Pac-Man was hitting pop culture by storm, appearing everywhere such as t-shirts, lunchboxes, board games, toys, and several incarnations in the arcade including the very popular Ms. Pac-Man. The popularity even spawned the creation of a Saturday morning cartoon series based on the game. If people were excited about Pong, the first video game, Pac-Man was the equivalent of Beatlemania taking it to a whole new level. Pac-Man was so popular it even inspired a song entitled “Pac-Man Fever” by Buckner & Garcia and it even incorporated sounds from the popular video game. If you’re interested in hearing the song, I’ve included a YouTube clip containing the song at the end of this blog entry.

As Google likes to transform their logo on the search engine site from time to time to mark significant anniversaries, the marking of Pac-Man’s 30th Anniversary was not left unnoticed as the Google Logo was transformed into the walls of Pac-Man’s maze and for the first time ever became Google’s first playable “doodle” image. All 256 levels of the original Pac-Man game were created in the playable image for those Pac-Man masters who’ve mastered the game. To play, the usual button on Google that normally says “I Feel Lucky” has been replaced with a button that says “Insert Coin” which activates the game, or if you wait a few seconds the game starts automatically. While originally meant to last for just a couple of days, the popularity of the interactive Google version of Pac-Man led Google to announce the game has earned a permanent home on the Google site and can be accessed at any time by visiting Google.com/Pacman.

I opted to celebrate the anniversary of Pac-Man by wearing my Pac-Man face t-shirt I bought a couple of years ago. I don’t usually wear it because I find the yellow to be a bit to bright, but for a special day to celebrate an icon of the 1980′s, I was more than happy to put it on. I also took advantage of the sale the iTunes app store had on the Pac-Man games. For some reason the original Pac-Man was only discounted by $1 to a price of $3.99 while all the other Pac-Man variations including Ms. Pac-Man were discounted to a price of 99 cents. So I just bought Ms. Pac-Man, which ultimately was a better Pac-Man game because the mazes changed unlike the original Pac-Man.

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While moving I found all my old Dave and Buster cards, including a couple of unused play cards from the birthday party I had there several years ago. I figured they probably had no value left and all the previously collected tickets that were put on my card, I was sure after this long they’d probably been wiped out. To Dave and Buster’s credit, all the points were still on the cards and I still had tons of tickets to redeem on the crap they have available to redeem points for. But I always like to collect the tickets and so I opted mostly to play the games that spew out the tickets and I was surprised my old favorite machines that were cash cows for tickets for me in the past were now down to only one machine and it wasn’t working. I was disappointed with that.

Vito and I tried a trivia game that shot out tickets, and then we found something that looked like a the wheel from the Price Is Right, except it was themed as a fishing game. You run the play card, then lift a lever and then pull down on the lever to spin the wheel. They have several ticket levels, the big prize ones are a little tricky because they have little lines to indicate instead of anywhere on that panel gets the full tickets, just a narrow strip in the middle. Anything closer to the top edge or lower edge only gets 4 tickets. On one of my spins I managed to hit the 500 ticket prize, just watching the tickets spew out of the machine. I suppose it’s almost like how slot machines used to spit out coins, but not quite the same effect.

Before we left, we checked to see if all the various cards I had could be combined into one and sure enough they could, and comes to find out I was really close to the point level necessary to upgrade the card to their gold card. And the value I had left on the game cards had enough value to allow me to play the necessary points to get the gold card. So back to the arcade for a few more spins of the ticket prize wheel. And putting a few more tickets on the card before heading back to the front counter to trade up the card. Apparently the benefit to having the gold card is that they discount the games 10% for gold card members so the games cost a little less to play. Nice.

We also signed up for their email program and will get an additional $10 voucher for more play in our email and they also handed us a coupon that will give us $10 on a subsequent day when we buy $10 worth of play. So ultimately, we if we redeem everything, we’ll get $30 worth of play with only $10 investment required. Not too bad a deal. It was fun, so I think I’ll be back again soon.

