Gareth – Page 126 – The Designer Monologues

May 4, 2011May 4, 2011

Dear Star Wars: It’s Not You, It’s Me.

Dear Star Wars;

“May the 4th Be With You” — my various social media feeds today are filled with my fellow geeks marking the occasion of “Star Wars Day,” and so I find you in my thoughts again.

It’s not a new feeling, of course. Upon our first meeting — the occasion of my eighth birthday in June of 1977 — the course of my life was irrevocably altered. For the next 6 years, you filled my every waking moment, and a fair few of my dreams as well. My imagination was filled with thoughts of a Galaxy Far, Far Away. You shaped my tastes, and even what I wanted to do with my life. I’m not alone in this, of course — my whole generation was deeply affected.

Through my adolescence, my college years — we never entirely drifted apart. Even as my attentions were drawn to other things — other geek interests or the concerns of an adult life — you were never really far from heart. There were always new ways for us to connect: the RPG from West End Games, the Thrawn trilogy, the NPR radio show, etc.

The relationship, however, soured in the late 1990s. The story is well-known at this point — it’s been echoed by others in my generation many, many times, to the point where it’s bordering on cliché: It starts with Shadows of the Empire — new Star Wars material, inserted into the narrative of the original trilogy. Originally, I was excited by this possibility. Unfortunately, it was disappointing.

This was followed by the Special Edition releases. Initially, I was thrilled by this prospect as well, and, to be honest, the memory of taking my eight-year-old daughter to the re-release of Star Wars (repeating the trip made by my father and I) is wonderful. But the experience was tempered by the changes that George Lucas had made to what many (myself included) had considered an inviolate part of the fabric of their childhood. Honestly, I hadn’t considered that, going in, but it ended up bothering me far more than I ever expected.

The final break-up, of course, came with the release of the prequel trilogy — another set of disappointments so constantly repeated at this point that I won’t bother enumerating them here. A generation came to the position that Star Wars had become a marketing machine devoid of any soul — a tool for Lucas to sell another generation of kids a never-ending stream of product — which, of course, made us also question whether or not that was true of our Star Wars as well. Whether we were dupes because the Star Wars that existed in our imaginations was deeper and richer than Lucas’ own ideas.

I have a confession, Star Wars.

It’s not you, it’s me. (Or us, collectively — the Star Wars generation.)

Your effect was undeniable. But my disappointment? I think it’s a textbook case of transference. I think I’m really disappointed in myself, and my generation in general.

You’d think that a generation that was literally shaped by the release of Star Wars would’ve been inspired… to do more than just consume more of it. Where is our Star Wars? With as many creative professionals that were given their initial impetus from the original films (myself included), you’d think that somebody would’ve made an effort to create a successor… but instead we’ve been seemingly content to sit back and consume more of the previous generations’ work, long into our own adulthood.

My disappointment in the the later efforts is my disappointment in myself. Disappointment that I never did what I swore to myself I would do, sitting in that theatre as an 8-year-old. Overwhelmed by the spectacle on the screen, I told myself “I’m going to do THAT.”

…and I haven’t.

Yet.

May 3, 2011

Far West Inspirography: Miike and Tarantino

Development work on FAR WEST continues — to be honest, launch has been delayed by a tightness in Adamant’s budget: we’re only just now starting to see signs of slowly crawling out of a six-month-deep hole, created by a perfect storm of the Borders’ bankruptcy (returns of product) and the failed “app-pricing” experiment (gutting our digital revenues). No spare funds to do the last remaining things needed for the launch until I can get some firmer ground beneath our feet. But it is coming.

Still feeding myself a regular diet of inspirational material — the latest being a chance I had last week to see (in a “see it before its in theatres” preview via HDNet) Takashi Miike’s new film, a return to classic samurai chanbara called 13 Assassins. The plot is a familiar one: Rag-tag team of minor samurai, mercenary ronin, and roguish scamps take the solemn duty upon themselves to kill a powerful lord who is a dangerously cruel madman, thought untouchable because of he’s the Shogun’s younger brother. Duty, honor, sacrifice — the whole jidaigeki shebang.

