spot I turned around at, which I will have to come back to some day. Moses Creek also has some mountain biking trails (I almost walked into one, before I saw a "Wrong way" sign posted on a tree haha) and you can kayak the river. Horseback riding, fishing, and camping are other activities you can enjoy here.

You can check out the rest of the photos at IMGUR:

Coheed and Cambria @ The Fillmore Miami 03/08/13

(Opening acts: Between the Buried and Me, Russian Circles)

After a long hiatus of 10 years, I finally got to see Coheed and Cambria again. I got into them around Second Stage Turbine Blade, my interest fueled by a few tracks I found on Napster that ended up actually being recordings by their previous side project, Shabutie. From that point on though, I was hooked. I saw them open up for Thursday with Thrice at Club Ovation in Boyton Beach. It was a mediocre performance from them: the music was cool, but Claudio could really not recreate his recorded voice well in a live situation at that point. Plus, since that venue was basically a gutted out Winn Dixie (large supermarket with a tall ceiling, the sound there was always atrocious. Side note: Thursday was amazing. I had actually fallen out of listening to them at that point a bit, and went more for Coheed, but Thursday stole the show.

Flashfoward 10 years, to the Fillmore Miami in South Beach. I got there very early with Carlos, and we ended up spending $10 on "Fastlane" tickets that got us into the venue 20 minutes earlier. I'm glad we did this, because there were already 30+ people in front of the stage when we got in, and by the time the doors actually opened there were 70+ people crowding the front of the stage.

Russian Circles: Pretty good opener, they were a hard rock/metal instrumental band. 3 piece, very loud. Not something I would listen to ever, but the music was good enough and they performed very well. Well...mostly. They guitar player did a LOT of work with a looper, and there were a few points where the loop was a bit off.

Between the Buried and Me: I had seen these guys once before at this venue, opening up for Dream Theater on one of the Progressive Nation tours. I was only familiar with their first album at the time, and they only played 2 songs that time, both of which were from Colors. This time, they mainly played new songs. They did do Ants of the Sky and Selkies though, which were great. The downside to their set? I had managed to get a front and center position by the railing, and the Fillmore's speakers do not reach anyone in the front. Most venues are like to this some degree, but you can usually get some aural information from the main speakers or the monitors. Not at the Fillmore though, it's a complete void of mixed sound and if the band isn't blasting their amps on stage (BTBAM and Coheed weren't) you will not hear much.

That being said, watching the drummer the entire performance was pretty fantastic. Super tight player and great sounding kit. About the only thing we could really hear more of the time. The whole band played great though. They came out in costumes, one in a guayabera, one in a skipper's shirt and cap, and the other dressed like a casual cuban gangster from the 40s.

Coheed and Cambria

Stage set up:  Front of stage was mostly bare, the Fillmore has a pretty large stage area and the drums and back set up were pretty far back. Josh was up on a small riser, and there was two glass structures on either side of him that contained 4 white mannequins in interesting positions. There was a large video screen behind them, but I don't think they used it as well as they could have, there wasn't a lot of great material happening on it. There were no amps on stage, so like I mentioned before the stage was pretty bare. They did have 2 small 2 x 12 Mesa Boogie cabinets but I think they were mainly serving as a place to put the lights that were on top of them, and also to help go along with whatever Mesa sponsorship requirements Claudio/Travis might have. 

The performance: The show started with the band coming out and Claudio with a ukulele and them launching into Pretelethal. That led to a very high energy "Sentry the Defiant." The performance overall was pretty good, with some really great moments (Sentry, Secrets, Welcome Home) and a few less than great. Claudio looked pretty damned tired, while playing "The Crowing" I could have sworn he was about to fall asleep. Nonetheless the show was pretty great. I would have preferred a significantly different setlist: don't get me wrong, they did play two of my favorites (No World + Crowing - although they were not played with as much energy as I would have liked) and I totally understand the emphasis on the Key Entity Extraction motif songs. I just feel there were WAY better songs on the Afterman albums that they could have done like "Hard Sell," "Number City," and "Away We Go." Obviously setlists will never please everyone though, and it wasn't a bad one at all.

