May 22, 2005

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  STAR WARS ARRIVES: MAKES OVER 100 MILLION

  
  

  (Hollywood, MFN)    That wacky Star Wars Movie made over $108 million dollars over the weekend and made over 50 mil just on opening day alone. I think everyone has seen it now so I can go in a week or two, because this one, the "third" in the series, but actually the sixth and "final" film according to George Lucas, the Star Wars mastermind who directed the movie and created the universe of Star Wars long long ago in a galaxy far far away, finally "answers all the questions" ties up all the plot threads, and shows that cute but annoying little kid from The Phantom Menace turn into Darth Vader, who, as you may remember, is the villian of the piece.

  
  

  Last week my immediate supervisor at work asked me if I was going this weekend, knowing that I'm a movie buff. "Well, Mike, going to see Star Wars this weekend?"  "Star Wars" is out again, I asked facetiously, "Oh, you mean the "new one" the "final chapter". No, I'm not even interested." I love to be able to say with all honesty that I'm not in ths slightest interested in the most famous cultural franchise of modern times.

  
  

  I am interested of course, but I don't want to join the pack. The movie "exists" now and will be on screens for a long long time, raking in oodles of bucks, and I'll get my chance. Besides, I hate crowds. I even understand this "episode" is rather good. I didn't really like the first two, er, I mean the last two, yes, they are the "first two", but compared to the last six, er, I mean the first three. (George, you sure are a confusing mythologist, buddy) they paled considerably.

  
  

  I have all three of the first films with Luke, Han and Leia on laserdisc in both versions. I rented the DVD package that was mysteriously released just before this latest movie, and enjoyed visiting the universe of Star Wars again. I have "The Phantom Menace" if only for the documentaries, which are vast and vastly interesting, but I don't really like the movie all that much and didn't even bother "collecting" "Attack of the Clones". (Which I thought should be made into a Broadway musical at some point called "Send in the Clones", with music by Stephen Soundheim, of course.)

  
  

  I'm glad it's a hit. I will eventually see it. This isn't a review but an appreciation that Lucas has finally, at age 62, lived to see his dream completed. Of course in that 1977 Rolling Stone issue, he mentioned that he would make nine films, and knowing him and the hype that is the "Force" he might just very well surprise us and finish the saga. I think he's shot footage already, and is waiting for the technology to create real life like digital images of Luke Han etc. for pasting over the actual actors that will play them in the films.

  
  

  I wanted to create two "joke posters" for this article, but my computer is going crazy. (See next article) and so I only composed the "Revenge of the Gungan" image, which is composited from eight different images and also uses a drawing program to fill in some of the blanks.

  
  

  It seems interesting that the latest "Star Trek" series is being cancelled. I started watching "Star Trek" in 1966 while I was still a kid, and after "Star Wars" became a hit in 1977, they started making "Star Trek" films. Now all of this is "over". As I told my friend Jim at breakfast yesterday, "Maybe Hollywood will begin making original movies now." That was a bad joke, however, because they're in the midst of making "Bewitched" "The A Team" and "Honeymooners", old TV shows are being recycled at an alarming rate. Even Michael Mann is resurrecting his old 80s TV show, "Miami Vice" for the big screen. I'm seeing pastels and open necked shirts all over again.

  
  

  MAJOR COMPUTER PROBLEMS

  
  

  The computer at home (nicknamed "the head honcho" is slowly dying. I can't figure it out. My supervisor at work (who doubles as IT guy) thinks I have a virus. McAffee tells me I have a clean bill of health. There are no adware or spyware programs on the puter. I just made a "movie" for heaven's sake, last month, and this month it's taking me forever to render simple images in my Picture Publisher. The image of the "Star Wars Poster" above took over two hours to produce, and crashed the computer three times. (Well, making the image crashed the program, and I rebooted three times.)

  
  

  I can't afford any other puters at this point. I might look into getting a new processor and increased RAM perhaps, but that costs money too. (Which I don't have.) I don't want to charge any more big ticket items, but I NEED a fast computer. All these composites I make, not to mention the movies, take time as it is, and tonight I was just so dang frustrated you wouldn't believe.

  
  

  The problem started with the little flyout windows in the program appearing invisible, or see through, and then the rendering time began to slow. Sometimes it's so slow it crashes the program, and doesn't save what I'm working on, which means I have to start over.

  
  

  I haven't even opened up my moviemaking software, and I'm in the middle of my new MikeVideo Internet movie, "Arbitrimage Dreams". It's almost 10 pm and I haven't even finished this Xanga post, which was begun with the image so long ago I 'm ready to just call it a night and go to bed. I don't know what I will do about "the head honcho". Maybe he'll "self analyze" and fix himself.

  
  

  I DIDN'T CREATE MY DAY VERY WELL

  
  

  Some of you might remember my article about the documentary film "What the Bleep Do We Know" and if you didn't read it that's a link to the article. In the film, Dr. Joe Dispenza talks about how we can "create our day" by thinking about what we intend to accomplish. I fully believe this is possible, but it wasn't possible for me today. I began the day responding to a few posts on my Yahoo Poetry Group, and mentioned that I was getting ready to go to breakfast and then take advantage of the nice hot day and go to the Getty Art Museum in L.A. where they let you take your camera into the museum and photograph the art.