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As I arrived at the Disneyland resort, I notified both Michael and Chuck that I had arrived. Michael sent back a text saying he and his friend were just finishing Tower of Terror in Disney’s California Adventure Park and would be crossing over to Disneyland right afterwards. Chuck indicated he was on a park bench near the central hub of Disneyland. I was going to wait outside for Michael and his friend outside Disneyland when Michael sent a text saying he and his friend would be making a quick stop to the car, so I opted to go into Disneyland and meet up with Chuck and would catch up with Michael and his friend later as the trip to the car would add at least half an hour to the wait time for them.

I was also playing my second round of “Wishing Stars” the fantastic GPS game that takes place in the Disneyland park and I had a couple of quests that had items on Main Street USA that I wanted to hit since I was in that part of Disneyland before I made my way down to find Chuck at the other end of Main Street. So after standing next to the items I needed to be near to collect my goals in the game, I rushed down a busy Main Street to find Chuck. Chuck had spent most of the morning going through the Fantasyland and Tomorrowland sections of the park with Flat Stanley, and he showed me some of the pictures. Probably my favorite was the one from Space Mountain where Flat Stanley was stuck onto the seat and the photo was of the ride photo that they show at the exit of the ride.

Since most of the Wishing Star Items I was looking to collect were in the Adventureland/New Orleans Square section of the park and Chuck hadn’t yet gotten any Flat Stanley photos from that area of the park, we headed on down hitting both our missions. I helped out Chuck with a few photos that needed a helping hand for posing Flat Stanley in front of a few attractions such as the Tarzan Treehouse and Splash Mountain. It was funny, everywhere we pulled out Flat Stanley it seemed a mom would point and yell out “Flat Stanley” so it was good to know others were familiar with what we were doing because Chuck said he’d never heard of Flat Stanley until he was asked to help get some photos.

As Chuck and I helped each other with the Flat Stanley and Wishing Star quests, I was still waiting to hear back from Michael and his friend. It ended up being closer to an hour before I heard back from them. Chuck was finished with the Flat Stanley photos he wanted to get for the day, and decided to head home, so unfortunately I wasn’t able to have everyone meet, but another time, I’m sure. I got another update on where Michael and his friend were at before we finally just said, lets meet outside Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. I’d already been past the ride so I knew it wasn’t operational that day, so I just waited to sneak up behind Michael when I saw him and his friend outside the closed ride. It looked like Michael was about to text me about the status of the ride when I walked up behind and said, “Uhm, Big Thunder Mountain is closed today.”

Michael introduced me to his friend Bruce Lau, who was visiting San Diego from Belgium. They had come up for the day and were enjoying the parks. They apologized for their delay of having to run to the car, and I said, no worries, I had a good time with Chuck in the meantime. And without further ado we were taking in all the fun and crazy stuff to do at Disneyland. We even suffered through a showing of Captain Eo.

We had a lot of fun, on Splash Mountain, the three of us got seated at the front of the log and I’m sure the larger size of both Michael and I contributed to making the log front heavy and as a result we got incredibly soaked through the course of the ride, in fact, we were really wet even before the big plunge from some of the smaller drops inside the ride. When we got on to the big drop, I tried to keep my eyes open through it, and managed to be successful through most of it but went to blink just as we were hitting the tunnel under ride and when I opened my eyes I saw just a wall of water in front of me a mere second before that wall drenched us all from head to toe. I have never in my life gotten so drenched on that ride, I quickly grabbed for my phone to make sure it was okay because I literally got covered in water. I was so drenched, it took my wallet a couple of days to dry out.

We had to make a couple of attempts to get on Indiana Jones as the ride went down the first time we were in line for it. We did manage to get on pretty much everything we wanted to get on to except Big Thunder Mountain as it was shut down. We ended the day with a Fast Pass ride through Space Mountain. The line for Space Mountain was long, but the Fast Pass allowed us to bypass pretty much 90% of the line. Space Mountain is always a favorite and never disappoints. By the end of the day, still trying to dry out from Splash Mountain, and a bit hungry, Bruce, Michael, and I met up at a near by Carl’s Jr. for dinner and had another chance to chat before we made our way back to San Diego. It was a fantastic and fun day. It was great to spend the part of the day with Chuck, and then later on with Michael, and I am happy to have Bruce as a new European friend.

