No Comment.

Just watch it. it's weird.

In which I actually post an update to my Blog

Lots going on.

I am now a chief steward for ILWU Local 5 (please excuse the rough web site, we had to switch hosting on short notice), and things at BLB01 are going about as well as can be expected in these brutal economic times.

On the other hand, Percey the cat is not doing so hot. She has another round of dental problems and various other health issues, that for her comfort and quality of life we have decided not to treat. We'll be going on a track of some antibiotics and enough painkillers to keep her comfortable, and we're going to let her live out her last year or so in relative comfort. No more traumatic day long vet stays or surgery that she's always scared and miserable after, and as little poking and prodding as we can manage. There's no sense in having her live in fear.

I have come to a tattooing decision. I've always wanted to get one nice, fairly ambitious tattoo, and the decision has been made as to what & where: A collage of starships (no, not Jefferson Starship) will be somewhere on my body (I will reveal where when work has begun). Here's the list of what I'm planning on including so far

Definitley:
Serenity (Firefly/Serenity)
Enterprise (TOS)
The TARDIS (Dr Who)
a Viper (New BSG)
a Raider (Old BSG)
Moira (Farscape)
Challenger (the space shuttle)
Klingon Bird of Prey (not sure which one)
Saucer from the original The Day the Earth Stood Still
Discovery One (2001 ASO)

Maybe:
SDF 1 (Robotech)
The Phoenix (Battle of the Planets/Gatchamon)
The ARK [Transformers (80's Cartoon)]

I'm also looking for other ships, be they from old Amazing covers, obvious things I haven't thought of yet, etc. So send me links and scans, I've got some flesh to fill!

My next step is to talk to a tattoo artist, and my dear sister has provided what I think will be the right path.

I am aware that there are no Star Wars ships on the list above, and it is intentional. There will be one Star Wars vessel, either an X-Wing or Slave-1. We have been betrayed, and my anger runs deep.

The guns....they've stopped, the wussification of childhood threats, and the last post on the decay of Star Wars

The presents are opened, and the insanity at BLB01 should be down to a dull roar.

As a result, my mind has returned to think of the normal things that rattle around in my head, specifically, Star Wars.

I received a "Darth Tater" Mr. Potato Head from my former boss, and it sits next to my head in the living room (Sadimac: don't worry I have no intention of leaving it there). It's been the trigger of a train of thought I've been playing with all day: Lucas, in his finite wisdom, has made Darth Vader as wuss.

I think the wussification of Vader began before the prequels, with the Energizer Bunny commercial where Vader faced off against the EB, only to have his lightsaber fritz out due to inferior batteries.



I remember being pissed about that when it came out. Vader was supposed to be the personification of menace, evil, and (a clunky, nonsensical, & hamfisted) redemption: not a shill to sell frelling batteries.

Not so long after that, the "Special Edition" of the original trilogy came out. With new special effects, and some tweeks, most importantly Greedo shooting first. Any one who knows me, or has seen my "Han Shot First" shirt knows how I feel about that. Lucas claims that the films were never how he wanted them, and all of the changes he made were just stuff he could only do with current SFX technology. Both you and I know that he's lying, so we won't get into that. What really chaifed me was his assertation that it was his right as the creator to go back and "fix" his own work.

Now some films are ok to go back and re-cut. What Blade Runner is supposed to be has always been controversial, all the way back to it's original release, so Ridley Scott making changes to that is fine. Releasing an "extended cut" or "unrated" DVD of a recent film is fine too, as we're talking about a 6 to nine month period between theatrical and DVD release, so it's not really something that's in the cultural consciousness yet. Then, some things are specifically designed to be added to and extended (such as Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings), and that causes little or no pain, as we know it's coming.

What Lucas did could be compared to Jackson Pollack walking into a museum, pulling one of his works that had been there 20 years off the wall, and making changes (note: I am not saying that Star Wars is equal in artistic merit to a Pollack painting)


Of course then, years later, the prequels hit. They were riddled with problems. They over reached (Anakin as immaculate conception), pandered (Jar Jar Binks), and were, frankly, down right racist (Watto, the Neimoidians, and Jar-Jar again), sexist (Amadala's transformation from forceful, wise ruler to trembling waif who just couldn't go on living, only about seven or so women in the whole thing have speaking roles.

These three films, all of them bad and with few redeeming qualities, actually make the original trilogy look almost as bad. This religion and order of knights that Luke worked so hard to restore was corrupt, archaic, and badly needed to go down. Only a precious few Jedi had it right (Qui-Gon, to a certain extent Obi-Wan, Shaak-Ti, and in the comics Quinlan Vos and Tholme), and most were pretty awful (Mace Windu, Ki Adi Mundi, and the wise old one who's advice was always bad, Yoda). They, and the republic needed to go down, and be replaced: the empire was a piss poor replacement of course, but one lousy system being replaced with another is par for the course...

I've vented enough though. This was, if you will, the last great public complaint on Star Wars. I'll always have my opinions, and I'll likely mention them from time to time, but this is the clear out. There's plenty of good Sci-Fi to talk about (Doctor Who, Firefly, Battlestar Galactica, etc), and I'm tired of it wasting my thoughts on this thing I can do nothing about but whine.

I hear by resolve to stop beating this dead horse. It is the Sci-Fi of childhood, and the more sophisticated things I enjoy deserve my attention, and praise, rather than my continued scorn of what was lost by the actions a sad little rich fat man with a god complex.

Blow stuff up

Some years, I get thoughtful about the 4th, other years, I want explosions.

This year, I blow things up. I'm an awful person, I know.

I leave you with this:

I know, that has nothing to do with Independence Day, I just think it's funny.

Happy 4th