Right now Ong’s studio looks like a museum – full of giant cake-tiered wooden chandeliers, pieces of wooden art and a hand-chiseled 300-pound mahogany lamp stand with the silhouette of Mickey Mouse’s face outlined in pen.

“It will be well hidden,” Ong assured, referring to the three circles that make up Mickey Mouse’s face and ears. He’s been commissioned by Disney to discreetly engrave the company’s trademark character somewhere on the lamp stand. Apparently this is normal practice for Disney, and children and adults visiting any of the theme park’s hotels will discover the famous mouse’s face on rugs, furniture and art if they look hard enough.

“I never knew it until now,” Ong admitted.

But Mickey Mouse’s face is mini compared to the other projects Ong has taken under his chisel. He was recently commissioned by Walt Disney World to build four 7-foot-high chandeliers and one 14-by-14-foot wooden ceiling lamp that will adorn the entrance to the national theme park’s Animal Kingdom Lodge in Florida.

With co-woodworker George Hennley, Ong spent the last 4½ weeks slaving over the 5-foot-high, 14-foot-wide knotty alder chandelier.

“It’s the biggest thing I’ve ever built,” he said. He also painstakingly carved the tops and bottoms to several 13-foot-high lamps for Disney. The thousands of tiny dents from his chisel make each wooden piece unique; impossible to replicate – distinctly Tigard.

“It’s all about the challenge of building something I’ve never built before,” Ong said. “Something to this scale lets me exercise my creativity. This is an object, not just a lamp. It’s sculpture — it’s art.”

So how did a small-town woodworker become the newest Disney artist?

By a fluke, Ong said. He was working at a job site one day and ran into owner Dan Legree of Savoy Studios in Portland.

“He said, ‘Hey, where did you get those doors?’ And I said I didn’t get them, I made them,” Ong recounted. Legree was so impressed with Ong’s handiwork that he hired him to build the same kind of doors for his houseboat and started contracting Ong to work on larger projects.

Already Ong’s massive chandeliers are hanging in The Venetian in Las Vegas, Nev.

“We are just a small woodworking shop that got lucky enough to cover a range of things,” he said.

Still, Ong is no stranger to working for the rich and famous. For 12 years before he moved to Tigard from Los Angeles, he was an art director in the film industry. He directed music videos for Aaliyah, Prince and built the entire bedroom set for the Disney TV program “Mike’s Super Short Show.”

“But I’d always been into woodwork,” Ong said. So when he decided to leave the fast-paced life of L.A. and move to Tigard, he opened his shop almost immediately.

West Virginia's senior kicker/punter was "bullied" in Saturday's victory against South Florida and worried he may have been hurt.

He kicked through a botched block attempt by Jamar Taylor -- and subsequently punted Taylor in the stomach -- in the first quarter. In the fourth quarter, he was hit again by Quenton Washington and sent spinning to the turf.

"They kept coming, didn't they?" McAfee said. "Once wasn't enough."

For McAfee, it was. As Taylor dove and somehow missed the ball in the end zone, McAfee swung through his motion. The lower part of his right leg continued up while Taylor's dive stopped the upper part of his leg.

"I really thought I hurt myself on that one," McAfee said.

As if that wasn't enough, the ball traveled 69 yards and the official watching the play said it was deflected and did not throw a penalty flag.

"I thought I was going to have a heart attack," Coach Bill Stewart said. "He said the ball was tipped. I said, 'How the heck can the ball go 65 yards and be tipped?'" He said, 'Well, we'll look at it.'"

After a brief video replay review, the Mountaineers were vindicated and awarded 15 yards and a first down for a roughing the kicker penalty.

"I thought he got a hand on it honestly," McAfee said. "When I hit that one, I thought it was going to go. I really got a hold of it. But I don't know how he didn't block it. When I dropped the ball, I saw his hand right there."

Early in the fourth quarter, the scenario was replayed. McAfee punted from his own 43-yard line and was torpedoed by Mitchell, who tried to avoid contact, but ended up whipping McAfee around. The punter fell hard and slammed his right knee into the turf.

"I thought I was going to jump over him," McAfee said. "I saw him and I tried to do a little Michael Jordan kick-the-air thing. I thought I'd get over him. That one hurt, too."

That punt went far as well and the officials didn't throw a flag. It was reviewed again and overturned again.

McAfee basically accounted for two first downs and 30 yards of offense.

"How about that?" he said. "And two official reviews for roughing the kicker."

McAfee would be the first Big East player to win the award, which is in its ninth season. Dan Mozes' 2006 Rimington Trophy is WVU's only other individual player major award in school history.

The award show is at 7:30 (ESPN telecast) from the Walt Disney World Resort, in Orlando, Fla. McAfee, who last week bought a suit, got his hair cut and started wearing earrings again to "loosen up the earlobes," is traveling with his parents, Stewart and Drew Singleton.

