Senses working overtime #601

1 A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...

After getting surgery for a skin cancer on my nose, Jacky indulged my whim this week to green light a re-watch of the nine Star Wars movies. So, this edition takes in the first 6 in the order I originally watched them (this week we watched them from Episode 1 to 6). 

That means starting in 1977 with Episode IV - A New Hope. 

Thoughts then: In 1977, I wandered down from Auckland University to the Cinerama Theatre in Queen Street and sat mesmerised by the film (just called Star Wars at that point).

Thoughts now: This latest viewing came after watching the prequels and we immediately noticed the differences in the change of pace and special effects. In other words, it's impossible to capture that initial feeling from 1977.

2 Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

My 4th year at Auckland University - I again watched this in Queen St. This time at The Civic Theatre.

Thoughts then: I was blown away with how good this film was - much better than episode IV. The training sessions on Dagobah with Yoda are brilliant. 

Thoughts now: In many ways it's still in contention for the best film of the franchise. Everything feels looser, more confident, with more money thrown at the special effects, which are still dated, it has to be said. Having watched the film many times, I know that swamp scene on Dagobah by heart.

3 Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983)

Seen in New Plymouth late in 1983. Although I was dating Jacky Smith, we didn't see this film together for some reason lost to time.

Thoughts then: I wasn't a great fan of the Ewoks but the epic nature of the film resolved all the plot points and felt like a worthy climax to the trilogy.

Thoughts now: The broadening of the characterisations and the hero's journey being resolved still makes watching this a special occasion.

 

4 Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999)

By 1999 our four kids had grown up with the original trilogy on VHS tapes. We watched this as a family at a theatre in Auckland.

Thoughts then: I really liked the film and many of the iconic lines from Qui-Gon Jinn (a brilliant character) entered my consciousness for the first time. I felt it was much maligned.

Thoughts now: I still think the film holds up, and I will defend it! The special effects are of the time - amazing how much CGI has advanced in the years since 1999. And Jar Jar Binks is still annoying.

5 Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002)

We watched this while living in the Waikato (we were living in Cambridge at the time).

Thoughts then: I love Star Wars, but my suspension of disbelief was challenged with the appearance of NZ actors.

Thoughts now: It's a tricky business being the middle film of a trilogy and this one does okay, but for me it's the weakest film of the franchise. I don't find Hayden Christensen a very plausible Anakin Skywalker.

Overtime: Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005)

Jacky, Samantha, Jade and I watched this in a theatre in Southend-on-sea (we were living in Leigh-on-sea at the time).

Thoughts then: I can remember enjoying this film immensely as it dovetailed nicely into episode 4. 

Thoughts now: The film still moves quickly towards the introduction of Darth Vader and Hayden is better as Anakin in this film. A lot of the action sequences are thrilling.

On to the next three episodes (7 - 9) next week.

Senses working overtime #367

1 Star Wars - on Television

2 The strange appeal of garden lawns

3 Poetry corner

We Stopped At Perfect Days We stopped at perfect days and got out of the car.  The wind glanced at her hair.  It was as simple as that.  I turned to say something— Richard Brautigan (1970)

4 Why do people, like, say 'like' so much?

5 How do Ukraine's farmers keep farming?

Overtime: 

“Nothing in nature takes more than it needs”

– Tom Shadyac

Senses working overtime #313

1 Shadow play in Curtiz films

Enjoyed this article on Michael Curtiz' use of shadows. Watching a Netflix documentary on Elvis Presley I realised that I've never seen Curtiz' King Creole starring Elvis (still from KC in black and white above). Need to correct that. 

2 The kindest people

“The kindest people are not born that way, they are made. They are the sounds that have experienced so much at the hands of life, they are the ones who have dug themselves out of the dark, who have fought to turn every loss into a lesson. The kindest people do not just exist – they choose to soften where circumstance has tried to harden them, they choose to believe in goodness, because they have seen firsthand why compassion is so necessary. They have seen firsthand why tenderness is so important in this world.”