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The last time I saw Paula was when she was back in town to visit some family at the end of 2008, so I took Paula to see the Xanadu production at the La Jolla Playhouse, and when I saw her online on Facebook and I said hello using the chat feature of Facebook, we ended up discussing some music. I was so excited about the live album “Kristina At Carnegie Hall” coming out and I’d just gotten it in, I sent her “You Have To Be There” to share my excitement about the show. Paula really liked the song and we both commented about how it starts out similar to “Don’t Cry For Me Argentina” but ends up being a much more powerful song. Paula thought it might make a great addition to her show the following night.

So I scrambled to put together an announcement email for my ABBA friends to invite them to tune into the broadcast. While I suspect a number of them already have the Kristina album, it’s a fun excuse to tune into a show to hear it played on the radio, no matter where in the world you are. In case you missed the broadcast, you can listen to Paula’s introduction of the song and her comment after the song by clicking here (Note: Song was edited out so not to violate copyright restrictions). If you want to hear the song, you can play samples of it (or buy it) from Amazon or iTunes by clicking on the respective online store name. And you can also e-mail Paula’s radio program and ask her to play it again and tune in when she plays it. Information about Paula’s Picks program and how to reach Paula can be found on her show webpage by clicking here.

KBOO is a community sponsored radio station, that is member supported (similar to PBS television stations) and as such they often have to do community pledge drives. Every little bit helps keep programs like Paula’s Picks on the air. Check out her show the first and third Thursdays of every month between 8 pm and 10 pm Pacific time. Consult Timeanddate.com to figure out what time her broadcasts are in your time zone. You can tune in to her show in the Portland area at 90.7 FM, or listen online with the help of the KBOO FM listening guide by clicking here. And Apple iPhone and iPod Touch users can download the Public Radio Tuner application from the iTunes App Store by clicking here and find KBOO FM on the app to listen remotely.

Be sure to tune in and tell Paula that Ryan sent you.

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The story for “Kristina” is based on Vilhelm Moberg’s “Emigrants” series of four novels, which follows the lives of a group of Swedish settlers which include Karl Oscar and his wife Kristina, as they make the tough decision to pack up and take their chances settling in the unknown wilds of America in the mid 1800′s. While the books follow the group, the show has singled out Karl Oscar and Kristina to be the central focus of the show. The novels are considered to be some of the finest works in Swedish literature, which is what attracted Björn and Benny to wanting to tell the tale of Kristina. Their earlier musical effort, a collaboration with Tim Rice on an original idea by Tim Rice resulted in the musical “Chess.” As much as “Chess” is praised for it’s incredible songs, it’s also panned for its relatively weak plot, which left Björn and Benny looking for a well crafted story to transform into a musical. Björn and Benny felt for their second musical, they didn’t want plot to be one of the problems to plague the show.

As “Mamma Mia!” swept the world, all of a sudden it seemed people wanted lightweight shows and “jukeboxicals” as they’ve been dubbed as it seems the success of translating ABBA’s back catalog of songs has been tried repeatedly by other artists hoping to breathe new life into their back catalogs, but none have seen the success that “Mamma Mia!” has had and continues to have. The success of “Mamma Mia!” has given Björn and Benny, new found credibility as song writers, but it does present a problem. “Kristina” is a very heavy period piece set in the mid 1800′s capturing a very rustic and tough time for the people in that era, a far cry from the more bubble gum pop that is the basis for “Mamma Mia!” Even “Chess” seems more bubble gum like when compared to “Kristina.” How do you present a show that is more like “Les Miserablés” than it is ABBA?

