Anchorhead

doubleofive said:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/12/07/BA1D1M99V5.DTL

'Mythbusters' cannonball hits Dublin home, minivan

Wow, thank God no one was hurt!

Fuck, man, I'd heard a blurb about it on the radio, but I had no idea of the particulars.

The cantaloupe-sized cannonball....tore through a cinder-block wall...flew some 700 yards east...bounced in front of a home... ripped through the front door, raced up the stairs and blasted through a bedroom...exited the house...crossed six-lane Tassajara Road, took out several tiles from the roof of a home on Bellevue Circle and finally slammed into the Gill family's beige Toyota Sienna minivan in a driveway.

 How many deaths or injuries were miraculously dodged? That's crazy. 

Toolpusher

Downhole

Fellas, I could practically spam this thread with actual, used-daily, oil & gas terms.

As some one who grew up with the Beatles (I was a hip little kid in the late 60s), as well as having been a life-long fan of their solo work (there may be nothing of theirs I don't own) - I remember the day he was killed vividly. It was a surreal time, for sure. 

Vision Of The Future

No spoilers

This is the continuation of the story from Specter.  More good stuff from Zahn.  He really handles Star Wars masterfully.  He's definitely my canon now.  His stuff is just too great to be ignored. 

The Luke\Mara story line was well done.  Reminded me of a sort of  deep\adult take on Splinter Of The Mind's Eye.  Also in keeping with Zahn's universe, this may be some of the best Lando I've ever read or seen. 

Plus, you can't go wrong with a nice side story of Shada and Karoly.  Always well done and, in fact, the two characters who pushed me into going to the Zahn universe earlier this year when I read Hammertong.  It was nice to reconnect with them again.

Two heavy endings, one I knew was probably coming in this novel, one I did not see coming at all.  Hats off to Zahn for taking bold steps with the Star Wars universe. My canon is in good hands.

*Let that one go, Frink.  ;-)

Anyway.  That's it.  Zahn's remaining novels don't appear to be connected, so I'm going with Allegiance next.  I'll probably wait until the week after Christmas, when I have a long flight planned.  Until then, I'm taking a Star Wars break and slowing down a notch with M*A*S*H.

Jon Stewart must be a Star Wars nerd because it really does come up a lot.  Nice that it's the shot that knocked everyone's socks off so very long ago.  A testament to the cultural influence it still has, 35 years later.

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-december-1-2011/america-s-next-tarp-model

The Star Wars reference starts around 2:30

Wexter said:

He definitely doesn't know Vader is Anakin....Lucas didn't know when he wrote the conference room scene.

To me, that's the single most important thing to keep at the front of all story discussions involving any Lucas-penned Star Wars.  The "saga" was written on the fly, so a great many things were simply not what they were changed to years later.

That's a detail that seems completely lost on other Star Wars boards.  I'm truly shocked at how many younger fans actually buy the Original Vision bullshit.  It's like they've completely taken leave of any actual thought.

I will say, however;  Even though she's goofing, Twister brings up an interesting angle.  Several high ranking officers were all killed at the end of Star Wars.  You could use that as an angle for Vader's sudden increase in rank and power. Personally, I don't think Lucas put that much thought into the story.  Depth of story has never been a huge concern or strength of his.

doubleofive said:

Any thread that helps me see the movie from Anchorhead's perspective is a plus in my book.

Ah, man, don't put that on me.  ;-)  

In Star Wars I think of Tarkin as the main villain, with Vader as a subordinate. I thought it worked perfectly and made for a much better story.

Lucas started to morph the character as soon as his pop culture weight grew.  In The Empire Strikes Back, he's just suddenly a person who answers to no one other than the emperor, unlike Star Wars where he was part of the Empire and participated in strategies and discussions.  In the second film he's just someone who people are terrified of. 

He runs the Empire in it's entirety other than an occasional conversation with the emperor.  It's like the Empire was restructured between films.  It became a two-person operation with thousands of minions, not the stratocracy it was in Star Wars.

His flippant killing of anyone he dislikes and his full authority to promote anyone to commander seems uneven with how he was written in Star Wars. By the second film, there's no depth to the Empire.  To me, it comes across as more of Lucas' letting marketing and revenue stream drive the films.

[shameless EU plug]
Yet another way in which the EU has far surpassed Lucas Star Wars.  In Zahn's EU, the Empire is multi-layered, much the same way an actual military is. There are personalities and hierarchies to deal with. Levels of authority that have to be coordinated.   It makes for much more interesting reading.  Daley's NPR version of Star Wars also has that layered depth of the Empire with Vader as part of it, not the sole voice of it. With Lucas (post-77), the Empire became one-dimensional.  Vader sold tons of toys, so Vader became The Empire. 
[/shameless EU plug]

Gave it a listen on the way to work this morning.  It's just a replay of the Celebration V days.  I caught the last few minutes of an Anthony Daniels interview.  I have to say, he doesn't strike me as terribly humble.  There were a few times where he was unnecessarily condescending when speaking about fans who came out to see him or people who sometimes interview him. Not impressed.

After his interview, they did a remote from inside some sort of gift shop.  When they started to describe how cool the Clone Wars Yoda Christmas tree ornament was, I bailed.  Overall, I lasted about fifteen minutes total.  Not for me.

SilverWook said:

I'd pay money to see adaptations of Splinter of the Mind's Eye or the Brian Daley Han Solo books.