– Bianca Sparacino (via Swiss Miss)

3 Maya

Author and poet Maya Angelou on how hard it is to make it look easy:

"I try to pull the language into such a sharpness that it jumps off the page. It must look easy, but it takes me forever to get it to look so easy. Of course, there are those critics — New York critics as a rule — who say, Well, Maya Angelou has a new book out and of course it’s good but then she’s a natural writer. Those are the ones I want to grab by the throat and wrestle to the floor because it takes me forever to get it to sing. I work at the language."

Source: The Paris Review Interviews: Volume IV (via James Clear)

4 Austin on Star Wars

Fun group of random thoughts as Austin shows SW Episode 4 to his 8 year old.

5 Walking!

The benefits of my walking around the Sports Park at lunchtime (not pictured above) are explained here.

Overtime: The story of Mary Ann Vecchio - the 14 year old girl in that famous Kent State shooting photo (yes - 14 - I was unaware of that as well).

Senses working overtime #258

1 The search for the grail
(or why finding the original 1977 version verges on the impossible)

A lot of the family are binge watching franchise movies (we've just finished the five Bourne movies frinstance). Might be a good opportunity to go back to 1977! I might have a copy of the original on VHS.

2 Being Bill

Love Bill Murray? Everybody does!

3 Famous art museums you can visit...

...from your workspace! Seventeen of them!

4 Brothers

Great piece, pithy and well written, by a younger brother (age 62) about his attempt to reconnect his brotherly bond with his grumpy older brother (64) on a tramping adventure!

Excerpt:

I told Don on the phone that the hike would cement our brotherly bonds and reconnect us to the wilderness where we had spent significant chunks of our young adulthoods. I told him we might find something like peace in alpine meadows and under starry skies. I told him the trip could be life changing, that it would provide us both a much needed reset.

“No thanks,” he said. Don had never been one for big speeches.

“Why not?”

“What’s the point?”

“Fun? Exercise? Living in the moment? Leaving our comfort zones? Getting some clarity and perspective? Rediscovering purpose and connection?” I’m a talker.

“Spare me the inner-life mumbo jumbo,” he said. “You have the luxury of dabbling in that stuff, since you haven’t had a real job in decades.”

5 Seth Godin's message
The boat is really, really big and we’re all in it.

This is a slog, and there will be another side. It is unevenly distributed, it’s a tragedy and it’s a challenge. But we’re in it together and with care and generosity, we can find perspective, possibility and hope.

Overtime: Warren Ellis' sign-off
Don't be like me.  Get some rest, eat properly, sleep when you can, and turn your phone off once in a while. Nothing wrong with shutting the rest of the world off when you need to. I'll keep an eye on it for you while you're gone. Take a breath, go and look at the sky, hold on tight.  You're doing fine.

Senses working overtime #249

1 Fake fake fake

Doctoring a photo and how to spot them!

2 Ashley Boone Jr. and Star Wars

A forgotten hero of the Star Wars origin story

3 And the Oscar goes to...

Excellent wrap up of the awards by Vox.

4 Reading 3 or 4 books at a time

Austin's pile

I'm beginning to embrace this concept but it's taken a long time! Up till now it's been like trying to listen to two records at a time - impossible. Austin Kleon may be on to something though.

5 Photographer Gjon Mili

Great post from Austin Kleon (yes - he put out a great newsletter this week!) about Picasso, Mili and the use of light.

Overtime: Speaking of photogrphs and the use of light -  some more of Jade and William's wedding photos have dropped. I'm partial to this one:

Senses working overtime #241

1 Star Wars - The Rise of Skywalker

It's finally here. Here's a great piece centred on JJ Abrams and then the final trailer.



2 Poetry corner

1: Have a Good Time

This is a poem. Take it. Pack it up
the mountain. You will meet a man
who says it is an ice-axe. Give it to him. Tell him

he should take it out to sea until
he meets a man who calls it a harpoon.
Follow. Watch them. Let them fight about it. 

Robert Bringhurst (1975)

3 50 Best TV shows of the last ten years

Mr Robot

According to Rolling Stone Magazine

4 Kiss

Why humans kiss

5 Scooter and the Big Man
Their last performance together. Rest in peace, Clarence.

 

Overtime: I hate being late...
and I'm married to someone who is often running late. She doesn't read this blog, but if she did she might enjoy this piece :-)

Senses working overtime #237

1 Boba Fett

Inside his world of cool!