"He's been my equipment manager and my ball boy the last four years," McAfee said. "I've got to take care of my ball boy."

Utah's Louie Sakoda and Oklahoma State's Matt Fodge are the other finalists. Like McAfee, Sakoda is a punter and kicker and actually a finalist for the Lou Groza Award given to the top kicker.

Their second daughter, Breana, 8, was born with a rare chronic autoimmune inflammatory disease that has rendered her ill for much of her life.

Between hospitalizations, expensive medications, and regular trips to Maryland for specialized treatments, Tracy and Gary Wilcox have not had the time or the means for any respite.

Until last month, that is, when a charitable foundation called the Dream Factory whisked away the family of four on a dream vacation.

"My family is really blessed," Tracy Wilcox said through tears as she recalled the trip.

The seven-day vacation to Florida included visits to Disney World, Sea World and a dinner show. They stayed at a charitable luxury resort for chronically ill children, called Give Kids the World Village, that offered amusements, an ice cream palace, a Castle of Miracles, presents, and star treatment for the entire family.

"It put joy back into Breana's life," said her mother. "It did for all of us. It gave us hope."

On the flight down, the pilot let Breana sit in his seat prior to take-off. It was at that moment that Tracy and Gary Wilcox realized the four of them had never been on a plane together. Typically, it's just Tracy and Breana, flying to Maryland for treatments at the National Institutes of Health.

"It was truly amazing," said Tracy. "We were greeted when we got off the airplane, and we weren't allow to do anything, not even carry our bags. My husband and I hadn't even left the airport and already felt overwhelmed with compassion."

The resort gave the family a DVD camera-recorder for the week.

"I recorded Breana getting a star at the Castle of Miracles ... and I'm just bawling," she said. "Now we'll always have our week there, because we don't know what tomorrow will bring."

Breana's condition has been difficult for doctors to treat, since only an estimated 400 to 500 people suffer from it worldwide, her mother said.

Sometimes the vessels in Breana's brain swell; other times the disease causes inflammation in her limbs or other parts of her body. She can spike a fever over 107 degrees in 30 minutes. She takes many medications for her condition and pain management, and for stomach-related issues.

"On a good day, you would have no idea (that she has the disease)," said her mother. "But she has missed 20 days of school this year" at Carlton School in Salem.

Caring for a child with a chronic illness can be exhausting and lonesome, which is another reason the vacation meant so much.

"It was magical," Tracy said, "and you got to meet other families going through the same thing you were. ... It left us invigorated. I feel like our family has a life back again."

The Wilcox family lives near Salem High School, and their daughter Ashley, 18, started college this year. The family say they are forever indebted to the Dream Factory of Merrimack Valley and will do what they can to help other families enjoy a similar experience.

Tracy Wilcox has also been an advocate of pending legislation, called Nino's Act, that would require Medicaid to cover treatments of rare pediatric diseases that insurance carriers don't cover. She has spoken personally with Sen. Ted Kennedy and also with Sen. John Kerry's office.

Back to the housing future at Disneyland

Examiner - That line from the classic movie, The Graduate shows a scene from Benjamin's graduation party. "It's plastics, my boy – there's the future . . ." was indeed a sign of the times when the movie was made in 1967. In fact, the 1957 Monsanto 'Plastics Home of the Future' at the original Anaheim Disneyland provided a practical demonstration of the almost limitless potential of plastics in structural applications.

Wednesday, he was named SEC offensive player of the year. Thursday night, the Gators quarterback will be presented Disney’s Spirit Award during the Home Depot ESPNU College Football Awards show at Disney’s Boardwalk. The honor comes for Tebow’s work off the field speaking at jails and doing ministry work such as a mission trip to the Philippines last summer.

"I’ve always been very passionate about football, but it is not going to be my life’s work forever, and I’d like to think I am not defined by it," Tebow said in a statement. "To be recognized by Disney Sports for the way I try to use my platform to spread my message about faith and to join the list of recipients of this award is a blessing and it is very, very humbling."

Tebow also is a finalist for the Maxwell Award, giving to the nation’s best all-around player. Tebow won that award, as well as the Davey O’Brien award given to the nation’s top quarterback, in 2007 as a prelude to his Heisman Trophy victory. This year, his competition for the Maxwell Award is Texas Tech QB Graham Harrell and Texas QB Colt McCoy. Oklahoma QB Sam Bradford joins those two in place of Tebow as an O’Brien finalist.

Florida State also will be represented Thursday night. FSU’s Graham Gano is one of three finalists for the Lou Groza Award given to the nation’s top kicker. Seminoles Coach Bobby Bowden will be presented with the Contributions to College Football Award by the National College Football Awards Association.