Well that’s a difficult question, so it actually took a more “Les Miserablés” approach to solve. Björn and Benny brought in Herbert Kretzmer, who was responsible for translating the original French version of “Les Miserablés” into the hugely successful English version, which is still the longest running musical on London’s West End. While this still doesn’t help solve the problem of Björn and Benny’s names being more closely tied to ABBA than serious music theater, but it does give credibility to the translation of the show from the original Swedish. And while it seems audiences aren’t quite ready for a heavy period piece, it’s only a matter of time before the lightweight fluff of Broadway and the West End favors more dramatic pieces, and “Kristina” will be ready and waiting to make her grand entrance then.

In the meantime, to aid the process of “Kristina” coming to the English speaking world, a series of workshops were held in New York, and just when it looked like “Kristina” was going to make her way to the stage in English, a legal battle ensued over the ownership of the script that was written for the musical. This was tied up in courts for a while and through appeals processes before it was ultimately settled. Had the results of the legal battle gone another way, “Kristina” might have been doomed to never be seen as a full show ever again. But this slowed down the process of bringing “Kristina” to English audiences.

The decision was made to introduce “Kristina” in a concert version in New York City at the prestigious Carnegie Hall in late September 2009. The shows were recorded with the intention of being released on Compact Disc to start the process of getting audiences familiar with Kristina in the hopes that someday soon it will be a full production show in English. The concerts were scheduled around Helen Sjöholm, who originated the role of Kristina in the original Swedish production. She has been the voice of “Kristina” from the very beginning and it’s fitting she helps usher in the first English language recording of the show. Additionally, Björn and Benny sought out Louise Pitre, a woman they got to know from her portrayal of Donna in “Mamma Mia!” Louise blew the roof off the house in the original Toronto production, and the pre-Broadway tour, that she was invited to be the first Donna on Broadway. It was such a shame no proper Broadway cast recording was made of “Mamma Mia!” to capture Louise Pitre’s brilliance in the role, but at last she gets to be heard the world over in the first English recording of “Kristina.” And rounding out the main cast are Russell Watson and Kevin Odekirk, who while both are new to Björn and Benny’s productions bring the vocal chops necessary to keep up with Helen and Louise.

I attended the two shows in New York to witness the concert production of Kristina, and it only made me wish I could have seen the Swedish productions of the full show. While the songs are beautiful and amazing, visually there weren’t that captivating in a “concert” style show. Also it was not the easiest to follow the lyrics in the concert show as they were all new. But I knew once I would be able to get my hands on the finished CD, it going to bring the show full circle for me. And it has.

You see, I had ordered the original 3 CD cast recording of “Kristina Från Duvemåla” back in 1996, and I struggled with it many times to try and get to love the recording. I thought it sounded amazing, but I didn’t speak Swedish and I had no visual reference to go by to follow the songs. It didn’t matter so much that I didn’t speak Swedish, it’s just without a visual, I was lost in a huge show. I sat though the CDs on long flights with translations in hand as that afforded the only times I could make it through the whole thing in a single session with a translation in hand. But found it very inaccessible. I wanted to like and love it, but it was locked in a way I wasn’t able to enjoy it. I figured it might take the first English recording to help unlock it and then I could appreciate the original Swedish all the more. But I didn’t think it would take until 2010 before I would get that chance.

I am happy that I finally have the ability to unlock the magic of the original Swedish cast, but I’ve grown so attached to the English cast, that it’ll take me a while to get used to the original Swedes in the roles. Thanks to several of Benny Andersson’s other works, I have had several years to love and appreciate Helen Sjöholm and she’s been with “Kristina” so long, I’m sure she struggled through the concerts to not burst out singing the songs she’s done so many times in their original Swedish. She did a brilliant and remarkable job. And I’ve been following Louise Pitre’s recordings since I first heard her the very first time I saw “Mamma Mia!” when it made it’s debut in the United States in San Francisco. I’ve got every album she’s ever released and even a couple hard to get cast recordings that she’s on. Russell Watson, I only really know from the fact he sung the theme song to “Star Trek: Enterprise” and Kevin Odekirk was completely new to me, but he was so nice to all of us fans in New York that he’s been warmly welcomed into the fold of many of us ABBA fans that went to New York to see these historic concerts.

