Somewhere in the deep, dark recesses of the Bennion Archive, I’ve got a stack of old Science Digest magazines, a gift subscription my parents bought for me around 1982 or thereabouts. I keep meaning to have a look through them some mellow afternoon when I have nothing better to do, and I’ve even had thoughts of scanning the more interesting covers for my photo gallery, but naturally I never seem to find the time.
A long time ago, just before I started my freshman year of high school, I fell in love with the British TV series Doctor Who. You know, that ultra-low-budget sci-fi serial about a guy who time-travels in an old telephone booth (well, technically, a police box, but it’s still a variety of phone booth) and encounters all manner of bizarre creatures bent on destroying humanity and conquering the universe?
A few recent tidbits concerning that “save the chocolate” thing:
If anyone out there would like to know more about East Hollywood High School, that film-oriented charter school I mentioned a week or so ago, my buddy Mike Chenoweth just sent me a link to a nice write-up published today in the Davis County Clipper. It describes pretty thoroughly what the school is all about, quotes the Chenopup very liberally, and even features a photo of the man himself, just in case you like knowing what your fellow Loyal Readers look like. Go give it a read…
So, as long as we’re dwelling in Lucasland today, here’s the latest stuff I’ve heard about Indiana Jones IV:
Over the past ten years or so, George Lucas has seemed to go out of his way to alienate his own fan base. There were, of course, the Special Edition re-edits of the classic Star Wars trilogy, the myriad disappointments that accompanied the prequel trilogy, and the milking of our wallets with multiple home-video releases of the original films that still, somehow, never quite deliver what we actually want. But he’s also said a lot of offensive things, like his recent comment that he considers The Empire Strikes Back — generally seen by the fans as the best of the six Star Wars movies — to be the worst of the series. (I personally think this was probably not worth the uproar it provoked. I suspect it was a failed attempt at a joke, or something taken way out of context. Or maybe he just wanted to screw with our heads and he knew exactly which button to push.) The impression he often gives is that he’d be a lot happier if the whole Star Wars thing had never happened and he didn’t have any fans.
That’s why it was so surprising to read that he has offered official Lucasfilm support for the upcoming indie movie Fanboys, which follows the adventures of a group of Star Wars fans driving cross-country to steal a print of The Phantom Menace from Lucas’ Skywalker Ranch. George has also lent his approval and Lucasfilm’s assistance to a 30-minute Star Wars spoof for the animated cable series Robot Chicken (don’t feel bad, I’ve never heard of it either), going so far as to lend his voice to his own stop-motion likeness.
Could it be that Uncle George is finally gaining a sense of humor about this whole crazy thing? And that maybe, just maybe, now that the pressure of making the prequels is off, he’s even learning to appreciate his fans again? Anything’s possible… although I’ll be more inclined to believe it when I’m holding a DVD of the unrevised Star Wars in my clammy little fanboy hands…
(Incidentally, the trailer for Fanboys is online here. It looks pretty damn funny… and, in a show of cross-franchise solidarity, it even includes The Shat!)
Cranky Robert just sent me this:
Oh, if only I’d kept up on my Sith lessons. I could totally use that Force-choke thing just about everytime I’m out in public…
Here’s a genuine headline from today’s Salt Lake Tribune:
Satan behind illegal immigration, Utah County Republican claims
And the relevant graf:
District 65 Chairman Don Larsen submitted a resolution to be discussed at Saturday’s Utah County Republican Convention that opposes the devil’s plan to destroy the country by stealth invasion of illegal immigrants.
I love living in this state. No, really, I do…
So, a few days ago, I reminisced about how my friend Cheno and our merry little band of youthful movie buffs used to shoot our own movies on a VHS camcorder. Cheno was the writer-director on most of these efforts, while the rest of us pulled multiple duties as on-screen talent, camera operators, stunt performers, grips, prop masters, and caterers. Our finished films — the ones we did finish, that is — were always entertaining, and Cheno came up with a lot of creative solutions to deal with various problems, but I must be honest: they were pretty primitive stuff. They couldn’t be anything otherwise, given the equipment we had available at the time.
That’s why I am continually amazed at the amateur-made stuff I see on the web nowadays. As uncomfortable as I may be with many aspects of the digital revolution that’s swept our society in the past 20 years, I can’t deny that it’s made a lot of things possible for the average person that weren’t even worth dreaming about back in the day. Take, for example, the short animated film C.O.D.E. Guardian, which imagines a World War II battle fought with anime-style giant robots (it’s presented in two parts in the following YouTube clips):
As long as I’m in a complaining mood today anyway, I may as well mention that one of the reasons I’m not a big fan of so-called “literary fiction” is the way authors of this stuff so often play with the standard rules and techniques of fiction writing. Presumably they’re trying for some kind of effect, and also presumably fans of LitFic appreciate and enjoy this; me, I just think it comes across as pretentious and gimmicky.
Case in point: I’m currently reading a novel called This is the Place by Peter Rock, which, in general, I am enjoying. (Rock has created some wonderful evocations of Wendover, Nevada, and the Bonneville Salt Flats, two places I just visited last month.) However, the guy is apparently unaware of the existence of the quotation mark. None of the book’s dialogue uses it. Instead, you’re just supposed to pick up from context that someone is speaking, as in this passage:
How you doing, Jamie? The bartender knew what she wanted before she said a word. He brought two cocktails and she drank the first one fast.
I’m doing, she said. Hard at work here.
It’s not a huge thing, but it’s driving me crazy. It’s sometimes confusing, but the biggest issue is that I just don’t see any reason, artistic or otherwise, for doing it, and it’s coming off as more of a distraction, an affectation, than anything that adds value to the work…