The Holiday Season

Good LORD! I ate too much, I drank too much.......

Chief and his lovely wife came over yesterday for some kick ass food prepared by Sunnycide Gibson herself. Hoot Jr loved his gift from Chief and all was well.

We hope you all had a good one too!

We talked about the blog and where it's going. We're going to make it more of a community (of tomorrow) so you fellow fans can get involved. You're not fans of Hoot and Chief but fans of the greatest future vision ever created, Horizons. Just like we are.

I'm excited!

Our Favorite Redhead

Ok, so here we have the best we could get for the daughter part of the video phone call, or whatever you want to call it. And Hoot will have to chime in here in the comments to correct me and/or fill in any details I might have forgotten. My memory has never been real good, and as I get older its only getting worse. :)

Anyways, at the beginning you can see Hoot trying to setup the camera on a tripod to try and get a good shot of the projection screen. But the tripod wasnt tall enough, and there just wasnt a real good spot to get a good shot. Not like the guys projection, as you could see in my 'The Human Clock' post. The projection room was much closer to the screen for the girl film than the projection setup for the guy film. So when we realized we were not going to be able to get a good shot of the screen within range of hearing the audio too, we decided to get what we could get.

So the first long stretch of black screen, is Hoots camera sitting in the projection room to pick up the audio. And of course you can hear the projector and on occasion us making some noises too, sorry. :) Then you can see Hoot pick up his camera, and you get a brief look of the projection out of the glass window in the projector room. Then we setup the camera outside of the booth to the right side, and film the back of the screen from the side at an angle, not the best shot, but it was the best way we could figure out at the time with what we had. Now, when you are watching this part, the guys audio you are hearing is not the audio for his AA in the undersea set, that is the audio from the girls bedroom video screen. You can kinda tell this just by watching, because his audio doesnt match up with her projection. Rememember, we are behind the scenes here, and the backside of those two sets were actually very close. And you will see after we finish filming almost 2 loops of her, Hoot keeps recording as we head back to base camp, and the audio of the guy just gets louder and louder as we crawl there. Base camp was right under the kitchen and girls bedroom sets. I have a pretty decent shot of base camp filmed from my camera where I turn on my lamp, so its not quite so dark. :) I will be posting that sometime in the near future. Enjoy!

The Human Clock

Haha, I love that part "... you must be joking, I mean, you're talking to the human clock here." But seriously, does anyone really believe that this dude was dating the hot daughter?? Come on, he was a submarine repairman!!! Hehe, Enjoy!

Grove Control Tower: Monitor 1

So here we are underneath the Grove Control Tower, trying to get shots of the fake monitors. This one was shot by Hoot, and the other two monitors (like this one) were shot by me. I will be posting those soon. Enjoy!

150 Cool People!

The "Cool person Count" has reached 150!

We could never had imagined it. Thanks again, Horizons fans!

Close enough!

I realize it wasn't the best idea to ask folks to "enhance" this piece of Disney property. Martin Smith did the next best thing so I hereby declare him the WINNER!

Don't worry though. Chief and I are coming up with more fun ways to win free Horizons stuff! Stay tuned!

Hey Horizons fans

A fellow Horizons fan is down on his luck and needs help. He has been into our beloved attraction for a LONG time now and has helped keep the spirit alive.

Bro put together a CD of Disney pix, which are actually really good, and has them for sale here:

http://planet7.org/photocd/

If you have a little extra this Holiday season and want to help out, this is the cat who needs it.

Thanks, pals.

Back to Brava

On with the kick ass panels.

Directly behind me was the seating chart for the shuttle. You now see that the shuttle had a name!!!! The Santa Maria! You tell me just HOW this attraction held this much detail!

Spike Tripper

Remember our old pal Spike? Well, on November 27th his lovely wife gave birth to their son Kieran Edward Tripper! The child's first name, Futureprobe Edward Tripper, would have sounded weird in school so they changed it. Other name ideas included Century Three Tripper, Hoot Gibson Tripper and Abraham Lincoln.

Congratulations old pal!

