Sunday, May 17, 2009

While Googling Around...



While googling around a few minutes ago, I came upon the script for Disney’s Haunted Mansion ride! I felt like posting it in a quick blog, for our enjoyment! Here it is…

Disney's Haunted Mansion Ride Script:



Written by Xavier Atencio.

GHOST HOST:

When hinges creak in doorless chambers and strange and frightening sounds echo through the halls, whenever candlelights flicker, where the air is deathly still, that is the time when ghosts are present, practicing their terror with ghoulish delight. Welcome, foolish mortals, to the Haunted Mansion. I am your host,your Ghost Host. Kindly step all the way in please, and make room for everyone. There's no turning back now.

Our tour begins here in this gallery, where you see paintings of some of our guests as they appeared in their corruptible, mortal state. Your cadaverous pallor betrays an aura of foreboding, almost as though you sense a disquieting metamorphosis. Is this haunted room actually stretching? Or is it your imagination? And consider this dismaying observation: this chamber has no windows, and no doors. Which offers you this chilling challenge: to find a way out! Of course, there's always my way. Oh, I didn't mean to frighten you prematurely. The real chills come later. Now, as they say, "look alive," and we'll continue our little tour. And let's all stay together, please.

There are several prominent ghosts who have retired here from creepy old crypts all over the world. Actually, we have 999 happy haunts here, but there's room for a thousand. Any volunteers? If you insist on lagging behind, you may not need to volunteer.


(The following two paragraphs alternate, depending on which expanding room you come down in. If you linger and wait for the next expanding room, you can hear both spiels.)

(Version #1) The carriage that will carry you into the moldering sanctum of the spirit world will accommodate you and one or two loved ones. Kindly watch your step as you board, please. We spirits haunt our best in gloomy darkness, so remember, no flash pictures, please.

(Version #2) And now a carriage approaches to take you into the boundless realm of the supernatural. Take your loved ones by the hand, please, and kindly watch your step. Oh yes, and no flash pictures, please. We spirits are frightfully sensitive to bright lights.

Do not pull down on the safety bar, please; I will lower it for you. And heed this warning: the spirits will materialize only if you remain quietly seated at all times.

We find it delightfully unlivable here in this ghostly retreat. Every room has wall-to-wall creeps and hot and cold running chills. Sh, listen.

All our ghosts have been dying to meet you. This one can hardly contain himself. Unfortunately, they all seem to have trouble getting through. Perhaps Madam Leota can establish contact. She has a remarkable head for materializing the disembodied.

MADAM LEOTA:

Serpents and spiders, tail of a rat call in the spirits wherever they're at.
Rap on a table, it's time to respond, send us a message from somewhere beyond.
Goblins and ghoulies from last Halloween awaken the spirits with your tambourine.
Creepies and crawlies, toads in a pond, let there be music from regions beyond.
Wizards and witches wherever you dwell, give us a hint by ringing a bell.

GHOST HOST:

The happy haunts have received your sympathetic vibrations and are beginning to materialize. They're assembling for a swinging wake. And they'll be expecting me. I'll see you all a little later.

GRIM GRINNING GHOSTS:

When the crypt doors creak and the tombstones quake
Spooks come out for a swinging wake
Happy haunts materialize
And begin to vocalize
Grim grinning ghosts come out to socialize
Now don't close your eyes and don't try to hide
Or a silly spook may sit by your side
Shrouded in a daft disguise
They pretend to terrorize
Grim grinning ghosts come out to socialize
As the moon climbs high over the dead oak tree
Spooks arrive for the midnight spree
Creepy creeps with eerie eyes
Start to shriek and harmonize
Grim grinning ghosts come out to socialize
When you hear the knell of a requiem bell
Weird glows gleam where spirits dwell
Restless bones etherealize
Rises spooks of every size


GHOST HOST:

Ah, there you are. And just in time. There's a little matter I forgot to mention: beware of hitchhiking ghosts. They have selected you to fill our quota, and they'll haunt you until you return. Now I will raise the safety bar, and a ghost will follow you home.

GRIM GRINNING GHOSTS:

If you would like to join our jamboree
There's a simple rule that's compulsory
Mortals pay a token fee
Rest in peace; the haunting's free
So hurry back we would like your company

LITTLE LEOTA:

Hurry back, hurry back. Be sure to bring your death certificate if you decide to join us. Make final arrangements now. We've been dying to have you.


Until next time,


~ David-Joshua ‘DJ’ Ginsberg
djginsberg@yahoo.com
http://DJGinsberg.com

Sunday, May 3, 2009

The 1 Month Anniversary of DJGinsberg.com!!!


