In working on the podcast for the Disneyland Resort I am often lucky enough to experience some “once in a lifetime” events. Today was one of those days. I had the good fortune to spend the afternoon with Richard Sherman. If you are a Disney fan you’ll instantly recognize the name. If not, let me fill you in. Richard and his brother Robert (known collectively as the Sherman Brothers) are responsible for the most performed and translated song on earth: It’s A Small World (After All). They are also responsible for other songs like The Tiki,Tiki,Tiki Room as well as soundtracks for films such as: Mary Poppins, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, The Jungle Book, Charlottte’s Web and Winnie The Pooh just to name a few. (There are too many to name – it goes on and on.)

Today we did some interviews for the podcast and then all went out to a terrific dinner at Napa Rose. Richard and his wife Elizabeth are two of the nicest people you will ever meet; an absolutely charming couple. As a film geek, I am still buzzing from the fact that at dinner I sat next to an Oscar Award winner (for Mary Poppins).

The highlight of the day was riding the “It’s a Small World” attraction with Richard as they filmed us for a news release. Riding an attraction as iconic as that with the person responsible for the song that makes it all work and having him tell you what it was like to work personally with Walt Disney on the project is something I will always remember.

Why did I title this post supercalifragilisticexpialidocious? Richard and his brother Robert invented the word.

Disneyland has posted the newest podcast my company, Willnick Productions, Inc. has produced for them. I must admit, I am particularly proud of this podcast. I think we captured a bit of the exciting and new as well as the interesting and old. We cover a new attraction based on Monsters, Inc. including an interview with the director of the film, Pete Docter and the Imagineers who created the attraction. However, for me, the home run was a trip up inside and to the very top of the Matterhorn. I owe this adventure to podcasting.

Back in November, at the Portable Media Expo, I was invited to go to a dinner with a good number of podcasters at Benihana. I was seated with my friend August Trometer (iPodderX) as well as Ken Ray and Laura Burstein, both formerly of Inside Mac Radio. During dinner, my work for Disneyland came up. Laura started telling us all kinds of “outlandish” theories about Disneyland, including one that there was basketball court in the Matterhorn. This sounded a little too out there to me. I, after a cocktail or two , was also quite confident that no one was going to suit up and traipse across the park to go play basketball. So I challenged her on the validity of her statement and said I would get to the bottom of it. Well, as you can see from the picture above, there most certainly is a basketball hoop on the 5th floor of the Matterhorn. I was wrong and Laura was right. (There I said it – painful as it is.) As a result of my investigation, I had a great time touring the inside of the Matterhorn as well as going all the way to the top. Fellow podcaster, Dan Klass, came along and has a funny take on the whole episode at the Bitterest Pill. I must admit, this was a once in a lifetime event, if you have any interest in Disneyland or what it is like inside the Matterhorn – give it a listen. Best of all, the folks at Disneyland and I to have even more exciting things planned for the months to come. I can’t wait for some of the things we have on deck for the Official Disneyland Resort Podcast.