Eons ago, when I was a kid, I remember spending a lot of time with a record called "Music: How It's Made and Played." It was an orchestral-music primer, introducing all the different instruments and the way they blended together, and it had that Disney knack for making the subject both accessible and mysterious. When all those instruments cranked up together, it sounded like the spookiest soundtrack ever.

Somehow, The Polyphonic Spree conjures up that same feeling. The group played Cat's Cradle Saturday night, their first Triangle show in some years, delivering another lovely dose of rapture. It's odd to think of a 15-piece band as "stripped down"; nevertheless, this was indeed the leanest version of the Spree that I've ever seen. Flautist Audrey Easley was missing, and this configuration also didn't have harp or theremin.

But Tim Delaughter, the Walt Disney of symphonic indie-rock spectacle, was still out front, channeling his and your inner child. There was also a xylophone, a three-piece horn section and a killer cello player. And even though they didn't do the one that always make me mist up, they did "Soldier Girl," "When the Fool Becomes a King" and a drop-dead perfect medley of "See Me Feel Me/Listening to You"-"Pinball Wizard" (if ever a band was meant to cover The Who, it's Polyphonic Spree).

There was laughter, a lot of jumping up and down, smiling -- plus confetti. Lots and lots of confetti. A joyous 90 minutes of bittersweet whimsy that left me feeling 8 years old again, and that's always a good thing.

So why weren’t you there?

(Photo: Patty Chase)

"American Idol" winner Scotty McCreery will be honored in a "gala motorcade" at Disney Hollywood Studios in Orlando, Florida, on Monday.

Scotty will ride with Mickey Mouse in a sports car from the park's entrance down Hollywood Blvd to the "American Idol Experience" attraction. Scotty will take the stage to talk about winning "Idol" and will pose for pictures with Mickey and Minnie.

The motorcade event takes place at 10 a.m.

There's no indication right now that any of this is televised or broadcast on any of Disney's channels, but if you're desperate to see it, you might try checking the Disney Parks blog or googling some Orlando TV station websites Monday afternoon.

Disney says the motorcade plans are subject to change if there's inclement weather, so follow @WaltDisneyWorld on Twitter for any updates.

All of the "Idol" Top 5 finishers will visit the "American Idol Experience" attraction at Disney World on Sunday, but it's unclear if there will be any type of performance or special event for them.

Old Yeller (6:30am, Turner Classic Movies) - Disney has a full day of live-action classics, starting with this brutally sad story about a stray dog living with a frontier family in the 1860s. It stars Fess Parker, Dorothy McGuire, and Tommy Kirk. Also on tap today, "Pollyanna" with Haley Mills and Jane Wyman (8am), "The Apple Dumpling Gang" with Don Knotts and Tim Conway (10:15am), "Swiss Family Robinson" with John Mills and Dorothy McGuire (noon), "The Love Bug" with Dean Jones and Michelle Lee (2:15pm), "The Parent Trap" with Maureen O'Hara and Brian Keith (4:15pm), "Escape to Witch Mountain" with Kim Richards and Ray Milland (8pm), and its sequel, "Return from Witch Mountain" with Bette Davis  (10pm). Sad note: Kim Richards currently stars in "Real Housewives of Beverly Hills."

The Sound of Music (7pm, ABC) - Restored to its original length (that's why it's running for four hours), the Oscar-winning adaptation of the classic Rodgers and Hammerstein musical starring Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer.

Running Wilde (9:30pm, Fox) - Fox airs a random episode of this struggling (and not very funny) sitcom on a Sunday night in the middle of a bunch of other reruns. It's doomed. Tonight, Steve (Will Arnett) gets a visit from his stepmother (Drea de Matteo), who wants to rein in his spending.

Top Gear (10pm, History) - An English sports car made out of wood is tested, and there's a race between a car, a boat, and a plane.

Time Warner Cable's customers will soon be able to use the Internet to watch sports events, including some that not available on cable television. 

Online access to live ESPN broadcasts will be available for free to Time Warner customers as soon as Oct. 25, just in time for ESPN's online streaming broadcast of a Monday night football contest between the New York Giants and Dallas Cowboys.

Time Warner will offer two online services: ESPN online, showing the same programs that are broadcast on cable TV, and ESPN3, which has exclusive programming available only  online.

The streaming video game can be watched by Time Warner customers who subscribe to ESPN cable programs, which is virtually all Time Warner customers. 

Wolfpack and Blue Devil fans who buy Internet access from Time Warner Cable may not be able to watch their football teams' home openers live online tomorrow.

N.C. State's game against Western Carolina and Duke University's game against Elon are scheduled to be shown only on ESPN3.com. The games won't be aired on TV. To see live action at home, it's Internet streaming or nothing.

Under a new contract reached late Thursday between Time Warner Cable and Walt Disney Co., which owns ESPN, the ESPN3 website will soon be available to Time Warner Cable customers in this region for the first time.

But because the companies' dispute wasn't resolved until Thursday, Time Warner Cable engineers and programmers may not have enough time to get the system set up by Saturday night, said spokesman Keith Poston.

"We obviously would love to have it available for our subscribers and we're working as fast as we can to make it happen," he said. "I'm sure fans will be disappointed, but it's not something they've had before. This site wasn't available last season."
 

Time Warner Cable and Walt Disney Co. agreed to keep ABC, ESPN and other channels on the air as the two companies continued negotiations past a midnight deadline.

The media companies are trying to reach a new contract and avoid blackouts for Time Warner Cable customers, but haven't come to terms on a new deal. Their existing contract expired at midnight.

"We continue to negotiate - there should be no programming interruption while the negotiations continue," Time Warner Cable spokesman Keith Poston wrote in an e-mail this morning. "Stay tuned."

The fight between the Triangle's cable-TV provider and Walt Disney, the owner of ESPN, ABC 11 and other channels, is coming down to the wire.

Time Warner Cable and Disney officials have been in negotiations for months, but haven't agreed to terms of a new contract. If they don't reach a deal by Wednesday, the spat could lead to blackouts for millions of cable subscribers across the country -- just in time for football season and the new fall-TV lineup.

In today's News & Observer, Time Warner Cable ran a full-page ad blaming Disney for the blackout threat.

Playdom, a leading social-media game company, in April bought Merscom, a Chapel Hill game developer with about 25 employees.

On Tuesday the consolidation continued: Playdom announced it agreed to be acquired by Walt Disney Co. for more than $500 million.

The deal extends Disney's push into online and mobile games. Playdom is one of the top makers of games played on Facebook and MySpace, with titles such as “Social City” and “Sorority Life.”

The purchase, which Disney expects to close by September, also gives the media giant a Triangle office.

You might want to have this on your radar for Christmas morning -- The Walt Disney Christmas Day Parade hosted by Regis Philbin, Kelly Ripa, and Ryan Seacrest. The parade will feature music by Miley Cyrus, the Jonas Brothers, and American Idol winner David Cook. Also appearing, Corbin Bleu of High School Musical, and all the usual Disney characters. 

The two hour special starts at 10am on ABC. So when you've opened all the presents and you're trying to manage a screaming tantrum over the lack of AA batteries, turn this on for the kiddies. The shiny young Disney stars will distract them and make them happy again. Or Regis will yell at someone and we can all smile.