A trailer:

The inspirations for FAR WEST lean more to the Chinese, rather than the Japanese, but you can’t turn down the opportunity to dip occasionally into wider focus.

The other bit of inspirational news this week comes from the announcement that Quentin Tarantino’s next film (supposedly coming in 2012) will be his take on the Spaghetti Western, under the title DJANGO UNCHAINED, which will take the action to the reconstruction-era South and make Django a liberated slave.

Django is an interesting case — almost a public domain character, thanks to the tradition of Italian films in the 60s and 70s to pretty much directly rip eachother off. After the success of the original DJANGO with Franco Nero:

..literally .dozens of knock-off unofficial “sequels” were made, with Nero look-alikes, all featuring a title character named Django, largely made by Italian and German studios. So to see Tarantino continue the tradition fills my heart with anticipation and not a small amount of glee.

…and yes, we will absolutely be putting a “Django” in FAR WEST.

May 2, 2011

Bin Laden Reactions

History-making news now breaks, not on Cable News, but via a text message from my oldest daughter (who has friends in the White House Communications Office). Then bursts through my Twitter Feed– real time reactions from all over the world, speculation from journalists and news organizations… and lastly, mocking the floundering of the formerly mighty Cable News, who spent the hour before the President’s speech stumbling over themselves (and often just repeating what was appearing on Twitter 10-15 minutes previously). If the revolution in Egypt hadn’t made it clear, last night made it inescapable: Cable news’ run as the go-to source for breaking information, which really hit its stride with the Gulf War, is pretty much over.

Two things which strike me now, which have prompted me to post here (as they’re too detailed to distill to 140 characters on Twitter): The reactions, both on the left and right.

First, the right: I’m already seeing a tendency to either completely remove the President from any credit for this, or to start the inevitably-growing rumbling about how Obama will be “politicizing” this. To which I say, in the words of former Vice President Dick Cheney: Go fuck yourselves.

The right not only took credit for every positive thing that happened in the “War on Terror” from 2002-2008, but also for any bad thing that DIDN’T happen. Every month that passed where we weren’t attacked again was somehow directly because of President Bush’s vigilance. Every FBI sting where some hapless moron was tricked into planning a terrorist attack by the FBI itself, and then stopped, was treated as if President Bush, resplendent in a Captain America costume, was personally giving a Ratzi a sock on the jaw.

Even worse — the intimation that 9/11, despite happening 9 months into Bush’s watch, despite direct warning in the Threat Briefing, was somehow Clinton’s fault — for not taking Bin Laden out after the USS Cole bombing (despite GOP criticism at the time that Clinton was trying to “wag the dog” and divert attention away from his impeachment hearings). That a vote for Kerry in 2004 was “what the terrorists wanted.”

A reminder to these Kings of Politicization: 6 months after 9/11, President Bush said “I don’t know where he is, and honestly I don’t spend that much time on him… I’m not that concerned.” (Video)

Obama, upon taking office, directed the CIA to make Bin Laden a priority. But the right will now deny it, saying that this event is somehow a continuation of Bush’s efforts — despite words from his own mouth to the contrary. So again, a hearty fuck you. If Bush somehow deserved credit for his efforts — so does Obama. Even if you hate him.

Now, to my fellow travelers on the left: I’m seeing a lot of hand-wringing and self-righteous lecturing about how killing is wrong, celebrating murder is barbaric, etc. It’s situations like this that makes me wish there was a hashtag like #firstworldproblems that applied here — something like #privelegedprinciples.

I suppose it’s very easy to pontificate and finger-wag, if 9/11 was only something that you watched on television. If you didn’t know anyone who was killed, it’s quite comfortable to wrap yourself in your principles. For everyone else, this is justice. Maybe you should consider that, and keep your sense of outrage to yourself?

I mean, look at this picture:

Now tell those Firefighters that they’re being barbaric for celebrating the death of the man directly responsible for the death of their brethren. Go ahead.

Sometimes, comfortable first-world liberal, it’s not about you.