Long live “Kristina” and may the wonderful concert recording that’s available now for the first time ever in English, serve as a catalyst for a full scale “Kristina” production in English sometime in the near future. In a way, this is kind of like how Björn and Benny started with “Chess”, first the album was released to see the interest in a full show, and then the show came later. Once people start to hear the amazing songs here in “Kristina” I imagine it won’t be too long before a full show will be produced. The showstopper song in “Kristina” is “You Have To Be There” and while it’s a bit reminiscent of “Don’t Cry For Me Argentina” but takes an emotional journey that in the hands of the right vocalist, like Helen Sjöholm, it will soon become a showtunes standard that all Broadway and West End Divas want to bring to their audiences.

If you want the chance to discover this song and share it with others, you can’t go wrong getting the entire album for “Kristina At Carnegie Hall” and you can do so by clicking here to get it from Amazon.com. The CD version comes with a lyric book for all the songs, so can enjoy reading along and seeing photos from the Carnegie Hall concerts of the brilliant cast. If you just want to download the entire album, you can save a couple of dollars by doing so, Amazon has it by clicking here. The album is available from iTunes, except at the time of this writing, it’s considered a “partial” album, the only track you can’t buy is the instrumental Overture, but this inability to buy the Overture means there is no discounted “album” price, you have to buy all songs individually, and you’re better off buying the album at Amazon.com where you’ll get a heavily discounted price over buying the songs individually. However, if you’re unsure about buying the whole album, try out “You Have To Be There” as the one song to download and you click here to get it from Amazon.com or click here to get it from iTunes, and see if you’re interested in buying all of “Kristina”.

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Now, not every movie is available as Paramount has only released individually the most popular of the two generations of Star Trek movies. In the William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy era of films, you have your choices of Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, and “Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered County (essentially the even numbered movies). In the Patrick Stewart and Jonathan Frakes era of films, the only one available is Star Trek: First Contact. These are considered the best four movies of the first 10 Star Trek movies and in my book are the must own ones.

Take advantage of the tremendous savings and get each for $9.99. To get them, just click on the titles of the movie here and you’ll be taken to a page on Best Buy.com where you can purchase them. Unfortunately, the Blu-Ray for the 2009 J.J. Abrams Star Trek movie isn’t included in the $9.99 sale, but it is on special for $19.99. Click here to get it. Be sure to take advantage of in-store pickup if there is a Best Buy near you. The sale price only lasts until the end of May.

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You may be asking, if Boston’s Gourmet Pizza originates from Canada, why do they call themselves “Boston’s” instead of some city in Canada? Well the answer to that lies in its history, as Boston Pizza was started by a Greek Immigrant to Canada in 1964. When he was looking for a name for his pizza place that he was starting in Edmonton, Alberta, he felt with The Boston Bruins, The Boston Red Sox, The Boston Celtics, and even Boston Creme Pie, the name Boston was recognizable and established. In the words of founder, Gus Agioritis, Boston meant “Big Leagues.” The company grew quickly through franchising quickly and today has over 325 locations throughout Canada and over 50 in the US since the company first expanded into the US in 1998.

While Pizza is the primary product on the menu, it’s far from the only type of food found there. The menu is actually quite reflective of a casual dining restaurant offering appetizers, salads, gourmet pastas, sandwiches, healthy selections, hamburgers, and desserts plus a full service bar and outdoor patio in the sports bar section of the restaurant in addition to their gourmet pizza offerings. Boston Pizza in Canada is known for its signature crispy crust and they’ve brought that along into their American Franchise locations.

