Cleaning the Kingdom

Cleaning the Kingdom: Insider Tales of Keeping Walt’s Dream Spotless has been a long time in the making.

I can’t recall exactly how long I’ve wanted to write a book – a certain book in particular. It’s been at least fifteen years. When we had our first Custodial Reunion a few years ago, I even took down some contact info as potential interviews. Working full time and having the responsibilities of a young family didn’t leave a lot of time to research and write.

Enter in my fellow jani, Lynn. The friendship we developed while working together in Disneyland Custodial has survived my becoming “apart of the magic” and his also doing the same and moving to Utah.

Lynn took the initiative in creating and hosting a podcast, The Sweep Spot, which is focused on Disneyland history, Disneyland Custodial, and also has covered Disneyland news and current events. He had me on as a recurring guest co-host as he went through two regular co-hosts. Then I became the regular co-host.

Now having some perspective distance from our time as cast members, we also started collaborating on a book.

Lynn explored how to get a book published.

Getting some input from podcast guests and through private communications with some of our former coworkers to infuse into what we were writing about our own personal experiences, we cobbled together a book that’s over 450 pages.

It’s an UNAUTHORIZED, honest, and affectionate tribute to the men and women we worked with and those who came before and those who’ve come after – the people who’ve kept the original Magic Kingdom clean. The book is partly our memoirs as well as a detailed look at how the world famous Disneyland Custodial team operates.

There are now many books on Disneyland, but no other book is like this. We share with you things you can’t find anywhere else.

This book is for:

1) Anyone interested in Disneyland.
2) Anyone interested in theme parks.
3) Anyone interested in Anaheim history.
4) Anyone interested in an effective custodial operations for high-traffic venues.
5) Current, former, and future Disneyland Custodial cast members.
6) Anyone who wants to know more about the authors.

You can order the softcover book (and t-shirts for our podcast) at The Sweep Spot official website.

You can order the Kindle version here.

The book’s official Facebook page is here.

As of this writing, the 2015 D23 Expo in Anaheim is ahead of us. We’ll be there Friday, August 14 through Sunday, August 16. Bring your cash or credit card to buy a softcover, or if you already have your softcover, I will autograph that copy, too.

If you want to order the softcover through Amazon, be sure you're getting it through The Sweep Spot as a seller, so you can get it more quickly, complete with autograph.\

By the way, here’s the official Facebook page for The Sweep Spot, which is our free podcast. You can find the podcast here, on iTunes, on MiceChat.com, TuneIn, and Stitcher.

Try, Try Again

I get a kick out of how Universal and Marvel are like... "Uh, we'll just pretend we didn't release an Incredible Hulk film just five years ago and we'll release a completely new one with a new look, cast, and director." You have to hand it to them. They believe in the character, and believe a film franchise can be made out of the character, and so the were willing to go through all of the trouble to try it again. Is there another example like this in modern filmmaking? I don't know. Hollywood tends to react to disappointment with running away from doing anything that smells similiar, even if the problem was obvious, such as the wrong script or the wrong director or the wrong guy driving the 15th truck.

It's nice to see that they didn't give up on Hulk. I liked the TV show (reruns) when I was a kid. And the 2003 film had Sam Elliot, who I've met twice... the first time being when he filmed three scenes for a television movie IN MY HOUSE. He was nice to me and filled out this really long note/autograph to me and I was just a kid at the time.

I Hope San Gabriel Keeps the Dinosaurs

Patricia Jiayi Ho of the Pasadena Star-News (and a bunch of sister papers) reports on plans to renovate a park that I remember vividly from my childhood.

The endangered concrete species in Vincent Lugo Park's sandy lagoon will likely soon have protected status.

City officials said they plan to conserve La Laguna de San Gabriel, known colloquially as Dinosaur Park for its statues of imaginary sea creatures, after a local group made the case the play area is a cultural and historic landmark.

I lived close to two parks, one just two blocks away, but this place, which was further away, always stuck out in my mind.

The Laguna was built in the mid-1960s by Latino folk artist Benjamin Dominguez. His handmade creations dot playgrounds in Garden Grove and Whittier Narrows, as well as in Texas and Nevada.

Laguna supporters have said that while playground items made of steel and concrete are not conventional art forms, they represent the unique vision and endeavors an immigrant man made in tribute to his adopted homeland.