"Tomorrow's Child....."

Hoot arrives in space!

If I hadn't gone up there then WHO would have turned around to document those sweet panels behind me? One's a seating chart! Who would have taken a picture of mom's face?

That's love right there, folks.

DESTROYED!

Yep. Hoot and Chief's hearts are broken.

We hear all the time that people hate this blog because they feel that we somehow ruined the very attraction we tried to preserve. It's painful for us. It leaves us sad and empty because we can't understand how our work was about anything but love. We risked our lives to preserve Horizons.......OUR LIVES.

Did Disney try to persevere Horizons? Hell no. They tore it to the ground without a second thought. We knew this would happen so we did what we did. We had to. We risked our existence on Earth to make sure Horizons would be remembered.

Now this blog has sparked an amazing rebirth that appeals to THOUSANDS of people worldwide! It's an amazing thing that we never thought would happen!

Horizons will not be forgotten. In fact more interest in it will grow as people look toward a positive tomorrow.

This post is for Shana:) Please understand why we did what we did.

Happy Thanksgiving Horizons Fans!

Here at the Gibson Manor, the Turkey of Tomorrow is cooking in the "Laser Chef". Tri-apple pie, Lorange dressing, Flavo-Grape wine,......mmmmmm. Sunnycide is working her kitchen magic while Hoot Jr and I work on some arts and crafts. There's little in life that's as sweet as a pine cone turkey.

Have a good one!

Nova Cite Backdrops

A shot from just the garden.

Chief navigates his way back after exploring the Nova Cite set.

Grove Shot 3

And yet another grove shot. You would think there was futuristic wacky weed growing in that plywood and plaster farmland seeing how much time Hoot and I spent there. Just wait until you see the footage of the two of us crawling around underneath it on our hands and knees just to get to the video monitor projections in the control tower. I would do it all again in a millisecond!! Enjoy!

Backdrop Fever

Here is a compilation of backdrop paintings from what I am calling 'Hoot Tape 2'. Enjoy!

Urban Habitat Backdrop

Here is a shot of the Urban Habitat backdrop painting. I really wish we had the cameras of today back then, so I could've taken a thousand pictures of this painting, zoomed in on every square inch. Oh well. :(

Grandma and Grandpa sure had a fine view of the city. Very peaceful looking, but I wonder why there are not any "flying cars" flying around? I understand in the context of the ride, it would've made the scene too static or fake if they were painted on, but they could've used the same type of projection like the flying harvester in the grove? Maybe they tried it and it didn't look good, or maybe it was a cost issue and they had to pick and choose where they wanted projections?

I know I have beat this horse to death, but I still just cannot imagine someone tearing thru this wall with a backhoe and then throwing this artwork in the dumpster. :(

New blog

http://tomorrowlounge.blogspot.com/

Check out this retro tomorrow eye candy by Mike Cozart! Beautiful scans of a happier time when even the Disneyland PARKING attendants were hot!

Research

Hey pals. I've mentioned this before but it's become very important to me lately so I'll spill it out again.

In the four or five years before this blog started I became increasingly interested in the "hows and whys" of the late Horizons pavilion. This lead me to collecting information from our local library and similar outlets nation wide. What I found, now that I'm reading over thousands of photocopies of news articles, is that Horizons was never very popular with the general public!!! What the good lord FUCK!

Opening day reviews from newspapers from here to Tulsa PAN the attraction on opening day with the general comment "we've seen this all before". WHAT!?

I'm a broken man right now because I can't believe what I'm reading. I want death hard and fast. GIVE ME THE SWINE FLU, LORD!!!!!!!!!!!

...........................

I just went outside for some fresh air and I think it might be important for us "cool people" to read over this horseshit, for what it's worth, and decide for ourselves.

I'm going to post these clippings little by little. Please try not to get upset like I have.

I'll drink bleach and end it all. I swear.



I DID find a cool opening day interview with Wathel Rogers about Audio-Animatronics. Light in this supreme darkness.

Grove Shot 2

Here is another grove shot, from a wider angle so you can see pretty much the entire grove. And in this shot you can see two flying harvester projections on the wall. Enjoy!