The 1 Month Anniversary of DJGinsberg.com!!!

Hi, everyone, and welcome to my 3rd blog post! I am happy to announce that today, May 3rd, 2009, marks the one month anniversary of my new homepage http://DJGinsberg.com – I started creating the site on April 3rd, 2009! When I first started adding pages, my initial idea was to make a page for music, videos, and artwork by me. Now -- one month later -- I have media files on subpages so you can easily find a track or clip by me in each of several genres. I also developed new pages for Games, DJGRadio, & DJGTV! Let me explain:

Looking for music, videos, or artwork by me?


Click on the Media tab in the navigation bar on the left side of my Home page @
http://DJGinsberg.com to get started. From there you can find several sub-categories found within the Media page: Music, Remixes, Videos, and Artwork. I will now explain the contents of the sub-pages found within the Media page:

1. Within the Music page, you can find links to 3 music pages: Originals (songs I wrote & performed), Jazz Tunes (my versions of classic jazz songs), and Cover Songs (songs written by others, but performed by me.
2. Within the Remixes page, I have 2 sub-pages so far: Remixes of Disney Songs, and Remixes of Jeremiah Ginsberg songs (from Biblical musicals by my dad, Jeremiah Ginsberg). I intend to create additional interesting remixes in the future!
3. Within the Videos page, I created 3 sub-pages: Concert Videos (video clips of me playing live in concert), Creative Videos (artistic videos I made), and Music Videos (music vids of me performing my original songs, coming soon!)
4. The Artwork page hasn’t been subdivided yet – I intend to create some cool Flash slideshows for this area of my site soon! You can find the Media page on my site @
http://DJGinsberg.com/Media.aspx ! Next I will tell you about some cool Flash games you can play on DJGinsberg.com!

The ‘Games’ Page:

A few weeks after I started my site, I had the idea to create a few pages for interesting embedded Flash video games that visitors to DJGinsberg.com can play while relaxing and listening to some of my music! These pages can be found by clicking on the Games link on the Home page of
http://DJGinsberg.com ! Now, I will explain each of the different games that I embedded in pages on my site so far:

1. Breakout: Remember the game, kind of like ping-pong, where you move a paddle on the bottom of the screen to prevent the ‘ball’ from leaving the screen, and to break all the bricks at the top of the screen so you can beat the level? Well, here it is in Flash format: just use the mouse to move the paddle!
2. Frogger: In ‘Frogger,’ the goal is to move the frog across the street, hop logs and alligators in the stream, and navigate into one of the caves! After you navigate the frog successively into each of the caves, you move on to a more challenging level!
3. Sonic the Hedgehog Flash: In this Flash remake of the classic Sega Genesis game series ‘Sonic the Hedgehog,’ you dash around defeating enemies, saving peaceful critters, and battling the diabolical boss, Dr. Robotnik! This is one of my favorites!
4. Super Mario Flash: This is a Flash remake of the Nintendo classic ‘Super Mario Bros,’ where you progress through levels hopping on enemies, using fireballs, and invincibility to beat enemies. You also explore underground areas and defeat the evil boss Bowser Koopa to beat the game!

You can find these games (more coming soon) on my Website @
http://DJGinsberg.com/Games.aspx ! Next I’ll tell you about my site’s most recent addition, DJGLive!

Enjoy DJGLive!

The most recent updates I made on DJGinsberg.com were adding pages for DJGRadio and DJGTV, both accessible through the DJGLive link on the left side of the Home page! In DJGRadio, you can hear my most recent ten tracks that I DJed live on Blip.fm. On the DJGRadio page there is also a link directly to my Blip.fm profile, where you can listen to all the tracks I DJed there to date! My DJGRadio page is on the Web @
http://DJGinsberg.com/DJGRadio.aspx !

In my last blog, I mentioned that I started a new page, DJGTV, powered by Mogulus.com where I keep a playlist looping at all times of concert videos and creative videos by me! Since then I added 2 concert clips of me performing at Temple Beth Hillel, and a 30 minute Batman silent film that I soundtracked using audio clips from classic Disney short cartoons! You can visit my DJGTV page @
http://DJGinsberg.com/DJGTV.aspx !

Well, that’s all for now!

In the future, expect to see blogs about further updates to DJGinsberg.com, as well as interesting technology articles and opinion pieces written by me – as well as blogs about one of my favorite subjects: all things Disney (Disney movies, music, and theme parks topics)! For now, enjoy my new homepage,
http://DJGinsberg.com !

