Dreams Of Noise

Our old buddy Gary Wood, the filmmaker behind Saving Star Wars, is doing something cool for the next week:

Beginning today, August 23, through Friday, August 30, WoodWorks Films will donate $2.00 from every online viewing/rental of Saving Star Wars. We're excited to make this happen and hope you'll make this a Saving Star Wars/Make-A-Wish Weekend.

If you haven't seen it before, SSW is a great little picture, with humor, wit, and a lot of heart. I wrote "Rock Me Amidala" for it, and I'm proud to be a part of it.

Check it out, won't you? And, if you like it, boost the signal.

So many things we celebrate on Geek Pride Day!

First, of course, it's the Glorious 25th of May, for all you Discworld fans.

It's also the 36th anniversary of the release of the original, non-Episode IV Star Wars. We weren't completely unprepared -- technically, Jaws was the first "blockbuster" -- but, besides being the coolest thing most of us had ever seen up to that point, Star Wars was absolutely transformative in how films were both created and marketed. Along with Star Trek, it can be considered one of the foundations of modern mythology.

And, celebrating another of those foundations, it's Towel Day, celebrating the life and writings of author Douglas Adams, creator of The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy. Here's hoping that, someday, we'll all have a proper edition of that mind-bogglingly useful book.

And, on top of all that, it's the birthday of such geek legends as Edward Bulwer-Lytton (1803), Sir Ian McKellen (1939), Frank Oz (1944), Barry Windsor-Smith (1949), and Stan Sakai (1953).

How are you celebrating Geek Pride Day? I'm at Up In The Aether Con in Dearborn, MI, where the place has already been going crazy since yesterday morning. Wonderful folks, superb cosplay, Victorian mad science, gorgeous women in corsets, fun fun fun.

Sadness. Actor Richard LeParmentier has passed away at the age of 66.

For those of you who don't recognize him, here's a little reminder:



Yep, good ol' loudmouth Admiral Motti was the first guy we ever saw get Force-choked.

LeParmentier worked in a number of other movies and TV shows (most notably Who Framed Roger Rabbit?), but without doubt that scene will always be his most famous, and most iconic. Rest well, sir, and may the Force be with you.

Disney to buy LucasFilm.

ETA: Fascinating speculation by Alyssa Rosenberg.

How to watch the Star Wars movies and have them make sense and work better dramatically (thanks to Anne for the heads-up).

What are your favorite, and least favorite, scenes in the six main Star Wars films? I differentiate that because (for instance), though I think Ep 2: Attack of the Clones is by and large a piece of garbage (and it includes one of my least favorite scenes, the whole "sand" thing that's supposed to be romantic), it also includes the incredible sequence where Anakin's gonna leave to find his hostage mother, and Padme fiercely embraces him outside in the dying light, and there's a swell of Luke's theme, and then we cut to Anakin on a speeder, and the grim determination on his face is mirrored by the musical segue into "Duel of the Fates". Powerful, powerful moment.

Oh my.

Note that they have it at night now, with a much more elaborate stage -- video screen, a second level with stairs, and pyro. This is getting pretty darn popular.



(And the Slave Leia and Amidala are gorgeous, but I simply cannot believe how hot the tall bone-white woman is. Every year, her Jedi mind tricks work on me juuuuuust fine.)

Great sadness -- one of the visionaries has died. Ralph McQuarrie, best known as the production illustrator for Star Wars, has passed away at the age of 82.

Consider how much of modern science fiction's visual currency is based on his work: Darth Vader, C3PO, R2D2, the Death Star, X-Wings, Y-Wings, TIE Fighters, Leia's hair buns, Boba Fett, Jabba the Hutt, Cylons, the Galactica, Colonial Vipers, the Mothership in Close Encounters, the look and feel of the Indiana Jones movies, Jurassic Park....

Rest well, sir, and thank you for your dreams.

The music of Inception, the visuals of Star Wars, and the speech by Charlie Chaplin from The Great Dictator.

What speeches, real-life or fictional, inspire you? Link 'em up.

Thanks to hms42 for pointing me to this. Trust us, it's highly necessary for the enjoyment of your day.