The latest news

Here's the latest news.

1. Our audio recordings are almost ready. You'll be able to download full tracks of live Horizons stuff. No studio horseshit but real "in ride" recordings. You'll also get the tape called "Horizons Confessions"! We recorded this several months after Horizons closed while we drank beer and watched videos. We wanted an audio record of our adventures so we'd have something to listen to when we got old (like now).

2. We have had Google Analytics installed for a few weeks now. THERE ARE HORIZONS FANS ALL OVER THE GLOBE! It's amazing to see who's looking at this blog and where they're from. Japan, Taiwan, Romania, Australia, Germany, etc. WONDERFUL!

3. We get tons of views from Emeryville CA every morning at about 11am. We love you Pixar!

4. Tons more from Glendale. Keep up the good fight WDI!!

5. Orlando, Los Angeles......... build Horizons 2.0, Disney! What are you waiting for? We promise not to leave our ride vehicles.

Birthday Background

The birthday scene actually had a background painting behind it. It was almost impossible to see because of the Holograms and show lighting inside of the room but it was there. Another fine example of the detail in Horizons. In order to see it you would have had to climb on top of the Birthday set, as we did. You can see the window frames of the room as they come up and simply end.

Another shot. You can see a little bit of the Birthday room in the lower right corner.

Sweet detail....sweet sweet detail! Look at the little houses! The farm! The red thingys! I'm starting to change my opinion on where in Horizons I would live. This Space Colony painting looks very inviting.

Imagineering Disney Blog

I hope these guys get an itch to do some Horizons based projects. (hint hint)

I'm fascinated by this blog Well done, Imagineering Disney!

"Hoot and Chief Foundation" Achievement Award

This year's "Hoot and Chief Foundation" Achievement Award goes to none other than long time MVT fan Kyle!
In a daring act of Horizons passion, Kyle and his lovely partner Jenn of Tomorrow, were able to sweet talk the nice people at Mouse Surplus into making this incredible shot happen.
Kyle, who has displayed an unfailing love for Horizons through such ventures as "Hadley's Hope", is seen here "looking toward tomorrow" atop the famous $14,000 ride vehicle.

If Kyle can dream it, he can do it.

Hey!

It's too early to announce it but it looks like an independant film will soon be made about our adventures! We've been thinking about this for a couple months and it looks like everything is coming together. Several film makers have contacted us about such a project and we think we've found the right person to pull it off.

Mesa Verde Times won't change a bit except for an update or two about the film. In fact we see this blog going on forever because we have a SHIT LOAD of material!

Thank you for the kind words Horizons fans! We'll be here to entertain you for the rest of your lives.

We say it again and again

This blog is for YOU. If you found it you are welcomed to enjoy it because you found it for a reason. You love Horizons and you miss it!

Chief and I aren't the "masters" of this attraction like many disney fan sites claim (or want) to be. We just did what we had to do for our own memories and now we want to share it all with you. All of it.

Comment if you have the time. We like it and we want to hear from you.

Video Clip Explained

^

When we shot this clip we were under the empty Harvester seen here in the lower center. It was a hollow fiberglass prop with most of the back end missing. Of course, one could go under the groves if one were so inclined to walk like an ape through the metal supports and plywood. Chief and I, being two and not one, did it anyway and we liked it under there. The Harvester on the right is one in the video clip.

Here's a shot looking up at the Harvester. There was just enough room to place a camera as you see in the video posted by Chief. This happened totally by chance because I was peeking out through the hole and saw how fucking cool it looked.

This was one of those random times when we happened upon something that was too good for words. It had to be filmed right then and there.

I can't tell you how many times I watched this footage and I even made a six hour VHS loop of it that played over and over again.

I'm back!

Hiya Horizons pals! I was on a little vacation with Sunnycide and Hoot Jr.

I LOVE the idea of a party. LOVE IT. Let's not wait for our "cool people" count to hit a certain number let's just have a party. We'll make it far enough in advance so folks can plan on being there. "Hadley's Hope" has to be the band and that's a fact.