Sincerely,

~David-Joshua ‘DJ’ Ginsberg
djginsberg@live.com
http://DJGinsberg.com

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

DJG Updates!!!




DJG Updates!!!

Thanks for visiting, and I hope you enjoy my second blog!

I just felt like writing a quick one about some recent updates to my site
http://DJGinsberg.com , and some new online services I started using! Twitter… Blip.fm… Windows Live Spaces… my own webTV station, DJGTV – read on and I’ll tell you about these!



On Twitter:



You may or may not have heard of Twitter.com, but it’s a really interesting networking tool which is built on letting your friends know what you’re up to! You basically post “tweets,” which are short blurbs of 140 characters or less which people use to chat with friends, post links to news articles, tell jokes, etc. I’ve been posting updates of http://DJGinsberg.com (where I also installed a Twitter flash box displaying my most recent updates), sharing interesting online articles, and recently “Blipping” links to songs I choose! What’s a “Blip”? Read on to find out more…



On Blipping:



On Twitter, I noticed people linking to tracks using an online service called Blip.fm. I decided to give it a try myself, and here’s how it works:

You start up a profile at
http://Blip.fm , and you begin “Blipping” immediately! What’s a “Blip”? A blip is a short post of 150 characters or less where you send a link to a song you choose, usually accompanied by a short note to your listeners giving the song’s title, and sometimes a short message! It’s fun and easy! You can check out my station on Blip.fm at http://blip.fm/DJGinsberg!



On Windows Live:



I recently wondered about how to post music playlists I’ve been compiling to the web for easy sharing with friends. Just today I noticed a link to Windows Live Skydrive in an e-mail I was reading. I followed the link to find out that if you have a Windows Live profile -- which I do – you can store up to 25 gigabytes of any file types to your own “Skydrive” – an online hard drive that you can access from any computer! You can choose which files and folders to share and give your friends a direct link to your Skydrive! Mine is located on the web at http://djginsberg.skydrive.live.com/ (which I am now uploading my playlists to in the background)! Feel free to give them a listen; they’re located in subfolders in the DJ’s Playlists folder! I also plan to upload my favorite videos soon, and already have a small photo album uploaded! In case you’re not familiar with Live Spaces, Windows Live offers Live Spaces for free, allowing you to network in an interesting new way!



On DJGTV:


I am happy to let you know that I’ve started my own online TV station! It’s called DJGTV and it’s embedded in my homepage at http://DJGinsberg.com/DJGTV.aspx -- you can also watch at http://mogulus.com/DJGTV! Mogulus.com offers free channels to everyone, and mine is now looping at all times concert videos of me and creative videos I made! I plan to do live broadcasts sometime in the near future of me playing great music! Check it out and let me know what you think!

Well, I just wanted to let you all know what I’ve been up to and share some of my excitement with you! My Twitter profile is at
http://twitter.com/DJGinsberg , my Blip.fm profile is at http://blip.fm/DJGinsberg, my Windows Live Space is at http://DJGinsberg.spaces.live.com/ , and DJGTV is now broadcasting at http://DJGinsberg.com/DJGTV! Have fun!

Until next time,

~DJG

http://DJGinsberg.com
djginsberg@yahoo.com

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

About DJG: A Brief Bio

Playing guitar (and other instruments) and composing original songs since age 12, I also enjoy writing, cooking, studying web development, and creating multimedia artwork, in digital, painted, pasteled, penciled, video, and other forms...

Born in Cedar Sinai Hospital of Los Angeles, CA, I moved with my parents to Washington Heights (upper west Manhattan), NY when I was one year old. Some of my earliest memories were of attending magnet school in New York City, and enjoying the music of
"Rabboni", a Broadway-style musical by my dad Jeremiah Ginsberg. I was interested in learning to make music myself, and my dad showed me how musical notes were arranged on the piano. When I was eight, we moved to the Ft. Lauderdale area of South Florida, where I finished elementary and middle-school at Sar Shalom Academy. I started playing guitar and writing songs in sixth grade with my best friend from school, and we soon had our first gig at a school lock-in!

Advanced High School Training:

I began high school in 1998 at Coconut Creek High School in Coconut Creek, FL, where I trained for writing in Honors English 1 & 2, and AP English 3 & 4 classes, which covered Creative Writing, Essay Writing, and Literature (non-fiction, plays, poetry), as well as grammar, spelling, and vocabulary.

