Meet Chef Mayhem, the creator of DoomBuggies
Greetings, ghost fans!
I always appreciate putting a face with a name, so maybe you'll enjoy doing the same. I'm Chef Mayhem, the creator of DoomBuggies.com. I'm the Art Director for a group of publications in the Silicon Valley, and I received my degree in design from San José State University after narrowly avoiding a degree in music. I've worked professionally in various art departments for well over 20 years.
I also often work as a freelance designer, focusing on web sites and logo/identity packages. Some of my past graphic design clients include Apple Computers, Inc., Intel Corporation, and Billy Graham Ministries... but enough with the resumé.
Sound and fury
I'm also a musician, and I've been in a rock band, recorded under a Grammy-nominated producer, and produced numerous professional Haunted House soundtracks (including one released by Radio Disney). I regularly do volunteer work for my church as a pianist. Additionally, I currently perform in a band that plays exclusively in prison to share a little positive and optimistic spiritual energy with men in a dreary and often bleak place. I've found volunteer work to be the most rewarding outlet for my artistic ventures.
Creative renewal
I live in the Silicon Valley, and try to get down to Disneyland at least three times a year for creative renewal. I'm sure many of you can relate. Just being surrounded with the product of so much collective imagination is like finding an oasis in the desert of mediocrity that pop culture often becomes. I simply find that in terms of my artistic nature, Disneyland is a refreshing place to be.
I served as a member of the 2003 Disneyland Creative Advisory Council. During this time, our small group gathered regularly at the Team Disney Anaheim offices to meet with the resort's management to discuss the public's experience with the park, and to review various marketing projects, and new or proposed merchandise. And In 2005, I was included in Daily Variety's special issue dedicated to Disneyland's 50th Anniversary.
Haunting Halloweens
I've always adored Disneyland, ever since the days when I'd run around the park in the mid '70s with my sister and my friends Robbin and Christine - the days when parents could let their eight- and ten-year old kids run loose in a theme park all day, and feel safe about it. I've also always loved spook houses, Halloween masks, bones, bugs and all sorts of creepy stuff - I was tracing pictures of skulls and fossils from my parents' Time Life nature books at the age of four, if my mom's stories are true. And I went through three different copies of the Haunted Mansion record album featured on the audio page of this site, because I kept breaking the records when I would trace the pictures in the album booklet.
Fright Factories
By the time I became a teenager, two friends (Dave and Craig) and I got together and produced the first of many annual Haunted Houses (called "The Fright Factory") to raise money for homeless aid organizations. We were inspired by the popular (and gruesome) "Campus Life" haunted houses that would be set up in tents around town when we were kids. Since the end of our haunting years, I've created DoomBuggies.com, Dave went on to work in special effects in LA and is now webmaster of Club Haunt, and Craig is now an A-list cameraman in Hollywood. Props, fellas.
Mayhem minutia
In
the early to mid '90s, Chef Mayhem performed with a band called "The
Recruits," playing live shows throughout the Bay Area, receiving lots
of regional radio play and scoring a development deal that resulted in some
songs being released on a CD called "Songs
You've Never Heard" which was released nationally by Word Records.
Though the album title proved speciously prophetic in the sense that not
many people bought the disc or heard the songs, you can enjoy some of the
fine '90s pop-rock by The Recruits (with Chef Mayhem on keys/piano) here:
Ninety-Nine
Point Nine from the Recruits self-titled debut album
Sorry
from the Recruits self-titled debut album
Maybe
(live)
Who
I Am (demo) from the Mike
Roe sessions
Can't
Tell You Why from "Songs You've Never Heard"
(The rest of the Recruits are Eric Campbell, Jim Dequine, and Rick Swanson.)
I think that's enough rambling on. Now you know me a little bit, and that's what I intended. Go on and get back to the good stuff. Comments or questions? Drop me a line and let me know what you think of the place.
—The Chef
Note: The MP3 files streamed on this page may be downloaded for personal use, but may not be copied to another internet site, nor may they be shared, sold, or used commercially without written permission from the copyright holders, etc. etc. Oh - one other thing: I am in no way a real chef. It just rhymes with "Jeff."
1313 Magazine
The following article, titled Disney's Haunted Mansion: The Ultimate Dark Ride, was written by Jeff "Chef Mayhem" Baham and was published in the premiere issue of 1313 Magazine as an informal introduction to Disney's Haunted Mansion. Intended to give a general overview of the attraction, it also demonstrates Baham's passion for dark rides in general, and sets the Mansion in context as it relates to the broader world of themed entertainment. Click here to read the article.