Monthly Archives: December 2019

A brief review of the Star Wars saga, sans spoilers

Posted on by The Old Wolf

I’ve waited 42 years for this. 42 long years, pretty much encompassing life, the universe, and everything.

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I went to see Episode IV in 1977 when it was released, and was of course blown away by the innovation and game-changing nature of A New Hope. Like everyone else, I was all, “Huh? Episode IV? What’s that all about?” As time went on and when in 1980 George Lucas’ grand vision for a “nonology” became known, I was ecstatic. Episodes V and VI were released, and the world seemed rosy; a new episode would be released every three years until the series was complete.

  • Episode IV: A New Hope (1977)
  • Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
  • Episode VI: The Return of the Jedi (1983)

Well, about that. George Lucas ran head-on into reality; By 1981, the stress of producing the original trilogy had sapped him of his passion for the series, and he announced that there would be no further sequels. As a result, 1986 to 1999 there was a thirteen-year gap in the Star Wars chronology.

But thanks to changes in technology and advances in the field of CGI, Mr. Lucas changed his mind and ended up producing the Prequel Trilogy, which – together with Episodes 4 through 6 he referred to as “The Tragedy of Darth Vader.”

  • Episode I: The Phantom Menace (1999)
  • Episode II: Attack of the Clones (2002)
  • Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (2005)

Over the next six years as the Prequels were released, a strange thing began to happen to the Star Wars fan base. Instead of rejoicing in new episodes of space opera and opportunities to revisit old heroes and villains like Yoda and Palpateen, massive opprobrium was heaved at Lucas for things like the existence of Jar-Jar Binks, the acting prowess of the young Anakin Skywalker (Jake Lloyd), the petulant Skywalker-turned-Vader (Hayden Christensen), and the heavy dependence on CGI rather than classic effects, among other things.

Finally, after the completion of the Prequels, Lucas gave up the Star Wars world altogether and turned it over to Disney, although he hoped that his ideas for the conclusion, included in the sale, would be factored in to any future films. That was not to be, and the saga took a different turn than its original creator had envisioned.

  • Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
  • Episode VIII: The Last Jedi (2017)
  • Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker (2019)

The opinion of fans on the final three installments of the saga have been widely divergent. Some loved them, others hated them, for reasons which seemed good to them. As for myself, I just got back from seeing Episode IX this afternoon, and while I promised no spoilers I have this to say:

The entire saga is an absolute masterpiece. My hat is off to George Lucas and everyone who took up the torch after him, or who helped to bring these amazing films to life – from the writers, directors, and producers, to the brilliant actors both old and new, to the stage crews, to the special effects and art and sound and music people, to the people who provided canteen services and emptied trash cans on the set and elsewhere – simply everyone. Bravo. Bravissimo.

The final episode was an immensely satisfying conclusion to the Skywalker epic. I laughed, I cried, I clapped, I cheered, and walked out fulfilled. This is the opinion of one old geek and, of course, your mileage may vary.

And naturally this is not all of Star Wars.

  • Rogue One (2016)
  • Solo (2018)

In A New Hope, a major plot point was the Death Star and the acquisition of the plans (with the weapon’s weakness) by the Rebellion. Rogue One is the story of how the plans for the first Death Star were acquired. And it was poignant, and important to the saga, and brilliant.

While I held off a while watching Solo because in the back of my mind I just kept thinking, “How can they do Solo without Harrison Ford,” when the time came I found that I enjoyed the film thoroughly. It was a worthy addition to the Star Wars universe.

And doubtless, more is to come. Disney+ is currently streaming “The Mandalorian,” which is very well done and has captured the imagination of a new generation with a character called (perhaps erroneously) as “Baby Yoda.” How that will play out remains to be seen. A new trilogy (separate from the Skywalker saga) is in the works, a prequel to Rogue One is planned, and an Obi-Wan Kenobi series is being drafted.

How fans will relate to all of this new material remains to be seen. And while I don’t think I’ll be queuing up in the theaters to see future releases as I did for the original movies, they will definitely be on my watch list.

May the Force be with us all.

The Old Wolf has spoken.

Booty from Christmas Past

Posted on by The Old Wolf

Cross-posted from Livejournal

Booty!

Shut up, you deviants. I mean Jack Sparrow-type booty. Arr…

In 2010, a chest o’treasure arrived in me mailbox from a pretty wench in a far-off land. A whole bundle of silly, fun things: most useful, all appreciated.

The tie was the most interesting of all. To look at, it’s just a nice Christmas-themed cravat (since I only have one other, this will be a fine addition next Yule season.) But on closer examination, there are bits and snatches of words running through the candy canes.

I could tell the writing extended through the candy canes onto the blue background, but it was impossible to see in normal light, especially with the reflection from the shiny silk. So I scanned it, hoping to bring out a bit of detail.