I joined the staff of our school's monthly newsmagazine, "The Coconut Creek High School Harbinger", as a staff writer, and I soon received the position of Entertainment Section Editor, where I contributed articles on the arts (concert reviews, local events, etc.) and edited articles written by the other staff members.

Soon I was given a monthly editorial column on the back page, where my writing style really shined!

I also joined the German club, where I eventually tutored beginning German students on basic German language skills -- my German teacher was Mrs. Anne "Frau" Humphreys, who I met in her Honors World History class.

Later, she introduced me to her husband, Richard Humphreys, who I taught basic guitar to, and who's been a close friend ever since. He runs a South Florida storm shutters installation company.

My First Bands:

When I was a freshman at CCHS, I joined the school's jazz band on electric guitar. There I gained experience playing a few jazz standards in a big band setting, and had fun using my wah-wah pedal on the funk tunes!

I met some older students in the jazz band who admired my guitar-playing style, and they invited me to join a rock band they were forming called "Eat @t Joe's", on lead guitar. We began working on original songs together, and soon, one of the members left due to heavy work constraints, and I agreed to become the lead vocalist and also take over rhythm guitar responsibilities. Soon we started gigging at places like a local donut shop, a rehearsal studio, and Young Circle in Hollywood Beach, FL.

At an evening gig in front of a jeans shop in Young Circle I met
Juergen Kerth, a talented blues-rock guitarist from Germany, who really enjoyed our music and invited me to join his trio on bass guitar for gigs in the area. I had fun on these gigs and learned a lot!

While in high school, I also played bass for a local progressive rock band, "The Vovniks". Later, I formed "The Bark The Dog" with my bandmate from Sar Shalom and members of Eat @t Joes, and often jammed with friends at the local rehearsal studios, and at after school parties!

College Years and Beyond:

After graduating from CCHS in 2001, I began college studies at Florida International University in Miami, FL, less than an hour south of my home in Tamarac. My tuition was fully covered by the Florida Bright Futures academic scholarship, which awarded me based on my excellent high school grades. My chosen major was Jazz Performance, with guitar as my principal instrument.

My curriculum at FIU included Music Theory/Ear Training, Class Piano, Jazz Arranging for Big Band, Jazz Improv, as well as playing guitar in various student jazz combos (small jazz groups of 4-8 members), Big Band, and Guitar Ensemble. Each semester, every student band played at least one concert for the entire group of jazz majors and their teachers, and we often had student/professor jam sessions at our Friday morning Jazz Forum. I received weekly private guitar lessons first with Lindsey Blair, and then with
Richie Zellon, who I had previously met through my parents and taken early jazz lessons with while finishing high school.

Some things I gained through my jazz training at FIU were good note-reading skills, a strong repertoire of jazz "standards" (classic jazz songs, or "tunes" as they are usually called), firm harmonic/rhythmic knowledge and technical skills, how to craft an interesting jazz solo, and how to create a chord-melody style arrangement (where the guitarist plays several parts at once, including the chords, the melody/solo, and the bass line).

I also got some jazz gigging experience while attending FIU, playing concerts with student friends at places such as Bougainvillea's Tavern of South Miami, the student chapel at University of Miami, and a few other venues. Frequently, other jazz students and I got together for extra-curricular jam sessions in dorm rooms, practice rooms in the music building, and home studios, where we practiced the tunes we were working on, practiced our arrangements, and exchanged musical ideas.

When I returned home to
Tamarac for the weekends and holidays while going to FIU, I often got together with local musicians and made improvised recordings based on new ideas we came up with. I worked on these recordings with friends including DJ Immortal, Sensei Jean LeGrande (who trained me in mixed martial arts fundamentals), DJ Trails (also a member of our martial arts team), Brett Segal (a jazz drumming major from FIU), and my friends since high school, Jared Cole, Daniel Gardner, and Rusty Ellison.

In March of 2006 I noticed that I worked most nights a week as a local pizza delivery driver earning finances for gas, food, and other expenses while going to school, and I wound up with very little time to practice based on the commute to Miami and the delivery work. I decided to withdraw from FIU, continue studying music at home, and to begin to focus on learning advanced computer skills such as multimedia design and network management.

I wrote several new songs since withdrawing from FIU, created a series of song demos, and created my first remixes on the computer. I recently purchased a Yamaha MO6 synthesizer workstation and started working with the Steinberg Cubase AI 4 studio software that it came bundled with, and I'm working on producing lots of great new music! On the information technology side, I am currently studying for my first Microsoft Certification Test (on Windows Vista Fundamentals).



For more info: visit http://DJGinsberg.com/!
djginsberg@yahoo.com