  
  

  I love the Getty. There are three paintings I love to linger over. One of them is by Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, the same artist that created the painting "The Favourite Poet" that I use as my "ElectricPoetry" logo. It is called "Spring" and this image, which was "borrowed " from my new favortie "digital art museum", the Art Renewal Center, doesn't do the actual painting justice. The Getty also has a painting by William Bouguereau entitled "A Young Girl Defending Herself Against Eros" which hangs as well in the Philosophy of Art page on my "Yes, But Is It Art? Gallery" website.

  
  

  The Bouguereau Painting can be found on the page listed above. If you click on the painting on my site it takes you to the Virtual Getty website.

  
  

  The terrible thing, and why I didn't "create my day" too well was because I remembered to take my camera, but "forgot" to take the little stick of gum sized "memory stick" where I store the photos. I could have shot "video footage" but I wanted to take photos for a webshots gallery folder on the museum. So I pulled off the freeway when I was all the way up to the last offramp before the museum, looked in my camera, and a gaping whole stared at me from where the memory stick should have been inserted. I turned around without going to the museum.  I came all the way home, disappointed but calm. I'll just make the trip next weekend.

  
  

  At least today I can upload jpg images to my Xanga. I couldn't do that yesterday.

  
  

  One last thing before I close, and this is somewhat tied to the "making one's day" scenario. Recently I took a little "vacation" from my poetry group, because I couldn't take the time to answer a lot of the posts, handle Xanga comments and entries, and work on the movie, so I was mulling over what to do with the ElectricPoetry Group, perhaps even shut it down. Over this past weekend I emailed some of the members and spelled out the complete scenario. Four people volunteered to help me run the group as co-moderators so that I wouldn't have to worry about all the poems having responses. I never thought to "ask" for help. People are always telling me I should ask for help, like at work. I try to "do too much" on my own, and don't want to "bother anybody". I also want people to think I'm "super human" and I never want anybody to "see the gears turn" but this response touched me so deeply. I can now keep the group open, and have even given myself a renewed vigor about returning and answering some of the posts, critiquing a few poems.

  
  

  I like to say that I want to "learn something new every day" and yesterday I learned I really have some neat friends who are willing to help me out in a pinch, and that makes me feel like the happiest person on Earth.

  
  

  Of course now I need to find out what is happening with my computer. I'll have to go around and "ask for some help" with this little problem, and hopefully it will be able to be solved as well.

  
  

  BORROWING A METHOD OF COMMUNICATING (Added 4:58 am pdt 5/23)

  
  

  Dear Readers, Just thought I'd mention here that when I wake up and get 7 comments on articles I just posted last night and advice and questions etc are asked, I immediately want to "answer" or respond, so I will be doing exactly this in the body of the Comments section itself. I have seen Brenda Clews  Ed Kaz, and JJ (Zeal for Living)  use this practice to good measure. I tend to go back to entries I've already read on those sites, and click on comments I've already given just to read the "feedback". Instead of "answering questions" on individual RYCs on reader's blogs, starting today I'll be answering and responding in the comments themselves. I have always championed the internet as a method of communication. Here at Xanga, the program which allows "comments" is a fine way of communicating. I call the Xanga Community the world's biggest Yahoo Group. And it can have as many members as we want. I am constantly visiting new sites, and finally getting to know some of the better and more prolific writers, photographers, and artists in this "community." I even get comments from young people, and for an old childless guy like me that is humbling. (I don't get 'flamed' either which is pretty nice.) I don't really ever want to write in a post "I'll get around to all your sites". I visit when I can, and always read back posts of writers I find interesting. (and might leave a comment on some of those back posts, so pay attention.) I think anyone to whom I've left a comment realizes I don't skim anything, and I like to take the time to make all responses "count". The comments I write are sometimes longer than the entries to which I respond, but I enjoy writing, whether poetry, articles, prose, or comments. When the internet "began" or at least my participation on same, I used this medium to become a "man of letters." In on of my favorite movie scenes of all time, Laurence Olivier's new wife  (Joan Fontaine in the Hitchcock movie, "Rebecca") looks over the writing desk of the previous wife. There implements of "writing letters" are lovingly portrayed. In the "old days" when "posting" was done with a stamp and an envelope, time was slower, and "exchanging letters" was how people communicated. You'll never find anyone in a Jane Austen novel answering a ring tone on a cell. "Darcy, I'm putting you on hold, I've got another call coming in...")

  
  

  I never wrote too many letters. In my youth, my brother and sister and I exchanged letters when we first separated. (Sadly, we don't even email anymore.) I wrote hundreds of letters to my assorted "girlfriends" throughout the years. So when the internet came along, each "email" was treated, by me, as a letter. I don't usually just "dash off a note". On my group, on my Xanga, in email exchanges, you will always notice I begin with a salutation, and close with a complete signature.  I have finally become the "man of letters" I wished to become, thanks to the "age of information" and the electronic form of communication. I might be typing on a keyboard, but in my mind I'm dipping a quill pen into an inkwell with each couple of sentences. Yours Truly, Michael F.Nyiri, poet, philosopher, fool

  • 11:55 pm
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