2 Poetry corner

What I Didn't Know Before

was how horses simply give birth to other
horses. Not a baby by any means, not
a creature of liminal spaces, but already
a four-legged beast hellbent on walking,
scrambling after the mother. A horse gives way
to another horse and then suddenly there are
two horses, just like that. That’s how I loved you.
You, off the long train from Red Bank carrying
a coffee as big as your arm, a bag with two
computers swinging in it unwieldily at your
side. I remember we broke into laughter
when we saw each other. What was between
us wasn’t a fragile thing to be coddled, cooed
over. It came out fully formed, ready to run.

Ada Limón (2018)

3 SBW

Williams praying with All Blacks team-mate Ofa Tuungafasi

A very impressive New Zealander! I'm very proud of him.

4 How movies went from 15 minutes to 2 hours long




5 The lure of the sea

Apparently those who visit the seashore regularly have better mental health and are happier. I can see that.

Overtime: Bob Dylan - Oh Sister
This live version from the sublime Hard Rain album came on the Radio Wozza via the wozza-pod this morning and I hit repeat four times before I was done with it. An amazing song and a real sing-a-long with Bob moment on the chorus. 

Sadly that version (with different lyrics) isn't on YouTube so here's another live one - great great song!

Senses working overtime #235

1 Holy homework

Only one way to start this week's jewels! This visual feast for the eyes is stunning.

2 Code breakers

Excellent piece from Maria Popova's blog about American women employed as code breakers during WW2.

3 A year from now... (from Seth)

Will today’s emergency even be remembered? Will that thing you’re particularly anxious about have been hardly worth the time you put into it?

Better question: What could you do today that would matter a year from now?

4 Star Wars: Resistance Reborn by Rebecca Roanhorse

Gets a great review for the novel from Star Wars in the Classroom. Check it out here. Great name btw: Roanhorse!

5 David Mitchell

I'm a fan, thanks to the Observer and Would I lie To You? Nice article here!

Overtime: The return of Poetry Corner

I've been away from poetry many months and now I must rake leaves with nothing blowing between your house and mine Lorine Niedecker (1956)

Senses working overtime #223

1 Travels with my father

We finished watching all seven seasons of Doc Martin. So this one loomed up next.

2 When Ralph met Walt

It was 1860. Ralph Waldo Emerson and Walt Whitman hung out. Here's what happened.

3 From a certain point of view

Obi-Wan! Was he right to tell Luke a porky about Darth Vader?

4 Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee 

I'm a big fan of this show. What's not to like - it's Jerry Seinfeld. It's relaxed (lovely shots of coffee and cars; lovely cafe style relaxed music). It's funny in a gentle way and it's short enough - roughly each episode is around 15 minutes long.

5 Wild By Nature

My current reading matter, borrowed from Jade's bookcase. It's okay but not especially well written.

Overtime: Missing - EBTG

Senses working overtime #216

1 Vinyl 
This week's vinyl obsessives picture for your delight

2 Purpose

Photo by Michael Heuser on Unsplash

Nice indication that having a purpose in life allows you to live longer. Cool cool.

3 Earl

 Thom Hickey, the author of TIJ, in the foreground (probably)

Great Immortal Jukebox post on Earl Bostic which actually tells you more about the writer of Immortal Jukebox, Thom Hickey, than Earl, and that is super fine with me.

4 Seinfeld night!

Great look at two iconic Seinfeld episodes that eviscerate Los Angeles. 

5 The Rise Of Skywalker

Wahoo. Can't wait! JJ Adams is on board. If it has his visual panache and The Last Jedi's intellectual heft it will be the perfect end to the latest (last?) trilogy.

Overtime: Genius sign off from Warren Ellis:

Take a breath. Feel your feet on the ground. You're standing on a ball that's spinning at a thousand miles an hour. And the ball is moving through space at sixty seven thousand miles an hour. You're doing all that without even trying. Whatever the next week brings, it's not going to be too much trouble for someone moving at sixty seven thousand miles an hour while spinning around at 1000mph, is it? You can do anything. See you next week, speedy.