Man, I couldn't watch and own them fast enough.  Oh to dream.

Just heard the promo for it a few minutes ago.  Starts this Wednesday, channel 146.  They didn't give too many details. Just said interviews and such.  McGregor did the promo.  Since I listen to XM almost exclusively,  I'm sure I'll give it a listen. 

DuracellEnergizer said:

 

Anchorhead said:

I created a Wookieepedia account...and I've already corrected an EU mistake.

Which one?

 

Lando as a mention only?  Please.  Who do they think went with Karrde to follow the pirate clones and in the process discover Thrawn taking charge again? 

;-)

My fondest memory;  Decades later, when I realized I could recall non of it from memory.  Like a few others around here, I waited anxiously in front of the TV for it to start - and was so disgusted, I don't think I even watched all the way to the end. 

This is on the shoulders of several people here.  I've reached a new level of nerdiness -  I created a Wookieepedia account...and I've already corrected an EU mistake.

;-)

I really do miss those simpler times, before 24-hour, real time, sensory\connectivity overload. 

Harmy said:

Adywan just posted this:

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/93945

It's a comparison between the Blu-Ray and a 35mm scan of the original version. The Blu-Ray fails miserably.

Wow, that is really bad.  I haven't been following the Blu-ray quality discussions too closely, but I knew there were issues from some of the screen grabs and magazine articles.  I had no idea they looked that bad.  Shameful to ask for money for a product handled so poorly.

Specter Of The Past

Finished last night.  To quote Newman, from Seinfeld - eexxxceeleent.  I thought the separate stories were handled really well.  You spend a fair amount of time on each, really giving them time to breathe. More than the previous novels, I enjoyed the lengthy government stories.

An aside;  I never had strong feelings about Lando one way or the other.  Liked him in Empire, but gave him little thought after that.  In the Zahn novels, he's become one of my favorite characters. Well written and with substance.  For me, his chapters are right up there with Skywalker and Mara.

[Mild spoiler].
This book felt more cerebral in it's handling of how the New Republic struggles with all its planetary arguing and posturing.  When I think about how we live on a planet where 196 countries can barely get along on a good day (some not even remotely amicable), it makes the New Republic stories even more realistic.  It's us on a much larger scale, but it feels very familiar.  Like us, there aren't always easy answers or fixes when cultures have such fundamental differences. Interesting stuff for sure.
[/Mild spoiler].

This novel has a sort of cliff-hanger ending which I really found intriguing. I started Vision Of The Future just moments after I finished it .  Review to come.

Mid point impressions.

Really digging the story.  Nice that it takes place 10 years after the Thrawn trilogy.  To me, that gives the story and the characters even more depth.  I felt especially EU nerdy (in a good way) that when Karoly and Shada made an appearance, I knew who they were and what their history was.   They were the characters that were directly responsible for me taking a chance on Zahn EU in the first place.

Absolutely loved the Jade & Skywalker "Welcome Aboard" portion of the story.  Jade is even deeper a character than she was in the previous books, which is quite an accomplishment considering how well she was written to start with.

DuracellEnergizer said:

^Ah, but Anchorhead doesn't consider ROTJ canon =P

I'm fine with most of the skeleton of the story, but it was so poorly executed that two viewings were enough.  It's occasionally referenced in Zahn's work, so I've made peace with it.

American Hominid said:

That's interesting - do you have any intuitions about what Luke's mother would be like? 

(I presume that's why you would stay away from prequel depictions of said character.)

With God as as my witness, I give absolutely zero thought to Luke's mother.  Not now, not ever.  My dislike of the Lucas version is due to how completely empty the character, the portrayal, and the story of her are.

Making matters worse are how much I dislike Portman. I've only seen her in two films, but I find her to be average at best.  I also dislike her personally. She comes across in interviews as arrogant and self important. 

I always give the Wookieepedia page a look and check out characters, locations, etc.  Since I skip the summaries due to spoiler potential, I don't know the extent of the characters' involvement in a story. 

The only exception is if they're a mention only, which Wookieepedia points out.  I'll go with a mention only in all cases except Padme.  Any Padme = no reading. If Anakin is a small role and well written (which sounds like it's the case from Zahn), I'll try it.

Harmy said:

Oh, man, if you mean the Outbound flight, that would be a huge mistake to skip it IMO, because it's pretty awesome and the only thing it has in common with the prequels is that it's the same time period. And it has Thrawn in it!

I don't know why I thought that was the one I'd skip.  It may be because it has Anakin.  I'm just not a fan of any of the Lucas Prequel Story.  I might save it for last or maybe toss it into my suitcase so it's there for a future long flight.  After all, Zahn has become my go-to.  Might as well trust him on this one too.

nightstalkerpoet said:

Actually, in all honesty it is done because of one reason:

Because Lucas only had story enough for one film, which he released in 1977. When both of the people he contracted to write a sequel turned in stories he didn't care for (sorry, no 12-film Original Vision), he decided to just expand that one story. 

He quickly developed a serious case of writer's block and decided to let his ego lead the way.  He shrunk all the elements, characters, and the universe they took place in, as an easy out.  Counting all the SE versions, Prequels, BD, upcoming 3D, etc - he's spent nearly 35 years re-telling that same story.  Poorly.  When Red Tails tanks, he'll go back to Star Wars, yet again.

Better writers\directors make other films.  George has proven time and again that he can't move past Star Wars.  There's no place like home, there's no place like home, there's no place like home.......