My concert experience: I managed to get one hand on the railing during the first band, and was making my subtle attempt to claim a spot. I REALLY hate people that force themselves into the front of a crowd, because my thought process on this is that if you want to be close, get there early, don't get there late and be an asshole about it. So I was being delicate about the operation and not forcing myself in. I was just waiting for the crowd to start moving, as they always do, and jump in when I got a chance. Let's be serious, unfortunately at a rock concert you WILL get squished at the railing and you will no have leg/arm room. This is a given.

Unfortunately, the huge Marshall Eriksen looking motherfucker to my left either had never been to a concert in his life, or he was just completely dillusional. While I had almost enough space to squeeze in between him and the guy to my right, he had his feet so wide apart that I couldn't get in there (that's what she said). When BTBAM was playing though, some people started crowd surfing and landed on us. I had my chance and I jumped forward and threw my arms over the railing. All's fair in love and concerts, right?

WRONG. This asshole starts pushing and elbowing me with all his might, which I might have been able to fight off if the guy on my right wasn't doing the same thing. THAT guy I understood a little bit though, as he had his bag on the other side of the railing right under him and he didn't want to lose it. Granted, his gf on his left had a bit of space on HER right, but at this point that didnt matter. What mattered was the humongous asshole to my left. He kept pushing and shoving and elbowing me. Finally he starts yelling at me, saying "STOP PUSHING DUDE" at which point my brain almost imploded, because HE was the one doing all the pushing. I was simply resisting. I was able to grab a hold of a bar on the other side of the railing and not lose my spot. He didn't stop for 10-15 minutes, yelling the whole time, with me yelling back that I wasn't pushing and for him to stop what he was doing. 

By the time BTBAM and finished, he had stopped pushing, but I was in a really uncomfortable spot squished between two people. The guy on my right I had already cleared the air with, and I attempted to do the same with Eriksen by offering him a Starburst. He declined. Obviously, he is a mindless heathen. Fine though, I could deal with some lack of space. The concert was going to be great....until asshole #2 behind me showed up. I didn't think it was possible to be SO tone deaf, that you actually go into NEGATIVE tone deaf territory (in which you start sucking the correct pitch ability out of those around you), but that's where this guy was. So he yelled and yelled and yelled, in a super hoarse voice that was completely out of pitch. Nonstop. For 6 songs straight. But it doesn't end there folks, he not only had a terrible and out of tune voice, but he was also completely off time. He would "sing" the lines in cadences that would make Claudio cringe. Sometimes, when there was a break between lyrics, he would just "sing" the line a measure early. I don't think this guy could have been more obnoxious if he were trying to piss off all the people in front of him on purpose.

I mentioned he was doing this for 6 songs...it's not that he stopped, no. It's that I couldn't take anymore. I was just not enjoying myself. Between him and Eriksen, who had started pushing me again, and the fact that I was getting slammed from behind by the crowd, I was just NOT enjoying the show. My back started spasming and I decided to leave. It sucked losing my spot...I had managed to be on the railing RIGHT IN FRONT of Claudio...great spot and got some great shots. I spent the rest of the show walking around and enjoying the concert (and actually being able to HEAR it properly now that I was out of the audio dead spot) at different spots in the venue. I even went upstairs to the second level and shot some video.

Overall the show was great. It wasn't the "mind blowing" amazing experience I had been building myself up for the last few weeks, due to a less-than-amazing performance and some assholes, but it was still a lot of fun and I am so happy to have seen this fantastic band again after all these years!

Overall: 8/10

Performance: 8/10

Sound: 7/10

Experience: 7:10

Finally seeing Coheed again after all these years: 10/10

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