measi's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yeah I'm a geek.... so? In about twelve hours from now, Erich and I will join a couple other friends in line at one of the sixteen screens in the USA showing Star Wars II: Attack of the Clones in digital format. Undoubtedly, we'll be surrounded by Wookies and Jawas and a few wannabe-Jedi's, all waiting for that 12:11 a.m. showing of the movie on opening day. Okay. We're freaks. Sure, we're serious Star Wars geeks. So what? :) Geek culture, while scary to outsiders, is just a ton of fun for those of us who have embraced our sci-fi pop culture-loving sides. It's a celebration of something that we enjoy in life, surrounded by others who enjoy the same thing. Some people go to relgious tent-revivalist meetings. We go to Star Wars movies. It's a subculture, and a damn fun one to be a part of. Star Wars, for many people I know born in the 1970's, was our childhood mythology. It was our generation's version of the Western movies and shows that my dad's generation watched religiously. Where the good guys wore white, and the bad guys wore black, and good was to always ultimately triumph over evil. The original Star Wars movie (episode 4: A New Hope, for those who are less into the Star Wars culture) came out in 1977, when I was 2. I saw it in the theater with my dad. It's one of the two brief memories I have from that young age, and they are just brief photographs in my mind. One was in Disneyland that same year, in the Haunted Mansion. I remember seeing lots of legs, and then seeing the picture in the main foyer turn from a woman's face to a skeleton. That's all I remember. The other snapshot photograph in my mind is from seeing Star Wars. The ONLY thing I remember is watching Luke and Leia swing across the gap where the bridge was supposed to extend (but Luke "thought he blasted it."). I asked my dad several years later if I'd seen the movie in the theater, or if I was remembering from another time at a PTA movie or something. He confirmed I'd gone to the theater, only once, to see Star Wars. I didn't see Empire Strikes Back until several years after its release. Not sure why. It might not have been in a theater in Billings. But I didn't see it until I was probably 12 or 13, when I finally managed to see it on one of the pay channels on cable. I finally saw it in the theater on the glorious big screen when it was re-released in the late 90's. I saw Return of the Jedi for the first time with my best friend, Andi, at the Babcock theater in Billings-- one of those fantastic old vaudeville theaters. We sat in the balcony in the first row. RotJ was my favorite of the three movies overall for several years, until I really started to watch the three of them in order (something I've done several times, including a couple of in-a-row sittings on a rainy day). Yes, I was a girl who liked teddy bears. Therefore, I liked the Ewoks. I still do, despite the grumblings of several men that I know in my life. But what always got me in the movie was how at the end, Skywalker wore BLACK. The "good guy" who had been the hero since the very beginning wasn't this gleaming paladin of goodness. It stuck on me. It still does. It's amazing how those archetypes just fascinate me. I grew up having my brother and his godmother's son Jay around constantly. We had several battles in the backyards as Jedi. Jay, since he had the dark hair, usually wound up being Vader. Scott and I were the blond-haired good people. I was the one doing the death-defying feats off of the fence trying to look like Skywalker doing backflips to avoid collisions with something. I usually landed pretty hard on my ass. The force was not strong with this one. Ironically, I think it was Star Wars that made Pagan philosophy so easy to understand as I began to study it. It wasn't very hard to conceptualize the existence of the Gods in the universe in the same format as Obi-Wan describing what the Force is: Well, the Force is what gives a Jedi his power. It's an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us and penetrates us. It binds the galaxy together. Call me crazy, but I think George Lucas was onto something there. :) Environmentalism on a religious scale. Hmm..... While I don't think Episode I: The Phanom Menace was as good as the three originals, I didn't think it was as horrible as so many people claim. The problem? The hype was way too overboard. The other problem? People forgot that the original three movies were written for a young audience. Episode I was as well. The people who'd grown up loving Star Wars were now adults. And universes had been built inside the fans' minds. When Lucas' reality hit the screen, it was a bit jarring since it was different. But I enjoyed it. I still watch it occasionally. And yes, I tolerate Jar-Jar. So tonight I get to see the next movie of this series that I've known for 25 years. Scary to think that... It's been 25 years since the original came out. And I still don't have my own lightsaber. *pout* 11:09 a.m. - 15 May 2002 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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