Disney Cast Members Collect 20,000 Toys for Local Children

In addition to donating toys, hundreds of VoluntEARS gave 2,000 hours helping to register thousands of local families, translating the Toys for Tots registration forms into Spanish and Haitian-Creole, sorting and stocking shelves with collected toys and assisting with the distribution of toys to families.

This year, Central Florida Toys for Tots expects to assist thousands of families from Orange, Osceola and Seminole counties in celebrating the holiday season with gifts for their children. The annual toy drive is meant to send a message of hope to youngsters to motivate them to mature into responsible, productive, patriotic citizens and community leaders.

Since 1948, Toys for Tots has collected and distributed more than 19 million toys to more than 9 million needy children across the nation. Disney’s involvement with Toys for Tots dates back to when Walt Disney himself, inspired by the nationwide toy drive, decades ago designed the original Toys for Tots logo.

"I'm not going to make any sweeping announcements today" about layoffs, Staggs said at the UBS media confab in Gotham on Tuesday. "You'll see us taking some of those steps in the ensuing weeks and months. But we also have the luxury of having management teams in our individual businesses that are very experienced with taking on that challenge. So I don't think it makes a lot of sense for us from a corporate standpoint to set a potentially arbitrary bogey."

The Mouse House is seeing some erosion in attendance at theme parks -- off about 4% for the current quarter, with only international visits holding steady. But discount offers have helped parks avoid serious slippage. Hotel bookings have dropped 6% over the first and second quarters, which is better than the 10% falloff management predicted in November.

TV ad revenue, a sore spot for all media congloms, has also slumped at Disney. ESPN is seeing high-single-digit percentage drops in ad sales during the current quarter.

"It's not like the ad market has gone away," Staggs said. "But the pace of sales has slowed."

Scatter sales at ABC are actually 10% ahead of upfront sales levels in the current quarter, Staggs noted, but volume is low.

Local TV stations are pacing about 15% behind the prior year. "The softness at stations is more acute" than elsewhere in the TV biz, Staggs said.

The homevid biz across all distribs is at risk during the all-important fourth-quarter holiday season due to confusion over Blu-ray and continuing consumer pullback. Staggs said "Wall-E" is selling well but may not equal the numbers of "Ratatouille," a comparable Pixar release from 2007.

"The DVD business is going to see some impact from the downturn, but how much remains to be seen," he said. So far, the performance of Blu-ray has been "mixed," though Disney research suggests owners of new Blu-ray players tend to buy Blu-ray discs despite their higher price point.

Not that I had a sheltered childhood — anything but, in fact. Still, not until my mid-40s, for example, did I marry. And not until then either did I experience the true joys of canine friendship.

And finally, two Fridays ago, I got to utter what millions way more than half my age have been able to say: “Hey, I’m going to Disney World.”

OK, I’ll admit it. I was a reluctant participant in this venture at first. My lovely wife repeatedly spoke to the delights of the “happiest place on Earth.” Still, I refused to be swayed from my hard-shelled initial opinions — or from my inchoate fear of being mauled by “big-headed cartoon characters.”

Seriously, as a middle-age guy rapidly advancing toward codger-dom, I just didn’t think there would be enough down Orlando way that would appeal to me over an eight-day stay. And so, unwilling — uncharacteristically, may I add — to take my wife’s word on this score, I started canvassing Disney vets of, let’s say, middle age (guys in particular) on what I could expect. And, more importantly, whether I would like it.

I must say that after chatting with Dennis Hinkle, one of Handley’s all-time athletic luminaries who happens to attend Toni’s church — Market Street United Methodist — I felt a whole lot better about my chances. “Hinkle” told me I’d really enjoy Disney, though he did prepare me for the inevitability of walking — a lot.

What’s more, after we had returned, Larry Ambrogi, former Frederick County prosecutor, informed me how much he had enjoyed Disney — especially the technology and gadgetry that is so much a part of Walt’s world. I, too, repeatedly found myself saying, “How did they do that?” as I marveled at trashcans that “walked” and “talked” and the 3-D techno-gizmos that buzz through the “Bug’s Life” show.

Still, it was much more than that. I truly had a wonderful time as Toni and I wrung every last possible millisecond out of our Disney “experience.”

The weather was decidedly un-Florida-like — chilly to the point of being cold — but we managed to spend copious hours at each of the four theme parks, carefully negotiating our way through what I concluded were the three native species of Disney aficionados: the stroller people, the scooter people, and the backpack people.

But when all was said and done, Toni, predictably and to her everlasting credit, was right and I wrong. There was plenty for me to do and appreciate. And I had fun most every millisecond.