With a little contrast and gamma manipulation, I was able to get the words to come out a bit more (this is just a small section, and my working image was much larger):

What jumped out at me was “The Christmas Joy”, “around the year”, “spot”, and “frozen”. Doing a Google search on these words came up with one – and only one – hit, a poorly-scanned copy of Down Durley Lane and Other Ballads by Virginia Woodward Cloud, published in 1898(!), and illustrated by Reginald Bathurst Birch which included this poem, “Old Christmas”:

It’s a long way round the year, my dears,
A long way round the year.
I found the frost and flame, my dears,
I found the smile and tear!

The wind blew high on the pine-topp’d hill.
And cut me keen on the moor:
The heart of the stream was frozen still,
As I tapped at the miller’s door.

I tossed them holly in hall and cot,
And bade them right good cheer,
But stayed me not in any spot,
For I’d traveled around the year

To bring the Christmas joy, my dears,
To your eyes so bonnie and true;
And a mistletoe bough for you, my dears,
A mistletoe bough for you!

What a delightful, hidden, and serendipitous message!

Miraculous it was that these words were even clear in the transcription, because it was a raw optical-conversion, and much of the text came out as garbage. What’s more, Virginia Woodward Cloud is a rather obscure poet, not unlike Grace Noll Crowell, (whose works I had hunted for over a period of 40 years, only having success last year thanks to another deep internet search). So the odds of finding one of Cloud’s poems on a Christmas tie are pretty slim.

A bit more digging found a beautiful online, zoomable copy of the book – “Old Christmas” is on page 99.

And all this because I gave the wench a stale crust of bread…

The Old Wolf has spoken

Another day, another shooting.

Posted on by The Old Wolf

This was an odd one. It happened at a Naval Air Station, where people essentially carry weapons for a living. So that muddies the water a bit. And, it turns out that the perp was a Saudi national, and an aviation student to boot, which raises a *whole* lot of questions in my mind, but that’s a discussion for another day.

Before anything else, my heart is broken for those impacted; the victims, their families, and their loved ones. People die every day from all sorts of reasons – illness, unavoidable accidents, natural causes, even violence – but death by terrorism is especially hard on those left behind. And I make no apologies for calling it that. I am deeply sorry for your loss.

But now comes the summum bonum of this post: According to CBS News, ” The number of mass shootings across the U.S. thus far in 2019 has outpaced the number of days this year, according to a gun violence research group. Before this year has even ended, 2019 has already had more mass shootings than any year since the research group started keeping track.”

This doesn’t even take into account the little ones. Individual shootings by unbalanced or patently evil people. As of today, the total is 36,518. Now, in terms of national statistics, that’s only roughly 3/4 the number of deaths by suicide from any cause, according to the CDC, and almost the same number as automobile fatalities in 2018. So some might argue that in terms of overall numbers, it’s not a big deal.

But it is. It’s a big deal. It’s too many, and too horrible, and too traumatizing, and gun violence takes adults, and children, and breaks hearts and shatters families and reduces our safety (the NRA would argue the opposite) and the quality of our life.

Image result for 2nd amendment

So here’s the question, directed at those of my friends and associates who fall on the “cold, dead hands” side of the equation:

What are you going to do to stop this carnage. What are you doing right now to make sure that guns don’t get into the wrong hands, the hands of people who will use them to destroy the innocent?

I exhort you: don’t get me wrong. I support the 2nd Amendment as long as it remains part of the Constitution.

These are patches and such that I earned as a youth. I remain proud of them to this day. I learned gun safety and responsibility and enjoyed target shooting immensely. (Thanks, Hutch.) We own a 30-30. I’m not a “gun grabber,” as the NRA loves to pigeonhole people who advocate for gun control. But the situation today has far exceeded what I consider madness.

The courts have repeatedly ruled that you have the right to assemble an arsenal that would be the envy of a small nation. I think that if the Founders, in their wisdom, could see what that those 27 words had wrought in our day and age, they would weep in outrage and promptly need to go home and change their pants. But that’s my interpretation, and the wisdom of the 2nd is not what I’m discussing. It’s a fact, and we need to deal with things as they are.

I think our nation would be far safer if there were no guns in private hands, but if the right to bear arms is never going away, it needs to be tempered with a responsibility to bear arms safely, and I support treating guns in the same way we treat cars, none of which contravenes the wording of the 2nd Amendment:

  • Gun owners should be trained, licensed, and insured for each type of weapon owned.
  • All weapons should be annually registered, inspected, and taxed.

So what are your solutions? How will you preserve your rights and still stop the daily carnage? Change my mind.

Go.¹

¹ Note: I’m inviting comments for this post, despite the fact that it’s a divisive and often inflammatory issue. I have attempted to be as impartial and even-handed as possible in laying out my feelings. Comments that are ad-hominem attacks (i.e. “You gun-grabbing pussy!”) or not based on reason (“I disagree!”) will simply be deleted without ever being seen. I want to know how you would fix things, and preserving the status quo is not an option. So choose your words wisely.