User blog:Mobo85/The Danville Dish for August 13, 2010: Contests and Music and Crafts, Oh My!

From the guy who occasionally has his pinky finger on the pulse of pop culture- which I'm guessing is me- comes the first installment of what may or may not be a regular news series about goings-on in the world of Phineas and Ferb I like to call "Danville Dish" (because I'm a sucker for aliteration).

First off, an event that AgentGoldfish already told us about, but is worth repeating: tomorrow (that's Saturday, August 14), most Disney Stores across the United States will be holding a free Phineas and Ferb craft activity, where they will screen the short "Toy to the World" and then help guests construct their very own non-functioning Perry the Platypus Inaction Figure to take home! It's the hottest toy of the season, because it does absolutely nothing! There will be two sessions at 11 am and 1 pm. Call local store to confirm participation.

Disney and its subsidiaries are also currently holding three Phineas and Ferb-based contests. First off, there's the "U Rock" contest (which I recently blogged about before), which is the third annual installment of a contest Disney has been holding for fans to create and upload short music videos featuring songs from Disney shows and artists to win a prize based on that show or artist. This year, one of the featured songs is "Backyard Beach," and the prize associated with that song is a trip to Hollywood to go behind the scenes of Phineas and Ferb, meet the creators, and record a voice-over for an upcoming episode. Radio Disney is holding a contest where the prize is $10,000 to "build your dream vacation" and a chance for your likeness (from a photograph) to be animated into a Phineas and Ferb episode. And finally, for you folks who want to be creative like Phineas and Ferb there's the Chain Reaction contest (a somewhat-unoriginal name that just so happens to get around paying royalties to the estate of a certain cartoonist whose name is linked to such things), where viewers are encouraged to create their own goofy Rube...er, chain reactions using Phineas and Ferb character cutouts and whatever unusual items they have around the house and record said things in action, the prize being having the winning reaction filmed to air on Disney Channel and Disney XD. There are all sorts of things like eligibility and rules and such that I don't have the space to put here, so look into those on the contest sites themselves if you're interested. I will point out, though, that you must be a U.S. resident and under a certain age to enter (except for the U Rock contest, which is open not only to children, but to parents of children entering on their behalf).

And finally for now, I recently stumbled onto an account of Phineas and Ferb songwriter Martin Olson on a site called Soundcloud, which is apparently some sort of site for musicians to upload some tracks. He has a couple of nice goodies on there, including the original temp track for the song "Summer Belongs to You" as sung by Danny Jacob and Mr. Olson's daughter Olivia (better known as the voice of Vanessa Doofenshmirtz) and, most interesting of all, an unused song called "Some Mysterious Force," in which Candace's lot in life is lamented lyrically (I told you I was a sucker for alteration). It's a shame the song went unused, since it's pretty catchy, and I'm hoping that the producers find a way to fit it into a future project. Hopefully Mr. Olson will treat us to more musical gems in the future.

Until next time- if there turns out being one- you can follow me on Twitter for more of my insane ramblings on pop culture and things in general and insert sign-off catchphrase here. Hmm, I guess I never got around to thinking of one of those...