Here’s a quick rundown of my Disney “favorites”:
Favorite park — Animal Kingdom, with its Kilimanjaro Safari (which we went on twice), gets my nod, with Disney Hollywood a close second. Favorite ride — Soarin’, the aerial tour of California’s wonders at Epcot, is all it’s cracked up to be. Favorite coaster — Close call here, as I reveled in the madcap thrills of both the Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster at Disney Hollywood and Expedition Everest at the Animal Kingdom. If forced to choose, I’d go with the latter, as I truly love outdoor coasters that feature those long, slow climbs up an incline on which all you see is sky and your mind is riveted on the inevitable rocketing descent. Favorite show — The Christmas candlelight procession, a seasonal fixture at Epcot, complete with orchestra and choir. We attended twice, and saw actors John O’Hurley and Neil Patrick Harris read the Christmas story. Favorite eatery — Lunch (scrumptious Yankee pot roast) at the Liberty Tree Tavern in the Magic Kingdom was great, but, as Toni will tell you, I liked the kitschy ambience of the ’50s Prime Time Cafe at Disney Hollywood, too. Favorite serendipitous moment — A no-brainer. Stumbling on the taping of ABC’s Christmas show at the Magic Kingdom and hearing Broadway’s Sarah Brightman sing “Silent Night.” Achingly beautiful is the only way to describe her rendition.

So of all the films, why did Hahn and company pick Beauty and the Beast to remake in 3D? The answer was for practical as well as artistic reasons:

About a year ago we looked at our library and looked at the 3D Technology and the fact that more 3D screens are becoming available every week. It’s a chance to take a title that’s very beloved by the audience and try to share it in a way that people haven’t seen before. Also, the way we made it and archived it allowed us to do it. If it were any other movie, it might have been somewhat more difficult. We did Beauty and the Beast on the CAPS [Computer Animation Production System] System, which is the early computer animation system that we had at Disney and archived it in separate layers and separate levels, so there’s a great separation of all the artwork in the computer. So, we can go back in now and separate those layers into a depth of field to create a great 3D experience for the audience. In the end, we’re trying to deliver a great new piece of animation on a really familiar and beloved movie title.

But what would the animating process be like? Would only the CGI backgrounds that were lauded in Beauty appear in 3D? Would the 3D simply be layers of flatness? Hahn responded:

We didn’t want to do the layers of flatness. There are some old Chip and Dale cartoons that do that. One of the first 3D movies is called Starchaser and it was just layers of flat, kind of viewmaster-looking flat. I think what we we want to do is not do that, and create a truly dimensional environment. It’s a very hybrid approach. There’s some proprietary software that Disney created for this, and it actually bends the drawings around geometry. You take a character like Belle or the Beast and you create geometry in the computer that matches the image on the screen, and then bend the original movie around that geometry, be it the character or a background, a tree, or a building or whatever. That creates very dimensional, round faces.

This sounded similar to the method they used to convert The Nightmare Before Christmas into 3D (Hahn produced the 3D version of that film as well). When I asked Hahn what this new proprietary system was called, Hahn responded, “I don’t think they’ve named it yet…It’s so new, that they haven’t put a moniker to it.”

Hahn also assured me that all the animation in the film would be virtually indistinguishable from its original:

We wanted to deliver the original movie. We didn’t want to add new drawings or take away anything from the original movie. I think all you’ll notice is that now suddenly there is great depth to everything on the screen. The effect is somewhat like the Haunted Mansion Madame Leota when you go through the ride at Disneyland and they project a piece of film onto a mannequin head. When that projector hits the mannequin head, it bends the light around it and it looks like it’s 3D. It’s not unlike that, where you’re taking the film, a character like Belle, and projecting her on a digital, rounded surface mannequin head. When it hits that, it breaks out into a 3D looking object that then you can photograph with a right eye, left eye, and create the illusion of depth.

Keep an eye out later this week on slashfilm.com for the full interview, courtesy of the /Film movie podcast. A big thanks to Andy Sorcini from The Drill Down podcast for making this interview possible.

Disney and the founders of UTV Software together acquired an additional 23% of UTV Software shares in an open offer conducted by Goldman Sachs. The move gave Disney more than 50% of the company and lifted their combined holding to 83%.

In February, the Mouse House paid $190 million raise its holding from 14% to 32% -- a move that automatically triggered an open offer for the company. Minority shareholders might not have accepted the offer, but the recent stock market slump made it attractive for them to sell.

In a related agreement between Disney and UTV Software founder and CEO Ronnie Screwvala, Disney has agreed not to vote the shares acquired in the open offer for four years, until November 2012. Disney keeps an unchanged three seats on the 12-person board of directors. Agreement potentially allows Screwvala to buy back Disney’s holding of UTV Software shares to the point that he and the U.S. studio have equal ownership.

The share acquisition reps the first time a Hollywood studio has taken a majority interest in a Bollywood major.

Ada Briceño, 681’s president, has been spearheading the offensive for almost a year — the contract ran out at the end of January, and workers have been without one since.

Unite Here has been holding demonstrations outside the parks, getting themselves arrested and sending in mariachi bands at 6 a.m. to play under hotel windows.