Sith happens...
I meant to post about this earlier, but I forgot, so I’ll mention it now. Last week I was over in Hollywood and was walking by Grauman’s Theater (the big famous Chinese theater on the Walk of Fame where the actor-types make cement prints). As you have probably read, heard or seen on the news, some Star Wars geeks have been lined up there for quite some time, waiting for this weekend’s premiere of Episode III. In and of itself, of course, this isn’t terribly shocking – this happened back in ’97 when the Special Editions came out and on through the first two prequels. Hell, I’m not entirely innocent of the Star Wars movie nerdom (nerdness, nerdaltry, nardality?) myself – I was chauffeured in a 6 hour car ride to go home and see Episode I with friends on its opening night, all the while sitting in the back seat and studying for an impending law school exam with my laptop plugged into a cigarette adapter. Yes Gladys, as I’ve told you before, I am a geek.
But here’s the thing about the Grauman line – the movie isn’t even playing there. It’s playing at a theater practically right across the street. The nerds have known this for some time, but don’t care – they’re convinced that Grauman’s will eventually decide to show the movie this weekend. That’s when they became a big news story, staying in line in defiance of the truth and with some hope of using the Jedi mind trick to convince the theater to show the Episode III.
Anyway, my point is this – I walked by them last weekend, and wow. You’ve never seen anything like this. They had this little canopy thing set up, and there were about a dozen of them in there. They had been given a power line from somewhere, because about half of them were on laptops. Apparently they cut some sort of deal with Netflix, because there was a ton of Netflix advertising and a special little Netflix mailbox that looked like it was for custom deliveries/pickups. My favorite bit was this one woman who was dressed up in a costume (one of those creatures with the big snakey things coming out of their heads and wrapped around the front, like the guy who translated for Jabba the Hut – I’m sure that Bug will comment with his name, plus any other Star Wars minutia I got wrong), and sitting on a chair outside of the main canopy. It was as if she had decided she was too cool for the canopy nerds.
The whole scene was so entertaining to behold that the friend I was there with insisted that we do a second pass by them, to soak it all in. Good times.
On a related note, to readers Emo and Bug, the geek in me asks: y’all had your fancy little Lucas screening last week, so speak up – how was your large dinner party with Georgie, how was the screening and what are your thoughts on the new flick (and I don’t want the party line, Bug, but your honest assessment)?
posted by seth f @ 10:18 PM
5 comments
5 Comments:
Since your site is in its infancy I can speak in truths while sounding exagerated, when I say:
Unlike EVERY OTHER PERSON who has commented on your blog, I can give an unbiased opinion of Ep III.
I really liked it. And I must say, I absolutely hated I and II. Like, given a choice between watching I, II, or Eurotrip... I'd go with Eurotrip every time. In fact, I'd go with almost ANY movie over I or II!!
So I was coming from a negative place when I saw III. I was officially waiting for it to suck so George could cement his legacy as the guy who made the best trilogy known to film and turned it into the worst sixogy since "Prom Night."
But I liked III. In fact, if I were to remove my little kid LOVE for Jedi - which isn't as good in retrospect - it might be better than that one.
The after-party screening was good, too. Highlights were seeing George Lucas standing around talking to people. Like all celebrity sightings, I can say "he's shorter than you'd think."
Also, Robin Williams was there.
They had a bunch of props from the movie there and it was cool to sit around and talk to people discussing the work they had done on the film. When you see the film, you'll understand my next example: Like the guy who was saying, "yeah so I animated yoga's piggy-back."
All in all, I can actually recommend the film which is shocking given my planned hatred.
Here's an awesome story for you, which has been confirmed true.
The goofballs who are camped out of the wrong theater sent a delegation of people up to Northern California to protest outside of George Lucas' ranch, imploring him to show the movie at the Chinese Theater.
But the truth is stranger than fiction twist is: They went to the wrong ranch. They stood outside the wrong ranch protesting the fact that they were camped outside of the wrong theater!
Oh... bless their hearts. I have such pity for them. For they shall never know how lame they are.
Your story about the wrong-ranch protest is fantastic!
That's good to hear that you thought the flick was good. I was/am hoping it'll be decent, since at least there's lots of good guys getting macked, and the bad guys winning.
I really like this flick. When it comes out tomorrow night, I'll be seeing it for the fourth time already.
After the first time I saw it, I thought, "Holy crap ... that was incredible ... I want to talk about it with my friends and watch it again immediately!" It's cool. George did good.
And just to come through with the requested info, the aliens with the head tendrils are called Twi'leks and the one who worked for Jabba was named Bib Fortuna. If the woman dressed up painted herself blue, the chances are that she was sitting there as Aalya Secura, the Twi'lek Jedi master.
By the way, I've decided to start my own little timesuck.
Fun with Turd Hall!
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