Shoot Me Now.
‘American Idol’ got 378 million more votes than the 2004 Presidential Election.
That’s disgusting.
…and Bo should have won.
Back….
Got back yesterday from my trip with my daughter’s team to the 2005 Odyssey of the Mind World Finals in Boulder, CO. Smithsonian Magazine called the World Finals “a dizzying four-day thinkathon that looks like some kind of kooky cross between science fair, masquerade party, performing arts fest and the Olympics” — and that’s pretty much a spot-on description. Allie’s team did OK…not great, but not bad (24th out of 48 teams in her age group and specific problem to solve), but they had the experience of a lifetime, meeting, competing and hanging out with gifted kids from all over the world. I did the whole chaperone thing….none of the kids overdosed or had wild orgies, so I guess I did a good job.
Off to see Serenity tonight, which I’m really looking forward to. Spoiler-free review coming tomorrow (along with another Friday Music installment).
In other news, I picked up the new edition of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, and I’m thinking that I’d like to run a regular game of it this summer. If you’re in the area, and you’re interested, let me know via comments. We’ll decide on the frequency of play and what night would be good for everyone once we’ve got a group together. If you’re not familiar with the game, it’s the RPG set in the world of the miniatures wargame, Warhammer. Essentially a fictional version of Renaissance Europe (but with Dwarves, Elves, etc.), beset by the forces of Chaos. In my opinion, it’s the best Dark Fantasy setting out there, and the game is quite simple, especially when compared to D20. Random Character creation, taking about 15 minutes tops, lightning-fast combat, etc.
….and yes, Mike, there are Spaniards. (They’re called Estalians) :)
28 years later….
I could go into detail here about how seeing Star Wars with my Dad for my 8th birthday literally made me who I am today, determining my tastes, my attitudes and my chosen profession….but I’m not going to bother.
My three word review of Episode III:
By.
The.
Numbers.
Or, to give it slightly more attention: Neither better nor worse than Phantom Menace or Attack of the Clones — the same combination of occasionally nifty with cringe-worthy, laughably bad. In general, the whole thing felt like 2 hours and 30 minutes of watching Lucas knock over the expected plot pins he had set in the previous films, one by one…some with more success than others. A solid C+.
The one thing I took away from the experience is this: Bernard Cornwell said that he wrote the Sharpe series of novels because he was bummed that there were no more Hornblower books for him to enjoy. Lucas has said that he made the original Star Wars as an amalgam of those things from his childhood that he enjoyed (serial space opera cliffhangers, etc.), because they weren’t being made any more. It is obvious to me that the internal mythology that my generation built up around Star Wars is cooler than Lucas’ latter-day attempts, and yet for the most part, we have sat back and let him continue, rather than creating something ourselves. We’ve taken the passenger seat, perhaps longer than we should have. One of us needs to create something to fill the vacuum that we perceive….something that speaks to the things we loved that aren’t being made any more.
…and it might as well be me.