Our old friend "Anonymous" asked how the Harvester disk thingy worked. It was suspended by four strands of fishing line that pulled it up. Under the set there were piles of tangled line.

Party on!

Grove Shot 1 (Full)

We posted a while back about a couple of videos on YouTube that happened to be from our adventures. Well, here is the full version of that grove shot. It includes Hoot setting up the camera in the beginning, then after 6+ min or so, he comes back and picks up the camera to come find me. I have called this one 'Shot 1' because we have a couple more grove shots like this, but from different angles. Enjoy!

The holograms, Jim.

Kyle's right...

That man is going to EAT that baby! Look at him! This guy's suffering from "Space Madness"! He looks like he'd cry tears of sorrow as he caves your head in with an end table!

"Davey, daddy is going away for awhile......"

Birthday Party

Here's a cool shot we got by climbing up the outside of the apartment. Yes, those are paper shop rags under the characters so they could soil themselves at will! I know I said it before but that IS the same baby as was in Space Mountain's Home of Future living:

http://www.omniluxe.net/wyw/sm.htm

Smile, You're On Hoot & Chief Cam!

Ok, so we have explained in previous posts how we would stand in the load area watching for a gap of empty cars so we could jump out without anyone seeing us, as well as having enough empty cars to have some time to take pictures in a set, sometimes 30 seconds, sometimes a minute or two. And we have explained how we started staying inside the ride for extended periods, sometimes hours at a time.

Well, when we started the extended stay adventures, we quickly realized one little problem, how do we get back onto the ride??? We didnt have the luxury of standing in the load area and waiting for a gap. So we had to find certain places of the backstage areas that we could see the cars going by, so we could count empty cars, just like we did in the load area. So this video here is us scouting some of those locations and filming them to see if whether or not it appeared like the guests could see that spot. And as you can see, the camera sitting on the railing at the Nova Cite garden was quickly spotted by some teenagers. :)

But what we really needed was a spot close to the cave, because that was the easiest spot to get back to the cars, so the spot where we are looking thru the pine bush at the Mesa Verde grove control tower was that sweet spot. Anyways, it was good to know of alot of spots we could 'spy' at the cars, because it always helped us keep on top of what was going on: Were there alot of people riding, were they cycling guests out of the ride, were cast members riding thru, where were places we had to be extra careful to duck when walking behind the sets, etc...

Also as a bonus, at marker 5:20, you can see me climbing up behind the rocks on the side of the Mesa Verde farm looking down at the grove and cars. And you get a quick shot looking out of the cave facing the Kitchen at marker 7:45. Also I think I should mention that the long period of time in the garden shot, we were not standing there with the camera. What we would do is set the camera up somewhere, let it record for several minutes while we would go off and record some audio or take pictures, etc... Hoot did this several times, mostly to get some really cool grove shots that I will post in the future. Enjoy!

Birthday Scene Catwalk

Continuing on with the Birthday Scene, here is a quick clip of the audio-animatronics used for the peppers ghost effect.

Nice pod cast

"Jared T" tipped us off to this pod cast from MiceCast.com

It's an honor that they chose to focus on "Mesa Verde Times". Many thanks to them.

Good stuff through and through. I like the fact that they use foul language and aren't afraid to to voice their opinions. They call Chief and I "Ballsy" 37 times as well.

The one thing that we need to make clear is that Horizons was NEVER empty. Some of our pics and video may make it seem that way but Future world was always slow later in the evening. Horizons was so busy that sometimes we didn't get a "gap" and had to go home empty handed.

Good show from Micecast and I plan to listen to all of their casts.


http://www.micecast.com

Happy Birthday Dear Davey Part 1.5

Here's a panorama we took without a flash. It's cool but it hardly documents the scene.

You'll soon be treated to another "Hoot and Chief True Life Action Comic" all about how Chief found his way into this scene and how his Grandmother's closet door revealed a secret.