The location in Encinitas is located of El Camino Real and Via Montoro in what used to be the Red Robin for those familiar with the area. The food is good, and the staff are very friendly bringing a very Canadian touch of hospitality. I’ve been to the restaurant twice now, once with friends in March, and the second time with a former roommate earlier this week. My former roommate and I opted to split a Tropical Chicken Pizza, which has an Alfredo sauce base, pineapple, smoked bacon, spicy chicken, topped with Mozzarella and Cheddar cheese. I thought the pizza was really good and a unique spin on a Hawaiian pizza by changing out the sauce and swapping chicken for the ham. Hawaiian pizza is also on the menu.

The menu has quite a bit of variety on it to satisfy just about any tastes, so even if its not pizza that you crave, they have an appetizer or lunch or dinner item perfect for what you’re in the mood for. In fact the full menu can be viewed by clicking here. Be sure to check out the website for Boston’s Gourmet Pizza by clicking here, and if you’re interested, check out their Canadian website by clicking here.

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I can understand what Mary is trying to accomplish with the ad by indicating that she wants to be one less hassle in your life by making it easy to sell your home. If she’s not able to accomplish it, you can fire her and be on your way, no messy breaking of a contract, and the other messy stuff when you find yourself stuck with a listing Realtor who isn’t living up to your needs as a seller.

However, what the sign could also indicate is that Mary isn’t going too work to hard at selling your property because you can get rid of her anytime and it’s better if she doesn’t . Or it could mean she will work very hard because you could release her at any time. In a way it’s a very mixed message. Personally, I feel the message she is sending out there is that her name is synonymous with disposable. She’s destroying any perceived value of her services and that she’s about as useful as any broken product that is not worth trying to fix and keep.

My vote is that if I had a property to sell, Mary’s ad has just gotten her fired before she ever had a chance to be hired. I think Mary needs an approach that makes her seem like an essential component to the sale of a property so that the seller would get the impression a sale for top dollar will never occur without her help. She needs to show she deserves that commission and that the house will never sell without her. You don’t get that impression if Mary is as disposable as a candy bar wrapper.

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The machines offer little barcode keychain tags that you can get from the machines to help you establish an account to track your recycling. When you step up to a machine, you touch the built in screen and it will ask you how you want to log in, you can scan the barcode on the keychain tag or enter your email address or not log in and get a receipt that you can enter a code from online later on. For simplicity, it’s easiest to use the keychain tag. Once you establish an account to tie your keychain tag to an email account (you can add more account details at home later) the machine asks you start scanning your recyclable materials. One machine handles aluminum containers and glass bottles, the other will accept plastics depending on whether they are PETE or HDPE plastics. Most of these containers the machines will accept will be from beverage containers that deposits were paid for. The machines give you a chance to not only recycle the containers and get the deposit money back, but also earn points that can be redeemed for discounts at local merchants.

Here in San Diego, the only locations that have the machines at the moment are Whole Foods Market stores. It makes it easy to drop your deposit paid recyclable containers then go into the store and redeem the vouchers printed from the machine for cash or for a discount on your purchase. Additionally the points you earn entitle you to print and redeem discounts at local businesses like restaurants. For example common ones allow you to redeem points in order to receive a 2 for 1 coupon or a dollar value discount on your visit to that merchant. You handle all the redeeming of points for discounts online at home, so you can find a merchant local to where you live or where you’re going to be and print out the discount before you go to that merchant.

The only real snags I’ve seen with the system so far is that on one visit, one of the machines was down, so I couldn’t recycle my aluminum or glass containers on that visit. Additionally you have to scan what you recycle so it knows what it’s receiving, say an empty beer bottle verses an aluminum soda can, this does help the machine because the screen will then show you a big arrow as to which of the two chutes to drop your container in before proceeding to your next container, however, I’ve run into the issue of the scanner not recognizing a couple of the products I brought to recycle. I’ve sent Greenopolis emails with the barcode numbers and a description of the product so they can add it to their database and while I received a personal thank you email for the submission, I’ve yet been able to recycle those particular containers on the machines yet.

In any case, the Greenopolis machines make it fun to recycle because of the opportunity to get some additional rewards in addition to being able to collect my container deposits, which I previously were not getting back just using the curbside recycling containers with my weekly trash pickup.

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