Happy Birthday Dear Davey Pt 1

The Space Colony Birthday scene! One of the coolest in Horizons but almost impossible to photograph! The slanted windows (used to achieve the Peppers Ghost effect) completely enclosed the room leaving no visible way "in". We tried to get pics with a flash, without a flash etc but all we ever got were crummy pics like this one. It looks like a grenade just went off behind the couch! One way or another we were going to get in there. We did:)

The actual figures that made up the Hologram effect were located directly above your ride vehicle. If you held your camera way out and pointed it upward you could get some pretty good shots of these half body animatronic figures. Still it was random and you never knew what you were going to get. We made up our minds to get up there. We did:)

Athene Computer

Try our new search engine! It's powered by a 2086 Athene Home Computer and can help you find specific things within our blog. It's fun.

More kick ass art!

This stuff ROCKS ROCKS ROCKS! Old school WDW fans unite and if you have a baby, get it that "Now is the Time" onesy!!!

Incredibly cool designs that are now endorsed by Hoot and Chief!

http://www.zazzle.com/cousinorville

Again.....

If you ever want to contact Chief and I, our email is:

mesaverdetimes@gmail.com

By all means drop us a line or two!

Happy Birthday

Happy 26th Birthday Horizons! We love you and you'll always be here with us!

-Hoot and Chief

The Time We Were Chased Part Two

The exciting conclusion of "Hoot and Chief True Life Adventure Comics"!



The Time We Were Chased Part Two.



Our heroes are in a tricky spot! They're being pursued by some mean people and need to get their stuff and get out!








It was worth a try. At least we could get our video cameras.





We were ready to go.

We were only 10 cars behind our pursuers!



We waited and waited for Mesa verde.

Finally we had passed the Harvester scene and could hear the sounds of the Kitchen. Time to go.


We made a break for the secret cave to the left of the cat and fish vignette. The following is a map of where our hide out was (base camp), just below the kitchen and ride vehicles.

We were reunited with our electronic devices!

We decided to crawl to the Harvester scene and check out the ride's status. We went between the background painting and the model groves.

YES!!!!!!!!!!!

They had given up the chase! They couldn't find us and gave the go ahead to let people ride! There was one more problem.

Chief was all for it. We were pretty sure that the guests who were about to plainly see us wouldn't know what was going on and even if they did tell, we'd be half way home by the time anyone responded.

So we did it. Nothing to worry about, folks!

We weren't out of the woods yet.

That might seem pretty stupid but it's all we had. So we did it!

At unload there were 3 or 4 employees. No maintenance man. The employees gave us looks like they suspected we were the ones behind the mischief. The girl snickered when she told us to have a good night.

FUCK! IT WORKED!!! A couple of people tried to tell on us but we just kept on walking.

We simply blended into the crowd and left the park. We went straight home and drank beer with Sunnycide and watched our evenings video offerings.

-The End

The Time We Were Chased Part One

You all know by now that we MUST have been detected at least once. Well it happened for sure. Here's a little comic strip of how it went down. I'm no artist, folks, but this should do. here's the True Life Adventure.

Once upon a time we were walking behind the cars in Horizons. We'd gotten too comfortable with it.

We came across a FAT maintenance man!

Good Lord! He was waiting for the ride to close so he get busy sleeping.

He turned his flashlight on us and gave us chase! We were skinny and could run like rabbits!Chief remembered a door we had used many times. It led to the "Future from the 50's" scene. We were actually in the Sea Castle scenes.

In an act of pure brilliance Chief locked the door! This gave us plenty of time to find a hiding place.

We walked underneath the "Easy living" scene to find our trusted hiding place.

Here's the layout of "the Hole's: location. Imagine the Easy Living scene. Our "hole" was a square of the background painting cut away like a doggy door revealing an unfinished room. I don't know how we originally found it but we had been there several times since.

We were fucked...

After some time we heard the ride system fire up and the audio got louder.

I snuck out to the edge of the Easy Living set....

They were riding through looking for us!!!!!!!!!!

We had to get crafty and QUICK!

Do they make it out of there alive!!!!!!!!!? Find out in the next issue "The Time We got Chased Part Two"!